Francine
Pascal
Kate
William, Bantam Books, 1983
Genre:
Realistic, Romance, School Story
Description
Jessica
and Elizabeth Wakefield are awaiting the results, along with a number
of other the girls, of whether or not they will be admitted to the Pi
Beta sorority. They have endured their dares, such as Elizabeth
having to call in a pizza for delivery to Mr. Russo's chemistry
class—one of the best but toughest teachers –or sending a singing
telegram to Chrome Dome the nickname of the principal, or when they
dyed the mashed potatoes in the cafeteria purple. However, it is
Jessica who is a little bit more excited about belonging to the
sorority. Elizabeth wants to be a writer. She's currently a reporter
for the school newspaper the Oracle and is the secret writer
of the “eyes and ears” column. Her best friend, Enid, has been
asked by Ronnie Edwards, the new guy, to the Phi Epsilon dance.
Elizabeth herself is hoping that Todd Wilkins will ask her. When Todd
asks Elizabeth to meet him after school she is late because of work
she had to do in the Oracle office and is disappointed to see
him and Jessica drive off together. She is shocked to find out the
next day the gossip going around school—that Jessica and Todd are
the hot new couple.
While
Jessica is interested in Todd she is also quite a bad girl, such as
when she accepts a ride from Rich Andover, a 17-year-old dropout. He
takes her to a local dive bar where he gets in a fist fight with the
patron and the cops show up. Jessica, ashamed of being out with him,
doesn't contradict the police officer when he accidentally calls her
Elizabeth. When Elizabeth asks who she was on a date with and Jessica
won't tell her, Elizabeth assumes that it must've been Todd.
Unfortunately for Elizabeth Caroline Pearce, the resident gossip
queen, witnesses Jessica getting out of the police car and being
called “Elizabeth” so she spreads rumors around school that
Elizabeth got arrested. Elizabeth doesn't understand why everyone is
talking about her behind her back until Enid tells Elizabeth the
rumor.
Todd
is depressed at the thought that Elizabeth would get arrested and is
doubly disappointed when Jessica tells them that Elizabeth already
has a date to the dance. He hangs out with Ronnie and Enid and is
shocked at how Ronnie is a total asshole who flatly denies Enid's
protesting of Elizabeth's innocence and demands that Enid not hang
out with Elizabeth anymore. (Considering how straight-laced Elizabeth
is and how Jessica is seen as the bad girl usually it is pretty
infuriating to read this and to see that no one—including
Elizabeth's best friend—even considers the fact that it could have
been Jessica, Elizabeth's twin sister, who was really the one
arrested!)
A
few days later Jessica tells Elizabeth it will blow over. In fact no
one even talks to her about it anymore. Elizabeth, on the other hand,
is supremely pissed off. She tells Jessica that she is a walking
conversation stopper. Everyone hints at it when she's around. In the
Oracle office someone even wrote on the board about how the
big shot editor makes the news but it isn't even mentioned in the
school paper. Elizabeth is tired of her reputation being dragged
through the mud. Elizabeth tries to focus on one of the biggest
stories currently happening. Sweet Valley High might lose their
football field. George Fowler wants to take the football field and
turn it into another factory while the Patman's supposedly want to
turn it into an amusement park. Basically the two rivals are using
the football field to continue their longstanding family feud. The
Patman family made all their money in the canning industry while the
Fowlers are of “new” money and made it on silicon chips. The
reason why they might win the football field is because the school
leased the land through the city and the lease is coming up. It turns
out that the rumors are partially true. The Fowlers do indeed want to
build a factory while the Patmans want to re-create the Vanderhorn
garden as it was in 1916. The football team convinces everyone to
stage a sit in which is successful until people start to accost Lila
and Bruce. Bruce says that if they want to talk about a disgrace to
Sweet Valley Jessica should look at her own family as her dad and his
assistant, Marianna West, are clearly fooling around.
To
try to make it up to Elizabeth, Jessica tries to come clean to Todd
and admit that it was her that was at the bar and got arrested. Todd
thinks she's being noble and trying to take the blame for Elizabeth.
He kisses her that asks her to the dance. Elizabeth meanwhile is
being bugged by Bruce Patman and finally tells him that she has a
date to the dance and won't go with him. When Bruce asks who, Winston
pipes up and says him. Bruce, being an egotistical jock, can't
believe that Elizabeth would rather go to the dance with a nerd.
