Rags to Riches (Sweet Valley High Book 16) Read online

  RAGS TO RICHES

  Written by

  Kate William

  Created by

  FRANCINE PASCAL

  Copyright © 2015, Francine Pascal

  RAGS TO RICHES

  "We'll need a fourth for tennis," Jessica reminded Bruce. "Why don't we ask Olivia to play, too?"

  Bruce looked at Jessica suspiciously. "I don't know what you're up to, Jess, but it sure sounds like you don't want much competition," he drawled.

  Jessica grinned. "We'll go easy on them, won't we, Bruce?"

  Bruce shook his head. "I don't go easy on anyone."

  Jessica shrugged. "Have it your way," she said lightly. "When shall we play?"

  "Tuesday," Bruce said. "You'd better give Olivia a few pointers before then," he added.

  Oh, you can be sure of that, Jessica thought to herself, nodding. She pushed past Bruce into the pool house.

  Jessica Wakefield, she told herself, catching a glimpse of her reflection in the full-length mirror inside, you've got this one in the bag. Olivia isn't even going to know what hit her!

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  One

  "So, how does it feel to turn into a millionaire's son overnight?" Olivia Davidson asked Roger Barrett. They were eating lunch together in the crowded cafeteria of Sweet Valley High, but neither was paying much attention to the food. Olivia pulled her brown, frizzy hair back from her face as she looked at Roger. Petite and pretty, Olivia was the arts editor of The Oracle, Sweet Valley High's newspaper, and her clothing was decidedly more Bohemian than that of most of her classmates. That day she was wearing an oversized cotton sweater belted with an Indian sash over a fringed skirt.

  Roger shook his head. "I can't believe this is the first time we've been alone since all this happened," he said. "I feel like I haven't had a minute to myself all week!"

  "I know," Olivia said, putting her hand on Roger's arm and smiling sympathetically into his gray eyes. She couldn't believe it had been only a little over a week since Roger's mother had died of a heart attack and Henry Wilson Patman, one of the richest men in all of Sweet Valley, had announced Roger's real identity. This was Roger's first day back in school.

  "It's all so strange," Roger told her. "One minute I'm Roger Barrett, a total nothing from a terrible family, and the next minute my mother's so sick, and Mr. Patman—uh, I mean, Uncle Henry—is sending her to Houston for an operation. And then she's dead. And as soon as the funeral's over, all these lawyers are swarming all over me, telling me I'm not Roger Barrett after all, but the son of Paul Patman." Roger looked down at the uneaten hot dog on his lunch tray and shook his head. "Liv, I don't know what to think about anything anymore," he confided.

  Olivia tightened her hand on Roger's arm and was quiet for a minute. She was as dazed by the events of the last week as Roger. Her relationship with him had a long history. She had stuck by him when other people were making fun of him because they'd found out he was working as a janitor after school to help his mother pay the rent. Eventually, the two had come to love each other. But being in love with Roger is like being on a roller coaster, she thought now. First I had to help him realize that it didn't matter how poor his family was, that I didn't care about his background. And now suddenly he's a millionaire, living in the Patman mansion.

  Roger had even started to look different, Olivia thought. He was now wearing contact lenses, instead of his glasses, and he had on neat corduroys instead of his old jeans. Olivia couldn't even imagine what it would be like to move from the tiny place Roger had lived in with his mother into the Patmans' enormous mansion. What she could imagine was how lonesome Roger must be feeling now, cut off from everything he'd known before. "I just want you to know that I'm around if you need me," Olivia whispered. Roger smiled at her, and Olivia felt better. He's still the same old Roger, she thought to herself. The Patmans may be terrible snobs, but they can't change him. No one can.

  "Roger, do you feel like telling me the story about your mother and—and Paul Patman?" Olivia asked. "All I know is what you told me the day your mother died. Since then, I've heard so many rumors that I'm not sure what the real story is."

