The Sorm Ends-Part 9

Alyssa Martin walked through the halls of SVH, thinking of only one thing.

Todd.

Then as if some genie had granted her thoughts, Todd appeared from the History room.

Todd hasn't seen her yet, but the he turned to her, his eyes lit up.
Alyssa walked towards him.

"Hi Todd." She greeted him shyly.

"Alyssa. Hi." Todd grinned at her. (Man, she is gorgeous!)

"Um…so, what's up?" Alyssa asked.

"Well…I-I've been thinking a-a lot about you lately." Todd said, honestly yet nervously at the same time. Alyssa's heart sang.

"I-I have too." Alyssa replied softly.

Todd smiled. When he smiled, he looked kind of like Brad Pitt-her favorite actor.

"I missed you, Alyssa." Todd said quietly.
Alyssa smiled.

"I've been hoping for you to say that for a long time." She told him.

"Can you forgive me, Alyssa?"

Alyssa nodded, her smile growing bigger.

Todd's smile grew, too.

"Since we're back together, may I kiss you?" Todd asked seriously.

Alyssa laughed a bit. "Isn't that what couples do?" she answered coyly.

Todd didn't need anymore coaxing. And right in the middle of the Sweet Valley High hallway, where everyone could see them…
He kissed her.

Melissa and Will came into The Riot to talk, on the third floor, seriously. No kissing, no hugging, nothing. Just to talk.

They went up the stairs to the third floor. As soon as they were there, Melissa sat down and pulled Will down with her.

"Okay, Will. I want you to know that I'm {so} sorry. I know I acted like a psychotic bitch. I just loved you so much that I didn't want to lose you to Jessica." Melissa looked down at the table.

Will smiled at her. "I broke up with you because it wasn't the Melissa Fox I fell in love with. Ever since you first…um…committed-"

"Suicide." Melissa interrupted.

"Yeah." Will said uneasily.

"Well, I've changed. I depended on you too much before, Will." Melissa amended.

"I know. And I want you to stay that way." Will grinned.

Melissa smiled too. "I love you, Will." She told him.

Will gazed at her gently. "I love you too, Liss."

Will brushed his lips on hers, which sent an electrifying jolt around Melissa's body.

Melissa smiled. "I promise to be more considerate about how you feel and I promise to treat you as an equal."

"And I promise to tell you how I feel-no beating around the bush." Will promised.

Melissa smiled again as she was enveloped in a hug.

Andy Marsden grinned at his girlfriend Leslie McAnderson.

"Hey," Leslie looked at him as they watched the movie at his house. "We only have a few days to go before Christmas. I'm glad we're still together in time for Christmas"

"I know. Me too." Andy smiled at her. Leslie was great. They've been together for a couple of months already, and they've gotten along fantastic-not like his friends' love lives, which were coming apart.

"So, what's up with your friends?" Leslie asked. "Liz and Conner make up yet?"

Andy shook his head. "Nah. But I'm pretty damn sure they will soon. Conner obviously loves Liz…and Liz feels the same for Conner."

"Hmm. Too bad. They made a cute couple. Sort of like us."

"Modest much?" Andy chuckled.

"Don't you think we're cute?" Leslie demanded playfully, placing her lips over Andy's and giving him a quick kiss.

Andy's heart stopped. After all these months, the passion still hasn't faded.

God, he was lucky.

(I love being me.)

Conner took a deep breath as he raised his hand to knock on the Wakefields' front door.

After the first knock, the front door opened. It was Steven, back from college for Christmas break.

"Hey, Steven." Conner smiled slightly. "Where's Liz?"

"You just missed her. She left to meet Tia and Maria." Steven explained. "She seemed awfully sad-did you two break up?" he narrowed his eyes.

But Conner was already racing down the walkway to his Mustang.

Elizabeth stopped in House Of Java's parking lot, checking her face one last time before getting out of the Jeep.

When she entered, both Tia and Maria were already there.

"Liz!" Maria cried as soon as she saw her. Elizabeth sat down on the table, her face sad.

"Tia told me about what happened." Maria placed her hand on Liz's sympathetically.

"I swear, I am going to kill Conner when I see him." Tia pouted.

Elizabeth wiped away a stray tear that had trickled down one cheek. "I don't know why he broke up with me. Everything was okay, except…"

"Except what?" Maria prompted Elizabeth.

