Gordo sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair, pouring his bag of Gardettos onto a napkin on the table in front of them. He separated the things he liked and didn't like as he waited for Erica, who had gone to the bathroom.

Erica came back, still wide-eyed with surprise and amazement. She was still wearing what she had on the day before, and now had her hair pulled back into a messy bun.

"Hey," Erica greeted Gordo as she sat down across from him. "Can I have some?"

Gordo nodded, and Erica proceeded to pick all of the brown chips out of the mixture.

"Those are my favorite," he said to her, pretending that she had deeply hurt him. And they were Lizzie's favorite as well, he thought to himself.

"Mine too," she replied, popping one into her mouth. "So, I've been thinking. This was a really crazy first day knowing you."

Gordo just stared at her, amazed at the long list of similarities between Lizzie and Erica.

"I feel like I've known you for a really long time," she said, nervously breaking a pretzel apart. "But I haven't even known you for 24 hours."

"I know what you mean," Gordo said in an almost hushed tone. "It's creepy."

"I mean, I barely even know your last name, and that's just because...you know, it's part of your nickname. Do you know anything about me?" she questioned him.

"You haven't exactly been forthcoming with information," he replied. "Why did you move here?"

Erica sighed, and paused, a piece of Gardetto halfway up to her mouth. She set it back down on the table, and looked Gordo straight in the eyes.

"Gordo," she said seriously. "If we are going to be involved, there is something that I need to tell you."

Gordo leaned in closer to the table, dying to know her secret.

"You will never figure me out," she said quietly. "There are...things, that I can't tell you right now, and there are things that I will probably never be able to tell you. My cousins that I have known my entire life don't even know the entire truth."

Gordo paused for a brief second, shocked by her disclosure.

"Wait here," she said, changing the subject. "I've got to go talk to an old friend.

As she rushed off, Gordo became even more puzzled, but yet drawn to her. Erica walked down the hall, finding her "old friend" in one of the doctors. Gordo was sure that this was part of her secret.

Matt and Victoria strolled up to the table, arm in arm. They both pulled up chairs and sat at the table.

"Gordo, your new friend..." Matt trailing off.

"Looks just like Lizzie," Gordo finished.

"It's uncanny. She acts just like Lizzie too."

"I met her yesterday," Gordo said, as Matt fished through his pile of Gardettos.

"Yesterday?" Victoria exclaimed, raising her eyebrows. "I could have sworn that you two had known each other at least more than a day."

"I actually don't really know her all that well," Gordo replied. "In fact, I don't why she moved here, or where her parents are."

"Doesn't she look familiar though?" Victoria asked.

"I've told you, you only know her from the pictures of Lizzie," Matt replied, grabbing a pile of pretzels and stuffing them into his mouth.

Gordo pulled his snack closer to him. "Can everyone just leave my food alone?" he joked.

"OOOOOOO...I know where I know her from!" Victoria exclaimed, frantically waving her hands.

"Whoa...calm down there," Matt said, slightly not understandable due to large amount of food stuffed in his mouth.

"She's Ricca! Ricca McKenzie!" Victoria exclaimed. "I don't know why I couldn't think of it. We used to be neighbors."

"But she doesn't even seem to you," Matt said condescendingly.

"We were, like, five, and her family suddenly moved away one day. We didn't say goodbye, or know where she went. Isn't her cousin that Parker McKenzie?" Erica said, stuffing a bunch of breadsticks into her mouth.

"I don't know, I just met her," Gordo responded. "Why don't you guys just buy your own bag?"

The two of them pulled their hands away from Gordo's Gardettos defensively.

"Sorry," Matt said. "Seriously"


Meanwhile, Erica sat, slumped down in a chair in another wing of the hospital. Her face was pale and drained of the wonder and amazement that it once held.

Talking to an "old friend" really was not fun. He told her probably the worst news possible, but there was no one that she could confide with at all. And there was no way she could go out to the waiting room and confront Gordo.

Suddenly, her cell phone began to vibrate. Looking at the caller ID, she saw her cousin Parker's name.

"Hello?"

"Erica! Where have you been? Lissy said that you went off with some guy from Hilridge High School, and my mom and dad are worried sick," Parker said in one breath.

Erica was living at her house, along with Parker's two younger sisters and their parents.

"Well...I went with this guy, and we spent the whole day together, and then he had an emergency with his friend, so now I'm at the hospital," Erica said calmly, knowing that she would have to explain the whole situation once again.

"Who did you go with? For all you know, he could be a serial rapist."

"David Gordon."

There was silence on the other line, and after a long pause, Parker sighed loudly.

"Erica-"

"Parker, he was really nice and very gentlemanly...so don't try to tell me that there is something wrong with him," Erica said, worrying that her cousin may be right.

"It's just that...the whole school thinks he's crazy."

Erica sat in shocked silence.

"His best friend, and the, like, love of his life, was killed in a hit-and-run car accident last year, and he kind of went off the deep end. He tried to kill himself," Parker explained. "What did he say to you?"

Erica tried to remember all of the things that they had talked about, and with a jolt, she remembered that first things that he said to her.

"Was she named Lizzie?"

"Yeah. Did he tell you?"

"No," she answered. "He just said that I looked a lot like her."

"Omigosh, Erica. I'm coming to pick you up," Parker said worridely. "He's trying to replace Lizzie with you."

