Jessica Wakefield

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**Jessica Wakefield** is one of the main characters in the *Sweet Valley High* book series. She was played by Brittany Daniel in the TV series of the same name. Her twin sister, Elizabeth was portrayed by Brittany's twin, Cynthia Daniel.

## Character

Outgoing, party loving Jessica is the wilder of the Wakefield twins. She is more concerned with fashion and looks than twin-sister Elizabeth, and although she cares deeply for her classmates and family, she tends to be snobbish, often judging other people by their appearances. She is always doing whatever she can to get whatever she wants and is not above sabotaging anyone (including her own identical twin sister) to do it.

Beautiful with sun-streaked blonde silky hair, blue-green eyes and a tiny dimple in the left cheek, she is easily one of the most beautiful and popular girls in the school. Jessica is also known to take advantage of her looks and popularity to get what she wants.

Jessica's interests change regularly. Her more regular hobbies include acting, shopping and dancing, while her true passion is cheerleading, even though she comes close to quitting or being kicked off the squad several times throughout the series. She is the captain of the cheerleading squad at "Sweet Valley High."

Jessica remains close to best friend Lila Fowler throughout the majority of the Sweet Valley series. She shows a great deal of animosity towards her sister's recurring boyfriend Todd Wilkins as he does her. Jessica finds Todd as "dull and goody-goody" as she does Elizabeth. Todd finds Jessica mean-tempered, vain, selfish, stupid, spoiled and boring. But we later see there's a lot more to it Jessica's not telling. Or Todd. Jessica's main reason for her anger towards Todd is based on the fact that he picked Elizabeth over her. Jessica has always found Todd attractive in his appearance and attitude, but she finds his interests and personality quite boring. In that respect, Jessica finds Elizabeth and Todd perfect for each other. Jessica once remarked that she thought Todd was really limiting who Elizabeth was as a person and what she could do. She thought he was making her boring, holding her back even. But after she spent some personal intimate time over one summer with him, she started to think it was the other way around.

Jessica had feelings for Todd for a long time, but had repressed these feelings so as not to cause a rift between her and her sister. However, Jessica did first attempt to get Todd for herself, while knowing that Elizabeth had feelings for him since kindergarten. There have been instances where she has given into temptation though, and made advances towards Todd. She fooled around with him several times while he was dating her sister and had an affair with him over the summer while Todd and Elizabeth were separated. They started to get to know one another and she found herself falling for him deeply. He was astonished to find himself having similar feelings and the two fell into true love.

## *Sweet Valley Kids*

Jessica is a girl who wants to be the centre of attention and competes with Lila Fowler to see who can be the most glamorous. Though Lila is far more rich, Jessica tries to be better than Lila. Though she is good friends with Ellen Riteman she tries to sabotage her too.

## *Sweet Valley Twins*

Jessica is a pretty, outgoing girl. In the series debut novel, *Best Friends*, Jessica feels the need to pull away from her twin sister, with whom she still shares a room, and develop her own identity. She joins The Unicorn Club, an elite, all-girls club that only accepts the most popular girls in the school. Old friends Lila Fowler and Ellen Riteman are also members of the club. Jessica's new friends include Janet Howell (who is Lila's cousin), the Unicorn's president, Mandy Miller and Kimberly Haver. Jessica also joins The Boosters, a cheerleading squad at SVMS.

Jessica dates Aaron Dallas throughout the series, and shares her first kiss with him. She still competes with Lila and loves to outsmart her.

## *Sweet Valley High*

As one of the most popular girls in school, Jessica only associates with those who are (almost) as attractive and stylish as she. Her closest friends included fabulously wealthy Lila, gossipy Cara Walker and boy-crazy Amy Sutton. She began the series as cheerleading captain, a position she later shared with the newly slimmed down Robin Wilson, and was made President of exclusive high school sorority Pi Beta Alpha in the first book.

Jessica often uses her looks and popularity to get what she wanted (see Annie Whitman). Her tendency to wreak havoc with her schemes earned her the nickname "Hurricane Jessica."

Although she loved her sister dearly, she did get jealous because she felt that Elizabeth was always doing things well, and she always messed up. One of these resentment periods almost made her run away to San Francisco. Another time, after being grounded for letting her math grade nosedive, she nearly joined a cult, to get the friendship and affection she craved.

Boy crazy, Jessica dated around, refusing to be tied down to one particular boy. She pursued only attractive, preferably wealthy, candidates. Her relationship with rich, spoiled Bruce Patman, whom she had a crush on since she was a freshman, turned into one of absolute animosity. She had almost thrown her self-respect away, as he treated her like a slave.

When she discovered he was cheating on her, she humiliated him by hitting him with a pizza and dumping a soda on top of him. They remained rivals, even when, in a brief bit of womanly pride, she joined an all-boy club, which caused Bruce to rig a wheel to make sure Jessica did all the dares. This situation coincided with a foreign delegation of teachers were visiting Sweet Valley High, and the club did everything possible to disrupt it. Her time in the so-called "Club X" caused her to get detention.

