Promises #15

Well it's pretty obvious from this cover that Betsy and Tricia had one thing in common: they both had grandma style. I'm disappointed that the town tramp, (She took over full-time after Annie Whitman retired.), wasn't wearing something...sluttier on the cover. Jessica looks more like a mom than a high-schooler.

We start with Tricia's sad, depressing, (if you liked Tricia, that is), death. The whole Wakefield family is there to say goodbye to her while her dad and sister, Betsy are out getting wasted. Because the Wakefield's are perfect and the Martins are trash! Just in case the last 14 books didn't get that through your head.

Right before she dies, she makes Steven promise her that he'll take care of Betsy after she's gone. Most of the book is based on this promise, if you didn't guess from the title.

Besty shows up too late and drunk, and the Wakefields take her to their house to stay for awhile and get herself together. She drunkenly swears that she'll change her life and it's all very touching. She has no idea where her dad went. They assume that he's on a drinking binge and will return in a few days.

Jessica tells Elizabeth on the way home from the hospital that she hopes he comes back soon and takes Betsy out of their house, cuz eww she's sooo trashy! Annnnd she heard Betsy was up at Miller's point with two guys last week! (A Sweet Valley threesome? That's right!)

Keep in mind she tells Liz that story after she talks about her own most recent Miller's point makeout session (the guy kissed "sort of like a dead fish". Ew.)
Elizabeth makes Jessica promise to be nice to Betsy after giving her the customary "people can change" speech. Jess agrees, but let's be honest, this promise won't last 5 minutes. After all, we know how Jessica feels about slutty girls.

Elizabeth later stumbles in on Betsy drawing and we learn that she has a secret talent for art, because all troubled people must be artists.

Even when getting ready for Tricia's funeral, Jessica is majorly rude and insensitive. When Elizabeth asks her why she's more worried about what she's wearing then the fact that they're about to bury Tricia, she responds:

"Lizzie, dear, someone in this family has to look respectable. To make up for having you-know-who with us."
Ok, seriously, she acts like the Wakefields are royalty or something.

On the way home from the funeral, Betsy demands to go to sleazy bar Kelly's to drink her troubles away. Frankly, I think that they should just let her have a few drinks. Maybe get her a bottle on the way home... are there even any liquor stores in Sweet Valley? But of course Steven refuses because he's boring. I want to see Steven get drunk just once! Even Elizabeth has been drunk before!

Steven tells Betsy the Wakefield home is her home for good, which he never asks his parents about, but whatever. Not like Alice and Ned would mind anyway.
Jessica searches Betsy's room when no one's home, sure she's going to find condoms or drugs, or something. She goes through Betsy's art and finds, gasp, a picture of Steve! And she knows that Betsy must be madly in love with Steve.

She tells Liz, but Elizabeth is on her way out and doesn't pay much attention.
I should note that Elizabeth is on her way to meet Todd, Nicholas Morrow, and his sister Regina at the Box Tree Cafe. Kinda strange since Nicholas just tried to steal Liz from Todd. Todd is really a bigger doormat then Liz at times.

Turns out Jess is right, and it soon becomes pretty clear that Betsy is falling for Steve. Steve and Betsy walk into the beach disco together and run into Steve's friend Jason, who's interested in her and her art, since he's an art teacher at the local community center. He offers her a spot in his class, and she goes all bananas on him and assumes he's heard all the stories and is just trying to get in her pants. Steve and Jason convince her to try just one class.

Betsy really starts to cling to Steven, and even Liz thinks it's not healthy. Steven knows he needs to go back to college and spend some time away from Betsy. Before he goes, Steve, Liz and Jason all come up with a plan to enter Betsy's art in an L.A Academy art school competition without her knowing. (She was too paranoid about Jason wanting to do her that she wouldn't accept his offer to help her enter. Oh please. You aren't that hot, girl.)

Betsy's dad finally shows up at the Wakefield house, and Betsy panics and calls Steve. He rushes right down from college, prompting Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield to actually act like parents. They tell him that he's not responsible for Betsy and needs to start re-building his own life. Steve spills the whole thing about his promise to Tricia, and Jessica overhears.

Naturally Jessica sees this as her opportunity to send Betsy packing, and tells her about the promise in her usual sneaky way. Betsy flips out.
"Don't 'Betsy' me. No one cares about Betsy. It's only Tricia who counts."

That is pretty much true, since apart from this book, there's almost no mention at all of Betsy after Tricia's dead. 

