Time elapsed in this book: 2 weeks
Length of their junior year: 1 year, 10 months, 2 weeks
Jessica’s love interest: None. She’s too busy scheming.
Entertainment rating: 5/10
Another book about secondary characters. The main plot is about Sandra Bacon and Jean West. The subplot is about Steven. Why were neither of the plots about one of the twins?!? Steven is the worst. I don’t think I realized how awful he was as a kid, although I do remember always being bored by his plots. But he’s just so needy and grating. The bright side of this book is that it does include some excellent scheming, a school dance, and not just one but TWO parties!
Cover: Sandy totally looks like she’s a member of the Pink Ladies in Grease. Jean is looking classy and unsure, her hand on Sandy’s shoulder. I can’t believe Jean stole Liz’s patented “sympathy shoulder pat” move! I also can’t believe a cover would feature a shoulder pat by someone other than Liz!! I am offended on Liz’s behalf!
We open at the Wakefield house, where we find out that Steven’s coming home for a full week. Is it a school break or something? Unclear. We’re just told he’ll be home for a week and Mrs. Wakefield wants the twins to help make his visit home really special. As if he isn’t in college in the same city and doesn’t come home all the time already. He’s at their house in probably half these books! The ghostwriter informs us that he’s been so busy with his studies, the twins hadn’t seen much of him lately, and I definitely call BS because not only is he around all the time but he also never seems particularly focused on his studies. This book is a prime example of that!
Jess and Liz head to Lila’s house for a Pi Beta Alpha meeting where they’re nominating new members. Jess nominates Amy Sutton. Sandra Bacon is there and feels nervous because everyone expects her to nominate her best friend, Jean West. Jean was too busy to go through pledge season last time, and Sandra likes the fact that Pi Beta is her thing. She always feels like she’s in the shadow of perfect Jean. Unfortunately, Jean wants to be nominated now and Sandra doesn’t want to let her down. Sandra nominates her.
Monday morning, Jean and Sandra practice their water ballet routines in the school pool (…what??) and Jean presses Sandra for info about how the meeting went and what to expect. I need more information about what water ballet they’re doing and why, but no more details are provided. Sandra says Jean will have to perform some tasks, like getting a certain boy as her date to a party, and that if she fails on any assignment, she’s out. Sandra looks at how sleek and elegant Jean looks in her swimsuit and thinks that Jean won’t have a problem with anything because she’s so perfect!
At lunch, Winston mentions that Tom McKay had thought Jean was rude to him that morning. That gives Sandra an idea: she should have Jean invite Tom to the upcoming PBA party as her date! He’s sure to turn her down, which would mean Jean couldn’t join PBA! She hurries to tell Lila this, pitching it as Jean loves a challenge and that Tom would never turn Jean down. Lila is unconvinced but says Sandra knows Jean better so okay. We get this lovely description of Tom:
Tom was one of the best-looking boys in the junior class. Blond and clean-cut, he was on the tennis team. He was also a whiz at science and loved any kind of outdoor activity, biking, camping, boating. He was exactly the kind of guy most girls dreamed about, but he seldom dated. The last girl he’d gone with was Jessica Wakefield, and a few people joked that she had turned him off the female sex forever…
This is some amazing, albeit unplanned, foreshadowing. No spoilers from me for those who haven’t read it yet, but I’m looking at you, book #75!
When Sandra tells Jean she needs to land Tom as her date to Cara’s party, Jean is aghast. She doesn’t think she can succeed. Sandra tells Jean that she can’t help because some of the members already think she’s unbiased about Jean since they’re best friends. Jean thanks Sandra for helping as much as she can. Sandra feels a little bad for these lies. Lila comes over to join them and says Tom is playing tennis against Bruce after school. Lila suggests that the three of them watch the match and that afterward, Jean talk to Tom about tennis and then let the conversation continue until she lands a date. They do this, and it works! Tom says he’ll go to Cara’s party with Jean! Sandra is devastated that her half-baked plan didn’t succeed.
Later, Jean tells Sandra that she’s talked to Tom on the phone since the tennis match and that it’s been a lot of fun. Jean might actually even like him! Sandra decides she needs to take matters into her own hands.
Steven comes home and announces to his family that he plans to drop out of college! So much for being busy with his studies. His roommate, Bob, is dropping out to work on his dad’s ocean liner and travel the world. Steven has decided to join! He’s not clear what job he’ll have on board and thinks maybe a waiter or something. He says he’s going back to school next week, then signing the contract the week after. The family is appalled. Mr. Wakefield says, “That reminds me of a joke I heard the other day. One guy says, ‘My daughter went around the world this summer.’ And the other guy says, ‘Oh really? Where’s she going next summer?'”
What is he talking about? On a scale of 1-10, I’d give that “joke” a -2. No one else in the family is impressed by it either. Mrs. Wakefield tells him it’s not a joking matter. I have to assume she’s as embarrassed by his attempt at a joke as I am.
Steven admits that Cara doesn’t love the idea of him dropping out and leaving, but he’s made up his mind so he expects their support! He leaves, and the family discusses what a bad idea it is. Liz suggests that they employ reverse psychology on him and pretend to be super supportive, which might change his mind. Everyone thinks it’s a great idea. I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that this family employs this technique with alarming regularity throughout the series, or the fact that I read this as a kid thinking this was a cool idea. They call Cara and she agrees to participate in this charade.
