Who's Who? Read online

  WHO'S WHO?

  Written by

  Kate Williams

  Created by

  FRANCINE PASCAL

  Copyright © 2015, Francine Pascal

  WHO'S WHO?

  Elizabeth looked at Jessica's expression in the mirror. Her sister had a look on her face that could only be descirbed as scheming.

  "What?" Elizabeth asked, growing suspicious. "What is it?"

  "I figured out what to do about tonight," Jessica told her.

  "That's good," Elizabeth replied. "What are you going to do?" she asked after a pause.

  "You mean, what are we going to do," Jessica corrected her.

  Elizabeth whirled around to face her twin. "What are you talking about?" Her heart began pounding rapidly.

  Jessica walked over and stood next to Elizabeth. Their identical images looked back at them from the mirror. "We've done it before," Jessica said softly.

  "Oh no, you don't! I'm not getting involved in one of your twisted plots."

  Jessica lifted her chin stubbornly. "Didn't you say you owed me one?"

  Elizabeth looked down at her new dress and then closed her eyes. She was doomed.

  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

  One

  "I'm telling you, Liz. The boys around here are so immature it makes me want to join a convent sometimes."

  Elizabeth Wakefield grinned. Her identical twin sister, Jessica, was always complaining about how pathetically unsophisticated the boys at Sweet Valley High were. In spite of how she felt, however, Jessica had dated nearly all of them, and now she had finally run out of guys to go out with.

  "The junior and senior boys would have to proclaim a national day of mourning if you did that," Elizabeth teased. She struggled to zip up the dress she was trying on. "Hey, can you help me with this?"

  She unlatched the dressing room door to let her sister in. Jessica heaved a world-weary sigh and joined Elizabeth in the cramped space.

  When Elizabeth turned back to the mirror, she saw the reflections of two quintessential California girls, each with sun-kissed blond hair, delicate oval faces, eyes the blue-green of the Pacific Ocean, and perfect size-six figures. Each girl wore a gold lavaliere, a sixteenth birthday present from their parents. Down to the dimple in each girl's left cheek, Elizabeth and Jessica were absolutely identical.

  They were only carbon copies on the outside, however. Their personalities were as different as rock is to classical music. Elizabeth was the thoughtful one, the one people turned to when they had problems. She longed to be a professional writer some day, so she devoted a lot of time to writing articles, as well as a column in The Oracle, Sweet Valley High's newspaper. She could always be counted on to head a committee or to step in at the last minute if someone else didn't follow through. Elizabeth had a steady boyfriend, Todd Wilkins, with whom she spent much of her free time. Although she had many friends and was one of the most popular girls at Sweet Valley High, there was only one person, other than her twin, with whom she shared her innermost secrets, and that was her best friend, Enid Rollins.

  Elizabeth's twin sister, Jessica, was also one of the most popular girls at Sweet Valley High, although for very different reasons. While Elizabeth was calm and quiet, Jessica was outgoing and exuberant. Being cocaptain of the varsity cheerleading squad was just one way for Jessica to be in her favorite place: the spotlight. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and people liked being around her, so she was usually surrounded by a group of friends. She raced along in high gear, changing boyfriends, hobbies, and philosophies of life from one day to the next. She was excitement and adventure in a five foot six inch frame.

  Yet, in spite of their differences, Elizabeth and Jessica shared an almost magical bond that no one else could understand. They could sometimes finish each other's sentences, and each twin always knew when her sister was worried or sad or in trouble. Even though their separate friends and different activities often kept them apart, at the end of the day, Elizabeth had Jessica and Jessica had Elizabeth.

  "So what do you think of this dress?" Elizabeth asked her twin. "You don't think it's too wild for me, do you?"

  Jessica frowned and gave Elizabeth's image in the mirror a critical once-over. "No, not at all. It's perfect for you."

  Elizabeth sighed. "I know."

  The strapless dress was made of a shimmery fabric that looked blue from one angle and green from another. The annual Valentine Day's dance was coming up at school, and Elizabeth had decided it was time for a new dress. The moment she had seen this one she had fallen in love with it.

