Young Adult Revisited

Alice has some big news for the twins: Kelly is coming to spend a few days with them before Thanksgiving. They don’t think it’s strange that she’s coming early even though her mom has to make a special 4-hour roundtrip to bring her down before they come down a few days early. That is until people at school bring it up. When Kelly gets there, they have fun playing and dressing like each other. On the first night though, Kelly has a nightmare and wakes up crying. Alice comforts her and tells the family that Laura and Greg are having some problems and might get a divorce. She asks them not to tell anyone and to keep it a secret from people at school because it will just upset her. The next day, they all dress up in matching blue tee shirts and jeans, and everyone at school oohs and ahs over how much they look alike. Everyone seems to like Kelly, but Lila wants to know why she came early. Kelly doesn’t have an answer so Jessica blurts out that her parents might get divorc...

The twins are super excited because Johnny Buck is coming to town. The last time he came through Sweet Valley, Ned and Alice grew a pair and said they were too young. Now they are a whole year older and sure to go. Bruce Patman already got tickets and let them know that they were already half sold-out so they better hurry. Jessica has a special reason to see The Buck: he gave her his hat. The twins went to his hotel and as he was leaving, he threw his hat in the crowd. Even though Elizabeth caught it, Jessica ripped it out of her hands because he clearly looked directly at her. She thought it was his secret message to her. As soon as they get home, they find Steven in the kitchen excited about getting tickets. He lets them know that their parents still think they’re too young. They don’t believe it until their parents get home. They would let them go if they could go too, but Ned has a big case going on and Alice has an important meeting so they can’t make it to the c...

Scavenger Hunt begins with a teenage boy arriving at a church in the middle of nowhere. After dipping his hands in the holy water, he wonders if can escape. He starts to drop two quarters in the donation box, thinks about how he needs to call the police, and drops all of his money inside before lighting a candle. He sneaks past a woman in black and steps into the confession box. The priest on the other side listens as the boy asks if he believes in the devil and admits to killing someone before telling his story. The book jumps back to Carl prior to the day at the church. He has a dream that a dam collapses on him and his friend Joe, and they see a monster coming at them. He wakes up in a cold sweat, remembering that Joe really did die in a flash flood in the desert and the police found his skeleton a few months later. The requisite hot chick Cessy calls and he talks to her and his friend Tom. Tom has some odd moments because he was hurt in a football incident, but he asks them to ...

Maria knows next to nothing about camping and she’s terrified of the woods, but she still agrees to go camping with her friends. Ellen is an outdoors nut who loves rock climbing, while Beth loves rock climbing but is more fond of boys. While shopping for supplies at the sporting goods store, she runs across football star Brett. He nearly cuts her head off with an axe, and he follows them on their trip, nearly forcing their car off the road. When they stop to grab some snacks at the mini mart, Beth meets a group of hot guys. Will seems to like Maria, Daniel is all about Beth, and Andrew likes Ellen. They want to team up for the weekend, but Maria is still reeling over her boyfriend dumping her and she just wants to spend time with the girls so they begrudgingly agree. The guys walk with them into the parking lot, and Maria freaks out when she sees a gun. It turns out that it’s just a flare gun, but it still makes her feel uncomfortable. After hiking through the woods, they hear a gun...

It’s just after the 400th Christmas in the series, and Mary Anne is missing Dawn a lot. Luckily, she has a new school project to take her mind off things.  She, this guy Gordon, and best friends Amelia and Barbara get assigned to the same group. They decide to talk about their Shakespeare project after school, and they start working on making an era-appropriate newspaper. Amelia leaves early to have dinner with her friends and everyone takes off. The next day, Mary Anne is running late and as she meets with her friends, she hears that a 13-year-old girl died the night before. They keep running into other people who have more news, and she starts worrying that it might be Kristy. It turns out that it was Amelia. Her family was hit by a drunk driver, but everyone else survived. They hold a funeral for her, and Mary Anne breaks down because she realizes that she will never learn more about Amelia. Kristy kind of loses her marbles after Amelia’s death. She keeps breaking down an...

Hey! It’s like I Know What You Did Last Summer on acid. Brenda, Alison, and Fran are heading into Fran’s house when Alison sees a purple envelope in the mailbox addressed to Fran. After goofing around for awhile, Fran opens it and reads a letter addressed to them and some of their other friends. The note says that the writer will put an ad in the paper and Fran has to do whatever the ad says before passing the next task on to the next name on the list. If they don’t do what he says, he will reveal their big secret. The girls all freak out a little, wondering if the note might come from someone in the group. Fran gets the newspaper and sees that her task is to change the koala bear mascot into a goat’s head. Alison feels bad for her because Fran spent hours painting the mascot head in the gym, but Fran is completely willing to do the task. The book then jumps to Neil, Tony, and Kipp, the guys in the group. They do a little talking about the note before their friend Joan calls to ...

Mrs. Kishi has some big news, but she decides to let Peaches tell Claudia herself. It turns out that Peaches is pregnant. A few days later, she calls and announces that they are moving to Stoneybrook but they can’t move into their new house for one month, so Mrs. Kishi tells them that they can move in with them. Peaches also lets them know that she quit her job so she can focus full-time on being a mother. Peaches almost instantly puts a wrench in Claudia’s life. Peaches takes her shopping for baby furniture and asks her for advice on everything she buys. Claudia is so excited about having a new baby around that she asks Mary Anne to teach her how to knit. Since Mimi taught her, it will be like having something from Mimi for the baby. One day, Peaches decides to cook a big dinner for everyone. She takes Claudia to a fancy gourmet food store, they spend all night cooking, and put on vests and bowties to serve dinner. Claudia quickly notices that she has no time for her artwork let al...