Sweet Valley High #31: Taking Sides

There's a hot piece of ass in Sweet Valley, and his name is Jeffrey French. Both Lila and Enid want him, so Jessica and Liz decide to help their respective best friend snag him. For Liz, this means shoving him down Enid's throat at every turn. Jessica tries to step back and let Lila wow him on their own.

Lila invites him to a pool party at her house, but Jessica keeps the party a secret from her twin. Jeffrey spends the whole time making new friends and meeting new people instead of fawning all over Lila. She buys him a brand new camera because he loves photography, but he tells her he can't take it because it was too expensive.

When Liz hears about the party, she decides to amp up her efforts. She gushes on and on about Enid and how Jeffrey should meet her at the big volleyball game. She then promises Enid he'll be there. He asks Liz if she's going, and she claims that she has to do something with her cousin. The next day, they learn that he went to the Beach Disco with Jess, Lila, and a bunch of their friends instead.

Elizabeth sees him again and talks up Enid again. He starts asking her to take him on a tour of Sweet Valley and do stuff with him, but she keeps bringing up Enid. Lila shows up with great tickets to a professional soccer game in Los Angeles, and he leaves Liz behind to go with her. She realizes that she felt a little jealous when he left with another girl.

Enid is running a program to get food for the homeless shelter. They hold a big auction in the auditorium, and students bid on items with canned goods. Liz convinces Jeffrey that he should donate a date with him. He thinks it sounds conceited, but she convinces him that it's a good way to get to know someone new. Enid ends up bidding multiple boxes of canned goods to win him.

The only way she can win is if Lila isn't at the auction. She convinces her and Jess that she needs their help with manual labor, and they both make up excuses why they can't help. Enid then makes it clear that if they show up, she'll find a job for them both to do, so they skip it.

Cut to their "big date." Enid realizes that they have nothing in common and don't really click as a couple. She tries to tell Liz, who decides to ignore her. They have a big picnic fundraiser thing, and she keeps forcing Jeffrey to spend time with Enid. Jessica blows up at her over the auction, they have a fight, and Jessica storms off. Jeffrey then goes off on her for trying to force him to date someone. When he storms off, she bursts into tears.

Jessica shows up to comfort her. When she starts crying over Jeffrey, Jessica realizes that her twin is in love. She tells her to go talk to him, which she almost doesn't do because she sees him dancing with Lila. Liz finally works up the nerve to talk to him, and when she tells him how she feels, he admits that he's in love with her too. Yay?

The other story is all about the twins' cousin Jenny. She's a year younger, 10 pounds overweight, and Jessica pretty much hates her. Jenny always follows her around, dresses like her, and tries to be just like her. This is especially bad because Jessica is obsessed with some new guy named Eddie. She thinks he's really cute, but they don't really know each other and he can't even tell her and Liz apart.

Eddie and Jenny instantly bond over their shared love of old books, which Jessica thinks is boring. Every time she turns around, she sees Jenny with Eddie. Eddie even invites them to go out on Friday. Jessica whines that Jenny keeps butting in, even though he clearly has more in common with her cousin. Eddie finally grows a pair and makes it clear that it's Jenny he likes, but at the end of the book, she says that he's nice and all but it doesn't mean anything because she's leaving.

*Someone mentions being surprised that there are people in need of food and housing in Sweet Valley. Isn't there a story involving a shelter in like every other book?

*The auction takes place before school is over for the day, but apparently, everyone has the chance to leave school instead of going to it. Nice job teaching.

*I love the fact that Liz "falls in love" with Jeffrey by the end of the book. They seriously only talk twice before she starts having feelings for him, and he acts like he's in love after their first meeting.

*Lila wears a white jumpsuit and gold heels to a party on the beach. Did anyone really dress like this in high school?

*The Jenny and Eddie thing is pretty evident from the first time they meet. They instantly start talking about how much they love old books and movies. Jessica keeps yawning and trying to change the subject, but she still somehow thinks they're meant to be together.

*This book does a really good job of setting up the next book, where Jessica dyes her hair and changes her look. There are multiple mentions of how tired she is of looking like her twin even in the beginning of the book.

*Liz and Jeffrey fall in love without knowing anything about each other. She even points out that all she knows is that he likes soccer and photography.

*The winning bid for the year before was a football Ken donated from some big game. Woo hoo! Penny apparently donated a back rub too, which is a little strange.