She's Not What She Seems Read online

  "It's getting weird," said Jessica. "Not only did I see her twice yesterday, but last week she was hanging around outside the gym after cheerleading practice. I think she must be following me."

  "Aren't you being a little paranoid, Jessica?' asked Todd.

  "I'm sure it's just a coincidence," Annie said quickly.

  "Yeah," Jessica agreed, a little uncertainly. "It's probably just a coincidence." When her friends weren't looking, she glanced over at Paula Perrine again. This time, Paula didn't look away.

  Two

  "She's here!" Jessica whispered. "She's sitting way in back. I noticed her watching me while I auditioned." She slid into the seat Elizabeth had saved for her in the front row of the darkened auditorium.

  Elizabeth turned and saw Paula Perrine sitting alone in the back row. "I know you're nervous about this audition, Jess, but Todd's right. You're starting to sound really paranoid about this girl. Calm down—you did a great job up there!" She gestured toward the stage and then squeezed her sister's shoulder supportively.

  "Who do you think will play Banquo?" Elizabeth said, hoping to take Jessica's mind off her nervous delusions. "I liked Winston's reading—though it seems strange to think of him in a tragedy." Elizabeth's friend Winston Egbert was the unofficial clown of the junior class.

  "That nerd?" Jessica asked. "Is he planning to try out?"

  "You really are a basket case," said Elizabeth. "He just did try out, twenty minutes ago. And he's not a nerd," she added. "I've never seen you this nervous, Jess."

  "Nervous? I'm not nervous!" Jessica's hair glistened like gold under the house lights as she twisted a few strands of it around her fingers. "Why should I be nervous? I'm the best person for the part. I know I am. Aren't I?"

  "All you have to worry about today is making it through the first cuts," soothed Elizabeth. "And I'm sure you will. You were really good in the last scene you did with Bill, the one in which he was having second thoughts about the murder and you convinced him to go ahead with it."

  Jessica whirled in her seat. "Only in that scene? What about the other scene I read? Oh no! I was terrible in that one, wasn't I? I read it too fast, didn't I? Tell me the truth."

  Elizabeth sighed. Jessica's mood swings were getting tiresome. "You were great, Jessica," she said, a little tersely. "In both scenes."

  "Why is Paula what's-her-name here?" demanded Jessica. "Why is she everywhere I go?"

  "If you change the subject any faster, we'll both get whiplash," said Elizabeth. "Paula goes to school here, remember? She's got as much right to be here as we do."

  "I guess you're right," said Jessica. She smiled, and changed the subject back to the auditions. "At least, I was tons better than Lila, wasn't I?" She gestured to one side of the auditorium, where Lila was sitting with a tall, black-haired senior boy who had also tried out.

  "Actually, Lila could have been a terrific Lady Macbeth—maybe as good as you. But she really fell apart in the audition. You worked a lot harder to prepare for it, and it showed."

  Mr. Goodman stepped onto the stage. He was about the same age as the twins' parents, but had an unruly shock of prematurely white hair.

  "Ladies and gentlemen," he began, "thank you for your time and effort." He tried to push aside the white hair that tumbled down over his eyes, but only managed to mess it up even more.

  "As you know," he continued, "the roles we are casting first—which include most of the major characters—are for six males and five females. In this first round of cuts, I have narrowed the field to ten young men and ten young women."

  Elizabeth watched Jessica's eyes follow the director's every move as he slowly pulled a sheet of paper from his breast pocket. She felt Jessica's hand on her arm as he read the names of the ten boys who had made the first cut. Naturally, Bill Chase was one of them. Elizabeth was glad to hear Winston's name as well.

  Jessica's grip tightened as Mr. Goodman went on to the girls' names. Elizabeth hoped he would finish quickly; her sister's fingernails were digging painfully into her wrist.

  "Patty Gilbert, Emily Mayer, Jean West, Joanne Shreves, Annie Whitman, Lila Fowler—" Mr. Goodman stopped to clear his throat, and Elizabeth heard a sharp intake of breath from Jessica.

  "Also Jennifer Morris, DeeDee Gordon, Rosa Jameson—and Jessica Wakefield."

  Jessica's smile was electric in the dim room.

