Jessica Wakefield

Jessica Wakefield is one of the main characters in the Sweet Valley High book series.

Character

Jessica is the younger (by four minutes) twin sister to Elizabeth Wakefield. She is considered by all to be the most popular member of their class at Sweet Valley High. Jessica has a long list of activities, acting; dancing; surfing among others, but what she is best known for is cheerleading. She is the co-captain of the cheerleading squad; and also is the president of Pi Beta Alpha, the most exclusive sorority in Sweet Valley High. Although her sister is a member in name only, Jessica threw herself in the club's various activities and became the president when her predecessor moved away.

Her friends include those who consider status, money and style to be number one. Chief among those are Lila Fowler who is considered her best friend, and chief rival; Cara Walker her former best friend, who moved away to London; and Amy Sutton who, ironically, was once her sister's best friend, until she returned to California from Connecticut.

Jessica has no patience with her sister's best friend, Enid Rollins whom she sees as a wimp and a nerd. She also doesn't like a lot of Elizabeth's friends whom she sees as way too serious. (ie. Olivia Davidson, whom Jessica considers a freak, since she dresses in a bohemian style) She thinks that Elizabeth needs only one friend in her life, and that is her.

She has used her various positions in the sorority and cheerleading squads to keep out people that do not measure up to her standards. This has made her a few enemies, and it also had forced her to relent, especially when a cheerleading hopeful named Annie Whitman nearly committed suicide.

She also used her position as Pi beat Alpha president to exclude a junior named Robin Wilson, who was quite overweight, but the shunning had a reverse effect, it caused Robin to lose weight. In fact, her resentment towards overweight people, including Lois Waller add to the fact that she is a snob.

Jessica's tendency to not look before she leaps has landed her in quite a lot of trouble. She has been grounded more times than anyone in her family, a situation that has also caused her to have a lot of resentment towards Elizabeth. Sometimes, her resentment has lead her to do some nasty things to her. The worst was spiking her drink with alcohol, which led to Elizabeth driving drunk and accidentally killing Jessica's boyfriend at the time, Sam Woodruff.

However, despite all the resentment, Jessica truly loves her sister, and often is defended by her, despite what most of the school knows her as. This tendency to defend her sister, has strained some of Elizabeth's romantic relationships.

While in college, Jessica married a man named Mike McAllery for a month, then it was annulled later on.