Sweet Valley High #124: Meet Me at Midnight

In case you missed it, the twins went to Camp Echo Mountain for their 700^th summer jobs between junior and senior year. Liz naturally fell in love with a dude – Joey – and cheated on Todd, and Jessica fell for Paul, a local guy who treated her like shit. Nicole, Maria's former best friend, arranged for Todd to show up, which brings us to now.

Elizabeth is totally devastated at seeing Todd and drops Joey's hand like a hot potato. Despite just seeing her holding hands with another guy, Todd has no clue anything is different. He gushes about how Nicole is such a cool chick and how much he missed Liz. Todd already made arrangements to spend a few days with Winston in his cabin because he couldn't wait to see Liz again. She acts like she's totally fine with things and then whines about her life is so unfair.

Nicole fakes spraining her ankle in front of Todd. He helps her sit down and stretch before wrapping her ankle for her and then once again talks about how she's such a great gal. Nicole arranges for the two of them to have a romantic candlelit dinner in front of everyone in the cafeteria, which like totally breaks Joey's heart. He gets Liz alone and tells her that she needs to make a decision. Since she can't imagine feeling the way she does about Joey with anyone else, she tells him that she'll end things with Todd.

That lasts for five seconds or until Todd reminds her of all the times they had back home. She decides to not break up with him but make Joey think she did, which Maria tells her is a terrible and stupid idea. That's when Nicole says that either she dump Joey and put in a good word for her or she'll send Todd a letter and tell him all about her summer fling. Liz reluctantly dumps Joey and tells him that he would make a much better match with Nicole.

Jessica cannot stop thinking about Paul and assumes that he feels the same way. She then gets a letter from him that calls her a silly blond and says he has no time for her. Instead of crying or calling him a jackass like normal people would, she declares that no man can ever walk away from her. Man, she would do so well in a Lifetime movie of the week.

She goes to an older counselor named Suzanne and finds out that Paul had something special with another junior camper the previous year. She was only using him to make her boyfriend jealous though and when she dumped him, he declared that he would never date a counselor again. Damn, dude. That's like me having one bad Oreo and saying I'll never eat cookies again.

Working with his little sister, she tricks him into rowing out onto the lake with her. She tells him all about how she heard about his old relationship and how he's only turning her down because he's scared. Jessica then tells him all about Christian and how hurt she was at his death, which leads Paul to reconsider. He decides that he will date her just to prove that he isn't chicken.

The camp is putting on some huge production and invites everyone to try out. Jessica naturally gets the lead role, which pairs her with Derek, the guy who conveniently looks just like Ken. He keeps suggesting that they practice kissing, and she keeps freaking out over how seeing him makes her think of how badly she hurt Ken. Then she goes right back to moping over Paul.

After enlisting some help from Lila, she sneaks out and into town to see Paul at work, once again stealing Lacey's, the owner's, car. She shows him how she's just a normal chick by working the grill with him. After some more kissing, she heads back to camp and almost gets caught by Lacey. Lacey calls her in for a meeting and makes it clear that she knows Jessica keeps fooling around. One more mistake and she's gone.

Since that means never seeing Paul again, she tries to be on her best behavior. A minor issue with her kids leads to Lacey reminding her that she has one more chance. She made plans to sneak out to see Paul but can't make it. When she tries to call him, Lacey is waiting by the phone. Since she can't say what she wants to say with the woman there, Jessica sends him a letter and asks him to come to the show. The mailman points out that he won't get the letter for two or three days, so she somehow manages to convince him to break the law for her and drop the letter off in person.

When she doesn't hear from Paul on Wednesday, the day of the show, she borrows a bike and rides into town. It's actually his day off though, so she gets someone to give her a ride to his house. Paul never got her letter and assumed she didn't want to see him again. He calls her a bunch of names again until she throws herself at him and apologizes. They make up, but she left her bike back at the diner and has no way to get back to camp. She basically says screw it and spends the night watching the stars with him.