  When the twins left the auditorium a few minutes later, Elizabeth was sure she saw Paula Perrine still watching Jessica intently. For once, Jessica was too excited to notice.

  "I can't believe I made it! I just can't believe it!" exclaimed Jessica at the dinner table that night. "Yes, I can. I was the best, wasn't I, Liz? I'm going to be the best Lady Macbeth anyone has ever seen!"

  "Is that the fourth time she's said that, or the fifth?" asked their brother, Steven, helping himself to some more spaghetti sauce. Like their father, he was tall and dark-haired. In fact, Jessica—an expert in such matters—often said he was the best-looking boy in town. But right now he was being his usual infuriating self.

  "I have not said it five times!" she objected. "OK, maybe I have. But why do you come to dinner here, except to hear about my exciting life?"

  Steven was a freshman at the nearby state university. He lived in a dormitory, but often dropped by his family's house to visit. Lately—ever since his girlfriend, Cara Walker, moved to London—he had been over several times a week. Jessica felt sorry for Steven. Cara had been one of her closest friends; she missed her, too. But that was no excuse for not getting on with life.

  Other people's problems seldom occupied Jessica's mind for long. She turned to her twin. "Have you decided what the posters for the play will look like? I think they should have a big closeup of me looking lovely and tragic!" She posed dramatically with the back of her hand against her forehead.

  "Hold on, Lady Jessica," said Elizabeth. "I know how hard you're working for this, but you still have to make it through two more rounds of auditions. And I've got a much better idea for the posters: I'm holding a contest! The winning design will become the official poster. We'll put it up all around town, and on the play programs, too."

  "Do you mean that somebody besides Jessica is involved in this production?" asked Mr. Wakefield. "I was beginning to think she was playing every role, designing the posters, directing the play, and cooking the witches' brew all by herself!"

  "Are you certain you want to get your start with this particular play?" asked Steven. "In fact, both of you 'weird sisters' had better be careful." His voice sank to a whisper. "Have you heard about—the Macbeth curse?"

  "Curse?" scoffed Jessica. "You're making it up."

  "No, I'm not. Honest," said Steven. "I'm taking a Shakespeare class this term, and the professor keeps talking about this Macbeth thing. People in the theatre world say it's an unlucky play. A lot of professional actors won't even say the word Macbeth. They call it 'the Scottish play' instead."

  "How interesting," said Elizabeth. "But how can a play be unlucky?"

  "Actually, Lady Macbeth was the first unlucky part of all," Steven began, looking at Jessica. "I bet you don't know who was the very first person to play Macbeth's wife."

  "Katharine Hepburn?"

  "Sorry, Jess," said Steven, smiling. "But it goes back a little further. In Shakespeare's time, women weren't allowed to be in plays, so men and boys played all the roles."

  Jessica tried to imagine some bearded guy playing the beautiful Lady Macbeth, and couldn't. Steven must be teasing her, as usual. But Elizabeth and their parents were nodding as if they already knew that.

  "The very first time the play was performed," Steven continued, "the boy who was going to play Lady Macbeth got sick at the last minute. So Shakespeare himself played the part."

  "I didn't know that," said his mother.

  "Oh, there's more. For hundreds of years, cast and crew members have died during performances of Macbeth—sometimes right onstage! My English lit professor's got dozens of stories." He tu
rned to Jessica. "Are you sure you want this role, Jess? It could prove to be—" he bugged out his eyes—"hazardous to your health!"

  "Very funny. Too bad we're not doing a comedy. You could play all the roles yourself!" said Jessica, glaring at him. But she was a little uneasy. Could a play really be cursed?

  "So what else are you doing for publicity, Elizabeth?" asked her father.

  "I met with Mr. Collins and Mr. Jaworski about it today. The Sweet Valley News has agreed to publish an article about the play. I'll write that article, as well as some press releases. We're hoping that the Los Angeles Times and some of the other big newspapers will send reviewers on opening night. Maybe even L.A. Arts magazine."

  "That's wonderful!" exclaimed Jessica. "My name will be all over the state! Elizabeth, do you think you can get them to run photographs of me, too?"

