In Love with the Enemy Read online

  IN LOVE WITH THE ENEMY

  Written by

  Kate William

  Created by

  FRANCINE PASCAL

  Copyright © 2015, Francine Pascal

  To William Benjamin Rubin

  Jessica rode the wave all the way to the beach and found herself running into Christian's arms. He picked her up and twirled her around, her wet body close against his. Suddenly they were kissing passionately, madly, as Jessica had never kissed anyone before. All she could hear was the pounding of the surf in the distance and the beating of her heart against his.

  When Jessica finally pulled away, her stomach coiled. She felt as though nothing would ever be the same again. And the feeling scared her. How could she have such strong emotions for Christian when she was supposed to be in love with Ken?

  The thrill of surfing is affecting me—that's all, Jessica reassured herself. But as Christian's smoky blue eyes burned into her, she knew deep down that she'd fallen in love.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 1

  "Go, Gladiators!" sixteen-year-old Jessica Wakefield yelled, leaping up and waving her red-and-white pom-poms in the air. She was standing with her cocaptain, Heather Mallone, in front of the cheerleading squad, leading the girls in a series of spirited cheers at the football game against the Palisades Pumas on Friday evening.

  The Palisades coach signaled a time-out and ran onto the field. While the two teams huddled, Jessica and Heather quickly conferred with the rest of the squad. They had spent all week choreographing new cheers for the game, and they were eager to try them out.

  "Let's do 'Smokin,' the new rap routine," Amy Sutton suggested, her slate-gray eyes flashing with excitement. Turning her baseball cap around on her blond head, she strutted like a rap singer and pointed an index finger at the girls.

  "Girl, you're smokin', " Maria Santelli said.

  All the girls laughed and Jessica grinned. She and Amy had written the lyrics to the cheer together, transforming the words of a popular rap song.

  " 'Smokin" is our best," Jessica said. "Why don't we save that for halftime?"

  "You're right," Amy agreed. "We shouldn't waste it now."

  "How about our new salsa cheer?" Heather suggested.

  Jessica nodded and clapped her hands sharply. "OK, girls, get in position for the 'Miami Sound Machine,' " she said.

  "Play ball!" yelled the announcer.

  Jessica clicked on the sound system as the players on the field trotted back into position. The funky opening notes of a Spanish song blasted through the air, and the girls fanned out into a V, taking position at arm's length from one another. Holding their hands in the air like Miami dancers, they waved their hips and moved their feet, shaking and prancing to the beat.

  As the final drum beats brought the song to a finish, Jessica and Heather ran in front of the girls and crossed in simultaneous front handsprings. The rest of the girls leaped up in succession in double herkies and went down to the ground in side-by-side splits, creating the effect of an undulating wave.

  As the girls raised their arms in the air, Jessica paused for breath, her cheeks flushed from exertion. She wound her silky golden-blond hair on top of her head and tied it in a knot, fanning the back of her neck with her hand. The air was hot and thick in the crowded football stadium, and beads of perspiration were dripping down her neck.

  Heather glanced over at her. "Jess, take a break," she mouthed.

  Jessica smiled gratefully at Heather. Her arms ached and her voice was hoarse from yelling. Usually Jessica and Heather competed for attention, but today they were working together. This was one of the most important games of the season. The Palisades Pumas were notorious rivals of Sweet Valley High, and the Gladiators needed all the support they could get.

  Heather clapped her hands and ran in front of the girls. "Be aggressive, be, be aggressive!" she called.

  Jessica sat down on the bench as the girls broke into the familiar "Aggressive" cheer, wiping the back of her neck with a towel. She picked up a plastic water bottle and took a long swig, taking in the action of the fast-paced game. She didn't remember when she'd seen such an exciting competition. The Sweet Valley Gladiators were in top form, but the Pumas had matched them play by play, and the score was tied.