  "Well, according to Uncle Henry, this is the story. When my mother first moved to Sweet Valley, she took a job working for the Patmans. That was before Uncle Henry was married or had a family. He was living with his older brother, Paul, who was married to this woman everyone hated. Well, I guess my mother fell in love with Paul Patman, and they spent more and more time together, and—" Roger stopped, his face turning red.

  "I understand, Roger," Olivia said softly.

  "Well, I guess my mother moved away when she found out she was going to have a baby. While she was gone, Paul tried to divorce his awful wife. He wanted to marry my mother. But nobody ever found out about it because he was killed in a plane crash flying down to Mexico on business."

  "Oh, Roger, your poor mother," Olivia whispered.

  "She never told me anything about it," Roger said. "No one did. Uncle Henry said that he tried to get her to take money at first, but she refused. What she didn't know was that Paul—my father—had left every nickel he had to me. He made a special provision in his will that I wasn't supposed to find out until I turned twenty-one, unless something happened to my mother."

  "Why do you suppose he didn't want you to know?"

  Roger shook his head. "I'm not exactly sure. I've been wondering about that myself. Maybe he was afraid my mother would be upset about it. You know how proud she was. Or maybe he thought it would be hard for me to learn the truth, since they weren't married. But you know, Olivia, the one thing I don't feel is embarrassed."

  Olivia looked at him proudly.

  "I mean it," Roger said. "I'm proud of my mother, and I know she always did what she thought was the right thing, no matter how hard it was. That's why—" His voice broke off, and he looked down at his tray again.

  "That's why what?" Olivia prompted.

  Roger shook his head. "I just feel a little confused, that's all," he said softly. "I wish I knew how she would want me to act now. I wish she could let me know somehow how to change overnight from Roger Barrett to Roger Patman."

  Olivia stared at him uneasily. She loved Roger, and it almost broke her heart to think of his losing everything familiar to him in so short a time—his mother, his home, even his name. But she couldn't help but wonder, looking at the anxious expression on his familiar face, what place Roger Barrett's girlfriend would have in Roger Patman's new life.

  Sweet Valley was buzzing with excitement over the news the Patmans' lawyers had disclosed after Roger's mother died. Who could ever have guessed that so much lay concealed behind the stately exterior of the Patman estate? Out of the blue, a poor orphan had been transformed into one of the richest young men in town—as rich as Bruce Patman, Henry Patman's son and now Roger's cousin. The students at Sweet Valley High had talked about nothing else for the past week. Questions and rumors were flying. Would Roger change, now that he was so rich? Did Bruce really resent him for moving into the Patman mansion? And was it true that Mrs. Patman couldn't bear the sight of her new nephew? While Olivia and Roger were eating lunch, they were being watched from all corners of the room.

  "I think he looks as nerdy as ever," Lila Fo
wler told Jessica Wakefield as they watched Roger from across the cafeteria.

  Jessica giggled. "You sure you're not just a little jealous, Lila?" she asked, following her friend's gaze.

  Lila flushed. A while back Roger had had a wild crush on Lila and would have done anything to spend time with her. But Lila had been appalled when she found out how poor his family was. Her family was as wealthy as the Patmans, and she was used to dating boys who had cars and credit cards at their disposal—not boys who worked as janitors after school. But Lila had changed her mind about Roger when he won the Bart, the annual track competition. Overnight Roger had become a hero, and Lila had done her best to share his glory. But by then Olivia was already in the picture, and Lila was too late.

  "Oh, come on, Jessica. All that was ages ago," Lila said. "I couldn't care less about Roger Barrett or Roger Patman. And I think he still looks pretty scruffy."

  Jessica was only half listening to her friend. She was looking anxiously around the cafeteria for her twin sister, Elizabeth, to ask for a ride home from cheerleading practice that afternoon.