Betsy heads down to the bar with local bad guys Crunch McAllister and Charlie Cashman. Steven and Jason storm in like the Moral Police and tell Betsy she's leaving with them. Jason punches out Charlie and he and Betsy finallllly gets it through her thick skull that he's not just interested in hooking up with her, but wants a relationship. Ooh SVH romance!!

Betsy wins the competition and is accepted to art school, earning her a Wakefield barbeque and a congratulations three-way hug (instead of an actual three-way) with Steve and Jason. Aww.

Sub-plot- Winston broke the pizza eating record at SVH, and is now trying to do the same record-setting pizza eating thing at Guido's. He unfortunately falls short of his goal of eating seven pizzas. The news and a crowd actually show up for this, and I got seriously hungry reading about it.

Oh, and Roger Barrett's mother has had a heart attack! He has to find some way to pay for a surgery and flight to Houston to save her.  Jessica is still more pre-occupied with Roger's date-ability then this tragedy, thinking to herself one day,
"Too bad he didn't have a penny to his name. Otherwise he might be high on her list of desirable boys."

Bruce Patman's father comes out of nowhere and offers to foot all of the bills to save Rog's mom. No one can figure out why, since the Patman's have never been known for their generosity (they're more known for things like date-rape). Roger's mom dies despite the help.

We find out why the elder Patman got involved at the very end, when it's revealed that Roger's real dad is Paul Patman, Bruce's uncle who died  in a plane crash. Roger is going to live with the Patman's, and he's now stinking rich! How will Roger adjust to his new status? Find out here.

When Love Dies #12

Where to begin with this cover? What's up with the whole hanging-over-the-shoulder pose? I swear like 70% of SVH books have that pose, although it's usually Elizabeth looking over someone's shoulder patronizingly.
And what is Tricia wearing? Is it supposed to be some kind of nightgown or a hospital gown....? Steven looks a older than eighteen to me, but then again Tricia is no prize herself., with that horrifying orange-y red perm and all.

This is probably going to be relatively short, since it's a Steven book, and what could be more boring?
So things between Tricia and Steven still aren't going too great. She's ignoring his calls, and avoiding him. Steven is totally unhinged by this, and is desperate to figure out what her deal is.

Jessica is thrilled that things are rocky between them, and crassly suggests that Tricia's with other guys (just like her trampy sister, Betsy!). Liz and Steven both defend Tricia, saying something must be wrong and she's not like that.

Well, turns out something is majorly wrong. Tricia has leukemia and has only been given about six months to live, but doesn't want to hurt Steven by telling him. So instead, she let's him think that she's found someone new when he confronts her at her house. Great plan! I'm sure this will go well.

As for the twins, Jessica hears from Cara Walker that T.V talk show host Jeremy Frank is in the nearby Fowler hospital. She gets all excited because, OMG it's another guy she can chase!

Turns out that Cara got that info from a girl she knows who volunteers as a candy striper in the hospital, so Jess has now decided that volunteering is an awesome idea, and convinces Elizabeth to do it with her. Liz is a little weirded out by Jess's sudden philanthropy, but goes with it like the doormat she is.

Liz is the first one to run into Jeremy Frank, and after telling Jess about it, Jessica's reaction reveals her real motive for volunteering. Liz is morally offended and doesn't want her other half bothering Jeremy at the hospital, (But she gives Jess the number of the room he was in. Not helping things, Liz.)We already know Jess is going to bother Jeremy as much as humanely possible.

Jessica does indeed do just that, and botches things up pretty bad when she falls on his broken leg and breaks the cables holding his leg up. Good first impression Jess! But of course she's not done with Jeremy yet, and promises herself she'll find a way to earn a spot on his talk show.

Elizabeth spots Tricia at the hospital looking sick, and thinks that she might be visiting her new guy, maybe an orderly that works there. Because someone who appears sick at a hospital wouldn't be there because they were...sick, right? Tricia runs away when Elizabeth tries to get her attention, and I can't blame her, because if I was that sick, the last thing I'd want to do is talk to Liz. Actually, I could be totally healthy, and talking to Liz would still be the last thing I'd want to do.

Jessica just can't stop meddling and scheming, (...like every other book), and continues to put her Steve and Cara matchmaking plan in motion. She lies to Steven and tells him Cara's having a party that night, and after some convincing, she gets him to agree to go.

The only problem with this, is that Cara has no idea that she's even throwing a party that night. Jessica lets her know, saying to just "put some potato chips out and invite a few people."  I would seriously slap her. Who does that?!?