Sandra goes to the Tennis Shop, where Tom works, and casually drops into conversation that there’s a PBA party on Saturday and that all pledges were tasked with bringing a specific date. Tom realizes that he was Jean’s assigned date. Sandra can’t believe she actually told him this but she thinks it’s for the best because she needs to keep Jean out of PBA. Tom is upset because he’d actually been falling for Jean; now that he knows this info, he decides he’ll stand her up.
Liz asks Steven if she can have his word processor when he leaves. Steven is annoyed because it’s new, but Liz points out that he won’t have room on the cruise ship. Steven says he can’t believe she’s being supportive and tells her that at least Cara will miss him. He bets Cara will be begging him to stay at the party that night. Clearly Steven doesn’t actually care about this cruise ship and just wants everyone to beg him to stick around. He is the worst.
Jean is waiting for Tom to pick her up for the party. Time ticks by, and she gets nervous. Finally Tom calls, almost two hours after he was supposed to be there, and says sorry, he fell asleep but will be over soon. Jean is relieved and lets PBA know she’ll be there soon. Tom calls about an hour later and tells her he’s at the ER with food poisoning and won’t make it. Jean offers to keep him company but he says she should go to the party without him. Jean does. She’s the only pledge who didn’t arrive with the required date, but she explains that Tom is sick, so it’s not her fault he wasn’t at the party with her. Sandra says that maybe Tom is lying and that they should call the hospital to confirm his excuse.
The hospital says there’s no McKay there. Jean can’t believe Tom lied to her, and she can’t believe Sandra pointed it out to everyone. Cara says she’s sure they can come up with another pledge for Jean to do to make up for this one, and Jean suggests she could act like she believed Tom’s excuse and fawn all over him, invite him as her date to the dance the next weekend, and then when she’s supposed to call out the name of her partner for the first dance (it will be her birthday so she’s leading off the dance), she call someone else’s name, thereby humiliating him! Jess, Lila, and Cara love it. Sandra says it isn’t fair; Jean already had a chance to do a task and failed so she shouldn’t get another chance. Jean is furious with Sandra and doesn’t understand what’s going on. The rest of the members say they’re fine with this alternate task idea and that Jean and Sandra should work out their issues on their own. Jean is so mad she doesn’t want to talk to Sandra.
Steven talks to Cara and can’t believe that she’s now acting supportive of his decision to leave college. She says it’s probably for the best, since they’d eventually break up anyway and that this will just mean they can have a clean break and each become more independent. Steven can’t believe she wants to break up! Apparently he expected her to pine after him at home while he travels the world for a year. Cara says she doesn’t want to break up but a long-distance relationship like that won’t work, so she’s being realistic. Steven storms out of the party. He is such a drama queen. I really hate him.
Jean goes over to check on Tom the next day. As expected, he looks fine. She is so caring that Tom wonders if he misjudged her.
Sandra finds Jean at school and apologizes, saying she only said what she did at the party because others think she’s biased and that Sandra didn’t want anyone to accuse her of playing favorites. Jean forgives her, and Sandra thinks that Jean is a better person than she is. She’s not wrong.
Tom plans a picnic with Jean in front of the school and then invites her out to an amusement park. They ride the Ferris Wheel. She tells him she’s scared, but he knows the view is going to be amazing. When they get to the top, she agrees. It’s magical! Next thing you know, they’re kissing!!
Jean realizes that she’s actually fallen for Tom and doesn’t want to embarrass him in front of the school. She confesses this to Sandra and tells her that she thinks she’d rather date Tom than join PBA. Jean says the only reason she wanted to join PBA was to spend more time with Sandra. When Sandra hears this, she feels terrible.
Jean and Tom hang out, and Tom confesses he didn’t really have food poisoning the night of Cara’s party. Jean confesses that she’d only invited him as a PBA pledge, which she feels bad about but is now grateful for since it brought them together. Tom says he knows and explains that Sandra filled him in. Jean can’t believe it! Her best friend sabotaged her! She starts to cry and decides that Sandra must have her reasons and will tell her when she’s ready.
Friday night is Jean’s birthday and the Friday the 13th Dance at school. Tom shows up looking super hot and gives Jean six roses and a kiss on the tip of her nose. There are sure a lot of kisses on the nose in these books. Fun fact: they only made 12-year-old me swoon when they were from Todd. Tom tells Jean that he’s the luckiest guy in the world to go to the dance with her.
At the dance, it’s announced that Dana Larson and Jean will kick off the dancing by choosing their partners, since they were both born that day. Dana chooses her boyfriend, Jerry Novak, and Jean chooses…. Tom!!! The PBAs are SHOCKED! Lila is disgusted by Jean’s inability to complete a pledge and says she’s now failed two so she is OUT! Guilt finally catches up to Sandra, who confesses that she’s the one who sabotaged Jean and that Jean deserves to be in PBA, not her! Jean shows up in time to hear Sandra’s confession. They both start crying and hugging each other. The PBAs decide to admit Jean and keep Sandra as a member too.
Saturday night, the Wakefields host a surprise going away party for Steven. He tells them that he’s decided not to go, so they turn around the banner so it no longer says Bon Voyage and now says Welcome Home! Steven can’t believe they were messing with him all along but says he should have known the twins were behind it.
The doorbell rings and it’s Aaron Dallas! He says sorry he’s late (why on earth do any of the twins’ friends care enough about Steven to attend this party? Is it just because it’s a party and therefore they have to attend??). He also brought a friend: Jeffrey French, a hottie Aaron knows from soccer camp last summer and has now moved to Sweet Valley.
Coming up next: Enid and Lila fight over Jeffrey! Who will win??