Not only is the cover of this book one of the most iconic in the series, the story is memorable and ridiculously entertaining. If you aren’t already sold by the cover, featuring a dazzling Jessica in the arms of what’s supposed to be an eighteen year old college boy (ahem, college man–just look at that mustache!), then allow the title to seal the deal: Jess goes to an all-night college party with her new beau and Liz is left to cover for her when Jess is out “all night long.” The scandal!! And wow, the depiction of college in here. So much good stuff!
We open with Jess getting ready to go to a party at the lake with her new dude, Scott Daniels. Scott is in college and Liz doesn’t like him because when Jess introduced him to Liz the previous week, he’d leered at the twins and joked that they were “double the fun” before peeling off in his Firebird, leaving skid marks on the road. What a catch. I suppose, in retrospect, the “double the fun” joke is perfect because when Sweet Valley High was turned into a TV show (a decade after this book was published…), the actresses hired to play Liz and Jess were known for being in an ad for Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum, whose catchphrase is “Double your pleasure, double your fun.”
The twins’ parents don’t know that Jess is going to this party because they think Scott is too old for her. Jess told them she’s spending the day with her friend Cara and expects Liz to cover for her if needed. Apparently Liz had been invited to the lake party too (why?) but turned it down because she worried it’d be wild. Apparently she’s heard about wild college parties from Enid, whose older cousin went to one and told them it was “a kind of grown-up pajama party” with everyone wearing their pajamas and sitting on a bunch of mattresses that were strewn about the floor. I mean… what? Where do college students get so many mattresses? And why? This sounds like a description of a college party by someone who’s never attended one. Also, this party is on a Sunday, not exactly a day college parties are known to happen.
Liz worries that Jess won’t be rested up and ready to take a test that they have the next day. The test is so they can become licensed tour guides and be able to make money in the summer giving tours of Sweet Valley. Talk about a plot line that was dropped! We have more than 100 books to go before their junior year ends! Although, to be fair, there are various Super Editions that take place in summer, but all of them feature the twins not being tour guides. Jess assures Liz she’ll be ready for it and then takes off.
Liz goes to the beach with Enid, George, and Todd. They watch some surfers and admire one of them, Sonny Callahan, who’s competing against Bill Chase at the regional surf championship the next weekend.
At the party, Jess is sprawled out on the sandy lakeshore, trying to act sophisticated while listening to the college girls around her talk. One of them looks like a guinea pig Jess had as a kid. Pretty sure the Wakefields never had a guinea pig as a pet in any of the books in the Kids or Twins series, so I guess this is something that happened at a time not covered by a Sweet Valley series. The guinea pig-looking girl asks Jess how long she’s been going out with Scott and Jess says, “Long enough.” She doesn’t want them to know that this is their first date, a statement that seems to conflict with the fact that Scott’s already met Liz so doesn’t that imply they’ve already had at least one date? One of the girls warns Jess that Scott has a bit of a reputation, but Scott returns from the lake and interrupts the conversation before anything more can be said Scott nibbles Jessica’s earlobe and tickles her ear with his mustache. Ew. The party continues and someone lights up a joint. WHAT?!? I do not remember this bit from when I read this as a kid, perhaps because I didn’t understand the reference. But whoa. Drugs! You know these college kids are bad news! Scott takes the joint when it’s passed around, but Jess just sips her beer (another whoa!).
Eventually, Jess makes her way down to the lake, where she overhears snippets of conversation in which she’s called “jailbait” and it’s mentioned that Scott “likes ’em young.” Ew. This dude is so not a catch. Just in case that wasn’t clear. Scott joins her and suggests they go to someone’s boathouse so they can be alone. Once there, he slips his hand down the back of Jessica’s bikini bottom (!!!!!) and she slaps it away, trying to stay playful. She says she’s cold, so he offers to warm her up and starts kissing her in a way that means business. She realizes she’s in over her head and that Scott isn’t going to take no for an answer. Jess threatens to tell her parents about what’s going on unless he takes her home immediately. He laughs and says she’s the one who led him on and he knows she lied about coming to the party so he doesn’t believe she’ll say anything. He then leaves her in the boathouse and wanders back to the party. She’s furious and walks through the woods, unsure of where she’s going, until she finally finds the party again. Scott says he’s not driving her home until the next morning unless she’s willing to give him what he wants and that the party’s an all-nighter (apparently these college students don’t have class on Mondays?). The nearest phone is ten miles down the road, so she’s out of luck. She begs him to take her home but he falls asleep and Jess realizes he’s too drunk to drive anyway.
The next morning, Liz wakes up and panics when she discovers that Jess isn’t back yet! The phone rings, and Jess is on the line. She tells Liz it’s been an awful night and begs Liz to help her. Liz is furious but also worried and, as usual, agrees to help out. She goes downstairs and eats pancakes her mom is making, saying that Jess is sewing a button on her skirt but will be down soon. Then Liz races out the door. She sneaks back in, changes into an outfit from Jessica’s wardrobe, and goes downstairs pretending to be her twin, eating another breakfast of pancakes and fooling their mom.
