Sweet Valley High #141: A Picture Perfect Prom?

Despite the fact that she made the decision to dump both Todd and Devon, Elizabeth can't stop moping around about how she's lonely and misses them both. She joins the prom planning committee to take her mind off things, only to find out that Todd also joined. They start spending a lot of time together, which leads to weird moments like Todd wanting to kiss her ankle and telling her she has perfect ankles while holding a ladder. Liz realizes that she really misses him and all the time they spent together.

Jessica and Lila get so caught up with finding the perfect dresses that they completely forget about finding dates. They decide to rank the hot guys at Sweet Valley and write down lists of their best and worst qualities. For example, Aaron has really sexy legs but is also cranky. Bruce kisses like a live jellyfish, and Peter DeHaven is cruel because of how he treated Johanna.

Liz rushes off to a meeting and can't find her notebook, so she takes Jessica's book. The ranking falls out, which Winston picks up. He then takes control of the school intercom system and reads some of the pages before saying that he has copies for anyone who wants one. All the guys decide that the girls need some payback and agree that no one will date them.

When they head to the Dairi Burger, they have some bad experiences. AJ actually turns up his nose at Jessica and asks Suzanne Hanlon to be his date right in front of her. Heather Malone interrupts Jessica talking to Aaron to say he does have great legs before sitting on his lap as he kisses her neck. Pretty bold move for a gay man. They are mortified and have no idea what to do next.

Penny found her prom date through a personal ad because her boyfriend will be out of town. Jessica and Lila put ads in all the local school newspapers, except for Big Mesa because Jessica says they already dated all the cute guys from that school. They then have a big tryout at Lila's house. The first guy they see is hot but “sharky” and got accepted to Yale. Both girls go crazy over Jordan, the third guy they see. Lila is ready to take him as her date, but Jessica tells her to wait.

That lasts for approximately one day or something. Lila calls him, asks if he remembers her, and he tells her that she was the gorgeous brunette. When she asks him to be her date, he hesitates just long enough for her to wonder if he preferred Jessica before he says yes. He even asks if they should go out beforehand, but Lila waits to wait and show him off at prom. Jessica then goes to his house and asks him to be her date. After a minute, he says yes and then tells her that she needs to leave before closing the door in her face. This will end great.

Enid has no date and no prospects except for Tad “Blubber” Johnson. He starts coming around all the time, calling her at home, and basically acting like a love sick puppy dog. Since Enid doesn't date “big guys” and has no interest in football, she wants anyone else to ask her to prom. She mopes and whines about him a lot.

Maria quickly grows tired of Liz and Enid being huge downers because, I assume, she never actually spent any time with them before. She makes them do their hair in funny ways and go to bad horror movies to cheer them up and even points out that she doesn't have a date and doesn't care. That changes when she and Enid go dress shopping and stumble across a prom runway show. Maria sees Tyson, the hottest new male supermodel, walking the runway and recognizes him from a photo shoot they did as kids. He recognizes her too and automatically agrees to be her prom date.

Devon learns that Todd and Liz were the IT Couple in high school until he came along and starts picturing them together at prom. He then joins the planning committee to get close to her but mainly to get her away from Todd. When she asks Todd to work on something for her, Devon assumes that she just wanted to get Todd out of the way to spend time with him.

Todd picks out his rental tux and chooses a pale cummerbund and tie that he thinks will match Liz's sense of style. He thinks this will also help him get on the ball and ask her to the dance. While leaving the mall, he sees her trying on a dress that perfectly matches his cummerbund and assumes that it's fate. When he shows up with flowers in his hands to ask her to prom, he finds Devon kissing her hand and vows to get back at her.

Devon actually kisses her hand because she somehow managed to cut her finger when cutting decorations. Just as he thinks that he's close to winning her heart again, in comes Todd with Courtney in tow. Elizabeth almost immediately bursts into tears and makes an excuse to leave. Devon decides to find out who she really loves. He'll ask her out and then send her flowers from Todd to ask her out for that same night to see who she will choose.

