Sweet Valley Senior Year #3: So Cool

It literally pains Liz to be in the same room as Conner now because they totally almost kissed, which makes it extremely uncomfortable when she constantly sees him making out with Maria. While the twins are out to dinner at First and Ten with their parents, Alice and Ned ask a bunch of questions about Conner. Liz just says that she doesn't really know him but doesn't like him. When he shows up to pick up Maria for a date, Alice almost swoons over him. After they leave, Jess even asks why Liz didn't snag him for herself.

Jess isn't having such a great time since she still lives with Lila. She finally asks why her friend turned on her, and Lila tells her that for once, all her tricks backfired on her. Jessica went after the wrong guy and hurt a really nice girl in the process. Calling Melissa a nice girl is like calling a barracuda a friendly fish. She winds up playing hooky a lot and lying to Alice about how she has the flu.

When she finally does go back to school, the coach asks her to do a trick with Lila and Amy as her bases. She panics a little, they drop her, and she comes down hard on her butt. Tia thinks they did it on purpose and rails at the whole squad. Though they defend themselves, she doesn't know what to think. It doesn't help that they still keep calling her a slut and going on and on about how Melissa is so great and deserves better than Will.

At the same time though, Melissa acts like Will is the best thing since sliced bread, and all the guys still want to be him. Every time they start in on the Jessica act, he just walks away. Melissa picks up on it and vows to do something about it. That something turns out to be setting Jessica up so that she'll miss the big pep rally and get thrown off the squad. Cherie calls Tia to tell her that their meeting plans changed and says that Lila will pass on the word to Jess.

Will makes an attempt to talk to Jess, but she bursts into tears and runs away from him. The only time she catches a break is during French class because no one will mess with her when Liz is around. That all changes when she walks in and finds a picture from a “men's magazine” with the model's head cut off and her head pasted on. Just as she's about to completely give up hope, Liz convinces her to go to the pep rally and make all those girls remember why Jessica was once captain.

After hearing Melissa and her cronies make plans to set up Jessica, Will decides to do something. All he really does is leave a note in Jessica's locker and hope that she finds it in time. I guess it takes too long to make a phone call? He then goes out to eat with Melissa, Cherie, and some friends. He pretty much just pats himself on the back for not at all standing up to his girlfriend.

Conner gets a gig at House of Java and tries to hide it a secret from everyone. Tia finds out about it and goes overboard to tell people. She makes a bunch of flyers that she asks the cheerleaders to hand out. Melissa rebuffs her until the coach says it's a good idea and suddenly acts like it was something she always planned to do. The printer made a mistake, so all the flyers came out with his face in bright green.

While creating his set list, Conner comes up with a new song called Stone Heart that is totally about Liz. He keeps thinking he should change the lyrics but convinces himself that no one could possibly know it was about her. Liz just keeps moping over him and takes a quiz that proves she's obsessed with him. One of the remedies involves reminding yourself of his faults, so she takes a tour of his room. That doesn't help because he has leather bound books on the shelves. In a truly disgusting move, she smells his shirt and drifts off into happy land because it smells soooo amazing.

Maria really believes that she and Conner are meant to be. When they go out with Andy and Tia, he wants to skip everything and make out for awhile. She denies him, which pisses him off, and then when she wants to go upstairs to the make out palace, he refuses. He also gets distracted at talk of Todd Wilkins because it means Liz loved someone else before him. Once he gets a glimpse of Todd, he basically jams his tongue down Maria's throat.

They also spend some time on the beach together. This leads to them making out and clothes coming off, but Maria stops him and tells him that things are moving too fast and that she wants a commitment. Conner then blows her off and ignores her for a few days before showing up late by 45 minutes to a date. Maria tells him that she wants a commitment before things get too physical. Conner tells her that he just wanted to have some fun and that he's no longer having fun with her. She bursts into tears, calls him a pig, and runs away. Honestly, I hate this guy.

Liz is such a bitch that she even admits it when she gets excited as her best friend cries her eyes out. Once she hears what he said though, all bets are off. She goes home, flips out at him, and basically tells him to stay out of her life and leave her friends alone. Conner thinks she looks gorgeous as she yells at him. He then starts thinking about her all the time.

Though she plans on skipping the show, she changes her mind after Tia and Andy apply some pressure. It goes just the way she thought until Conner plays the song about her. They both keep staring at each other and think about how perfect the other one is. When the show ends, Conner offers to drive her home and meet his friends later to celebrate. She thinks he's totally about to kiss her and even gets ready to kiss him until he opens the door and basically tosses her from the car.

The day of the pep rally arrives. Tia shows up on time and realizes Jess isn't there. Cherie just smirks and walks away, so she approaches Lila and learns that Lila never told her because Cherie said Tia would tell Jess. Lila shoots daggers at Cherie and clearly isn't happy but falls right back into that group. Tia lies to the coach about Jess being so sick that she was in the ER all day.

Jessica goes to Melissa's house, where the meeting originally was, and learns that the squad met at the gym. She gets lost driving back to Sweet Valley, gets to the gym, and finds the entrance locked. By the time she gets inside, she hears the coach announce Tia as the last member of the squad. Todd points her out to Will, Will runs to see her, and one of his buddies warns him that if he goes, Melissa will kill him. He catches up with her outside, tries to apologize, and comes across like a jackass. She pushes him off and tells him to go back to his girlfriend. Will just stands there and thinks about how he just can't hurt Melissa again as Jessica runs away in tears.

Elizabeth convinces her twin that she should come to Riot, hang out with her friends, and forget about all the BS for awhile. When Jess gets there, she sees Tia at the table and flips out. Tia tries to deny that she was involved but hesitates enough when Jessica asks if she knew the plans changed that it becomes clear she could have done more. Jessica then snaps at her sister for introducing her to the good people, slaps away her hand, and storms off. Conner briefly hears Liz freaking out when she gets home that night and finds it odd that he cares about her feelings. Me too since he clearly doesn't actually care about anyone!

*Liz does an impression of the trademark Jessica Wakefield saunter, which is described as her prancing around like an oversexed cartoon character. While Jessica denies that she walks like that and laughs about it, it seems pretty spot on to me.

*Tia “casually” asks Annie and Jade if they think the stories about Jess are true. Neither believe it but neither are willing to speak up either because they fear Melissa. When Tia makes a comment about how she acts, they get even more scared of her.

*Lila ditches Jessica because she's tired of playing second fiddle to her. Um, so she'd rather be fourth fiddle to the new girl? Melissa constantly puts her two EC friends first. I have no clue why Amy agreed to be in this little group either.

*Liz says Conner's shirt smells like clean male sweat. Am I the only one who finds that gross? I love my guy, but I don't love the way he smells after a long workout!

*To get over Conner, Liz goes through all her old Todd notes and journal entries. She winds up whining because there was no passion and it was all stuff about her kissing some other guy or finding some other guy attractive. I love that she sees no irony in the fact that Conner is just another rando that she'll obsess over for a few weeks and then forget about.

*Liz smirks when she sees a flyer and imagines him doing covers of Doors songs as girls swoon over him and he thinks he's the shit. Is it bad that I kinda see it happening that way too?

*Liz going after Conner at all is gross. Maria pretty much admits that they were heading towards sex, and Liz is Miss Virginal but still thinks he's the right guy for her.

*Everything these bitches do to Jessica is crossing the line. There is no way a teacher wouldn't hear the rumors or know what's going on. I feel like writing a fan fiction where she sues the school and becomes a millionaire.