  "But it's way over my budget," she said. Shaking her head, she began unzipping it. "I really can't afford it."

  Jessica's jaw dropped. "What's the problem? Just charge it on Mom's account. You can worry about paying for it after you have it. Mom won't mind when she sees how great you look in it."

  "That's the way you would do it," Elizabeth said, smiling. "Not me."

  Jessica shook her head in disgust. "Elizabeth Wakefield, if you spend your whole life being so principled, you'll never have any fun."

  Elizabeth laughed and put her jeans and pink cotton sweater back on. With a twinge of regret, she left the blue-green dress hanging on the rack outside the dressing room. She gave the sale dresses at Lisette's another quick survey, but there wasn't anything she liked even half as much.

  "I give up," she said. "Let's just go."

  Soon the twins were strolling through the center atrium of the Valley Mall. It was just after five o'clock on Wednesday, and the mall was filling up with after-work shoppers.

  "Hey, look at that!" Jessica said suddenly.

  Elizabeth looked where her sister was pointing. A new business had just opened. The sign over the door read, Lovestruck Computer Dating and a smaller sign in the window announced Teens Our Specialty.

  Jessica was looking at Elizabeth with a hopeful, eager expression in her eyes.

  "Oh, no, you don't, Jessica!" Elizabeth warned. "You know what happened last time you tried that—you fixed Steve up with Miss Fright Night, and you got that guy who wanted to be an undertaker!"

  Jessica gave her twin a look of weary patience. "Liz, that was the wrong kind of service. It didn't attract the right types. Look at that sign—it says they specialize in teenagers."

  Elizabeth was skeptical. Months ago, Jessica had worked part-time at Perfect Match, another dating service. At the time, their older brother, Steven, had just lost his girlfriend to leukemia. Naturally, the matchmaker in Jessica went to work with the files in the office. But the perfect matches she found for Steven were not so perfect at all, and the boy Jessica decided on for herself had positively ghoulish ambitions! Jessica had spent a whole party just trying to avoid him. After all, who wanted to hear about the history of embalming? Not Jessica, that was for sure.

  "Come on," Jessica said airily, leading the way. "I have to check this out. This Valentine's Day I plan to be in love." Blond hair swishing around her shoulders, Jessica strode ahead.

  Elizabeth stayed put for a moment. Her twin's supreme confidence in spite of past disasters never failed to amaze her. But that was one of the things Elizabeth loved most about Jessica. With a smile, Elizabeth followed her twin into the store.

  "Each applicant fills out one of these questionnaires," the red-haired receptionist was telling Jessica. "Then it goes into the computer, and you get matched up. It's very scientific. And as a special promotion, we're only charging five dollars per application."

  Jessica was nodding agreeably, but there was a gleam in her eyes that Elizabeth knew well. It was a speculative, scheming look that meant Jessica was cooking up a plan.

  "My sister needs a questionnaire, too," Jessica told the receptionist.

  Elizabeth blinked. "What—?"

  "Come on, Liz," Jessica broke in, steering her away from the counter. She had two questionnaires in her hand. "Just hush for a second."

  They sat down at a little table in an area that was screened off for privacy.

  "Jessica, you know I'm not going to—"

  "It's not really for you, Liz. Don't worry," Jessica whispered. She arranged both of the questionnaires in front of her and selected a pencil from the ones on the table. "I've got an idea."

  Elizabeth sat back in her chair and regarded her sister warily. "Jessica," she began slowly, "why do I get the feeling I don't want to know what you're doing?"

  "Relax, Liz." Jessica tapped the eraser end of her pencil on the table and gave Elizabeth a mischievous grin. "I have it all figured out. Last time, I answered all the questions correctly—you know, my hobbies and interests, what kind of music I like. Stuff like that."

  "Isn't that the way you're supposed to do it?" Elizabeth asked.

  Jessica waved her hand dismissively. "Only if you want the same old type of guy you've always dated."

