Time elapsed in this book: 3 weeks
Length of their junior year: 2 years, 3 months, 1 week
Jessica’s love interest: Rob Atkins from Bridgewater High, who’s only mentioned in passing
Entertainment rating: 7/10
It’s another book featuring non-Wakefields as main characters! Don’t worry, there’s an entertaining subplot featuring Jessica scheming to break up Cara and Steven, so there are still some good antics. This was actually more entertaining than I remembered. I bumped up my entertainment rating just because of the Jessica subplot.
The cover features two beautiful girls, Amy and Johanna, fighting over Peter, whose face looks surprisingly youthful. The fashion is pretty great: both Peter and Amy have tucked-in shirts and are wearing belted jeans, and Johanna is dressed in what can only be described as a boxy 80’s style dress. Apparently no one in Sweet Valley ever just wears a t-shirt; Peter and Amy are both wearing oversized, button-down blouses.
We open in the Sweet Valley High cafeteria at lunch. Liz is overenthusiastic about Steven coming home for the weekend. I’m not sure why this is even news, since he’s home pretty much every weekend, but sure. Cara lights up, since she’s also excited to see Steven, and Cara and Liz start gushing about Steven’s best qualities. When would something like this ever happen in real life? No one else there cares. Amy starts talking about how she’s going to throw a pre-dance party the following weekend, the first party that she and Peter DeHaven will be throwing together. Or so she says, anyway; I doubt her new love interest is going to play any role in planning or decorating for it. Liz is shocked to hear Amy is dating Peter, since he’s smart. Julie Porter joins their table and Liz remembers how they used to be good friends in sixth grade. Nice tie-in for the recently started Sweet Valley Twins series! So many references in 6th grade in here. Julie mentions that her sister, Johanna, is returning to school today!
Johanna Porter is in the office, filling out forms to reenroll at Sweet Valley High. She dropped out of school a year earlier, in the middle of her junior year, after feeling frustrated by it, and got a job as a waitress at The Whistle Stop. School always felt challenging for her, and she also didn’t feel like she fit in at home, where the rest of her family were musical geniuses. Her parents didn’t push her to go back to school and thought she’d figure stuff out in her own time. Then her mom was killed in a drunk driving accident. Johanna found her mom’s journal recently and read an entry talking about how she wished Johanna would return to school, so Johanna decided she needed to return to honor her mom’s wishes. She’s uncomfortable returning and having to repeat junior year classes, but she’s determined to succeed. Johanna runs into Peter DeHaven in the hall and blushes since she’s always had a crush on him. He tells her he’d be happy to help her with chemistry, if she needs any tutoring.
At the beach later, Cara shows Jessica a relationship quiz from a magazine. I used to love magazine quizzes!! They were so predictable but wow did we ever let ourselves be entertained by them! Anyway, Jess is unimpressed by relationships in general and has decided that Cara and Steven are boring. She asks Cara when Steven last sent her flowers. When Cara says never, Jess tells her it’s a bad sign. Jess says that if Cara went to the upcoming party and dance with someone else, Steven would probably start paying Cara more attention.
Johanna runs into Peter in the chemistry lab. He tells her about the project he’s putting together for the Southern California Science Fair and invites her on a drive to Las Palmas Canyon that weekend. Johanna is only too thrilled to accept! She realizes later that Peter was too busy talking about himself to ask her any questions but rationalizes it as him just being excited about his project. She tells her sister, Julie, about Peter’s invite for the weekend. Julie is unimpressed. She says that Peter’s going out with Amy and asks if Peter happened to mention that Amy would be out of town that weekend. Johanna gets mad at Julie for insinuating Peter is doing anything shady!
