Friend Against Friend

  FRIEND AGAINST FRIEND

  Written by

  Kate William

  Created by

  FRANCINE PASCAL

  Copyright © 2015, Francine Pascal

  "What's wrong?" Neil asked. When Andy didn't say anything, Neil looked into his friend's locker to see what the problem was. He felt his stomach drop.

  Andy's locker was full of cafeteria garbage. It was a complete mess.

  "What the—!" Neil exclaimed. Then he noticed something was written on the inside of the locker door: "Go back to Africa where you belong."

  "Andy—I can't believe this," Neil whispered, horrified.

  Andy drew a deep breath, then let out a hollow laugh. "It's no big deal," he said, obviously trying to sound nonchalant.

  "But, you mean, you're just going to ignore it?" Neil asked.

  "What do you want me to do?" Andy asked. "Yell racism and go running to the principal? That's just what they want, whoever did this."

  "Look," Neil said. "I really think you should tell Mr. Cooper about this."

  Andy shook his head decisively. "Let me handle it my own way, Neil. I just think it's better not to get all confrontational about it."

  Reluctantly, Neil nodded. Maybe his friend was right. Maybe it was better to let it pass. But deep down, he knew that ignoring the problem wouldn't make it go away.

  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

  One

  "I'm so hungry I think I might pass out," Jessica Wakefield said in a dismal voice. It was Friday afternoon, and she had just gotten out of her last class. She leaned against a locker and closed her eyes.

  Elizabeth, her identical twin sister, was not overly concerned. Jessica made an average of six melodramatic statements every day.

  "Didn't you eat lunch?" Elizabeth asked as she took the books she needed for the weekend out of her locker.

  Jessica opened one eye. "You know perfectly well I'm on a diet, Liz. I can hardly get into my cheerleading uniform."

  Nothing could be further from the truth, Elizabeth reflected. Like Elizabeth, Jessica had a perfect size-six figure. Add to that sun-streaked blond hair, eyes the blue-green of the Pacific Ocean, and a lovely heart-shaped face, and the Wakefield twins ended up as two of the prettiest girls at Sweet Valley High. In every way they looked absolutely identical, right down to the dimples in their left cheeks.

  But the similarity ended there. Elizabeth was more responsible, thoughtful, and dependable than her whirlwind twin. Elizabeth wanted to be a writer some day, so she spent much of her free time reading, writing in her journal, or working on the school newspaper, The Oracle. Jessica was just the opposite: She craved excitement, and didn't mind stirring things up just to see the sparks fly. She went from hobby to hobby, from boyfriend to boyfriend, with lightning speed. But no matter what kind of trouble she got herself into, she always knew she could turn to Elizabeth for help.

  "Are you staying after school to work on the paper?" Jessica asked.

  "Yes," Elizabeth said, snapping her locker door shut and turning the combination lock. She gave her twin a smile. "Pick me up after cheerleading, OK? I'll wait on the front steps."

  Jessica slung her pink gym bag over her shoulder. "OK. Hey, Liz, can you lend me some change? I need a candy bar or something."

  Some diet, Elizabeth thought. She handed Jessica two quarters, then watched her walk down the hall. As Jessica disappeared around a corner, Elizabeth noticed the Oracle's editor-in-chief, Penny Ayala, coming toward her.

  "Hi, Pen!" Elizabeth called.

  Penny waved, and the two girls fell into step together.

  "I had an idea for the paper," Elizabeth said as they headed for the Oracle office. "It's a survey. We ask the question, 'If you could change anything at Sweet Valley High, what would it be?' Then we tell people to write in their responses, and we can publish the most interesting suggestions. Who knows? Maybe some of the changes can actually be made. What do you think?"

  Penny cocked her head to one side. "I think it's a good idea. That could be really fun, especially if we get a lot of people involved. Let's try it out on Mr. Collins and see what he thinks. If we catch him today, there'll be just enough time to make sure it goes in Monday's paper."

  As the two girls walked down the hallway, Penny's expression changed from thoughtful to happy, and her hazel eyes brightened.

