Sweet Valley Junior High #12 Third Wheel
Sweet Valley Junior High #12 Third Wheel
Like a tricycle!
Cover:
Okay, I love diversity. I wish Sweet Valley were more diverse. It is nice to see characters who don’t have blonde hair and ocean-colored eyes with perfect size six figures. But why, oh why, when they do get diverse, do they then get, essentially, racist. Since racist means one has a belief that one race is better than another, I’d call Sweet Valley racist. But selectively. Salvador is obviously of Hispanic descent and can date Elizabeth (Caucasian) or Anna (Asian) with no comment. But Bethel is black so when it comes time for her to have a crush on someone who is it? A conveniently created boy who also is black. In Sweet Valley High #69, the whole thing is about race and bigotry and how dumb it is, but the black guy who is one of the two main characters in it is dating the only other black girl ever mentioned at Sweet Valley High. Maria is Hispanic and can date Winston. Jade Wu is Asian and I don’t remember who she was dating but I think it wasn’t another Asian guy. So why are the black characters only allowed to date other black characters? Even if those other characters have to be conveniently created to give the original character someone to date. It irks me seriously. Why are the other races allowed to date outside their race, but the black kids aren’t? ::angry fist::
Okay, I am done with my rant. Here is the recap. And if you didn’t guess what it was about already (or you skipped the rant),
The book starts off with a track meet between Sweet Valley Junior High and Kennedy Middle School (where?) and Bethel worrying about the star runner on the other team. But her attention is grabbed when she spots Jameel (interesting note: Jameel is a variant of Jamil which means “beautiful” in Arabic), the conveniently created new character. He is a transfer student and an amazing runner. Bethel thinks that watching him run is like watching poetry in motion. Jessica starts teasing Bethel about having a crush but stops when she remembers that Jameel is only in seventh grade. That makes him too young for a lofty 8th grader like Bethel. Jameel smiles at Bethel and her heart gives a little flutter. But no way is she pairing off like all the other losers in her class. Not even for the upcoming beach party.
Meanwhile, Salvador is freaking out because his parents are coming into town. His parents are both Majors in the Army and stationed in Germany. His dad is all about discipline and sports and Salvador is all about writing. He knows the visit will be awkward with his parents trying to buy him things he wouldn’t ever wear, do things he has grown out of, and try to force him to play sports he isn’t interested in. Salvador even has his classmates teaching him sports trivia. When his parents arrive they are just as dictatorial and babying as assumed. But instead of arguing and starting a fight, Salvador just stays quiet this time and lets them think what they want. When Elizabeth asks to meet his parents, he vehemently nixes the idea. His dad wouldn’t understand him having friends that were girls. (though, if his dad were such a manly man, you’d think he’d be impressed that his son had two “girlfriends.” ) His mother keeps calling him “Sally” which would annoy me to no end.
The next morning at school, Bethel finds some notes in her locker. She at first assumes they are for her lockermate who is apparently cute and popular, but they are for her. They are from Jameel. He wants to know if she’ll go to the beach party with him and he also writes her some poems. Bethel at first thinks that Jessica put Jameel up to it, but she denies knowledge. Jessica is happy that Bethel has a date for the party but she herself hasn’t been asked. She keeps hoping Damon will ask her, but he hasn’t mentioned it. Jameel himself then appears on the scene and gives her a rose-a foil-wrapped chocolate rose, the best kind. The people in “Eyeball Alley” (the hall of lockers with the biggest bigmouths in the school, the one where Jessica has her locker) tease her about her young love. Bethel is embarrassed, but also flattered. At track though, she and Jameel are talking as they run, but when they are teased from the sidelines, Bethel jerks away from Jameel and sprints off. Jessica is confused because Bethel never cares what anyone thinks of her and is wondering why such mild teasing caused such an intense reaction. She heads to the showers but is stopped by Salvador who is in gym class. He tells Bethel that he got a submission to the ‘zine that is about her. It is a song/poem to be sung to the tune “Happy Birthday” and it is written by Jameel. Bethel is frozen solid as Salvador sings the song in front of the entire class and then gets them to join in. Jessica saves Bethel’s bacon by showing up and dragging her off to the showers. Bethel might or might not be crying, but she sure is embarrassed.
