Fear Street: College Weekend

You probably can’t tell by the cover, but that is Tina and she’s so beautiful that everyone thinks she will become a model. I also want to point out that I’m fairly certain I had that dress.

Tina and her cousin Holly are heading to visit her boyfriend Josh at college. Tina wanted to go on her own, but her parents made her take her cousin. Holly just wants to party and check out the drama department, while Tina wants to do some heavy making out. They get to the bus station and there’s no sign of Josh. Tina sees a flash and some creepy guy attacks them. A handsome guy jumps out of the shadows, chases the guy off and reveals himself as Josh’s roommate Chris. Josh went on a camping trip with his friend Steve, had car trouble and won’t be back until late.

Chris takes them to their dorm room because he’s staying at his photography shop. He convinces them to go to a party with him and leaves so they can get ready. A girl walks in, sees Tina and freaks out. She calms down and says that she’s Steve’s girlfriend Carla. Carla also tells them that Chris had a girlfriend Judy who died in high school and he never got over it. They go to the party together and Tina realizes that Chris has the same horrible taste in music as her. The more they talk, the more they have in common.

Holly dances with a bunch of guys, while Chris talks to her about his uncle who is a hugely famous photographer. He offers to take some shots of her that weekend. At the end of the night, she can’t find Holly anywhere. She thinks she sees her scream and get drug off on a motorcycle, but Chris says she went off with Alyssa, a girl from Shadyside.

Tina wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks she hears someone in the room. The front door is open, but no one is there. She discovers that Josh left his hiking boots behind, but Chris claims he got a cool new job and bought new ones. She also finds his keys, but again Chris has an excuse. Chris also tells her that the repair took longer than they thought.

They go walking around campus and he tells her that Josh is pledging a fraternity, even though he always told her that he hated them. Carla runs up and announces that she has to go and pick the guys up. Tina wants to go, but Carla says she can’t and keeps looking at Chris. She claims she only has a two-seater and runs off again.

They run into a guy from Shadyside who tells her that Alyssa transferred to another school. She freaks out, but Chris still convinces her that things are fine by getting her a frozen banana. They go on the ferris wheel and it stops at the top. Chris kisses her and she kisses him back, but feels guilty and pulls away. He flips out, starts shaking the ride and she imagines falling to her death. Cheerful. I should also point out that she kisses him multiple times in the book, but then keeps saying that she loves Josh.

So Chris decides that they should go to his studio and he’ll take a bunch of photographs of her. She agrees and he reveals a closet full of clothing in her size. While in the bathroom, she trips over a dead body and starts screaming. Chris turns out the light and introduces her to “Mary” the mannequin he uses for lighting. Tina notices the brown wig on the mannequin, but blows it off to put on makeup.

Chris does a bunch of shots, but then decides that she would look better with the brown wig. Turns out that the only difference between Judy and Tina is eye color and hair color. A few minutes after putting on the wig, Chris starts calling her Judy. Tina talks him down and tells him that wearing the wig was a bad idea. Then she asks about the clothing because she thinks Josh would love it and it turns out that the clothing is Judy’s too. She wants to change into another outfit, but all of the clothes were hers.

Tina just wants to take off, but Chris wants more photos. He gives her an old-fashioned dress and she plays along with him. She goes to get dressed and finds a ton of photos that he took of her, including one while she was sleeping and one from the bus station. She also finds her and Josh’ prom picture. Chris erased Josh’s name from a special message she wrote on the back and wrote in his own name.

Chris naturally starts calling her Judy again and asking why she left him. Then he reveals that he actually killed Judy by throwing her overboard. Tina tries to get away and finds Josh’s dead body. Chris threw acid in his face and beat him to death. Chris finds them both and Tina uses Josh as a distraction. She tells him that Josh moved, Chris looks over and she throws acid in his face. Well actually, she threw water in his face because she grabbed the wrong tray.

Chris drags her around the studio, but she manages to hit him over the head with a tripod. She grabs the wrong door and Holly tumbles out. She says that Chris introduced her to a guy at the party and they left together. When she got home, he jumped out of the shadows and tied her up for interrupting his moment with Tina. Why do I get a Liz-Enid vibe from this situation?

The next thing we know, Chris hops up. Carla and Steve rush into the room. Carla tells him that she will help him take his photos, get a shot of them together and keeps calling Tina Judy. Chris keeps waving around a pair of scissors, but when he reaches for his camera, Carla grabs the scissors. Steve knocks him down and I assume that they call the cops.

Carla explains that Chris told them that Josh had another girlfriend and went away with her for the weekend, so she went along with this story. I have no idea what she wouldn’t just tell Tina the “truth” and let her go home instead of waiting around for a guy. Steve went on the camping trip by himself and when he talked to Carla, he told her the truth. Josh was apparently so excited about the trip that he didn’t even go. She apologizes and I guess everything is fine.

By the way, this is the only Fear Street book I still have from when I was younger. I remember that my brother’s ex-girlfriend bought me a bunch, but for some reason I only had this one.