Miss Teen Sweet Valley Read online

  MISS TEEN SWEET VALLEY

  Written by

  Kate William

  Created by

  FRANCINE PASCAL

  Copyright © 2015, Francine Pascal

  To Amy Ellen Dyson

  That night, when the Wakefields gathered for dinner, Jessica decided it was time to make her announcement.

  "Have you heard the Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a Miss Teen Sweet Valley beauty pageant this year?" she asked innocently.

  Elizabeth looked up. "That's what I was going to ask."

  "I've entered," Jessica blurted out, at the precise moment Elizabeth said, "I'm organizing a protest committee."

  Elizabeth stared at her sister in horror. "You're entering?" She folded her napkin and set it aside. "I don't believe it. Beauty pageants are demeaning to women. They should be outlawed."

  "Outlawed?" Jessica protested. "Demeaning? Now, wait a minute. How can being chosen prettiest, smartest, and most talented be demeaning?"

  "You think parading up and down a runway in a bathing suit and high heels is dignified?" Elizabeth asked sarcastically.

  Jessica glared at her sister and then pushed back her chair as if to leave the table. But she couldn't quite bring herself to leave without having the final word. "If you ruin this for me, Elizabeth Wakefield, I'll never forgive you."

  "If I have anything to say about it," Elizabeth answered coolly, "there won't be a beauty pageant in Sweet Valley. Not this year, not next year, not ever."

  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

  Jessica Wakefield leaned forward to study her reflection in the mirror over the bathroom sink. Her identical twin sister, Elizabeth, stood beside her, arms folded, watching with a grin.

  "See any wrinkles?" Elizabeth teased.

  Jessica was not amused. For the first time in a long while, she doubted the appeal of the face and figure gazing back at her. Like Elizabeth, she was a perfect size six, with wavy blond hair bleached by the sun, and sparkling blue-green eyes. Each girl had a glamorous California tan and a dimple in her left cheek. Even their voices were alike, as was the way they laughed.

  But the similarities ended there, however, because when it came to their personalities, the twins were very different.

  Elizabeth liked to read, and loved writing her column for the school paper, The Oracle. She spent most of her free time with her best friend, Enid Rollins, or her boyfriend, Todd Wilkins. Still, Elizabeth was popular at Sweet Valley High, and the teachers liked her as much as the students did.

  Jessica was a whirlwind of energy, with a whole different set of friends, and she liked to travel in a slightly faster lane. Because she hated being bored, she was always trying new things, and the exact center of attention was her favorite place to be. She didn't understand why Elizabeth would rather hang around with one guy all the time instead of playing the field and dating lots of different guys.

  "Do you think I'm losing my looks?" Jessica asked, turning her head to one side and then the other to study her profile from both directions.

  Elizabeth smiled and shook her head as if she found the question too ridiculous to even answer. "Todd and I are going to study at the library," she said. "See you later."

  Jessica sighed and stepped back to check herself out from a little distance. She frowned. The mirror told her that she looked as good as ever, but when Steven, her older brother, brought college friends home, they didn't seem to know she was alive. What was wrong with her?

  No closer to an answer than she had been before, Jessica went into her room, which was linked with Elizabeth's by the bathroom they shared, and sat cross-legged on the bed.

  The weekend before, some of Steven's crowd had visited the Wakefields. Jessica had been particularly attracted to an especially cute guy named Frazer McConnell. And although she had used all of her considerable skill flirting with him, Frazer hadn't even noticed her.

  She cupped her chin in one hand and sighed again. The guys at Sweet Valley High seemed to be as fascinated by her as ever, but Jessica was tired of immature boys. How was she supposed to date college men like Frazer McConnell if she couldn't even get them to look at her?

  Jessica fell backward onto the mattress and stared up at the ceiling. She was slipping, and she had to do something about it. But what?