Later on, Salvador (who doesn’t know he mortally embarrassed Bethel) is at the Natural History Museum with his parents. They are all gushy about it, but he has seen it a hundred times since they always come there. His mom continues to call him “Sally” but does make some good observations and isn’t the total drag his dad is. But the whole family has a bonding moment over the cool bones of the dinosaurs. Sally gets a T. Rex at the gift shop and starts goofing off with it. His mom is amused but his dad tells him to straighten up, thus killing any good mood that had formed.
The next day, Salvador ham-handedly apologizes to Bethel, but not before he sticks his foot in it and she nearly hits him. There are more notes in her locker and Bethel has decided she has had enough. She goes off to find Jameel. She tells him they need to talk. He smiles at her and she is momentarily dumbfounded but regains her focus. She tells him the notes have to stop because people are making fun of them. Jameel mentions that he sent six or seven poems into the ‘zine and they are all about Bethel. He saw her run a month earlier and hasn’t stopped thinking about her since. Part of me is all “Aww” and part of me is all “Stalkerish-yo?” He wants to know more about Bethel and they talk. Everything is all sunshine and roses until they get into the cafeteria and Bethel just can’t take all the people looking at her. (OMG, Bethel, I totally know where you are coming from. I was once nagged until I told which guy I thought in our class was cute and then they never ever let me forget it. I could barely stand to look at the guy after that.) Bethel tells Jameel to get lost which was pretty harsh and she knows it. She isn’t so hungry anymore.
Anna and Liz are waiting to see if Salvador will sit with them today. He has been acting like a spaz since his parents came to town and for some reason the girls are offended. They want to know why Salvador hasn’t introduced them (well, Liz, Anna has already met them) and think he is ashamed of her. Or his parents. But it is more complicated and he hopes they’ll eventually forgive him. For what, freaking out because his absentee parents returned temporarily? Lame. Liz makes sure that Salvador apologized to Bethel because no one likes their crushes to be made public like that. Anna says some stuff about how if you hang out in the girl’s bathroom long enough, you can hear all the gossip in the school. She is usually in there a long time when she has a sad attack remembering her dead brother, Tim. Salvador, after all the stuff about not wanting Liz and Anna to be exposed to his ‘rents, invites them to come on the shopping expedition his parents have planned. Anna and Liz are supposed to help convince his parents that the clothes they pick out are just not his style and help him get good clothes. Uh, okay. Clothes shopping with a 13 year-old boy and his parents, sign me up?
At track, things don’t go so well for Bethel because the boys practice with them. Jameel comes right up to her and tries to talk. He apparently has a thick skin and her blowing him off earlier didn’t even dent his enthusiasm. Bethel notices all the other people running around them are listening and asks, “What is this, a play?” which is pretty funny, but they all still listen in. Jameel throws pride out the window and begs her to go with him to the dance. The listeners chime in and tell her to go with him. But the one thing Bethel hates is being railroaded into something so she really digs her feet in and says that the day he beats her in a race, is when she’ll go with him to the party. Jameel is all hot damn! Let’s race on Thursday. A 400 meter. Bethel agrees like an idiot because she is a cross-country runner and Jameel is a sprinter. But if she wins, he has to leave her alone. If he wins, she’ll go to the dance, and everyone cheers.
For the mall trip, Anna tries to give Salvador pre-shopping advice. You don’t make faces at ugly clothes, you distract by grabbing acceptable alternatives. Decent advice, Anna. Wish I had known that when my mom was picking out my clothes. Salvador’s parents seem happy to meet Liz and to see Anna again but realize they are being outflanked on the clothes front. They ask what they think of Salvador’s current clothing. Liz and Anna look him up and down and conclude he looks okay. “His clothes are baggy and ill-fitting!” his dad exclaims. Liz tells him that that is the style right now. Salvador’s dad makes a comment about everyone throwing themselves off a bridge but Liz counters with fashion choices are not the same as harming yourself. Zing! Off to the mall and the first store they get dragged to is all country club wear. Salvador’s mom is a bit more understanding and after his dad has sufficiently embarrassed him, they convince him to go to a store that has clothes Salvador will actually wear. Afterwards, no one has died of embarrassment (though there were a few close calls) and the group heads to the ice cream store. His mom uses the “Sally” nickname loudly and who should appear but Jessica and Kristin. Salvador’s dad is confused by the appearance of another Elizabeth so Salvador introduces her as Jessica, Elizabeth’s evil twin. Jessica calls him “Sally” but Kristin is nice. Salvador realizes that he is actually glad his parents are in town.
