Will You Be My Friend? (5 page)

“I mean, do I have a sister you never told me about?” Beth repeated.

“What brought this on?” her mom asked anxiously.

Before she answered, Beth thought about what she should say next. The question seemed to have made her mother uncomfortable. And that made Beth think that her mother was hiding something. After all, she hadn't answered with a simple yes or no.

“When Chrissy's cousin, Alice, first saw me, she thought I was someone else,” Beth explained.

“What do you mean, ‘someone else'?” replied her mom.

Beth explained. “Alice goes to school at Glenside Middle School. She said there was this girl in her class last year named Lizzie and she looked exactly like me. Like she was my sister or even my twin.”

Her mom shook her head. “Come on, honey, lots of people look like other people. It's so common, there's even a word for someone who looks just like you, but isn't your twin. Doppelgänger.”

Beth eyed her mother warily. Nothing her mother had said had convinced Beth that she was telling her the truth. Beth turned the laptop screen toward her mom and brought up the zoomed-in photo of Lizzie in the cafeteria.

Beth's mom stared at the photo for a second, her face betraying no emotion.

“That picture's kind of fuzzy, don't you think?” Mom asked. “Sure that girl has auburn hair and freckles, but so do lots of girls.”

“Mom, she's a dead ringer for me,” Beth insisted.

“That's a little bit of an exaggeration, I think,” Mom said. “Now let's get to something important—your schoolwork.”

Beth turned to her schoolwork but felt highly unsatisfied with her mom's explanation of why this Lizzie person looked so much like her. It was clear that she was not going to get any help from her mom in figuring out this mystery.

Beth Picard realized that she would have to take matters into her own hands.

In the days and weeks that followed Beth continued to obsess about Lizzie. And the more Beth pondered the mystery girl, the more she began to question just how very little her mom had told her about her life before moving into this house. Beth had been told that she'd had an accident, and that her memories of all that happened up to the accident, as well as of the accident itself, were gone, most likely forever.

But why had her mom not done her best to feed those memories to her? Why hadn't her mom talked to her every day about her early life so that Beth would have a larger sense of who she was, where she came from, and how she grew to be the person she was now? Certainly her mom had been there.
She
must have memories of Beth's first twelve years, yet she chose not to share them.

For some reason these thoughts had never actually occurred to Beth before this whole Lizzie thing started. And now she had come to the conclusion that her mom was intentionally keeping things from her.

Sure, her mom had said,
Why dwell on the past? You're young. You've got a long, bright future ahead of you. Focus on that. Let go of those lost memories. They can't do you any good, even if I recited them to you over and over. They still wouldn't actually be yours.

That argument had always sounded logical to Beth so she had gone with it and kept her sights focused on the future and moving forward.

But these days that argument just sounded like a lie, an excuse, a justification for hiding something. It was a way to keep Beth from knowing who she really was. She had always wondered about her past but had no idea how to start to find out any details.

Now she had a starting place: Lizzie. And she couldn't pass up a chance to finally learn the truth about who she was.

Each day, once her mom was asleep or had gone to work, Beth searched her house or trolled the far corners of the Internet hoping to find the link she had been missing, the link that would bring her the facts behind Lizzie . . . and her own life.

She hit a blank every time.

If Lizzie does exist, she's covered that fact pretty well,
thought Beth.
Maybe she's a spy! Maybe she's purged her identity from the Internet.

Beth leaned back and took a deep breath. She began to form an idea.

She had only one lead. She would have to follow that lead. And that lead was the student records at Glenside Middle School. Surely they had to have some record of a student who attended their school just the previous year. But how in the world would she ever be able to get inside to poke around? Somehow she had to figure that out.

One random weekday afternoon Beth was hanging out at Chrissy's house. They were checking out videos on the new tablet Chrissy had received from her parents.

Beth had kept her desire to go to Glenside to herself, but she couldn't hold it in any longer. She felt as if she had to share it with her best friend, or else she would absolutely explode.

“So, remember when Alice and I slept over?” Beth asked when a video they were watching had ended, realizing how dumb the question sounded as soon as it left her mouth.

“Yep. It was only a couple of weeks ago,” Chrissy said.

“Yeah, I know,” said Beth. “What I meant was, well, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Lizzie.”

“Who?” asked Chrissy.

“The girl that Alice thought I looked like when she first saw me,” Beth reminded her.

“Oh, that. Sure, I remember, but you seemed to be in a big hurry to change the subject so I put it out of my mind, and I haven't thought about it since.”

