Double Love Page 7

  “You leave my father out of this!” Lila screamed.

  “A factory—how gross.” Bruce Patman sneered. “That’s all the Fowlers think of—grubby newcomers!”

  “Listen to Mr. Two-Face,” spat Winston.

  “Yeah, your father wants some look-but-don’t-touch garden,” said Emily Mayer.

  “Watch your face, Emily,” Bruce said. “A garden would be an improvement over this mud shop. Besides, all the practice in the world won’t help those lousy Gladiators!”

  “You’re a traitor, Patman!” somebody yelled.

  “Where’s your school spirit?” Jessica yelled at him.

  “Aw, save it, Wakefield!”

  “You and your family don’t care about Sweet Valley High. You’re a disgrace!” Jessica yelled.

  “Hey, when it comes to having a disgrace in the family, Jessica Wakefield, just consider your dear sister, the pub crawler. And I do mean crawler!”

  Elizabeth was taking notes when she heard it, and her face went bright red. Instantly she felt all eyes on her.

  “You leave my sister out of this!” Jessica yelled.

  “Why should we?” said Lila Fowler. “You’re all treating Bruce and me like we’re lepers! I thought you were a friend of mine, Jessica Wakefield.”

  “Lila, I am, but—”

  “But, my backside,” said Bruce. “And when it comes to a disgraceful family, Wakefield, how about your father and Marianna West—that trampy broad he’s fooling around with.”

  “Now, just a minute,” Elizabeth said, stepping forward. “Marianna West works for my father’s law firm.”

  “Yeah? Where? On the couch, maybe?” Bruce sneered.

  “You liar!”

  Bruce laughed. “Sure! Your father spends all his time running around with a sexy woman, and you call that ‘working for the firm.’”

  “They’re working together—to stop you,” Elizabeth shouted.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Go put it in the paper!”

  “Never mind that,” Todd was saying, pushing his way to the front. “We’re interested in saving the field. I think that’s enough out of you,” he told Bruce.

  “OK,” Ken shouted, climbing up onto the bleacher seats and addressing them all. “Are we giving up the field?”

  “No!” came the roaring response.

  “Are they putting up a factory?”

  “No!”

  “A garden?”

  “No!”

  “Come on, everybody,” Jessica shouted. “The Gladiator cheer!”

  She leaped down onto the track and led everybody in a Sweet Valley fight song.

  Elizabeth frantically took notes, watching Todd from the corner of her eye.

  This was the biggest story she had ever been given, but still Elizabeth kept hearing the hateful words Bruce Patman had flung out about her father and Marianna West.

  Suddenly, as if seeing a missing puzzle piece falling into place, Elizabeth remembered the day the previous week when she’d accidentally walked into her parents’ room while they were in the midst of an argument. Not an argument, really. They weren’t shouting at each other or anything like that. It was more of a heated discussion. Her mother had seemed tense, and her father had worn an uncharacteristic frown.

  She’d only caught the tail end of their conversation, but it had brought a sour taste to her mouth nevertheless.

  “I never said my work was more important than yours,” Ned Wakefield had argued in a voice straining to remain patient. “What I said was that it would be nice if we saw more of you.…”

  It might have been just a minor complaint. Their mother had been working longer hours than usual lately, due to a special design project she was involved in. But the incident bothered Elizabeth because her parents almost never argued. The thought of anything coming between them struck her like a sudden blow. What if the argument was just the tip of an iceberg named Marianna West? No, Elizabeth told herself, my imagination is running away with me again. It can’t be true. It just can’t.

  Ten

  Elizabeth was almost finished taking notes and ready to head back to the Oracle office when it happened. There he was, suddenly, right in front of her, face to face, and there was no possibility of ignoring him.

  “Hi, Todd.”

  “Liz,” said Todd, his face lighting up. “Hey, isn’t this something?”

  “Yeah! I’m covering it for The Oracle.”

  “Wow, Liz, this is a big story. I always knew you’d be a great reporter.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure.”

  Todd looked away then, as though remembering something, and fell silent.

