SVH05-All Night Long (10 page)

"When are they posting them?" Enid asked, biting her lip.

"After fourth period, I think," Elizabeth replied.

"Did you ever tell Jessica it wasn't a done deal?" Enid asked. "Is she prepared?"

"No," Elizabeth said, blushing in shame. Her pulse pounded nervously. "I didn't have the heart. I mean, why freak her out when it might all turn out to be okay?"

***

"I can't believe it! This is so not happening!"

Jessica stared at the test results posted on the bulletin board outside the principal's office. Elizabeth approached her sister tentatively, her heart slamming around in her chest. Obviously, the worst had occurred, but she had to see for herself. She looked up at the board and there it was in black and white.

WAKEFIELD, E: PASS

WAKEFIELD, J: FAIL

"I failed!" Jessica wailed to her sister.

Well, not
you,
exactly,
Elizabeth corrected silently.

"I--I don't understand how it happened," Elizabeth stammered, her cheeks growing pink.

Jessica stared at Elizabeth, her shocked expression hardening into one of suspicion.

"Me neither, considering that
you
passed," she said, her voice low but piercing. "How can you pass the test one period and then fail the exact same one an hour later?"

Elizabeth swallowed hard. Her guilt overwhelmed her, along with the sting of failure-a sting she wasn't used to.

"Well, the questions were a little bit different,"

she said, clutching the strap on her book bag for dear life.

"Yeah, but it had to be pretty much the same stuff," Jessica replied. "They wouldn't make one version harder than the other. That wouldn't be fair." She crossed her arms over her stomach and leaned back against the wall next to the board, as if she couldn't look at it anymore. "How could you do this to me?"

"Me? I didn't do anything to you!" Elizabeth replied in a whisper. The hall was crowded, after all, and a few teachers were loitering a couple of yards away. "You're the one who stayed out all night and didn't even bother to show up for school. I was just trying to help."

"Yeah. A lot of good that did me," Jessica said sarcastically, looking away.

"I don't believe you," Elizabeth fumed, her guilt turning instantly to anger. "Do you even realize what I went through for you that day? Do you even care? You broke, like, ten of Mom and Dad's rules and what happens to you? Nothing. Consequences, zero. And why? Because
I
helped you. I
cheated
for you," Elizabeth hissed, lowering her

voice. "And I lost my boyfriend in the process. I'm the only one who paid for your screwup."

Wow.
It felt really good to get that off her chest. Jessica looked at Liz, her blue-green eyes soft, and for a split second Elizabeth was sure she was going to apologize, but she was wrong. Jessica's softness disappeared in an instant and was replaced by a hard expression.

"So you did this on purpose? To make sure that I paid for what I did?" Jessica said accusingly, her skin turning a bright, indignant pink.

Elizabeth laughed. She had to. Leave it to Jessica to completely miss the point and make it all about her.

"You are totally insane," she said.

"Am I?" Jessica asked, standing up straight. "It makes perfect sense to me. You're all pissed off because I get away with something, so you decide to teach me a lesson. Sounds exactly like something the high-and-mighty Liz Wakefield would do."

"You are totally cracked," Elizabeth replied, so angry now she felt as if she were going to explode.

"All I did that day was worry about
you.
Take care of
your
crap. Lie and cheat
for you."

"Well, gee, Liz. Thanks for nothing," Jessica said sarcastically, flinging a hand up toward the test results.

"You cannot be mad at me about this," Elizabeth replied through her teeth. "You should have been here to take your own test. It's not my fault you weren't."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't be mad about, Liz," Jessica said, tossing her glossy blond hair over her shoulder. "I
know
you flunked me on purpose and I'm never going to forgive you for it. Never."

Then she turned on her heel and stormed off down the hall, her chin up in a self-righteous pose. Elizabeth turned and slumped against the wall, stunned. Her legs felt like rubber and her throat was completely dry. It was amazing how Jessica could twist the truth to suit her own needs. And now Liz had lost not only Todd but her sister as well. All because she had tried to help.