"Nothing. We weren't really getting along all that much." There was no way anyone was going to know about her kiss with Todd-it was just a fleeting moment of passion-totally wrong.

Just then Jessica slid into the chair next to Elizabeth. "Hi, guys! My shift just finished and I saw you guys. Wait until you hear about me and-Liz!"

Jessica stopped talking as soon as she saw Elizabeth's sad, teary face. "What happened? Did you and Conner fight?"

"Worse-he broke up with me." Elizabeth replied sullenly.

Jessica's jaw dropped. "{What}? Why?"

"I-I don't know!" Elizabeth tried to hold back her tears, but it was no use. Tears started rushing down her face.

Jessica's surprised face softened. "Shh. It's okay. Don't cry." Jessica wrapped Elizabeth in a hug.

"I-I wasn't thinking that that would happen." Elizabeth hiccuped loudly.

After a minute of crying softly, Elizabeth calmed down a bit. "What was it you wanted to say a while ago?" she asked.

"Nothing important." Jessica said. "I'll tell you guys later."

"No, really." Elizabeth insisted.

"Yeah, Jess." Tia agreed.

"Go on." Maria said.

"Okay, to make a long story short, Jeremy forgave me and we're back together." Jessica smiled brightly.

"Great!" Tia cried.

"You two really belong together." Maria complimented.

"That's really nice, Jess." Elizabeth smiled a bit.

Suddenly Lila and Amy popped up. "Hi-mind if we join?" Lila asked.

Everybody shook their heads.

"It's okay." Elizabeth nodded.

"Hey-Liz what happened?" Amy asked, a face of genuine concern on her face.

Elizabeth frowned. "Conner-we-you know."

"You broke up?" she asked softly.

"Yeah." Elizabeth held back a fresh torrent of tears.

"Don't spread this Amy." Maria said warningly.

"Really? That's too bad." Lila commented sadly.

"Hey, guys, guess what? Jeremy and I made up!" Jessica told her friends excitedly in an attempt to steer the subject away from Elizabeth.

"Oh my God! That is {so} fantastic!" Lila cheered

"Cool!" Amy commented.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Conner stepped in.

"Oh. My. God." Lila whispered.

"What?" Elizabeth turned around to face what Lila was staring at.

It was Conner.

Her heart thumped when he reached the table. "Liz, we need to talk." He shot a pointed look at everyone. "Alone."

"What more is there to say, Conner?" Elizabeth asked, tears, glimmering in her eyes.

"Please, Elizabeth?" Conner begged.

"Fine." Elizabeth got up and walked toward the parking lot.

When they were at the parking lot, Conner took Elizabeth into his arms.

"I'm sorry." He whispered into her hair.

Elizabeth pulled away. "For what?"

"For…breaking up with you. I was really wrong. I love you, Liz. And I need you."

Elizabeth looked up into Conner's eyes, and she saw that tears were in his eyes.

(You need him too.) A voice in her mind whispered.

"It's okay, Conner." Elizabeth murmured, a tear sliding down her face.

Conner smiled. He grabbed Elizabeth by the waist and he kissed her passionately. He put in all the passion he was holding back.

Elizabeth wound her arms around him and she kissed him back.

She felt Conner draw away then lean down to kiss the side of her neck.

"Conner…" Elizabeth whispered, tilting her head sideways and running her fingers up and down his muscled back.

Elizabeth's head spun. She had never been kissed like this. Never. Conner was intoxicating.

"Conner." Elizabeth repeated, passion flowing in her body as Conner put his lips on her own again.

"I love you, Elizabeth." Conner whispered against her mouth.

"I love you too." Then Elizabeth took his face into her arms and she put her lips once again onto Conner's.

It was Saturday afternoon, and Jeremy and Jessica were biking around the Sweet Valley Strip, which was, miraculously, undamaged by the earthquake-it was their second date after making up a few days ago.

"I can't believe it's only 6 more days until Maria comes back!" Jessica smiled happily. "She's always been one of my close friends."

"I want to meet her." Jeremy remarked.

"And only 8 more days until Christmas! What a way to spend it! With the hunkiest guy in Sweet Valley!"

"Only Sweet Valley?" Jeremy teased.