  “I was just heading back to school,” Elizabeth said hopefully.

  “Yeah? I’m going back, too.”

  They might have made up then and there, Elizabeth thought later, except that suddenly Jessica came running over.

  “Todd!”

  “Hi, Jess,” he said.

  “I want to talk to you. It’s terribly important,” she gushed.

  “Oh—sure,” Todd said.

  Elizabeth walked away as quickly as she could. She thought she heard Todd call her, but she kept on going, across the campus to the Oracle office. It was the longest walk of her life.

  Inside the office at last, Elizabeth sat at the typewriter and plunged into writing the story. It was like a doctor’s prescription—it shut out all the pain and longing.

  Write, she told herself. Keep on writing. Forget everything else.

  * * *

  Todd watched with a sense of loss as Elizabeth walked away. He’d had a precious moment when everything might have been set right, and he’d let it slip away.

  Somebody was talking at him. It was Jessica Wakefield.

  “Earth to Todd Wilkins,” she was saying with a slight trace of irritation. He was such a hunk and just about the nicest guy at Sweet Valley High, but sometimes he seemed so dense!

  “What did you say, Jessica?”

  They were strolling along back toward the school again, and Jessica kept the pace leisurely. She wanted Todd to herself this time.

  “Liz was sure in a hurry,” he said.

  “Yes,” Jessica said slowly. “She’s upset these days.”

  “I guess she would be,” Todd said. “Living down a stunt like that isn’t easy.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Jessica began. “It’s just terrible, what’s happening. What kids are saying.”

  “But it’s all true, Jessica! I’d give anything to find out it wasn’t.”

  “Oh, Todd,” Jessica whimpered, and she ran a few steps to a bench on the lawn and collapsed onto it. Todd was beside her in a minute.

  “What’s the matter, Jessica?”

  Jessica was crying with abandon, holding her face in her hands and sobbing. Her shoulders shook. She wouldn’t look at him.

  “Hey—Jess!”

  Todd sat beside her and pulled her close, holding her against him as she cried. “Come on, now. It can’t be that bad.”

  “Oh, Todd! I just can’t stand it, what people are saying about Elizabeth. I love her more than anything in the world. I can’t let her be treated like this.”

  Jessica looked up into Todd’s concerned face, into his wonderfully tender brown eyes, and her heart fluttered.

  “Todd, it could have happened to anyone! It’s not fair! Why, it could have happened to me.”

  “Come on, Jessica. It didn’t just happen. She knew what she was doing.”

  Jessica took a deep breath. “Todd, I can’t let this go on. Elizabeth is my sister. I love her! Todd—it wasn’t Elizabeth at Kelly’s.”

  “It wasn’t?”

  “No. Todd, it was me!”

  “What?”

  “Yes. Me. My sister is not going to be blamed for this thing. It’s not fair.”

  Jessica was totally amazed at what happened next. Todd Wilkins stared deeply into her eyes for a long moment, then slowly shook his head as though in
wonder.

  “I’ve never heard anything so noble,” he finally said.

  “What?”

  “You’d take the blame for your sister? Jessica, I don’t think I’ve ever known how truly special you are until this moment.”

  “But, Todd—”

  Todd pulled her close, holding her tightly in his strong arms for what seemed an eternity. Then he gently kissed her. He didn’t even hear the whistles and yells from the students who saw the whole thing, right in the center of the campus in the middle of the afternoon.

  Jessica sat there, stunned. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that telling the truth could be so rewarding.

  “Jessica, you’re wonderful,” Todd said.

  “Todd, you’re the greatest guy I’ve ever met, do you know that?”

  “Listen! I’m taking you to the Phi Ep dance!”

  “What?”

  “That is, if you want to go with me.”

  “Want to? Oh, Todd!” And she was around his neck once more. “I want it more than anything in the world.”

  * * *

  The first thing Elizabeth heard about as she left the Oracle office, was about the Big Love Scene between Todd and Jessica on the bench in the center of campus.

  “Wow,” Winston Egbert hooted, stopping Elizabeth as she came out of the school building. “The temperature went up about fifty degrees here a little while ago.”

