Time elapsed in this book: Two weeks
Length of their junior year: 2 years
Jessica’s love interest: David Campbell
Entertainment rating: 5/10
It’s time for another Super Edition! I didn’t remember much about this one, aside from a long dream sequence near the end, but when I reread it, I realized why: this is a dud. The bulk of it is Liz feeling sorry for herself and wallowing in her own misery, which was tiring. However, this book does feature the (temporary) return of Todd and a little bit of Jessica’s scheming, which helps perk this up a bit.
The cover: I have no idea what’s going on with Liz’s hair. She looks like she’s awkwardly trying to pose for a catalogue selling ice skates. Jess, on the other hand, is gorgeous. It’s a nice looking cover and definitely different due to it featuring snow, but it doesn’t wow me. Probably because the book also didn’t wow me.
It’s almost winter break (again) in Sweet Valley, and Liz is wondering about two things: when she and Enid will hear back about whether they’ll be contestants on a new trivia game show they applied for, and when she’ll hear back about an essay contest she entered, even though her heart wasn’t into writing it. She wants some excitement in her life.
Jess comes home and announces that she and Amy just found out that they’re going to be the contestants on the trivia game show! Liz can’t believe Jess even applied, and Jess says that yeah, after hearing Liz talk about it, they decided to enter too and even helped themselves to a few of Liz’s trivia answers to bolster their application. Liz is devastated.
The next day at school, Liz tells Enid that Jess and Amy won the trivia slot. Enid doesn’t seem as upset but is preoccupied by her role as co-chair of the Winter Carnival dance committee. The Winter Carnival is happening in two weeks at Mount Blanc, which is about 90 minutes away from Sweet Valley. SVH juniors, seniors, and alumni are invited to go there for the weekend to enjoy the festivities. Enid says that the carnival’s opening party will be Friday night at seven. Liz realizes she can’t go! Todd called the night before to say he’ll be in town for both the winter carnival and to go to a banquet honoring him as part of a “big brothers” program. Apparently Todd mentored an underprivileged sixth grader named Timothy who won a scholarship to basketball camp. He invited Liz to go to the banquet with him, and that’s now going to be the same Friday night! Liz hasn’t told Jeffrey about the banquet yet because he was already a bit upset when she mentioned that Todd would be at the carnival, so she was waiting for a better time.
That afternoon, Mr. Collins tells Liz that the results from the Young Writers’ Society essay contest have come back and Liz got an honorable mention! Instead of feeling proud, Liz is miserable because she didn’t win. She acknowledges that she wasn’t fully happy with the essay she submitted, but she still feels like a loser. Mr. Collins notes that more than 200 students entered the contest. He thought she’d be happy with the news. It’s hard to feel bad for Liz when she’s upset because she for once doesn’t win something.
At dinner that night, Jess announces that the cheerleading squad has been nominated for All-State! Everyone but Liz is excited for her. Liz tells her family that she lost the essay contest she entered. They say all the right things to make her feel better, and then Liz mentions she got an honorable mention. Everyone’s confused because they thought she lost and an honorable mention is quite good! Liz says they don’t understand; an honorable mention is the worst you could do because it’s after third place. She’s insufferable.
The next day, Liz is still feeling down but she is glad she at least has dinner with Jeffrey to look forward to. She gets home after school and discovers that Jess is out studying trivia with Amy. Jess left Liz a note, asking Liz to make dinner for the family that night. Liz throws another pity party for herself. She cancels plans with Jeffrey because she doesn’t want her parents to come home to no dinner. Jeffrey asks the question we’re all wondering: why is covering for Jess Liz’s responsibility? Liz tells him he doesn’t understand and that she’ll see him at school the next day. Jeffrey thinks she’s making a mistake, but Liz won’t hear it.
At school, Jess and Amy tell everyone they’re practicing for the trivia contest. Winston tries grilling them with some trivia questions, and they don’t know any of the answers. Jess is worried but figures that she’s starting to date David Campbell, one of the boys from Westwood High that they’ll be playing against, so he’ll hopefully let her win during the real contest.
That night, Liz tells Jess some convoluted story about how Mr. Collins is away for the weekend and Mr. Collins’s sister is in town to babysit Teddy, but his sister doesn’t drive so Liz needs to pick up Teddy from a friend’s house after a birthday party and drive him home. She’s expecting a call from the friend’s dad letting her know when the party will end. How was this not specified in advance?? I imagine other parents need to know when to pick up their kids too. Liz tells Jess that she’s going out with Jeffrey so can Jess please take down the message of what time the party will end? Jess says sure.
Jess answers the phone call and writes down the message for Liz to pick up Teddy at 6:30pm. She then accidentally puts the note in her purse when she heads out on a date with David. At the end of the date, when David drops her off at home, Jess tells him how much winning the trivia contest would mean to her and Amy. David asks if she really expects him to let her win, because he’s not going to do that. Jess is pissed and decides he’s a jerk. I love how quickly her attitude toward him changes!
Jess goes inside, and Liz is furious with her. Liz says that since she never got the message with what time to pick up Teddy, she eventually called to ask what time it would end and the friend’s dad was driving Teddy home himself. Seems like that would have been the simplest solution to begin with, but for some reasons, this must be overly complicated so Liz can be more upset.
