Sweet Valley High #30: Jealous Lies

Sandra Beacon is a jealous bitch. Sorry Sandy, but I call them like I see them. She’s flipping out because nominations are up for PBA (the sorority in case you didn’t know) and everyone expects her to nominate Jean West, including Jeanie. See, the two girls are best friends, but Sandy feels completely inferior. Jeannie is better than her at everything, including cheerleading. The only thing Sandy has is the sorority and she doesn’t really want to share.

Despite her feelings, she nominates Jean and everyone just kind of nods their approval. She tells Jean the big news at water ballet…wait, what? Is that like the cool thing to do? I can’t imagine that being cool back then, let alone today. Any who, Sandy remembers that one of the first challenges the girls have to do, is get some poor guy to go out with them. She decides that she’ll find someone impossible and pick him for Jean.

Somehow she ends up sharing lunch with Liz and Winston. Isn’t Sandy supposed to be kind of popular? Why doesn’t she have lunch with the cool kids? She hears Winston say that Tom McKay is pissed because Jean blew him off and decides he’d be the perfect date. She tells Lila, who isn’t thrilled with the idea. Lila thinks it’s too much of a challenge, what with Tom being gay and all. Wait, he isn’t gay yet? Oh, okay.

Jean of course freaks out because she isn’t into her fag hag stage yet. Nah, I’m just teasing. She’s worried that he won’t be interested in her and she can’t figure out why Sandy would pick such a hard date. Sandy tells her that she didn’t want the other girls to think she’s favoring her. Isn’t that kind of the point of nominating your best friend?

Meanwhile we have Cara who’s upset because she hasn’t yet moved away from Sweet Valley and escaped to the real world. Actually, she’s upset because Steven plans on dropping out of college and working on a boat for a semester. I love that Steven just plucks this idea out of thin air and thinks it sounds great.

Jean and Lila head to the tennis match, where they stare blatantly at Tom until he wanders over. He tries to get away from them and back to the sanctity of the male species, but Lila makes him feel bad. Jean kind of blurts out her asking him to Cara’s party. He kinda seems freaked out (go figure), but decides to go.

Obviously this would be a boring book if that was the end, but luckily it’s not! Sandy gets pissed off because Jean is just handed everything on a silver platter…and yet she remains friends with the Wakefield twins. She decides to tell Tom the truth about the party. She tells him that the date was just a pledge initiation thing, but then runs away.

The Wakefield family freaks out on Steven because apparently Ned and Alice just realized that (a) they have kids and (b) they’re supposed to act like parents. Liz comes up with a plan, where everyone will act like they don’t care if he leaves. Um, is it just me or have they used this story 137 times? Liz basically just asks him if she can have his new computer, while he’s gone. Yeah, good idea.

Jean is super excited about the party because she’s actually starting to like Tom. She spends hours getting ready for the party, only to have Tom call, after they’re supposed to be there. He tells her he got food poisoning and he’s too sick to come. He actually lies and says he’s driving himself to the hospital. Jean was the only one who couldn’t get her date to the party, but the girls feel bad so they give her another option. She’ll pretend that she thought he really was sick, ask him to some big dance and then ask someone else to dance. Ooh, burn. Oh yeah, she and Dana were picked to start off the dancing because they’re both having birthdays that day. Oh and she calls the hospital to check his story, which is obviously a lie.

Cara and Steve has a little min-fight in the middle of the party. She tells him that taking a break should be good for their relationship and that she’ll miss him, but it’s probably for the best. Steven gets all confused because he didn’t plan on them breaking up. Here’s a hint buddy, if you plan on leaving your girlfriend at home for months at a time, plan on catching her in bed with someone else when you get back.

Jean heads over to Tom’s house and tries to take care of him. He starts feeling bad because she seems to care for him. They start having feelings for each other and I have to admit that I kind of dig Tom in this book. He makes her a picnic and brings it to school, but she’s just worried about people staring at them. They spend the whole day together and even kiss, which makes Jean feel bad. She likes him, but she doesn’t want to screw herself out of the sorority.

Sandy still feels bad and turns to both Liz and Mr. Collins, which is not only overkill, but crazy too. Yet she still doesn’t do anything.

Ned and Alice give Steven all this crap about medical insurance. That and Cara is what puts him over the edge. He announces that he has no plans of working on the boat or dropping out of school. He actually goes off about how he doesn’t care what they think. I think Steven has the brain of a 4 year old.

Everyone kind of stands around the dance, waiting for the big moment. Even Tom is worried and he doesn’t know what the hell is going on. It’s funny because everyone knows what she plans on doing (even Liz), but not Tom. She thinks for a moment, then calls Tom’s name and they dance together.

The PBA group, led by Jessica threaten to lynch her and she says that she found something more important. Sandy confesses what she did and the two girls make up. PBA decides not to kick either girl out because they showed the importance of friendship. Aw…but don’t like half the girls in the sorority hate each other?

Steven tells everyone that he’s not leaving…at his own bon voyage party. The twins flip over the sign, to reveal something stupid about him staying. Everyone giggles and then Aaron Dallas pops up with his new friend, transfer student Jeffery French. Enid eyes him, Lila eyes him and Liz plays dumb. Yeah, don’t think she’s playing…