Plot:
Zelda Smith works with her cruel uncle and aunt in a fake mind-reading act and is billed as Princess Zelda. She runs away and is befriended by some urchins who take her for a real princess. She maintains the pretence to keep herself in hiding.
Plot:
Zoe Elder is missing her ex-boyfriend Alex Petrie and is trying to win him back. Her tactics are getting increasingly underhand.
I Want Him Back – M&J: #232 (21 October 1995) – #237 (25 November 1995)
Plot:
Sal Edwards has been used to the posh life and school until her parents split up. Sal goes with her mother, and is dismayed to find they are moving into a more humble flat and running a second-hand clothes stall for a living. Terrified of being bullied and being called “Second-Hand Sal” at school, Sal goes to great lengths to keep her schoolmates from finding out.
Second-Hand Sal – M&J #140 (15 January 1994) – #149 (19 March 1994)
Alison Payne and Bettina Clarke (Linda Lee in the reprint) are being fostered by the Frazers on a trial basis for adoption. Alison has looked after Bettina/Linda ever since she was blinded in an accident. But Bettina/Linda has secretly regained her sight and is keeping it that way until she gets rid of Alison, because she does not want to share the Frazers with her. And Bettina/Linda is going as far as animal cruelty (below) in her tricks to get rid of Alison. Bettina/Linda turns everyone against Alison, and there is even talk she should be sent to special school.
Then Bettina/Linda makes a very ironic mistake. She turns a light on while pulling another trick on Alison, while Alison distinctly remembers she had turned it off. As a blind girl would not need a light, Alison begins to suspect the truth. Further investigation confirms Alison’s suspicions, and she makes the accusation against Bettina/Linda in front of all her accusers. A doctor proves Alison’s claims that Bettina/Linda is not blind. Bettina/Linda is taken the children’s officer to be dealt with, and the Frazers adopt Alison.
Every week the splash panel opens with Wendy Ware as the centre of attention. To all appearances Wendy is a kind hearted, angelic girl who is popular with everyone – except one. In the background there always is an unhappy person who knows differently about Wendy.
In flashback, that person tells us how they fell foul of Wendy, who is really a nasty, selfish and extremely clever schemer who stops at nothing and nobody to get what she wants. Usually this means people who are in her way or people she took advantage of, but Wendy is also capable of hurting friends and even members of her own family. Even a famous actress falls foul of Wendy in one episode. Wendy always gets what she wants and ends up the centre of admiration in the last panel with everyone thinking she’s an angel, while her victim ends up with a blackened name and thinking “Only I know the truth about Wendy.” None of them ever seems to think that she might have done the same thing to others.
In the penultimate episode, Wendy steals Cindy Baker’s best friend Lisa because she wants to take advantage of the new wealth Lisa’s family have come into. But in this case Cindy becomes determined to expose Wendy.
However, Cindy has no luck in trying to talk sense into Lisa about how Wendy is taking advantage of her to get what she wants. Worse, Cindy keeps falling into traps set by Wendy to make her look jealous and spiteful. Eventually, Wendy brags to Cindy about how she will never succeed in exposing her; she is just like the people Wendy has fooled in the past, and she is expert in getting her own way and making others pay for it. However, a teacher overhears Wendy and sends her straight to the headmistress. Wendy has no choice but to confess all her crimes and is transferred to another school. She leaves a lot of smiling faces around her old school, and girls express delight that she has gone. Seeing this, Cindy and Lisa realise they were not the only ones to know the truth about Wendy.
Plot:
Linsey Townsend has lived a luxurious life and been spoiled. But all that changes when her father runs off with money from his employers’ company and the family bank. Linsey now faces a tougher financial time and learns hard lessons in being more appreciative, helpful and thoughtful. Meanwhile, her mother tries to conceal the truth about Dad’s absence from their friends, keep up appearances, and dreads their secret being found out.
Emily and Victoria Willoughby become destitute when their father is lost at sea and their mother is injured in an accident. All their servants leave except the kitchen maid Jenny. The girls are too proud to let anyone find out about their poverty, so they they all turn to running the household themselves with Jenny’s help. But they soon find they have hard lessons to learn, including raising income and Victorian house-cleaning.
Lucy Lamford’s father inherits a stately home and vast fortune. He wants to turn Lucy into a lady, but Lucy resists in the form of a double life: one where she plays the lady as Lucy and the other where she plays herself as a typical scruffy teenager called Lee.
Veronica Lannon loves animals, but her mother does not. When the family moves to the country, Veronica sets up a shed for injured wildlife, but her mother’s attitude towards animals forces her to keep it secret.
Sheila Ward and her younger brother and sister have lived in a children’s home since they were orphaned. When Sheila becomes deaf after an accident, their hitherto disinterested aunt and uncle suddenly take an interest in them. This is because they are after Sheila’s compensation money. So when Sheila’s hearing returns, her guardians blackmail her into pretending to still be deaf.