  Suddenly a cheer went through the crowd as Jessica's boyfriend, Ken Matthews, took off downfield in a quarterback sneak. Ken was captain and star quarterback of the football squad. Jessica's heart swelled with pride as she watched her agile boyfriend run with the ball. He was tall and well built, with thick sandy-blond hair and cornflower-blue eyes. Jessica always thought Ken was one of the handsomest guys she'd ever seen. But he looked especially cute in his football uniform as he gripped the ball in the crook of his arm and dodged his opponents.

  Jessica felt a surge of energy jolt through her body as she watched Ken run with the ball She bounded up to join Heather in front of the girls.

  "Ken, Ken, he's our man!" Jessica yelled.

  "If he can't do it, nobody can!" Heather cried.

  Jessica kept a sharp eye on her boyfriend as the rest of the cheerleaders picked up the chant. Ken was at his best today and had already scored two touchdowns. But Palisades was going strong. They were also playing rough. Bryce Fisherman, one of the Sweet Valley High halfbacks, had already been injured. He had been running with the ball when three massive linebackers had converged on him at once. His helmet had flipped off and he had flown to the turf, smashing his head on the ground. Jessica shuddered thinking about it. She had never seen such a violent tackle.

  The announcer's voice boomed through the stadium. "The Gladiators' quarterback has been chased out of the pocket. He's running to the right. One man between him and the goal line! He fakes to the left, dives over the goal line, and . . . touchdown! Sweet Valley is in the lead!"

  The Sweet Valley High fans leaped to their feet, cheering wildly.

  Waving her pom-poms in the air, Jessica jumped up with the rest of her squad, all of them cheering in perfect unison.

  During the Palisades' next possession, the quarterback passed the ball to his wide receiver. The Gladiators fans stomped on the bleachers with their feet, rocking the entire stadium. "De-fense, de-fense, de-fense!" they chanted.

  A cry went through the crowd as Ricky Ordway, the cornerback of the Gladiators, leaped up and intercepted the ball. He faked a lateral and dodged the Puma receiver, sprinting across the field. Suddenly a burly Palisades lineman tackled him brutally. Ricky fumbled the ball and went down hard, grabbing his knee and rolling on the ground in pain.

  Jessica's mouth dropped open, and she stared at the girls on the squad in shock. They all stopped cheering as they watched the commotion on the field.

  "They're acting like savages," Amy said, falling onto the bench in disgust.

  "That's giving them too much credit," Jean West said, pacing the width of the bench. "They're not even human. They're like wild beasts."

  Jeanie's right, Jessica thought. The Palisades team wasn't playing like normal competitors. No wonder they were called Pumas. They were acting like a pack of hungry tigers fighting for a piece of raw meat. The Gladiators were their prey, and the Palisades Pumas were ripping them to shreds.

  Ricky struggled to his feet, but his knee went out on him and he stumbled to the turf.

  The referee signaled time-out and blew his whistle.

  Coac
h Schultz ran out to the field and knelt by Ricky's side. Moments later he led the limping cornerback to the bench. The referee gave the Pumas only a five-yard penalty.

  Jessica threw her pom-poms to the ground in disgust. "I can't believe this," she said. "That's the second guy out this half."

  "They're playing dirty," Heather said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  Jessica's blue-green eyes glittered angrily. "They're playing to kill."

  "Wow, the stands are packed," Elizabeth Wakefield said to her best friend, Enid Rollins, as they made their way through the crowded stadium. It was halftime, and she and Enid had just arrived. Elizabeth was a writer for The Oracle, the school newspaper, and she had had to stay late for a staff meeting after school. She and Enid had stopped at the concession stand first, for hot dogs and drinks. The band was playing the school song, and the Sweet Valley cheerleaders were in the middle of the field, rousing the crowd with a lively cheer.

  "This is the biggest turnout we've had all year," Enid said, taking a bite out of her hot dog.

  Elizabeth scanned the bleachers for a place to sit. Every seat was taken. It looked as if everyone from Sweet Valley High had turned out for the game. And they all seemed to be dressed in the school colors. The stands looked like a sea of red and white. "There's not a single spot free," she said.

  "Oh, well, I guess we can't stay," Enid said. "Looks like we'll have to go to a movie instead." She glanced down at her watch. "If we hurry, we can still catch the new art film at the Plaza Theatre."

