Jessica Against Bruce Read online

  JESSICA AGAINST BRUCE

  Written by

  Kate William

  Created by

  FRANCINE PASCAL

  Copyright © 2015, Francine Pascal

  Being up on the diving platform during the day was one thing. But at night, in the darkness and silence, it was a completely different experience. It was scary and exciting at the same time. Jessica recognized the sensation with a shock—it was almost the same feeling she had when her boyfriend, Sam Woodruff, kissed her. It was a delicious, exhilarating feeling.

  Slowly, Jessica walked to the end of the board. She knew that when she dove there would be no way to judge how soon she would hit the water. She would meet its cold surface without warning. She paused.

  "Two ways down, Jessica," Bruce called. "You can always go back down the ladder."

  "No way," Jessica called out.

  Then, she quickly raised her arms over her head, and dove out into the darkness.

  Almost immediately, she hit the water and plunged down deep. By instinct, Jessica bent her body upward and kicked. In a moment, she reached the surface of the water. Then she climbed out of the pool.

  Jessica stood dripping by the edge of the pool. She felt a satisfying surge of success. Now she knew she could create the danger and control the fear. At that moment she felt that there was nothing she couldn't do.

  "Bruce, you should never, never, never underestimate me," she called out to where he stood in the dark.

  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

  "If I had known we were having an assembly, I would have brought a magazine to school," Jessica Wakefield said as she slumped into a seat in the auditorium. Members of the student body of Sweet Valley High were busily trying to find seats, and the sounds of a hundred conversations filled the air.

  "I thought you did all your magazine reading during math," teased Jessica's identical twin, Elizabeth.

  "Oh, no, I do my nails during math," Jessica replied with a sarcastic smile.

  Elizabeth grinned. Her sister had never won any prizes for academic diligence. That just wasn't her style. Of course, she did win honors and distinctions of other kinds. Jessica's reputation as one of Sweet Valley High's most fun, most adventurous, and most spontaneous juniors was built on a solid foundation. The latest dance craze, the hottest albums, the trendiest clothes—Jessica was always in on the ground floor. Recently, when the twins had landed a week's stint on a soap opera in Los Angeles, nobody was surprised that Jessica had jumped into the Hollywood party scene.

  Elizabeth knew that people were amazed that she and Jessica were twin sisters. It would be hard to imagine a greater contrast between two people. Elizabeth did win academic awards, and her reputation was built on hard work, loyalty, and fairness. Her friends counted on her as the person who always listened sympathetically and tried not to pass judgment. Her favorite way to spend time was reading or writing, or else being with her steady boyfriend, Todd Wilkins.

  Yet these extremes of personality did not keep Elizabeth and Jessica from being best friends. They clashed often, but there was a special bond between them that always brought them back together. Covering for each other and helping each other through tight spots were top priorities for both of them. Sometimes that even meant trading identities. It was easy for either twin to pass herself off as the other. Both had sun-streaked blond hair and eyes the color of the nearby Pacific Ocean, perfect size-six figures, and lovely, heart-shaped faces.

  "When is this thing going to get started?" Jessica complained with a dramatic groan.

  "Would you rather be in French class?" asked Elizabeth's best friend, Enid Rollins.

  As the bickering went on, Mr. Cooper, Sweet Valley High's principal, walked onto the stage and blew into the microphone. "Testing, testing, is this thing on?" he asked. The microphone let out a piercing whine of feedback, and everyone yelled, "It's on!"

  "OK, settle down, people," Mr. Cooper said. "I have an extremely important announcement to make."

  "It's always extremely important," Jessica muttered.

  "Shh," Elizabeth said, nudging Jessica with her elbow.

  "We have been chosen for a very special honor," the principal continued. "The International Federation of Teachers is sending a delegation of guest observers to several schools in California. For the next three Thursdays, these guest teachers will be visiting our school."

  "Wow," Elizabeth said. "This'll be great!"

