Young Adult Revisited

It's another ordinary BSC meeting when Mrs. Newton calls in needing a sitter for Lucy and Jamie. Kristy takes the job and instantly starts gushing about how she can give Lucy a bottle. This was back in the days when Mrs. Newton only occasionally let the girls sit for Lucy. The other girls get annoyed because Kristy didn't share the job around. They call each other job hogs (Claudia), bossy know-it-alls (Kristy), stuck-up city girls (Stacey), and shy little babies (MA). Mary Anne gets so upset that she tells them all off and storms home. She thinks that she can make up with Kristy after they all cool down, but Kristy won't even look out the window and actually shuts her shade. Mary Anne feels so bad that she writes each girl a letter, which is actually pretty snarky. The only nice letter is one she writes to Claudia because they didn't get mad at each other. The next day at school, Kristy sits with the twins, and they spread their lunches out so there...

It's Christmas in Sweet Valley, and I think this might actually be the first Christmas! Everyone is all atwitter because Todd Wilkins is coming back for the first time since he moved to Vermont. Elizabeth is a little worried because she isn't sure how she feels about him anymore. Jessica doesn't give a crap about anyone except herself, shocking right? She's in love with Hans, an exchange student from Germany, and she thinks that if she becomes Miss Christmas or some crap like that, he will fall head over heels in love with her. She gets a call from Cara on the day of the pageant, asking her to take over her job giving out gifts with Santa. Jess agrees, only to find out that she's stuck there all day. Lila set her up and with her out of the picture, Lila wins the title. There's also a secret Santa thing going on at school. Elizabeth is sooo trust-worthy that Mr. Collins asks her to help assign people names. Jessica demands that Hans get her name...

It's just another typical day in Sweet Valley. Jessica is sitting around reading about dinner parties, while Elizabeth kicks back with a French cookbook. Jessica decides that they should throw a dinner party and Elizabeth wants to make a bunch of stuff from the book. They run to tell their parents, who immediately think that they are crazy because parties like that take a lot of planning and money. After some more talking, they decide to ask if they can visit their aunt in Sandy Hook for a three-day weekend. They run back downstairs, and Ned asks if they thought about the cost. Jessica calls the bus station and it's $20 one-way. Elizabeth asks if he can't afford the trip, and he tells them that he's worried they don't think about money. He says that if they raise the money to go, they can. The twins decide to walk dogs around the neighborhood to raise the money. Steven offers to lend them $5 for photocopies if they pay 50% interest, which they agree....

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...