Sweet Valley Twins #72: The Love Potion

The Unicorn Club is hosting a meeting because they need to raise money for some random fundraiser at school. Mary rushes in with big news. The radio just announced that Johnny Buck wants to play some smaller venues and added Sweet Valley to the list, even though its stadium only seats 2,000. The girls all vow that they will do whatever it takes to get tickets.

Liz wakes her the next day to reveal the details. The newspaper printed an entry form in each paper, and people can send in an entry form. Liz already took their paper and Steven took off for the store, so Jessica rushes to buy copies too. Steven sends in 30, Jess sends in six or so, Liz just has the one, and Mary sent in 75 entries.

The twins and Steven make a bet. Whoever doesn't get tickets will have to do the housework of the others, so Jessica definitely wants to win. Since she knows she probably won't win, she sucks up to her friends. She gets Lila drinks and agrees to go see some movie she hates, and she keeps telling Mary how great she looks and stuff like that.

Jessica also comes up with a great idea for the fundraiser. They'll make and sell a love potion. Lila's dad agrees to pay for the bottles, but they all fight on how to take the potion taste. After experimenting with a bunch of disgusting things, Mary suggests they just make a punch and color it purple. They find a recipe for pineapple punch in one of Alice's cookbooks.

The newspaper draws 1,000 names and each person gets two tickets. They notify everyone in person on Saturday. A van shows up at the Wakefield house, and Steven wins two tickets. Liz then calls from Amy's house and is all excited because Amy won tickets and plans to take her. No one else Jessica knows won any tickets.

While all this is going on, Peter Dehaven develops a huge crush on Mary. He keeps showing up and wanting to talk to her about stuff, and he even lets it slip to Liz that he entered the contest. Though he doesn't like Buck, he wanted to give Mary the tickets. Janet strongly encourages Mary to turn him off and turn him down because he isn't Unicorn boyfriend material. When he gives Mary an advance copy of a rock magazine his uncle works for with an exclusive Buck interview, Janet takes matters into her own hands. Since Mary once had a crush on this guy Tim, she tells him Mary likes him and kind of sets them up.

Tim does call Mary, but it's clear they don't have much in common. He likes heavy metal, is kind of rude, and only seems to care about himself. Every time they see each other, he just wants to brag about himself and never asks questions about her. Mary tries to talk with her friends, but all they want to talk about is how good they look together.

Steven starts panicking when he realizes he lost his tickets. His girlfriend loves Johnny Buck so he can't tell her what happened. Jessica agrees to help him on one condition. If she finds the tickets, he has to give her his ticket and she'll go with his girlfriend. They spend the whole book fighting and him accusing her of stealing the tickets before finally finding them in his math book.

A SVMS teacher won tickets and does a raffle at the fundraiser. The Unicorn Club shows up dressed as gypsies to sell their love potion. Peter shows up looking like a little puppy dog, and Jessica sells him a bottle before realizing they're all out. She then makes him one filled with hot sauce and random spices that almost makes him vomit. Liz helps the teacher pull the winning ticket and finds out that Peter won. Jessica weasels it out of her and then tells the whole club.

Tim said his dad would pick Mary up but then asks her to come to his house for a ride. She gets there in her new cute little dress, and he announces that she needs to ride his mom's bike because his dad changed his mind. When the tire goes flat, he accuses her of running over something in the road and then acts like a huge brat because she doesn't want to ride on the handlebars of his bike. She finally tells him to go on without her. By the time she gets to the picnic thing, she finds her friends completely surrounding Peter, but she still takes the time to tell off Tim.

When Peter finds out he won, he gives one ticket to Mary. They get all blushing and it seems that they really like each other. He then gives Jessica the other ticket and says it was her love potion that brought him and Mary together. Peter then winks at her to let her know that he knows she tricked him. And then I guess everyone goes to the concert and has an amazing time.

*How does their stadium only have 2,000 seats when there have been big mentions of other major concerts in town. Plus, didn't Buck play there way back when Jessica dog sat for that older lady?

*Mary makes a comment about her dad, which makes me wonder if it's a lack of continuity or a sweet reference to her stepfather. In one of the earlier books, she hated the guy her mom married but they eventually made up.

*Lila sent their gardener to the store to get her 30 copies of the paper. I'm assuming the gardener also filled out the entry forms LOL.

*Does anyone else remember the early books where Peter was a big dork and no one liked him? I think the ghostwriters replaced him with Randy Mason in the later books.

*Ned and Alice ground Steven when they find out he didn't touch his math book for more than a week but he's only grounded after the concert. Yup, that will teach him.

*Ned buys a raffle ticket and says that if he wins, he'll give the tickets to Steven to calm things down in the house. Um, isn't that favoritism? Jessica actually likes Johnny Buck and didn't win tickets. Steven hates Johnny Buck and lost the tickets he won. It kind of seems like he should have said he'd give the tickets to Jessica or at least give them each one.

*Tim is an ass. He keeps showing up and bragging about himself in front of the other Unicorns. Mary is the only one who notices. Everyone else thinks he's so cute.

*Their teacher says he entered the contest for his niece and nephew. Can you imagine how pissed they will be when they find out he gave away their tickets?

*Tim drinks three bottles of the love potion and then plays in the charity basketball game. He later complains to Mary that her stupid love potion made him super thirsty, and she just kind of rolls her eyes. Way to win a woman's heat there Tim.

*Lila later calls Jessica out on her brown nosing. Turns out that they all knew what she was doing and tried to see how far she would go.

*At the very end, no one cares about Johnny Buck or wants to hear about the concert anymore. They just want to talk about Melody Powers and her new video, which isn't a name we've heard in a long time.