  "I'm trembling with excitement," Jessica whispered. Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

  "The teachers represent countries all over the world," Mr. Cooper explained. "England, France, India, Russia—" He broke off to glance at some papers in front of him. "I want to impress on each and every one of you what an honor this is for Sweet Valley High. And I expect you all to be on your very best behavior during their visits."

  "No dancing on the cafeteria tables," Jessica said, leaning over the seats.

  "Do we have to salute?" Lila whispered loudly.

  "This sounds like a big yawn," Jessica said. She demonstrated her prediction with an ostentatious yawn, patting her open mouth with her hand.

  "Also at this time," Mr. Cooper continued, "I will be inviting a select group of students to be part of our host committee."

  "Guess who'll get picked," Enid said in Elizabeth's ear. "You."

  Elizabeth smiled. In spite of Jessica and Lila's obligatory scorn for the project, she thought it sounded interesting. She hoped she would have a chance to meet some of the visiting teachers and find out what high schools in other countries were like.

  "So in conclusion," Mr. Cooper said, "I want to repeat my request that you show our guests what a terrific, top-notch school we have here. And I thank you ahead of time for your cooperation."

  As the principal left the podium, everyone began to rise and file out. "Don't forget to demonstrate your very best behavior," Lila reminded Jessica.

  Elizabeth looked at the ceiling and sighed. As far as Jessica was concerned, a request for good behavior was like a red flag to a bull: an invitation for trouble.

  At four o'clock that afternoon, Jessica was surrounded by a crowd of friends in a booth at the Dairi Burger. She listened to the chatter that flowed around her and quietly sipped her diet soda.

  "I hope these visiting teachers aren't going to ask us a bunch of dumb questions," Amy Sutton said.

  Lila fingered one of the gold bracelets on her wrist and shook her head. "Come on, Amy. They're teachers. Teachers are born to ask dumb questions."

  Everyone laughed. Jessica smiled and looked down into her drink. Though she shared her friends' feelings about teachers in general, she was feeling slightly melancholy and not in the mood for joking. Her steady boyfriend, Sam Woodruff, had left for Colorado to attend a special program at the state university. Sam had applied for and had been accepted to a course for high school seniors thinking of making a career of environmental science. He would be gone for nearly a month. Jessica missed him so much it hurt. It made her miserable to think of not seeing him for such a long time, particularly since they had just made up after a huge fight.

  Actually, the fight had been all her fault. Landing a cameo role on The Young and the Beautiful, her favorite soap opera, had taken more than her usual amount of scheming. Elizabeth, in one of her rare stubborn moods, had refused to audit
ion at first. But her sister's refusal hadn't defeated Jessica. Part of her determination had to do with her serious crush on Brandon Hunter, the drop-dead-handsome star of the show. For one dreamlike, whirlwind week, Brandon had squired Jessica to various Hollywood openings and parties, and their pictures had been splashed all over the gossip pages. Headlines speculating about Brandon Hunter's "adorable new love" had hit Sam pretty hard, and Jessica had been too star-struck to be sympathetic to his feelings.

  When Jessica finally found out that Brandon had only been using her to create a publicity blitz, she used a live broadcast of the soap opera to tell Brandon off and to make up with Sam at the same time. She was more in love with Sam now than ever, and it was doubly depressing that he was gone.

  "What's wrong with Jessica?" Amy asked loudly.

  Everyone at their table turned to stare. Jessica's cheeks colored. She didn't want to admit she was moping over her boyfriend.

  "I'm just so bored," she explained quickly.

  Aaron Dallas leaned over the back of the seat from the next booth. "Jessica, you're not boring."

  "I said bored, not boring," Jessica replied, refusing to rise to the bait.

  "Wakefield's right," Bruce Patman announced to the place at large. "It is boring around here." Bruce made this declaration in his usual tone of extreme superiority. Being a senior wasn't the only thing that made Bruce Patman think he was God's gift to America. He was also very rich and a natural-born snob—the license plate on his black Porsche read "1BRUCE1." Recently, Bruce had been intimating that he had already done everything there was to do in Sweet Valley, and that he was craving excitement and stimulation.