Steven comes home for the weekend and mentions to the twins that he has a few gifts for Cara since they have an anniversary coming up soon. I’m so curious what kind of anniversary this is. Usually, you talk about years when you talk about anniversaries, and they’ve been in their junior year of high school for over a year, so perhaps this is their one year anniversary… but also, this is high school, and high schoolers are notorious for celebrating monthaversaries. And we are supposed to believe this is still the same year of high school for them. So, who knows. Jess tells Steven that Cara didn’t say anything about an anniversary but that Cara probably forgot since she’s been going to parties and hanging out with other guys. Steven asks what Jess is talking about. She pats Steven on the shoulder and tells him not to worry, that Cara probably doesn’t think of them as dates. Jess is delighted with herself! I am delighted with her too! THIS is how you scheme!
Johanna and Peter go on their drive to Las Palmas Canyon. Peter tells her more about the contest and the prize he hopes to win. He pulls over to get a better look at the magnificent view and then asks if he can kiss her. Their kiss is the most romantic thing Johanna has ever experienced, and he murmurs her name over and over in her ear.
On Sunday, Johanna goes over to the Wakefield house for a tutoring session with Liz. She confides in Liz about her drive with Peter and how Julie thinks Peter’s just using her while Amy’s out of town. Johanna asks Liz to promise not to tell anyone about this. Liz doesn’t know what to say but tells Johanna to do what she thinks is right. Steven shows up and rants about how he and Cara had a fight about absolutely nothing and then gripes about some math homework. Johanna tells him it’s easy and shows him how to solve the math problem.
Cara tells Jess about fighting with Steven. Jess says that Steven needs to see that Cara has a backbone so then maybe he’ll stop seeing other women. Cara can’t believe Steven never told her he’s going out with other women. The ghostwriter then brilliantly includes this gem:
“Cara, of course he didn’t,” Jessica hissed. He hadn’t told Jessica he was going out with anyone other than Cara either. But Jessica was sure he must be. And even if he wasn’t, it was all part of the plan to help Cara and Steven gain some independence.
I absolutely LOVE Jessica’s scheming in this book and how she justifies it. Well done. Well done.
When Jess gets home, Liz asks her if she thinks that Peter and Amy are going to keep seeing each other. Jess doesn’t know and doesn’t care. She asks why Liz cares. Liz tells her that she can’t tell anyone, but Peter went out with Johanna while Amy was out of town! Liz didn’t even go a full day without breaking her promise to Johanna not to tell a soul. Come on, Liz. Have some self-control.
Johanna is excited to see Peter on Monday, but he blows her off when she approaches him in the hallways. He finds her later and apologizes, saying he’s planning to break up with Amy that night. Peter tells Johanna he’ll take her out to dinner the next night, in the next town over. Johanna feels like she’s making a mistake but she agrees and thinks that Peter must actually like her since he invited her out again. She hopes that Peter will ask her to the upcoming dance.
Cara tells Jess and Lila that all she and Steven seemed to do all weekend was fight about whether the other is going out with anyone else. Lila seems bored with the conversation already and flips through her magazine. Jess suggests that Cara give Steven something to worry about and actually invite someone else to the party and the dance! Jess is certain that she’s done the right thing for them since if their relationship was solid, they’d never have fallen for her lies. I gotta admit, she has a point. She is an evil genius! Jess thinks that Cara and Steven should thank her for looking after their welfare.
At school the next day, Peter ignores Johanna again. After school, Peter finds Johanna and apologizes, saying that he couldn’t break up with Amy yet because he’d already agreed to go to the party and dance with her. He thinks he should wait to talk to her until after the events. Johanna is a bit perturbed but she forgives him.
On Wednesday, chemistry tests are handed back to students. Johanna got the highest score in the entire class! Mr. Russo thinks she should take a test for Advanced Placement courses since she’s that smart.
