SVH04-Power Play Read Free

babbling about, anyway?"
    "Oh, nothing much, really. Apparently you're so busy all the time you don't remember how much Robin wants to pledge Pi Beta."
    "Oh, that." Jessica sighed. "I keep forgetting."
    "Uh-huh. And this is her last chance."
    "It is?" Innocence and Jessica Wakefield were one and the same.
    "So," Elizabeth pushed on, "knowing you were going to put her up sooner or later anyway, / promised to sponsor her for membership at the next meeting."
    Jessica's mouth dropped open. "You promised her what? Are you crazy?"
    Now Elizabeth was all innocence. You don't live with Jessica Wakefield for sixteen years without learning something.
    "Gee, Jess, what do you mean?"
    "That--that tub of lard in Pi Beta Alpha?"
    "But, Jess," Elizabeth said slyly, "she's your best friend. She told me so."
    "That has nothing to do with it. There's a problem of--image."
    But Elizabeth was not about to be outmaneuvered. "Image? That doesn't seem to bother you when she carries your books and cleaning for you."
    "I like to be kind to everybody, Elizabeth,"
    Jessica cooed. "You know that. But pledging Pi Beta? Well, look--you know Robin's only interested in studying. She's taking about thirty- seven extra courses. I'm just not sure PBA is right for her."
    Anyone who didn't know Jessica as well as Elizabeth did would have been totally convinced that Robin's welfare was her first and only concern.
    But Elizabeth wasn't buying. "Well, I think it is," she said calmly. "I've never seen anyone as happy as Robin was when I told her I'd sponsor her."
    If Elizabeth was calm, Jessica was anything but. By now she had given up even trying to appear reasonable. She was beside herself with rage and frustration.
    "Boy, now I have really seen everything!" she wailed. "How can my own sister--my identical twin, no less--be so totally, hopelessly idiotic?"
    Elizabeth let out a breath. "I gather I've done something wrong."
    "That is the understatement of the week," Jessica agreed sarcastically. "Robin Wilson in the Pi Betas? With us? With Lila Fowler? One look at that shape and they'll be calling us the Pi Butterball Alphas! Oh, really, Liz, are you completely absent from this universe?"
    "It's only a silly sorority," Elizabeth reasoned.
    "Only a --" This was too much. Jessica was speechless.
    Elizabeth sighed. "Jessica, for heaven's sake, don't come unglued. I've promised, and that's that. Robin Wilson's going to be a Pi Beta."
    "Oh, is she?"
    What was going on here? Elizabeth looked searchingly at Jessica for some answer, but Jesica wouldn't meet her eyes.
    "Look," Elizabeth said at last, "if I sponsor Robin and you're the president of Pi Beta Alpha-- a nd her best friend--she's in."
    Jessica's only response was to toss her head and stomp out of the room and up the stairs. It wasn't until the instant before she slammed the door to her room that Elizabeth thought she heard a faint reply.
    "We'll see about that."
     

Two
     
    "The meeting will now come to order."
    Jessica looked around the room at the members of PBA--chatting, checking their faces in compact mirrors, brushing their hair, and, in general, not paying attention to her. If there was one thing Jessica couldn't bear, it was people not paying attention to her.
    In her best snap-to-it-or-else voice, she repeated, "The meeting will now come to order!"
    Noting that her sister wasn't there yet, Jessica decided to have the shortest meeting in PBA history and avoid the problem of Robin Wilson.
    "I know there isn't any old business, and
    nobody took minutes at the last meeting, so there isn't anything to be read. And everybody knows we have thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents in the treasury, so there's no need for a treasurer's report. Sooooo, if no one has any new business, we can--"
    "Did I hear someone mention new business?" interrupted a slightly out of breath Elizabeth, coming into the room. "Sorry to be late. I got hung up at the newspaper office."
    Everyone but Jessica was surprised to see Elizabeth at