Dear Sister

by Francine Pascal

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Pascal Letter

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Also by Francine Pascal

  Copyright

  Dear Reader,

  The minute I came up with the idea of Sweet Valley High, now thirty years ago, I knew it was perfect. But I knew it needed something else. And that something else was girl power. Unlike the Sleeping Beauty version of romance novels, where the heroine has to wait for the wake-up kiss, in my series the girls would drive the action. And there would be two of them; the good and the bad in all of us.

  After that all I needed were the stories. With my three daughters and my own teenage years to draw on, I had endless possibilities. I started with a bible where I developed the characters, the school, and the town, and then began writing the stories for first twelve books, and then twelve more and more and more until I had written 144 stories. And then with the help of other writers, they became the 144 books of the Sweet Valley High series, which more than 100 million fans have loved.

  And now it’s all back as e-books for a whole new generation of teenagers who want to lose themselves in the world of Sweet Valley, the fantasy of the eighties, and the best high school no one ever went to.

  And for the grown women who want to look back at the love of their high school lives and revel in the nostalgia of life with the most incredible twins, read away.

  Sincerely,

  Francine Pascal

  To Alexandra Guarnaschelli

  One

  Elizabeth Wakefield lay still on the high, narrow hospital bed—as still as if she were dead, her twin sister Jessica thought. As she stood looking down at the motionless body, tears rolled down Jessica’s cheeks. Day after day she had sat beside her sister’s bed in Joshua Fowler Memorial Hospital waiting for her to regain consciousness.

  “Lizzie, oh, Lizzie, please hear me,” Jessica sobbed. “You can’t die!”

  Although Elizabeth and Jessica were identical twins, it was far from obvious now. Before the terrible motorcycle accident that had put Elizabeth in a coma, it was extremely difficult to tell the beautiful sixteen-year-old girls apart. When people in the sunny town of Sweet Valley, California, saw a five-foot-six gloriously attractive young girl with sun-streaked blond hair and sparkling blue-green eyes, they knew it was one of the Wakefield twins, but they couldn’t always be sure which one.

  Now the difference was striking, and heartbreaking to see. Elizabeth, once vibrant and lively, was frozen in pale, unmoving silence. She hardly resembled the vivacious girl she had been just a few days earlier. Jessica’s fresh, youthful beauty was still very much in evidence, but it was marred by a worried expression, eyes red from crying, and a frown of pain and sorrow that seemed to have become permanent.

  Jessica’s fixed expression of misery had been there since her sister was brought into the emergency room after the motorcycle accident. Jessica had ridden in the ambulance with Elizabeth. Their parents, Ned and Alice Wakefield, had raced to the hospital, as had the twins’ older brother Steven. They had all seen that stricken look on Jessica’s face and assured her Elizabeth would be all right. But as the days went by and Elizabeth remained silent, Jessica’s fears grew and the look of misery deepened.

  Now, she sat down slowly on the chair next to her sister’s bed. Looking at the medical equipment, she shivered. She knew the IV going into Elizabeth’s arm fed her sister life-sustaining nutrients. But the other tubes and machines frightened her.

  Jessica took Elizabeth’s limp hand in hers and pleaded, “Lizzie, you know how much I love you, how much everybody loves you. They love you more than me! You just can’t die, Lizzie. I can’t go through the rest of my life without you.”

  Elizabeth’s hand remained slack. There was no answering squeeze, no flickering of eyelids. There was absolutely nothing.

  A hand fell on Jessica’s shoulder. Startled, she jerked her head up. Her blue-green eyes met a pair of soft brown ones in a kind face.

  “Miss Wakefield?”

  “Yes.”

  “I could see the resemblance. You’re both beautiful.”

  Jessica regarded the man in his white lab coat, afraid of the news he might bring.

  “I can only guess how painful it is for you to see your sister like this.”

  “I’m so worried!”

  The man stooped so that his face was on a level with hers.

  “Jessica, we’re doing everything we can for Elizabeth. We’re trying our best to make her well. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  She nodded mutely. Did he mean Elizabeth was going to be OK, or …

  “My name is John Edwards. I’m the neurosurgeon on your sister’s case.”

  “Dr. Edwards?”

  “That’s right, Jessica. Your sister is in a coma. You know what that is, don’t you?”

  “It means Liz is going to die!” Jessica’s voice cracked, and the tears started again. She sobbed as if her heart were breaking.

  She felt strong hands on her shoulders, shaking her gently but insistently. “Stop it, Jessica. Crying isn’t going to help your sister. Elizabeth needs your strength, not your tears.”

  Jessica raised a tearstained face. “You don’t understand!”

  “I know how upset you are.”

  “You don’t understand, Dr. Edwards,” she said again. “It’s my fault, all my fault.”

  “Jessica, were you driving the car that hit the motorcycle?”

  “No, of course not!”

  “Then why is it your fault?” he asked kindly.

  “Because I was supposed to give her a ride! I was selfish and left without her so she had to go with Todd on his motorcycle. If I’d waited, she wouldn’t.… Oh, I should have waited. It is my fault!”