  Elizabeth followed Penny's gaze and saw that Neil Freemount, a tall, blond, good-looking boy, was coming toward them.

  Penny and Neil had started dating when Neil answered a personal ad that Penny had placed in The Oracle. Although their relationship had gotten off to a rocky start, they were now very much in love. They were one of Elizabeth's favorite Sweet Valley High couples.

  "Hi," Neil said, walking up and slipping his arm around Penny's shoulders. "I'm staying late to work on this lab for marine biology," he told them. "Andy and I are going for extra credit."

  "Great. Say hi to Andy," Penny said as Neil continued on down the hall.

  "Neil is Andy Jenkins's lab partner?" Elizabeth asked, raising her eyebrows. "Lucky Neil."

  Andy Jenkins was one of the best science students at Sweet Valley High. He had won certificates of merit in biology and chemistry, and he had won the all-county science fair twice.

  "They've gotten to be good friends," Penny answered.

  Elizabeth nodded. Andy was one of a few black students in the school. She didn't know him very well, but she liked what she knew about him. He seemed to be easy-going and friendly, and he got along with everyone. Besides being a science whiz, Andy played the French horn in the school orchestra, and he was a guitarist in a band called Baja Beat. Baja Beat wasn't as popular or well-known at Sweet Valley High as the rock group The Droids, but Elizabeth really liked their music. The school had recently sponsored a "Battle of the Bands," and Baja Beat had been stiff competition for The Droids, even though The Droids had won.

  "Well, I'm not surprised they're friends," Elizabeth said with a teasing grin. "Neil obviously has very good taste and judgment. After all, he's going out with you, right?"

  "Right." Penny laughed. "Come on. If we're going to find out what needs to be changed at school, we have to get started."

  Elizabeth followed Penny into the Oracle office.

  "Penny! Liz!" called out Olivia Davidson, the arts editor. "You didn't bring any food, did you?"

  Elizabeth laughed. "Everyone's hungry today," she joked, putting her books down. She sat down across from Olivia and put her elbows on the table. "Listen, if you could change anything at all at school—anything—what would it be?"

  "That's easy," Olivia began. "I'd cut the school week to three days and have homework outlawed!"

  Elizabeth and Penny laughed.

  "Seriously, though," Penny said, "there is something I would change."

  Elizabeth looked at her. "What's that?" she asked.

  "I'd get rid of the sorority, Pi Beta Alpha," Penny said. "I know you're in it, Liz. . . ."

  Elizabeth was somewhat surprised. She had no idea that Penny felt that way. "Just out of habit," she hastened to say. She had joined because Jessica had begged her to.

  "It sets up this exclusivity thing," Penny continued. "I don't think that's the kind of attitude we really want in our school. You're in or you're out. That's just not right."

  Olivia nodded. "I agree." Turning to Elizabeth, she said, "Why did you want to know, anyway?"

  "Well, I had this idea to do a survey in the paper," she explained to Olivia. "I thought we could ask kids what they'd like to see changed at school. Then we can run some of the answers."

  Privately, Elizabeth had thought of it as just a fun thing to do. More soft drink machines, shorter classes, better food in the cafeteria: those were the responses she had expected. But maybe there was more dissatisfaction at Sweet Valley High than she thought.

  "What is this stuff, anyway?" Neil joked. He held up a bottle of slimy-looking liquid. "I don't even want to say what this looks like."

  Andy's muscular frame was hunched over his lab notebook, his handsome face knit in concentration as he wrote up some observations. "It looks like the stuff inside your head," he said after a moment. When he looked up, his brown eyes had a devilish twinkle in them.

  "Oh, yeah, Jenkins?" Neil held the bottle over Andy's head. "Are you sure you don't want to change your mind?"

  "Oh, what I meant was, it's the control bottle of brine water from the marina," Andy explained in a mock-terrified voice.

  Neil nodded sagely. "That's what I thought you meant."

  "Come on," said Andy, laughing. "Let's get through this experiment."

