Sweet Valley High #59: In Love Again

Time elapsed in this book: 3 weeks

Length of their junior year: 3 years, 8 months, 3 weeks

Jessica’s love interest: Lovett Academy

Entertainment rating: 8/10

It’s the second part of Todd’s return to Sweet Valley! I love this cover (and this book), although I have two complaints: first, Liz’s hand on top of Todd’s makes her look uncomfortable, as if he’s being overly possessive and she’s trying to push him away (Todd, possessive? Never!). Second, Todd’s eyes on the cover are blue. They are NOT blue!! He has coffee brown eyes, as we’ve been told repeatedly! Who is this imposter???

Those quibbles aside, Todd and Liz are back together! The only problem is that he now goes to Lovett Academy instead of Sweet Valley High, so they don’t see each other every day. Jess is tired of everyone talking about Liz and Todd and decides she needs to change the narrative to focus on her, so she tells everyone that she’s going to take the entrance exam and transfer to Lovett Academy for its better curriculum and hotter boys. Her friends and parents are skeptical, but Jess will not be dissuaded.

Liz goes to an Oracle meeting and sees Jeffrey, who she forgot would be there. She feels awkward. Don’t worry, Liz, all of Sweet Valley is soon going to forget Jeffrey even exists. Olivia mentions in passing that Liz got chided in math class for not doing her homework, and Liz is mortified for Jeffrey to hear this. She didn’t do her homework because she was too busy watching a movie with Todd the night before. Liz excuses herself from the meeting early to meet with Todd, and she’s embarrassed Jeffrey sees her do this too.

Todd takes Liz to Secca Lake for a picnic. When he kisses her, Liz decides leaving the meeting early was worth it. Todd says he forgot about his basketball practice that afternoon but he’d rather be with Liz anyway. Liz understands but worries that they’ll need to spend more time apart soon.

At the end of the week, Penny catches up with Liz and says she’s worried about her, since Liz’s last column for the Oracle had a bunch of typos. Liz is embarrassed and tells Penny things will be better. She meets up with Todd that night and tells him about this. Todd tells her that he’s missed three basketball practices and the coach said he’s off the team if he misses another. Liz says that during the week, she sometimes feels like Todd is still in Vermont.

Courtney Kane, the resident bad girl at Lovett Academy who we met in the last book, sees Todd with Liz and starts seething because she wants him (my inner 12 year old relates). She goes home and hears her dad talk about an upcoming event called Battle of the Schools, where ten local high schools will compete against each other for school pride and to be in a commercial for Kidd, a new tennis shoe. Courtney can’t wait to beat Sweet Valley High and show them up!

On Monday, SVH holds an assembly to announce the Battle of the Schools. SVH will be competing against schools like Big Mesa, Palisades High, Crestville Academy (who?), and… Lovett Academy! Liz can’t bear the thought of competing against Todd. Jess is torn about which school she should root for and says it’s not fair for her to even compete since she’s planning to transfer to Lovett.

That weekend, Liz goes to a party at the country club to meet some of Todd’s new Lovett Academy friends. Courtney’s date, Campbell Rochester, is overly flirty with Liz and makes her uncomfortable. Finally, Liz spots someone she knows: Ben Orson, a sophomore at Sweet Valley High who’s submitted some articles to the paper. Apparently Ben works as a caddy. Some of the Lovett Academy students snicker about Liz associating with the help.

SVH teams are assigned for the Battle of the Schools. Liz is on the relay team with Robin Wilson, Ken Matthews… and Jeffrey French. Todd is on the relay team for Lovett so they’ll be in direct competition with each other! Liz invites Todd to watch the SVH relay team practice, since she figures he’ll want to see some of his old friends, but once he’s there, she wishes he weren’t since it’s so awkward having him and Jeffrey together. I assumed a relay team meant they’d be running, but apparently they’re doing stuff like a three legged race (Robin and Jeffrey), an egg race (Ken) and rope climbing (Liz). What kind of relay is this?!? Before they start practicing as a team, Ken asks Todd to leave since they don’t want him getting info about how they’re doing their race. After Todd leaves, Ken tells Liz she better not be a traitor, and Jeffrey defends Liz, saying she’s as loyal as they come. Aww. Poor Jeffrey.