  Jessica and Elizabeth were identical twins, mirror images, even down to the dimple each had on her left cheek. They both had shoulder-length, sun-streaked blond hair, sparkling blue-green eyes, and perfect size-six figures. And they both wore matching gold lavalieres their parents had given them for their sixteenth birthday. Only people who knew the twins extremely well noticed that Elizabeth wore a watch, while Jessica never did. Jessica never cared about time—unless she wanted something in a hurry, as she did right then. "Where is that twin of mine?" she muttered. Jessica didn't like to be kept waiting—and as a rule, she didn't have to be.

  "Jess, you're not even listening to me," Lila complained, tossing her wavy, shoulder-length brown hair back.

  Jessica sighed, trying to listen to her friend. But she wasn't sure she agreed with Lila about Roger. She'd never really taken him seriously before, but Jessica thought he actually looked kind of cute right then, leaning his cheek on his hand and talking seriously to Olivia.

  "Jessica, what in the world are you daydreaming about? I just asked you who you're going to the party with!" Lila exclaimed.

  At the mention of the word "party," Jessica snapped out of her reverie. There was nothing Jessica loved as much as a party, and this wasn't just any party Lila was referring to. It promised to be just about the biggest social event of the season, if not the whole year. The Patmans had decided to welcome their new nephew by giving a formal dance at the Sweet Valley Country Club, the most exclusive club for miles around.

  "I haven't decided yet," Jessica said. As she spoke, she saw Olivia put her hand on Roger's arm, and a strange shiver passed through her. For a long time Jessica had been enchanted by the Patmans. She had wished that her own family lived in one of the huge mansions up on the hill overlooking Sweet Valley. As a matter of fact, Bruce Patman was one of the few boys Jessica had ever really fallen for. That had ended ages ago, and now Jessica could barely stand the sight of Bruce. But it occurred to her that there might be another Patman around who was a little more interesting. I wonder, Jessica thought, giving Roger and Olivia a good long look, what it would be like to go to the dance with the guest of honor himself—the richest young man in Sweet Valley.

  "Haven't decided what?" a high-pitched voice demanded. Jessica and Lila looked up into the eager face of Caroline Pearce, a girl who had long ago forged herself the reputation as the biggest gossip in the school.

  "Nothing, Caroline," Lila said firmly, standing up and picking up her tray to discourage Caroline from pumping her further. "I'll call you tonight, Jess," Lila said, walking away. A second later Jessica bounced out of her chair, Roger Patman and the country club dance temporarily forgotten in the excitement of finally spotting her twin on the other side of the room. Curious, Caroline Pearce stared after her.

  "Liz, wait!" Jessica hollered, catching her sister just as she was heading out to the corridor with Todd Wilkins, her steady boyfriend.

  "I get the impression that Jessica needs you for some reason," Todd said dryly, his brown eyes sparkling with amusement.

  "Liz, can you give me a ride home after cheerleading? Neil couldn't get the car today, and I absolutely swore to Mom that I'd clean my room before dinner."

  Elizabeth groaned. "We'd better leave now, if you really intend to let anyone even past your door by dinner," she told her sister. Jessica's room was an old joke in the Wakefield family. She had insisted on painting her walls chocolate brown, which had earned it its nickname "The Hershey Bar." And it was almost always impossible to get much past Jessica's door—usually because the entire contents of her closet were strewn all over the floor.

  "OK," Elizabeth conceded, laughing at the pleading expression on her twin's face. Elizabeth could rarely hold out on Jessica. "I'm working late at the Oracle office, and I'll meet you when I'm done." Elizabeth wrote "Eyes and Ears," the gossip column for the school newspaper. She hoped the job might help her to realize her dream of becoming a writer.

  Elizabeth and Todd watched Jessica bound away, and Todd laughed. "It's a good thing I've got the sane half of this package," he teased Elizabeth, kissing the tip of her nose.

  Elizabeth smiled up at him. "Walk me to class?" she asked.

  "Hey, Miss Eyes and Ears," Todd said as they walked down the hall toward Elizabeth's English class, "what do you think of all this business about Roger Barrett Patman?"

