SVH07-Dear Sister (7 page)

"So?"

"So, if you want to stop and talk to her, I'll see you later."

Elizabeth shrugged irritably. "Enid Rollins is a drag, Jess, and you know it. You always told me to drop her."

Stumped for an answer, Jessica decided it was safer to change the subject. "How's Todd these days? I haven't seen much of him around the house."

"You'd know the answer to that better than I would. I've seen you talking to him often enough, Jess."

Jessica scrambled in her mind for a safe subject. "Ready for today's French test?"

"I plan to have a headache that period," Elizabeth said flatly. "I can always make it up later."

"But, Liz--"

"Don't bug me, Jess. Oh, there's Lila Fowler near the columns. I want to talk to her about tonight's Pi Beta Alpha meeting." Jessica watched

her sister dash right past Enid without so much as a nod.

She felt like screaming. Her sister had never cared much about the sorority before. She'd joined only because Jessica had begged and pleaded with her. Now Elizabeth couldn't wait for the next meeting.

"What a joke," Jessica mumbled. "And
I'm
the one who's president of that dumb sorority."

"Who are you talking to, Jess?"

Jessica focused on the figure in front of her. "Oh, hello, Enid."

"Are you all right? You look funny."

"Well, I'm feeling a little funny," she snapped. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you about Liz."

"You and the rest of the world," Jessica said, under her breath.

"What?"

"Spit it out, Enid. The first bell's about to ring."

"I was just wondering if Liz has said anything to you about me. It seems like she avoids me at school, and she's never around when I call her. Is she mad at me about something?"

"Not that I know of." Jessica wondered why she didn't tell Enid the truth. Elizabeth didn't want to have anything to do with her. Jessica would have enjoyed telling her to get lost a month ago. For some reason, she felt sympathy for Enid now.

The two girls walked across the lawn in silence for a few moments. As they approached the columns, Jessica said, "I'm sure Liz isn't mad at you, Enid. We're going to the Dairi Burger after school. Why don't you meet us?"

"Hey, thanks, Jess! I'll be there!"

Jessica couldn't understand why she had said that. She certainly didn't care about Enid Rollins's feelings, did she?

If Jessica was enrolled in the "Worrying About Elizabeth" course, Todd was, too. He followed Elizabeth as she hurried under the Romanesque clock and into school. He was close behind when she headed for the bulletin board, and he saw her smile at Ken Matthews. He tried to remember how long it had been since she'd smiled at him in that way. He wished he could hear what they were saying, but with the mob of kids coming into school and going to their lockers, it was impossible.

"Hi, Ken!" said a bubbly Elizabeth.

"Hi, Liz."

"What's new, All-American?"

Ken blushed attractively. "Not much."

"Is that so?" said Elizabeth. "What about the basketball game on Friday? You going?"

Ken looked at her in surprise. "Sure." Everyone knew he never missed a sports event.

"Wish I were going," she said.

"Aren't you?"

"Nobody's asked me," said Elizabeth, her blue-green eyes flashing a seductive glance at him.

"But I thought you always went to see Todd play."

Elizabeth tossed her head and looked annoyed. "That's ancient history."

"Oh," said Ken. He shuffled his feet and looked at the bulletin board and then at the floor.

Elizabeth was still standing very close to Ken when Susan Stewart came down the hall. Practically the whole student body knew that Ken and the pretty redhead had become a twosome lately. Susan spotted them together and walked over quickly.

"Hi, honey," Ken said to Susan as she walked up.

"Hi, Ken," she said, darting a murderous look at Elizabeth.

"Well, see you soon," Elizabeth cooed, then walked off, swaying her hips provocatively. She tried to avoid Todd by turning into the stairwell, but he called to her.

"Liz!"

"Hi, Todd," she said coolly.

"You coming to the game on Friday?"

Elizabeth looked away. "Well, I don't know, Todd. I haven't decided. Listen, I've really got to run. Got to go see Mrs. Green."

"The guidance counselor?" asked Todd.

"Yeah. She's gotten on my case something awful. I've got to tell her to buzz off. See you."

Todd watched her walk away toward Sylvia Green's office and felt more worried than ever.