  Suddenly Dr. Edwards’s hands were cupping her face, forcing her to look up. “Jessica, accidents happen. They aren’t anyone’s fault. And right now, blame isn’t important. Guiding Elizabeth back to all of us is. That’s what we have to do. You and your brother and your parents have to bring Elizabeth back. I’ll help, Jessica, but it’s really up to you.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. You’re the person closest to her. You have the best chance of reaching her.”

  “How? How do I reach her?”

  “Talk to her. Just talk to her.” He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, walked to the window, and stared blankly. Suddenly he turned, and Jessica saw anger and frustration in his face.

  “Jessica, doctors can keep people alive with machines, but we can’t will them to come back to us. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen, no matter how much you or I want it. The only thing we can do is try.”

  “I’ll try. I’ll do anything for Liz.”

  “I know you will. Take care of your sister, and I’ll be in later to check on her.”

  As soon as the doctor was gone, Jessica looked down at Elizabeth’s quiet figure.

  “Liz, can you hear me? Please, Lizzie. It was my fault you got hurt. Well, maybe not all my fault, but
I know you would never have let me down like that. I don’t know how you do it. When you tell someone you’re going to be somewhere, you’re there. People can count on you. Only a jerk would count on me. Lizzie, I promise to be more responsible in the future. But I can’t do it without you. You have to get well, Liz! I need you so much!”

  The figure on the bed remained motionless.

  “Jess, why don’t we go down to the cafeteria for a cup of tea?”

  Jessica jumped. Right now, the world consisted only of her sister and herself. She’d been so involved she hadn’t even heard her mother come into the room.

  “Oh, Mom, I’m so scared!” she sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  “Jess, honey, don’t cry like this. Elizabeth isn’t going to die. We won’t let her! You’ll see, darling. She’ll come out of this, and everything will be the same as it was before the accident.”

  Jessica wanted to believe her mother’s words. She wished with all her heart that she could turn back the clock to the night Elizabeth had been hurt.

  Normally, Elizabeth would have gone to Enid Rollins’s sweet-sixteen party with her boyfriend Todd Wilkins, but Todd had had to be at a party for his grandfather early in the evening. Since he’d promised to get away as soon as possible and join Elizabeth at the country club, she hadn’t minded too much arriving at the party with Jessica and her date for the night, Brian. She hadn’t even been upset when Todd called midway through the party to tell her he would be later than he’d expected. But she’d been furious when he hadn’t shown up until the party was over.

  Still, Elizabeth loved Todd so much that even a broken date couldn’t keep her mad at him for long, especially when she found out where he’d been. Todd had been making a deal to sell his motorcycle. Elizabeth couldn’t believe it when he told her. Owning that bike had been a dream of Todd’s ever since he was a little kid. But he was selling it now because it was making problems between Elizabeth and him, and because he loved her.

  Elizabeth had looked over at the bike. Suddenly she wasn’t afraid of it anymore, or of what her parents would do if they ever found out she’d taken a ride on it. She thought about it for a moment. Since Jessica had left without her, she had no way of getting to the Caravan, the club where the rest of the kids had gone after Enid’s party. She was stranded. Unless …

  Then she made the decision, perhaps the worst one of her life. She got on the bike.

  At first, nothing could have felt better than to ride behind the boy she loved as the motorcycle leaned into the curves of the road, the wind whipping through her hair. And she hadn’t even seen the out-of-control van coming toward them until it was too late.

  * * *

  “Liz, answer me, please!” Jessica urged from her sister’s bedside. “How about if I say it was all my fault? Would that bring you back? I’ll make a deal with you, Lizzie. I’ll take all the blame, and you’ll live. What do you say?”

  Desperation warred with hopelessness in Jessica’s mind. “It’s not fair,” she cried. “Crunch McAllister wasn’t even hurt when he hit Todd’s bike with his van, and Todd wasn’t, either. But you’re in a coma, and you never did a single thing to deserve it. Oh, Liz, I want everything to be like it was before. I want to tease you about your writing. You never got mad at me for that, did you? You always understand me, Liz. Nobody else does, not even me sometimes. I guess that’s the big difference between us. You can get into other people’s heads and then do things that make them feel better.” Jessica sat quietly for a few minutes, feeling helpless.

  “Darn it, Liz, wake up! You absolutely cannot do this to me. You know very well I can’t cope without you. You’re being selfish—and I’ll never forgive you if you die!”

  Just when she thought she was totally out of tears, they came again. “Oh, no! I must be a beast to talk like this to you, Liz!”

  “Jessica?”

  She whirled around to find Dr. Edwards looking at her with concern.

  “Jessica, when I told you to talk to Elizabeth, I had something else in mind.”

  “I did something wrong?”

  “Not wrong, but not what I had in mind.”

  “What should I do?”

  “I’ve got an idea, Jessica.” He grinned at her reassuringly, ruffling her sun-streaked hair. “Just talk to your sister about everyday things. Don’t lay your guilt on her. Talk about family, school, boys—whatever. Just chat, as if you expected her to understand and answer.”

  “That will bring her out of it?”

  “No promises, Jessica. Maybe yes, maybe no. Isn’t it worth a try?”

  “I’ll try anything if it will help Liz.”