Jessica tells Elizabeth that she told Todd everything and that Todd
forgives her (Jessica) and asked her to the dance. However, she fails
to tell Elizabeth that Todd thanks Jessica was just trying to cover
up for Elizabeth.
Jessica
and Elizabeth talk with their older brother, Steven, about rumors
that are going around about their father and Marianna. Stupidly,
Jessica admits that they know that Steven is seeing Betsy Martin, the
town druggie. Steven says that they've got it wrong as he is actually
seeing Tricia, her sister. Unfortunately since he was hiding the
relationship she realized that he was ashamed of her family and
dumped him. When Elizabeth tells Jessica that she is going to the
dance with Winston Jessica can believe that she chose that clown over
Bruce who she would kill to go with. When the day of the dance
arrives Elizabeth makes a stunning entrance into the living room
while Winston acts like a dork and causes Jessica to get mad that he
spoiled her own entrance. At the dance Jessica is jealous that Todd
seems disinterested in her so she points to Bruce and claims that he
is just one of the many boys who asked Elizabeth to the dance.
Winston easily notices Elizabeth interest in Todd and urges her to
talk to him. Meanwhile, Steven is depressed and confronted by his
parents after they forced the truth out of Elizabeth and Jessica.
They encourage him to go and make up with Tricia. On his way over to
her house later Steven sees his father and Marianna driving in the
car and he follows them to a house.
After
the dance Jessica, in her jealousy towards how Todd was paying
attention to Elizabeth, tells Elizabeth that Todd is a player that
has nothing but sex on his mind. So with Todd now showing an interest
in Elizabeth she wants absolutely nothing to do with him because of
what Jessica said. Todd eventually calls her to apologize for his
behavior and says that he will forgive Elizabeth if she promises
never to see that creep Andover again. He says that everyone “knows”
it was Elizabeth. Elizabeth can't believe that Todd is taking a bunch
of rumors for truth and says that she never wants to speak to him
again.
Elizabeth
focuses on the court case to take her mind off of things. It is
Marianna who does most of the speaking and ends up getting the lease
awarded to the Sweet Valley High Board of Education. When she
discovers that Marianna is being invited over to dinner and that her
father has a huge announcement to make she immediately decides that
it has to be about a divorce. The announcement in fact happens to be
that Marianna is now a new partner at her father's firm.
Elizabeth
eventually tries to go on other dates as she sees Todd out with other
girls. One day after a meeting of the sorority Jessica and Elizabeth
discover that their car is being followed. It is a drunk Rick Andover
who gets in their stalled car, fixes it, and races away with them. It
causes havoc at the Dairi Burger and Todd gets in his car to try to
save the girls. They end up in the pub parking lot were Todd and
Andover get into a fight. Todd wins and Elizabeth kisses him. Todd
takes them home and that is where he reveals that he should've known
that Jessica was the one who got arrested and Elizabeth learns that
Jessica told him that she was supposedly uber popular and had tons of
dates to dance. Elizabeth learns that Todd at the end of the dance
was hardly grabby and all he did was give Jessica a kiss on the
cheek. Elizabeth is upset at Jessica and has the perfect plan for
getting back at her.
Elizabeth
and Jessica ride to the rally for the football team with Todd. It is
part of her payback plan. While they are getting dressed she
accidentally dumps water on Jessica to force her to change clothes.
She offers up her own outfit so that Jessica will look like
Elizabeth. Once there Elizabeth goes to see Dana, lead singer of the
Droids. Pretending to be Jessica she tells Dana that Elizabeth is the
writer of the “eyes and ears” column. Dana makes an announcement
to the entire crowd and Jessica gets dumped in the pool as per the
tradition that if the writer of the column gets ousted they get
dumped in the pool.
Later
that night Enid shows up at Elizabeth's door. She says that something
awful has happened and Ronnie will never talk to her again.
Thoughts
and Nuggets of Wisdom for Research
Sweet
Valley is best known as being full of gender and physical
stereotypes. When I was younger I read the Sweet Valley Twins spin
off but this was actually my first Sweet Valley High. On the very
first page we get numerous accounts of how the perfect Jessica
Wakefield with her “All-American” good looks thinks she’s
disgusting (p. 1-3):
“Oh,
Lizzie, do you believe how absolutely horrendous I look today!”
