Young Adult Revisited

The entire sixth grade has to read Romeo and Juliet for school, but to make things more interesting, they're actually going to put on a shortened version of the play. To complicate things, half the class has a massive flu that they keep passing around. Jessica and Lila war over who will win the lead role, and whoever loses will have to wear a face full of fake warts. Amy compares her relationship with Ken to the one between Romeo and Juliet, and then she decides that it perfectly describes Elizabeth and Todd. Jessica stumbles in, wearing a crown made of aluminum foil and giving some weird and random speech. She tells them that it's more important that she get into character, and they point out that she really needs to read the play. They later find her crying because it's so sad. Jessica completely throws herself into the play. She rehearses so much that even Steven and Elizabeth can recite the lines along with her. Alice and Ned are impressed that she'...

Here it is! The most pornographic and adult of all Sweet Valley books, with the notable exception of the Sweet Valley Confidential books, which don't really fit with the series. Jessica has to go to the big dance with Winston because she screwed up in the last book and her sister basically wants to punish her. Winston starts dancing around like a crazy person, so she looks around at the crowd to hopefully find someone to save her. Enter Bruce Patman, the hottest and best looking guy in the entire school. He cuts in, and one dance leads to another. Liz finds Winston moping by the punch bowl, but he claims that it's fine because they're going to a party at Ken's house. Jessica then shows up, announces that she's going to the party with Bruce, and pawns Winston off on Robin. Even though Jessica is supposed to be a bad ass, she's pretty tame. She flips out when Bruce unties her bikini in the water, and she follows him around like a little lost puppy ...

James is the type of guy you should avoid. When The Hitchhiker opens, he's standing on the side of the road and mumbling to himself. He keeps thinking about how much he hates Key West, how he shouldn't have hurt some poor girl, and how he'll never go back. An older man picks him off from the side of the road, and he gives the man a fake name before thinking about how it's his lucky night. Then we meet two girls from Cleveland: Terri and Christina. Christina is the wilder of the two, while Terry flips out over the smallest thing. After talking about the wild times they had in Fort Lauderdale, Christina sees a man hitchhiking on the side of the road and picks him up. Naturally, it's James, and surprise surprise, he actually gives them his real name. They stop at a little diner to order some food. Their waiter takes too long to take their orders and makes a comment about Christina, which causes James to flip out. He practically chokes the guy in the mid...

Mary is now Mary Robinson, but she's a little upset because her mom recently remarried. They barely had any time together alone, and now they don't even share the same last name. She tells the twins all about her new stepfather Tim and how he's building a huge house for them. This pretty much sets the tone for the whole book. Every time someone mentions her stepfather, she tells them something else huge. He's an architect who works on huge buildings, is the best man in the world, and even bought them a huge new boat. Unfortunately, most of what she tells them is a lie. Tim is actually a handyman/construction worker with little money. He did buy a boat, but it's a tugboat that requires a huge amount of work. She keeps lying to people because she's incredibly unhappy about things at home. Mary feels like she never gets any time alone with her mother because every time she turns around, Tim is there. She even goes home a few times to see her mom at...

Since Sweet Valley can apparently do nothing without the help of kids, it lets the local schools raise money for the new children's wing at the hospital. Elizabeth, Amy, and her friends decide to hold a bazaar, while Jessica gets distracted with Lila's plans for her Christmas party. She promises to help her bake cookies and runs off to help her pick out decorations, and she doesn't even want to get up when it comes time to go to the bazaar. While window shopping a few weeks before Christmas, they see a porcelain carousel horse. Elizabeth thinks about how it reminds her of the carousel that was once in the park, and Jessica just likes it because it looks like a unicorn. Elizabeth later hears her twin telling their mother all about it. When she points out that it sounds like something her twin might like, Jessica says that she didn't even like it. The middle school pledged to raise $100, but the bazaar brings in less than $44. Elizabeth gets the brilliant ...

Elizabeth and Amy finish up working on some huge assignment for school. Amy asks her to spend the night, but Alice tells her that she can't because the family's been so busy that they haven't had time to spend with each other, so she wants to take them out to dinner. Amy mentions building a fire in the fireplace before Elizabeth leaves. She gets home just in time to have Jessica pout and whine because her twin hasn't had time for her lately. The next day at school, she sees people whispering and a few people start to ask her questions, and she's also upset that Amy didn't meet her before class. Caroline gives her an update: Amy's house burned down. Someone on her street saw it happen, and the rumors start swirling. By the end of the day, she hears that Amy broke both her legs and will be in the hospital for a month. She also talks to her teacher, who lets her know that they can turn in their project the following week. When Elizabeth gets ho...

Kristy and Abby are heading to Washington DC for a debating competition. The two randomly get chosen for the contest after a few debating lessons in English class. Seriously, that's what Kristy tells us. They literally just learned how to debate, and the teacher handpicked some students to go. On the way down, she mentions Melissa (from the Claudia-Philly trip book), who is still as wishy-washy as ever. When Kristy makes a comment about the guys being obnoxious, Melissa goes overboard about how annoying they are, and she can't seem to stand up for herself or form an opinion without seeing how Abby and Kristy feels. Conveniently, she's also their third roommate for the trip. Once they get to DC, Kristy sees a boy in the crowd who looks just like Terry Hoyt. Melissa runs up to a cute guy and announces that it's Lucas, her boyfriend from camp. He's pretty much the only reason she came to DC, and she sticks to him like a barnacle. Lucas introduced his f...