"Okay. In all of California." Jessica amended, getting one hand of her handlebar and swatting Jeremy lightly in his arm.

Jeremy threw his head back and laughed. "C'mon, Jess. I'll race you to the end of the Strip!" At that, he started cycling quicker, overtaking Jessica.

"Hey!" Jessica yelled. "Wait! You started first!" she started pedaling harder herself.

"I'm gonna get you, Aames!" she called after him.

"Try, but you won't succeed!" Jeremy shouted behind his back.

(I swear, that boy gets cuter every minute!) Jessica thought fondly, sweat trickling down her back.

"Ooh, Angel! Look at that adorable teddy bear!" Tia squealed, pointing to a teddy bear that was about as tall as Tia herself.

Tia and Angel were at the mall, going on a Christmas shopping spree…with Angel's spare money, which came from his now high-paying job at Stanford.

Angel grinned. Tia was a shopping freak. Both her hands held a huge shopping bag, and Angel also held two.

"If you want it, you buy it with your own money. I've bought you a pair of shoes, a dress, a pair of jeans, and a shirt! I'm all out of money if I still buy that for you!" Angel warned teasingly.

"Aww, but baby…" Tia pouted.

"Fine. It's the last thing I'm going to buy for you." Angel smiled at her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Tia cried, planting a kiss on his cheek, and bouncing into the store. "This is the best gift anyone's ever given me! A shopping spree!"

Chuckling, Angel shook his head and followed her into the store.

Then, just as they were exiting the store, a tall African American guy entered with a petite girl.

Angel stiffened immediately.

"Hi guys." Trent Maynor grinned. "This is Eileen."

Eileen smiled and waved.

Angel and Tia visibly relaxed, knowing there were no more hard feelings between any of them.

"Well, see you." Trent walked into the store.

"I'm glad he's okay." Tia said when they were out of earshot.

"I am too." Angel agreed. When Tia had left Trent to be with Angel sometime ago, he was pretty devastated.

"But anyway-" Angel started.

"Oh my God! That baby tee in so cute! It goes perfectly with my new shoes!" Tia cried. Elizabeth groaned as the telephone rang a few days later. 7:02 am.

"What an ungodly hour." Elizabeth muttered, picking up the cordless beside her bed.

"Hello? Wakefield residence."

"Liz?"

"{Maria}? Wha-how…"

"Hi, Liz! I'm back!"

"Oh my God, Maria! When did you return?"

"About 4 am." Maria replied. "I'm so happy to be back!"

"Wait 'till you talk to Jessica. She'll be thrilled!"

"Oh, I'd love to talk to her!"

"Okay. Wait a minute." Elizabeth hurried to Jessica's room.

"Jessica, wake up!" she shook her twin. "Maria's on the line!"

"Huh?" Jessica sleepily opened one eye. "What?"

"Maria's on the phone!"

"Yeah. Right. Tell me when Santa arrives." Jessica mumbled.

Elizabeth put the phone to Jessica's ear. "Maria, talk." She said, loud enough for Maria to hear.

"Jessica!" Elizabeth heard Maria's perky voice.

Immediately Jessica shot up. She screamed. "Maria! Oh my God!" she grabbed the phone from Elizabeth and shooed her away.

Laughing, Elizabeth left, knowing that as soon as Jessica opened her mouth, she'd stay there-for a very long time.

Just before she left, she heard Jessica mentioning "Lila's party tomorrow…"

Then Elizabeth remembered that she was supposed to pick out an outfit today for her party at Lila's. The one with all the SVH-ers and some choice members of the El Carro clan-and a certain Big Mesa guy Jessica insisted on inviting.

Jessica entered Lila's house, her heart thundering. Going in there still gave her dejä vü…the first weeks of terror and hell.

Arm in arm with Jeremy, she breezed into the living room, and shouted, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

The whole group looked at he and grinned. "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" their voices combined was deafening…well, almost everyone's-Jessica thought she spotted Maria and Ken kissing in the corner of the room. She smiled. It was good to be back on the popular lane-she wasn't as shallow, but it was still fun to be liked.

Soon she started getting comments on her outfit-a slim-fitting black dress that had an elegant flowered border on the bottom.

Jeremy looked totally hot in a pressed shirt and chinos that screamed-well, Hot guy!!!