  “What happened, Winston?”

  “A certain beautiful cheerleader and a certain handsome basketball captain went into a clinch right out in front of the world, and the mercury soared!”

  “Oh,” said Elizabeth. Her heart ached.

  “I thought Todd was going after you, but now I see it’s Jessica. Boy, talk about showing your feelings in public.”

  “Why are you so surprised, Winston? You of all people. You’ve been in love with Jessica since fifth grade. She’s fantastic, and you know it.”

  “Oh, I know she is, but so are you!”

  “Oh, well…”

  “Who are you going to the dance with?”

  “Good question, Winston.”

  They walked down the steps. There, at the foot, Bruce Patman was gliding up to them in his black Porsche.

  “Well, well, well,” Bruce said to Elizabeth. “If it isn’t Roadhouse Rhoda.”

  Elizabeth froze.

  “Listen, I never thought you were such a fast number until now. But from what I hear, I’ve decided you’re my type. I’d like to take you to the dance.”

  “Is that so?” Elizabeth snapped.

  “Sure. I can’t stand most of these wimpy girls. We can put in an appearance at the dance, then head for someplace where we can have some real fun.”

  All the pent-up fury suddenly burst from her. All the anguish and the hurt and the pain caused by the snickering and whispering and innuendos spilled out.

  “Bruce Patman, I’d rather stay home for the rest of my life than go anywhere with you! But, as a matter of fact, I have a date.”

  “Yeah? Who with?”

  “Me!”

  Elizabeth spun around.

  There stood Winston Egbert, looking shocked at the sound of his own voice.

  “You?” Bruce Patman laughed. “You, the joke of the school?”

  “Yeah? Well, maybe I’m a joke, but you’re an insult.”

  Bruce Patman started to climb out of the car, his face flushed and mean. “You stupid nothing, I’ll fold you up and stuff you in the trash can!”

  Elizabeth stepped between them. “Never mind, Bruce. It happens to be true. Win and I are going to the dance.”

  She linked her arm in Winston’s and led him away, leaving Bruce Patman sitting in his car with his mouth open in astonishment.

  “Listen, I’m sorry,” Winston said when they were out of earshot from Bruce. “I just got so mad! I won’t hold you to it.”

  “Wait a minute. What is this, Win? Are you standing me up?”

  “Huh?”

  “You asked me for a date, didn’t you?”

  “Well—I—aw, Liz, I just couldn’t help it.”

  “Pick me up at seven-thirty, OK?”

  Winston Egbert stared at the beautiful, popular, intelligent Elizabeth Wakefield and almost fainted.

  “OK!” he said, astounded, then turned and raced madly across campus, screaming like a deranged chimpanzee.

  For the first time in ages, Elizabeth laughed long and hard. Then she turned her steps toward home. She would have fun with Winston at the dance, she really would. It was difficult not to laugh when he was around.

  She felt a lot better now and walked along jauntily. She even began whistling. It wasn’t until she reached her own street that her steps faltered and she wondered if she was whistling for some reason other than happiness. Maybe, just maybe, it kept her from hearing her own painful thoughts.

  Eleven

  Elizabeth dragged herself through the house and into the kitchen. She pulled a carton of milk out of the refrigerator and poured a glassful. As she drank, she chanted inwardly, I am happy for Jess … I am happy for Jess.… But I’m so miserable I could die!

  Just then the front door slammed shut, and Elizabeth heard Jessica shout, “Lizzie! Lizzie! Oh, Lizzie, you’re not going to believe this!”

  Jessica burst into the room, and it was the Fourth of July, Christmas morning, and Mardi Gras all rolled into one ecstatic, beautiful, blond sixteen-year-old.

  “I told him, Liz, I told him everything. I told him that it was me with Rick Andover at Kelly’s—and he still invited me to the dance!”

  “You told him, Jess? He knows it wasn’t me?”

  “I told him everything, and he forgave me! He has got to be the most wonderful boy in a hundred and thirty-seven states!”