Amy asks Jess if Cara and Steven are going to make it to her party. Jess tells her that Cara will be there but with Ken Matthews. Amy is confused, so Jess proudly explains that she’s been dropping hints to drive a wedge between Steven and Cara and that her scheme has been successful! Amy is judgmental about this, as if she hasn’t done plenty of underhanded things herself. Jess doesn’t like Amy’s attitude, so she decides to do one better and tells Amy that Peter’s been going out with Johanna behind her back. Amy is horrified and confronts Peter, who asks who told her this and assures Amy that he was only helping Johanna out with her school work and that he’d never actually be interested in Johanna.
Peter is ashamed of himself, since he actually is really interested in Johanna and barely likes Amy. But he nonetheless writes Johanna a letter and slips it in her locker, saying that Amy has found out about them so they can’t hang out again. Peter is an absolute zero.
Johanna is furious and assumes that Liz told Peter. She gets mad at Liz, who in turn gets mad at Jess for spilling the beans. This is 100% on Liz, since she shouldn’t have told Jess in the first place. Jess apologizes to Liz and Liz forgives her twin. Zero consequences, as usual.
Friday night, Amy’s party gets underway! Cara is there with Ken, and Steven is inexplicably at the party with some girl from college named Eve Young. Why the &^%# is Steven at a high school party if he’s not there with a high school student?? And who the #&%$ is Eve and why is she okay accepting a date from Steven to go to a high school party?!? So many questions. Cara dances with Ken but keeps watching Steven. Finally, Ken tells her to just go talk to Steven. Cara tells Steven she’s missed him, and he tells her he’s missed her too and that it was awful seeing her walk in with another date. Again, there is no reason why Steven needed to be at this party to even witness this. (How did I not pick up on any of this when I was a kid? This all made perfect sense to me…) Cara and Steven both confirm that neither is dating anyone else. They realize that Jess has been meddling! They confront Jess, and she says she was just testing their relationship to see how strong it was. Steven is still mad, but Cara actually agrees and says that if they’d actually trusted each other, they would never have called for Jessica’s insinuations.
The school dance happens after the party. I assume Steven’s date Eve does not attend, but maybe she does, since she seemed to think it was cool to be his date to a high school party… why not go to the dance too? Maybe she went with Ken. At some point, Amy starts making fun of Johanna (who’s not there) to a group that includes Peter. Peter doesn’t defend Johanna, but Liz calls Amy out on trying to start rumors. Amy gets mad and flounces away. Liz tells Peter she’s disappointed in him and that she hopes he can say he’s been a good friend to Johanna since she’s been a good friend to him.
On Monday, Peter apologizes to Johanna for having made a mess of things between them and says he hopes they can still be friends. Johanna agrees, although she realizes that he hasn’t been acting like much of a friend. Peter then starts talking about the program he’s writing for the science competition. Johanna makes a few suggestions for how to improve it, and he laughs at her ideas for being too simplistic. Later, in the girl’s bathroom, Johanna overhears classmates making fun of her and laughing about the rumor that Peter seeing Johanna. Johanna decides she’s done with school and leaves. She’s going to get her job back at the Whistle Stop!
Peter is ashamed of himself (again) for how he treated Johanna. He’s then further embarrassed because he uses Johanna’s ideas for his program and discovers that they’re actually good. He calls Johanna, but her dad says she’s not at home, she’s working at the Whistle Stop. Fastest re-hire ever, apparently. Peter goes to the Whistle Stop and talks to Johanna. She’s cold to him and says her decision about school has nothing to do with him. Later, at home, Johanna talks to her dad and sister and realizes that they love her no matter what. She decides she needs to go back to school for herself, not just for her mom.
At school, Peter tells Johanna that he won the science competition! He corrects himself and says that “they” won, since her ideas helped him. Johanna says she might try entering something next year. Peter wants to take her out on Friday night to celebrate, but Johanna turns him down and says she already has plans with her dad and sister. Peter asks if he messed everything up between them, and Johanna doesn’t bother replying. Whoa! Girl Power!!! FINALLY! What a shock that this didn’t end up with a happy couple!
Up next: Who is Susan Stewart’s mom?!?