One

It was yet another perfect day in Sweet Valley, California. The sun was shining, its rays glinting off the waters of the Pacific Ocean. A group of wholesome, all-American teenagers were frolicking on the beach. And at the center of it all were Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield.

The two were identical, from their shoulder-length, sun-streaked blonde hair to their blue-green eyes, which were the exact same shade as the Pacific Ocean. The two even wore matching gold lavalieres around their necks, a present from their parents to each of them on their sixteenth birthday. But that’s where the similarities ended. Elizabeth preserved her perfect, size-six figure through anorexia, while Jessica preferred bulimia.

Elizabeth was the more practical of the two, reserved, studious and kind of boring, while Jessica was fun-loving, impulsive and slutty. Elizabeth was four minutes older than her twin, and as the Wakefield family inside joke went, the four minutes may as well have been four years. Elizabeth’s dream was to one day become a serious writer, but with the shitty gossip column she wrote for The Oracle, Sweet Valley High’s school newspaper, it wasn’t likely to happen. Jessica’s interests skewed toward the more vapid: cheerleading, dances and boys.

Jessica stretched out on her beach towel and adjusted her bikini top. “I’m so bored,” she complained. “I’ve dated practically every guy there is to date in Sweet Valley, and I’ve even killed off a few.”

Elizabeth smiled. Her twin was always looking for the next big adventure, and today seemed to be no exception. “Well, we could always go to the Dairi Burger, or the Beach Disco, or the Box Tree Café – you know, the only three places in town to hang out.”

“Come on, Lizzie, you know that’s not true,” Jessica said. “There’s that pizza place with the stereotypical name, Guido’s, and then that shady bar that all the town drunks go to.”

“You mean Kelly’s?” Elizabeth asked, shuddering. Once, Jessica had fallen in love with Rick Andover, the first in a long line of bad boys with a fast car and a drinking problem. After the two had broken up, Rick had drunkenly jumped into the twins’ red Fiat at a stoplight and had ended up taking the two of them to Kelly’s, where Todd Wilkins, Elizabeth’s on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again boyfriend, had saved them. Of course, it was just one of many scrapes Jessica had gotten the two of them into, and Elizabeth loved thinking about every one of Jessica’s schemes, because it made for compelling backstory.

“Yeah, whatever,” Jessica said, shading her eyes and looking down the beach. “Hey, there’s Lila!”

Lila Fowler walked down the beach toward the twins. She was Jessica’s best friend, even though the two were fiercely competitive and fought constantly. Elizabeth was pretty sure the only reason Jessica was friends with her was because Lila came from one of the richest families in town. Her father, George Fowler, was the head of a company that made some mysterious and, by now, outdated, computer technology.

“Ugh, I am so over the beach,” Lila sighed, throwing down her beach towel next to Jessica with disgust and slipping on her sunglasses.

“Come on, Lila, it’s a beautiful day,” Elizabeth said, smiling up at her.

“You are so boring, Elizabeth Wakefield,” Lila said, rolling her eyes.

Jessica giggled, sitting up on her beach towel. “She is, but not as boring as that drip Enid Rollins.”

Elizabeth frowned. Enid was her best friend in the whole wide world, and she hated to hear Jessica speak badly of her, which she did often. “That’s not nice, Jessica.”

Lila rolled out her beach towel and sat down next to Jessica. “What I think we need is a party.”

Jessica grinned. Lila’s parties were always the biggest and best in Sweet Valley. She always had the best bands, the best food, and all the nonalcoholic beverages a bunch of sixteen-year-olds could ever want. “What will the party be in honor of this time, Lila?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lila sighed. “Maybe it will be in honor of a Tuesday night. Or to celebrate the fact that we have sororities in high school. Or it could be…” she trailed off.

“What?” Jessica asked excitedly.

“I might know a couple of twins who are celebrating their seventeenth birthdays for the 24^th time,” Lila said.

“This is going to be so much fun!” Jessica squealed.

Elizabeth smiled weakly. A big party at Lila Fowler’s house wasn’t exactly her idea of a good time, but she knew her twin would be all over the idea. And, as usual, Elizabeth would put aside her own feelings so Jessica could get what she wanted. “Sounds great,” she said.

“There’s so much to do!” Jessica said. “Lizzie, do you have a pen and paper around here anywhere? We have to make a list.”

