“Well, then, can I count on your vote for Cara?” Jessica asked.
“Oh, sure.” Helen was relieved to find out that was all. Except that it wasn’t.
“OK,” Jessica went on. “Now for the second girl. Who would you like for the second one?”
“Well…”
“Isn’t Sandra Bacon a good choice?”
Yes, Helen agreed, Sandra was great. “Only…”
Jessica frowned. “Only what?”
“Well, Jess, I like Sandy a lot. But do you think she can beat out Annie?”
Jessica let out an exasperated breath. “Helen, of course she can! If three of us vote for her.”
Helen sipped her soda and pondered that. “You mean even if Annie is better, we can vote in Sandra?”
Jessica sat back and let that idea float across the booth and through Helen’s head.
“Whoever gets three votes is in,” Jessica said.
“Yes, that’s true,” Helen mused. “I wonder who the others will vote for?”
Jessica glanced at Helen and decided to set her grand plan in motion. “Helen, the fact is that it’s entirely up to one person. One person can uphold the squad or let it all go down the drain.”
“Really? Who?” Helen asked.
“You. Helen Bradley, that’s who. You have everything in your hands. I hope you won’t let down your squad or your school.”
Helen felt herself tingling with importance and confusion. She’d never expected this!
“But I don’t understand, Jess,” she said, bewildered.
“It’s very simple, Helen,” Jessica explained. “It takes three votes to be selected, right?”
“Right,” said Helen.
“OK. I’m going to vote for Sandy Bacon. That’s one vote. Now, tell me who is Sandra Bacon’s very best friend in the entire school who also happens to be on the cheerleading squad?”
“Oh, sure—Jeanie West.”
“Right,” said Jessica. “So Sandra Bacon has my vote and Jeanie West’s vote for certain. She needs only one more.”
“Yeah,” said Helen, realizing the meaning of it.
“Your vote will decide, Helen.”
Helen shoved her glass away and looked out over the mall. “Oh, wow,” she said. “You’re right.”
It was all very simple, Jessica told herself with satisfaction. No one could be sure of what Robin Wilson would do. And Maria Santelli simply kept raving about Annie Whitman so much that it looked as if her vote was lost.
But now it didn’t matter.
“Will you promise to vote for Cara and Sandra?” Jessica pressed her.
“Well … OK,” Helen said.
“I’ll tell Jeanie that we’ll both vote for Sandra and Cara, if she will, too.”
“Then it’s all fixed,” Helen said.
Jessica smiled sweetly. “Yes, and you decided the whole thing.”
* * *
Unaware that Jessica was maneuvering the final vote so that she could never become a cheerleader, Annie Whitman continued to grow more confident, and a new sort of person was blossoming within her. For the first time, she noticed that quiet Ricky Capaldo shot looks at her in Spanish class and in the cafeteria. When she caught him, he always blushed violently and looked away.
After Spanish she often walked alongside Ricky and tried to talk casually, but he seemed uncomfortable and tongue-tied. Once, he started to relax, and the natural, friendly side of him was just coming out when somebody spotted them, and the next thing Annie knew a loud chorus of “Oh, Rickeeeee!” had him more flushed than ever.
“How do you get a shy boy to talk to you?” Annie asked Elizabeth one day as school was letting out.
Elizabeth laughed. “I didn’t think you had any trouble getting anybody to talk.”
“Oh, I don’t. Not most of them, anyway. Bruce Patman calls me up all the time, but I’ve decided I don’t like him. I’ve been waiting for a different type of boy to ask me out. I’m waiting for one particular different boy.”
“Watch what you say, Annie,” Elizabeth teased as the two girls strolled across the Sweet Valley campus in the warm afternoon sunshine. “Remember you’re in the presence of the writer of the ‘Eyes and Ears’ column.”
“Oh, Liz,” Annie pleaded, “you wouldn’t use this in your column. You couldn’t!”
“Not if you don’t want me to use it, Annie,” Elizabeth said with concern. “Hey, we’re friends, right?”
