Starring: Margo! AKA, the best fanfic never written

I haven't really had time to read a BSC book this week for a post [obviously] and all winter I've been kicking around the idea of posting an SVH fanfic I've been writing for about...oh, let's just say a long time. I haven't touched it in almost a year, mainly because I hit some writer's block on it and I don't think the characters are quite right anymore, i.e. Margo isn't as cold-hearted/crazy as she was in the beginning of the story, Jessica's lost her bitchiness/sociopathic ways. The only one I feel I got spot-on is Lila.

I'll post the first two "chapters" of it, and depending on the feedback, I'll keep posting it. Here goes:

Sweet Valley High: The Evil Twin Lives

What if Margo had succeeded in killing Elizabeth?

Jessica watched from the circle of her family’s arms as the emergency medical technicians loaded Margo’s body onto a gurney and wheeled it away from the Fowler’s pool house. She shuddered, knowing how close she and her twin sister, Elizabeth, had come to death at the hands of the insane girl who had come to Sweet Valley to take over Elizabeth’s life.

Jess still couldn’t believe how much Margo had looked like herself and Liz. With their sun-streaked golden blonde hair, dimpled left cheeks, and trim, athletic figures, they were mirror images. Jessica’s blue-green eyes, the same blue-green as the Pacific Ocean, welled up as she thought about what could have happened if she hadn’t shown up in time to stop Margo. Her thoughts cast back over the last few weeks of her life. “It all started with that stupid prom,” she recalled sadly.

Dimly, Jessica heard the doorbell ring downstairs. “That must be Sam!” she thought, feeling the warmth in the pit of her stomach. “And it’s about time! He was supposed to be here a half hour ago!” She took one last appraising look in the mirror. Her shiny blonde hair bounced around her shoulders in a cloud of perfect waves. Her makeup was expertly applied. Her hot-pink dress, short, tight, and strapless, was molded to her perfect size-six figure. The three-inch heels she snitched from her mother’s closet raised her height to five feet, nine inches. She was a shoo-in to win the Queen’s crown at tonight’s Jungle Prom.

As Jessica raced from her room, Elizabeth’s bedroom door flew open and she appeared in the hallway. The shock in her eyes was all too familiar lately to Jessica. Elizabeth’s dress, light blue with a full skirt and long sleeves, was something Jessica wouldn’t have been caught dead in. Her hair was just the same as always, pulled back on the sides, and her makeup was unnoticeable. The only thing about Elizabeth that Jessica even noticed was that she was wearing their grandmother’s pearl earrings. She smiled triumphantly. Mrs. Wakefield had loaned Jessica her own diamond studs. Much more sparkle and glamour, perfect for Jessica, she had said.

Elizabeth parted her lips to speak, but the doorbell interrupted. “Todd’s here!” she exclaimed and turned on her heel. Jessica followed her down the stairs. She silently cursed Sam for being late. Sam was supposed to pick her up early so she wouldn’t have to deal with Liz before the dance. The tension between Liz and herself for the last two weeks had become unbearable. They both wanted the crown so badly, but Jess wasn’t giving up. She had a hunch Liz wasn’t going to either.

Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield made the two couples pose for pictures. They knew about the trouble between the twins, but as they always had before, the girls would work it out and things would go back to normal. They were too close to let something as ridiculous as a prom queen’s crown come between them.

Jessica finally pulled Sam out the front door. She opened her mouth to complain about his tardiness, but he cut her off before she could even take a breath.

“My gosh, Jess,” he said. “You’re more beautiful tonight than you ever have been before. I can’t take my eyes off of you. I don’t think I can drive to the school. Would you drive so I can revel in your beauty?”

“Can it, Sam,” she replied. “You were supposed to be early so I wouldn’t have to see Liz and Todd before the dance. I can’t really avoid her at home, but I sure can once we get to the school!”

“Why won’t you give it a rest? This whole thing is getting way too crazy. Just let it go for once!” Sam admonished her. “You don’t have to be perfect in everything. You’re perfect to me already.”

He kissed her gently. Jessica thought she was going to melt into a puddle right in her own driveway. She pulled away and got into the car.

“Let’s go!” she commanded.

The rest of the dance was a disaster. Jessica was crowned Queen of the Jungle Prom, but as they placed the crown on exotic flowers on her hair, she caught sight of Elizabeth dancing with Sam, laughing and hanging on each other. It killed the joy of winning for her.

“It’s my own fault,” she told herself. “I spiked Liz’s punch. She’s too drunk to notice that she’s making a fool of herself!”

Todd, who had been voted King of the Jungle Prom, came up beside her. “Jess,” he said, “what’s with Liz and Sam?” The worried look in Todd’s coffee-colored eyes said it all. Jessica didn’t know what to tell him. She couldn’t tell him the truth!

All of a sudden, Elizabeth slung her arm around Sam’s neck and they wobbled out of the gym. Todd gasped. Jessica couldn’t believe her eyes. Her own sister, leaving with her boyfriend!

“Todd, we have to stop them!” Jessica cried. “Come on!” She jumped down from the stage where they had been crowned King and Queen and pushed her way into the throng of brightly dressed, dancing teenagers. How could there be so many of them?

“Jessica, wait up!” Todd called. “It’s the Big Mesa kids! There must have been fifty more show up!”

The rivalry between Sweet Valley High and Big Mesa High had slowly been heating up since the beginning of the school year, and was now finally culminating in a bloody brawl in the Gladiators’ stadium. Earlier in the night, some well-dressed Big Mesa students had shown up and asked to be admitted to the dance. They had promised to behave, but obviously their fellow students were not. Bruce Patman flew by in a rage, tearing off his tuxedo jacket and bowtie as he ran. As one of the best-looking, richest students in the school, Bruce was also an excellent athlete and he took the rivalry personally.

Todd dragged Jessica to his BMW and shoved her into the front seat. He floored the gas pedal and gravel shot out from under the tires as he peeled out of the school’s parking lot after the twins’ Jeep.

What Todd and Jessica found that night changed Jessica’s life forever. They came across the wrecked Jeep and Elizabeth wandering in the road among shattered glass and crumpled metal. Jessica had leaped from the BMW just in time to see the uniformed EMTs strap Sam’s lifeless body onto a backboard and carry him to the coroner’s van. She had screamed and ran after him, pleading for him to wake up. Crying hysterically and trying to kiss Sam alive, Jessica had sworn she would see Elizabeth pay for causing Sam’s death.

Jessica still shed a few tears now and then for Sam, while she was standing in the shower, or lying in bed trying to fall asleep. She could see his gray eyes and miss the sparkle, or hear his laugh and wish she was laughing with him. Seeing a grief counselor at Project Youth had helped, but not as much as her parents would have liked. The counselor had also tried to talk to Jessica about what was happening with Elizabeth. But Jessica didn’t want to hear it; she didn’t care what Liz was trying to deal with. All she could think about was that Liz had killed Sam. Jessica didn’t care that her own twin sister was going to stand trial for manslaughter. And deep down, Jessica knew Elizabeth deserved it.

* * * * *

After the trial had ended, acquitting Elizabeth, things had settled down in Sweet Valley. The holidays came and went almost uncelebrated. If Steven and Billie hadn’t come from Sweet Valley University, and Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield hadn’t forced the twins out of their rooms, Christmas would have passed by without so much as a blink.

And then had come Mr. Wakefield’s announcement that he and Mrs. Wakefield had been invited to San Francisco. If only they hadn’t gone!

And we all know what happened when Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield went to San Francisco. But Margo won. Elizabeth Wakefield is no more.