Sweet Valley High #14: Deceptions

Hey, remember that time when Elizabeth was “kidnapped” by that guy who just wanted to stare at her hair and watch her eat pancakes? Well, this book comes right after that one. She's now back home, so SVH decides to celebrate in the only way it knows how, with a party.

Jessica, surprisingly, does most of the planning and hard work. Liz eventually meets Nicholas Morrow, the hot new guy who Jessica is in love with at the moment. While Liz thinks he's just being nice to her because he wants to make new friends, he asks her to dance with him several times in a row. Nicholas spends most of the night following her around like a little lost puppy dog, while Liz spends most of the night avoiding Todd and wondering if she should talk to him.

Meanwhile, Jessica really, really wants Nicholas to ask her out. Every time she finds him though, he makes up an excuse to walk away so he can trail after Liz again. When it finally comes time to leave, he gets her alone. Nicholas tells Liz that he thinks he's falling in love with her and that he wants to take her out. She tells him that she has a boyfriend, but Nicholas says she's too young to get serious with anyone. He keeps begging her to go out with at least once until she finally caves and agrees to go out with him when Todd goes out for his mom's birthday.

Liz initially plans to tell Todd about the date but can't work up the nerve. She starts to tell him that night, but then he starts talking about how she ignored him all night to hang out with some other guy. When she goes to tell him again, she briefly mentions the name Nicholas and Todd flips out. While she does tell Enid everything, she doesn't tell Jess because of how her twin feels.

Speaking of Jessica, she decides that she should learn more about computers. Nicholas is taking a year off school to work for his dad's computer company before going back to school and one day taking over the business. If she wants to be his perfect match, she thinks they should have something in common. She turns to Randy Mason for help. Poor Randy thinks she actually has an interest in him.

Randy shows her how to run programs on computers and how to use a floppy disc (ha!). When he shows her how he can get into other computer networks, she convinces him to break into the school's network. She then gets him to change her math grade so that she's no longer failing. Randy thinks she might like him now, but she just says she has to go.

He keeps freaking out over what they did and finally calls her. Liz answers the phone, he confuses the two of them, and tells her the whole store. Pretending to be her sister, Liz says she'll go with him when he tells Chrome Dome what they did. She then forces Jessica to go to the school and tell the principal what happened. Cooper is so pissed off at both of them that he threatens to suspend them until Liz speaks up and begs them for a second chance. He basically lets them off with a slap on the wrist, changes Jessica's grade back, and lets them go.

The twins run into Nicholas at the mall. Liz freaks out because she worries he might reveal their plans. All he does is talk about how he hopes to see her again, which leaves Jessica thinking that he's talking about her. She rambles on and on about how he's clearly in love with her. Liz just changes the subject and worries some more.

On the day of their date, Jessica goes to see Cara, which leaves Liz grateful that she can get out of the house. When Jess shows up early, Liz pretends that she's just going to see Enid. She drives to meet Nicholas at some very expensive and exclusive restaurant. Their date goes okay, but she decides that she really does only like him as a friend and that she really is in love with Todd. Too bad that Todd and his dad took his mom to the same restaurant for her birthday.

Liz sees Todd before he sees her. After some thought, she decides that she'll just pretend to be Jessica. Todd approaches her and flips out until she does her twin's hair flip and teases him about mixing them up. Even his parents laugh at him. Liz then worries to Nicholas about how she hated doing it, and the jack ass tells her that she did what she had to do in the moment.

Todd feels so bad that he rushes to the Wakefield house as soon as he gets home. Jessica opens the door, and he kisses her because he assumes it's Liz. When she reveals which twin she really is, he told her what he saw before storming off. Liz gets home to find Jessica pacing the house and getting more and more pissed off. Jessica explodes at her for stealing her boyfriend and tells her that she probably lost Todd for good. If only.

Todd basically ignores her all day at school on Monday. When she does try to talk to him, he kind of tells her off before walking off. She cries to everyone who will listen about how she loves him, even though she did just cheat on him. The only good thing is that Jessica makes up with her after realizing that she doesn't actually like Nicholas all that much. When John gets sick, Mr. Collins assigns Liz the article about the championship game that night.

Liz winds up sitting with Enid and some friends at the game. The team does okay but without Todd at his best, they naturally can't win. She runs into Nicholas and cries to him a little, which makes him realize that you probably shouldn't go after another guy's gal. He goes to see Todd at halftime, apologizes for going after Liz, and tells him that Liz still loves him. That revitalizes Todd to the point where he goes out, kicks ass, and they somehow come back from like 30 points behind to win the game.

Todd goes to Liz, apologizes to her for not believing her in the beginning, and they get back together because he is clearly a moron. The twins head to some random party for the basketball team and get a call from their mom. Tricia, remember her?, is in the hospital yet again. They're pretty sure this is the end, so everyone has to run off to say goodbye to her.

*If Liz is too young to be serious with anyone, why would Nicholas take her out? If she's too young for someone her own age, she probably wouldn't do well with someone a few years older!

*Jessica says Nicholas is so rich that he can drive around in a Jeep instead of a fancy car, which kind of made me laugh.

*There is NO WAY IN HELL that Jessica should have gotten away with the grade change crap. They illegally broke into the school system! The fact that Liz just bats her eyelashes and gets them off really pisses me off. Suspension isn't enough either. If that happened today, they would both get kicked out of school.

*This is one of those books where Jessica isn't allowed to drive because she racked up so many tickets. Is there ever a book where they say that she can officially drive again?

*Liz says she rarely wears jewelry and hardly wears any when she goes out with Nicholas, but she actually wears a necklace, bracelet, and watch. That sounds like a lot to me.

*Jessica clearly has no sense of shame since she opens the door in her bathrobe. Who does that?

*Liz's date outfit is a beige/tan silk dress the color of her hair, all those accessories, and matching shoes.

*This book really pissed me off, maybe even more than any other Sweet Valley book. Nicholas basically hounds Liz into going out with him even after he finds out she has a boyfriend, and she mopes around the whole book because she doesn't want to go or doesn't know if she should go. No, when you're dating someone seriously, you DO NOT go out with anyone else. It's that simple.