“You want to be my friend?” Annie asked. “Somebody like you would be a friend to somebody like me?” The look of surprise and delight on Annie’s face touched Elizabeth.
“Of course we’re friends, Annie. But I thought we were talking about boys. Who is this different guy you’re interested in?”
“Ricky.”
“Ricky Capaldo? Don’t I remember something about him being just a pal?”
Annie blushed. “I know, but I’m seeing him in a new way. He’s so nice, Liz. He’s so sweet and friendly, and I don’t know—do you know what I mean?”
“Of course I know what you mean,” Elizabeth assured her.
“But he doesn’t ask me out. And neither do some of the other nice guys. I wonder why not.”
This time there was no doubt left in Elizabeth’s mind. Annie was totally unaware of what people thought of her. The next minute Elizabeth discovered she was on the spot.
“Have you ever heard anybody talk about me?” said Annie shyly. She and Elizabeth stopped in the shade of an oak tree.
“Well…” Elizabeth hesitated. “Everybody gets talked about.” She placed her books on the grass as she sat down near the tree, Annie settling beside her.
“Sure. They talk about you as a writer and the nicest girl in Sweet Valley. But what do they say about me?”
“Listen, what difference does it make? You know that the only thing that matters is how you feel about yourself.”
“That’s true.” Annie brightened. “And people can change, can’t they? And when you change and make yourself into a different person, people accept that, don’t they?”
“Absolutely,” Elizabeth said firmly. “If they’re decent people, they do.”
“Thanks,” Annie said. “I always feel so much better after talking to you. Just think, when I finally get on the cheerleading team, there’ll be a brand-new me at Sweet Valley High.”
And before Elizabeth knew what was happening, Annie leaned over and hugged her. Then she jumped up and hurried off across the wide campus lawn.
Later, when Elizabeth reached the Wakefields’ split-level house, she was humming to herself and feeling good all over at Annie’s success. It wasn’t easy for a person to turn her life around the way Annie was doing.
Coming in through the living room, Elizabeth heard laughter from the patio out back near the swimming pool. She strolled out to find Jessica serving Cokes to Jeanie West and Helen Bradley.
“Well, well,” said Elizabeth, “the ears of every boy in town must be burning. And half the girls.”
“Oh, go jump in the pool.” Jessica laughed contentedly.
“So, what’s happening?” Elizabeth asked. “Anything I can print?”
“You could, but you won’t.” Jessica grinned mysteriously.
“Oh?”
“Because you never print anything in advance, even though it’s an absolutely, positively sure thing,” said Jessica. “Am I right?” she asked the other two, and they all laughed like conspirators in on a big secret.
Elizabeth didn’t like what she saw. “I would just take a wild guess that this little gathering has something to do with who the new cheerleaders are going to be,” she said.
The three laughed again, but made no comment. At that moment Elizabeth knew with certainty that the two new cheerleaders would be Cara Walker and Sandra Bacon.
Elizabeth felt her breath go out like a beach ball deflating. What could she say? Cara and Sandy were certainly good choices, and it really wasn’t any of Elizabeth’s business; she wasn’t e
ven on the squad. Still, she felt a terrible sense of dread at the thought of how Annie would take it.
“Well?” Jessica challenged her twin. “Would you like to make a bet on this one, Liz?”
Elizabeth shook her head, and walked unhappily back into the house. This was another bet she knew she couldn’t win.
* * *
Later that afternoon, Elizabeth and Todd were sitting on the sofa in the family room of the Wilkins home, watching an old movie on TV. The smell of homemade cake wafted in from the kitchen, where Mrs. Wilkins was preparing dinner.
Elizabeth snuggled closer to Todd, trying hard to concentrate on the movie. But her thoughts kept turning to Annie and Jessica. Without being fully aware of it, she heaved a loud sigh.
“OK, Wakefield. Out with it.” Todd sat straight up on the sofa and looked searchingly into Elizabeth’s blue-green eyes.
“Out with what?” Elizabeth asked.
“What’s on your mind? You’re hardly paying any attention to the movie. Are you bored? You want to see what else is on?”