Transfer student AJ Morgan was Jessica's first serious boyfriend. Although she tried to tone down her more flirtatious ways, her personality proved too much for the more modest AJ. The *Secret Diary* special edition later revealed that she had a secret fling with Todd Wilkins while she was dating AJ.

Jessica's next boyfriend, and arguably the love of her life, was Sam Woodruff, a dirt bike enthusiast from Bridgewater Academy. The pair shared a passionate and loving relationship that was proving to stand the test of time. Later, Jessica spiked Elizabeth's drink when they were both competing to be prom queen, in order to humiliate her, and Elizabeth then left the dance with Sam leading to Sam's death in a car crash. Furious with Elizabeth, Jessica started seeing and eventually making out with Todd Wilkins in retaliation. Elizabeth was not convicted because at the 11th hour, the other driver confessed his wrongdoing.

In *The Evil Twin* (magna edition), psychotic Margo attempts to impersonate Elizabeth by killing her at Lila's New Year's Eve party but Jessica jumps to her twin's rescue, getting wounded herself. Josh came, knocked her away, and a huge piece of glass tore through Margo's throat. Elizabeth, initially, angry with Jessica for stealing Todd's apology letter, for abandoning her during the trial, and for fooling around with her boyfriend, looked Jessica eye to eye. Believing the eyes tell the soul, Elizabeth forgave her sister, telling her she remembered the incident, briefly before Lila's party. Elizabeth realized how horrible her often thoughtless sister felt, because Jessica loved her sister.

Margo had killed James, Jessica's new boyfriend whom she had only been dating a short while. (They met during the Woodruff Memorial she organized.) James was hired by Margo to help get Jessica out of the way, but before he was about to tell Jessica the full story, explaining why he broke up with her (to save both their lives). He realized he could not abandon her, but his call was intercepted by Margo, who fulfilled her promise to kill him.

Her next relationship was with Jeremy Randall, the ex-fiancé of a family friend. They were briefly engaged, until she discovered that he was using her as part of a grand scheme to gain his ex-fiancee's inheritance.

Old friend Ken Matthews supported her throughout this period and before long, the two were dating. Their relationship survived the revelation that Ken and Elizabeth had been together after Todd moved to Vermont, but ended when Jessica fell in love with her surfing trainer, Christian Gorman. Christian later died in a gang-related incident, between Palisades and Sweet Valley High gang members, which devastated Jessica deeply. Though in book # 143 *Party Weekend* Christian's ghost comes back to warn Jessica not to fight with El Carro High School so no one
will die like he did and tells her he will always love her. Also in *Party Weekend* Jessica meets Christian's brother Jason who at first she thought was Christian. He also later helps her stop a war between Sweet Valley and El Carro.

Jessica's next conquest was Devon Whitelaw. She was hurt and angry when she discovered he preferred her twin sister and made several attempts to sabotage the relationship. None of them worked and Jessica would spend the rest of junior year alone.

One other aspect of Jessica's life is that there were few involved projects she could do on her own. Despite complaining about being in Elizabeth's shadow, Jessica often relied on her sister to cover for her, pretend to be her, tie up lose ends, run a project itself, or bail her out of a sticky situation. Despite often vowing to make Jessica do things on her own, Elizabeth continually "helped" her sister, which was her weak spot. As a result, Jessica became rather spoiled and dependent. Despite her sister's help, she often manipulated Elizabeth or tried to corrupt Elizabeth's relationship with boys she liked herself.

## *Sweet Valley High Senior Year*

Senior year saw a lot of changes in Jessica's life. After the earthquake that shattered Sweet Valley left nearby high school El Carro High in ruins, several new students came to SVH. After hooking up with Will Simmons, Jessica incurred the wrath of his girlfriend, Melissa Fox, who spread rumors about Jessica. Lila and Amy took Melissa's side and Jessica's golden-girl image was temporarily shattered. However, Jessica has two good friends on her side in Annie Whitman and Jade Wu.

Despite Melissa's attempts to sabotage her try-out, Jessica remained on the cheerleading squad, although the captainship was passed on to Tia Ramirez, whom she gained a close friendship with. Jessica soon became friends with Cherie Reese and Gino Cho who both felt guilty for their actions in hurting her.

A turbulent on/off relationship with Will was followed by a steadier, more compassionate relationship with Jeremy Aames. Jessica eventually patched up her life, making new friends and sorting things out with Lila at the end of the series. However, her friendship with Amy remains over. After a struggle with figuring out what to do after high school, she decided to attend Sweet Valley University.

## *Sweet Valley University*

Shortly after starting college, Jessica became involved in a whirlwind relationship with Mike McAllery, to whom she lost her virginity. The pair moved in together early in the relationship and eloped soon after in a Las Vegas ceremony. She didn't tell her family until much later.