  They worked steadily for half an hour. Even though they still joked around, they were both serious about the lab work. Together, they tested bottles of water from different locations along the coast for salt content, pollution, and microorganisms. Neil was grateful to have such a good partner.

  And as he watched Andy carefully measure water into a beaker, he thought about how glad he was that they had become friends. When they were assigned as partners, he didn't know Andy very well. But now they spent a lot of time together, and he and Penny often double-dated with Andy and his girlfriend, Tracy
Gilbert. Tracy was also a junior at Sweet Valley High.

  "This water from the marina is really bad," Andy said in a disappointed tone. He shook his head. "There has to be some way to have a marina without destroying the environment around it."

  "Yeah," Neil agreed. "If only we could figure out how. I don't even like swimming in the ocean anymore. You never really know what's in it."

  "Hey, speaking of swimming," Andy said, "Tracy and I are going to the beach on Saturday. Why don't you and Penny come? We can take a picnic, play Frisbee. You don't have to swim if you don't want."

  Neil made a face. "Sorry, I can't. My folks are having this family picnic thing with some friends, and I have to be there."

  "Hey, no problem," Andy told him. "Maybe some other time."

  In another fifteen minutes they were finished with the experiment. While they cleaned up, they talked about a suspense movie that had just come out that they both wanted to see.

  As they headed for their lockers, Neil asked, "Need a ride home?"

  "Sure. Mind if we stop by the music room for a minute?" Andy said, stopping at his locker and working his combination. "I have to pick up my horn. There's this—"

  He broke off suddenly as he opened the door. He looked stunned.

  "What's wrong?" Neil asked. When Andy didn't say anything, Neil looked into his friend's locker to see what the problem was. Then Neil felt his stomach drop.

  Andy's locker was full of cafeteria garbage: soda cans; apple cores; crumpled, dirty paper; pizza crusts. It was a complete mess.

  "What the—!" Neil exclaimed. Then he noticed something was written on the inside of the locker door: "Go back to Africa where you belong."

  "Andy—I can't believe this," Neil whispered, horrified.

  Andy drew a deep breath, then let out a hollow laugh. "It's no big deal," he said, obviously trying to sound nonchalant. "This kind of stuff—it's so stupid, how can you even pay attention to it?" He started pulling the garbage out and throwing it into a nearby wastebasket.

  "But—you mean, you're just going to ignore it?" Neil asked. He couldn't believe this had happened. Somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to do this to Andy. He didn't want to believe it was just because Andy was black. But obviously it was. The message made that perfectly clear. He felt embarrassed, ashamed, and angry that it had happened in his school, to his friend.

  "Andy, you have to—" Neil began.

  "What do you want me to do?" Andy cut in. "Yell racism and go running to the principal? That's just what they want, whoever did this. Besides, maybe it's just someone who doesn't like my horn playing."

  Neil shook his head. He could tell that underneath his casual attitude, his friend was shaken up. "How can you joke about it?"

  "It's better than banging my head against a wall," Andy said dryly.

  "Look," Neil said. "I really think you should tell Mr. Cooper about this. You can't let whoever did this get away with it."

  Andy curled his lip in disgust as he wiped his hands off on a dirty napkin. He shook his head decisively. "Let me handle it my own way, Neil. I just think it's better not to get all confrontational about it."

  "But—"

  "Just drop it, OK?" Andy broke in. "If I make a big deal out of it, things will just get worse. Maybe if I let it go, these jokers won't bother me again."

  Reluctantly, Neil nodded. Maybe his friend was right. Maybe it was better to let it pass.

  But deep down, he knew that ignoring the problem wouldn't make it go away.

  Two

  Neil drove to Penny's house on Saturday morning. She had been out with some girlfriends the night before, so he hadn't been able to tell her about the incident at Andy's locker, and he needed to talk it over with her. Penny met him at the door with a big smile, but when she saw his expression, she frowned.

  "What's up?" she asked, leading the way into the living room.

  Neil perched on the arm of the sofa. "Don't tell Andy I told you this," he began. "Yesterday, after we finished our lab work, we stopped at his locker, right?"

  "Go on." Penny was watching him intently.