  So, for the next two days, Elizabeth’s twilight world was bombarded with memories.

  “Remember the time I tried to take Todd away from you? I would have killed someone for doing that to me, but not you. You were willing to step aside if I was the one Todd really liked. But you were always the one he wanted, Liz. And he was right to pick you. No wonder everyone loves you. You’re good and kind, and you really care about other people. Take Enid Rollins, for example. She’s world-class dull, for heaven’s sake. But she’s your friend so you always stick up for her. When I blabbed her secret to everybody, you were right there defending her. Now I’m sorry for the way I acted, Liz, and I promise I’ll never make another crack about Enid, ever!

  “Do you mind if I say something about your makeup, Liz? Don’t get me wrong, you always look good, but with more eye makeup and blusher, you could be sensational. And your clothes. Jeans and button-down shirts are OK, but sometimes you’re too conservative. When you get out of here, we’ve got to go shopping. I’ll help you pick out some really spectacular outfits, OK?

  “You are going to get well, Liz, I just know it. You’re going to get back into things at school. You’re still the star reporter of The Oracle. No one else could write the “Eyes and Ears” column as well as you do. You always manage to keep it light and funny. You know, Liz, I bet it’s probably the only gossip column in the world people actually want to be in. You never make anyone look bad. And I’m sorry, Liz, I really am sorry for trying to talk you into putting items in about me just because I’m your sister. I swear I’ll never do that again.

  “Oh, Lizzie,” she whispered, “wake up, please. If you’ll just wake up, I’ll do anything you want me to. I’ll be your slave for life!”

  Jessica rested her head on the bed, exhausted. She heard a sound and looked up, but she was still alone in the room with Elizabeth. The sound came again, and she turned, trying to figure out where it had come from.

  A soft moan came from the still figure on the bed.

  “Liz?”

  Jessica burst out into the corridor.

  “Mom! Dad! Dr. Edwards! Somebody! She’s awake!”

  In seconds a small crowd had gathered in Elizabeth’s room. Alice and Ned Wakefield were so nervous they could hardly breathe as Dr. Edwards examined Elizabeth.

  He straightened and turned to them with a smile. “I think your daughter has decided to come back to us!”

  “Dr. Edwards, you’re the most wonderful person in the world,” Jessica cried.

  “You deserve a lot of the credit, Jessica.”

  “I do?” Jessica shivered with pride, relief, and just plain ecstasy. Elizabeth was awake, and she’d helped!

  Alice Wakefield bent over the bed. “Liz? Sweetheart, we’re here. Can you hear us?”

  Eyelids fluttered, but nothing more.

  “Doctor?”

  “Let Jessica try, Mrs. Wakefield. I think she has a special way of communicating with her sister.”

  Aware of the eyes on her and glowing with happiness, Jessica walked over to the bed. Everything was going to be wonderful, she just knew it.

  “Liz. Hey, Lizzie, time to wake up.”

  Elizabeth’s eyes opened fully. She stared at her twin sister and moistened her dry lips. “Jessica!”

  Two

  “Hi, Liz, your favorite twin sister is her
e at last!” Jessica bounced into the hospital room, an overnight bag in one hand, a canvas carryall in the other. She stopped dead in her tracks, however, when she saw Elizabeth crying. Dropping the bags on the floor, she rushed to the bed.

  “Liz, what is it? Are you hurting? I’ll call a nurse, a doctor!” Please don’t let her have a relapse, Jessica prayed.

  Elizabeth covered her face with her hands and sobbed. “No, don’t call anybody. I don’t want anybody to see me, Jess!” she cried.

  Totally confused, Jessica sank down onto the chair. “What do you mean?”

  Elizabeth took her hands away from her face and sat up. “Look at me. Just look at me!”

  Jessica stared at her sister, hoping to find a clue for the tears. Elizabeth’s face was a little pale, but how could anyone expect to keep a tan lying in a hospital bed? Her blue-green eyes didn’t sparkle as brightly as they used to, but time and rest would take care of that. Jessica had to admit that Elizabeth’s usually shiny, bouncy blond hair was hanging limply, but none of those things seemed important enough to be upsetting, not after the miracle of coming back to life.

  Still mystified, Jessica asked, “Please tell me why you’re crying.”

  “Wouldn’t you cry if you looked like me?” Elizabeth shouted the words at her stunned sister.

  “If I looked like you?” Jessica wished somebody else were there to handle this. “Liz,” she said softly, “I do look like you. We’re twins, remember?”

  “Of course I remember,” Elizabeth snapped, narrowing her eyes. “What are you trying to tell me, Jess? Are you saying I’m stupid, or maybe crazy because I got hit on the head?”

  “For heaven’s sake, Liz, I’m not saying you’re crazy,” Jessica protested. “You’ve been in an accident—and in a coma until three days ago. You’re lucky to be alive.”

  “And look like this?”

  I don’t believe this, Jessica thought. Elizabeth was actually worried about her looks. A part of Jessica thought it strange, but another part was overjoyed. And, of course, she was relieved when she realized her sister’s tears didn’t mean she was having some sort of relapse. Worrying about looks was something Jessica could easily understand.