"I owe you a huge apology," Shelley said to Jim, her eyes fixed steadily on his. Jim had offered her a ride home from the game, but on the way they had stopped at the beach to take a walk. It was late in the day and the beach was almost deserted, so they had complete privacy. "I made much too big a deal out of having my picture taken. It's just that I've always had such a problem with self-esteem that I couldn't believe anyone would want a picture of me. Does that make sense?"
Jim nodded. "It does. I mean, it's hard for me to imagine it, given how pretty you are. But, yes, it makes sense. And I think I'm the one who owes you an apology. I should've respected your feelings and known better than to enter that contest. Or I could have at least submitted a different picture. It was just—" He looked at her intently. "It was just that I really did fall in love with that picture. It caught so much of you. I wanted to share it with the world."
Shelley put her hand on his arm. "So," she said softly, "you fell in love—with that picture?"
Jim's eyes were filled with emotion as he gently lifted her chin with his finger and stared searchingly into her eyes. "Not just with the picture," he whispered. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.
The next minute they were clinging to each other and kissing, finally able to express how they felt.
"So," Elizabeth said to Jeffrey, turning to him with a smile. It was early Friday evening, and they were sitting in the Wakefields' driveway in Jeffrey's car. "How does it feel to be a major prize-winning photographer? Still willing to show up at the dance with me tonight?"
"Oh," Jeffrey said, leaning over to give her a kiss, "I think I could be persuaded." He was thoughtful for a minute. "You know, the more of Jim's stuff I see, the more I think he's going to be a first-rate photographer one day."
"I know." Elizabeth nodded. "I'm glad his picture got published. It's really going to boost his confidence."
"I heard a News photographer say he thought they might be able to give Jim some free-lance work doing photography for the paper. This could really be the start of something big for him."
Elizabeth looked at Jeffrey thoughtfully. "No hard feelings about it? You're not upset you didn't come in first?"
Jeffrey shook his head. "Absolutely not. I feel lucky to gave gotten an award at all. Jim's in a different league—he's naturally talented. Yet he works so hard at it, too."
"One of the reasons I happen to be so crazy about you, Jeffrey French, is that you're unbelievably grown-up about stuff like this," Elizabeth admitted.
"Does that mean you're going to dance with me tonight? Or am I going to have to fend off the crowds of eligible young bachelors?"
Elizabeth giggled. Then she glanced at her watch and let out a little shriek. "If you're going to dance with a girl wearing anything other than these old jeans, I'd better get out of this car right now and start getting ready!" She jumped out of the car and leaned through the open window to give Jeffrey another kiss. "See you soon."
A few minutes after Jeffrey pulled out of the drive, Elizabeth ran upstairs and knocked on the door to the bathroom that separated her bedroom from her sister's.
"Jess? Can you hear me?"
After a long pause the door opened and steam billowed out. Jessica, her body wrapped in one towel and her hair wrapped in another, stared at her twin from behind a cosmetic face mask the color of cucumbers. "Hi," she said, a bottle of nail polish in one hand and an emery board in the other.
"Jess, I need to take a shower," Elizabeth moaned, staring past her sister into the impenetrable steam. "What's going on in here? You're going to melt the wallpaper off the walls."
"I was steaming my pores open," Jessica said calmly. "I'll be out in about fifteen minutes—I promise. I just have to soak my fingers before I do my nails."
"I'm going to soak more than your fingers if you don't let me in sooner than that," Elizabeth threatened. She knew by "Jessica time" that fifteen minutes would be more like an hour, and she really did need to get ready.
"OK," Jessica said, unperturbed. "Hey, Liz, you want to see the dress I'm wearing tonight?" She padded out of the bathroom, her wet feet making marks on the carpeting, and Elizabeth followed her.
Elizabeth whistled when she saw the dress spread out on Jessica's bed. It was the very latest fashion, a strapless dress with a puffy skirt in a beautiful shade of lilac. "Where'd you get the money for that?"
"Oh," Jessica said mildly, "I just used some of the money in my savings account. Well, most of it, I guess. Amy and I have a bet that I know I can win, and she's going to owe me the cost of the dress."
