Sweet Valley Twins #52: Booster Boycott

Hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen because Winston wants to join the Boosters. He took gymnastics classes over the summer and got really good. When he brings it up though, it's a hard no from Janet. She tells him to take a hike, even though some of the other girls think he would be a good addition to the squad. Todd think it's a little odd but would be a good way to meet girls.

Since Jessica could not stop talking about it at dinner, Liz knows the whole story. She thinks it's a good idea and that other people would too. This gives Winston the confidence to approach Janet again and ask her how many people would need to sign a petition before she will let him audition. She tells him 100, which is almost the entire sixth grade.

Winston gets Amy, Grace, Jessica, Todd, and Ken to sign. Jessica and Lila decide to put a stop to the nonsense when they see him talking to Randy and Leslie, two nerds. They act like a boy on the squad is crazy and pretend to be their friends. Randy actually tells them that they're sexist before signing. Jessica tells Leslie that they can be friends if she doesn't sign. When Leslie wants to know what she means by friends, Jess explains that they'll say hi or wave in the hallways. Leslie signs and says she would rather have Winston as a friend than the Unicorns.

When he gets over 100 signatures, Winston gives his petition to Janet. She says that it does change things but then calls for an emergency meeting of the Unicorns at Casey's. She rips the petition in pieces and has the other girls do the same thing. Liz shows up with Todd and Amy and see what happened, though Jessica tries to lie and say it was a quiz. Grace is unhappy with what they did when she shows up too. Winston seems pretty cool with the whole thing though.

The reason why becomes clear when the cheerleader coach calls them in for a meeting and tells them to give him a shot. When she brings up the petition, Janet tells her that it doesn't exist, but then she pulls out a copy. Winston actually made a photocopy in case they did anything shitty. Jessica almost breaks down because he will absolutely ruin the Boosters.

To keep him off the squad, they make the most challenging audition imaginable. Janet tells him to do no handed cartwheels, which he nails. When she asks him to do hand springs, he asks which way and then does both. He does everything they ask of him, including holding a handstand for 30 seconds. He then does a move where Grace stands on his shoulders and does a somersault.

Even though he makes it on the squad, the Unicorns all hate him. Grace is the only Unicorn on his side, but Amy likes him too. At his first practice, Lila puts peanut butter in his shoes, Ellen arranges to glue him to the bleachers, and Kimberly puts a baby doll in his bag. He still smiles through the whole day and asks about their next practice.

Other people aren't quite as happy as Winston. Charlie Cashman really seems to hate him. The Unicorns cover his locker with flowered wrapping paper and bows, which makes everyone laugh at him. Charlie starts calling him Winnie all the time and does a cheer in the middle of the cafeteria to spell out that name. Winston just takes a deep breath, tells him that he did a good job, and suggests he try out next.

Charlie shows up after school with two big eighth grade kids in tow. He makes a big deal out of how no one makes fun of him. His friends hold Winston down while he punches him in the face. The girls are a little shocked when he shows up to practice, but some think that this might finally get him to quit.

Grace thinks he's really cool and starts doing sketches of him. She shows some of her work to Liz and suggests putting one of her cartoons in the paper to welcome him to the squad. They pick one of him dressed in a whole cheerleader uniform, complete with a skirt. That sets Winston off and makes him quit, though some of the girls are sad that he did.

Elizabeth notices that Winston keeps ignoring her at school and finally gets him alone. He tells her that he quit because of the cartoon and because it meant that no one liked him. She explains what actually happened, and he reveals that he only joined the squad because he had a crush on Grace. Winston tries to join back up, but Janet tells him he had his chance and blew it.

Meanwhile, Todd doesn't like that Liz and Winston are always together and that she's always taking his side. She wishes there was a way to show him that he's being stupid and comes up with a plan with Amy. Amy tells him that she needs help on her science fair project and starts taking up a lot of his time. Liz actually starts feeling jealous when she sees them together.

Liz heads to Amy's house one night and finds them together again. She makes a big deal out of it, Amy acts uncomfortable, and Todd just gets confused. Liz then cries about how he could do something like that to her, and Amy gives her tissues while pointing out that they had problems anyway. Todd says things were fine and tells Liz there's nothing going on with Amy. She dumps the tissues and tells him that she believes him as long as he believes her about Winston, which makes him realize they duped him.

This marks the first time the Boosters will compete in a tournament, which is conveniently a major California championship hosted at SVMS. When the day comes, they find out that almost every other squad has at least one guy. They mess up really bad in the first round and basically have no shot at winning. Winston shows up to wish them luck, and they all pass around who should ask him to join back up before Grace does.

In the end, Winston becomes an official cheerleader. They do so well in the second/last round that they get second place. Liz notices at the end that he and Grace are holding hands. She and Todd make up too. Jessica loves being a star and loves hearing people talk about her, but she gets disappointed when her peers move onto the next hot topic the day after the tournament.

*Liz also wants to get back at Jessica for gossiping all the time and doesn't tell her about the plan she concocted with Amy. Jessica thinks it's weird that Amy always needs help and wonders what's going on. She finally works up the nerve to tell Liz and finds her with Todd. Jessica flips out until Liz tells her what they did, which makes Jessica admire her because Liz is almost as sneaky as she is.

*Charlie and his friends show up at the tournament specifically to attack Winston again. Jessica comes out with the rest of the Boosters and threaten them. Lila tells them that if they hurt him, they'll spread so many rumors that no girl will ever look at them again. His friends take off running, but Charlie tries to act like a big man before running away.

*How does no one get punished for Winston getting a black eye? That seems like something worthy of a suspension.

*Lila comes up with a brand new cheer: Go Sweet Valley, Please Don't Dally. Jessica comes up with one that involves a pyramid with her getting the top spot.

*So they do the pyramid, which has Jessica leap off, and a cheer with Grace jumping off Winston. Considering that tricks like that are illegal at the high school level, I'm pretty sure they're also illegal at the middle school level.

*Winston teaches them how to do a proper pyramid and how to distribute their weight so Jessica doesn't feel like a lead balloon. He also helps them with other stuff, which is why they start liking him.

*The girls apparently had to raise the money to buy their own uniforms. When Winston makes the squad, she buys his for him. And since when do they have a coach?

*The Unicorns cheated when buying uniforms. Their school colors are blue and white, so they picked a dark enough purple that it could almost pass for navy blue. Why does no one ever call them on their shit?