Mrs. Green watched as Elizabeth came in and sat before her. The guidance counselor was on the alert for signs of change in the former honor student and
Oracle
star reporter. Disturbing reports had been coming in from Elizabeth's teachers.

"Hi," said Elizabeth brightly, looking cheerful. "Hello, Elizabeth. All recovered, I understand?" Elizabeth smiled. "I'm better than ever," she said.

"Well," said Mrs. Green. "That's good."

The guidance counselor opened a file before her on her desk and studied it. "I called you in to talk about some of the work you missed."

It was completely unfair, Elizabeth had complained to Jessica. Those crazy teachers actually expected her to make up all the work she'd missed while she was in the hospital, even though it hadn't been her fault she'd been absent. If she did all that homework and those term papers, she'd turn into a drudge. She wouldn't be able to go out at all except on weekends for a month. Out of the question, she had told her sister.

"Yes, ma'am." Elizabeth smiled at the guidance counselor.

"I understand you haven't made up any of the work yet."

"I've been busy."

"I realize that, but I'm afraid you're going to have to make some sacrifices to catch up."

Elizabeth said, "Oh, I know. I'll get to it. I'm just having dizzy spells sometimes."

"Dizzy spells?" Mrs. Green looked at her with concern.

"Yes ma'am. Sometimes I think I'm going to black out."

Mrs. Green studied her. "Maybe you should go back to your doctor?"

"Oh, no," said Elizabeth. "He said I'll be fine. As long as I don't overextend myself. With too many projects." She smiled innocently.

"Well, all right," said Mrs. Green. "It doesn't really matter how soon you do the missed schoolwork. As soon as you feel better. But it must be made up."

"Yes ma'am," Elizabeth said obediently.

Winston Egbert was surprised when Elizabeth slid into a chair beside him in the cafeteria. They had always been friends, especially after he'd taken her to a dance and confessed how crazy he was about Jessica. Of course, Jessica hadn't given him a second glance. Still, Winston

had always been grateful to Elizabeth for listening to him that night. But lately, he'd been so busy with Mandy he hadn't talked much to Elizabeth since the accident.

"Hi, Win," she bubbled.

"Hi," he said.

"Before you ask, I'm all better from my vacation in the hospital," said Elizabeth.

"I can see that," said Winston. "I saw you at your pool party."

"I hope I didn't disappoint everybody," she said coquettishly. "I know I looked hopelessly dreadful that night."

"Huh?" said Winston. "Hey, you looked better than Miss America."

"Thanks, you're sweet," she said, picking at a chicken sandwich. "If I were capable of feeling happy, your overly kind words would do it."

"What's the matter?" Winston asked.

Elizabeth sighed deeply.

"Liz?"

"Nothing." A deeper, even more mournful sigh.

"You can tell me, Liz. We're buddies, remember?" Winston Egbert was now a helpless mass of sympathy. "I'd do anything for you, Liz, you know that."

"They expect me to make up hundreds of pages of work I missed and do five hundred

term papers, and it makes me so sick I could scream," she said. "Hey, that's hard."

"If only I didn't have that terrible, long history term paper on the Punic Wars, maybe I could do the rest," said Elizabeth.

"Yeah, that was a tough one," agreed Winston.

"I heard you got an A-plus."

"Yep," said Winston. "Took me two weeks every night. Actually, the wars between Ancient Rome and Carthage are fascinating."

Elizabeth smiled. "I'll bet," she said, and unleashed another painful sigh. "I'm afraid I'll just flunk, that's all."

"Listen, you could do a great paper, Liz. I know you could."

"Sure. If I had the time. But I have so much other work. And I get such horrible headaches. The accident, you know?" A tear rolled down her cheek.

"Listen, I kept a copy of mine."

"Really?"

"If it would help, you could look it over and get my sources. That would cut down on the time."

"Maybe if I just... changed it around some?"

"I thought you liked Roman history."

"Oh, I do. But I don't want to have a relapse." Winston brought Elizabeth his term paper that afternoon in the
Oracle
office. She later turned it

in as her own after rewriting a few sentences and paragraphs.

Roger Collins waited until Winston had left, and then he strolled over to Elizabeth's desk. "Hey, Brenda Starr," he said. "Want to talk?"

