Author's Notes: This is a Sweet Valley Junior High meets Two of a Kind fic.
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Best Of Both Worlds By like a falling star
Elizabeth Blue, Salvador and I were standing over by my open locker waiting for the bell to ring and for school to start. Okay, maybe not really waiting, more like dreading school. They were, anyway. Most people hate school, what with all the book reports, and extra projects and heavy assignments, and strict rules and mostly boring teachers. I don't see what's so bad about school - you learn new things and meet tons of interesting people. Plus, there are some teachers who make the lesson fun and actually listen to the students opinions and ideas once in a while (unfortunately, these teachers are hard to come by). Anyway, there's always the summer holidays to look forward to.
"You are so corny!" I told, Salvador, bursting into peals of laughter. He had just imitated exactly the way his grandmother, the Dona, had looked on the her first surfing lesson- horrible and desperate. Horribly desperate. And scared. Usually the Dona is pretty adventurous and open to new experiences- but she has this thing about water. Salvador - or Sal, rather - was flailing his arms around, gasping in a fake, high-pitched squeamish voice, "Help me, Mr. O'Donnell! I'm drowning! Heeeeelllllp meeeee!" It was a totally pathetic, not to mention useless, attempt at trying to portray his grandmother's expressions and actions when she was surfing. But he did manage to get a laugh out of us.
"You're lying! Tell me that did not happen!" I said in between giggles.
Salvador widened his eyes and pretended to be hurt. "It did, too," he insisted. "How can you accuse me of lying? You know that I'm the most honest, truthful, sincere person you know..." He got down on both knees, clasped his hands together dramatically and gazed up at Blue and I with faux puppy-dog eyes.
The three of us burst out laughing. "Gotcha," he said, doing a victory hand signal.
"Get up, Goofy!" I giggled, helping him up.
Just then, a bunch of excited-looking seventh-grade girls walked by hurriedly, and from their midst a bright yellow piece of paper fluttered to the ground.
Blue bent down to pick it up. "Hey, wait..." he called after the girls, but they had already disappeared around the corner. He shrugged and scanned the paper quickly.
"What is it?" I asked, trying to tiptoe and read over his shoulder at the same time. It seemed like a poster of some kind. I knew I was being nosey, but the neon pink words on the poster practically reached out and grabbed my attention.
"A modeling competition..." Blue read, looking interested. "A couple modeling competition." He looked at me meaningfully, raising his eyebrows as if to say, Well? Should we enter?
I gulped. Modeling? Both Blue and I knew that I was not the modeling type. Strutting up and down the runway with her hair piled up onto her head and striking ridiculous poses was more of Jessica's kind of thing. But even an idiot would notice the eager look on Blue's face, and Blue's not the type to show his emotions a lot. For that, I had to give him credit.
"Well?" he prompted me gently, adjusting his sky blue Hawaiian shirt.
"Sure. I'd, uh, love to try out for the modeling competition." I said, smiling weakly.
Blue smiled and leaned back against my locker. He started playing with my hair, which was held up with a thick red scrunchie. I smiled contentedly. I still hadn't gotten used to the fact that Blue and I were actually a couple. A true, blue couple. (Oops, bad pun!) He really was the best boyfriend anyone could ever have. He was cool, and friendly, and nice, and caring, and... A voice broke into my thoughts.
"Hey, check it out," Blue exclaimed, nodding to his right. "New girl, never seen her before."
"Really?" A new girl? This I had to see. I whirled around to look. There was this girl standing at the end of the hallway putting - no, shoving - a foot-high stack of books and sports equipment into that small space the school board actually has the decency to call a locker. The girl was petite and had shoulder-length strawberry-blonde hair which was clipped up at the sides. I noticed that she had smoke-gray eyes. She was dressed casually in a red Chicago Bulls pullover, baggy faded blue jeans and Nike basketball sneakers. She was carrying a baseball bat, a baseball mitt, a basketball, a soccer jersey and a few tennis balls in a transparent carrier. Hello! Our school already has a sports equipment supplier! I felt like telling her.
Suddenly, a slightly taller, more fashionable replica of her stepped out of nowhere and started talking to her. Twins! This girl looked the same, but dressed with style. Too much style, I thought wryly. She was way overdressed for school. She wore a white cashmere sweater over a gray slip- dress with silver butterflies imprinted all over it and stacked heels. Her hair was twisted into crazy, loopy pieces, held up with glittery butterfly clips. Her eyes were artfully outlined in dark blue eye shadow and her lashes were smudged with thick black mascara. She looked like she'd stepped right out of a Bloomingsdale catalog, formal prom section. In fact, she looked just like Jessica would at a dance except that she was carrying a thick Chemistry book and an even thicker Algebra book. If I wore that much makeup I'd never be able to look at myself in the mirror without dying of laughter.
