Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later

by Francine Pascal

  Ken Matthews, Todd’s best man, was captain and star quarterback of Sweet Valley High’s football team, the Gladiators. He’s still a football player, now for the NFL, but he hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury. He’s a local celebrity and in his off time, the host of a popular sports program. Even at the wedding he had fans bugging him for his autograph, another unwelcome distraction from the bride.

  About two years ago he married Lila Fowler; six months ago, they separated. For no reason anyone can understand, he still likes her. A lot. Caroline Pearce, gossip supreme, says he has proposed to Lila again.

  A. J. Morgan was another of the bad boys from high school. Why are bad boys always so gorgeous? After high school he was in college for about a week, but decided it wasn’t for him and drifted. He’s ended up selling sneakers at the Nike store in the mall. Caroline Pearce has outrageous gossip about him and Dr. Enid Rollins that everyone finds hard to believe. But, of course, they do. Especially since Enid went out of her way to ignore A.J. at the wedding.

  Roger Barrett Patman, Bruce’s late-found cousin, is the illegitimate son of Bruce’s uncle. Not nearly as handsome as Bruce, Roger was a champion runner in high school and hasn’t gained a pound since. He looks pretty much today as he did then, boyish, with friendly gray eyes somewhat obscured by thick-framed glasses that keep slipping down his nose. He was so poor in high school that he couldn’t afford to take the regular bus. There were no school buses in his neighborhood. He had to walk—except he didn’t, he ran. That’s how he became a track star. At twenty-one, he inherited part of the Patman fortune. He now works as a producer in Hollywood and has had a few minor hits.

  He brought his wife, Zoe Jones, a talented rock singer just starting her career. It promises to be a big one. She was the second celebrity at the wedding. All important parties need at least one, and the Wakefield wedding had two.

  At one point, Zoe did a number from her new album that Jessica managed to miss, not being in the mood for that kind of competition.

  Bruce Patman was, as always, Bruce Patman, except today he was the happiest Bruce Patman anyone had ever seen. He could barely stop smiling. Even during the most serious part of the ceremony, he couldn’t keep the smile down.

  He never left Elizabeth’s side and she didn’t leave his, either. Though they didn’t tell anyone, with a little help from Caroline Pearce, everyone knew that they were the hot new couple.

  Most people were delighted because they loved Elizabeth and were thrilled to see her happy again. In the last few years they’d learned to love Bruce, too. He’d changed that much. Now they understood why.

  Caroline Pearce has put on a few pounds but essentially looks the same as she did in high school: nosy. Unfortunately, Caroline has had to battle cancer. She underwent a year of chemo and radiation and has been in remission for a while now. As the star real estate agent of Sweet Valley Heights, she has keys to everyone’s home. She uses them too often, but because she has so much information on everyone—and a potentially terminal illness—everyone tolerates her uninvited visits.

  This was a wedding she was not about to miss, despite Jessica’s attack at Lila’s the week before. She needed the wedding for her gossip blog, which she puts out six days a week to the tune of five hundred hits a day. Tomorrow’s blog might be more fun than the wedding.

  Enid Rollins was Elizabeth’s best friend from grade school, but hasn’t been so for a long time. Enid looked cute as always (she hated that description) with her curly shoulder-length brown hair, green eyes, and a Betsey Johnson dress. She was always very intelligent and put those smarts to good use. The teenage years were a little hard on her. Too much drinking led to a dependency, but she licked that and became a doctor, a gynecologist. She keeps an office in downtown Sweet Valley right across from the very same Nike store in the mall where A.J. works, when he works.

  One would think her background might have made her more understanding of vulnerability, but unfortunately, it hasn’t. In fact, Enid has turned arrogant and extremely right-wing. She is totally enthralled with her own accomplishments and has great plans for herself.

  Except for the tiny problem of the affair with A. J. Morgan, sneaker salesman supreme. It’s secret because Enid is planning to run for city council, and an unsuccessful shoe salesman is not what she would consider the right partner. But she can’t keep away from him.

  She refused to come to the wedding with A.J. and made him sit at another table—where he ended up having a great time with an adorable cousin of Todd’s from L.A.

  Enid was beyond pissed off.

  Nicky Shepard was wild in high school. He drove an old Mustang and hung out at the Shady Lady. He was always pretty much a loner, smoking cigarettes before anyone else and into alcohol and drugs. Jessica, during one of her wild periods, considered running away to San Francisco with him.

  About two years ago, he bottomed out. Now he lives in Utah teaching at an AA recovery center. Skinny as he was in high school, mostly from drugs, he’s close to roly-poly now, clean and content. He brought a date who is also a recovering alcoholic three years clean. They spent the wedding proselytizing anyone with a drink in hand. Everyone tried to escape.

  Cara Walker, ex-wife of Steven, came. A cheerleader at Sweet Valley High, she still has the figure, but she looks different now, more serious. Actually, she looks more like what she is now, a math student supporting herself by baking her way to a master’s degree.

  Recently she began dating an accountant and CFO of a chain of diet centers, whom she brought to the wedding. She and Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield are on good terms. She forgave Steven and even speaks to Jessica now.

  Annie Whitman, aka Easy Annie, so called because of her promiscuity in high school, married Charlie Markus, the boy who saved her. She is still beautiful, with dark curly hair, green eyes, and a flawless complexion that looked even more lovely against the cream and beige satin of her gown. Jessica thought it edged a little too close to white but let it pass.

  Annie and Charlie, who live in San Diego, are the parents of a two-year-old boy they brought to the wedding. That Jessica didn’t let pass.

  Annie is a lawyer and, by way of compensating for all the high school years lost in shyness and insecurity, has become an unstoppable talker. Still one of Elizabeth’s good friends, she spent most of the wedding giving Elizabeth and Bruce a condensed law 101 course. But they barely noticed.