How had one stupid favor gone so hideously wrong?

***

CHAPTER
11

The very idea of sitting through another lunch period without Todd made Elizabeth feel weak, so instead she took her bagged lunch and ducked out the back door of the school. She just wanted to be alone so that she could think and sort out her feelings. It was a rare cloudy day for Southern California, and a cool breeze whipped Elizabeth's hair off her face as she made her way to the practice fields behind the school.

Off in the distance, a freshman gym class was playing soccer under the watchful eye of Mr.

Crowe, one of the school's gym teachers. But the practice football field was deserted. Elizabeth sunk down onto the empty bleachers and stared blankly at the green grass crisscrossed by the faded white yard lines. The air smelled faintly of freshly mown lawn, and Elizabeth recalled the last time she had sat there, watching Todd and the team work their way through a grueling practice. Ken had tossed up an arching pass as Todd had streaked down the field with Austin Handler, one of the SVH defenders, right on his heels. It had seemed as if there was no way Todd could make the catch with Austin covering him so closely, but at the last second, Todd had faked Austin out and plucked the ball right out of the air. Elizabeth had been so transfixed she hadn't even realized how loudly she had cheered until Jessica and the other cheerleaders had started teasing her.

Before Elizabeth knew it, tears started trickling down her cheeks. It was amazing how everything could change so quickly. One second she and Todd were the perfect couple, and the next they weren't even speaking. She shivered, hugging herself in her thin T-shirt as the wind kicked up. Why had she

thought that coming out here would be a good idea? The only way this could get more depressing would be for it to start raining.

Liz was about to get up and retreat to the warmth of the school when suddenly someone slipped a jacket over her shoulders. She recognized the scent of Todd's aftershave before she even turned around. Her heart was in her throat.

"Don't say anything," he told her with a tentative glance. "Let me talk first, okay?"

Elizabeth nodded, too stunned to speak. Todd sat down next to her, and the added warmth of his body heat negated the chill in the air. He was here. He was really here. And he was talking to her again. She slipped her arms into the leather sleeves of his varsity jacket, savoring the familiar feeling of the quilted lining.

"So, I've been thinking a lot the past few days and I've come to a conclusion," Todd said, lacing his fingers together and leaning his forearms on his thighs. He was wearing a green rugby shirt that brought out the gold flecks in his eyes, and his brown hair looked sexy all tossed by the wind. Elizabeth was practically mesmerized. "Would you like to hear my conclusion?" he asked.

"Sure," Elizabeth replied.

"We're both a couple of idiots," he said.

Elizabeth laughed and blushed, looking down at her untouched lunch on the bench in front of her.

"We haven't talked in, like, three days," he said.

"I don't know about you, but for me it's pretty much sucked. And I figure that considering how idiotic we both are, if one of us didn't say something soon, we might never talk again and that would
really
suck, so--"

"Todd?" Elizabeth said.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You're rambling," she told him jokingly.

"Right." He pressed his palms into his jeans.

"Okay, so I'm not saying I think I was
totally
wrong. I mean, I think we both said some stupid stuff, so I think we should just call a truce so that we can kiss and make up. Because the not-kissing thing has
definitely
sucked."

Elizabeth laughed again. "I totally agree."

Todd smiled. "Good."

He reached up and ran a thumb along her cheek, gently clearing away one of her tears. Elizabeth's heart fluttered and she felt her pulse in every inch of her body as his dark eyes looked into hers. He

leaned in and their lips touched and Elizabeth felt as if she had just woken up after some horrible, lonely nightmare.

"I missed you," he said, leaning his forehead against hers.

"I missed you, too," she replied.

"Liz, I'm so sorry-"

"I thought we weren't apologizing," she reminded him.

"Right." He blinked and sat back slightly but slid an arm around her back. "So I'm not sorry."

"Me neither," she replied with a grin.

"Good," he said, smiling back.