I decided that things would change with them coming. For instance, when Jessica and I go out together (though that is very seldom, because she shops in places like Fashion Train while I prefer places that sell sensible clothes and actually have affordable prices), people look at us and squeal, "Twins! How cuuute! Would you like matching suits?". If the four of us went out together, we'd practically be offered money to take photos or something. And another thing- people always referred to Jessica and I as "the twins". Like, "the twins said" or "the twins went to...". Things like that. Now it would be "the Wakefield twins" or "the old twins" instead. I didn't want to think about it.
I guessed that they were fraternal twins. The type where if you saw them apart, you would guess that they were twins and you wouldn't be able to differentiate them. But close up, you could see that the "Fashion Twin" was a little taller than her sister, and her features more defined. She was definitely prettier, though it could have been the heaps of makeup or the lighting or something.
Whoa! I had immediately stereotyped these girls without even getting to know them. I was turning into Jessica II- wait, I already was Jessica's second. Anyway, at first glance, the first girl seemed to be a really sporty, casual, easy-going and laidback type of person- kind of like Bethel. The second girl seemed like a bubblegum airhead cheerleader bimbo with cotton candy for brains. Jessica's type. Great. Jessica would love this new girl.
I could just see them hanging out at Vito's, discussing what colour of nail polish worked best on guys- as if it was a matter of life or death. "Neon pink," Jessica would insist. The girl, judging from what she wore, would say something mysterious yet sophisticated, like reddish-brown or dark purple. Then the two of them would spend the next two hours discussing why the colour they chose was better instead of studying for the next day's Biology test which they totally hadn't prepared for. Of course, their reasons would go along the lines of, "Because, I said so!"
I wondered what the others would think of the new girls. I cast a subtle glance at Blue and Salvador. Blue's reaction was kind of hard to read. He was squinting like he was trying to concentrate on figuring out a complicated Math problem. Sal's reaction, however... I had never seen him act this way before. He was gazing dreamily at Miss Sporty, looking as if he had never seen a more perfect person in his entire life. Hmm.. what was going on?
Best Of Both Worlds By like a falling star
Elizabeth Blue, Salvador and I were standing over by my open locker waiting for the bell to ring and for school to start. Okay, maybe not really waiting, more like dreading school. They were, anyway. Most people hate school, what with all the book reports, and extra projects and heavy assignments, and strict rules and mostly boring teachers. I don't see what's so bad about school - you learn new things and meet tons of interesting people. Plus, there are some teachers who make the lesson fun and actually listen to the students opinions and ideas once in a while (unfortunately, these teachers are hard to come by). Anyway, there's always the summer holidays to look forward to.
"You are so corny!" I told, Salvador, bursting into peals of laughter. He had just imitated exactly the way his grandmother, the Dona, had looked on the her first surfing lesson- horrible and desperate. Horribly desperate. And scared. Usually the Dona is pretty adventurous and open to new experiences- but she has this thing about water. Salvador - or Sal, rather - was flailing his arms around, gasping in a fake, high-pitched squeamish voice, "Help me, Mr. O'Donnell! I'm drowning! Heeeeelllllp meeeee!" It was a totally pathetic, not to mention useless, attempt at trying to portray his grandmother's expressions and actions when she was surfing. But he did manage to get a laugh out of us.
"You're lying! Tell me that did not happen!" I said in between giggles.
Salvador widened his eyes and pretended to be hurt. "It did, too," he insisted. "How can you accuse me of lying? You know that I'm the most honest, truthful, sincere person you know..." He got down on both knees, clasped his hands together dramatically and gazed up at Blue and I with faux puppy-dog eyes.
The three of us burst out laughing. "Gotcha," he said, doing a victory hand signal.
"Get up, Goofy!" I giggled, helping him up.
Just then, a bunch of excited-looking seventh-grade girls walked by hurriedly, and from their midst a bright yellow piece of paper fluttered to the ground.
Blue bent down to pick it up. "Hey, wait..." he called after the girls, but they had already disappeared around the corner. He shrugged and scanned the paper quickly.
"What is it?" I asked, trying to tiptoe and read over his shoulder at the same time. It seemed like a poster of some kind. I knew I was being nosey, but the neon pink words on the poster practically reached out and grabbed my attention.
