In Love with the Enemy Read online

  Amy looked at her in shock. "Jessica, have you forgotten all your disastrous attempts in the past?"

  Jessica crossed her arms over her chest. "Like what?" she asked.

  "Like, for example, the time you tried to ride a ten-foot wave and almost drowned," Amy pointed out. "You had to be fished out of the water by two lifeguards. And then you had to be revived by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

  "Oh, that," Jessica said. "Well, what do you expect? That was my first time out. I was in way over my head."

  Lila laughed. "You can say that again."

  "Hmmph," Jessica pouted.

  "How about when you 'borrowed' Steven's surfboard and lost it in the waves?" Lila added, snickering.

  "That was an accident," Jessica explained.

  Amy giggled. "Or the time you took a surfboard out in the water but you were too scared to stand up, so you lay on the board all day and fried your entire body."

  Lila laughed. "You looked like a boiled lobster."

  Jessica's face flushed pink. "I didn't feel like surfing that day. I felt like tanning."

  "Toasting is more like it," Amy corrected.

  "Jessica, give it up," Lila advised. "There's no way you could win that contest." She snickered. "In fact, I bet you couldn't even stand up on a surfboard."

  Jessica set her jaw and turned to Lila. "Would you like to put your money where your mouth is?"

  Lila nodded. "Sure. What do you have in mind?"

  "If I don't come in first place in the surfing competition, I'll wear a fluorescent-green wet suit to school for an entire day."

  Lila laughed, a smug expression on her face. "You've got a deal. And if you win that contest, I'll wear hot-pink oxide on my nose for a day."

  "One order of fries and three diet sodas, please," Jessica said, placing her order at the concession stand. As she waited, she daydreamed about her trip to Hawaii. She saw herself out in the ocean riding huge cresting waves, surrounded by a group of good-looking Hawaiian surfers. She pictured herself sitting under an umbrella on the beach, drinking an exotic Hawaiian shake through a long colored straw. She imagined herself dancing at a nightclub, wearing a grass skirt and a flowered lei.

  Jessica snapped out of her reverie as the guy behind the counter handed over her food.

  "Thanks," she said, opening her straw beach carry-all and placing the paper bag inside. As she ruffled through her wallet for money, she heard a whisper behind her.

  "She's the one I was telling you about," said a girl's voice.

  Her friend giggled. "Oh, the cheerleader," she mocked.

  Jessica threw her money down and whirled around. It was Rosie Shaw. A tall, muscular girl in a bright-blue wet suit was standing by her side. "What's so funny?" Jessica demanded.

  "You are," Rosie said.

  "What are you talking about?" Jessica asked menacingly, stepping away from the counter and putting her hands on her hips.

  "Two large mango fruit juices, please," Rosie said to the guy behind the counter.

  Rosie turned toward Jessica. "You think surfing is a sport you can pick up in a month?"

  "Surfing isn't as easy as it looks," her friend added.

  "I never said it was easy," Jessica said hotly. "I'm planning to practice intensely."

  "Girls like you can't surf," Rosie scoffed. "All you can do is lie on a beach and look good." She gave the guy behind the counter a dazzling smile as she took her drinks and moved away from the concession stand.

  Jessica's mouth dropped open. "How would you know?" she demanded, outraged.

  "Because I just happened to overhear your conversation," Rosie said, a haughty expression on her face. "You don't know anything about surfing. Surfing is nothing like cheerleading." She laughed arrogantly. "Surfing is a real sport. You don't just jump up and down waving pom-poms in the air and yelling 'rah rah.' "

  Jessica could feel her blood boiling. She gritted her teeth and looked at Rosie through narrowed eyes. "You don't know anything about cheerleading."

  "Well, I know one thing," Rosie replied in a condescending tone. "Pom-pom girls stand on the sidelines cheering the athletes on. Surfers are athletes."

  Jessica bristled at the term "pom-pom girls." "Cheerleading is a sport just like surfing," she said, infuriated. "In fact, it's an art form."

  Rosie burst out laughing and Jessica's face flamed. How dare this total stranger insult her? And call her a "pom-pom girl"? Who did she think she was to make fun of cheerleading? Jessica clenched her hands into tight fists at her sides. She wanted to wipe the smug expression off Rosie's face.