Saturday morning, Jessica gets up at the unheard-of hour of 7 am. She promised to help Bethel with her extra training for the race with Jameel. No one else is up at home so Jess takes a shower, gets some breakfast, and heads to the bus stop. All without any parental intervention. At the school, Bethel has some starting blocks to practice starts with. Jessica tries them out and really likes it. Bethel works on trying to find the right setting for her and they do stretches and other track-like things. Jessica tries to coach Bethel on sprinting but neither are very good. Jessica has a plan-Bethel should just lose and go to the party with Jameel. But Bethel’s competitive spirit won’t let her lose on purpose. She is running the distance at something like 80 seconds. I don’t know if that is good or not. Jess is a little upset that Bethel is so anxious to get out of a possible date to the party when she, Jessica, hasn’t even been asked. The next couple of days are repeats-early mornings of training and track. Jessica sleeps through a few classes, manages to wear the same clothes two days in a row, and put her foot in her mouth when Bethel’s time gets worse by suggesting she has over trained.
Damon is worried about Jessica. All week she has been acting weird. She’s been wearing ugly shirts and her hair has been messy and she has spent lunchtimes yawning. On Wednesday, she actually falls asleep into her tray. They think she has fainted and splash water on her. When she wakes up, they give her caffeine and she explains about the race-Damon has apparently been living under a rock. At the race, Bethel has to clench her teeth to keep from smiling back when Jameel smiles at her. He has also been leaving poems in her locker all week. They set up and Bethel just tries to run her own race. She is not used to the sustained sprint and wants to slow down by the end but keeps up the pace. She wins! She is so happy until she remembers what her “prize” was. Now she doesn’t feel so great because she doesn’t have a date for the party (not that she really wanted one) and because she did have a crush on Jameel. If everyone hadn’t made such a big deal out of it, she probably would have been fine but now she has nothing.
Jessica is thrilled the next day when she gets to sleep in until 6 A.M. She asks Liz if she knows why Damon hasn’t asked her to the dance. Liz says it isn’t because he doesn’t like her anymore because he still sits with her at lunch but maybe he doesn’t have the 10 dollars per person for the tickets to the dance. Jess scrounges through her room and finds twenty-two dollars-she needs to get to school early to buy some tickets. Salvador gets a totally different wakeup. His dad comes in and wants to have a man-to-man talk. He thinks that Salvador should join a sports team to build character and strength. Salvador just shrugs and silently curses his dad for ruining the morning. Jessica is an empowered woman and buys the tickets and is going to ask Damon to the dance…as soon as she gets the courage. She finally pulls the tickets out just as he pulls out tickets too and they share a laugh. He didn’t ask the week before because he wasn’t sure he could get the money but he did extra yard work and wanted to ask her earlier in the week but she kept falling asleep. Bethel meanwhile has no notes in her locker and can’t remember why she wanted Jameel to leave her alone so badly. At lunch, Jessica gives her one of the extra tickets and knows what Bethel is feeling but kindly doesn’t rub it in.
On Saturday, Bethel is up early and feeling depressed. She decides to go running but first she looks at all the notes and stuff that Jameel gave her. She had to uncrumple a few because she had been so mad upon receiving them, but not mad enough to throw any of them away. They are all on different colored pieces of paper with neat handwriting indicating that he took some time and effort with them. She feels like such a ninny. She heads to the track but someone is already there-Jameel. She stands by the fence and watches him run. When he sees her, she waves. He starts to wave back but then turns and leaves. He is leaving her alone like she asked, but that isn’t what she really wanted. Ah, Jameel, an early introduction to the headgames of women. We want men to do what we tell them except when we don’t.
