Young Adult Revisited

Patty Gilbert is a major dance star. Don't worry if you've never heard of her before. She appears in the book before this one and like two SVH books before she goes off to wherever one-time friends of the twins wind up. She takes an advanced ballet class under Madame Baril with Kerry Glenn. You might remember her as the twins' close friend way back in the early books who kind of disappeared later. Madame Baril makes a special announcement at the beginning of class to let them all know that Patty got the lead in Swan Lake. Kerry congratulates her, and even though she was worried she would lose the role to Kerry, Patty kind of ignores her and walks off. See, she's one of those stuck up ballerinas who thinks she can't have any friends. After telling her older sister Jana, and seeing her go off with her own friends, she starts wishing that she had at least one friend to celebrate with. During their next rehearsal, Madame Baril notices something off when ...

It's the 800 th spring break in Stoneybrook, so Kristy needs to find something to do to occupy her time. She comes up with a great idea during their first sitting meeting: she should host a clinic to get the Krushers ready for their next season. Though she assumes that Bart will just bend over and help her, he actually turns her down because he doesn't want to share the tips he gives his players with to her players. She naturally freaks out and keeps complaining about it until Charlie volunteers his time. Since he's just looking at college brochures, he has nothing else to do. Kristy is also excited because she wins tickets to a Blade concert at the beginning of the book. Unlike Johnny Buck from SVT, this is some random band we never heard of before. She entered a radio contest and somehow won. When Charlie offers to drive her, their mom suggests that she take Bart and Charlie take his girlfriend Sarah. Kristy shoots it down because her and Bart are over, and Ch...

The twins and most of their friends are heading off to Colorado for a school sponsored ski trip. Lila and Jessica spend time shopping and bitching about how they need to find the perfect guy. Enid is less than happy at the idea of competing with them for guys. Liz doesn't seem to care one way or the other, but she is excited about getting away from home for awhile. While on the bus, Todd wakes up and can't go back to sleep. He thinks that things will be better if he could just fall asleep in Elizabeth's arms. That leads to him sneaking over to her seat, trying to cuddle with her, and kissing her. Liz wakes up and flips out at him, which causes Mr. Collins to wake up and scream at him. It becomes the talk of the bus as people keep gossiping about it. Liz is completely mortified when they stop for breakfast at a rest stop. Olivia and Enid keep telling her that he meant well, but Liz starts thinking that maybe Todd is a pig who only cares about one thing. After...

Stacey can't stop thinking about Terry Hoyt, the new guy in school. He has gorgeous eyes, seems really nice, and is cute, so of course she thinks he's perfect for her. Claudia asks about how things are going with Sam – remember him? - and Stacey says that they recently decided to date other people while still seeing each other. Mrs. Hoyt calls in at their next meeting to hire a sitter, but Kristy has to take the job since Stacey already has one. She does learn that he has a twin sister though. The girls also talk about a counterfeiting ring making its way around Stoneybrook. That becomes important when Stacey takes Charlotte on a trip downtown while sitting for her that weekend. After getting lunch, stopping by to see her mom at the department store, and picking out some random stuff, Stacey buys a headband, hands over a 20, and gets a 10 back in change. When she goes to buy earrings later though, it turns out that the 10 is counterfeit. When the cops come to i...

Andrew is that annoying little brother that you either had or never wanted. When he and his sister Emily hang out one day, he keeps telling her that he wants to wait around until he sees a real vampire. A dark shadow comes out of nowhere, grabs Emily by the neck, and starts taunting her until she screams. It's really just Andrew's best friend TJ who plays pranks with him all the time. The next morning, Andrew finds a leather bound book under his bed. Though it originally looks blank, writing suddenly appears on it and lets him know that it's a book called How to Be a Vampire. Writing magically appears on the pages too and informs him that he is officially a vampire in training because he got bit. He finds bite marks on his neck but convinces himself that TJ made up the whole thing. Since the book is super cold, Andrew thinks TJ put it in the freezer. TJ naturally has no idea where the book came from but seems pretty happy and willing to believe that his best...

You probably don't remember Sara Eastborne because I think she only appeared in the book where Jessica entered the beauty contest because Sara took dance classes from the same teacher. She now gets her very own book and her very own chance to bitch about her twin brother Tim. Though she tells everyone that he's a straight A student and star of the track team who lives with their dad on the East Coast, he's actually in reform school after becoming an alcoholic and stealing a car. I think you get why she kept his real self a secret. Sara also has a boyfriend named Bob. Bob is rich and snotty, which means that his parents are even worse. He takes her to dinner at the country club to meet them and then snaps at her for not paying attention. When she drifts off and thinks about her brother, his mom asks what she thinks about tanning beds and acts super disapproving when she can't respond. Bob lectures her on making a bad impression on his parents, despite the fact...

For some reason, Mary Anne is now Mallory's best friend. Mrs. Pike apparently went back to work, and the two keep getting jobs picking up the other kids from school and sitting for them at home. Mallory confesses that she really liked Riverbend and really wants to go but isn't sure how to tell anyone, especially Jessi. Though she told her siblings, Vanessa is the only one who really gets it. When the letter finally comes, she learns that she not only got in but that she got a full scholarship. That's when the kids finally put things together and realize that she's leaving and won't live there anymore. Mary Anne convinces her to tell Jessi about her acceptance letter. Jessi naturally isn't happy and gets really cold about the whole thing, telling her that she hopes she finds what she's looking for. That pretty much sets the tone for the book. While sitting at the Pike house, Jessi encourages the kids to tell Mallory that they don't want he...