Jessica Wakefield groaned as she slipped in front of her sister,
Elizabeth, and stared at herself in the bedroom mirror. “I'm so
gross! Just look at me. Everything is totally wrong. To begin with,
I'm disgustingly fat. . . .” With that, she spun around to show off
a stunning figure without an extra ounce visible anywhere.
She
moaned again, this time holding out one perfectly shaped bronze leg.
“Isn't that the grossest? I swear I must have the skinniest legs
and America. And the bumpiest knees. What am I going to do? How can I
possibly go to school looking like this today? Today of all days!”
Jessica
stared at herself in the full-length mirror and saw a picture of
utter heartbreak and despair. But what was actually reflected in the
glass was about the most adorable, most dazzling 16-year-old girl
imaginable. Yet there was no stopping Jessica Wakefield when she was
in this mood.
“Why
couldn't I at least have an oval face? It looks like someone stuck a
pumpkin on top of my neck. And this hair—a dull yellow mess of
split ends. I hate it!”
In
a gesture of absolute hopelessness, she ran her hand under her silky
blonde hair, lifted it up, and watched as it drifted lightly back to
her shoulders.
“Only
thing duller are my eyes. Look at that color, Liz.” She put her
face under her sister's nose and fluttered
long eyelashes over almond-shaped
eyes the blue-green of
the Caribbean. “They're so blah.”
Both
girls had the same shoulder length, sun streaked blond hair, the same
sparkling blue-green eyes, the same perfect skin. Even the tiny
dimple in Elizabeth’s left cheek was duplicated in her younger
sister's—younger by four minutes. Both girls were five feet six on
the button and generously blessed with spectacular, all-American good
looks. Both wore exactly the same size clothes, but they refused to
dress alike, except for the exquisite identical lavalieres they were
on gold chains around their necks. The lavalieres had been present
from their parents on their sixteenth birthday.
The
thing that bugged me the most about this series is how utterly
selfish Jessica is. I can’t believe any teens when this series was
popular actually liked Jessica. I have always been an Elizabeth girl
because I enjoyed school like her (of course there are those readers
who complain that Elizabeth, being a nerd, is horribly stuck up). In
this one volume alone there are numerous occurrences to how stuck up
Jessica is and, quite frankly, how rude she is to others, including
her own sister!
Page
4 -
He wanted her sister! Jessica's eyes narrowed dangerously. One of
the cutest boys at Sweet Valley High, and he was calling to talk to
Elizabeth! Todd Wilkins was currently the basketball team’s hottest
star, and Jessica had been admiring him for some time now as she
practiced her cheers in the gym alongside him. The idea that he would
prefer Elizabeth to her infuriated Jessica, though she was extra
careful to conceal this from him.
Page
8 –
At noon the Wakefield twins would find out if they had made Pi
Beta Alpha, “the positively best sorority at Sweet Valley High,”
according to Jessica. That meant “the snobbiest” in Elizabeth's
book.
Page
18-19 –
“How
can you be best friends with somebody as blah as Eeny Rollins? I
don't want you to go over there. Somebody might think it was me
talking to her.” (Jessica)
“Enid
is a wonderful person. Why don't you like her?” (Elizabeth)
“Eeny
is a nerd. And there's something weird about her.” (Jessica)
Page
34 –
“You wouldn’t think it was funny if you really were
gross-looking,” Jessica said, shuddering at the thought of having
anything other than an attractive family.
Page
47 –
“No, really, Todd,” Jessica was saying, “don't laugh.
It's not funny. Really. I really am one of the most unpopular girls
in school. Everyone else has a date for the dance. Really, everyone.
Every single girl I know. Everyone but me.”
Page
49 –
Jessica felt a tiny twinge of panic. Why was Todd ignoring
her? Had something happened to the Wakefield magic? Impossible!
she told herself. She was still the most fantastic girl in school. So
why didn't Todd know it? Cheers and angry frustration filled her
eyes. She decided she would walk home from school. Whenever she was
out walking, she never failed to attract a good deal of attention
from passing cars. The more the better, she thought, swinging her
hips a little as she set off.