A sudden gust of wind blew all Elizabeth's hair forward and several strands stuck to her face where her tears had started to dry. She shoved it back and groped in her bag for a ponytail holder. Todd laughed and fished from his own bag a cafeteria napkin, which he handed to her. Elizabeth fixed her hair, wiped her face, blew her nose, and felt much, much better.

"Todd?" she said tentatively.

"Yeah?"

"I really can't believe some of the things I said

to you," she said, toying with the now crumpled napkin.

"Yeah. I said some pretty stupid stuff too," he said. "All that crap about Jessica... Maybe I'm not her biggest fan, but I shouldn't have said those things. My sister irritates me half the time, but I'd probably waste someone else if they said stuff like that about her."

Elizabeth scoffed. "Yeah, well, I'm not Jessica's biggest fan at the moment either."

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"I don't know. Do you think it's safe?" she said, only half serious.

"Let me guess," Todd said. "She saw the test results."

"Yeah," Elizabeth said.

"Yeah, I saw them too. I figured that might cause a problem," he said. "But I'm glad you passed, at least."

"Thanks."

"So she freaked?" he asked.

"Big-time," Elizabeth replied. "It's so insane. It's like she doesn't even believe I tried."

"Well, I know you did," Todd told her.

"Thanks." Elizabeth took a deep breath and blew it out. "You were so right. I never should have taken that test for her. It's not me, and I knew that. I knew it when you said it to me. I think that's why I blew up like that--because I knew you were right."

"Well, you did it for the right reasons," Todd said, giving her a squeeze. "You were just trying to help, and you wanted to spend time with your sister next summer. That's understandable."

"Wow," Elizabeth said, looking up at him incredulously. "You're getting really good at this."

"At what?" he asked.

"This being understanding thing."

Todd shrugged. "I've been working on it. And no matter what I think of Jessica, I love how much you love her."

Elizabeth smiled and Todd leaned in to kiss her forehead. As her eyes fluttered closed, he kissed her right cheek, then her left, then her nose before finally arriving at her lips.

"What kind of kiss do you call that?" she asked when she'd caught her breath.

"Hmmm... a connect-the-dots kiss?" he suggested.

"Interesting," she said with a smile.

"And this is a shut-up-and-enjoy-it kiss," he said, pulling her closer to him.

He caught her up in a long, deep, searching kiss. Elizabeth melted into him, all wrapped up in his warmth and his scent and his closeness. She was so content at that moment she could have stayed there all day. When he finally broke away, she cuddled closer to him, pressing her cheek into his chest.

"I love you," she murmured.

He kissed the top of her head. "Some truce, huh?"

"More like a surrender," she joked.

"On both sides, of course," Todd added. "Hey, Liz?"

She looked up, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"I love you, too."

The words sent a pleasant tingle through her chest.

"I know," she replied. "Can I get another one of those shut-up-and-enjoy-it things?" she asked, grinning. "That was good."

Todd didn't hesitate to oblige.

***

CHAPTER
12

Elizabeth felt as if she were floating as she and Todd strolled hand in hand back toward the school. He opened the back door for her and she slipped inside just as the bell rang to end the period. As she and Todd turned toward their lockers, she was in such a blissful fog she didn't even notice she was being pursued until someone snatched her arm from behind, plummeting her back to earth.

"Liz! Didn't you hear me calling you?"

Jessica gripped Elizabeth's wrist so tightly she was cutting off the circulation to Elizabeth's hand. She

was out of breath from running, and her eyes shone with excitement. Elizabeth looked up at Todd, bewildered. She was used to Jessica's whiplash-inducing mood changes, but this was a new record. Being around Jessica was like constantly being strapped into a roller coaster. Two class periods and she had gone from raving mad to blissfully psyched.

"Well? What do you want, Jess?" Elizabeth asked her sister coolly, refusing to let her get away with it.

"I'm kind of busy."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be all mad at me," she said. "I'm sorry I lost it before. I didn't mean it. I was just surprised and upset about the test. You know me."

"A little too well," Elizabeth said.

Jessica released Elizabeth's arm and stepped back, indignant. "God! I said I was sorry. You don't have to be all rude about it!"