He leaned over and whispered in Jessica's ear, "Merry Christmas, Jess."

Jessica turned to him, smiling. "Merry Christmas, Jeremy." She tiptoed and planted a short, sweet kiss on his lips, thinking, (And my senior year is finally, finally looking up!)

Elizabeth and Conner came into Lila's house a bit earlier then Jessica and Jeremy, who had sailed through the door as if they were the prince and the princess that was pretty surprising, considering Jeremy didn't even go to SVH.

Elizabeth smiled and waved at Jessica, even though she was pretty sure she wouldn't see her.

Elizabeth turned to Conner, who, for the first time, was actually socializing with Evan and someone from El Carro that she only knew by name.

"Hey," she said softly, pulling down her hanging white blouse so every one wouldn't see her belly.

Conner turned to her, his green eyes showing that new sparkle of hope that had been in his eyes since the other day when his mom returned from rehab-now sober.

"Hey, Liz. Having a good time?" Conner smiled, winding his arm around her.

"Maybe I should be the one asking you that. You're not exactly Mr. Party Boy." Elizabeth giggled at the thought of Conner jumping around and screaming.

"Well, then I {am} having a good time." He replied. "By the way, you look great." He looked at her up and down.

"H'm." Elizabeth murmured, glad that Conner had liked her white blouse and black pants. "You look cool too."

Conner was wearing a plain black shirt that was neither too tight nor too loose, and khakis that set of his muscled legs.

Elizabeth laughed when she saw what Winston and Andy were wearing when they came in with Maria and Leslie.

Winston was wearing that classic novelty shirt that had the front of a tux printed on it-complete with ruffles, bow tie, and even a little orchid.

Andy was wearing big red shirt with Santa's face printed on it. A Santa's hat was on his head and falling in his eyes every few seconds or so.

Maria and Leslie seemed to get along fine, while it seemed like Andy and Winston were becoming close. But as soon as everyone saw Maria, slight chaos erupted.

"Maria! We missed you!" Lila shouted, hugging her. Maria hugged her back. "I missed you too, Li."

Jessica smiled at her warmly. "I'm glad you're back." She wrapped her arm around Maria.

Amy and Jade were crushing Maria soon after.

Soon everyone was saying hi or introducing themselves.

About twenty minutes later Maria had finally settled down on the couch with Jessica and Amy and Lila and with the rest of the original SVH cheerleaders, along with Elizabeth, Enid, and Maria Slater, happily chatting away.

The party was really fun, and it was already about 1:00 am when Elizabeth and Jessica got home.

"Well, good night, Jeremy." Jessica smiled at him, listening to a ballad playing on the car radio.

"Yeah, good night, Jess." Jeremy replied softly. He leaned over the car seat and kissed Jessica.

Jessica leaned forward and enjoyed the feel of Jeremy's lips on hers.

After quite some time, Jessica pulled away. "Good night, {again}, Jeremy."

"Okay, good night, Jessica."

Jessica turned around to face him again and kissed him. Again. And again. And again.

"Okay. This is really good night. We've extended our good nights for 15 minutes already.

"H'm. This was kinda long, huh? But I'm not complaining." Jeremy said flirtatiously.

"Hey, I'm not either." Jessica answered, "But my parents want me in by 1:00."

"It's 1:20."

"Oh well. There goes my promise to my parents." Jessica smiled and planted a quick kiss on his mouth. "See ya."

"Okay."

Jessica stepped out of the car just as Conner's Mustang rolled into the street and as Jeremy's car left.

Conner walked Elizabeth to the door. He thought he saw Jessica walk in, but he didn't really care. All he could think about was Elizabeth and her lips.

When they reached the door, he squeezed Elizabeth's hand.

"Um, G'night, Liz." He cupped her cheeks and pressed his lips against hers.

Elizabeth wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

After a long time of kissing, she pulled away, out of breath.

"Bye, Conner." She grinned and turned the trick handle of the Mustang.

She gave him one last look before disappearing into the Wakefield home.

It looks like things have finally worked out okay. Maria and Ken, Liz and Conner, Melissa and Will, Jessica and Jeremy, Todd and Alyssa, Winston and Maria Santelli, and Andy and Leslie. See the last chapter of this 10-part miniseries. Watch out for Part 10: Closure. Coming soon-that sounds like a movie. :)