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "You're that sure you can win? What's the bet about?"
Jessica started wiping the mask off with a tissue. "Well, Patrick McLean's coming to the dance tonight. The principal invited him. Amy's got the absurd idea that she can get him to dance with her tonight before I can." Jessica wiped another streak of face mask off. "It's perfectly obvious he doesn't like her. I mean, just the one time he danced with me in class I could tell how he really felt. It's just fate, Liz. Total fate. He's the guy for me, I can tell."
"Right," Elizabeth said with a chuckle. She had heard her twin say the same thing about so many guys by now that she couldn't even bring herself to argue with her. "So you bet Amy that you can get Patrick to dance with you before she can?"
Jessica nodded. "It's a sure bet. The only problem is, I'll have to get to the dance pretty early. I hate to be unfashionably on time, but it would be just like Amy to pull something like getting there before me and forcing him to dance with her first."
Elizabeth picked up the price tag, which was still dangling from the dress. "Well, I hope you win, Jess. Otherwise, this could be the greatest financial setback since the stock market crash."
"How could I possibly not win the bet?"
Elizabeth shrugged. It was true that when her sister wanted something this badly, she usually got it. "You're sure Patrick's coming to this dance?"
"Positive. He told us during our last lesson. Weren't you there? We were learning the cha-cha." Jessica did a few steps to show Elizabeth, who cracked up at the sight of her towel-clad twin, with half of her face still covered by the mask, cha-cha-cha-ing in her bedroom.
"I missed that class. I was out with Jeffrey," Elizabeth admitted. "Well, good luck, Jess. I'm going to see if I can survive the steam you left in the bathroom and get ready for the dance myself."
"Wait!" Jessica shrieked. "I left all my nail stuff in there." She raced into the bathroom, emerging a minute later with all her manicure supplies.
Elizabeth wiped off the mirror in the bathroom and opened the window to get rid of some of the steam. "You know," she said conversationally, "this should be a pretty big night for Shelley Novak. Do you think she's going to get some kind of special award from the Varsity Club?"
"I don't know. Did you see Jim's picture of her in the paper today? She looked great." Jessica dashed cold water on her face to get rid of the rest of the mask. "Boy, I wouldn't mind having a boyfriend like Jim Roberts. Imagine getting your picture in the paper all the time." Her eyes shone. "Maybe after Patrick and I get engaged, we can tour all over, doing the tango and the cha-cha, and our picture will be plastered all over the place." She sighed. "Who knows? We might even hire Jim to be our personal photographer."
Elizabeth groaned. "You're counting on an awful lot," she commented.
Jessica was too busy daydreaming to respond. She almost wished she had charged a pair of shoes at Lisette's to match her dress. As it was, she was letting Amy off too easy!
Twelve
Shelley took a deep breath, then stepped back and looked at herself in the mirror. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"You look beautiful," her mother whispered.
Shelley couldn't stop staring at herself. For the first time in her life, she liked what she saw.
When she had gotten home from the basketball game, her mother had surprised her with a big box from a store Shelley had never heard of
before. Inside was the most gorgeous dress Shelley had ever seen. It fitted her perfectly. It was much sleeker and more sophisticated than anything Shelley had ever worn. It was made of a light gray silk fabric that gleamed like silver, with off-the-shoulder sleeves and a soft skirt that made her want to dance right then and there. That wasn't all. Her mother had spent ages with Shelley, putting mousse on her hair and styling it, then applying makeup to dramatize her large gray eyes. She really did look like a model when she was ready.
"You know," her mother added, admiring the dress, "I'm going to say something that may surprise you. But the reason you look beautiful has nothing to do with the new dress and the makeup. I don't know what happened to you this week, but you're like a whole new person, Shelley. I've never seen you hold your head so high. You look positively regal."
Shelley gave her a hug. "Oh, Mom," she said. She knew what had changed. It was only partly the fact that she had met someone she really cared about—and had a genuine boyfriend instead of an impossible, silly crush on Greg Hilliard. It had more to do with the fact she had learned, finally, to have some confidence in herself. She didn't hate being tall anymore. She was different from other girls, sure, but that didn't mean there was anything wrong with her.