  Because everyone else in the family was out, Jessica had the house to herself that evening. Two different guys had called, both Sweet Valley High seniors. One had wanted to take her to the movies, the other to a beach party. But Jessica had turned both offers down. She had told herself she'd rather stay home than date a kid.

  Having seen what boring shows were on TV, though, she was beginning to have second thoughts. Moping around the house was not Jessica's style.

  Jessica sank into her dad's favorite chair and glanced at the copy of the Sweet Valley News that was lying on the floor. The word prizes leaped out at her from a headline.

  Her heart beating faster, Jessica snatched up the newspaper. Her aquamarine eyes widened as she read the short article describing the beauty pageant planned by the Sweet Valley Chamber of Commerce. Their goal was to raise money for a new community pool.

  Jessica had already heard about the contest and had even decided she would enter. But she'd had so many things on her mind lately, including Frazer McConnell, that she'd completely forgotten about it.

  Eagerly, Jessica reread the short newspaper piece. Some lucky girl between the ages of fifteen and eighteen would be named Miss Teen Sweet Valley. There would be a cash award, and various local merchants had agreed to donate "wonderful" prizes. The event would be held three weeks from that coming Saturday in the auditorium at Sweet Valley High.

  "Yes!" Jessica yelled to the empty house. She leapt from the chair in her excitement and waved the newspaper. She smiled to the invisible audience in the room, raised her hands high over her head, and whooped, "And the winner is . . . Jessica Wakefield!"

  Jessica imagined herself standing in a circle of golden light on the stage of the auditorium at Sweet Valley High while a fur-trimmed velvet cape was draped over her shoulders and a gleaming crown was placed on her head. The master of ceremonies laid two dozen red roses in her arms, and in that moment the fantasy was so real that Jessica could almost smell the flowers.

  Jessica pictured herself gliding triumphantly down the makeshift runway, waving one elegant, gloved hand at the adoring audience, her eyes glistening with endearing tears. Cheers and applause filled her ears and she could see people nodding to one another, approving the judges' choice. Everyone agreed that it had been no contest; Jessica Wakefield had been the obvious winner from the first.

  After the pageant, she would surely appear on TV, and this time Elizabeth wouldn't have to stand in for her, as she had the time Jessica won a spot on Eric Parker's talk show. Who knew what might happen once the publicity started picking up speed? Movie and modeling contracts would surely come her way. She would become rich and famous.

  A sharp pain in her shin brought Jessica back from dreamland in a hurry. She'd walked right into the edge of the coffee table. But even that small mishap couldn't dim her excitement, because she'd found the solution to her boy problem. She would win the contest—there was no question of her not winning—and when she did, Frazer and a lot of other college guys would be begging her for dates.

  What guy in his right mind could resist Miss Teen Sweet Valley?
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  Although she'd been so excited all night that she had hardly been able to sleep, Jessica didn't mention the beauty pageant to her family at breakfast the next morning. Later, at school, she was glad she hadn't been the one to bring it up with her friends, either. It was hard to keep her intention of entering, and winning, to herself. But it was better to wait and see who else was signing up in order to evaluate her competition. If the other candidates knew Jessica was entering, they were bound to get discouraged and withdraw. In that case, either the pageant would be canceled or Jessica would win simply because she was the only person in the contest.

  Would she still get the prizes, she wondered, if that happened?

  The thing to do, she decided, was to play it cool and pretend the pageant didn't matter much to her one way or the other.

  At lunchtime, Jessica joined Amy Sutton and Lila Fowler at their usual table in the cafeteria. Her friends were chattering about the contest.

  "I've already lost interest in the whole silly idea," Lila Fowler said with a shrug. "I mean, a shopping spree? Please. I can already buy whatever I want, so why should I go to all the trouble of walking down a runway for a few dumb prizes?"

  "The whole thing is probably fixed," Amy said with a toss of her sleek blond hair. "You can bet the judges will have already decided who the winner is before the pageant even starts."

  Jessica suppressed a smile. She wouldn't go so far as to say the pageant was fixed, but she was fairly sure it was in the bag. One look at her and the judges would know she was born to be Miss Teen Sweet Valley.