  Steven laughed. "I hate to wrench the subject away from Jessica's admiring public, but I noticed a For Sale sign on the house next door. I didn't know the Beckwiths were moving."

  "That's right," said his father. "The sign went up today. I spoke with Bob Beckwith; he's been transferred to Washington, D.C. It was pretty sudden, but he couldn't turn down the promotion. The catch is that they have to be there by the end of the month."

  "I wonder who we'll get as new next-door neighbors," said Elizabeth.

  "Maybe someone with a gorgeous teenage son," said Jessica.

  "What happened to this Woodruff character you're supposed to be in love with?" asked Steven.

  "Of course I'm in love with Sam!" Jessica replied. "I didn't say I want to date anyone else. But can't I still appreciate beauty when I see it?"

  "That's all we guys are—decorations! You value us only for our pretty faces and tanned bodies."

  "Exactly!" said Jessica and Elizabeth together.

  "Well, Steven," said Jessica, jumping up, "as much as I'd like to stay here and admire your pretty face and tanned body, I have to get upstairs and memorize a scene for the audition tomorrow."

  "Excuse me, Lady M.," began her father. "But don't you also have some French conjugations to memorize? I hear that Ms. Dalton is giving a test tomorrow."

  "Some people have big mouths," said Jessica, glaring at Elizabeth. "Really, Daddy, all the teachers are being extra flexible about schoolwork for cast members."

  "You're not a cast member yet, young lady," said her mother. "I know how important this play is to you, but I want you to spend some time with your French textbook before you pick up that script."

  "Nobody understands a star," said Jessica with a sigh. "But yes, I will retire presently to my chamber, there to study mine own French verbs." She exited the dining room with a dramatic flourish. "Good night, sweet parents," she called from the stairs. "Parting is such sweet sorrow!"

  "Yet do I fear thy nature," Jessica mused onstage Wednesday afternoon. "It is too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way."

  Absorbed in a dramatic monologue, Jessica as Lady Macbeth was contemplating the chances of her husband's going through with the murder. It was the last scene in that day's round of auditions. Afterward, Mr. Goodman and his assistants would decide which students to call back for a third audition.

  The auditorium was dim, but it was easy to pick out Mr. Goodman, sitting in the middle of the room. His white hair bobbed slightly as he nodded to himself, and Jessica was sure he was smiling.

  But she didn't need to see his reaction to know she was doing well. She could feel it. And the director had seemed impressed that she already knew some of Lady Macbeth's scenes. Thank goodness for Elizabeth, she thought. Without her coaching Sunday night, Jessica wouldn't have understood what all these lines meant.

  "Not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it," she said thoughtfully, reflecting on Macbeth's weakness. Illness means ruthlessness, she translated to herself as she read. My husband is ambitious—he wants to be king—but he's not rotten enough to think of the most effective way of getting there.

  Bill Chase joined her onstage a few minutes later, playing Macbeth. As soon as he began his lines Jessica forgot that he was reading from a script. He really is good at this, she thought. Despite Bill's "Surf Stop" T-shirt, she could almost believe that he was the Thane of Cawdor and she was his wife.

  "He that's coming must be provided for," she told him aloud, "and you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch." As she said the words she was mentally translating them: "We have to be ready to deal with King Duncan when he gets here. Let me handle it."

  For a moment, she was distracted by a sliver of light that expanded and then disappeared into the darkness in the back of the auditorium as a late arrival opened the door. The rectangle of light had shone for a few seconds on someone sitting alone in the back row. It was Paula Perrine.

  Then Jessica heard her cue, spoke the last lines of the scene, and swept regally offstage ahead of Bill. For the first time since auditions had begun, she heard a smattering of applause.

  Backstage, Bill turned to her. "Great work, Jessica!"

  "Thanks, Bill," she said to the tall, blond surfer. "You were terrific, too! You're sure to get the lead. But wouldn't you rather have DeeDee play Lady Macbeth? After all, DeeDee is your girlfriend as well as president of the drama club."

  Bill smiled. "Don't worry about DeeDee," he told her. "She has her heart set on playing Hecate, the witches' leader. Lady Macbeth is a pretty demanding part," he explained. "DeeDee's in charge of sets and scenery for this production; she wants to have the time to make them really great."