  Rosie looked Jessica up and down, her syrupy voice dripping with disdain. "Well, cheerleaders practice in the afternoons. Surfers go out at five A.M. I can tell you don't have that in you. You wouldn't get your beauty sleep."

  "We'll just see about that," Jessica said, her eyes blazing. "I'll see you in exactly one month." She pivoted on one bare foot, then stopped and turned back. "And you'd better start practicing. Your next competition isn't going to be as easy as today's was."

  Jessica could hear the girls giggle as she stormed across the beach, her face as hot as the burning sand. Now she was mad—and determined.

  Chapter 4

  "Pick me up at eight, OK?" Jessica said to Ken on the phone Saturday night, twirling the phone cord around her finger while wading through the clothing strewn about on her bedroom floor. As usual, the place looked like a disaster zone, the floor piled ankle-deep with magazines, clothing, and CDs, "I want to go to the Beach Disco."

  Jessica kicked up a short purple T-shirt dress and caught it in her hand, shaking out the wrinkles. She held it up to herself in front of the mirror. Not bad, she thought. This might work for tonight.

  "Uh . . . um," Ken stammered.

  "I've decided to give you another chance to go out with me," Jessica said, throwing the dress onto the bed. She cleared out a space on the floor with her foot and sat down on the rug. Last night on the way to the Dairi Burger, she had been furious that Ken had blown her off. Actually, it wasn't so much that he hadn't wanted to go out with her, it was the way he had refused. He had acted as if she were invisible. But then Amy and Lila had cheered her up. "Give the guy a break," Amy had said.

  "Yeah, his team has just been massacred," Lila had added.

  Jessica had decided that her friends were right. She shouldn't take Ken's behavior personally. He was just upset about losing the game. That's the downside of going out with the captain of the football team, mused Jessica. You get the glory, but you also get the pain.

  "Uh, actually, Jess, I don't think I can make it tonight," Ken said.

  "Of course you can!" Jessica insisted, leaning back against the bed and putting cotton between her toes. "C'mon, Ken, you can't just lie around and mope all weekend." She fumbled around in the cosmetics scattered about on the floor and picked out a jar of pink nail polish.

  "Well, that's not it, exactly," Ken said.

  "What is it, then?" Jessica demanded, leaning forward and carefully applying nail polish to her toenails.

  "I'm just not up for dancing tonight," Ken explained.

  "You don't have to dance if you don't feel like it," Jessica countered, waving her foot in the air to dry her nails. "You can hang out at one of the tables and admire your girlfriend from afar." She, on the other hand, was raring to go dancing. She was so burned up about her encounter with Rosie on the beach that she was full of raw energy. And for Jessica, the best way to deal with anger was to work it off. Preferably on the dance floor.

  "Uh, I, um . . ." Ken's voice trailed off.

  Jessica stood up and crossed the floor on her heels, dragging the phone line behind her. Now Ken was beginning to make her suspicious. Why did he sound so nervous? Had he had a personality transformation overnight? "C'mon, Ken, out with it."

  "Actually, some of the guys are going over to Bruce's tonight," Ken said finally.

  "What for?" Jessica asked, picking up a brush from her dresser and running it through her thick blond hair.

  "We thought we'd just shoot some pool and hang out in the rec room," Ken said.

  Jessica stopped in midstroke, thinking for a minute. "Well, maybe I'll go to the Beach Disco with Amy and Lila, and then we'll stop by later."

  Ken coughed uncomfortably. "Uh, actually, I don't think that's a good idea."

  Jessica stared at the receiver in consternation. What was going on with Ken? He blew her off last night and now he was blowing her off again. "Why not?"

  "Well, it's kind of a guy thing," Ken explained.

  "Oh, c'mon," Jessica scoffed. "Guys never mind when girls show up."

  Ken sighed audibly. "We're starting a club," he said.

  "What kind of club?"

  "A . . . er . . . guys' club," Ken mumbled. "Tonight's a GNO."

  "A GNO?" Jessica asked.

  "Guys' Night Out," Ken explained.

  "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Jessica said, and she slammed down the receiver.

  What makes the Palisades Pentagon one of the hottest school papers in the southern-California area? Marla Daniels, its fiery redheaded editor in chief.