  A burst of laughter at a nearby table made Jessica, Amy, and Lila look around. Elizabeth and some of her friends, including Enid, Todd, and Maria Santelli, Winston Egbert's girlfriend and a member of the cheerleading squad, were talking about the pageant, too.

  Todd's voice carried over the general din of the cafeteria. "Can you imagine the question-and-answer segment?"

  "What solutions would you suggest for combatting the greenhouse effect?" Enid asked in a mock-serious voice.

  Elizabeth answered in a silly, high-pitched tone, batting her long, thick lashes in the process. "I think the whole world should stop using hair spray and switch to mousse!"

  The crowd at Elizabeth's table seemed to think the performance was pretty funny, but Jessica didn't crack a smile.

  Then it was Todd's turn to be the questioner. "How can we feed the starving people of the world?" he asked in a deep, master-of-ceremonies voice.

  This time Enid played the pageant entrant, giggling like an airhead. "Let them eat yogurt," she said with a flippant wave of one hand. "Or tofu!"

  Before long her sister's game was attracting attention from all over the cafeteria, and Jessica felt a tingle of envy, as well as resentment. In her opinion, Elizabeth and the others were acting like snobs. Not all beauty pageant contestants were silly and uninformed. And what was wrong with wanting to win some great prizes and get some well-deserved attention at the same time?

  By then the kids at Elizabeth's table were pretending to quiz an invisible contestant.

  "What would you do if you were in charge of a frog-jumping competition and all the frogs got away?" Elizabeth offered.

  "When you finish your seven years of junior college, what will you do with the rest of your life?" Maria put in, her dark eyes sparkling.

  "Do your lips move when you read?" Todd inquired, raising his eyebrows. "Do you read at all? Can you spell 'book'?"

  Jessica turned back to her lunch tray, but her appetite was gone and her cheeks were hot with indignation. She reached for her soda and took a big gulp.

  "What's the matter?" Lila asked when she saw Jessica's red face.

  Jessica just shrugged and said, "Nothing."

  Amy smiled, seemingly oblivious to the antics at the other table. "I've heard the prizes are really great," she said, counting on her fingers as she began to name things the Chamber of Commerce would be awarding the pageant winner. "There's the shopping spree at Simple Splendor, that fantastic new boutique in the mall, a brass bed, a stereo, a thousand dollars in cash—"

  Lila gave a bored sigh. "I heard it was five thousand," she said.

  Lila had Jessica's full attention. Five thousand dollars? With that kind of money, Jessica could buy a terrific late-model used car, maybe a sleek silver foreign one. No more sharing the Fiat with Elizabeth!

  "Hmmmm," she said.

  "Yes," Amy said, as though making some final decision. "Barry's right. I'm definitely going to enter the pageant."

  Jessica narrowed her eyes for a second, opened her mouth to protest, but changed her mind at the last second. Sure, Amy was drop-dead gorgeous, but she couldn't compete with Jessica when it came to talent and personality. And she was nowhere near Jessica in the maturity department, even though since Amy had started working at Project Youth she had actually been acting more responsibly. "I think that's a good idea," Jessica said graciously.

  Lila looked skeptical. "What would you do for the talent segment?" she asked Amy.

  Amy was baffled. "Well, I . . ."

  A talent. Jessica's mind whirred. She was a good dancer. She and Bruce Patman had won a contest once, and she had even studied ballet and modern dance for a while.

  No problem.

  "I could twirl my baton," Amy said triumphantly.

  Jessica smiled to herself. So much the better. Amy's baton twirling wasn't going to impress anybody. She'd been good once, but she was out of practice now. An original dance performance, on the other hand, would set the judges back on their heels. "I think that's what you should do," she told Amy. "Twirl your baton."

  Lila stood up, holding her lunch tray in both hands. She looked down at Amy with a sort of indulgent pity in her eyes. "You wouldn't catch me making a fool of myself in front of half of Sweet Valley," she said.

