Sweet Valley High #51: Against the Odds

Ronnie Edwards is back and I have no idea how he got his own book because no one really likes him. He shows up at the Dairi Burger, flashing around money and offering to buy everyone dinner. He keeps talking about his new car (a Mustang) and some guys ask to see it, but then jump him outside. Jeffery shows up, because it’s one of those books, and saves the day, which makes Ronnie think that they’re best friends.

It turns out that Ronnie’s been betting money, but he now owns a bunch to a bookie named Big Al. That doesn’t stop him from offering to loan Jess $1,000 to start her own jewelry design business. Yeah, I’ll get to that in a minute. Big Al decides that he’ll let Ronnie off the hook if he helps him fix the next big soccer game and he turns to his new best friend for help. That puts Jeffery in an awkward position because a scout from a big college is coming by, just to see him!

Jess has decided that she wants to design jewelry and takes a few samples to a shop called Treasure Island. The store owner isn’t that interested, until Lila and Amy show up and pretend to be interested. She tells Jessica that she’ll take all the samples she has ready. Jess asks Alice for a loan and gets $200.

Then she calls the supplier and he upsells her until she spends $900. She asks if they can work out a payment plan and he says no, unless she has a credit card. She asks Ronnie for the money and gets pissed when he doesn’t have it. Alice lets her use the credit card because Jess says it’s $500. She plans on selling enough jewelry to pay it off and ignores a call from her contact.

Jess stays up all night, coming up with 50 pieces of jewelry. She gets a call from the contact again, who tells her that the owner of the store wants to change their image and so she can’t take any of the jewelry. Jess runs over with the finished designs, but the woman still turns her down. Love it when someone tells the twins no and actually means it!

Jeffery decides to throw the match, but Liz butts her head in and finds out what happened. Actually she eavesdrops on some guy threatening Ronnie and the same guy finds her and ties her up. Someone they get free and call the cops. The cops arrive and arrest Big Al and they get to tell Jeffery what happened during a time-out.

Jeffery plays his best, the scout’s impressed and Sweet Valley wins the game, like there was any doubt. Ned flips out when the credit card bill comes in and tells Jess she needs to get a job to pay them back and she grudgingly agrees to work at Treasure Island until she pays off her bill. Of course they only make her pay the minimum amount each month, which is BS.

I love that two high school kids call the cops and tell them about an illegal betting ring, when they have absolutely no proof. Yet the cops show up at the soccer game and arrest Big Al. When Jess met Jeremy, Liz totally should have called the cops with a tip about statutory rape…