  "Enid, c'mon," Elizabeth protested. "We've got to show some school spirit."

  Enid took a sip of her soda. "Well, then, we're going to have to sit on someone's lap."

  "Maybe Todd is here," Elizabeth said. "He told me he'd save seats for us if he got here in time." Todd Wilkins was Elizabeth's longtime steady boyfriend.

  Enid looked at her in surprise. "He must be here," she said. "This is the most important game of the season."

  "He's getting his cast off, but he was hoping to make it in time to catch some of the game," Elizabeth explained. Todd had broken his ankle during an important basketball game and had been in a walking cast for the last few weeks.

  Enid peered into the crowd. "There's Winston," she said, pointing into the stands at a goofy-looking guy with a red-and-white Gladiators cap on. Elizabeth followed her gaze. Winston Egbert was sitting with Bruce Patman and Aaron Dallas. They were holding up a banner that read GLADIATORS RULE!

  "Oh, well, I guess Todd's not here yet," Elizabeth said. "I don't see him anywhere."

  "Looks like we're going to have to sit with the Palisades fans," Enid replied.

  As the two girls made their way around the stands, the cheerleaders ran out to the middle of the field for their halftime show. The crowd greeted their appearance enthusiastically, whistling and hooting wildly.

  "Look, that area's almost deserted," Enid said, pointing up into the bleachers on the Palisades side. They climbed up several rungs and made their way across a row of occupied seats.

  "Excuse me," Elizabeth apologized, inching past two girls to a free spot. She took a seat next to a redheaded girl.

  The redheaded girl did a double take as Elizabeth sat down. "I thought you were cheering," she said. She looked down to the field and back. "Is that your twin?"

  "Yes, that's my sister, Jessica," Elizabeth said with a smile, holding out her hand. "I'm Elizabeth Wakefield, and this is Enid Rollins."

  "I'm Marla Daniels," the girl introduced herself, shaking Elizabeth's hand. She had wild, curly auburn hair wrapped in a blue bandanna, smooth white skin, and sparkling green eyes. When she smiled, two tiny dimples appeared in her cheeks.

  "Caitlin Alexander," her friend said, giving Elizabeth a friendly smile. She was tall and slender, with extremely short, choppy, straight black hair, almond-shaped brown eyes, and olive-colored skin. She was wearing two tiny silver hoops in her left ear.

  Suddenly their attention was drawn to the field, where the cheerleaders were putting on their show.

  "We've got the fever, we're hot, we can't be stopped," Jessica yelled, leading the girls in a dance number.

  As the music segued into a rock beat, Jessica put on a solo performance. She skipped to the middle of the field, doing a series of front handsprings and one-armed cartwheels. Running to gain momentum, she leaped into the air in a perfect triple herky and came down for a landing in the splits, her arms held up in an L formation. The crowd hooted and hollered in appreciation.

  Jessica is at her best tonight, Elizabeth thought, sitting back and taking a bite of her hot dog. She's got the whole crowd revved up.

  Jessica grabbed the microphone. "Thank you!" she yelled. "For our last number, we'd like to do a new rap routine. We call it 'Smokin'.' So let's get fired up to win!"

  The crowd cheered and a popular rap beat filled the air. Jessica waited four beats, then began chanting rhythmically into the mike, tapping her foot on the ground. "SVH is smokin' / You know we ain't jokin' . . ."

  Elizabeth covered her ears and groaned. "If I hear that song one more time, I think I'm going to spontaneously combust," she muttered to Enid.

  Enid laughed. "Rap is Jessica's latest, huh?" she asked.

  Elizabeth nodded. "And that means it's my latest, too," she groaned. Jessica's and Elizabeth's bedrooms were separated only by an adjoining bathroom, so Elizabeth was forced to share in Jessica's rapidly changing fads. Jessica had been driving her crazy all weekend blasting rap music and making up cheers with Amy. Elizabeth had been forced to listen to classical music through her headphones in order to get some writing done. She must have heard "Smokin' " about a hundred times in the last week. She had even heard it in her sleep and had incorporated it into her dreams.