“Well, I have,” said Beth. “Thought about it, that is. All the time.”

“Why? What's the big deal about someone looking like you?” asked Chrissy.

“This,” said Beth, swinging the screen of her laptop around to show Chrissy the blown up version of the photo Alice had sent her.

“Wow!” Chrissy gasped. “She really is your twin.”

“Right?” replied Beth. “Maybe literally, in fact. Although that would be really weird to have a twin named Lizzie. Beth and Lizzie are both the same name really. Nicknames for Elizabeth.”

“Hmm, what did your mom say about all this?” asked Chrissy.

“That's the thing. She shrugged it off like there's only a tiny resemblance. But you see it. There's no doubt.”

Chrissy nodded her head.

“So since I can't remember anything about growing up,” Beth continued, “it's possible that Lizzie is related to me, or at least could tell me about the past . . . my past.”

Chrissy nodded. “But why would your mom keep that from you?”

“I have no idea,” answered Beth honestly. “She seems to get really bent out of shape whenever I bring it up. When I bring up anything about my past, she gets all tense and quiet.”

“Have you looked Lizzie up online?” asked Chrissy.

“Every single day,” said Beth. “In every way there is to search. Nothing. Can't find a single thing about a girl named Lizzie who was in seventh grade at Glenside last year.”

Chrissy looked at Beth sympathetically. “So what are you gonna do?”

Beth sighed. “The only thing I can do—follow the one lead that Alice gave me.”

“What's that?” asked Chrissy.

“I've got to go to the place Alice met her, Glenside Middle School,” said Beth. “I've got to get inside, and I've got to search through their student records. Maybe I can get a last name for Lizzie, or where she's going to eighth grade this year. Maybe she was put up for adoption and has a new family. Maybe, if I'm really lucky, I can even find her address.”

Chrissy looked shocked at hearing Beth's plan. “And maybe you can get in trouble for snooping around in private student records at a school you don't even go to!”

Beth knew Chrissy had a point, but there was something even more important that Beth had to try to find out. “Chrissy, I have to know if I have a sister. Maybe she can help me get back my memories, or at least tell me about them.”

“I thought you had moved past all that. I thought you were all about the future now, not the past,” said Chrissy.

Beth folded her arms. “I am. At least I thought I was.”

Even Beth was surprised at the sense of urgency she felt. Before meeting Alice, hearing about Lizzie, and, especially, seeing the photo, Beth believed that she had made peace with her mysterious past. But now finding out the truth dominated her thoughts.

“So how are you going to do it?” Chrissy asked Beth. “And when? Your mom watches you like a hawk.”

“Next Saturday she has an all-day meeting at work,” Beth explained. “She's never had to work on a weekend before since she started this new job, but the whole staff has to be at this meeting. She'll be leaving for work on Friday evening and won't be home until Saturday night. My babysitter, Joan, will be staying over Friday night as usual, but she can't watch me on Saturday, so I'll be home alone after Joan leaves and before my mom gets back. Saturday's the day I've got to do it.”

“Okay, so you have the
when
,” said Chrissy. “What about the
how
? Glenside is all the way across town, and you don't even know how to ride a bike.”

“I'm working on that,” said Beth.

“What have you got so far?”

Beth stared at the wall and said nothing.

“I'll take that as an ‘I've got nothing,' ” said Chrissy.

“I've got nothing,” Beth repeated. “But I've got a week to come up with a plan.”

“I left food for you in the fridge,” said Beth's mom the following Friday evening as she got ready to head off to work. Joan, Beth's babysitter, was running a little late and wouldn't arrive until after Beth's mom had to leave.

“Thanks, Mom,” said Beth.

“And here's a list of phone numbers,” Mom continued. “Doctors, the local police station, the fire department, poison control—”

“Are you expecting a disaster or something?” Beth asked. “I'll only be by myself for an afternoon.”

“Here's some cash in case you need it,” Mom continued, ignoring Beth's quip as she shoved papers into her briefcase and handed Beth some money. “Keep your cell phone on. Don't leave the house, and—”

“Mom!” yelled Beth.

Beth's mom looked up from rummaging through her purse. “What?”

“Go to work,” said Beth, smiling. “Go to your meeting tomorrow. I'll be fine.”

Mom sighed deeply. She smiled and gave Beth a big hug.

“I know you'll be fine, honey,” she said, heading for the front door. “I'll see you tomorrow night.”

Beth blew her a kiss. Then, just before she disappeared out the door, her mom leaned back in and said, “Did I remember to tell you that I left food for you in the fridge?”