SVH10-Wrong Kind of Girl (12 page)

"Hey, hey," Elizabeth murmured. "You're talking about my favorite sister."

Jessica sat up and dabbed at her eyes with the edge of her shirt. "You heard Ricky. He's right. I
am
stuck-up and cruel. But I didn't know she wanted it so much!"

Jessica sniffled and looked pleadingly into her

sister's calm eyes. It was very difficult to lie to Elizabeth when she looked at her like that.

"Oh, OK, maybe I did know. Or I should have known. After all,
I
wanted it that much when I was trying out."

"You did what you thought was right," Elizabeth said.

"Yes, and put Annie where she is now!" Jessica bowed her head once more. "What am I going to do?"

"I wish I had an answer," Elizabeth said truthfully. "The doctor said she just doesn't want to live. If we only could get her interested again ..."

Jessica suddenly jerked around and faced her sister. She stopped drying her eyes and grabbed Elizabeth by the shoulders.

"That's it!" Jessica said with determination, standing up and pulling her twin up with her. "Sure, Liz! We've got to help her!"

"That's fine, Jess, but how?"

"I'll think of something." The Jessica who could handle anything was back in form. "Come on!"

Elizabeth noted her sister's purposeful strides as she, followed her back to the hospital building, through the door, and down the corridor.

"Where are we going?" Elizabeth asked, tugging at her twin's sleeve.

"I'm looking for Dr. Hammond," Jessica told the unflappable admissions nurse.

"Room one-twelve, just past the cashier's office," said the nurse.

Jessica hurried along the hall, with Elizabeth a few steps behind her. As they entered the room, Dr. Hammond was at his desk studying Annie's chart.

"Well, I thought you had gone home when Mrs. Whitman did," Dr. Hammond said gently.

Jessica sat down across from him, and Elizabeth sat beside her.

"Doctor," Jessica said, "do you think it would help to know what made Annie do this?"

"Well, it might. Do you happen to know?"

"Yes, sir," said Jessica. "
I
caused the trouble. It's all my fault."

Dr. Hammond looked doubtful. He studied Jessica's tired, tearstained face and then looked at her twin sister, also drawn and bleary-eyed. "Hmmm, is that so? And just how are you to blame, young lady?"

Jessica poured out her story in a great, cascading waterfall of self-accusation. She described herself with every vile, vicious name she could think of. By the time the unhappy story was told, Jessica Wakefield had unmasked herself as a horrific criminal, fit only to be put before a firing squad at once.

"I see," Dr. Hammond said at last. "And you believe your rejection of Annie led her to this?"

"I'm sure of it," said Jessica. "I don't know how I'll ever be able to live with myself."

Dr. Hammond pressed his hands together and stared at Jessica for a long time. "Do you really want to help Annie?" he asked at last.

"Oh, yes, if I can," said Jessica. "That's why I came to you."

"I don't know," he said slowly. "Perhaps ... it's possible. Now, Jessica, you must tell
me
something. Are you willing to have Annie on the cheerleading squad? If you aren't, then please say so right now. It would be terrible to raise her hopes and then let her down again. That could be quite traumatic."

Jessica squeezed her eyelids closed, trying to hold back the tears and keep control. Elizabeth leaned over and held her hand.

"I never should have kept her off," Jessica said. "Sure, I'll make her part of the squad if that will help."

Dr. Hammond shook his head sadly. "There's no guarantee, Jessica, though it's worth a try. But I know this: Unless you mean it, Annie will get hurt all over again. You must convince her that you really want her. And you've got to be absolutely certain of it yourself."

The low murmur reached them as they were about to enter Annie's room.

"... I know exactly how you must feel, Annie. I know what it's like to be on the outside, too," said the soft voice. "Good old Ricky Capaldo. The short, funny-looking guy. Always good for a laugh. But, Annie, it wouldn't matter what people thought if I had you. You've got to wake up. I promise, I'll never let anyone hurt you again. Annie, please. ..."

Dr. Hammond peered around the door and cleared his throat as he and the twins stepped into the room.

Ricky glanced at them as they entered, then turned back to Annie. "Hi," he said.

"Has she stirred?" the doctor asked.

Ricky shook his head sorrowfully.

"Let me talk to her," Jessica said, crossing to the bed.

"You?" Ricky took his eyes off Annie just long enough to give Jessica a look of astonishment.