Meanwhile, poor Winston thinks his Maria is a cheater. She keeps writing him letters about this cowboy named Hank. Aaron and Todd, while he's still there, try to turn him into a cowboy. They make him wear boots and a hat and even sign him up for horseback riding lessons. The only thing that happens is a 15-year-old camper named Lara starts throwing herself at him.

She starts out counseling him about Maria and listening to him whine before dropping hints about how he's such a hottie and how she would never cheat on him. Lara wears revealing clothing all the time and flirts way too well for someone her age. She even has him rub oil on her back while sunbathing. Winston gets another letter from Maria that includes a photo of her with Hank, some super old guy. He tells Lara that he loves his girlfriend and doesn't want to be with her. That's totes fine with her because she decided older guys are too much work and runs off to see some other guy.

Elizabeth spends the whole book in pain because Joey keeps ignoring her. He starts seeing Nicole and seeing a lot of her apparently. I only say that because she sees them in the barn together and walks away to the sounds of kissing and clothing rustling. Oh, and Nicole later wakes up in one of his shirts, which he gave her the night before. Liz just loves him so much yo.

Since Jessica never shows up for the performance, Liz takes her place. In case you forgot, she wrote the dang thing. Everyone goes crazy at the end because she did such an amazing job. Joey comes up and tries to kiss her, but she pushes him off because she can't believe that he now has a thing for her twin. Joey says he knows she's Liz because he spent all summer mooning over her and watching her every move. He tells her that he wants to be with her, damn Todd, and that seeing the two together made him realize that she doesn't actually love her boyfriend.

In the end, Jessica wakes up at two am in Paul's arms where they fell asleep. She has no idea how she will get back without Lacey knowing...

*Liz is such a bitch to this girl in her cabin! She thinks to herself multiple times about how the girl shouldn't eat so much and how she spills almost as much food on herself as she puts in her mouth. Gee, I though she was like best buds with Lois?

*Jessica's girls love her so much that they now dress and walk like her. Liz describes seeing them in cut off jean shorts and doing the hip swivel. That disturbs me on so many levels.

*Okay, so Jessica telling Paul about Christian really should have sent him running in the opposite direction. She literally tells him about cheating on her boyfriend and falling in love with a guy like five minutes ago and now she's all about him. Has he never heard that you don't stick your dick in crazy?

*Liz and Joey annoy me SOOOOO much! She's totally willing to take him back even after seeing him and Nicole together all the time, which means he's a user. He's also willing to be with her even though she has a boyfriend back home. You all suck.

*If Lacey knew Jessica stole her car, why does she not just fire her and send her home? It doesn't make any sense that she would just keep giving her second chances.

*Most of the first two chapters are pointless. Liz recaps everything that happened with Joey, and Jessica goes over the whole thing with Paul. Nothing really happens for like 20 pages.

*Lila and Bo keep sneaking off together and having gourmet food flew in from some store in Sweet Valley for picnics. Lacey finds the whole thing ridiculous but just makes snarky comments without telling them to stop.

*Liz finds Lila on her knees and working on a costume before the show. Lila gets snarky with her about how she took a sewing class at the community college while dating Robby. Liz points out that she always thought Lila would hire people to do that kind of work, which actually makes sense.

*I'm still really confused by the ages and how this camp works. Lara is 15 and a camper. She turns 16 before the end of the summer, but Lacey wouldn't hire her as a junior counselor. All the other counselors are around 16-17, but then there are some random older counselors too. Oh, and Suzanne has some huge ass cabin by herself.

*Lacey has a whole rule about campers and counselors not dating too. Why would she not put some age differences between them then?

*I hate Paul as much as I hate Joey, maybe even more. He treats Jessica like such shit! If a guy keeps saying he doesn't want to be with you and calling you names, you do not chase after him and act like he's the love of your life!!

*I also hate the whole play thing. All the counselors and campers can try out, but Jessica gets the lead role. The campers all get small parts, usually with no words. Jessica says that a bunch of famous stars got their start at the camp, which makes no sense. Performing arts camps are for the campers to perform and get some experience, not the counselors.