That night, Todd tells Liz it’s weird competing against each other and asks her to drop out. Liz can’t believe it and asks if he’s joking. Todd admits he was joking but that he didn’t like her tone when she responded because would it be such a big deal if he were serious? Yes. Yes, it would. Get a grip, Todd, it’s only a friendly competition.

Todd’s late to meet Liz after school on Tuesday, so she’s angry when he finally arrives. Todd says practice took longer than he expected and he didn’t have a way to tell her. Ahh, the days before cell phones. He then starts talking about Lovett and his new friends and how much pressure he’s under, but Liz doesn’t want to hear it. She tells him he seems to like Lovett too much and that he’s got a mansion and a bunch of fancy things, so she doesn’t feel a bit sorry for him. Todd says he’s tired of her judging him and that all he ever does is disappoint her. They break up.

Courtney talks to her dad, who’s one of the judges at the Battle of the Schools, and asks him to crown Lovett Academy the winner. He refuses to cheat, so Courtney decides she needs to take matters into her own hands!

The elimination round of the competition knocks out everyone except Lovett Academy and Sweet Valley High. Who could have guessed?!? Those schools will face off again that weekend.

Friday afternoon, Jess goes to Lovett for an interview. She meets with Mrs. Henry and walks around campus. The place feels very formal and quiet, and Jess misses Sweet Valley High… until a hot guy comes into her view, at which point she’s on board with the Lovett plan once again. The interview is okay. Jess runs into Todd on her way off campus and he asks about Liz. Jess says Liz is doing just fine, then runs home to tell Liz that Todd clearly misses her!

Courtney tells her friend Dominique Roy that she got a copy of the College Bowl trivia questions. They plan to hide behind a curtain and tug on it once or twice depending on whether the answer is true or false. This propels Lovett to victory in the College Bowl. Jess notices the curtain twitching and sees Courtney. Jess knows they’re cheating.

Courtney’s asked to help set up the ropes for the rope climb. The guy specifically tells her not to use the rope at the back of the shed since it’s rotten, so of course this is the rope that Courtney grabs for Sweet Valley High to use. Why do they even still have this rope?!?

The crowd goes wild as Liz starts her climb. Jess screams for her sister, eager for Sweet Valley to beat Lovett now that she knows they’re cheaters. Then she notices that the rope is getting thinner and thinner. The rope breaks! Liz tumbles to the ground! Todd drops down from his own rope and races over to take Liz in his arms. Coach Schultz wonders how the rotted rope got up there. Courtney asks her dad to pick a winner and he tells her not now.

Once the crowd realizes that Liz is okay, Bruce suggests they do a tug of war for the final activity. Everyone agrees to this, and Jess volunteers to sub in for Liz, who obviously isn’t up for it. Todd says he’s not leaving Liz’s side so someone needs to cover his spot as well for Lovett. Courtney is pissed at Todd. She complains that Sweet Valley shouldn’t be given another chance to win this. Jess overhears this and tells Courtney to shut up or else she’ll tell her dad about the curtain trick.

The tug of war begins! It’s a close race and everyone’s on edge. Then Todd stands up and shouts, “GO SWEET VALLEY HIGH!” This is all they need to pull the rope harder and win! For some reason, I vividly remember this scene from childhood!

Courtney can’t believe Todd is such a traitor. Todd says that he’s going to talk to his parents because he wants to transfer back to Sweet Valley High. Courtney says she hopes he’s happy there. When Todd says he will be, Courtney feels sick. Courtney then seeks out Jess and tells her to not bother applying for Lovett because she’s going to make sure Jess doesn’t get in. Jess says she isn’t going to apply because she prefers to be on the winning team.

Up next: Is something going on between Amy and Ken?