  Elizabeth grinned. There wasn't one type of guy Jessica had always dated: she had dated so many boys that they couldn't possibly fit into a single category. But Elizabeth didn't think it was worth mentioning that fact. When Jessica had a plan, nothing could change her mind.

  "See, what I'll do now is fill out two forms with different names," Jessica explained. "Then I'll p
ut different answers on each. That way I'll get a better range of responses. Isn't that brilliant?"

  Elizabeth groaned and shook her head. "Brilliant, Jess. Just brilliant."

  "I knew you'd think so," Jessica said cheerfully. She bit her lip in concentration. "Let me think. . . ."

  In a burst of energy, Jessica began filling out the first form. In a few minutes she was finished with that one and started on the second. Elizabeth pulled the first sheet toward her and read through it.

  "Daniella Fromage" seemed to be an intellectual. She liked foreign films, modern poetry, French cuisine, and world travel. Her idea of a perfect evening was "a meaningful conversation in front of a crackling fire, with an opera on the stereo."

  Elizabeth tried not to laugh. "Jess, first of all, isn't this name a bit, uh, bizarre?"

  "What do you mean? It's perfect," Jessica said absently, still busily scribbling away on the second form.

  Shaking her head, Elizabeth put down the first questionnaire and attempted to read the next one upside down. She squinted, trying to make out the name.

  "Magenta Galaxy?" Elizabeth put one hand over her mouth to keep from giggling. Sometimes her twin got pretty strange ideas.

  "Isn't it a cool name?" Jessica said. She grinned as she turned the form around for Elizabeth to read.

  "Magenta" was a wild rocker whose passions were "everything new and anything hot." She liked fast cars, loud dance bands, the latest fashions—the wilder the better. Her perfect evening consisted of cruising the hippest music clubs in L.A. and ending up in a coffee shop at four in the morning, eating hamburgers and dancing on the countertop.

  Jessica was smiling gleefully while Elizabeth read. "Isn't it perfect? I couldn't decide if I wanted a really sophisticated, cultured guy or a wild, daring type. This way I'll get both!"

  "I don't know what you'll get with these, but you'll definitely get something," Elizabeth said. She met her sister's eyes. "Are you positive this is a good idea?"

  Jessica put on a look of injured innocence. "What could go wrong, Liz? I think it's a great idea."

  "But it never works when you try to be someone you're not," Elizabeth said in a concerned voice. "Remember how you acted when you first met A.J.?"

  A flicker of unhappiness crossed Jessica's face. A. J. Morgan was the one boy Jessica had had a serious relationship with. When he first moved to Sweet Valley, Jessica fell for him hard. But at the same time she got the crazy idea that he liked serious, thoughtful, quiet girls, girls like Elizabeth. So Jessica spent her first two weeks with A. J. living a masquerade, trying to change her personality to please him. Luckily, when Jessica finally showed her true colors he had liked her even more, so it all worked out. After a couple of months, however, Jessica realized she wasn't cut out for a steady relationship. Even so, breaking up with A. J. had been one of the saddest times of her life,

  "That was completely different," Jessica decided after a moment.

  Elizabeth didn't see how it was different. Either you're honest and act like yourself or you don't, she thought.

  "Hey, listen," Jessica went on, lowering her voice a notch. "Don't these personalities sound familiar to you?" She eyed Elizabeth with an impish grin.

  Elizabeth scanned the questionnaires again. "Well, I don't know. Were you thinking of anyone in particular?"

  "Of course!" Jessica crowed. "Can't you guess?"

  Daniella Fromage, the cultured sophisticate, loved classical music, poetry. Elizabeth frowned. "Now that you mention it, this sounds sort of like Suzanne Hanlon."

  "Exactly! And I was thinking of Dana Larson for Magenta Galaxy," Jessica said.

  Suzanne and Dana both attended Sweet Valley High. In Elizabeth's opinion, Jessica couldn't have picked two personalities that differed more.

  "Then why don't you just use their correct names, give their real addresses and phone numbers, and forget about your crazy plan?" Elizabeth suggested.