  Elizabeth sat in front of her computer on Saturday night, clacking away at the keys. She was working on her "Personal Profiles" column covering Marla Daniels from Palisades High. Elizabeth quickly made an outline for the column, dividing it into three main sections—personal life, school activities, and political views. Maybe she could interview Marla at brunch the next day.

  As Elizabeth typed out questions on the screen, her head swirled with possibilities for the dance they were planning. Using her mouse, she clicked open her dance file. Ever since she had talked with Marla and Caitlin at the football game, her mind had been whirling with ideas. She was thrilled to be able to devot
e her energy to something again.

  Elizabeth's thoughts came so fast that her fingers couldn't keep up with them. She quickly typed in fragments of ideas for the dance—a fifties sock hop, a twenties flapper dance, a dance-athon, a costume ball . . . ballroom dancing? Elizabeth sat back and envisioned the scene dreamily. She pictured a huge ballroom with marble floors and a chandelier, like something out of an eighteenth-century French novel. The girls were all wearing long ball gowns and the guys were dressed in black tuxedos. They waltzed and tangoed across the floor to the delicate strains of classical music. Then she quickly deleted the words from the screen. The school gym wasn't exactly a ballroom. And none of them knew how to do ballroom dancing anyway.

  Elizabeth opened a new file and labeled it "Party Ideas." She and Enid had already planned to get together the next morning to make posters and flyers. On Monday they wanted to start getting everybody hyped up for the dance. Elizabeth quickly typed out some slogans on the screen: "Party with Palisaders," "Sell Sweet Valley," "Dance the night away, for your favorite charit-ay." Elizabeth groaned. That last one was a major stretch.

  Suddenly the door flew open. "You will not believe what the guys are doing now!" Jessica declared, stomping into Elizabeth's room. She was waving her brush in the air and brandishing it as if it were a weapon. "I mean, of all the idiotic ideas, of all the—" Jessica interrupted herself. "Sometimes the guys surprise even me with their stupidity."

  Elizabeth looked up from her computer and sighed. "Jessica, do you know why there's a door in my room?"

  "So I can come in, of course," Jessica said, flopping down onto the chaise lounge. Elizabeth had found the old chair in an antique market and had re-covered it in soft, pale velvet. Jessica laid her brush on her stomach and put her hands behind her head, dangling one bare painted foot in the air.

  "So you can knock," Elizabeth corrected her.

  "But what's the point of that?" Jessica asked. "I knew you were in here."

  Elizabeth shook her head. Sometimes her sister's logic mystified her. She saved her file and turned around to face Jessica, pulling her legs onto the chair. She had learned long ago that she would get no work done when Jessica needed to talk. "So what's going on?" she asked.

  "The guys are starting a boys-only club," Jessica explained. "And they're having their first meeting tonight. It's GNO."

  "Girls no?" Elizabeth guessed.

  "Something like that," Jessica said. "Guys' Night Out."

  Elizabeth laughed.

  "Liz, this isn't funny," Jessica protested. "This is social discrimination."

  "Sometimes we have Girls' Night Out," Elizabeth reminded her twin.

  "That's different," Jessica said.

  Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "How so?"

  "Because we need to have Girls' Night Out. This whole world is a boys' club. Girls need to stick together Otherwise, we just spend all our time hating each other and ourselves and competing for boys' attention." Jessica took a breath. The words had come out in a rush.

  Elizabeth looked at Jessica in surprise. Usually her sister's number-one principle was competing for guys' attention. In fact, she had spent the day cruising the beach with Lila and Amy in her new string bikini. "Jessica, are you feeling OK? You're beginning to sound like a feminist."

  Jessica made a face. "You're right," she said. "I'm beginning to sound like you. Bleah!"

  Elizabeth laughed. "Actually, I agree with you in principle. It's just that I think it's pretty harmless in this case."

  "Harmless!" Jessica said. "It's Saturday night, and we have no dates. You call that harmless?"

  Now Jessica was beginning to sound like herself again. "Jess, you know you can go out with your friends tonight. Why do you need Ken?"

  "Because I want to go dancing," Jessica said. "Lila is not exactly the best partner for slow dancing."

  "Then you can dance fast," Elizabeth said.

  "That's not the point," Jessica said. "Like you said, it's the principle of the thing."