"A modeling competition..." Blue read, looking interested. "A couple modeling competition." He looked at me meaningfully, raising his eyebrows as if to say, Well? Should we enter?
I gulped. Modeling? Both Blue and I knew that I was not the modeling type. Strutting up and down the runway with her hair piled up onto her head and striking ridiculous poses was more of Jessica's kind of thing. But even an idiot would notice the eager look on Blue's face, and Blue's not the type to show his emotions a lot. For that, I had to give him credit.
"Well?" he prompted me gently, adjusting his sky blue Hawaiian shirt.
"Sure. I'd, uh, love to try out for the modeling competition." I said, smiling weakly.
Blue smiled and leaned back against my locker. He started playing with my hair, which was held up with a thick red scrunchie. I smiled contentedly. I still hadn't gotten used to the fact that Blue and I were actually a couple. A true, blue couple. (Oops, bad pun!) He really was the best boyfriend anyone could ever have. He was cool, and friendly, and nice, and caring, and... A voice broke into my thoughts.
"Hey, check it out," Blue exclaimed, nodding to his right. "New girl, never seen her before."
"Really?" A new girl? This I had to see. I whirled around to look. There was this girl standing at the end of the hallway putting - no, shoving - a foot-high stack of books and sports equipment into that small space the school board actually has the decency to call a locker. The girl was petite and had shoulder-length strawberry-blonde hair which was clipped up at the sides. I noticed that she had smoke-gray eyes. She was dressed casually in a red Chicago Bulls pullover, baggy faded blue jeans and Nike basketball sneakers. She was carrying a baseball bat, a baseball mitt, a basketball, a soccer jersey and a few tennis balls in a transparent carrier. Hello! Our school already has a sports equipment supplier! I felt like telling her.
Suddenly, a slightly taller, more fashionable replica of her stepped out of nowhere and started talking to her. Twins! This girl looked the same, but dressed with style. Too much style, I thought wryly. She was way overdressed for school. She wore a white cashmere sweater over a gray slip- dress with silver butterflies imprinted all over it and stacked heels. Her hair was twisted into crazy, loopy pieces, held up with glittery butterfly clips. Her eyes were artfully outlined in dark blue eye shadow and her lashes were smudged with thick black mascara. She looked like she'd stepped right out of a Bloomingsdale catalog, formal prom section. In fact, she looked just like Jessica would at a dance except that she was carrying a thick Chemistry book and an even thicker Algebra book. If I wore that much makeup I'd never be able to look at myself in the mirror without dying of laughter.
I decided that things would change with them coming. For instance, when Jessica and I go out together (though that is very seldom, because she shops in places like Fashion Train while I prefer places that sell sensible clothes and actually have affordable prices), people look at us and squeal, "Twins! How cuuute! Would you like matching suits?". If the four of us went out together, we'd practically be offered money to take photos or something. And another thing- people always referred to Jessica and I as "the twins". Like, "the twins said" or "the twins went to...". Things like that. Now it would be "the Wakefield twins" or "the old twins" instead. I didn't want to think about it.
I guessed that they were fraternal twins. The type where if you saw them apart, you would guess that they were twins and you wouldn't be able to differentiate them. But close up, you could see that the "Fashion Twin" was a little taller than her sister, and her features more defined. She was definitely prettier, though it could have been the heaps of makeup or the lighting or something.
Whoa! I had immediately stereotyped these girls without even getting to know them. I was turning into Jessica II- wait, I already was Jessica's second. Anyway, at first glance, the first girl seemed to be a really sporty, casual, easy-going and laidback type of person- kind of like Bethel. The second girl seemed like a bubblegum airhead cheerleader bimbo with cotton candy for brains. Jessica's type. Great. Jessica would love this new girl.
I could just see them hanging out at Vito's, discussing what colour of nail polish worked best on guys- as if it was a matter of life or death. "Neon pink," Jessica would insist. The girl, judging from what she wore, would say something mysterious yet sophisticated, like reddish-brown or dark purple. Then the two of them would spend the next two hours discussing why the colour they chose was better instead of studying for the next day's Biology test which they totally hadn't prepared for. Of course, their reasons would go along the lines of, "Because, I said so!"
I wondered what the others would think of the new girls. I cast a subtle glance at Blue and Salvador. Blue's reaction was kind of hard to read. He was squinting like he was trying to concentrate on figuring out a complicated Math problem. Sal's reaction, however... I had never seen him act this way before. He was gazing dreamily at Miss Sporty, looking as if he had never seen a more perfect person in his entire life. Hmm.. what was going on?