Young Adult Revisited

Jessica wakes up at 3:42 exactly and notices that something seems off, but she quickly goes back to sleep. The next day, she discovers that an earthquake hit and that's what woke her up. She immediately starts bragging about her extrasensory perceptions, while her family just kind of rolls their eyes. Elizabeth thinks that it will pass once they get to school and find other people who woke up, but everyone slept through it. Jessica quickly starts embellishing her story, telling people about how she had to dive across the room to catch a glass unicorn and how the pictures on her wall fell off. Everyone gets sick of it pretty fast, but she just keeps repeating her story. Lila and Janet decide to talk to the Unicorn Club about teaching her a lesson. They'll demand that Jessica predict when another earthquake will strike. Lloyd starts following her around all the time and talking to her about quakes, so she thinks an aftershock will hit soon. She randomly picks Thu...

Stoneybrook once again prepares to celebrate Halloween, which means that it's time for a dance. Even though we've seen dozens of dances before, this is the first time they will hold a masquerade dance in almost 30 years. Stacey decides to sign up for the decorating committee, and while most of the others are pretty nice, she also has to work with Cokie. No worries though, everyone always sides against whatever Cokie wants. Stacey walks into class and notices a cute new guy sitting in the room. Turns out that his name is Cary Retlin and he recently moved to Connecticut from Illinois. He winks at Stacey but seems like an okay guy. At the first decorating committee meeting, they meet Mike Rothman. He's a new teacher and decides to chair the committee so he can get to know some new students. Right away, things start going wrong. Someone switches books around in lockers, they leave drawings on classroom walls, and they smear door handles with peanut butter. ...

The We Love Kids Club gets an unusual phone call. The Carters need a sitter for their daughter Whitney, but they don't want Whitney to know she has a sitter. She has Down's Syndrome and they're taking her out of a special school and putting her in public school. Since she wants her parents to treat her like an adult, they decide to hire a sitter and pass her off as a new friend. Dawn gets the job. Dawn quickly realizes that Whitney is a pretty cool chick. She likes going through magazines, hanging around with other kids, and shopping. They have a few good days together, and Dawn even introduces her to Sunny, Clover, and Daffodil. Dawn does learn that it's hard to be someone's friend when you have to be a sitter too. Whitney complains about a few things and she has to bite her tongue not to say she's a sitter. She decides to go shopping with Whitney at the mall, but she's appalled at how people treat her. The women at the makeup counter act li...

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...