Salvador is making food with his parents when his dad cons him into another father-son talk. But instead of railing at him to join a sports team, he tells Salvador that his own father didn’t understand him when he was a kid and likely Salvador is feeling the same way. Wha? Salvador is confused and wary. But his dad says that he understands that Salvador will never be a mini-him and that he’ll try to understand. He also tells Salvador no to give up on the Elizabeth front-she says she only wants to be friends, but she might change her mind. Salvador then asks if his dad can talk to his mom about not calling him “Sally” any more and that he has outgrown the Legos. BLASPHEMY!! You can never outgrow LEGOs. It simply isn’t possible. But things look better on the Salvador-parents front.
Bethel has dressed up for the dance. She is wearing a dress and platform shoes and let Jessica put orange nail polish and dark lipstick and gloss on. And mascara. She’s 13? Yeah, not a fan of makeup on little girls, even for dances. As soon as she gets to the beach, she kicks off the shoes and wanders around. It is “couples hell” and they are only playing slow dances. It isn’t even dark and the kids are dancing? I remember my 8th grade dance and it was a lot of girls on one side staring at guys on the other side or huddling in circles giggling while the guys horsed around. A few of the more “serious” couples would maybe dance after an hour or two, but that was it. Anyway, Bethel sees Jameel standing with some of the track guys and swallows her pride and goes up to him. She asks him to dance. He is still a little hurt but agrees. They dance. Then they go to Jessica’s group and Bethel introduces him to everyone. Then they “put on that Aerosmith song that everyone pretends they are sick of, but secretly loves” and everyone dances. Stop right there. If it is that Aerosmith song from that lame asteroid movie, everyone IS sick of it and it DOES suck. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. But Bethel is maybe kinda converted to all the romance stuff.
The end. Rather an abrupt ending, but they all seem to be that way. All this huge build-up to the big “dance” and then one chapter and it is all resolved.
Like a tricycle!
Cover:
Okay, I love diversity. I wish Sweet Valley were more diverse. It is nice to see characters who don’t have blonde hair and ocean-colored eyes with perfect size six figures. But why, oh why, when they do get diverse, do they then get, essentially, racist. Since racist means one has a belief that one race is better than another, I’d call Sweet Valley racist. But selectively. Salvador is obviously of Hispanic descent and can date Elizabeth (Caucasian) or Anna (Asian) with no comment. But Bethel is black so when it comes time for her to have a crush on someone who is it? A conveniently created boy who also is black. In Sweet Valley High #69, the whole thing is about race and bigotry and how dumb it is, but the black guy who is one of the two main characters in it is dating the only other black girl ever mentioned at Sweet Valley High. Maria is Hispanic and can date Winston. Jade Wu is Asian and I don’t remember who she was dating but I think it wasn’t another Asian guy. So why are the black characters only allowed to date other black characters? Even if those other characters have to be conveniently created to give the original character someone to date. It irks me seriously. Why are the other races allowed to date outside their race, but the black kids aren’t? ::angry fist::
Okay, I am done with my rant. Here is the recap. And if you didn’t guess what it was about already (or you skipped the rant),
The book starts off with a track meet between Sweet Valley Junior High and Kennedy Middle School (where?) and Bethel worrying about the star runner on the other team. But her attention is grabbed when she spots Jameel (interesting note: Jameel is a variant of Jamil which means “beautiful” in Arabic), the conveniently created new character. He is a transfer student and an amazing runner. Bethel thinks that watching him run is like watching poetry in motion. Jessica starts teasing Bethel about having a crush but stops when she remembers that Jameel is only in seventh grade. That makes him too young for a lofty 8th grader like Bethel. Jameel smiles at Bethel and her heart gives a little flutter. But no way is she pairing off like all the other losers in her class. Not even for the upcoming beach party.