The next day, while Liz is at the beach with Jeffrey and other friends, Todd calls. Jessica answers and takes a message from him that he knows the carnival starts on Friday so if she wants to skip the banquet in favor of the carnival, he understands. We get a brief nod to continuity when Jess remembers that Todd had “supposedly fallen in love with Suzanne Devlin” and that his relationship with Liz cooled off due to “separation.” We do not get an update on what’s currently going on with him and Suzanne Devlin (apparently nothing, since her name is not mentioned again) or how it’s possible that he fell in love with Suzanne during another winter break that somehow also took place during their junior year. I’m trying to make sense of the nonsensical. Anyway, Jess is determined to get this message to Liz and not mess things up again, so she immediately heads to the beach to relay Todd’s message to Liz. However, Liz has still not told Jeffrey about her plan to go to this banquet with Todd, so Liz is embarrassed when Jessica announces that Todd called to talk about their dinner on Friday. Jeffrey doesn’t know what dinner she’s talking about and can’t believe that he had to find out this on accident. They fight.
The next day, while Jess and Liz get ready to go to Secca Lake for a picnic, Liz tells Jess how unreasonable Jeffrey was being. Jess says that a bit of insecurity never hurt anyone, and Liz should keep Jeffrey on edge about this to make sure he doesn’t take her for granted. Terrible advice, but I love it. Jess has good intentions! Also hilarious: Jess says that David is joining them for the picnic. She’s decided he isn’t a complete jerk, plus he’s “kind of cute.” What an endorsement!
At the lake, Jeffrey approaches Liz about their fight and tries to apologize. Following Jess’s advice, Liz acts indifferent and tells him that it’s true, she and Todd did share a lot together and that she does still care about him. Jeffrey is distraught, but Liz gives another breezy response so he storms off. Liz thinks that maybe she’s making this into a bigger mess by following Jessica’s advice. You think?!?
A few days later, Jeffrey seeks out Liz and says he’s been feeling awful about their fight. Liz says she has too. She explains that the dinner with Todd is really just an awards banquet. Jeffrey asks why she didn’t tell him earlier. Things seem to be looking up until Jeffrey asks if Liz will go to the opening party of the carnival with him. Liz says she doesn’t know since she might go to dinner with Todd that night and it’d mean a lot to Todd to have her there. Jeffrey says that Liz is his girlfriend and that it’s not reasonable for her to break plans with him to go out with her ex-boyfriend. Valid point in my eyes, but Liz doesn’t agree with me and gets mad. She tells him that Todd is way better company than he is and storms off. I do not remember Liz and Jeffrey having these kind of ridiculous fights.
Jess and Amy do their trivia bowl. The final question is how many fluid cups are in a gallon. I remember reading this as a kid and counting it up and being thrilled that I knew the answer!! David and his partner think it’s 24. But Jess and Amy say 16 for the win!!! Even David congratulates them on their win, and they all head out to celebrate.
Liz is furious that Jess doesn’t come home immediately after the trivia bowl like she said she would, because Liz needs the car to go meet Jeffrey and apologize! He’d left her a note saying where he’d be at 6:30 and that if she doesn’t show up to talk with him, he’ll assume the worst. Thanks to Jess not coming home, Liz has no means of transportation; a taxi is too expensive. When Jess finally comes home, Liz chews her out for being so thoughtless and says she can’t trust her anymore.
Jess decides to help fix Liz’s problems by talking to Todd herself and telling him the issues that his banquet is causing in Liz’s relationship. Todd didn’t realize that his invite was causing trouble between Liz and Jeffrey and says he doesn’t want to be the cause of that. He calls up Liz later and says that he knows the carnival is a big event and that she should go to that instead of the banquet. Liz can’t believe what she’s hearing. How dare Todd uninvite her?! She doesn’t understand how she first lost Jeffrey and now seems to be losing Todd too!
Step two in Jessica’s plan to fix Liz’s relationship with Jeffrey is to leave Jeffrey a note “from Liz” on Friday saying to meet her at the ski lodge that night. She then tries to find Liz to tell her to meet Jeffrey there, but Jess and Amy miss the bus to Mount Blanc and will need to drive. By the time they arrive at the lodge, there’s no time for Jess to find Liz. Jess decides to meet up with Jeffrey, pretending to be Liz. Jeffrey and “Liz” make up, and Jess is thrilled that she’s helped her sister out so much! I love Jessica’s intentions here.
Unfortunately, someone wanders back to the lodge and mentions to Liz that they saw Jeffrey and his “girlfriend” in front of the lodge. Liz can’t believe it! She assumes that Jess was trying to steal Jeffrey for herself! Liz doesn’t wait to hear any explanation and just wants to leave, so she storms off and takes the bus home.
No one’s at home when Liz arrives, so she goes to take a nap. Then we get this long sequence in which Jess tries to drive home to make up with Liz but gets into a car accident and dies, and Liz is trying to figure out how to live without Jess. The best part of this ridiculous dream sequence (I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say it’s a dream, since who would believe that one of the twins died?) is when a group gathers at Enid’s to mourn Jess, and Todd and Jeffrey start to fight. Todd tells Jeffrey, “To tell you the truth, I’ve been dying to take a punch at you ever since I got back to Sweet Valley.” Todd takes off his sweater, Jeffrey rolls up his sleeves, and Todd smashes his fist into his palm over and over. It’s (almost) a Todd Punch!!!!! Almost as good as the real thing. It’s been too long since we saw these fists of fury in Sweet Valley!
Anyway, this goes on for a few too many chapters and eventually Liz wakes up to the sound of Jessica coming home. She and Jeffrey drove down from Mount Blanc to find Liz and make things better. Liz is so happy to find out that Jess is alive that she forgives her for everything. Jess explains why she was posing as Liz while with Jeffrey. Jeffrey apologizes to Liz for how he acted due to being jealous of Todd. He says he loves Liz and doesn’t want to argue anymore. They kiss.
The group heads back to Mount Blanc, and there are group activities. Todd and Jeffrey even participate in The Winter Olympics together and get along well. It’s a great winter carnival!