The door bell rang, and Shelley's mother got to her feet. "That must be Jim," she said. "Should I go downstairs and tell him you're nearly ready?"
Shelley nodded, her eyes shining. And when her mother left the room, she spun around in a circle so that she could see the soft gray dress twirl around her legs. She couldn't wait to dance in Jim's arms! And she knew that this time she wasn't going to feel like a klutz.
The Varsity Club dance was being held in a ballroom at the new Royal Hotel in downtown Sweet Valley. Though the purpose of the dance was to honor athletes, the whole school had been invited, and it looked as though there would be a big turnout. Jessica hated to leave her post on the front steps of the hotel, where she had been watching everyone arrive. There was nothing Jessica loved more than seeing who came with whom, who had new dresses, who looked good and who didn't. But, of course, the main point of her post on the steps was to watch out for Patrick—and for Amy.
The dance officially began at eight o'clock. By eight-fifteen Patrick hadn't arrived. Jessica was craning her neck, trying to get a glimpse of him, when she saw something that made her heart stand still.
At first she couldn't believe her eyes. She thought she must be seeing things, and she actually rubbed her eyes and blinked twice.
But there was Amy Sutton, bouncing up the steps to the hotel, her blond hair shining, her eyes bright. That wasn't what was making Jessica so crazy, though. Amy always looked good.
What she was staring at was Amy's dress: strapless, lilac, with a puffy skirt: the exact same dress Jessica was wearing!
Jessica's eyes widened with horror. Amy hadn't seen her yet. She was too busy skipping lightly up the steps in a pair of silvery sandals that Jessica had to admit looked even better with the dress than the cream-colored pumps she herself was wearing. Then Amy stopped short, and all the happiness vanished from her face. Her mouth dropped open in surprise.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Jessica demanded harshly.
Lila Fowler was climbing up the steps with her date, and she stopped to gaze at Amy and Jessica with amused interest. "Jessica, I thought you had enough of that twin stuff with your own sister," she commented dryly.
"Ha, ha, very funny, Lila," Jessica said.
"Jessica Wakefield, get out of that dress right now!" Amy practically shouted.
"What do you mean, get out of it? What am I supposed to do, go to the dance naked? Besides, why should I get out of it? It's my dress," Jessica said coldly. "I happen to have bought mine on Tuesday."
"So what?" Amy cried. "Jessica, there's no way we're going into that ballroom wearing the identical dress. I'd rather die."
"So die," Jessica said furiously.
Amy was about to say the same thing to Jessica when her gray eyes flew open even wider. "Jess, look," she whispered, staring down the stairs as a white limousine pulled up. Patrick McLean was getting out of the backseat. "He looks so gorgeous," Amy crooned, her anger and humiliation apparently forgotten as she stared at the handsome young man. Patrick looked even more striking than usual in a simple black tuxedo. He really did look like a movie star.
Jessica stared at him, too. But her pleasure at seeing Patrick was replaced by shock as she watched him turn back to the limousine, extend his hand, and help someone out.
"Oh, no," Amy moaned. "He's got a date!"
And not just any date. The woman who got out of the limo was startlingly beautiful. She looked a little older than Patrick, maybe twenty-four or so, and she was wearing a designer dress, all glitter, and a real diamond necklace!
"You're not going to find anyone here with her dress," Amy said. The two girls stood staring down at Patrick and his date, their faces fixed in identical expressions of dejection. When Patrick climbed the stairs, he smiled at them.
"You two look adorable," he said.
His date's eyes flicked over their dresses, her eyebrows raised. Jessica felt ready to die with humiliation. She couldn't bear it for another second.
"Well, I guess we both messed up," Amy said after Patrick and his date had entered the main door of the hotel.
Jessica didn't feel ready to forgive her yet. "Maybe," she said frostily.
"Jess, don't you see just the tiniest bit of humor in this whole thing?" Amy said, beginning to giggle.
Jessica tossed her head back, ready to make a mean retort. But she couldn't help giggling a little bit, too. They really did look ridiculous together.