“No, this is—fine,” Elizabeth said falteringly.
“But you’re not fine. Come on, Liz, it’s me, Todd. I thought you could tell me anything.”
“Oh, Todd. It’s nothing. I guess my thoughts were someplace else.”
He unfolded his long frame, stood, and walked over to flip off the set.
“That’s been happening a lot lately. Are your thoughts someplace else, or on someone else?”
Someone else? Todd couldn’t think that! She hadn’t been interested in another guy since the day she met Todd.
She looked at Todd’s back. He wouldn’t face her. Elizabeth rose slowly from the sofa, walked over to Todd, and put her hand on his arm. “Todd, please look at me!”
It seemed like forever, but Todd finally turned toward Elizabeth. His mouth was set and grim.
“How could you think that there was someone else? You know how I feel about you, Todd.” She put up a hand to touch his cheek.
“I know how I feel about you, Liz,” he said, not moving to touch her. “I know I love you. I thought you loved me.”
“Oh, Todd.” She sighed, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him close to her. “I love you. You have to believe that.”
Elizabeth felt Todd as he put his strong arms around her, hugging her tightly. “When we hold each other like this, I believe you. But you had me scared.”
“Scared? You? The star basketball player of Sweet Valley High is scared by little old me?” she teased. “I’d better run right down to the Oracle office and have them stop the presses.”
Todd’s response was a tender kiss. “If the opposing team had five beautiful blonds exactly like you, I’d be helpless,” he confessed when they finished their embrace. “But that’d be impossible, because there is no one exactly like you, Liz.”
Todd moved back to the sofa, Elizabeth settling next to him. He placed a large hand on her knee and then said sternly, “OK, Elizabeth Wakefield, talk.”
“Talk?”
“You’re not in love with someone else.”
“Never!”
“But something is driving you up the wall, right?”
Elizabeth wished he weren’t so quick to sense when she was upset.
“Not really, Todd. It’s just that I’ve been busy with—with things.” That didn’t sound believable even to her. She silently cursed herself for getting so involved with the cheering tryouts that she had neglected the people she cared about most—first Enid, now Todd.
“Things,” Todd repeated. “These things don’t by some strange chance have to do with your perfect, saintly sister, do they?” he asked bitingly.
Elizabeth bolted up from the sofa, hands on her hips.
“There you go again, Todd Wilkins,” she accused. “You really have it in for Jess!” She didn’t want Todd to know about Jessica’s vendetta against Annie. And she didn’t want him to know how committed she was to Annie’s cause. Todd would only chide her for allowing Jessica to get her into another mess.
“I’m right! Jess is up to something, and you’re going to stick your neck out for her. Don’t you ever get tired of rescuing your sister?”
“You are an insensitive—”
“Jock,” he finished.
They glared at each other angrily.
“Hello?” It was Mrs. Wilkins. She stepped into the family room.
“Mom, we’re having a discussion,” Todd said without looking at his mother.
Mrs. Wilkins gave a knowing look at the two tense figures.
“Discussions are fine,” she said wryly. “But in the interest of the cake in the oven, keep the discussion down to a low roar, OK?”
Some of the tension went out of the room with her words.
“Your mom is nice,” Elizabeth said as Mrs. Wilkins went back into the kitchen.
“It runs in the family,” Todd said.
“I know.” Elizabeth smiled at him, wishing she could pour out the whole complicated situation to Todd. She had to help Annie, yet she also had to protect Jessica. Todd would understand about Annie, she was sure, but protecting Jessica was not one of the things that was high on his list. Telling him would simply start another argument.
“You’re not going to tell me what’s bothering you, are you?”
“I wish I could, Todd. I just can’t, not right now.” Pleading for understanding, she tilted her face up toward his.
“OK, Liz. You know that when you look at me like that, I’ll agree to anything. Just remember, I’m on your side. I’ll help whenever you need me.” He lowered his head and kissed her. Suddenly Jessica and Annie seemed far away.