At school, everyone thinks she’s Jessica because of the outfit. She tells Enid and Todd what happened and neither are impressed. Liz takes the tourist guide test in first period and realizes that Jess won’t be back in time to take her own test in second period! Liz talks about this with Todd, saying maybe she should take the test for Jess since she knows Jess would pass if she were here. Todd thinks Liz shouldn’t cover for Jess since Jess only thinks about herself (he’s not wrong), Liz accuses Todd of trying to drive a wedge between her and her sister and says he’s just jealous that she’s doing something for Jessica. Todd tells her not to be an idiot, Liz says only an idiot would go out with Todd, and it culminates in Liz telling Todd she doesn’t want to go to the surf competition with him that weekend! Gotta say, Todd has a point here. Why is Liz covering for Jess time and time again?
Liz takes the tourist guide test again, this time as Jessica, but she’s so upset about Todd that she can’t think straight. She goes into the bathroom with Enid to tell her about her relationship woes. Enid says she thinks Liz was being overdramatic about the situation and that perhaps dressing as Jess made her craziness rub off on Liz. Dana walks into the bathroom, sees the expression on their faces, and guesses that Liz is having boyfriend trouble. She tells Liz, “You’re probably better off without what’s-his-name.” This cracked me up because it implies that Dana is not paying enough attention to the lives of the Wakefield twins to know the name of Liz’s boyfriend!!
After school, Liz is in the Oracle office, half-heartedly working on an article. Mr. Collins asks her to cover the surf competition that weekend, since John Pfeifer, the sports editor, will be covering a tennis tournament that day in which Bruce in playing. Apparently Bruce’s dad is chairman of the school board and said the tennis tournament better not be ignored in favor of “long-haired bums in seal suits.” What a description! Liz leaves and runs into Jessica, who’s just shown up on campus! Jess tells Liz what a creep Scott turned out to be, then heads over to meet with Lila and Cara to go over a new cheer. Huh, so I guess Lila is still on the cheerleading team at this point in time.
Later in the week, Liz complains to Enid that Todd hasn’t called her. Enid asks why she doesn’t just call Todd. Liz says she has cold feet and feels like she’s bungled things up enough.
On Thursday, Liz is still moping that Todd hasn’t called. But there’s bigger news of the day: the tourist guide test results are about to be released! Liz passed. Jessica did not, and she’s furious! She accuses Liz of sabotaging her test on purpose. Jess says Liz was just acting like she wanted to help Jess out but really was undermining her, accusing Liz of being jealous that Jess was the one going out with Scott. I have to wonder what questions were asked on this test and how this is a big enough thing that the test was given at school over multiple periods for however many students. I can’t imagine Sweet Valley has enough of a tourism industry to need dozens of teenaged tour guides. Also, what are the questions on the test about? The city? With all the articles, essays, etc., that these kids write about how wonderful Sweet Valley is, I’m shocked Liz (or anyone else) actually failed it. I feel like I’d be able to pass it, just from reading these books! Liz tries to defend herself, but Jessica storms off, leaving Liz to wonder how things went so terribly wrong.
Liz wanders to the deserted bleachers next to the school’s baseball diamond to be alone. Suddenly someone slips a sweater over her shoulders. It’s Todd! He says he’s been thinking about things and decided that they’re both jerks so they should call a truce. He admits he’s not crazy about Jessica but notes that he’s not crazy about his own sister half the time. This is news to me, since he mentioned having a younger brother in the second book and now is mentioning having a sister, but he’s an only child for the bulk of the series. Where did this brother and sister disappear to?? I need answers. Liz and Todd make up and then one of the world’s greatest, most swoon-worthy, romantic scenes happens:
He kissed her softly on the forehead, following it with another kiss on the tip of her nose before finally arriving at her mouth.
“What kind of kiss do you call that?” Elizabeth asked when she’d caught her breath.
“A connect-the-dots kiss,” he breathed.
“Mmm, nice.”
“This is a shut-up-and-enjoy-it kiss,” he continued, brushing his lips against hers.
Gotta love a guy who not only names his kisses but narrates them in the middle of all this action! Give me a moment to fan myself off! As a twelve year old, I found these scenes absolutely titillating.
Eventually, Liz and Todd get their lips off each other and stroll back to school. Jess meets them and is all happy because the teacher who’d proctored her test said he could see how sick she’d been during the test and is letting her retake it! Everything is working out for her, the way it always does!
Saturday arrives. The gang heads to the beach to watch Bill Chase in the regional surf competition. Todd mentions that Bill is surfing on Todd’s old board, which he’d sold to Bill in order to afford to buy his new Yamaha motorbike! Liz feels funny about this but doesn’t say anything. Bill and Sonny are the two frontrunners in the surf competition. The results are announce and Bill is the winner!! Someone pours a beer over his head while Winston puts a crown of seaweed around Bill’s head. Sonny heads off to argue with the judges about the results. Cara asks where Jess was, since she’d missed the competition, and Liz says she’s home sick. Turns out Jess has a raging case of poison oak from running around in the woods with Scott!
The gang has a bonfire at the beach in celebration. Liz snuggles up to Todd after eating two hot dogs, a big serving of potato salad, and multiple root beers. This from the girl who claimed to stay thin due to her healthy diet while silently judging Robin Wilson for being big because she liked to eat. What a hypocrite.
Notes:
Time elapsed in this book: 1 week. So we’re still in February as far as the timeline goes.
Jessica’s love interests: Scott Daniels
We find out in here that the Oracle office is on the second floor of the school.
This is the first book in the series to not feature a school dance. It’s possible to go a week at SVH without a dance?!? Who knew?!? There’s technically no SVH-specific party either, although there is the college party Jess goes to and a bonfire that essentially functions the same as a party, just without a host.
Entertainment factor: 8/10