Sweet Valley High #8: Heart Breaker

Jess and Bill Chase are starring in a production of Splendor in the Grass. Apparently her lusting over him in the last book was a big joke, because now he’s in love with her and she won’t give him the time of day. Liz asks her to be nice to him, but she just laughs it off.

Liz has her own problems anyway, in the form of Patsy Webber. Is she even mentioned again? She’s apparently Todd’s ex-girlfriend and now she’s back, looking all hot because she lived in France. Todd does nothing wrong, but Liz acts like he’s dry humping her in front of the school.

Then we have DeeDee Gordon, who’s not so secretly in love with Bill. She mentions that she wants to learn how to surf, so he offers her lessons. That doesn’t sit well with Jess. Even though she’s all into Tom McKay, she wants Bill at her beck and call.

Case in point: she interrupts their lesson at the beach and makes Bill feel shitty for not standing and watching her from afar. Then she makes him drive and get her lunch, just because she sees Tom coming and doesn’t want him to see Bill mooning over her.

The beach scene is another excuse for Liz to moan. Patsy shows up and when she asks if anyone wants to go swimming, Todd is the only one to pipe up. She runs off and sees Olivia, who says that Patsy and Todd were once in love. I love that Liz can cheat on him 700 times, but he can’t even have an ex without her losing it.

Bill has a long conversation with himself and it turns out that he loves Liz and then Jess, because they look like his old girlfriend Julianne. They were all in love and they both surfed. Then they had a fight at a party and she drove off with someone else. The car crashed and she died. He went surfing, caught pneumonia and almost died.

Todd and Bill have a hysterical talk, where Todd says that he almost made the mistake of thinking Jessica was the one for him. He waxes poetic about all the things he loves about Liz and Bill thinks that it was the same way with Julianne, but still thinks he loves Jess. Has he not heard the fake date rape story yet?

Bill and DeeDee make plans to go surfing after school, which Jess fucks up by practically crying at the idea of him not coming over for an impromptu pool party. He blows off DeeDee and then Jess ignores him because Tom shows up. Instead of hating her, Bill sits in the corner, moping about how Jessica could have her pick of any guy and could do a lot better than him.

Liz sees Todd rubbing suntan lotion on Patsy’s back and flips out. She locks herself in her room and refuses to talk to him. Liz distracts herself with a new article, on some guy her dad knows who hires high school students. Sounds like a cheap bastard to me, but whatever. She finds out that Roger works for him, but he freaks out when she suggests writing a story. He says he has to work to support his mom and is worried that people will treat him badly if they know the truth.

Then it turns out that DeeDee’s dad is some huge movie producer. He came to their rehearsal and saw someone with real potential, but he won’t reveal any names because he doesn’t want anyone to get nervous. Instead, he’ll come back with another friend and see if he feels the same. Jessica naturally assumes that she has it in the bag.

So Liz sees Todd hugging Patsy and figures that they’re over, instead of you know, talking to him. Bill finally gets up the nerve to ask Jessica out, but she blows him off because she’s halfway to Hollywood. She even suggests that he take DeeDee.

Bill goes to the beach and sees DeeDee take a tumble on her board. He rushes out to save her and in the middle of mouth to mouth, realizes that he loves her. Despite the fact that they barely talked for the most part, they’re suddenly in love. The play goes off without a hitch, but Jess is pissed when she discovers Bill was picked for a screentest. Five seconds later, she decides that Bill looks really good and tries to get claws into him.

She buts in between them and tells him they should go to the party. DeeDee runs off, but then decides to go to the party with Roger. Todd talks to Liz, tells her nothing is going on and they make up. Jessica starts coming onto Bill, asking him about surfing lessons. He finally blows her off and makes it clear that the only person he’s spending time with now, is DeeDee. Aw.