Page
75-76 –
“He
[Andover] has everything to do with all the kids in school thinking I
have a police record and that I'm out on parole!” Elizabeth
shouted, for once making no effort to control her temper.
“Oh,
that.” Jessica shrugged, flushing guiltily. “I can clear
that little thing up in no time.”
“Do
it now!” Elizabeth said.
“Later,
Liz! I'm talking about something really important. I found out this
afternoon why Steve has been coming home every weekend. No wonder
he's been so mysterious and obnoxious to everybody. He should be
ashamed of himself! My whole life is going right down the tubes! How
could he do this, Lizzie?” she began to cry.
“Stop
babbling, Jess! And stop crying! Tell me what Steve has done.”
“Our
brother, a member of the Wakefield family, has been spending every
weekend,” Jessica got out between sobs, “with Betsy Martin!”
“Jess,
are you sure? I can't believe it. Betsy's been doing drugs for
years—she sleeps around—”
“And
her father gets bombed out of his mind every night,” Jessica said
wildly.
Page
117-118 –
“Bruce
Patman!” Jessica squealed. “Liz Wakefield, how dare you sit there
calmly and tell me Bruce asked you out as if it weren't important!
You’re incredible! No—you must be dead!
No girl alive would turn
Bruce down. He's handsome, Liz. He is sooooo rich. And he drives that
awesome Porsche!”
“Are
you saying you wish you were going to the dance with Bruce instead of
Todd?” Elizabeth challenged.
“Of
course not. Why in the world would you think that? Todd is terribly
good-looking, and he's so sweet. I just wish he didn't drive that
gross excuse for car. Bruce's Porsche is so—so . . . I mean, it's a
Porsche.”
122-123
–
“Hi,
Jess,” he answered. “You look nice—really very pretty.”
Nice!
she screamed silently. Three hours of working on my nails, my hair,
my makeup and I look “very pretty”? Whatever happened to
gorgeous?
“Thanks,
Todd.” Maybe he's not good with words, she thought. But she
knew from the other day that he was good with kissing—and there
certainly would be more kissing that evening!
Page
126 –
No guy—not even Todd Wilkins—could take Jessica Wakefield
to a dance and treat her like a piece of furniture. He wasn't going
to get away with it, she vowed.
Page
128-129 –
“Oh,
Liz, it was so awful!” Jessica's eyes filled with tears.
“Awful?
What are you talking about, Jess?”
“I
thought he liked me, Lizzie,” she said between sobs. “I thought
he respected me and everything!”
“Jessie,
what happened?”
“Oh,
Liz, I can't. I can't tell you!” Jessica collapsed, covering her
face with her hands. “I'm—I'm too ashamed.”
Elizabeth
put her arm around Jessica shoulder. “It's all right, Jess. You can
tell me anything, you know that.”
“Maybe
I should tell you.” Jessica sniffled. “You really should be
warned about him. You might go out with him sometime, and I'd just
never forgive myself if I didn't tell you what the real Todd Wilkins
is like.”
“What
did he do?”
“That
rat tried just about everything. The horrible thing was that I could
hardly make him stop. I had to beg him and beg him to please stop!”.
. .
“He
just wouldn't stop. His hands! Oh, God, they were everywhere.”
Page
133 –
Tricia Martin's family was no bargain, and they knew it. Her
father was the town drunk, and her sister Betsy had a horrible
reputation. The mother had died of leukemia when the kids were
little, which really torn the family apart. It was all
understandable, but that didn't make it any easier. And now Steven
was mixed up with them. The question was, how seriously?
Page
172 -
“Lizzie,
honey. I did it because I felt he was wrong for you. That you
wouldn't be able to handle him.”
“Jessie,
honey. You're really full of it. You did it because you liked
him yourself and you were trying to get rid of the competition.”
Page
174 -
“I knew if it got around school that I was in a bar with
those terrible people, I'd be finished. It's a rule, an absolute
rule, that you can't be on the cheering squad if you have any black
marks against your name. I couldn't give that up, Liz. You know how
much being co-captain of the cheerleaders means to me.”
There
is some talk about how affluent and well off the Wakefield family is:
Page
14 – The twins squealed with delight. Only on rare occasions were
they allowed to drive to school in the family's second car, a little
red Spider convertible.