"Sure, me," Jessica replied. "It's all my fault, isn't it? I'm the one who caused this whole mess, didn't I?" She glared at Ricky and then at Dr. Hammond and Elizabeth, as though challenging any one of them to deny her overwhelming guilt. She pulled a chair up beside the bed and took Annie Whitman's pale, limp hand in hers.

"Annie," she said anxiously, "Annie, if s me-- Jessica. Jessica Wakefield."

Annie didn't stir.

"Annie?" Ricky joined in. "It's Jessica! She's come to talk to you!"

Jessica turned her head away wearily. "She can't hear me," she told Dr. Hammond.

"Don't give up," he encouraged her.

Jessica turned back to the still figure on the bed. "Annie, listen, I came to see you because I've got news. Important news. You see, a huge mistake was made. When the notes were given out, things got mixed up!"

"I'm to blame for that, Annie," Ricky put in, catching on to Jessica's plan. "Don't quit on us just because a dumb, stupid manager messed up."

Elizabeth listened quietly, sensing Ricky's deep love for Annie. Up until then, no one had realized just how deeply he cared, maybe not even Ricky himself.

"You hear that?" Jessica was saying. "Ricky needs you to come back, too. But don't believe him when he says that it was his fault. It wasn't. It was the fault of somebody who was too stuck-up to see that someone can change by wanting to be better,"

The voices continued as Dr. Hammond slipped out of the room to make arrangements for Ricky and the Wakefield twins to remain past the official visiting hours. Annie's last hope lay in her visitors, and the doctor knew that their presence and their words might make the difference between life and death.

Elizabeth stirred as slanting shafts of dawn fluttered across her closed eyelids. She felt a dull ache in her body and realized she was curled up in a chair in a hospital room. As she awakened, she heard a soft voice. Jessica's voice.

"... because, you see Annie, if you don't make it, it will be my fault--and I couldn't live with that. So you've got to come back, or else it will be two of us going. Can you hear what I'm saying?"

Elizabeth slowly focused her eyes. Ricky Capaldo was leaning forward in his chair, silently watching Annie, his face close to hers. Next to him, Jessica knelt on the floor, pressed up against the bed, Annie's hand in her two, prayerful hands.

"Maybe I haven't made it clear," Jessica went on, "but we've decided to enlarge the cheerleader squad to eight. You're the eighth cheerleader, Annie, and we're all counting on you. Now, this is no fooling, Annie; it's the absolute truth!"

Elizabeth listened for more, but Jessica had. fallen silent, her head slumped against the edge of the mattress. Elizabeth stood up and tiptoed over to the other side of the bed, where Jessica had kept her nightlong vigil.

"Jess?"

Jessica's head popped up, and she looked with hopeful anticipation at Annie Whitman's face.

"It's me, Jess," Elizabeth whispered, coming closer.

"Oh. I thought it was Annie," Jessica said helplessly. "It's no use, Liz. I can't bring her back. She hates the sound of my voice."

Ricky and Elizabeth watched as Jessica let Annie's hand slip away. Silent tears rolled down Jessica's cheeks. Elizabeth had never seen her twin sister so totally defeated.

Thirteen

Somewhere deep in her pool of fright and loneliness, Annie Whitman had found an anchor. Something held her, kept her from drifting beyond the horizon of infinity. Desperately she had clung to that anchor and struggled to listen to a faint voice that reached her as though through the depths of the ocean. Through the long night, Jessica's hand had kept her from slipping into the total blackness. Jessica's voice had comforted her.

Now, suddenly, the hand was gone. The voice faded. She had to look for it.

Ricky saw it first. "Jessica!" he cried.

"What?"

"Look at her hand. I think she moved!"

It moved again, ever so slightly.

"Where are you?" a faint voice pleaded. "Please ...Jess. ... ."

Jessica felt an explosion of triumph deep inside, and a warm gush of hope came flooding back

through her. Gently she took Annie's hand, and this time she felt a feeble pressure.

"She's squeezing my hand," Jessica said in wonder.

"Is it--true?" the quiet voice said haltingly.

"What, Annie?"

"Eight cheerleaders? ..."

"Oh, yes," Jessica said. "Yes, indeed! Eight cheerleaders! Eight, including you, Annie. And we've got a practice coming up on Thursday! That's only two days from now."

Elizabeth slipped out of the room and hurried to the nurse's station.