Elizabeth reached into her cleavage, nicely accentuated by her navy blue tank suit, and pulled out the small notebook and pen she always kept with her.

“Thank God you’re a writer,” Jessica said, grabbing the notebook and pen from her sister. “Okay, first things first – do we want a band, or a DJ?”

“Band, of course,” Lila said, sounding bored. “Who wants a crappy DJ?”

“Do you think The Droids will play?” Jessica asked Elizabeth. The Droids were the coolest – and only – band at Sweet Valley High.

“I’m sure if you ask them, they will,” Elizabeth said. “They’ll play just about any event for a buck.”

“We’ll have to get new outfits,” Jessica said excitedly, scribbling in the notebook. “And we’ll have to make a list of who to invite. All the coolest kids, of course. And then there’s the food – what kind of food do we want?”

“Calm down, Jess,” Elizabeth said, laughing melodically. “We have plenty of time to figure everything out.”

“Plenty of time?” Jessica asked. “Our birthday is a week from Saturday!”

Lila’s gaze had shifted down the beach. “Hey who’s that?” she asked, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand and squinting at a group of people.

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said. “It’s not Ken Matthews with them, is it?” Ken Matthews was Sweet Valley High’s quarterback, who had been temporarily blinded following a car accident which had wrongly been called “fatal.”

Jessica looked up from her list. “No,” she said. “I’ve never seen any of them before in my life.”

There were three guys and a girl, all dressed in jeans and some sort of matching T-shirts. As they headed toward Jessica, Elizabeth and Lila, Elizabeth was able to make out the lettering on their shirts.

“‘Skanks Gone Stupid,’” Elizabeth read slowly. She wasn’t quite sure what it meant – and she had a bigger vocabulary than the other two girls. But something seemed amiss.

Jessica stared at one of the boys, transfixed. He was the most gorgeous guy she had seen in her life. Well, the most gorgeous guy she had seen since last week. He was tall and muscular, with wavy blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

“Stare much, Jessica?” Lila asked snottily.

“Who is he?” Jessica breathed.

“I’m not sure, Jess, but they look like trouble to me,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head.

Jessica rolled her eyes at her overly cautious twin. “Those men are absolutely gorgeous,” she said.

Lila stood up and dusted the sand off her ass cheeks, which stuck out from either side of her designer thong bikini. “Well, maybe we should give them a proper welcome.”

Jessica quickly scrambled to her feet. She wasn’t about to let Lila Fowler, of all people, steal her thunder!

“Wait,” Elizabeth said, reaching up and grabbing Jessica’s wrist. “Does anybody know what a skank is?”

“Well, I’m about to find out,” Lila said, pulling her designer sunglasses further down her possibly rhinoplastic nose so she could get a better look. One of the guys in the group had set down a blue duffel bag he had been carrying, and he was beginning to unpack what appeared to be camera equipment.

“Oh my God,” Jessica said, her voice low. “I think they’re big-time movie directors!”

“What would movie directors be doing here?” Elizabeth asked. “I know everything there is to know, and I would have known if movie directors were coming to Sweet Valley!”

“Oh, that’s right,” Lila said absentmindedly, still staring at the group. “You probably would have included it in your little ‘Eyes and Ears’ column.”

Elizabeth stood up and picked up her beach towel, scowling. “If the two of you want to stand here all day, be my guest. I’ll be at the Dairi Burger, writing my latest little ‘Eyes and Ears’ column and possibly meddling in someone else’s affairs!”

“Someone’s a little PMS-y,” Jessica observed, her hands on her hips.

Elizabeth sighed. “You’re right, Jess. I’m sorry for snapping at you, even though you probably deserve it, after all the stunts you’ve pulled that have landed me in trouble, not to mention all the boyfriends you’ve tried to steal from me.”

Jessica smiled sweetly. It was an expression she had perfected, as it usually got her out of any kind of trouble with Elizabeth – and with everyone else in Sweet Valley, as well. “Now run along home, Lizzie, and later on I’ll give you all the details about the starring role I’m sure to land in whatever movie they’re shooting,” she said, practically pushing her twin down the beach. After all, the last thing Jessica needed was competition from someone who was as perfect as she.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go investigate,” Lila said, flashing Jessica a fake smile and heading down the beach.

That makes two of us, Lila Fowler, Jessica thought, hurrying to catch up. That makes two of us.