Sweet Valley Twins: Friendship is Magic (Chapter 7)

Title: Sweet Valley Twins: Friendship is Magic

Summary: All the trouble started right after Lila saw the purple Unicorn in her backyard.

Dedication: For Raven and @buffywatcher23

Timeline: Factory reset, just like almost any book.

Notes: This won’t be as aggressively meta as my last NaNo, so if you were anticipating me leaning so hard on the fourth wall that it falls over, I’m sorry. This still will be a bit sassy, but honestly, I peaked with the Hunger Games crossover. Wait. No, I lied. I couldn’t get past the first page without doing my usual thing.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

12,842 / 50,000 words. 26% done!

Seven

Jessica couldn’t take any more talk about homework, reports, penmanship or her own twin, so she excused herself, saying she needed a walk before dinner to clear her head. Twilight had encouraged her to take a walk because exercise was good for the brain as well as the body. And then she’d mentioned she was going to visit Applejack at Melissa McCormick’s house and come back to speak to Elizabeth. Of course. Because Elizabeth was so perfect.

She walked aimlessly, no destination called to her—she didn’t really want to visit any of her friends, because it quite often became a bragging session, and Jessica wasn’t willing to enter something until she was certain she’d win it at the moment.

She made lefts and rights at random, and was lost in her own thoughts—she needed to do something that would make everyone remember that she was the Jessica Wakefield, and not Elizabeth’s useless twin.

She glanced up ahead and saw a bald girl striding angrily in her direction. Jessica recognized her from Ms. Arnette’s class, but as she clearly wasn’t Unicorn material Jessica hadn’t bothered to learn her name.

“Oh not you again!” The bald girl snapped. “Have you come back for round two? Because I haven’t changed my mind. I bet you think I’m going to weep on your shoulder and tell you I miss my mommy and you’re going to fix it, don’t you? Well I’m not!”

Jessica glanced over her shoulder to see who the girl was shouting at, but they were the only two on the sidewalk. “Uh, are you yelling at me?”

“Of course I’m yelling at you!” The girl snapped.

Jessica noted that she was so angry she’d turned pink—including her scalp. She’d never known you could be so angry your scalp changed color. “Ok, why are you yelling at me?”

“You came to my house, insulted my guardian with your snotty questions, and then had the nerve to ask me about my ‘real’ mother and you want to know why I’m angry? My family life is none of your business, so keep your nose out!”

“Oh!” Jessica suddenly realized that Elizabeth was paired with the angry baldy in Ms. Arnette’s class—so this must be the one that Elizabeth and Twilight wanted to help. “You must mean my twin, Elizabeth. I’m Jessica.”

The girl deflated somewhat, then rubbed her face with her hand. “Oh, darn, I’d forgotten there were two of you. I’m sorry.” She sighed deeply and then offered Jessica a smile. “I bet that happens a lot to you, doesn’t it—people think you’re her, and you get in trouble?”

That wasn’t exactly how Jessica would put it, but it was nice to see someone who didn’t think she was the bad twin. “We do get mixed up quite often,” she said. “And Elizabeth does sometimes jump into things without thinking them through.”

“That must suck for you. I’m sorry. I’m Tammy, by the way.”

“And I’m Jessica.”

“Jessica, the nice twin,” Tammy said with a smile.

Again, not exactly how Jessica would put it, but it was certainly nice to hear. She thought of how Elizabeth and Twilight were scheming to save this girl and realized that if she saved her instead, then she would beat two pros at their game, and everyone would take her seriously after that. Maybe the news would run a feature on her, “The Generous Girl Who Saved Her Schoolmate” it would be called. And celebrities all over the USA would hear of it, and they would call her and ask her for advice—maybe even Johnny Buck would call her. “And Tammy, whose family life is none of my business,” she said.

Tammy shrugged in embarrassment. “Look, I didn’t mean to shout all that at you. It’s not like it’s a secret or anything, but I live in foster care, and I don’t want any contact with my birth mother. Your twin doesn’t seem to respect that.”

Jessica could see that was true. From what Twilight had said, they were planning on trying to get Tammy to reconnect with her birth mother. She thought for a moment. It wasn’t as if this was the first time Elizabeth had done such a thing—she had forced George Henkel and his father to reconnect… actually, come to think of it, she hadn’t seen George since then. That was… actually kind of pushy of Elizabeth. And everyone thought she was so perfect.