  "So when he opened it, it was full of garbage," Neil continued. "And there was this note that said 'Go back to Africa.' "

  "What?" she gasped. "How did it happen? Who could have done that?"

  "I don't know," Neil said. "But Andy just wants to drop the whole thing, and that doesn't seem right."

  "Of course he can't," Penny went on in an outraged voice. Her hazel eyes flashed with indignation. "You can't just ignore something like that. It's racism, pure and simple, and it won't just go away. We have to tell Mr. Cooper, tell as many people as we can. Maybe if everyone stands up for Andy, whoever did it will back off. The whole thing is outrageous."

  "That what I said. But Andy doesn't want to make a big thing of it," Neil said. "He says that will only make the creep who did it want to do more."

  "Well, that's probably true," Penny admitted grudgingly. She ran her fingers through her short dark blond hair and frowned. "But it still seems wrong to let the jerk get away with it. Shouldn't we—"

  "I think it's his decision," Neil cut in. "I felt the same way as you. But after thinking about it I decided that I don't have the right to complain about it if Andy doesn't want me to. It happened to him, not to us. But it makes me feel pretty helpless, you know?"

  Penny moved closer to him and took his hand. "You're right. It's Andy's decision."

  "I just wish I knew who did it," Neil grumbled, making a fist. "I would definitely have something to say to that jerk."

  "Andy's right, Neil," Penny cut in. "You can't talk to people like that. They don't listen to reason."

  Neil sank back against the couch and looked up at the ceiling. "I know. Anyway, I can't stay very long because of that family picnic with the Cashmans."

  "Poor you," Penny said sympathetically. "Charlie is a total Neanderthal."

  Charlie Cashman was known for being a bully. He always chose the weakest member of a group to tease and taunt and play dirty tricks on. His father and Mr. Freemount were good friends, and they worked together at Patman Canning on the outskirts of Sweet Valley. So Neil and Charlie were thrown together at family gatherings. Nothing could force Neil to like Charlie, however. They said hello in the halls at school, but except for the family get-togethers, they didn't hang around with each other. They didn't have any friends in common, either.

  "Yeah, well, I'm only staying as long as I have to," Neil said in a tired voice. "I can't stand Charlie or his father. Mom says I have to be there, though. Ever since Gary left for college, I'm always getting stuck at these family events." Neil's older brother was a freshman at UCLA.

  Penny gave him a tender smile. "Will you call me later?"

  "Sure." Neil stood up and gave her a hug. "When I escape."

  "I can make an emergency call," Penny suggested, smiling up at him. "Say I need urgent help opening a can of soda."

  "Great idea," Neil said and gave Penny a long kiss before heading for the door.

  When Neil arrived back at his house, his mother asked him to mow the lawn and clean the picnic table, while Mr. Freemount tinkered with the charcoal grill. Shortly before lunchtime, Mr. and Mrs. Cashman arrived with a bowl of potato salad and a cake.

  "Charlie couldn't make it," Marge Cashman explained with an apologetic smile as they all went to the backyard. "He said to say hi, Neil."

  Neil smiled politely.

  "So, you didn't go out for football this year, did you Neil?" Frank Cashman said in a big, hearty voice. "It's a great character builder."

  "Neil plays tennis," Mrs. Freemount reminded him. "And soccer."

  "Soccer? Oh, right—never cared for it, myself. That's what those South Americans play. I don't trust those guys."

  Mr. Cashman walked away and sat down at the picnic table with Neil's father, while Neil stared at him in disbelief.

  "Why don't you get Mr. and Mrs. Cashman some iced tea," Mrs. Freemount whispered to Neil.

  Nodding, Neil hurried into the house. He was more than happy to get away from Frank Cashman. He already felt impatient and frustrated. Mr. Cashman was a perfect example of what Charlie would be like in twenty-five years: overbearing, loud-mouthed, and insensitive. And Mrs. Cashman was always so timid that Neil couldn't say anything without flustering her. But he only had to stay a little while, he reminded himself. It wouldn't kill him. He poured two tall glasses of iced tea and carried them out to the backyard.