Time elapsed in this book: 3 weeks
Length of their junior year: 1 year, 6 months, 3 weeks
Jessica’s love interest: None. Jess has a surprisingly minor role in this book.
Entertainment rating: 5/10
The cover of this book marks a momentous occasion: this is the first cover showcasing a shoulder pat given by Elizabeth! The shoulder pat will return with alarming regularity. As will the storyline of someone who doesn’t know Liz well suddenly feeling close enough to confide in her so Liz can use the Wakefield magic to help solve the problem. This is a mediocre SVH book (as they usually are when the main character is not one of the twins) but it does feature a stepmom named Karen who’s such a Karen that she even named her daughter Karrie. Sweet Valley High was wayyy ahead of its time with the Karen reference! Who knows, maybe this is where it really started?!
We open in the SVH cafeteria, where Liz and Jess are discussing how excited they are about their grandparents coming to visit for 3 weeks. Liz gets distracted by a conversation at the next table between Emily Mayer, the drummer for the Droids, and Dana Larson, the lead singer. Dana thinks Emily’s new baby sister, Karrie, must be a lot of fun. Emily pointedly says it’s her stepsister, not real sister (in reality, it’s her half-sister, so both of them are wrong). Dana asks Liz if she thinks it’d be fun to play with a baby all day, and Liz says it sounds like fun but also a lot of work. Emily is grateful for Liz’s comment and says the main problem isn’t the baby, it’s her stepmom. Dana is surprised and says that Karen, Emily’s stepmom, is always so nice. Emily fumes about this and says she is not nice and that she’s not going to let her stepmom drive her out of Sweet Valley!
After school, Liz goes to do some work on The Oracle with Mr. Collins. He asks if she can give a potential new reporter a tour (of what, the office?) while he takes care of something else. Liz agrees and is shocked when the potential new reporter is Emily Mayer! Liz didn’t think Emily was much of a writer. Emily says she’s not but that her stepmom hates her drumming and thinks journalism is a more intellectual pursuit. Emily says her stepmom wants to send her off to boarding school so joining The Oracle might be her last chance to stay in Sweet Valley!
The Wakefield grandparents arrive from Michigan and the family is thrilled to have them around. Grandma Wakefield has gone back to school and is the oldest PhD student in the American history program at the University of Michigan. I’m not sure what Grandpa Wakefield has been up to except for eating a lot of fast food and Chinese food while his wife’s in school and not cooking for him. They eat dinner and play some cards, and then Mrs. Wakefield starts worrying about whether the kids are enjoying the time with their grandparents so much because she’s been neglecting her role as a mother. To be fair, she is a terrible parent at times, but this isn’t one of those times (unless you count the fact that she’s getting jealous of them having fun with their grandparents, in which case she is being a terrible parent).
Meanwhile, at the Mayer house, Emily’s dad says that Karen thinks it’d be a good idea to give Emily a curfew so he sets one for her. The new curfew means she won’t be able to practice with the Droids during the week. Her dad tells her the decision is final. Emily doesn’t know what happened to the dad she used to be so close to or why he now just does whatever Karen wants. Dan Scott, the bassist for the Droids, calls Emily later and asks why she missed that day’s Droids practice. She can’t believe she forgot about it! He says he covered for her and that if she wants to work on the new song with him, maybe they can get together on Friday. Emily agrees. After they hang up, Karen comes in and asks why Emily’s friends are calling so late and tells her they shouldn’t call anymore because the phone might wake up the baby. Then Karen tells her that she and Emily’s dad are going out to the theater on Friday night so Emily needs to watch Karrie. Emily says she has plans, but Karen says she needs to change them because they already bought the tickets and they were expensive.
At school, Emily tells Liz she can’t seem to figure out how to write an article. Liz thinks that Emily is not a journalist and that music is where she belongs, but she doesn’t say anything because she thinks Emily needs to figure it out for herself.
That night, the Wakefield grandparents plan to take the twins out for Chinese food. The twins think their parents will be happy to have a night by themselves but Mrs. Wakefield comes home early with steaks in hand and says she canceled on a client so she could spend the evening with the family! She’s crushed to find out the twins already have dinner plans with their grandparents. Jess suggests they make the steaks the next night. Mrs. Wakefield suggests that she and Ned join them going out for dinner that night, but Jess points out that Mr. Wakefield “doesn’t like Chinese food” and “says it makes him sick.” This is a little different from him previously claiming to be “allergic” to Chinese food, but I’m impressed with the consistency nonetheless. The twins head out with their grandparents and Mrs. Wakefield stays home, looking crushed.
At the Mayer house, Emily is excited to play her new cymbals! She’s allowed to play her drums between 4-6pm because Karrie never sleeps then, so Emily gets them set up and started playing away. Then Karen appears and yells at her for disturbing Karrie’s sleep, claiming that Emily never follows rules. Emily tries to point out that this is the time they agreed she could play drums, but Karen doesn’t want to hear it and warns Emily there will be consequences if she does it again. Dan calls and asks about her new cymbals. Emily invites him over the next day after school, when Karen and Karrie will be at a doctor’s appointment. Emily starts to worry she won’t be able to stay in the Droids since she has to miss practice again that night.
The next day, Emily shows Dan her new cymbals and starts playing her drums for him. In the middle of their jam session, Karen appears with Karrie and starts yelling at Emily about having a boy over. She says she knows that Emily’s mom didn’t used to care about curfews or anything else before she walked out on Emily and her dad, but that Karen will not let Emily follow in her mom’s footsteps because she doesn’t want her baby growing up in the same house with “a tramp.” Emily is mortified. Not just because her stepmom called her a tramp but because Emily had told everyone her mom died, too embarrassed to admit that her mom just abandoned them. She can’t believe Karen exposed that lie in front of Dan!