  "Actually, it's probably a good idea," Elizabeth said. "The guys can bond and make each other feel important. Then we won't have to worry about stroking their fragile male egos."

  Jessica huffed. "All guys ever do is bond."

  "I don't think we have to worry about it, anyway," Elizabeth said. "They'll get sick of each other pretty fast."

  "Well, I'm getting sick of them," Jessica said, jumping up and sending her brush flying to the ground with a clatter. Jessica reached for it and held it in the air like the torch on the Statue of Liberty. "I'm going to bed," she announced. "I've got somewhere to be at sunrise tomorrow morning."

  Elizabeth lifted an eyebrow. Jessica usually didn't make it out of bed until noon on the weekends. "You're getting up early on a Sunday?"

  "Sure, why not?" Jessica asked.

  Elizabeth shook her head. She would believe it when she saw it.

  "Ace!" Aaron called, sinking the eight ball smoothly into the corner pocket.

  "Man!" Bruce complained, throwing his cue stick onto the table.

  Ken leaned against the wall, taking in the action. He was playing pool in the luxurious rec room of the Patman mansion with the rest of the guys—Todd, Aaron, Bruce, Winston, and Ronnie Edwards.

  Ken stifled a yawn as he watched Bruce set the balls up in a triangle on the green felt table. The evening seemed to be going on a bit too long. The guys had been hanging out all night. First they'd had a barbecue out on the deck. Even though the Patmans had a live-in French chef, the guys had decided to rough it. They had barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, eating them with chips and soda on paper plates.

  Afterward some of the guys had taken a swim in the Patmans heated Olympic-size pool. Ken and Todd had played a few sets of tennis in the tennis court cut into the hill below the mansion. Then they were all pretty tired, and they'd crashed in the living room. They lay around for an hour, watching rock videos on RTV. And now they were winding up the evening with a few rounds of pool.

  Exactly what you'd expect from a GNO, Ken mused. Male camaraderie and male companionship. The evening had worked out perfectly. The food was good, the sports were good, the conversation was good. Then what's missing? Ken wondered. But he knew what was missing. Girls.

  Ken shifted his weight as Todd and Winston practiced their shots. Todd hit the cue ball into the triangle, sending the other balls whizzing around the table. Then he leaned over the table like a pro, taking careful aim at a striped ball. It careened off a solid one, banked off the four sides of the table, and dropped smoothly into the side pocket.

  "Perfect bank shot!" Todd said.

  "Let me try that," Winston said. He got in position, leaning over the table and holding his cue stick awkwardly. His knobby elbows sticking out, Winston slid the stick along the table, aiming for the ball. His stick went flying over the table. Todd ducked and all the guys laughed.

  "Winston, you're a liability," Todd said.

  "Actually, I did that on purpose," Winston said with a goofy grin, retrieving his stick from the carpet. "I wanted to make sure you were on your toes."

  Ken laughed along with the rest of the guys, but he didn't really feel in the spirit of things. The evening was actually kind of boring without any girls around. And Ken was getting tired of sitting around with the guys while they tried to amuse themselves. He would rather be with Jessica at the Beach Disco.

  Ken's stomach tightened anxiously as he thought about his girlfriend. He wondered if Jessica had gone out dancing with Lila and Amy. Of course she had. Jessica wasn't one to sit around and wait for her boyfriend. In fact, she was probably having the time of her life, dancing in the arms of some other guy right that moment. And looking incredibly sexy.

  What's she wearing? Ken wondered. Is she wearing her white jeans? Who's she dancing with? Suddenly Ken was hit with a sharp pang of jealousy. He wanted to run out to his car and drive to the Beach Disco. He would claim his girlfriend from the greasy paws of the slimy guy who was dancing with her.

  It's all my fault, Ken thought with a sigh. Jessica had wanted to go out with him. But he had disappointed her last night, and he had turned her down again tonight. Jessica had been sweet and supportive after the game, and Ken had barely acknowledged her presence. He knew Jessica wouldn't accept that kind of treatment for long. He had learned his lesson when she had gone to SVU and had started dating a guy behind his back. She had believed that Ken didn't value her for her intelligence, so she had found a guy who did. Ken bit his lip. Now that he had Jessica back, he didn't want to lose her again.