Meanwhile, Salvador is freaking out because his parents are coming into town. His parents are both Majors in the Army and stationed in Germany. His dad is all about discipline and sports and Salvador is all about writing. He knows the visit will be awkward with his parents trying to buy him things he wouldn’t ever wear, do things he has grown out of, and try to force him to play sports he isn’t interested in. Salvador even has his classmates teaching him sports trivia. When his parents arrive they are just as dictatorial and babying as assumed. But instead of arguing and starting a fight, Salvador just stays quiet this time and lets them think what they want. When Elizabeth asks to meet his parents, he vehemently nixes the idea. His dad wouldn’t understand him having friends that were girls. (though, if his dad were such a manly man, you’d think he’d be impressed that his son had two “girlfriends.” ) His mother keeps calling him “Sally” which would annoy me to no end.
The next morning at school, Bethel finds some notes in her locker. She at first assumes they are for her lockermate who is apparently cute and popular, but they are for her. They are from Jameel. He wants to know if she’ll go to the beach party with him and he also writes her some poems. Bethel at first thinks that Jessica put Jameel up to it, but she denies knowledge. Jessica is happy that Bethel has a date for the party but she herself hasn’t been asked. She keeps hoping Damon will ask her, but he hasn’t mentioned it. Jameel himself then appears on the scene and gives her a rose-a foil-wrapped chocolate rose, the best kind. The people in “Eyeball Alley” (the hall of lockers with the biggest bigmouths in the school, the one where Jessica has her locker) tease her about her young love. Bethel is embarrassed, but also flattered. At track though, she and Jameel are talking as they run, but when they are teased from the sidelines, Bethel jerks away from Jameel and sprints off. Jessica is confused because Bethel never cares what anyone thinks of her and is wondering why such mild teasing caused such an intense reaction. She heads to the showers but is stopped by Salvador who is in gym class. He tells Bethel that he got a submission to the ‘zine that is about her. It is a song/poem to be sung to the tune “Happy Birthday” and it is written by Jameel. Bethel is frozen solid as Salvador sings the song in front of the entire class and then gets them to join in. Jessica saves Bethel’s bacon by showing up and dragging her off to the showers. Bethel might or might not be crying, but she sure is embarrassed.
Later on, Salvador (who doesn’t know he mortally embarrassed Bethel) is at the Natural History Museum with his parents. They are all gushy about it, but he has seen it a hundred times since they always come there. His mom continues to call him “Sally” but does make some good observations and isn’t the total drag his dad is. But the whole family has a bonding moment over the cool bones of the dinosaurs. Sally gets a T. Rex at the gift shop and starts goofing off with it. His mom is amused but his dad tells him to straighten up, thus killing any good mood that had formed.
The next day, Salvador ham-handedly apologizes to Bethel, but not before he sticks his foot in it and she nearly hits him. There are more notes in her locker and Bethel has decided she has had enough. She goes off to find Jameel. She tells him they need to talk. He smiles at her and she is momentarily dumbfounded but regains her focus. She tells him the notes have to stop because people are making fun of them. Jameel mentions that he sent six or seven poems into the ‘zine and they are all about Bethel. He saw her run a month earlier and hasn’t stopped thinking about her since. Part of me is all “Aww” and part of me is all “Stalkerish-yo?” He wants to know more about Bethel and they talk. Everything is all sunshine and roses until they get into the cafeteria and Bethel just can’t take all the people looking at her. (OMG, Bethel, I totally know where you are coming from. I was once nagged until I told which guy I thought in our class was cute and then they never ever let me forget it. I could barely stand to look at the guy after that.) Bethel tells Jameel to get lost which was pretty harsh and she knows it. She isn’t so hungry anymore.
