Secrets by Francine Pascal Read Free Book Online Page A

miserable without her."
    "Enid!" He looked as if she'd just injected him with poison. "No thanks, I'd be better off with Benedict Arnold."
    Jessica cleverly jumped to Enid's defense.
    "You shouldn't be so hard on her," she said. "After all, everyone makes mistakes. I suppose she's sorry, I'm sure there's no reason for you to hate her for life."
    "Yeah, well, I happen to know Enid's not sorry at all. I even have written proof. Someone left a copy of a letter in my locker that some creep named George wrote to Enid."
    Jessica pretended total innocence. "Liz did mention that George had been writing to Enid, but you know how those things are," she said. "When you're involved with someone the way Enid was with George, it's hard to break it off just like that."
    "She's been writing to that jerk for two years!"
    "Mmmm," Jessica conceded, taking a ladylike
    sip of her wine. "That certainly does seem devoted. But just remember, appearances can be deceiving."
    "Oh, I get the picture, all right," Ronnie said. "Look, Jessica, I appreciate what you're trying to do. It's nice of you to try to help Enid, but it's not going to work. It's over between us."
    "What about the dance? Enid is up for queen."
    "She should've thought of that before. It's her problem now, not mine. I'm sure she won't have any trouble conning some other poor jerk into taking her."
    "What about you, though?" Jessica flashed him a smile oozing with sympathy.
    He shrugged. "I'll probably just stay home. It's too late to get another date now."
    "Well, what a coincidence!" she cried, clapping a hand over her mouth. "Would you believe I don't have a date, either?"
    Several other boys had asked her, of course, but she'd turned them all down. She'd been saving herself for Bruce, and now it was too late--they all had other dates. And the dance was only a week away.
    "Since you don't have a date and I don't have a date," she suggested, "why don't we go together?"
    He looked at her as if she'd just suggested he carry her cross-country on his back. "I, uh, gosh, Jessica ..."
    "Just as friends, of course."
    "It does make sense," he agreed then.
    "Well, there's certainly no point in sitting home and getting even more depressed, is there?" she asked.
    "I guess not." He looked slightly bewildered, like someone who'd been picked up by a tornado and dropped in a foreign land.
    Jessica turned her most radiant smile on him. Sliding her hand down his arm, she laced her fingers through his. She led him over to the dance area, where several couples had gone into body lock.
    "Oh, by the way, Ronnie," she cooed, "I'm allergic to gardenias, but I absolutely adore orchids. Just don't get me a pink one--I'll be wearing a red dress."
     

 

     
     

    Seven
     
    Elizabeth arrived at school Monday morning to find her problem with Enid overshadowed by an item of gossip that had taken off and, in the last week, spread rapidly.
    Practically everyone at Sweet Valley High was buzzing about The Affair--the one supposedly going on between Ms. Dalton and Ken Matthews.
    "I don't buy it for one minute," Elizabeth told Caroline Pearce, a member of Pi Beta Alpha sorority, after first period as they stood outside the French classroom.
    They were waiting for Ms. Dalton to arrive and unlock the door. Elizabeth couldn't remember her ever having been late before. But then everything about Ms. Dalton had seemed not quite right this past week. In class she was
    nervous and distracted. Elizabeth had noticed dark circles under her eyes, as if she hadn't been sleeping well.
    "I refuse to believe she's fooling around with Ken," Elizabeth went on. "It just doesn't make sense. Why would anyone as together as Ms. Dalton be interested in a kid?"
    "Ken Matthews isn't exactly a kid," Caroline countered, primly tossing her impossibly neat red hair. Aside from Cara, she was probably the biggest gossip around--and the one person Jessica and Elizabeth could agree on disliking. "Besides, everyone knows she's tutoring him. The