  "No one around here ever tries to break the mold," he went on with an irritable look marking his handsome features. "Not one single person in this entire place has a sense of adventure. If any of you were put in a dangerous situation you'd probably just curl up and die."

  "Why don't you just curl up and die, Bruce," Lila snapped at him.

  "Yeah," Jessica agreed. "Put up or shut up. You're always complaining about how dull Sweet Valley is, but you never do anything about it."

  Amy laughed. "That's right, Patman. You're just blowing more hot air."

  Aaron and Ken each burst out laughing at the furious expression on Bruce's face. "He's been talking like this for days," Ken said to the girls. "He's beginning to sound like a broken record."

  "Broken record—broken record—broken record," intoned Barry Rork, Amy's boyfriend and one of Bruce's tennis teammates.

  "I knew it," Bruce said, sneering. "I knew you all would be too scared to admit you need some danger in your lives. You're like a bunch of middle-aged bankers."

  Jessica ripped the end off a straw wrapper, turned around, and blew the paper off the straw into Bruce's face. He swatted it away. "How's that for danger?" she asked sweetly.

  She gazed at him and batted her eyelashes, enjoying the flush of anger that swept across Bruce's cheeks. There had been a time when she thought they would make the perfect couple, but before long she had realized they were like pickles and ice cream—totally incompatible.

  Bruce stood up and stalked out of the Dairi Burger. At the doorway he bumped into Elizabeth. He scowled at her, too, then slammed the door behind him.

  "What a joke," Jessica muttered.

  "What's going on?" Elizabeth asked, joining her sister at the booth. "Bruce's face looked like a thunder cloud."

  Lila chuckled. "The usual—we're all hopelessly boring and conservative and Bruce is fed up with every one of us."

  "Bruce wants danger," Jessica explained with a grin. "Maybe he'll get lucky and someone will try to run him down with a car."

  "If Bruce wants danger and excitement, I'm sure he'll be able to find some," Elizabeth said.

  "Or buy some," Barry suggested.

  "Well I, for one, hope he gets his wish," Jessica announced, rattling the ice in her cup. "Then maybe that irritating whining sound I always hear when he's around will go away."

  Elizabeth and Jessica drove to school the next day in their new Jeep with Elizabeth at the wheel. The twins had finally talked their parents into helping them buy a new vehicle since their old Fiat convertible had kept breaking down. Elizabeth had done most of the negotiating with the dealer, and whenever she sat at the wheel of the black and chrome Jeep she felt a certain pride.

  "You know," Elizabeth began as she pulled into a parking space, "I shouldn't admit this to you, but I'm hoping Mr. Cooper asks me to be on the committee to host the visiting teachers."

  "I'm totally shocked and surprised, Liz," Jessica said.

  Elizabeth opened her door and got out. "I just think it would be interesting to meet the teachers. You don't want him to ask you, do you?" she added.

  "Oh, I see, you're doing me a favor." Jessica swung her book bag over her shoulder. "Thank you for saving me from a fate worse than death."

  Elizabeth grinned at her twin. Side by side, they walked toward Sweet Valley High. Up ahead, they saw a tall, familiar figure swaggering in the same direction.

  "The dreaded Bruce," Jessica groaned. Then she narrowed her eyes. "What's that he's wearing?"

  Elizabeth looked ahead. Bruce was wearing a black leather jacket, and emblazoned across the back was a large X.

  "What does that mean?" Elizabeth wondered.

  "I hope it's a target," Jessica said. She held up her hand, squinted along one finger, and pretended to aim.

  A group of boys had now congregated around Bruce, and Elizabeth and Jessica had to pass them to get into the building.

  "Hey, Wakefield," Bruce called out as they walked by.

  Elizabeth and Jessica both stopped and looked toward him without speaking. Elizabeth was always aggravated by his cocky, arrogant manner.

  "I decided to take your advice, Jessica," Bruce went on, giving her a lazy grin.

