Time elapsed in this book: 3 weeks
Length of their junior year: 2 years, 8 months, 3 weeks
Jessica’s love interest: None
Entertainment rating: 6/10
I assume the cover of this book is supposed to show an 18 year old Steven trying to hide an anonymous love letter he’s received, which (in the book) is on pink stationary. However, based on the fact that they look about 35 on the cover and Steven’s holding something white, I feel like this cover depicts a married couple about to go out for a night on the town and Steven is holding a cloth diaper to give the babysitter they’ve hired for the night. Nevertheless, I love it. And Cara looks gorgeous!
The book opens with Jess and Cara taking the bus to school. Public transportation in Sweet Valley! Cara tells Jess about her upcoming birthday party at the Marine House. This is Cara’s second birthday in their junior year, so who knows if she’s turning 17 for the second time or what. Her first birthday happened in Memories. She celebrated that birthday by going out to dinner with Steven, who freaked out when they went to the same restaurant he used to go to with Tricia, so he ditched Cara but somehow still ended up with her by the end of the book. He’s not much more of a catch in this book, but as a whole, this birthday is happier for Cara. Anyway, Cara says she happened to mention her party to Abbie Richardson and now she’s afraid that Abbie expects an invite. Unfortunately, Cara can only afford 14 guests and can’t cut anyone else. I can’t imagine how much this will cost. Certainly more than I ever spent on a birthday, especially one in high school. Jess says not to worry because Abbie’s probably forgotten.
Liz and the Oracle staff lament the fact that the school newspaper isn’t as popular as it used to be. I don’t know what they’re using to gauge interest. It’s not like they have any competition. They decide it’s lacking humor and plan a contest to find a new humor feature.
We cut to Abbie’s perspective: as a freshman, she’d been friends with Lila and Jessica, but then she started dating a guy from Palisades High and completely stopped hanging out with her old friends. It would have been fun to have seen Abbie as a character in other Sweet Valley series, but there was never a series about the twins as freshmen. Abbie and her boyfriend recently broke up so she’s trying to reestablish friends of her own at SVH. Abbie thinks things are looking up. She’s excited because she assumes she’s going to be invited to Cara’s party and also decides to write a cartoon to enter in the Oracle’s humor contest. She calls her main character “Jenny” and bases her cartoons off her own experiences as an average teen.
Steven comes home so his doctor can run tests on the sinus or allergy problems he’s been having. Cara is excited because she’ll get to see him more, but Steven is grumpy from being sick. Jess tells Cara that their relationship needs more mystery and that clearly Steven takes her for granted.
Abbie eats lunch with Cara and her friends, hoping Cara will officially invite her to the party, but Cara doesn’t bring it up. Abbie is so confident that Cara will invite her that she goes out and buys a birthday gift for her. Abbie seems so sweet and I am so embarrassed for her. It isn’t until Sunday, the day of the party, that Abbie finally realizes that she is not getting an invite. She’s hurt.
The fourteen people at Cara’s birthday party are Cara, Steven, Jess, Lila, Liz, Jeffrey, Sandra, Manuel, Jean, Tom, Winston, Maria, Amy, and Bruce. Since when is Cara close enough to Bruce, Liz, or Jeffrey to mark them as people she absolutely can’t cut from her invite list?!? I’m pretty sure she’s equally as close to Abbie as she is to Bruce…. maybe more so. Steven is grumpy due to being sick (he should be thrilled since he’s in his element, hanging out with high schoolers!). At one point, Cara approaches him and Steve tries to hide a letter written on pink stationary that he was reading.
At school, Abbie gives Cara the ring she’d bought her as a birthday gift. Cara is mortified to realize Abbie clearly expected an invite to her party.
Abbie goes to the Wakefield house to show Liz her cartoon. Liz loves it and chats with Abbie, who ends up staying for dinner. At some point, Steven talks to Abbie and ends up confiding in her about his fight with Cara. Abbie says Cara probably is just worried about Steven being sick. He thanks her for being so easy to talk to.
Abbie comes over to the Wakefield house a few more times. Everyone, including Jess, likes having her around too since Abbie is always helpful and friendly. Steven tells Abbie that someone’s been writing him anonymous love letters on the same stationary that Tricia used to write love letters to him on!
Cara tells Lila and Jess about the problems she’s having with Steven. She says she’s going to be just as distant and aloof to him as he’s been to her. Jess says she thinks they should just talk instead of playing these games (stellar advice!). Lila disagrees and says Cara needs to be as unavailable as possible so Steven knows he can’t take her for granted.
Jess and Liz go to the mall and see stationary that’s identical to the one they’ve seen Steven receive letters on recently. They ask the clerk about it, and she says they sold a box recently to a teenage girl who wanted something romantic. Jess is convinced that Abbie’s the one who bought it since she’s been hanging around Steven a lot. They run into Betsy Martin at the mall, and Betsy mentions that she’s in town because Steven had called to ask where Tricia’s old stationary was. The twins realize that the stationary looked familiar because Tricia used to use it too!
Mr. Wakefield tells the family that he has six tickets to the Lakers game that weekend. He figures the 6th ticket can go to Cara. Poor Jeffrey, not even being thought of when there’s an extra ticket for a Wakefield’s plus one! Steven says he and Cara have been having problems so he wants to give her some space. He suggests they invite Abbie instead. Again, no thought about Jeffrey!
Jess tells Lila that Steven’s inviting Abbie instead of Cara to the game, and Lila tells Cara. Cara is FURIOUS! Cara tells Lila that she tried to inject some mystery into their relationship by writing Steven anonymous love letters, but the letters really just started to make the two of them dishonest with each other. Lila thinks Cara should think of all of Steven’s bad qualities, like the fact that he doesn’t have any money. So good!! But Cara still wants to be with him so she decides to talk to him.
Abbie is happy to be invited to the game but asks why Steven didn’t invite Cara. Steven says he can’t even talk to Cara anymore. He shows Abbie the newest anonymous love letter he’s received and ducks out of the room while she reads it. Jess walks in and sees Abbie holding the letter. She immediately thinks this is proof that Abbie’s writing love letters to Steven!
Jess tells Liz she caught Abbie holding Steven’s letter, and they confront her about it. Steven believes the accusations and tells Abbie he thought she was his friend! Abbie can’t believe they think she wrote these and says she can’t believe they’re treating her like this after she’s been nothing but nice to them. She leaves, proud that she stood up for herself.
Cara shows up and tells Steven that she wrote him anonymous love letters in a misguided attempt to be romantic. The two of them make up. Steven and then twins then realize that they need to apologize to Abbie for accusing her of writing the letters. Cara joins them since she wants to apologize for not inviting Abbie to her birthday party. Abbie forgives them! Mr. Wakefield manages to get a 7th ticket to the Lakers game so Cara and Abbie can both go! Abbie’s cartoon wins the contest and will be featured in the Oracle! Things are looking up for her!
I’m pretty sure we never see Abbie again after this book, which is a pity since she’s so nice. Where’s that Sweet Valley Freshman Year spinoff?!??
Up next: cousin Kelly comes to visit!