Anna and Liz are waiting to see if Salvador will sit with them today. He has been acting like a spaz since his parents came to town and for some reason the girls are offended. They want to know why Salvador hasn’t introduced them (well, Liz, Anna has already met them) and think he is ashamed of her. Or his parents. But it is more complicated and he hopes they’ll eventually forgive him. For what, freaking out because his absentee parents returned temporarily? Lame. Liz makes sure that Salvador apologized to Bethel because no one likes their crushes to be made public like that. Anna says some stuff about how if you hang out in the girl’s bathroom long enough, you can hear all the gossip in the school. She is usually in there a long time when she has a sad attack remembering her dead brother, Tim. Salvador, after all the stuff about not wanting Liz and Anna to be exposed to his ‘rents, invites them to come on the shopping expedition his parents have planned. Anna and Liz are supposed to help convince his parents that the clothes they pick out are just not his style and help him get good clothes. Uh, okay. Clothes shopping with a 13 year-old boy and his parents, sign me up?
At track, things don’t go so well for Bethel because the boys practice with them. Jameel comes right up to her and tries to talk. He apparently has a thick skin and her blowing him off earlier didn’t even dent his enthusiasm. Bethel notices all the other people running around them are listening and asks, “What is this, a play?” which is pretty funny, but they all still listen in. Jameel throws pride out the window and begs her to go with him to the dance. The listeners chime in and tell her to go with him. But the one thing Bethel hates is being railroaded into something so she really digs her feet in and says that the day he beats her in a race, is when she’ll go with him to the party. Jameel is all hot damn! Let’s race on Thursday. A 400 meter. Bethel agrees like an idiot because she is a cross-country runner and Jameel is a sprinter. But if she wins, he has to leave her alone. If he wins, she’ll go to the dance, and everyone cheers.
For the mall trip, Anna tries to give Salvador pre-shopping advice. You don’t make faces at ugly clothes, you distract by grabbing acceptable alternatives. Decent advice, Anna. Wish I had known that when my mom was picking out my clothes. Salvador’s parents seem happy to meet Liz and to see Anna again but realize they are being outflanked on the clothes front. They ask what they think of Salvador’s current clothing. Liz and Anna look him up and down and conclude he looks okay. “His clothes are baggy and ill-fitting!” his dad exclaims. Liz tells him that that is the style right now. Salvador’s dad makes a comment about everyone throwing themselves off a bridge but Liz counters with fashion choices are not the same as harming yourself. Zing! Off to the mall and the first store they get dragged to is all country club wear. Salvador’s mom is a bit more understanding and after his dad has sufficiently embarrassed him, they convince him to go to a store that has clothes Salvador will actually wear. Afterwards, no one has died of embarrassment (though there were a few close calls) and the group heads to the ice cream store. His mom uses the “Sally” nickname loudly and who should appear but Jessica and Kristin. Salvador’s dad is confused by the appearance of another Elizabeth so Salvador introduces her as Jessica, Elizabeth’s evil twin. Jessica calls him “Sally” but Kristin is nice. Salvador realizes that he is actually glad his parents are in town.
Saturday morning, Jessica gets up at the unheard-of hour of 7 am. She promised to help Bethel with her extra training for the race with Jameel. No one else is up at home so Jess takes a shower, gets some breakfast, and heads to the bus stop. All without any parental intervention. At the school, Bethel has some starting blocks to practice starts with. Jessica tries them out and really likes it. Bethel works on trying to find the right setting for her and they do stretches and other track-like things. Jessica tries to coach Bethel on sprinting but neither are very good. Jessica has a plan-Bethel should just lose and go to the party with Jameel. But Bethel’s competitive spirit won’t let her lose on purpose. She is running the distance at something like 80 seconds. I don’t know if that is good or not. Jess is a little upset that Bethel is so anxious to get out of a possible date to the party when she, Jessica, hasn’t even been asked. The next couple of days are repeats-early mornings of training and track. Jessica sleeps through a few classes, manages to wear the same clothes two days in a row, and put her foot in her mouth when Bethel’s time gets worse by suggesting she has over trained.
Damon is worried about Jessica. All week she has been acting weird. She’s been wearing ugly shirts and her hair has been messy and she has spent lunchtimes yawning. On Wednesday, she actually falls asleep into her tray. They think she has fainted and splash water on her. When she wakes up, they give her caffeine and she explains about the race-Damon has apparently been living under a rock. At the race, Bethel has to clench her teeth to keep from smiling back when Jameel smiles at her. He has also been leaving poems in her locker all week. They set up and Bethel just tries to run her own race. She is not used to the sustained sprint and wants to slow down by the end but keeps up the pace. She wins! She is so happy until she remembers what her “prize” was. Now she doesn’t feel so great because she doesn’t have a date for the party (not that she really wanted one) and because she did have a crush on Jameel. If everyone hadn’t made such a big deal out of it, she probably would have been fine but now she has nothing.