  Jessica frowned. "No way. The thing is, we have to make sure Mom and Dad don't answer the phone when I start getting calls for Magenta and Daniella. Say you'll go along with it, Liz. Please?" She gave Elizabeth a pleading look.

  "Jessica!" Elizabeth covered her face with her hands. "This is crazy!"

  "But you'll go along with it, right?" Jessica urged.

  Elizabeth raised her eyes and looked at her twin. Jessica was the hardest person in the world to say no to.

  "OK," she agreed. "I'll go along with it."

  Fortunately, the receptionist was talking on the phone when Elizabeth and Jessica returned to the desk. Jessica dropped ten dollars on the desk, then slipped her forms into a pile of other questionnaires, leaving a few pages in between. That way, no one at the agency would notice that Magenta and Daniella had the same address but different last names.

  Jessica winked at Elizabeth as they left.

  "Just you watch, Liz. This is really going to be something."

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Jessica was courting disaster, as usual. It was going to be something, all right, Elizabeth thought. Something disastrous.

  Two

  Jessica parked the red Fiat convertible she shared with Elizabeth at the top of the Wakefields' driveway. She had barely turned the motor off before she leapt out of the car and bounded to the front door.

  Elizabeth followed her twin and watched as she reached into the mailbox and removed a jumble of letters, magazines, and flyers. She stood by patiently while Jessica sorted through everything.

  "Hey, what's this?" Jessica cried, pulling a business-size envelope out of the stack of mail. She read the address and let out an excited laugh. "Look, Liz. It's from Lovestruck to Daniella Fromage."

  "That was fast," Elizabeth said. "It's only Friday, and they already sent you something."

  Jessica ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter. "Listen to this! 'Your perfect match is Pierre Du Lac,' it says. 'He was born in France, has traveled extensively on the Continent and in Europe—' "

  "The Continent and Europe?" Elizabeth broke in, looking puzzled. "Isn't that the same thing?"

  Jessica shrugged. "So they goofed. Let me finish it." Her eyes devoured the information in front of her. "It says he speaks four languages, plans to be a novelist or a museum curator, plays the piano, and loves jogging and sailing. His favorite foods are truffles and foie gras. And he's dying to meet me!"

  With a gasp of pure ecstasy, Jessica pressed the letter to her chest. "I've got goose bumps," she said. "Tell me the truth, Liz. Doesn't he sound fantastic? He must be so sophisticated!"

  "I guess," Elizabeth agreed. Her mouth turned up in a wry smile. "He sounds pretty nice."

  "Nice?" Jessica gave her twin a withering look. "I have struck gold, Liz. You're just jealous."

  Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. "Right, Jess. I'm dying of jealousy. Can we go in now?"

  "All right, all right," Jessica muttered. She unlocked the front door and rushed inside.

  "I have to call the agency right away to tell them Pierre can have my phone number," she shouted, racing toward the kitchen to use the phone. Mrs. Wakefield worked full time as an interior designer, so the twins usually had the house to themselves in the afternoons. At the moment, Jessica was glad her mother wasn't around to overhear her phone call about Daniella and Pierre.

  An excited bark greeted her as she stepped into the kitchen, and a boisterous golden Labrador retriever hurled himself at her.

  "Hi, Prince Albert," Jessica gasped as she pushed his huge paws off her stomach. The family dog was obviously glad to see her. He was so glad, in fact, that every time Jessica tried to move past him to get to the phone, he planted himself in front of her, waiting to be hugged. Half groaning and half giggling, Jessica shoved the big dog away and grabbed the telephone. She read the phone number off the Lovestruck letterhead and dialed.

  "Good afternoon, Lovestruck."

  "Hello!" Jessica said breathlessly. Prince Albert put his paws up on the counter and panted into the telephone. "This is Daniella Fromage—quit that, Prince Albert!—you sent me a letter about Pierre Du Lac."

  "Yes? Is anything wrong?"

  "No! I want you to go ahead and give him my phone number!" Jessica went on. "Prince, not now!"

  There was a pause. Then the receptionist said, "I hope you don't mind my asking, but if you've got a prince after you, why do you need us?"