Seven
Something strange was happening to Ricky Capaldo. When he studied the Revolutionary War and its causes, music drifted into his mind. And not some fife-and-drum march leading Washington’s troops toward Valley Forge, either. No, Ricky’s attempts at studying were being sidetracked by love songs.
Plain-looking, shy, quiet Ricky was falling in love with Annie Whitman, and he was terrified. A large part of the terror was that Annie seemed to be interested in him, too, even though Ricky found it almost totally impossible to believe.
Annie Whitman was beautiful. Annie was a great dancer. Annie had a million boyfriends. How could he, a little nobody who was nothing to look at and practically tongue-tied with girls, ever bring himself to speak to Annie about anything, well, romantic? Totally idiotic!
Ricky Capaldo summoned every bit of his resolve and banished all thoughts of Annie from his mind.
“The three major causes of the Revolutionary War,” he noted in his book, “were a denial of basic rights, the Stamp Act, and Annie Whitman.”
Ricky threw down his ball-point pen.
Not only was it impossible for him to believe that a dazzling beauty like Annie would be interested in him, but there was also the problem of all those stories about her. Were they true? he wondered agonizingly.
Forget it, he told himself sternly and returned to the Revolutionary War. Minutemen were marching across Concord Green playing “I Can’t Smile Without You.”
* * *
There was a pretty good turnout of students for the cheerleading finals. Most of the girls who had already been cut were there to see who among the final eight would get the two vacant spots on the squad.
Once again, Ricky Capaldo was all over the gym arranging things, handing out score sheets to the five cheerleaders, and telling the finalists when they were to go on. Everybody knew it was pretty much down to three girls—Cara Walker, Sandra Bacon, and Annie Whitman. The finalists went on alphabetically, so Sandra was the first one and Annie was the last.
Needless to say, all the finalists had worked very hard on their routines, and countless practice sessions were behind them. With eight girls trying for two places, it was down to hairsplitting time. The same unspoken words were in each girl’s mind: “Please don’t let me make a mistake!”
For the finals, the
girls had been given real cheerleader costumes—short red skirts and white sweaters with SV in big red letters on them.
Jessica watched confidently as Sandra came trotting out, looking terrific in her costume. Nothing could go wrong now, she thought, as Sandra whipped through her well-practiced routines flawlessly until she got to the final cartwheel-split finish.
And then, before Jessica’s horrified eyes, Sandra did a replay of her performance at Lila Fowler’s pool party.
Sanda hit the polished gym floor with her front heel, then bounced off her back foot, skidded to a halt like a jet during an emergency landing, and ended up in a heap.
“Oofffff!” went Sandra.
“Oh, no,” muttered Jessica.
Red-faced, Sandra slunk past Jessica. She knew she’d blown her chances for good.
The next five girls performed their cheers without making any major mistakes, but without the style and energy that Jessica and the other cheerleaders were looking for. Then Cara Walker did her routine, making the most of her chance with a peppy performance capped with a flourish at the end. Jessica sighed with relief.
Finally came Annie Whitman. Jessica became glummer and glummer as Annie got better and better with each move.
“Look at her,” Maria Santelli cried in wonder. “I think she has wings!”
“Great,” Robin Wilson agreed.
Jessica looked at Helen and Jean and smiled a knowing smile.
Once more Annie left the gym with applause ringing in her ears, a smile on her face, and tears of joy in her eyes.
“Well,” Robin said after it was over, “I don’t think there’s much doubt. Cara and Annie are the best ones.”
“Oh, yes,” agreed Maria.
“Wait a minute,” Jessica said. “I agree with you about Cara Walker. She’s terrific, and a really great girl. In fact, I’m ready to vote on her right now.”
“OK by me,” Robin said. “All in favor of Cara Walker?”
All five cheerleaders raised their hands. Ricky jotted down Cara’s name.
“Now, as to Annie,” Jessica said, “I think we ought to remember she’s only a sophomore. Sandy’s a junior.”
“Sandy is also a klutz,” Robin said.
“Anybody can fall doing a split,” Jessica retorted. “Isn’t that right, Jeanie?”
Wrong Kind of Girl Page 6