Sweet Valley Twins #111: Sisters at War

Even though this is book number 111 and the first book started the school year, it's somehow Thanksgiving in Sweet Valley. Alice goes completely bonkers because it's their turn to host the big family dinner. Her sister Laura is coming from Arizona with her daughter Kelly and her sister Nancy is coming with her husband and their kids Robin and Stacey. The twins have a vacation from school and want to relax, but Alice gives them tons of chores to do like dusting all the light bulbs, mopping the kitchen floor, and vacuuming the stairs.

The twins are both tired and start getting really snippy with each other. Jessica acts like Elizabeth is a slob for leaving a sweater downstairs and not taking it to her room and throws a fit when Liz points out that Jess actually borrowed that sweater and lost it. They also fight over who will do what chores and what they'll do when their cousins get there. Alice tells them to knock it off. Jessica overhears Alice on the phone and saying something about Aaron and how it will surprise “her.” Jess gets giddy because she just knows this means her mom arranged for Aaron to eat with them on Thanksgiving day and throws it in her twin's face that she'll have the better holiday.

Though they instantly bond with Robin and Stacey because they see them more often, they try to make Kelly feel like part of the group too. Jessica tells Robin that Kelly speaks fluent French and loves poetry. Since they have sooo much in common, the two girls take a walk together. Kelly confesses that she doesn't like poetry and speaks Spanish. She sees her old home and almost breaks down but finds some things in common with her cousin and focuses on that instead.

Steven needs to make a family tree for one of his classes and keeps asking Alice questions. Since she keeps blowing him off, he starts sneaking around and listening to other people talk. He hears Alice, Laura, and Nancy talking about someone named Darren and asks Alice about him. She accuses him of going through her mail and tells him to leave. Alice also lets it slip that someone special is coming for dinner and it's definitely not Greg, Laura's ex-husband.

Jessica really wanted to watch some movie called Too Cool for High School with Robin, but Liz rented this British flick based off a book. Robin wants to watch that movie first, but it's so boring that she can't handle it. They switch to the other movie, so Liz storms off to the den to sit by herself and read a book. She doesn't come out until it's time to eat.

Nancy notices that there is one extra place setting, which makes Alice reveal that she invited Darren to dinner. See, Darren was Laura's high school boyfriend. They planned on going to college together and even talked about marriage. When she got her acceptance letter and went to his house though, it was empty. He enlisted in the military and left town. He wrote her letters that she never opened and made calls that she never answered.

Laura screams at Alice about meddling and demands that Kelly get her stuff together so they can leave. Before they leave though, Darren shows up. As soon as they see each other, she kind of gives up and tells him that she could never resist him. They hug as the adults leave to give them some space.

Ned explains that Darren had a learning disability and never got into college. He enlisted and wrote Laura a letter but sent it to the wrong address. When he didn't get back a response, he assumed she moved on and gave up. After learning what actually happened, he tried to call her multiple times and wrote her letters. She was so devastated that when she met Greg, she just decided to marry him because she was ready.

When they go to sit down, they realize that Kelly is missing. The girls head off to look for her and find her sitting and crying in front of her old house. Kelly says that she has no friends in Arizona and really only has her mom. Now that her mom has a new guy though, she won't have time for her. Stacey tells her a story she made up about a girl who had no friends other than a rag doll. The girl saved a butterfly, which made her deepest wish come true and turned her doll into a real girl. Kelly sniffles a little because it's such a sweet story before heading home.

Though Alice kept telling her kids that she and her sisters never fought, they fight over anything and everything. They even fight over things that happened when they were kids like Laura accidentally breaking a collector cup that Nancy had. The girls come home to find them still fighting. Kelly apologizes for running away and tells them that they're lucky to have sisters because she doesn't have that. Laura tells her that she will always have her, they hug, and finally sit down to eat dinner.

*Jessica complains that Liz made her watch an incredibly boring movie about an ice skater with a terminal disease. Does that not sound like a Unicorn approved movie?

*Liz gets all sad because she wants to do a family tree too, and Steven tells her that she'll get the chance when she's older. Um, I totally remember doing a family tree in elementary school.

*Jessica tells Kelly that she's crazy for thinking her mom will ditch her for a guy before remembering that her dad really did leave her. She might recall that her best friend's mom disappeared too...

*Kelly gets upset at one point and goes upstairs to be by herself. Jess offers to talk to her, and Liz decides to go to because Kelly will want to “confide” in her. God, how did she get so condescending at such a young age?

*Alice was in a grocery store, someone called her name, and Darren just happened to be there and somehow knew that she was Laura's older sister. They started talking, exchanged some letters, and she eventually invited him to dinner.

*Not cool Alice, not cool. You do not under any circumstances invite your sister's ex to a family dinner like this without telling her. I don't care if he told you what happened or not, you don't do it. Laura was within her right to slap her across the face and storm out.

*No offense to Darren or anything, but why would she believe his story? How do we know that he didn't just have a run of bad luck with women and decide to get back together with his ex? Maybe he just realized he dumped her in a bad way and quickly made up some story to make it seem like he was a good guy.

*It's a little strange too that Laura got her acceptance letter in the middle of April, rushed over to his house, and he was gone. Since they were going to go to school together, that would make it seem like he dropped out of high school to enlist.