Emily doesn’t know who to turn to so she calls Liz, who’d offered to be there for Emily anytime. Liz invites her over and Emily ends up confiding in the entire Wakefield family. They say she can spend the night but that she needs to call her dad to tell him where she is. She calls him and he says that Karen told him Emily had been uncooperative. He tells Emily that if she isn’t home in one hour, he will put her drum set out on the street. Then he hangs up so she can’t argue anymore. What an awful parent.
At school the next day, Dan seeks out Emily to see how she’s doing. Emily tries to act like nothing happened and says her stepmom shouldn’t have said anything and that she feels bad about it. She then tells Dan she’s quitting the Droids because she needs to be home to help her family and watch the baby. Dan is shocked. Emily then seeks out Liz and says she wants to run an ad in The Oracle to sell her drum set. Liz is shocked. Liz runs into Dan later and asks how he’s doing. Dan is so confused about what’s going on with Emily and why she quit the Droids. Liz tells him about Emily wanting to sell her drums. Dan says that Liz should run the ad and that maybe someone with her best interests at heart will buy the drums.
Dan calls Emily after the ad for the drums runs and says his friend wants to buy them. Emily can’t believe that Dan isn’t trying to talk her out of selling them but goes ahead and closes the deal. Dan pays her $200. What a steal! That evening, her dad says he appreciates her trying to be more cooperative and asks if the Droids can practice earlier to accommodate her new curfew. Emily informs him that she quit the Droids and sold her drums. Her dad says that being a martyr isn’t going to help matters. I hate him so much.
The Wakefield grandparents plan to take the twins on a hot air balloon ride. Mrs. Wakefield gets distraught and tells her husband that she can’t compete with this! He reminds her that his parents are leaving soon and that the kids are just happy to spend time with them while they’re in town.
After the hot air ballooning, the twins come home in great spirits but notice that their mom isn’t happy. Mr. Wakefield tells them that she’s been feeling down and like she isn’t needed anymore. The twins decide to cheer her up by telling her they want to plan a party for their grandparents before they leave but need her help organizing it all. Mrs. Wakefield perks up and is happy to be needed again! This has to be one of the dumbest subplots in the series.
Thursday night, Karen tells Emily that she’s going to go to her parents’ house and that Emily needs to watch Karrie until she gets back. It’s weird that she isn’t planning to bring Karrie along, since I assume they would have been thrilled to see their granddaughter, but whatever. Karen gives Karrie a new rag doll to play with. Emily points out that the doll doesn’t seem age-appropriate, especially since there are loose beads for the eyes. Karen gets annoyed with Emily for trying to take away Karrie’s doll. Almost immediately, Karrie pops one of the beads into her mouth and starts to choke. Karen starts to freak out. Emily slaps Karen across the face to calm her down and snatches Karrie out of Karen’s arms. Emily knows what to do, thanks to a class she took over the summer, and does the Heimlich maneuver until the bead pops out and Karrie starts to breathe and scream again. Karen screams for Emily to give Karrie to her and grabs hold of Karrie protectively. Just then, Mr. Mayer comes home. He sees the commotion and how Karen is crying and asks Emily what she did. Emily says she didn’t do anything, but Karen doesn’t leap to her defense, so Mr. Mayer immediately assumes that Emily hurt Karrie in some way. He tells her to get out.
Emily doesn’t know what to do or where to go. She eventually calls Liz and asks if she can stay with her for a night before she goes to Chicago and tries to find her mom. She says she can use the money Dan gave her for bus fare and then once she finds her mom, her mom can take care of her. Liz sees problems with this, including the fact that Emily’s mom doesn’t seem to want to be in Emily’s life, but she doesn’t say anything. The Wakefield parents are fine with Emily staying there but want Emily’s dad to know where she is, so Liz calls him to let him know Emily’s safe.
Emily calls the number she had for her mom from when they last talked four years ago. The line is still in service, but someone who isn’t Emily’s mom picks up and says that her mom got married and moved to Mexico. Emily is shocked that her mom didn’t even bother letting her know about this development! While she sits in shock, Grandma Wakefield comes in and tells Emily a story about how when she first met Grandpa Wakefield, he was widowed with a son named Louis. After they got married and she had Ned, Grandma Wakefield didn’t always do the right thing for Louis because Louis didn’t want a stepmom or a little brother. But eventually they all figured it out and now everyone gets along!
Mr. Mayer and Karen show up at the Wakefield house. Karen says she needs to apologize to Emily in front of everyone because if it hadn’t been for her, Karrie would have died! Karen says she’d been so threatened and intimidated by how capable Emily is and that’s why she implemented a curfew and started threatening her with boarding school. Emily is thrilled they’ve all made up and thinks they’re going to be a happy blended family just like Grandma and Grandpa Wakefield were with Louis and Ned! I’m appalled that Mr. Mayer didn’t offer any sort of apology for the way he’s treated Emily because he’s been just as bad, if not worse! Zero forgiveness for him from me.
The Wakefields host a goodbye party for the grandparents, and the Mayers show up too. The Droids play, and Emily can’t believe that her drum set is there! Dan actually bought it for her so she wouldn’t lose it! She has a feeling that she and Dan will “make some pretty special music together.” They play a great set, and even Karen claps along to the music.
Next up: Are rumors true that Regina is back in town?!?