Young Adult Revisited

The California Games are fast approaching. If you never heard of them before, don't worry because they were totally made up for this very small series. Like decades ago, California decided to host its own miniature Olympics for junior high kids. The top 25 teams in all sports would meet once a year to compete. Due to budget cuts, this got dropped to once every two years. Jessica joined the gymnastics team and is the best one on the team because of her amazing natural talents. Little kids literally freeze when they see her around town or at meets because she's the best gymnast in the entire world. Some even ask for her autograph. She assumes that she'll take home the gold and that everyone will totally love her. At one of their last meets of the year, she scores a 9.5 on the uneven bars, which is the highest score that anyone on her team ever got. That guarantees that they'll get to compete in the California Games. At that meet, she finally gets to see Dawn...

Elizabeth has been feeling a little down lately but especially since Mandy ditched the Angels to go back to the Unicorns. While hosting a party for her club at home, the other girls get pretty depressed because they miss Mandy a lot. When she tells her mom about it later, Alice suggests that the Angels have a party at their house the following weekend. Liz immediately tells her friends and starts making plans. Sadly, Jessica had the exact same idea while hosting a Unicorn Club meeting that day by the pool. Her reason for throwing a party is a little different though. See, one of the kids in the kid center told her that she thought the Angels were the best club because her brother, some popular and super hottie in the eighth grade, said that. Jess wants to throw a party and show that they are the best around. When Liz says she already made plans and that it was Alice's idea, Jessica just says that Liz heard them talking about their own plans, stole the idea, and the convi...

Nelson Stone, the curator of the brand new Clinton Park Museum, calls Nancy and asks for her help solving a mystery. Though she isn't happy at the idea of skipping tennis, George agrees to go with her to the museum, and Bess puts off yet another shopping trip to go too. Clinton Park is a town not far away from River Heights. Amanda Lane, a super rich lady in town, donated her family home to the city to build a museum, and the city hired Stone to run it. Nancy meets Su-Lin, a college student working as an associate curator, and her grandfather, who is the gardener. Stone takes her into the exhibit hall to show her the Golden Horse, the museum's prized possession. He recently spent one million dollars on it, which the museum board didn't like. Hillary Lane, the great-niece of Amanda Lane, is unhappy too because she lost the sculpture, which is made of real gold and jewels, to him at auction. When they go back to his office to talk, he tells her that he got a ...

Dean Jarvis, who is so not the dean who Nancy helped out in the past, calls Nancy to Emerson College to help him with a case. Professor Maszak is a visiting professor from the Soviet Union working with some compound called CLT that someone keeps stealing. He swears it isn't dangerous, but the thefts might ruin his experiment. Nancy agrees to help out and go undercover as a recent transfer student while still secretly hoping that she can spend some time with Ned. While on the way to meet him, she has a run in with some students when she almost runs over their friend in the middle of the road. She meets Karen, the leader of this group called Protect Our Environment, and Phillip Bangs, an adult she assumes is their sponsor. They tell her that they're rehearsing for a protest they plan on doing when a senator visits campus because he wants to sell off nature preserves and national forests. Nancy finally meets up with Ned and his friends, and things go well until she...

I don't know if you know this or not, but Elizabeth Wakefield wants to be a writer someday. That's why she's so excited when she learns that her teacher arranged for author Angela Daley to stop by their class for a talk. Even though she will later talk only about Amanda Howard, Daley is right now her favorite writer ever. Their teacher, Mrs. Becker, also announces that the writer will personally autograph a copy of her latest book for each student in her class. She'll pick someone to help pass out the books later, which is some kind of huge honor. All the kids go a little overboard to prove that she should pick them. Both Jessica and Carolina keep fighting over helping their teacher, and Winston makes some weird bookshelf thing out of cardboard boxes as a present for the writer. Acting on Amy's advice, Elizabeth decides to write a story and give it to their teacher. She tries a few different ideas before finding one she likes. After copying it on ...

For some reason, Elizabeth and Jessica are hanging out in their backyard with Amy. They build a tunnel of cardboard boxes that ends in a creek that I'm pretty sure never existed before and will never exist after. Liz comes up with a fun idea for a backyard camp out, and they make plans to invite all their friends. The only one unhappy with this plan is Lila. She suggests having the party at her house, which leads to a fight over whether her in ground pool is better than the above ground pool at the Wakefield house. Lila keeps whining about the bugs and the wild animals to the point where the others tell her she can just stay home. Todd and Winston overhear them and joke about showing up in the middle of the night to scare them. Liz calms the group down by pointing out that since they can't sneak out, Todd probably can't either. Ned and Alice go all out for the girls. They put up a tent, let them cook hot dogs and marshmallows, and then leave them alone outsi...

Nancy and the ladies are off to attend a stargazing party at a local park that butts right up against Woody Acres Estate, some fancy gated community. Bess keeps talking about how the tabloids reported that her favorite actor, Will Ryder, was secretly in town to marry his pop singer girlfriend. George finds it much more interesting that they can see Dr. Stars in person. He's some huge radio personality with his own radio show and the man responsible for the party. A cop stops them and over cars to explain that they need to turn around. There was a prowler spotted in Woody Acres that takes priority over everything else. After getting to the park the back way, they find the place deserted. His van is still set up, but no one is there. While checking things out, Nancy finds a journal entry that he started that night and a promo photo that shows he's a good looking younger man. She nearly slides off a cliff while snopping around before a man saves her. That man is a bori...