"You were on the island for an entire day and night," a journalist from The Sweet Valley News observed. "What were the conditions there? How did you handle your shipwrecked situation?"
"Well, of course I'd never been shipwrecked before," Jessica told the group. "But right away I realized it might be a while before I'd get off the island and that I'd have to gather food and build a shelter."
As Jessica spoke Winston's mouth dropped open with disbelief. Jessica ignored him. "So," she continued, illustrating her story with animated gestures, "because it looked like another storm was on its way, I took care of the shelter first thing. I collected wood and palm fronds and built a lean-to against a pile of rocks. Oh, and I discovered Winston," she added almost as an afterthought. "He'd washed up on the island, too! And he had an emergency kit from the lifeboat with string and matches and a Swiss army knife. That helped a lot," Jessica said in praise of Winston.
Winston pulled his shoulders up and cleared his throat. "Yes, I—"
"Then I put my mind to the question of food," Jessica said, interrupting Winston. "It was easy to make a fishing pole with a branch and some string. We caught some fish and cooked them over a campfire. We also gathered berries and oranges." Jessica briefly considered telling them about the bear incident, leaving out the part about Winston's wimpiness, of course—she was too kind to make that public. Instead, she would embellish the part where she took control of the situation by throwing the fruit to distract the hungry animal. She'd tell them the bear had attacked their shelter—that was it! And that she had chased it away single-handedly with a flaming branch from the campfire.
Just then Jessica caught Winston's eye. He had one eyebrow raised comically, as if to say, "Now what?" Jessica decided she would save the bear episode for her family and friends. "And that was about all there was to it!" she concluded nonchalantly, as if surviving on a deserted island wasn't much harder than a tropical vacation.
"What about you, Winston?" one of the reporters shouted out. "It sounds as if Jessica really took charge of the survival effort. What did you contribute?"
Now that Winston had his chance in the spotlight, he hesitated. Jessica realized she hadn't left much for him to tell, but if she knew Winston, that wouldn't stop him. Turning her head slightly so that the reporters couldn't see, Jessica gave him a broad wink. Winston grinned. "Who, me?" he asked jovially. "I provided the entertainment! It was an ideal opportunity to practice my stand-up-comedian routine. Jessica couldn't walk out on me—she was stranded!"
The reporters chuckled appreciatively, and Winston smiled, ready to crack a few more deserted-island jokes.
At that instant Jessica saw her family. "Mom! Dad! Liz! Steve!" she shrieked.
The Wakefields had just emerged from the Coast Guard station, and they were hurrying across the blacktop runway. Right behind them were Winston's parents and Maria.
Jessica pushed her way through the crowd of reporters, with Winston at her heels. A moment later she was engulfed in hugs as her parents, Elizabeth, and Steven all tried to put their arms around her at once.
"Jessica, I can't believe we've got you back again!" Tears of joy flowed down Mrs. Wakefield's face. "When they found the empty lifeboat, we thought . . ." She was too choked up to finish the sentence.
"We thought our little girl . . ." Mr. Wakefield's own eyes sparkled with grateful tears.
"I'm OK," Jessica said, her words muffled against her father's chest. "I'm fine—really."
Jessica was conscious of the news cameras rolling as she turned away from her parents to give Elizabeth and Steven a chance to hug her. But she didn't have to put on much of an act. She had never been so happy to see her family in all her life!
A few feet away Winston was enjoying a similar reunion. Mrs. Egbert, usually very reserved and sophisticated, was sobbing happily as she embraced Winston. Meanwhile, Mr. Egbert was holding Winston's right hand, which he kept shaking vigorously. "We're so glad to see you, Winston. We were so worried. We didn't know what we'd ever do without you."
Winston was finally able to wiggle out of his mother's arms. After giving both his parents a kiss, he turned to Maria, who had been standing to one side, looking on. After grabbing Maria by the waist, Winston picked her right up off the ground and swung her around in a circle.
Laughing and crying at the same time, Maria pretended to give Winston a lecture. "What did you think you were doing, scaring everybody like that?"
"What are you talking about?" Winston said innocently. "Jessica and I just hadn't finished our field trip report. We went back to the island to do some more research!"
Maria laughed and swatted him on the shoulder. "Put me down," she told him, giggling. "Please?"
"Nope," Winston refused, his voice cracking with emotion. "I didn't think I'd ever get to hold you again. I'm not letting you go so easily."
The Wakefields walked slowly in the direction of the parking lot on the far side of the Coast Guard station. Everyone was trying to talk at once. Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield, Steven, and Elizabeth wanted to hear all about Jessica's experience on Outermost Island, while Jessica wanted to know what she had missed at home and in school. She felt as if she'd been away from Sweet Valley forever.
"How's Prince Albert?" Jessica asked, eagerly referring to the Wakefields' lovable dog, a somewhat pampered golden retriever. "Did I get any mail? Have Lila and Cara and Amy and my other friends all been totally frantic about me?"
"Fine, no, and of course," Mrs. Wakefield said, responding to her questions in order.
"Forget about all that!" Elizabeth exclaimed impatiently. "Tell us what you've been doing! How did you get to the island? How did Winston get there? What was it like? What did you see? What did you eat?"
"Well." Jessica paused before launching into another description of the ordeal. She wrapped an arm around her twin's waist, giving her a playful squeeze. "Are you sure you want to hear all the gory details, Liz?"