“I’m sorry,” Jessica said, adopting her most Elizabeth-like tone. “That’s not fair on you. She does like to fix things to her liking. She can be very headstrong at times.” Why was it whenever Jessica fixated on something, it was called silly or shallow, but when Elizabeth did the same thing, she was lauded as a hero? Jessica sighed. “Of course, nobody will tell her off for it.”

“Oh, she’s one of those, is she?” Tammy asked. “I did wonder. She kind of reminded me of my birth mother. She forced things around to her liking, and everyone thought she was brilliant.”

“That’s exactly what Elizabeth does!” Jessica cried. “And nobody ever tells her to stop.”

“Everyone kept telling me that she meant well, but she really hurt me,” Tammy said in a low tone.

Jessica nodded. It was so sickening to be around someone as perfect as Elizabeth all the time. “I know exactly how you feel.”

“I’m telling you, Twi, Melissa’s the reason we’ve been sent here,” Applejack said, as they sat in the front garden of Melissa’s house. “She’s got a friendship problem with her friend Lila.”

“And I’m telling you that it’s just as likely that we were sent here for Tammy,” Twilight replied.

A big metal contraption went past them on the road, and they both shuddered. It was strange to see a carriage without at least one pony pulling it.

“I don’t think I could get used to this world in the long haul,” Applejack said.

“No, and we’ve already been here a day. We need to find this problem fast,” Twilight said.

“But you haven’t spoke to Tammy yet, have you?” Applejack pushed. “So you don’t know if she’s actually got a problem.”

“No, but Elizabeth seems certain she has one, and she’s been solving friendship problems in this town a lot longer than us. If anypony knows where the problem lies, it’s her,” Twilight said.

“Well maybe that’s why the map sent us both. I’m here for Melissa, and you’re here for Tammy? Because Melissa’s problem sure is honesty.” Applejack paused, then clarified. “She ain’t no liar, she’s just not got her nerve up just yet to lay it all out there.”

Twilight considered that for a moment. There had to be a reason they were both summoned. Perhaps the did have individual problems, and possibly they overlapped. “That’s quite possible—if you stay with Melissa, I’ll check in with Elizabeth, and maybe we’ll find a way our problems marry up?”

“I’m on it,” Applejack said.

Jessica arrived home to find Elizabeth and Twilight enthusiastically composing a letter, as if it was as important as a fan letter to a movie star, or choosing the right outfit for a dance. She peered into Elizabeth’s bedroom and found Elizabeth settled in front of her typewriter, while Twilight looked over her shoulder.

“I see, you push each letter and it appears on the page. That’s ingenious.” Twilight took a quick lap of the room and began. “Dear—oh, do we have a name?”

“Of course we have a name,” Elizabeth replied. “It’s Megan Williams.”

“May-Gahn?” Twilight repeated.

“Megan,” Elizabeth corrected. “It’s a common name.”

“Hi guys, what are you doing?” Jessica asked.

“Oh, it’s just wonderful!” Twilight exploded. “Tammy has misplaced her mother, but Elizabeth has found her!”

Jessica bit her lip. Tammy had made it clear that her mother was far from misplaced. “Oh really? Did she tell you that?”

“No, but it’s obvious she wants to be with her,” Elizabeth said, and gave one of the sickening smiles that made Jessica want to rip the head of Elizabeth’s beloved toy koala. “I found—I found an address for her mother, so I wrote it down and Twilight and I are going to reunite them.”

“Isn’t it exciting?” Twilight said. “I just wish I could do more. I’m going to introduce myself to Tammy tomorrow.”

“I have an idea,” Elizabeth announced grandly. “What if I actually reunite them at the Mother’s Day presentation at school? It would be a wonderful surprise for Tammy.”

“That’s—” Jessica stopped herself. She had been about to say that it was the exact opposite of what Tammy wanted, but then she realized that it was the perfect plan. Not only would Elizabeth fail, she would fail spectacularly. And by contrast, Jessica’s rather boring report on the time Mrs. Riteman raced Ellen to the hospital with a suspected concussion, which turned out to just be Ellen’s personality, would look amazing. “That’s a great idea, guys. You two really are the Princesses of Friendship of two different worlds!”