Sweet Valley Twins #96: Elizabeth the Spy

All the kids, or at least all the girls, at SVMS keep hanging out at Casey's because they love Joe, the college guy he hired to work there. Joe is super friendly and nice to everyone. He gives them extra ice cream, makes the best treats, and he even volunteers as a clown to help out at the children's hospital and other places. Joe also got all the girls interested in brainteasers and keeps giving them puzzles to figure out.

The only downside to hanging out there is Jeff Casey, the owner's nephew. He clearly doesn't like kids and keeps telling Joe to get to work and complaining about the kids wasting his time. Jeff interrupts them and tells Joe to do some work while complaining under his breath about how the shop isn't his yet. Joe needs to do a good job because he wants to cut out early for a performance.

Jessica realizes that they are out of pads at a very inconvenient time and asks Liz to go and buy some more. Liz tells her no because she's all caught up in the most recent Amanda Howard book. She finally agrees to go with her, but when they get there, Jess demands that she go up to the counter and pay. Jess worries that someone they know might see them.

What actually happens is that someone runs up behind Liz and pushes her. She turns to see a man dressed as a clown with a knife in his hand. He waves it around and tells them to get out of the way, and Jess kicks him in the shin, which causes him to scream. The clown finally gets them down on the ground, takes all the money from the register, and runs away after telling them to count to 100 before calling for help.

The cops make them go over their story multiple times, but Liz feels uncomfortable because there was something about the clown that seemed really familiar to her. She even goes so far as to kick Jess when she gives a really good description of the guy. Though Jess dreams of being on the news, having all her friends see her, and seeing them get really jealous, she freaks out at the idea that they might know she was buying pads and stops talking.

In case you somehow didn't see where this was going, the police announce that they arrested Joe for the robbery. Jessica just basically goes along with it because she can't imagine the cops arresting someone without evidence. Liz refuses to believe Joe could do something like that though and vows to help him. Though she goes to see him in jail, he tells her to drop the case and leave things alone.

Mr. Casey is the only one on Joe's side. He loved him like a son and promised him the shop one day. Jeff keeps standing around while they talk and making rude comments about Joe being a slacker and a thief. Liz finds an extra key to Joe's apartment in the shop and uses it to check out his place. The only thing that happens though is that the cops almost catch her.

It's then off to Sweet Valley University. Liz heads to the library and meets Wendy, a student who actually knows Joe. She had a hard time believing he could do something like this. Joe was always a super friendly guy who helped anyone who needed it. He was a track starter and drove a motorcycle too, but one day he came back to campus, dropped all his classes, and sold his bike. No one knows why.

Though Liz still thinks that he's innocent, reading her new book changes her mind. It's also about how the main girl has a friend accused of killing his aunt for her money. She finds evidence that his uncle was actually behind the whole thing. In the end though, she finds out that her friend was the real killer. Before she can give it too much thought though, Liz suddenly remembers something.

A few days before the robbery, she fell out of her chair and landed hard on Joe's foot but he didn't notice. She thinks that maybe he has a false leg and goes back to SVU. Wendy helps her find a newspaper article about how Joe was in an bad accident that led to the doctors amputating his leg. Liz then tells Ned what she found, who goes to Joe's lawyer. As long as Jessica testifies about kicking the clown and him feeling pain, they're good to go.

That's when Jessica puts down her foot. She refuses to testify because she doesn't want to reveal that she went there to buy pads or that the clown pushed her around. Plus, Lila keeps going to the trial because of some connection her dad has, so Jessica doesn't want to say that in front of Lila. Since Jessica was wearing Liz's monogrammed sweatshirt that night, Liz just pretends it was her on the security camera.

Once she starts telling her story, Joe gets a big and sappy look on his face. The judge has him come up and roll up his pant leg to show the jury his prosthetic. They then come back with a unanimous verdict that he is not guilty while I assume Jeff tries to slink away in the background. Mr. Casey welcomes Joe back with open arms and announces that he's going back to school and that when he graduates in a year, he's taking over the operations of the shop. He also tells them that jealousy is a bad thing and that Jeff will get what's coming to him.

As the twins walk home, Liz has one last big piece of news. The manufacturers of their pads contacted her after the trial and want her to star in a new series of commercials about their products and how they're good in all situations. Jessica doesn't care at first because it's probably just a local ad. Liz then reveals that it's a national spot that will air all across the country, leaving Jessica to lamely ask if she could get her some autographs.

*Jessica eats a cone with a scoop of chocolate chocolate chip ice cream on top of pineapple sherbet, which sounds really gross to me.

*Lila is the only one who doesn't really seem to like Joe, but that's really only because she wants to keep talking about her latest vacation and everyone keeps ignoring her to talk to him.

*In an older SVT book, they say that Casey is the first name of the guy who owns the ice cream shop. In this book, they call him Old Mr. Casey.

*Lila thinks Joe is guilty because he was too nice and gave her extra cherries and no one is ever really that nice. Man, her dad sure did a number on her...

*Steven briefly wonders if Liz has PTSD and proudly talks about how he learned about it in history class while studying the Vietnam War.

*Is it wrong that I can totally see Jeff's side? Even if he's terrible at working at the shop, he's Mr. Casey's nephew. His uncle decides to retire and give away his store to some random stranger who hasn't even worked there a year!

*On the other hand, he is not a good people person and seems really irritated at there being kinds in the shop. They all keep complaining about how Joe was better, but Jeff points out that Joe cost him money by giving them more than they ordered, extra candy, and other stuff for free, which is also true.