Jessica is thrilled the next day when she gets to sleep in until 6 A.M. She asks Liz if she knows why Damon hasn’t asked her to the dance. Liz says it isn’t because he doesn’t like her anymore because he still sits with her at lunch but maybe he doesn’t have the 10 dollars per person for the tickets to the dance. Jess scrounges through her room and finds twenty-two dollars-she needs to get to school early to buy some tickets. Salvador gets a totally different wakeup. His dad comes in and wants to have a man-to-man talk. He thinks that Salvador should join a sports team to build character and strength. Salvador just shrugs and silently curses his dad for ruining the morning. Jessica is an empowered woman and buys the tickets and is going to ask Damon to the dance…as soon as she gets the courage. She finally pulls the tickets out just as he pulls out tickets too and they share a laugh. He didn’t ask the week before because he wasn’t sure he could get the money but he did extra yard work and wanted to ask her earlier in the week but she kept falling asleep. Bethel meanwhile has no notes in her locker and can’t remember why she wanted Jameel to leave her alone so badly. At lunch, Jessica gives her one of the extra tickets and knows what Bethel is feeling but kindly doesn’t rub it in.
On Saturday, Bethel is up early and feeling depressed. She decides to go running but first she looks at all the notes and stuff that Jameel gave her. She had to uncrumple a few because she had been so mad upon receiving them, but not mad enough to throw any of them away. They are all on different colored pieces of paper with neat handwriting indicating that he took some time and effort with them. She feels like such a ninny. She heads to the track but someone is already there-Jameel. She stands by the fence and watches him run. When he sees her, she waves. He starts to wave back but then turns and leaves. He is leaving her alone like she asked, but that isn’t what she really wanted. Ah, Jameel, an early introduction to the headgames of women. We want men to do what we tell them except when we don’t.
Salvador is making food with his parents when his dad cons him into another father-son talk. But instead of railing at him to join a sports team, he tells Salvador that his own father didn’t understand him when he was a kid and likely Salvador is feeling the same way. Wha? Salvador is confused and wary. But his dad says that he understands that Salvador will never be a mini-him and that he’ll try to understand. He also tells Salvador no to give up on the Elizabeth front-she says she only wants to be friends, but she might change her mind. Salvador then asks if his dad can talk to his mom about not calling him “Sally” any more and that he has outgrown the Legos. BLASPHEMY!! You can never outgrow LEGOs. It simply isn’t possible. But things look better on the Salvador-parents front.
Bethel has dressed up for the dance. She is wearing a dress and platform shoes and let Jessica put orange nail polish and dark lipstick and gloss on. And mascara. She’s 13? Yeah, not a fan of makeup on little girls, even for dances. As soon as she gets to the beach, she kicks off the shoes and wanders around. It is “couples hell” and they are only playing slow dances. It isn’t even dark and the kids are dancing? I remember my 8th grade dance and it was a lot of girls on one side staring at guys on the other side or huddling in circles giggling while the guys horsed around. A few of the more “serious” couples would maybe dance after an hour or two, but that was it. Anyway, Bethel sees Jameel standing with some of the track guys and swallows her pride and goes up to him. She asks him to dance. He is still a little hurt but agrees. They dance. Then they go to Jessica’s group and Bethel introduces him to everyone. Then they “put on that Aerosmith song that everyone pretends they are sick of, but secretly loves” and everyone dances. Stop right there. If it is that Aerosmith song from that lame asteroid movie, everyone IS sick of it and it DOES suck. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. But Bethel is maybe kinda converted to all the romance stuff.
The end. Rather an abrupt ending, but they all seem to be that way. All this huge build-up to the big “dance” and then one chapter and it is all resolved.