Jessica and Mike had a rocky marriage, but in the end Jessica left Mike. When Mike came looking for Jessica, a scuffle between Mike and Steven led to Mike being shot and paralysed. Their marriage was annulled soon after. Although during Billie's pregnancy they did rekindle their romance, however they felt it was not the right time to do so, in the novel ``Here come the Bride.``

Several ill-fated relationships followed, including a nightmarish fling with quarterback James Montgomery, who assaulted her, and an affair with her married professor, Louis Miles.

She next dated undercover police officer Nick Fox, a relationship that almost led to her being jailed for cocaine possession. During the course of their relationship, Jessica developed an interest in detective work and even attended a "private eye" boot camp.

Nick was murdered shortly after testifying against Clay DiPalma, a criminal he'd been chasing for years. Jessica became deeply depressed following his death and was expelled from college. However, she later discovered that Nick had faked his death to protect her.

Jessica met Neil Martin when she took part in the "Coast to Coast Road Trip Challenge." Although initially attracted to Neil (who turned out to be gay), he later became her closest friend and housemate.

Jessica is a member of the Theta Alpha Theta sorority. During her sophomore year in SVU, Jessica catches Sam Burgess cheating on Elizabeth with other women in their college. Convinced he's going to hurt her sister, Jessica kisses Sam in order to show Liz how much of a two-timer he is. When Elizabeth catches this, she accuses Jessica again and without waiting for her to explain what's going on, she decides to continue her education in London.

## *Elizabeth*

After Elizabeth catches her kissing Sam Burgess, Jessica tries to explain herself, only to be rejected. Jessica tries to stop her by having their parents get involved, but she heads to England to further continue her education. Upon being confronted by Steven, who had supported their sister's decision decision in "I Need You," Jessica realizes what she's done and heads to England to try to reconcile with Elizabeth. After failing to convince her to come home and let her explain herself there, Max convinces Jessica to explain herself here. Elizabeth finally decides to listen and learns that Sam had cheated on her with other women at Sweet Valley University. She feels guilty when she learns Jessica's actions was out of a need to protect her from his cheating ways.

## *Sweet Valley Confidential*

Jessica went out with Todd a few times while he was dating Elizabeth. One night, Jessica impersonates Elizabeth at a party with Todd and the evening is just one big fun shindig. In a moment of passion, the two find themselves kissing. Todd convinces Jessica to come back to his room. They have an affair that last about five years.

One night while Jessica is at Todd's, her then-husband Reagan finds out about their relationship and nearly comes to a physical scuffle with both of them. He makes it clear he will divorce her and she's entitled to nothing as she signed a pre-nup. Elizabeth comes in, breaks up the fight between them and figures out of Todd and Jessica's involvement from Reagan. She furiously screams at them, telling them she never wants to see either of them ever again. At the time, Todd and Elizabeth were engaged. Jessica and Todd live together in Sweet Valley doing financially well in a stylish townhouse.

Todd now has a sports column which has been picked up by several papers and Jessica is a cosmetics saleswoman with MYFACEISGREEN.COM, a company which distributes only environmentally-based make-up.

However, the two are tortured with the guilt of what they have done to Elizabeth—especially Jessica. At their grandmother, Marjorie's 80th birthday party, Liz unintentionally humiliates her family by trying to have her friend, Liam, seduce a reluctant Jessica into a relationship. This proved fruitless as he instead flirts with Steven(who comes out as gay) and a jealous Elizabeth starts a food fight, which leads to Alice yelling at her. No longer able to live with herself any longer, Jessica finally leaves Todd in her attempt to try and help her sister reconcile with him. She heads to New York and apologize to Elizabeth. To her surprise, Elizabeth tells Jessica that she had already forgiven her and apologizes for how she hurt them with her behavior. When asked why the sudden change of heart, Liz explains to Jessica that before leaving for New York, Bruce confronted her and wisely convinced her to take a long hard look at herself. Elizabeth gives Jessica her blessing to be with Todd after admitting she should've known they were over a long time ago, but was too much of a commitment control freak to admit it. The next morning, Todd is outside on the doorstep proposing marriage to Jessica and she accepts. Elizabeth herself begins a relationship with Bruce.

## *The Sweet Life*

Three years after the events of *Sweet Valley Confidential*, Jessica and Todd have a two-year-old son, Jake. But they each have an affair and separate. In the final book, *Bittersweet*, the two reconciled after declaring their undying love for each other.

## References

1. ↑ Brittany Daniel
2. ↑ Amazon.com: Runaway (Sweet Valley High #21): Francine Pascal: Books
3. ↑ Amazon.com: KIDNAPPED BY THE CULT! (Sweet Valley High): Francine Pascal: Books
4. ↑ Amazon.com: Playing with Fire (Sweet Valley High, No 3): Francine Pascal: Books
5. ↑ Amazon.com: JESSICA AGAINST BRUCE (Sweet Valley High): Francine Pascal: Books

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