And under the circumstances, what could they possibly do but laugh?
After an hour of dancing, white-haired Coach Schultz, the head coach at Sweet Valley High, tapped a spoon against his wineglass to signal that the awards ceremony would begin. The crowd fell silent as they listened to the coach's brief speech. He thanked them all for coming and for their support of the athletic program at Sweet Valley High. Then he read a long list of the athletes who had earned letters that year, and he asked everyone for a round of applause.
Shelley was standing right next to Jim on the dance floor, enjoying herself immensely. The dance had been even more fun so far than she could ever have imagined. Seeing Greg with Carol no longer bothered her. In fact, she hoped they were as happy as she and Jim were.
"Now, there's one very special part of our program tonight," Coach Schultz continued. "This year we are lucky to be able to give a very special award. Our benefactors have established a trust fund for one star athlete, the money to be used as funds for college."
The whole ballroom was very still as everyone stared at each other. No one had expected this to happen. Shelley felt her mouth go dry.
"This year we had a number of exceptional athletes, and it was extremely difficult to decide among them. But I think that, after this afternoon, you'll all agree with our decision. I'd like you all to join me in congratulating Shelley Novak as our very first Varsity Club Athlete of the Year!"
The whole ballroom erupted into wild applause. Shelley was so stunned, she couldn't move. "Shel," Jim whispered, squeezing her shoulder. "You need to go up there!"
The applause grew deafening as Shelley climbed up the stairs to take the certificate and the medal Mr. Townsend handed her. In her wildest dreams she couldn't have imagined this. A five-thousand-dollar college scholarship!
Shelley's eyes filled with tears as she looked out over the audience. Then she singled out Jim's face, and the tears spilled over. She was certain she had never known before what it felt like to be really happy. Next to Jim, she saw Cathy lift her right arm and make a fist, giving her the victory signal. And without hesitation, Shelley raised her arm and gave her the signal right back.
Patrick McLean stood in the center of the ballroom and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "This is a surprise," he announced, giving them all
a big smile. "But my date, Ellen, has given me a wonderful idea."
Amy and Jessica rolled their eyes at each other in disgust.
"We're going to have a dance contest. The dance will be a waltz. The couple who wins will get a free set of lessons at the McLean Studio when it opens next month in Sweet Valley."
Everyone applauded, and the band hired by the Varsity Club began playing a lovely Viennese waltz as the couples who knew how to waltz came forward.
"Should we try?" Jim asked Shelley with a smile.
"Why not?" she said, giving him her hand. "We're on a roll."
Only ten couples were competing. Shelley noticed Greg and Carol out on the floor. Kurt Campbell and Jessica waltzed right next to Amy Sutton and Bruce Patman, and Shelley almost started to laugh when she saw the girls were wearing the same dresses. Something told her they hadn't planned that. Elizabeth and Jeffrey, Lila and her date, and several couples from the senior and sophomore classes whom Shelley didn't know were also in the contest. After the first movement of the waltz, Patrick and his date selected four couples to continue: Greg and Carol, Jessica and Kurt, Amy and Bruce, and Shelley and Jim!
"I can't believe it," Jim said with a grin. "How come I'm not stepping on your feet this time?"
Shelley smiled deep into his eyes. For the same reason I feel graceful in your arms, she thought. Because . . .
"Because you make me feel so happy that everything's possible when we're together," he whispered.
Shelley listened to the music and just enjoyed being in Jim's arms for the next few minutes. She wasn't really aware of what was going on around her, though she did hear Jessica and Amy shriek as they collided, and heard uproarious laughter from the crowd as the two girls and their partners were eliminated. She couldn't believe it, though, when the second movement ended and Patrick announced that the contest was down to two couples: Greg and Carol, and Shelley and Jim.
"Good luck, Novak," Greg said, punching her lightly on the arm.
Shelley smiled. Never in a million years could she have guessed this would happen. But here she was, dancing in the arms of a guy she was in love with, competing for first place in a dance contest against Greg!
Perfect Shot (Sweet Valley High Book 55) Page 8