The "party" ends up consisting of Cara, Lila and her date Jim, Steven, and Jessica with her date, Aaron Dallas. (Aaron is one of those characters that only pops up to serve as someone's date once in awhile. That is, until his parents divorce and and entire book is dedicated to him flipping out.)

This party is every bit as awkward as it sounds, with Cara feeling like a fool, clumsily explaining to Steve that she invited a lot of people, but they didn't show up. That doesn't help her case with Steve, and neither does the fact that all he can think about is Tricia.

Cara does happen to have some interesting news for Steve, telling him that Caroline Pierce saw Tricia "draped all over some other guy". Suddenly, Steve has changed his tune and is dancing with Cara, although he still can't stop thinking about Tricia.

Steve figures he might as well date Cara since he'll never stop loving Tricia anyways (?), and even plans to go out with her that weekend.

Back at the hospital, Jessica screws up her chances with the fabulous Jeremy even more by spilling ice water all over him during his sponge bath. Elizabeth realizes how much her sister is torturing Jeremy, and has to figure out a way to stop her before they both get fired. (Because no one fires Liz, dammit.)

She approaches Jeremy with a plan: have Jeremy act like he's falling in love with Jess, and go completely over the top to scare Jess away. She tells her mom about this plan, who thinks it's just hilarious...not the way I would expect a mom to act, but Alice is not anything close to mom-of-the-year.

Jeremy starts sending Jessica flowers and telling her how awesome she is. She loves it, until he proclaims his undying love and asks her to marry him. The idea of commitment is, of course, enough to make her run for the hills, and she's outta there. I wonder what he would've done if she had said yes? I mean, she probably would cheat on him, and find some other guy within a week anyway, but still....  

Elizabeth hears about a patient her age and decides to go spread her cheery Wakefield charm. But imagine her shock when, gasp, it's none other then Tricia Martin! She has leukemia! Oooohhh so that's why she looked so sick. Now it all makes sense doesn't it? Tricia explains things to Elizabeth, and makes her promise to keep it a secret.

To add to Elizabeth's problems, a creepy orderly named Carl has been making her uncomfortable. He stares at her intensely and almost seems to be following her. She tells no one, (so typical), because she reasons that it's not illegal to look at her. But why wouldn't she at least mention to Todd or her family ? 'Sigh' who knows...

Liz is getting her panties in a major twist over the whole dilemma. Tell Steve or not? Legally she's not supposed to, with patient confidentiality and all, but more importantly, she promised not to tell. And we all know how Liz can be when it comes to promises.(I would still have told Steven if I were her. I mean, Tricia's dying already right? So does it matter that much if you keep her secret? Maybe I'm just insensitive.) Elizabeth goes to Mr.Collins and tells him her issue. He gives her his usual follow-your-heart talk and she knows what she needs to do.

Cara and Steve go to a college party, (Steve actually has college friends?), and blah blah blah all he can think about is Tricia cuz she's his one true love blah blah. He even recalls recently following a girl who looked similar to Tricia around his school. Turns out Tricia has more look-alikes in the later books, (and yes, Steve exhibits the same stalker behavior with them as well.)

When Cara tells him he needs to forget Tricia if her and him are going to be couple, Steve tells her off "Do you think I could replace Tricia just like that? As if she were a car or something?" alright Steven finally got some balls! Because seriously, Cara was being super pushy in this book.

Later on, Elizabeth tells Steven the real reason Tricia dumped him, and he rushes to be with her. They have a whole mushy, sad reunion and he vows to stick with her until the end. Oh, and the guy she was "draped all over"? We learn she actually almost fainted, and the man was just helping her to her car. Goes to show you, never listen to Caroline Pierce's b.s gossip. She's an evil, redheaded liar!

It turns out I was right about Jessica taking up Jeremy's offer, she decides after some deliberation that an engagement to him could really help boost her non-existent Hollywood career.  It's pretty funny, because she announces her acceptance of his proposal, and he laughs in her face.

She finds out it was all a joke, and then uses that to her advantage by guilt-tripping him into giving her her own segment on his talk show, Frankly Speaking. God, I wish I had her power to twist every bad situation into something good for me. What the hell.

End with Elizabeth walking to her car outside of the hospital, all the while being unknowingly followed by Carl the weirdo orderly. He chloroforms and kidnaps her, leaving us in utter suspense until the next book-the cleverly named, Kidnapped!