Elizabeth spends a good portion of the book worrying about Todd and what will happen to them, but when Enid asks if she wants to get back together with him, she denies it. When she's with Devon, she wants to be with him, but when she's with Todd, she wants to be with him. She tells her friends that she'll go to prom with whoever asks her first. After seeing Todd and Courtney, she cries all over again because it's proof he moved on and did so with the one girl who would hurt her the most.

After agreeing to go out with Devon, Jessica rushes in with flowers from Todd. There's an apology note that says he only saw Courtney to make her jealous. Devon watches from the street as she gets in the car and drives away. He follows her and sees her go to the beach, which is where “Todd” said he would be, which is proof that she never loved him or something.

After waiting on the beach for an hour, Liz finally gives up. She then reveals that she only came to meet him to give him back his freaking ring and to say goodbye. Yeah, right. When she goes to leave, she sees someone come out of the shadows and feels her heart skip a beat because it's Todd. It's actually Devon though, and he is not happy...

*You have to love Lila in this book. She says that Lisette's is “totally 80s” and mentions that the Jessica and Bruce relationship was like something from three decades ago.

*The girls say that AJ's worst feature is that he's so pale, he looks bleached. He takes offense to that, which I love.

*At one point, Todd is working with Maria when she asks if they should serve chicken or fish for prom dinner. I thought it was weird because my prom had no food. Everyone went out to restaurants beforehand. Later on, Amy says that Barry is working extra shifts to save up for dinner at Chez Sam before prom, so it gets even weirder...

*Maria complains about how the Hollywood life sucks so much and how much she hates everything about it when she sees the runway show. I thought she only did like one movie and was best known for being the toilet paper kid?

*How would Tyson recognize her? It's been like 10 years since they worked together!

*Devon sees Jessica at the mall and goes all crazy because it's the love of his life. Even after seeing her with Lila, it takes him like five minutes to figure out that it's not Liz. Oh yeah, man you totally love her.

*Lila also tosses in a slam book reference when mentioning that the guys may not be happy if they hear about the list.

*Enid eventually does say yes to Tad because he shows up with a pink rose and she doesn't know how to turn him down.

*Maria and Enid are both really bitchy about the list and how Jess and Lila deserve everything they get. How is them writing down their thoughts any different from Enid constantly moaning about how Tad isn't her type. She basically calls him fat and a dumb jock!

*The reaction to the ranking is absolutely ridiculous anyway. You going to tell me that the guys at SVH don't sit around and talk about the girls like that? Bruce is the only one who doesn't seem to care, probably because Jessica upgraded his from kissing like a dead jellyfish to a live one.

*Jessica's choice for prom dress is a white dress with rhinestones that shows off a “sexy amount of shoulder.” It also hugs her curves and has a slit all the way up the thigh, which sounds totally appropriate for a high school prom!

*Liz falls in love with this princess style dress that is in Todd's favorite color. She then looks at a short black dress with a halter neck that Devon would love.

*One thing I hate about this book is that Liz is clearly not over Todd. The fact that she bursts into tears at the sight of him and another girl is a clear indicator. Having her randomly go to the beach to meet him and then wait for an entire hour just to tell him to move on makes absolutely no sense at all.

*Someone pointed out to me that Devon is exactly like Conner in SVSY, which might explain why I hate them both with the passion of a fiery sun. I will, at some point, get around to doing the whole SVSY series. There's only like 10 more books that I need to track down.

*Enid jokingly suggests that she rent a tux and go as Liz's prom date. I need to do my own SVC where she comes out as a lesbian.

*Jeremy Frank is hosting the runway show that Maria and Enid watch. Enid claims he's shorter in person than he looks on television. Hasn't that dude been in like multiple books and met everyone in SVH by now?

*Penny needs a date because Neil, her boyfriend, has a summer internship that starts early and he won't be in town. Um, excuse me? Isn't Neil a senior and about to graduate? So he's just going to skip all that to start an internship, and the place he's working for doesn't care that technically he hasn't graduated yet?

*Lila mentions in a roundabout way how some of the guys talk about Jessica. When Jessica pushes her about what they say, Lila feigns deaf and then says it's nothing. Love her!

*Todd suggests a shipwrecked them for the prom and that everyone wear jungle clothing. I guess he forgot that (A) Jessica and Winston actually were shipwrecked at one point and (B) Jungle Prom did not go so well.