Parker hung up her phone, and Erica shoved hers back into her pocket. This may as well be the time to face him, and cut things off for good.


"Gordo."

Gordo turned around to find Erica standing behind him, her face looking extremely pale and thin.

"I have to go," she said. "Listen, I don't know what's going on between us, but-"

"What's the matter?" Gordo asked. He was soon joined by Matt and Victoria, who were returning from the vending machines.

"I...I just have to go," she stammered, wringing her hands.

"Can I have your number?" Gordo asked. "I want to hang out with you again."

"No, Gordo, you can't," she replied, looking down at the floor. "We, I mean I, don't want to do this anymore."

Gordo was becoming increasingly distraught by her appearance and demeanor.

"But I want to," he urged. "And I thought you did too."

He placed his hand on her shoulder, hoping that its presence would comfort her.

"Stop it! I know what you're trying to do," she shrieked, and some of the hospital personnel stopped, and turned to watch.

"Trying to do what?" he asked, pulling away.

"You're trying to replace your dead friend with me," she cried. "I'm sorry, but I like you, and I don't want to be your new Lizzie."

She fell down into a chair, silently weeping. Part of her tears were from what actually was happening, but most of them were because of what she just learned from the doctor.

"Erica?"

Parker McKenzie strode through the hospital corridor.

"Parker?" Gordo asked, suddenly extremely confused. He watched as she comforted Erica, and pulled her arm around her shoulder.

"We're leaving," she retorted in Gordo's face. "I really don't appreciate what you're trying to do, Gordo. She's having a really tough time in her life."

"Thanks, but if I'm going to get dismissed, can I at least talk to her a little?" Gordo asked.

Parker sighed and bit her lip, but she nodded.

Gordo tried to gently take Erica's hand, and he led her to an empty table to sit.

"I don't know what it looks like, but that was not what I was trying to do," he said. "I really like you too, not just because you look like Lizzie."

Erica contined to sob, and she looked upward at Gordo.

"You don't know anything about me, Gordo. I...can't do this right now. I just got some really bad news, and I need some alone time," she replied, surprisingly calm.

"I can be there for you," he said. "I don't know what all your cousin told you, but I also have problems."

"I just can't tell you," she exclaimed, standing up from her chair. "There's no way."

Parker grabbed her, all while glaring at Gordo.

"But if you really like me," she said, turning around to face Gordo. "Talk to him."

She scribbled a name on a receipt, and handed it to Gordo.

"I'll see you later."


An hour later, Gordo sat alone at the same table, folding and refolding the paper in his hands. Matt and Victoria had left since the conflict, and every once in awhile, a member of the hospital staff would give him a weird look.

He was actually debating not talking to Erica's person. There was a part of him that didn't want to know what she was trying to hide.

But everytime he started to leave, the thought of not seeing her again sat him back down.

"Hey Gordo."

Gordo glanced upwards and saw Danny Kessler standing above him. He soon pulled out a chair and sat across the table.

"Hey Danny...Congratulations on everything," Gordo greeted him. "I hope that you and Miranda are very happy."

"Me too. It just seemed like the right thing to do," Danny replied. "My parents actually kicked me out when they heard what I was planning."

Gordo looked at his friend closely.

"Couldn't you just have waited until after college?"

"I'll admit, it was a little rushed, but the truth is, I want her to be happy. Some of this problem belongs to me for breaking up with her," he answered. "With me helping her, we can both raise little Lizzie and go to college at the same time."

The very sound of the name Lizzie made Gordo even more sad. He wanted the same happiness that Danny and Miranda were going to have.

"Where are you guys going?"

"I got a basketball scholarship to Hilridge Community College, and she's going to go there to study art," Danny answered. "We have it all planned out."

Gordo just looked down at his hands, and the piece of paper he was still holding.

"Hey, where's that girl that you came with?" Danny asked curiously. "She looked exactly like Lizzie. Is she your new girlfriend?"

"I don't know. Everything is so confusing," Gordo replied, rather dejectedly. "There's something that is keeping her from me, but she won't tell me. She said to talk to this guy if I really liked her and wanted to know."

Gordo put the piece of paper in the middle of the table.

"Are you going to?"

"I don't know if I should, or just let her go," Gordo responded. "I don't want to mess with her when she's in a tough time in her life."

"I think that you have to."

Gordo looked at his friend.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...you can't just let it go," Danny said.

"I can't?"

"No! You have to pursue it, or you'll never know how it would have ended up."

"Thanks for that," Gordo said, standing up from his chair. "I have to go find this guy."

Gordo rushed to the information desk.

"Can I speak to a Dr. Mike Simmons?"

"Sure. Let me page him, and he'll be here shortly."

Gordo nervously waited for what he was going to find out.

"Did you want to speak with me?"

Gordo turned around and saw a youngish doctor standing there. In fact, it was the same doctor that he had seen Erica talking to earlier. Her "old friend."

"Erica McKenzie told me to talk to you about her."

A look of relief, but yet anxiety overcame the doctor's face.

"Yes, she's my sister," he answered. "What do you want to know?"

Questions raced throughout Gordo's head. Where were her parents? Why did she move? Why did her brother have a different last name? Why did her family suddenly move without explanation? But he settled on one simple question.

"Is she sick?"

Her brother cleared his throat.

"Yes."