"Hi, Mr. Collins," she said brightly. "Sure. What's up?"

"Not what's
up
.
What's
in
--or
not
in. Such as your 'Eyes and Ears' column for this edition."

"I'm just going to write it."

"OK. How's everything else?"

"Everybody asks me that," she snapped.

"Elizabeth, I hope you know that I'm a friend, not only a teacher and an adviser. And friends don't dish out a lot of applesauce to each other."

"Now what have I done?" Elizabeth asked, sounding hurt.

Mr. Collins let out a breath. "Elizabeth, you know you have to keep your grades up if you want to stay on
The Oracle
.
I've been informed you're in danger of failing three courses."

"Well, none of that's fair," said Elizabeth. "I had a little work to make up because of the accident--which wasn't my fault. I needed some time to do it. And I have a term paper I'm just about ready to hand in." She smiled, patting her bag, which held Winston's paper.

"And that's all?" Mr. Collins said.

"I promise you," she said.

"OK, but please remember I'm here if you need help."

"Oh, I'll remember," she said.

Elizabeth turned to writing her column, dropping in little items about who was seeing whom, which romance was flourishing and which one was at its last gasp.

Suddenly she smiled.

"Who is that tall, dark, and handsome stranger Susan Stewart has been dating lately, and does K.M. know about it?" she wrote. "It would be a shame to see this flame flicker out."

"All finished?" Roger Collins said when she handed the column in.

She smiled. "It's finished, all right."

Eight

Todd stalked into the gym for basketball practice feeling frustrated and angry. There was no longer any doubt about it. Elizabeth was through with him. She hardly paid any attention to him, even when he was speaking directly to her, and she was making plays for every guy at Sweet Valley High. They weren't exactly running away from her, either.

OK, then! Who needed Elizabeth Wakefield?
He
did, Todd knew without a doubt. He knew he couldn't blame her for hating him. How could she help but hate him after what he had done to her? He couldn't even blame her if she turned to someone else. But that's what bothered him most. Elizabeth hadn't turned to
some
one else. She had turned to
every
one else, all at the same time. It didn't make sense.

Todd stepped up to the foul line to practice his free throws and missed four in a row. He cursed and bounced the ball roughly into the corner.

Everybody had told Todd how lucky he was to have come out of the motorcycle crash without serious injuries. It was a miracle, Coach Horner said, that his hands hadn't been hurt at all. So after the accident Todd continued to be old reliable at the foul line for the basketball team. "Whizzer" Wilkins they called him, for his sure shooting eye and control under pressure. That's why he was the star of the team.

Nobody noticed anything until the game against Big Mesa, when Todd couldn't hit a basket to save his life.

Elizabeth was there, sitting next to Ken Matthews. Susan Stewart had gotten stuck babysitting for her little brother, so she wasn't there to keep an eye on them. But Todd held an all too watchful gaze, especially when he should have been looking at the basketball.

It was awful. Todd couldn't pass the ball or catch or shoot it.

"Come on, Wilkins," Coach Horner yelled in bewilderment. "Look alive out there."

But it was hopeless. Todd Wilkins, the star of the team, was falling all over his feet like a champion klutz. His eyes were glued on Elizabeth, and after a while even the Big Mesa players noticed it.

On a jump ball in the second half, the Big Mesa center lined up next to Todd and whispered, "Hey, Wilkins, got girl trouble?"

Todd was so shaken he stood there flat-footed while the Big Mesa center grabbed the ball and scored.

"Wilkins," shouted Coach Horner, "are you OK?"

"Sure, coach."

But he wasn't. The game went down the drain in the second half. The Gladiators' whole attack was built around Todd, and when he came apart, so did the team. A strange buzz started after a while, and then it got louder and louder.

Finally, when Todd missed an easy lay-up, the buzzing exploded into a sound he had never heard before while playing at home in the Sweet Valley High gym.

"Booooooo!"

Todd heard it and stopped dead.

"Booooooooo!"

Todd Wilkins was being booed by his own fans. He tried to shake it off, and as he turned to head back up the court, he bumped into the Big Mesa center.

"Boooooooo!" screamed the fans, and the Big Mesa center smiled.

"Hey, Wilkins," he said, laughing, "they're playing your song!"