  Jessica was relieved. She hadn't really considered DeeDee to be serious competition, but it was nice to know that her leading man wouldn't resent her for getting the part.

  When Bill left, Jessica stood backstage by herself for a moment. She crossed her fingers for luck. "I have to get this part!" she whispered. Then she went out to join Elizabeth in the front row.

  "I've never heard you do it so well!" her twin whispered as Jessica sat down.

  "I really felt good up there, Liz, like everything was going absolutely, perfectly right. Steven's wrong about a curse. For me, Macbeth is a lucky play! I can't stand waiting to find out if I made it."

  "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll make today's cuts," said Elizabeth. "But I forgot to tell you that I've got a publicity meeting right after these auditions. Can you catch a ride home with Lila?"

  "Gee, Liz, I don't think so. I know it's your turn to have the Jeep, but Lila's going straight to the mall after this. She and Amy wanted me to come along, but I've got to get home right away to work on my scene for the final callback tomorrow." If I make today's cut, that is! she thought.

  "All right," said Elizabeth. "I won't stand in the way of stardom. Todd's here late for basketball practice; I'll ask him for a lift home."

  "Thanks, Liz. You're the greatest."

  "Hi, Jessica. Hi, Elizabeth," called Amy, catching sight of the twins from the aisle. "Have you seen Lila? I'm supposed to meet her here."

  "I think she's over there with some cute senior," said Jessica, pointing. But Lila had already noticed Amy's arrival and was heading toward them.

  "Well?" Amy asked her a minute later, gesturing toward the guy she had been sitting with.

  "His name's Tony Alimenti," said Lila with a frown. "I can't believe he had the nerve to ask me out! I mean, I've only talked to him a few times." Lila shook her head and took a seat next to Jessica. "Guys! Anyway, Mr. Goodman will be out any minute. I guess we might as well hear the news together."

  The auditorium became silent as Mr. Goodman stepped onstage. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "it's time to narrow the field to six young men and five young women. All of those whose names I am about to call will be offered major roles in this production. In addition, some of the students whose names are not called today may be offered parts as understudies."

  "Why can't he get on with it?" Jessica whispered.

  Mr. Goodman pushed a lock of snowy hair out of his eyes. "Of course, y
ou have all indicated the roles you prefer, but obviously we cannot cast every student as the character of his or her choice. The third and final audition, to be held Friday morning, will determine which role each student will play."

  Jessica watched as he slowly unfolded a sheet of paper and began reading the boys' names. "Tom McKay, Bill Chase, Winston Egbert, Ted Jenson, Aaron Dallas, and Andy Jenkins."

  "Now the girls," Jessica prompted under her breath. "Please, please pick me!"

  She felt Elizabeth squeeze her hand.

  "The following five girls will go on to the third round of auditions the day after tomorrow," he continued. Jessica held her breath as he read the list. "Annie Whitman, Lila Fowler, DeeDee Gordon, Rosa Jameson, and Jessica Wakefield."

  Jessica squealed and jumped out of her seat. She hugged Elizabeth and then turned to face Lila.

  "Congratulations, Lila," said Jessica. "I'm glad we both made it."

  "Congratulations, Jessica," said Lila. "And may the best Lady Macbeth win. So how about changing your mind and coming to the mall with us? Lisette's is having a sale!"

  For a moment Jessica was tempted. Lisette's was one of her favorite boutiques. But a great actress had to make sacrifices for her art. "No thanks," she said. "But you two have a good time."

  As Amy and Lila walked toward the exit Jessica reminded herself that this play was the most important thing in the world. Still, she felt a little sad watching her friends laugh and talk as they moved away from her.

  "Here are the keys to the Jeep," said Elizabeth.

  "Thanks, Liz," said Jessica. "I've got just enough time to talk to Mr. Goodman before he gets tied up with that meeting of yours."

  Giving the famous director an opportunity to meet her personally could only help her chances, Jessica reasoned. He was standing in the aisle, speaking to one of his assistants—a cute, muscular, blond guy who didn't look much older than Jessica. Probably some sort of college intern, she figured. Well, it couldn't hurt to make a good impression on him, too.