"Could you call Dr. Hammond?" she asked excitedly. "Annie Whitman is awake!"

Elizabeth raced back to Annie's room to find the pale-faced patient sipping water through a bent straw as Ricky held the water glass for her. Jessica seemed to have shaken off her exhaustion as though by magic.

"And then there's the Pendleton game! The Pendleton Tigers always have a really terrific cheerleading squad, but we're going to leave them in the dust. You just watch!"

"You think so?" Annie replied weakly, smiling up at her squad co-captain.

"I know so," Jessica declared. "Haven't we now got two cheerleaders who can do flips? We're going to work out a whole new routine around you and Maria."

Annie glanced around at Elizabeth. Then she looked back at Jessica and Ricky.

"How long have all of you been here?" she said softly. "How long have I been here?"

"Never mind that," Ricky said. "The important thing is that you're not going to be here much longer."

Annie reached a shaky hand toward Ricky. He moved closer and took it. Annie reached her other hand to touch Jessica's. "Thank you, both of you," she said in a feeble voice. "You really saved my life."

Jessica smiled broadly. Oddly enough, despite the long, exhausting hours she had spent beside Annie's bed, she felt wonderful and invigorated.

Moments later, in walked Dr. Hammond, looking very friendly and energetic. He immediately drew the curtains back so that light flooded into the room.

"Well, well," he said, moving over to Annie's bed and taking her wrist to feel her pulse. "What's happened here?"

"Are you the doctor?" Annie asked, looking up at him.

"No, no, not at all," Dr. Hammond said. "I'm only the assistant here. These three are the doctors."

"What happened?" Annie asked.

Dr. Hammond studied her face. "You don't recall?"

"Not very much."

The doctor smiled. "Well, it will come back to you. Just remember, you have good friends who care about you."

"Don't worry," Annie said faintly. "I'll never forget that."

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"I don't know. Weak. Hungry."

"Hungry, you say? Well, then, let's get you some breakfast." Dr. Hammond was actually grinning by now.

But Annie had stopped listening to him. Instead, she was looking toward the door, blinking, trying to focus on someone who had just entered and was standing in the shadow of the doorway.

"Mom?" Annie said hesitantly.

Mrs. Whitman walked quickly to the bed and bent over to hug her daughter. "Yes, darling, it's me," she said. "Thank God you've come back to us."

Mona Whitman sat on the edge of the bed, smiling, tears of relief trickling down her cheeks.

Annie glanced toward the empty doorway. She looked back at her mother, studying her smartly tailored blue suit, the smooth hands that held her own, the beautiful face. Mother and daughter held each other's gaze for several minutes. It was almost as if they were seeing each other for the first time. Finally Annie broke the silence.

"Where's ... you know?" she asked, looking once again toward the doorway.

"Johnny won't be around anymore, honey," said Mrs. Whitman, her eyes clear and level now as she touched her daughter's face.

"He's gone?" Annie said, her face brightening.

"Never mind that," Mona replied. "It's going to be you and me from now on."

"What happened, Mom?"

"Annie, you might say the roof fell in on me. When you did this--when this happened--and I didn't have any idea why! Well, that's when I realized how far we had drifted apart. I'm sorry, Annie. I hope you can forgive a selfish, blind mother."

Annie rose in her bed for the first time, sitting up to clutch her mother around the neck. She held on for dear life until she felt her mother's strong arms around her, holding her.

"Oh, Mom," cried Annie. "Mom, I love you!"

"I know, honey," Mrs. Whitman said, slowly easing her daughter back down onto the bed. "I love you, too."

"How could I have done such a thing, Mom?" said Annie suddenly.

"You wouldn't have, if I'd been there for you to talk to," Mona Whitman said.

Dr. Hammond made a move toward Annie and her visitors then, indicating it was time for Annie to rest. "I think we've had enough excitement for one morning," he said. "Our patient needs some breakfast, and then I believe she'll want to sleep."

"Please, Doctor," Annie begged, interrupting him. "Just a few moments more. Jessica ... Ricky!"

Jessica and Ricky came over by her bed.

"Listen, I want to thank you again for pulling me through. It's coming back to me, what

happened. I want you to know that I think I can make it now, without the cheerleading. Elizabeth told me not to put too much importance in it. You were right, Liz," she said. "I've got something more important now." Annie smiled, gazing at her mother.