  Robin Wilson was once very overweight, but she lost the excess pounds to join the PBA sorority. Once she was slim and beautiful and therefore acceptable, she saw how shallow the sorority sisters were and turned them down. Since then she has put on a bit of the weight because of her work as a senior editor of the West Coast Bon Appétit and owner of The Smart Cookie catering company. In fact, she catered Jessica’s wedding. Everyone said the food was great.

  Robin had a wonderful time dancing with her new husband, Dan Kane, a lawyer from Steven Wakefield’s office. She was delighted to see her old high school boyfriend, George Warren, who came in from England, where he represents a Silicon Valley company.

  Todd Wilkins, the groom. Who would have guessed? The high school basketball star, now a sports columnist for the Sweet Valley News, was elegantly dressed in a Hugo Boss tuxedo, and as adorable and charming as ever. He looked happy and nervous. And for good reason. Marriage to Jessica Wakefield is not likely to be a walk in the park. But from the joy and love on his face, he looks ready.

  * * *

  Of course, there were those people who weren’t there for the obvious reason.

  Winston Egbert had died earlier that year.

  Regina Morrow was the wonderful girl loved by everyone, who overcame a hearing disability only to die at sixteen from a bad combination of a heart murmur and a party drug.

  Tricia Martin was Steven’s first love, a lovely girl from a terrible family who died bravely of leukemia.

  Suzanne Devlin, who had stayed in Sweet Valley for a nightmare month as a guest of the Wakefields, is also
dead. Years ago she had caused a terrible scandal involving a sexual molestation charge that almost cost Roger Collins his career. In the nick of time, Elizabeth revealed Suzanne’s mendacity and saved the school’s favorite teacher.

  Suzanne was forced to leave Sweet Valley but returned six years later a changed person; unfortunately, she was ill with multiple sclerosis. She apologized to everyone, then crashed her specially equipped car after taking medication with champagne.

  * * *

  And, of course, there were our stars, the Wakefields.

  Ned and Alice Wakefield are the proud parents of Jessica, the bride, of Elizabeth, the maid of honor, and Steven, Todd’s usher.

  Ned walked his beautiful daughter down the aisle for the third time, but this time, everyone agreed, it felt right.

  Ned’s position as a senior partner in the biggest and most successful law firm in Sweet Valley meant most of the important people from Sweet Valley, the mayor included, came to the wedding. It was the social event of the season, just the way Jessica liked things.

  And lucky, too, that both Wakefields were so successful because, from Jessica and Todd’s initial impulse, “Let’s just run off and get married,” the wedding turned into a many-thousand-dollar country-club extravaganza.

  Alice still looked like an older version of the twins with her blond hair, blue eyes, and a figure trim enough to wear a body-hugging cream silk Mandarin-style gown. Three years ago she opened her own interior design office in the new mall in Sweet Valley, and it’s been successful enough that she was able to kick in for part of the bill.

  These last few years haven’t been easy for Alice. Just before she opened the new office, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a lumpectomy and a year of radiation, which slowed her down but didn’t stop her; she’s been very successful designing lobbies for new office buildings. And there are lots of them. Sweet Valley has burgeoned from a small town to a thriving city.

  Both she and Ned are very happy with their new son-in-law, Todd, but are holding their breath about their much-married daughter, Jessica.

  They have been holding their breath about Jessica for twenty-seven years now.

  Steven Wakefield was slim, dark, and handsome in his tuxedo. He served as an usher, as did his lover, Aaron Dallas. Steven was happy for his baby sister, for the moment. But he has no illusions. Maybe being truly in love will make a difference for Jessica. It certainly did with him. Since he found Aaron, Steven has never been happier. With any luck, and some good California politics, the Wakefields will end up with three sons-in-law.

  Elizabeth Wakefield was the maid of honor for her little sister (four minutes younger), Jessica. She’s glowing. The eternal “good girl” had a wild night with her new lover, Bruce Patman, and from the glorious happiness beaming on her face, a face that has been without joy for too long, she might really be in love.

  In fact, she is.

  All through the ceremony, she and her lover looked at each other with such passion that it was hard to know who was getting married.

  Jessica Wakefield, even in her sequined cream strapless wedding gown, still looks exactly like her twin, especially today, with her matching glow. Jessica, like her sister, Elizabeth, is truly in love.

  Actually, being the bride, with that ethereal quality that only brides have, she’s a hair more exquisite than her sister.

  She, too, without being blameless, has suffered these last months, and now she is shining with happiness.

  Happily, still Jessica, the one without the watch who always says that nothing starts until she gets there, is absolutely right today. The entire wedding party waited an extra fifteen minutes for the bride to appear.

  She was well worth the wait.

  ALSO BY FRANCINE PASCAL

  SERIES

  Sweet Valley High

  Sweet Valley Twins

  Sweet Valley Kids

  Sweet Valley University

  Fearless

  ADULT NOVELS

  Save Johanna!

  If Wishes Were Horses … (La Villa)

  YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

  Hangin’ Out with Cici (My Mother Was Never a Kid)

  My First Love and Other Disasters

  Love and Betrayal

  Hand-Me-Down Kid

  The Ruling Class

  NONFICTION

  The Strange Case of Patty Hearst (with John Pascal)

  THEATER

  George M! (with Michael Stewart and John Pascal)

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL. Copyright © 2011 by Francine Pascal. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  Sweet Valley® is a registered trademark of Francine Pascal.

  www.stmartins.com

  ISBN 978-0-312-66757-3

  First Edition: April 2011

  eISBN 978-1-4299-6520-0

  First St. Martin’s Press eBook Edition: March 2011