  Amy blushed a little, but didn't answer. Jessica wondered why Lila didn't go and sit with Elizabeth and the others if she was so opposed to beauty pageants.

  "See you later," Jessica said, and Lila walked away.

  Amy bit her lower lip for a moment, then blurted out, "Do you think it's silly of me to enter this pageant, Jess? Barry thinks I should go for it. But, well, maybe I should forget the whole thing."

  Jessica was certain Amy would lose, and she felt a pang of remorse when she smiled and said, "I think Barry's right. You should enter."

  Amy's smile brightened, and she and Jessica returned their lunch trays and left the cafeteria together. They were standing in front of Jessica's locker when Cara Walker, a fellow cheerleader, appeared.

  "I guess you've heard about the pageant," she said.

  Jessica closed her locker door. "We've heard," she said thoughtfully. Cara was dating Jessica's brother, Steven. Jessica wondered why her friend could attract a college guy and she couldn't.

  "Are you entering?" Amy asked.

  Cara shrugged. "I don't know. How about you?" she asked both Jessica and Amy.

  "Definitely," Amy answered.

  "Who knows?" Jessica replied with an offhand shrug. She tried her best to look uninterested but the truth was, she was going to have trouble concentrating on her history quiz. Daydreams about driving around Sweet Valley in her own fantastic silver car were crowding her mind.

  Amy looked curiously at Jessica, but before she could say anything the bell rang and Jessica hurried off to class.

  That evening after dinner Jessica piled all her swimsuits on her bed and began to sort through them. Even though she was confident she'd win the title of Miss Teen Sweet Valley, the swimsuit competition was important and there would be no harm in looking her best.

  A knock at the door linking Jessica's room to the bathroom made her mutter a distracted "Come in."

  Elizabeth entered and glanced at the colorful pile of suits in the middle of Jessica's bed. "Is there a big beach party coming up that I don't know about?" she asked.

  Jessica shook her head. She held up a pink-and-gray striped suit and gazed at her reflection in the
mirror. "Just sorting through things," she answered without looking at her sister. After the way Elizabeth and her friends had joked about the pageant that day at lunch, Jessica was even less eager to talk about her plans than she had been before.

  The suit was French cut, and while it never failed to drive the guys at the beach crazy, it might cause a problem if the pageant judges turned out to be middle-aged conservatives. She reached for a black one-piece, but it was pretty sexy, too.

  Jessica sighed and at last looked at her sister. "I don't suppose I could borrow a suit from you? Maybe that plain turquoise one you bought last week?"

  Elizabeth's expression was thoughtful, but she shrugged. "Sure," she agreed. "Why not?" Then she went back to her room to get the swimsuit.

  It was perfect, Jessica thought later as she stood in front of the mirror. Not too ordinary, not too sexy.

  A smile curved her lips. She could almost feel the weight of that glittering crown, the warmth of the spotlight. She lifted a bottle of hair spray in a sort of toast. "Here's to the first Miss Teen Sweet Valley," she said.

  Two

  Jessica was lying on a deck chair beside the Wakefields' pool, soaking up the bright Saturday sunshine and dreaming as her golden tan deepened.

  The more she thought about the pageant, the more excited she became. She was determined to win, to show Frazer McConnell and every other great-looking college guy in Sweet Valley just what he'd been missing. And the prizes! She could spend hours imagining herself on a shopping spree at Simple Splendor or driving that special someone to the beach in her silver convertible sports car.

  Jessica expected the talent segment to be the toughest part of the contest, but her dancing would wrap that up for her. All she had to do was pick out the music, work up a routine, and make sure she looked absolutely great in her costume.

  Jessica sat up to rub suntan oil onto her shapely legs, then lay back down and let her imagination roam. A few minutes later a loud splash interrupted her thoughts. Jessica raised herself on her elbows to see Steven and Frazer McConnell.