  Elizabeth fished around in her bag and pulled out last week's edition of The Oracle, trying to shut out the music from her thoughts. She crossed her legs and leaned back, skimming the contents of the school newspaper.

  Caitlin glanced from Jessica to Elizabeth. "Looks like you two are twins in appearance only," she observed.

  "You're right about that," Elizabeth said with a smile. Physically, she and Jessica were identical. They both had shoulder-length golden-blond hair, beautiful heart-shaped faces, and sparkling blue-green eyes. But that's where the similarities ended. The twins were completely different in character. From their taste in music, to their preference of clothes, to their choice of activities, Jessica and Elizabeth were like night and day. Jessica liked rap and rock; Elizabeth preferred jazz and classical music. Jessica wore daring miniskirts and strategically ripped jeans; Elizabeth wore casual khakis and polo shirts. Jessica's favorite activities were dancing, shopping, and scamming on guys; Elizabeth's were reading, writing poetry and articles for the school newspaper, and spending time with her boyfriend, Todd.

  Elizabeth sighed as the players trotted out onto the field for the second half of the game. She wasn't really interested in football. She would have rather gone to the movie with Enid. But everybody had talked about the game all week in school, and Elizabeth wanted to show her support. Palisades had beaten Sweet Valley High twice in a row, and the Gladiators were determined to break their losing streak.

  Elizabeth looked down at the field and tried to take an interest in the game but found her attention wandering. Since she and Jessica had got back from their trip to Sweet Valley University, Elizabeth had been kind of depressed. The previous week she and Jessica had visited their brother, Steven, and his girlfriend, Billie Winkler, at SVU. Their parents had given them the vacation as a chance to get a feel for college life.

  And we really got a feel for it, Elizabeth reflected, thinking back to the whirlwind they had experienced on the SVU campus. It had started out with a blast—literally—when Jessica had insisted on throwing a huge party behind Steven's back their first night there. Jessica thought the party was a huge success. Elizabeth thought it was a disaster. They had trashed the apartment, and the police had shown up at four in the morning.

/>   But the evening hadn't been a total waste. At the party Elizabeth had met Ian Cooke, a journalism major. He had invited her to sit in on a seminar given by Professor Felicia Newkirk, a world-renowned journalist. Elizabeth had written a prizewinning essay in the journalism class and had been offered an internship with a nationally distributed newspaper. She had felt as if magic doors were suddenly opening before her. At the age of sixteen, she was being invited to work on a national newspaper under the tutelage of a famous journalist.

  Then Elizabeth had made a major life decision. She had decided to take her high school equivalency exam and start college early. Not one to allow her twin sister to leave her behind, Jessica had quickly made up her mind to join Elizabeth at SVU. She had started rushing the most exclusive sorority on campus and had begun dating a college guy. But Elizabeth's internship had turned out to be nothing more than slave labor, and Jessica's college boyfriend had turned out to be a masquerading high-school student. So the twins had come home. Elizabeth was thrilled to be with her friends and family again, but her return felt anticlimactic. Compared to the excitement of the Sweet Valley University campus, high school was dullsville.

  Elizabeth stifled a yawn as a Sweet Valley player made a touchdown and the crowd leaped to their feet.

  Marla laughed. "Looks like you're not into football, either," she said.

  "Not really," Elizabeth agreed. "Sports aren't my thing. Journalism is more up my alley."

  "Me, too," Marla said. "I'm the editor of our school paper, and Caitlin is the arts editor."

  "You're kidding!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "I write a weekly column for our paper." Then she paused in thought. "Actually, I've heard of your paper. Wasn't your staff written up recently in one of the community papers?"

  Marla nodded. "We won a prize for 'Quality Reporting.' We've got a really good stable of writers," she added.

  "We may have a great staff, but, unfortunately, we've got nothing to report on," Caitlin lamented.

  "I know what you mean," Elizabeth said. "There's nothing going on here. Our last feature was about a teachers' conference."