  "I'm not sure," Elizabeth said, growing serious. "You know I've always liked Roger. I felt so sorry for him when his mother was sick, and I guess my first feeling when I heard the news was relief that he'd have a family to go to now. But—"

  "But you have your doubts about the family he's gone to," Todd finished for her.

  Elizabeth sighed. "It's not my business, really," she said. "I just hope he'll be all right. There must be a lot of pressure on him, and he's already been through so much."

  Todd nodded. "One more question," he said.

  "What now?" she asked. Elizabeth stopped walking and looked up at Todd quizzically.

  "I just wondered," Todd said, "if you'd noticed anything else going on around here that's a little out of the ordinary."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Have you noticed anything odd lately about Regina Morrow?"

  Regina Morrow was a new girl at Sweet Valley High. During her first few weeks at school, an aura of mystery had surrounded her—in part, because she was fabulously wealthy and beautiful, with long, dark hair and high cheekbones; and in part because Regina was almost completely deaf. She had refused to be given special treatment because of her handicap. She had studied lipreading for years at a school in Boston and was able to keep up with all her classes at Sweet Valley—in fact, able to do honors work in most of her subjects. Before long, many of her classmates had almost forgotten that she was deaf. But no one had forgotten that Regina was beautiful.

  "Todd, what are you talking about?" Elizabeth demanded, her reporter's curiosity getting the better of her.

  "Time for study hall," Todd said, grinning as he walked away. "I'll talk to you tonight," he called to her, his voice maddeningly mysterious.

  Elizabeth stared after him, her brow wrinkled. What in the world could be going on with Regina Morrow? She couldn't believe Todd had just left her in midair this way—and now she had a whole English class to sit through! Oh, well, it looked as if she was just going to have to be patient until that night.

  Two

  The Patman mansion was nestled high on a hill in Sweet Valley, set back from the road that curved up around the most expensive real estate in the area. "Home sweet home, little cousin," Bruce Patman said sarcastically, expertly maneuvering his black Porsche up the steep driveway to the Patmans' five-car garage. Roger swallowed nervously. He wondered how long it would take before he felt comfortable in this enormous estate. Bruce wasn't making things easier, either. Bruce had never been very nice to Roger; and ever since Roger had run against Bruce in the Bart and won,
they had not been on good terms. Bruce slammed the door shut on the driver's side of the car and raced to the side entrance of the house. "Come on," he yelled behind him. "We've got guests for dinner, remember?"

  Roger followed slowly behind his new cousin. He did remember. In fact, all day he had thought about little else. The previous evening Mrs. Patman had called him into her bedroom. She was sitting in front of her vanity mirror, smoothing beauty cream into the skin around her eyes. "Roger," she'd said coolly, her eyes fixed on the mirror, "we have some important guests coming to dinner tomorrow night. Their name is Ferguson, and Mr. Ferguson is a special client of Mr. Patman's. It's very important," she had added, "that you make a good impression on them."

  Roger remembered just standing there, feeling clumsy and embarrassed. Ever since he'd moved in with the Patmans, his new aunt had been lecturing him about making a good impression. It seemed that nothing he did was right. He wore the wrong clothes; he talked about the wrong things; he treated the servants as friends instead of hired help.

  "What are those things you've got on your feet, dear?" Mrs. Patman had suddenly asked him, turning her cold blue eyes downward with a look of disdain.

  Roger had looked down at his old running shoes and back up at his aunt. "Uh, nothing," he'd answered, turning bright red. "Just what I usually wear," he'd added quickly.

  "I see," Mrs. Patman had said archly. "I thought your uncle had done something about your clothes already. Well, we'll have to make sure to get rid of those things and buy you some decent shoes," she'd added, looking back in the mirror and putting more cream on her throat. "In the meantime, dear, maybe you'd better let Bruce help you find something suitable for dinner tomorrow evening. Bruce is so clever with clothes. And"—she had swiveled around in her chair for emphasis, giving Roger one last penetrating stare—"we do want to please the Fergusons."

  "Yes, ma'am," Roger had muttered, staring down at the thick, cream-colored carpeting.