  Jessica put both hands to her heart. "Oh, I'm so flattered," she gasped. "I actually said something worth listening to?"

  Some of the boys gathered around Bruce laughed. Conversations between Jessica and Bruce usually ended up as sparring matches. Although it was sometimes fun to watch, Elizabeth wished her sister wouldn't encourage him at all. Right now, she would prefer simply to walk away from him.

  "That's right, Wakefield," Bruce went on, ignoring Jessica's sarcasm. "I've started my own club—for real men."

  "Real men?" Elizabeth blurted, unable to resist Bruce's last remark. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

  "Real men who know real excitement when they see it," Bruce explained.

  Jessica burst out laughing. "Do you have a secret handshake?"

  "Very funny," Bruce said, turning away.

  The white X embroidered on the back of his leather jacket gleamed in the sunlight. Elizabeth was sure he wanted them to ask what it was all about, but she didn't think she had the stomach for it.

  "Come on," she said to Jessica. "Let's go."

  As Jessica fell into step beside her, Elizabeth shook her head. "He never ceases to amaze me. You'd think belonging to Phi Epsilon would be enough for him," Elizabeth said, referring to the popular fraternity of which her boyfriend, Todd Wilkins, was also a member. "He sure made a big enough deal over the last rushes."

  "Real men," Jessica muttered. "Give me a break. This must be the stupidest thing Bruce has ever come up with—and he's come up with some pretty stupid things."

  Elizabeth nodded. She didn't particularly care what Bruce was up to this time, but she had a feeling that they were all going to hear more about it, whether they wanted to or not.

  Two

  Jessica sat at her usual table in the cafeteria the next day at lunchtime. Lila, Amy, and Rosa Jameson were already there, along with Maria Santelli and Jean West. Jessica reached across the table and helped herself to one of Lila's french fries.

  "Mind if I mooch?" she asked as she delicately nipped off the end of it.

  Lila shrugged. "Mooch away."

  Jessica glanced around the cafeteria. Mu
ch as she hated to admit it, Bruce was right about Sweet Valley being boring. It wasn't such a bad place, she realized, but nothing was new anymore. She had enough sense to know that part of her grumpiness was due to Sam's absence, and to the relatively quiet pace her life had returned to after the hectic days of the soap opera but she still wished there would be a little shake-up of some kind. Just a little excitement, she thought. Something to stir things up a bit.

  Briefly, her imagination ran over the way things might have been. The producers of The Young and the Beautiful had offered her and Elizabeth the chance to continue their roles on the show, but they had both decided against it. Though at the time she had been firm in her decision, Jessica now wondered if it wouldn't have been smarter to have accepted the offer. She had wanted to spend more time with Sam, but now he was away, and she didn't have anything to do.

  "Hey," Lila said, breaking into Jessica's daydreaming. "Look at that."

  They all looked toward the cafeteria door. Bruce had just walked in, wearing his new "X" jacket, and Ronnie Edwards was at his side. Ronnie turned to speak to someone behind him, and everyone at Jessica's table saw that he wore a jacket identical to Bruce's.

  "What is the deal with this Club X thing, anyway?" Amy asked in a petulant tone. "Bruce got all mysterious when I asked him yesterday. He said it's for men only."

  "I didn't know Ronnie Edwards qualified," Lila drawled.

  "Why not ask Barry to find out?" Jean suggested. "Isn't he curious, too?"

  Amy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but he'll say that if he asks and Bruce makes him promise not to tell, he'll have to keep the promise. It's one of those male-bonding things. Typical."

  Jessica frowned as a group of guys converged on Bruce and Ronnie. From their eager, questioning looks and gestures, she could tell they were all asking about Club X. It seemed that Bruce and Ronnie were the only members; it also seemed that there were plenty of guys who wanted to be members.

  "Hey, girls," Bruce said airily as he passed by their table, surrounded by several other guys.

  "Come on, Bruce," Rosa said with a smile. "You've got us interested. What's your club all about?"