Sweet Valley Junior High #10: Twin Switch

Kristen asks Jessica to join her Homecoming Poster Committee, and Jessica agrees because she's still worried that she has no friends. Since Kristen is popular, she thinks that it might make her a little popular too. The next day, she shows up at school with four posters that actually seem pretty cute. There's a bunch of cats (wildcats) throwing glittery nets over dolphins (the other team) with phrases like "kill the dolphins" across the top.

Unfortunately, one of the school's science teachers just read an article about dolphin slaying and vowed to make a stand. She drags Jessica and her posters into the principal's office, who clearly has no clue why these are bad until she tells him. Jess points out that it's the name of the other team, and the teacher gets embarrassed for not knowing. The principal initially gives her a week of detention, but then he decides to put her in charge of the dance since the girl who was going to do it suddenly moved.

Jessica wants to have the best committee ever, so she gets Damon, Kristen, Bethel, and Brian to help. Brian and Kristen both say no until she tells them that the other joined. They're having some weird on-off thing. Ronald also volunteers, but Liz says that she's way too busy with the Zone and school to help at all.

The first meeting goes really bad. Kristen wants to build the dance around the school colors, and Bethel wants to make it around the colors purple and yellow. Brian sides with Bethel, which pisses off Kristen, and Ronald keeps talking about science and how loud colors make people crazy. Damon skips out early, and Jessica ends the meeting without making any decisions.

Every other meeting goes just as bad. Kristen and Brian kissed a few times and when he doesn't ask her to the dance, she wonders if he hates her. Bethel fights with Kristen constantly because Kristen just beat her in the election for student council president. Ronald keeps suggesting stupid ideas like doing a fossil dig at the dance, and Damon keeps leaving early to take care of his sisters.

After a particularly disastrous meeting at the Wakefield house, Jessica sends everyone home and starts crying. Liz decides that they should do a twin switch, which makes Jess gasp because she was always the one doing crazy schemes before. Liz will wear Jessica's clothes and run the meetings while pretending to be her, while Jess hides out until it's time to be her again.

Liz runs the first meeting and Kristen realizes that it's not Jessica. Everyone there knows that she's not Jessica, except for Ronald. Damon notices that she smells different than Jess, which leads to Ronald making a hilarious comment that he finds it rude to sniff people. They decide that Jess was so upset with them that she couldn't handle being in the same room with them so they agree to do what Liz wants.

This whole time, Damon kept worrying about Jessica and how to ask her to the dance. He buys a magazine filled with tips on what girls want from a homecoming date. He goes shopping, but can't afford a new outfit, and he goes to get her roses, but he can only afford daisies. He keeps worrying that she won't be happy with him as her date and then realizes that he never even asked her.

Kristen and Bethel finally start getting along by bonding over how much they like Jessica. Kristen makes a comment about Brian, and Bethel doesn't get why she is so upset because she thought they were dating. Brian never does ask her to the dance, but he does ask her to save a dance for him.

Jessica winds up going to a few Zone meetings because Anna and Sal think that she's Liz. She pretty much sits in the corner and tries not to mess things up because Liz didn't want her going. The dance all falls together when they start working together. Ronald even gets a former student (from SVU) to set up a laser light show, and Kristen and Bethel get food donated from the pizza place.

The night of the dance, they realize that no one knows if the real Jessica will make an appearance, so they all get dressed and head to her house. Liz is there, wearing one of Jessica's favorite dresses. They tell her that they hope she comes too but they are there for Jess, which makes her realize that they knew all along. Damon gives Jess the flowers and she changes clothes to go.

At the dance, Brian makes a comment about Kristen being his girlfriend, and she realizes that she was a dumbass this whole time and that he always did like her. Damon tells Jess that she looks really pretty and she gets starry eyed about it.

*I forgot to mention this, but the reason Liz offers to help is because she screws up. She pretends to be Jess when approached by the editor of the paper, but because she doesn't know any of the homecoming plans, she makes a bunch of random and generic comments, and the girl writes an article about how the dance will be a failure.

*Just to show how different this series is from the others...Kristen is *gasp* pudgy. A pudgy girl who is popular, cool, and has a boyfriend? I'm surprised they didn't run her out of Sweet Valley.

*I want to smack whoever edited these books. Is it really that hard to stay on track? Jessica gets the job on Tuesday, goes home and talks to Elizabeth about joining the committee, and starts making plans. In the next chapter, they mention that it's now WEDNESDAY, but Jessica explains to Kristen about what happened "that morning" with her getting the job.

*Early in the book, Liz wears a tee that's too short to tuck into her jeans. Later, Jessica makes her wear a similar shirt, and she keeps complaining that it's too short and how she doesn't understand how her sister can dress like that. Editing, it's called editing.

*Brian makes a cartoon/story about an alien who visited a homecoming event. The alien can't figure out what a homecoming queen is and makes a comment about football players being of lower intelligence. The Zone members laugh so hard that Liz falls off a chair. Even in eighth grade, I would not have found that funny.

*There's a point where the writer mentions that their new friends know them better than their old friends because their old friends never caught on to the twin switch before. I guess that's kind of true, but it's not really true here. Granted, Jessica's friends did figure it out, but it seems like Liz's friends just thought she was acting a little weird.

*This is kind of cute. Damon knows that it's not Jessica because she smells like peaches (her body wash) and the girl in front of him smells like raspberries.