  Elizabeth was sure that something inside her died just then. If Todd knew it was Jessica at Kelly’s and still asked her to the dance—well, she knew where that left her. Nowhere. She would go to the dance with Winston, have a wonderful time, get busy on her writing, and forget about Todd. How in the world are you going to do that? she asked herself.

  “That’s sensational, Jess. You’re going to have a terrific time. I hear Todd is a great dancer.”

  “He’s great at everything, I think!” Jessica was bubbling over. “Where’s Mom? I can’t wait to tell her all about this.”

  “She’s going to be late. An appointment, I think.”

  “Again?” Jessica pouted. “That makes three nights in a row! I thought mothers were supposed to stay home and fix dinner once in a while!”

  Elizabeth wondered how her sister could possibly descend from cloud nine with Todd Wilkins to the pits of depression so fast—and simply because she had to do a little thing like help fix dinner.

  “Mom told us this morning that she was going to be late, Jess,” Elizabeth said patiently, trying to hide her unhappiness and control her temper all at the same time.

  “Well, it’s not fair,” Jessica complained, storming around the kitchen. “She has ruined my day, totally and absolutely!”

  Elizabeth stared at her sister in amazement. Had Jessica flipped out? How could anyone ruin a day that included a dance invitation from Todd Wilkins? She imagined how she would feel if Todd had asked her. She would be so far off the ground she’d need a pilot’s license. The thought of Todd’s arms around her, the two of them dancing to slow, romantic music, made her knees so weak she had to clutch the counter with both hands to keep standing. Then she thought of how the evening would end—they’d be alone, totally alone … his arms would hold her close to him … his lips—

  “Liz! You haven’t heard a word I’ve said,” Jessica accused.

  “What?” said Elizabeth, reluctantly coming out of her daydream.

  “My very own sister is turning into an airhead right before my eyes. I was trying to find out what time Mom will be home. If she’s coming home at all. She’s practically never home anymore. Of course, if you’re too busy to talk to me, just say so, Elizab
eth.” Jessica was working herself up to the rage of the century.

  Elizabeth turned toward her sister. One look at Jessica’s unhappy face was all it took.

  “Oh, Jess, I’m sorry,” she said, giving her a quick hug. “This hasn’t been a world-class day for me. You have every right to be happy. I want you to know that I’m really pleased for you.” After all, she thought with just a trace of bitterness, somebody in this family should be happy.

  “Liz! Stop it, Lizzie! You’re doing it again.”

  “I’m listening, I’m listening. I swear it! Why is it so important to know when Mom’s going to get home?”

  “I want to tell her about this sensational day. And I absolutely have to talk her into getting me that perfect—oh, Lizzie, you should see it—perfect dress at the mall.” The sunshine was definitely back in Jessica’s face and voice.

  “Tell me all about it,” Elizabeth said, then sighed, “while you’re setting the table. Let me check out the freezer to see what I can toss into the microwave.”

  “Well, it’s blue. It’s slinky—”

  “Don’t forget the table, Jess.”

  Jessica glared at her sister’s back for a moment but decided she’d better set the table if she expected Elizabeth to listen to her.

  “Did I say blue—and slinky?” As Elizabeth nodded, Jessica continued. “It has a handkerchief hemline and—wait till you hear this, Lizzie— spaghetti straps and a neckline so low Todd will be panting.”

  “Sounds like a case of overkill to me, Jess, and as a man, I feel sorry for the intended victim.”

  Both girls spun around in surprise. Steven was standing just inside the archway between the kitchen and dining room.

  “Steve!” they chorused.

  “I’m starved. Is there enough of whatever that’s going to be for one more?” he asked, gesturing at the frozen food package Elizabeth was opening.

  “Sure,” she said. “It’s just the three of us for dinner tonight. But I thought you—I mean, aren’t you going out tonight?”

  “No,” he answered flatly.

  The twins exchanged worried looks.

  “It’s probably a good thing Mom and Dad aren’t here,” he said bitterly. “I’m definitely not up to a repeat of last weekend’s third degree!”