Elizabeth smiled. She had a feeling she was about to be treated to Jessica's version of history—anything but "the whole truth and nothing but the truth." "Sure," Elizabeth encouraged Jessica. "Spill it. I haven't heard a good fairy tale in a while!"
"You brat!" Jessica pinched Elizabeth in the side. Elizabeth retaliated by tickling her.
"It looks like everything's back to normal," Mr. Wakefield observed, squeezing his wife's hand.
She smiled at her two daughters, who were walking beside her. "You mean everything's back to crazy," she corrected him.
"C'mon, Mom, you love it," Jessica teased, flashing her mother an irresistible smile. "You wouldn't have it any other way."
Thirteen
"Finished!" Elizabeth announced as she dropped the typeset pages for the next edition of The Oracle into a box marked "To Printer." "I've just proofread the definitive article on Jessica and Winston's shipwreck," she told Olivia Davidson, who had been working along with her in the cluttered office of Sweet Valley High's newspaper. "I hope that it answers everyone's questions—and that I never have to hear about it again!"
Olivia pushed her frizzy brown hair back from her forehead and smiled sympathetically. "That bad, huh?"
"It's all anyone wants to talk about lately," Elizabeth said. "And Jessica's not doing anything to end the gossip. She's told me seventeen versions of her own story, each one more unbelievable than the last!" Elizabeth sighed deeply and rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. Still, she couldn't help smiling as she thought of how Jessica had managed to turn a calamity into another opportunity to be the center of attention.
"Leave it to your twin," Olivia said, echoing Elizabeth's musings. "She gets marooned with a guy on a desert island, while some of us around here barely remember what it's like to go on a date."
"Oh, Olivia," Elizabeth joked, "I don't think an overnight trip with Winston is exactly a romantic fantasy come true. Would you really have wanted to be in Jess's place?"
Olivia pretended to consider it for a moment, then she laughed. "I guess not," sh
e admitted. She grew more serious. "It's just that I haven't really been interested in anyone since Roger and I split up, and I'm ready for a little excitement."
Olivia stood up and put her own work in the folder for the printer. "I'm about done here, too," she said. "Wait a minute, and I'll walk out with you."
The hallway was quiet as Elizabeth and Olivia left the office. "Gee, I had no idea it was so late," Elizabeth said. "It looks like we're the only ones left in the building."
Just then footsteps sounded from both ends of the corridor.
"Liz! Olivia! I'm so glad I found you!" Penny Ayala, editor in chief of The Oracle called from one direction.
"Lizzie! Wait up! I've got exciting news!" Jessica called from the other.
"Looks like you spoke too soon," Olivia commented to Elizabeth.
Penny reached them first. "I wanted to let you two know that we're going to have to rearrange the layout of some pages in the paper tomorrow for an announcement," she said, a little out of breath. "Mr. Collins just told me that Sweet Valley High is going to have an experimental program of minicourses. Local experts will come in to teach classes like acting, filmmaking, photography, even computer-game design. It'll be a chance to study subjects the school doesn't offer or that students can't fit into their schedules."
"So you heard, too," Jessica said, coming up behind them with Lila Fowler at her side. "Sounds great, doesn't it? And the best part of it all is no grades."
"I heard Veronica Barry, the artist, was going to give a course in jewelry design," Lila said. "But I also heard there might be a modeling course."
"Ugh!" said Jessica. "Why would you want to take either one of those courses with a hundred other girls? I'm considering electronics. Just think, if I sighed up for that, I'd be surrounded by a roomful of boys for an hour every day."
While Jessica and Lila argued over which minicourse to take, Olivia considered the news. What she had told Elizabeth a few moments earlier was true. Her life was in a real rut lately. She went to classes, worked on the paper, and spent time with her friends, but her heart wasn't in it. It was as though she were waiting for something to happen, even though she didn't know exactly what it was.
Maybe minicourses had something to do with it, and not just because they would mean a chance to take a new class. Sure, that would be fun. Olivia had always wanted to know more about photography, for instance. But minicourses would also mean a major change in her dull routine, a chance to meet new people, especially boys. Everyone in her usual classes was so used to thinking of Olivia and Roger as a couple that Olivia suspected the boys she already knew wouldn't even think of asking her out.
But if she was taking a new course, with new boys who didn't think of her that way. . . . She imagined herself in photography class, developing her pictures in the darkroom. A tall, handsome boy would walk in, someone she didn't know, had never even seen before. Their eyes would meet, and a charge of electricity would pass between them—
"Olivia, did you hear me?" Elizabeth was saying.
"Hmm?" Olivia said dreamily. Jessica, Elizabeth, Lila, and Penny were all staring at her, waiting for her to speak.
"I said minicourses sound terrific, don't they?"
"Oh, yes," Olivia agreed. "Terrific." She felt her cheeks grow warm, as if the others could somehow know what wild thoughts she had been having.
Wild, maybe. But as they all walked together out of the building, Olivia couldn't shake the feeling that something terrific was waiting for her just around the corner.
Will Olivia Davidson find the romance she's dreaming of when minicourses come to Sweet Valley High? Find out in Sweet Valley High #57, TEACHER CRUSH.
Lost At Sea (Sweet Valley High Book 56) Page 9