Young Adult Revisited

Mrs. Wakefield is sick and apparently she’s been sick for a few weeks. Ned has to go out of town on a business trip and she planned on going, but backs out at the last minute. Both the twins notice that she isn’t feeling well, but good old Jessica finds a way to turn it back around on herself. She becomes convinced that Alice isn’t really sick, just ignoring her. She sees her talking to Liz, but then later she’s too tired to talk to her. Jessica answers the phone one day and listens as her mom talks to a doctor. It turns out that Alice has a lump on her neck. They think it’s a swollen gland, but it might be cancer so they’re doing a biopsy. They aren’t sure if it’s a virus or something more serious. Jess keeps it all to herself, but lets a few details slip when Caroline Pierce calls that night. By the next day, Caroline has spread it all over school that Alice is dying and Jessica can barely go on. Auditions for the upcoming school musical are coming up and everyone thinks Jess i...

The football team is on a winning streak and everyone in town is now attending the games. I want to point out here that Ken makes a comment about how there are only six games left in the season. That makes the rest of the series even more confusing. Anyway, Amy Sutton is all hot to trot for Ken and constantly flirting with him and cheering him on. Terri Adams also has a thing for him, but of course won’t tell him that. Amy decides to throw a big celebration-victory party at her house and somehow Terri gets an invite. Naturally Amy throws herself all over Ken, makes a big deal about him and kisses him in front of everyone. He seems a little uncomfortable and eagerly offers to take Winston and Maria home. Terri asks Winston for a ride and winds up in the car with them. It starts raining when they leave and Winston’s parents are home, so he decides to take Maria home and let Ken drive Terri back. This, despite the fact that Terri only lives a few blocks down the road. They talk abou...

Apparently Liz and Todd were good friends up until fourth grade and then stopped talking. Forget the fact that in SVH, he just moved to town. They danced together at this party and now she kind of likes him, but Jessica is now in love with him too. Actually, Jessica just wants to be the first sixth grade Unicorn with a boyfriend and Todd kind of fits the bill. Plus, everyone keeps seeing them together and thinks he likes her. Lila is obsessed with this guy Jake, who’s in eighth grade. She tells Janet and he sends back a message that Lila is kind of cute and maybe they can talk sometime. Ellen is also obsessed with another guy, so it seems like everything is lining up for the club. Jessica spots Todd riding by her house on his bike and he keeps showing up in the same places, so she thinks he likes her. Liz thinks Todd likes Jessica too and I’m sure I’ve read this book before. Oh wait, this is the junior high version of the first SVH book! Anyway, she asks Jess for some advice on s...