Page
15 – As she did very often, Elizabeth thought how lucky she and
Jessica were to live in Sweet Valley. Everything about it was
terrific—the gently rolling hills, the quaint downtown area, and
the fantastic white sand beach only 15 minutes away. She and Jessica
were even luckier now, with a new in ground pool their backyard.
Page
33 – “They're so busy I hardly see them. Mom's always rushing off
to meet a client. Her design business is really booming. And
dad—well, he's always out. He's working on a case with a new lawyer
in the firm, somebody by the name of Marianna West. She used to be
married to the big heart specialist, Gareth West.”
A
few interesting non-Jessica occurrences happen in relation to the
importance of looks and reputation. When Bruce attempts to ask
Elizabeth out thinking she’s the one who was out with Rick the
following conversation occurs (p. 104):
“I
never thought you were such a fast number until now. But from what I
hear, I decided you're my type. I'd like to take you to the dance.”
“Is
that so?” Elizabeth snapped.
“Sure.
I can't stand most of these wimpy girls. We can put in appearance of
the dance, then head for someplace where we can have some real fun.”
Later
when Elizabeth asks Winston if he really wants to go to the dance
with her he says, “You want to know the sort of girl people fix me
up with? It goes like this: 'Win, have I got a girl for you! Was a
personality!' that always means 250 pounds and two-foot-five! I have
to put her hamburger on the floor so she can reach it” (p. 125).
The
biggest and scariest part of the book was Jessica going off with
Rick. Here are key elements from that:
She'd
heard a number of stories about Rick and the fast lane life he led.
He ran around with an older crowd and always had a lot of money in
his pocket, even though it didn't look as if he had a job. He spent
most of his time either working on his Camaro or cruising around in
it—usually with a gorgeous girl at his side. Jessica squirmed with
pleasure at having been selected as Rick's companion for the
afternoon (p. 51).
Conversation
at page 52-53 –
“I'll
pick you up at eight,” Rick told her as they were cruising down
Calico Drive, doing 50 in a 35 zone.
“What?”
He
grinned. “Tomorrow, at eight. We've got a date, Heaven.”
“But
you never even asked me,” she complained.
“I
told you—I'm used to getting, not asking. Are you saying no?” he
challenged, as if the thought were unheard of.
“No.”
She frowned slightly, biting her lip. “It's just that I'm not sure
my parents –“
“Mommy
and Daddy wouldn't like the idea of their Little Red Riding Hood
going out with the Big Bad Wolf?” he supplied, sneering. “What do
you want?”
He
was looking at her in a way that made her skin tingle. His
heavy-lidded eyes held a hypnotic hint of the excitement to come and
she decided to go out with him. Jessica found it irresistible.
Page
58-60 –
For
an instant she wondered if she would be able to keep him at bay, but
she quickly dismissed the worry. She had yet to come up against the
situation she couldn't handle.
Even
so, nothing could squelch the nervous fluttering in her stomach as
Rick's car spun to stop in a shower of gravel in front of the
seedy-looking beachfront roadhouse. A red, blinking neon sign
advertised that it was Kelly's. Loud music spilled from the open
doorway, punctuated by harsh bursts of laughter.
None
of Jessica's friends had ever been inside Kelly's. It had the most
notorious reputation of any bar in the whole valley. A mixture of
alarm and excitement raced through Jessica's body. Boy, would she
have something to talk about tomorrow!
Jessica
had never been so acutely aware of both her age and her appearance
before. Several of the men stared at her, and one let forth a low
wolf whistle. Her face was burning from anger and embarrassment, and
her eyes watered from the cigarette smoke that wreathed the cramped
room. As they slid into cracked vinyl booth, she leaned over to tell
Rick how uncomfortable she felt, but her words were drowned in a
sudden burst of twangy country-western music from the jukebox.
.
. .
“And
I should have known you were the kind of guy who couldn't keep his
hands to himself,” she scolded lightly.
Rick's
eyes narrowed. “All tease and no tickle, huh? Didn't your mommy
tell you not to put anything in the window that you don't sell in the
store?” His fingers groped higher, and she noticed he was beginning
to slur his words. “Well, I've seen the merchandise, baby, and I'm
sold.”
