Jessica Wakefield stared into Melissa Fox's forlorn face.

She's telling the truth. She realized in horror.

"God, Melissa. What happened?" Jessica asked.

As if in response, Melissa began to cry.

"Come on in." Jessica led Melissa into the den. "Now tell me what had happened."

As tears flowed down Melissa's face, Jessica couldn't help but feel the least bit sorry for her.

"W-Will-he rode f-f-riend's mo-motor…" Melissa began to look like she would hyperventilate any minute.

As much as Jessica hated her, she wouldn't let a girl die of not breathing.

"Take a deep breath and calm down." Jessica soothed.

Melissa followed the deep breath part.

"A few more-that's right. Good. Now tell me what happened." Jessica felt like a therapist or a counselor.

"Will b-borrowed his friend's new Harley. He quickly got it and I guess he decided to be daring. At a very sharp curve at the mountain h-highway, he chose to be really wild and he took the turn real fast. H-he smashed right into the mountain's side. One passerby in a Toyota saw it all. God, Jessica. He looked terrible when I saw him in the hospital. He was all bloody and he had wounds and b-bruises everywhere and-and…" she began to cry all over again.

"Come on, Melissa. Let's go to the hospital where Will is." Jessica said.

Elizabeth Wakefield prayed what she just saw was a result of Megan Sandborn's carelessness. But somehow, she had this gut feeling it wasn't.

"C-Conner, what happened?" Elizabeth went into the room where Conner Mcdermott and Megan were.

Conner looked up, tears shining in his vivid green eyes.

"Elizabeth." He said.

"What happened?" Elizabeth repeated.

Megan shook her head.

Conner angrily wiped the tears away from his eyes. "Megan got home this morning from her part time job as a newspaper deliverer. I wasn't here. I was at Andy's. An all-night sleepover for boys only. She went in this morning at around, say, 7:00 and met mom along the hallway." Conner gestured just outside the room.

"Then, Megan says "hi", and starts relating excitedly about The Oracle. But mom was drunk. She got mad at Megan and began to hurt her. She hit Megan in the face and Megan fell and hit her leg."

Megan brushed her strawberry blond hair away from her face, and that revealed a tiny bruise on her face.

Elizabeth gasped. "Megan, I-"

But then she couldn't think of a single thing to say.

Maria wrote dreamily in her diary about Ken.

Dear Diary,

Oh, God. I cannot believe Ken Matthews was going to kiss me! I don't know why I pulled away, but my guess is that I'm not yet ready. I'm not ready for another boyfriend, another chance of getting my heart broken.

I'm just not up to it. I'm not up to falling in love all over again and getting my heart stepped on by the guy I love-and not to mention my very own best friend since 6th grade! Don't get me wrong. I've forgiven Liz, but I'll never forget the feeling of seeing the boy you love in someone else's arms-the sadness, the regret, the worry, the anger.

But for Ken, maybe I'll take that chance someday. Hopefully by that someday Ken would still be around and not with another one of my closest friends.

Jessica Wakefield arrived at the El Carro Hospital about 15 minutes after they left her house. By that time, Melissa was a worried, crying lump of hair and skin at Jessica's side.

Jessica walked up to the nurse's station and asked for Will Simmons's room number.

"I'm sorry. He's still in the emergency room. It's right down the hall." The redheaded nurse informed them.

Then Melissa saw the doctor that had attended to Will when he was brought in pass by.

"Doctor, Doctor Parker, WAIT!" Melissa screamed.

Doctor Parker turned around. "Yes?" he looked at Melissa.

"You are Will Simmons's doctor, right?" Melissa asked.

At the mention of Will, the doctor's expressionless face melted into one of surprise. "Why, yes." He admitted.

"How does it look, doctor…um, Parker?" Jessica interrupted, looking at the doctor's nametag.

"Bad. Will lost too much blood. His chances of surviving are 50/50. Maybe even less." The doctor told them gently.

"No!" Melissa wailed.

Jessica bowed her head in despair.

Elizabeth stared at Megan, hardly registering what to say. "Megan…it's going to be fine." She tried.

Megan shook her head, unable to say a word.

"Conner, can you leave me and Megan alone for a while?" Elizabeth asked quietly.

Conner nodded, got up, shot one last look at his sister, and left the room.

"Megan," Elizabeth said quietly, "I admit. My mom has never even tried a beer…but maybe we can relate. There was a time when you pretty much felt really hopeless, but trust me. There's still hope. I remember the time just this summer, my friend, Olivia Davidson died because of the earthquake. It was very hard. And it was even harder to accept her death because she was just so happy. She had just gotten together with Ken Matthews, and before she had died, Ken had almost died trying to rescue her. But his attempts to save her were in vain."

"Ken Matthews? The-once-out-cast-become-star-QB?" Megan asked softly.

"Yeah." Elizabeth smiled a bit. "Megan, do you think you'll be able to forgive your mom?" she added softly.

Megan looked up. "No. Yes. Oh, I don't know! I could forgive her for hitting me-that was the beer thinking. But if she didn't drink at all, this would have never happened. Elizabeth, what do I do?"

Elizabeth sighed. "I don't hold all the answers, Megan. I'm just giving you sisterly advice. I'm telling Conner to go back here, okay? You two have to talk to your mom about this-that is, if you want to."

Megan looked at Elizabeth helplessly.

Sighing again, Elizabeth gave Megan a quick hug.

"Conner, come in here!" Elizabeth called.

Within seconds, Conner was in the room and looking very worried. But then, when Elizabeth looked into his eyes, she saw something. Anger was glittering coldly in his deep green eyes.

And Elizabeth knew it was anger at their mom.

Todd Wilkins gave Alyssa Martin a warm look. He was falling in love, and he knew that. Alyssa was a great girl, perfect for anyone. She was happy, smart, pretty…

Then an irritating voice butted in. But she's not E.W.! The voice taunted.

Todd twisted his face in irritation. Alyssa is a lot better than Elizabeth.

Alyssa looked up at Todd with her dark blue eyes.

"Todd, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

Todd looked at her, and he glued a smile on his face. "Nothing. Nothing at all, Alyssa. How can something be wrong when I'm with the greatest girl I town at Sweet Valley's make out place?"

"Wilkins, flattery will get you everywhere." She giggled and placed her mouth over Todd's.

Todd responded half-heartedly, only thinking of one person.

And it wasn't Alyssa Martin.