SVH Senior Year #10: Broken Angel
So this book picked up right where the previous one ended. Like, this book started with the other half of the scene #9 ended on. Which makes me wonder why they didn't publish them as just one book. It's not like they're long books, and it would have made a lot more sense that way. But what do I know? I don't write Sweet Valley books, I just snark them.
The A Plot:
We start the book back at the racetrack with Angel, who has just lost everything. He had been trying to find a quick way to make enough money so he could go to Standford University, and apparently nobody ever told him it's as easy to lose money as win it when you're betting on horses. Poor lad. Conner and Tia, who went looking for Angel, found him at the tracks. Tia is shocked (and hysteric). Conner not so much.
The next day, Angel admits to his parents that he lost all his savings at the track. His dad throws a hissy fit and fires him from the shop. This makes no sense to me... your son has no money, he can no longer afford to go to school, so you take away his job? Way to be supportive and understanding, Dad.
Tia, Conner, and some guy I don't recall hearing about before, Andy, all start plotting, trying to figure out how they can help Angel. Why is Angel not scheming with them? He's too busy wallowing in his own misery to do much of anything, it seems. Fortunately for him, Conner's mother is involved in a number of charities, some of which have scholarships attached to them. You'd think the charities could use that money for something else... like, oh, maybe the cause they're supposedly supporting? I dunno, where I come from, scholarships are usually sponsored by companies looking for a little PR, but that wouldn't fit as neatly into the plot, I suppose.
Conner goes to talk to his mother about the possibility of a scholarship for Angel... and is amazed when she's actually sober for the conversation! Not only that, she's paying bills! Will wonders never cease? He's very suspicious about her acting like an adult, but she agrees to see if she can pull a couple of strings.
Tia goes to Angel's to tell him about their scholarship idea and try to cheer him up, and is shocked when she finds him cheerful instead of the depressed, irritating bore he's been for the first half of the book. He tells her the money doesn't matter anymore, since he's decided not to go to school after all. Because losing all that money? It was totally fate. He's destined to never go to university. Instead, he's supposed to stay here with her forever and ever! Isn't that great? Tia is less than impressed, but she's not nearly as creeped out by this as I would have been. She tries to talk reason into him, telling him it was a mistake and not fate, that he should go to university. Angel gets all huffy and starts blaming all his troubles on Tia and gets to shouting about how if she loved him, she'd be happy for him to stay in Sweet Valley with her. Angel's sounding like he's taken a few too many estrogen pills. Tia tells him to get a grip on reality and takes off. Good for Tia.
Now Angel is back to being emo because the conversation with Tia didn't go the way he wanted it to. He's even more depressed when Conner stops trying to convince him to go to school, even though he was the one who told Conner to stop harrassing him. I'm with Conner on this one; Angel doesn't deserve the time his friends spend worrying about him, what with the way he's been acting. He spends his days at home watching tv and angsting, when he sees an ad in the newspaper for a promising-sounding job! They never actually tell us what sort of job, just that it's in the "computer industry." Inexplicably, Angel seems to think they'll hire just anybody off the street. He goes in for the interview, which seems to go well; in fact, they offer him a position... as the janitor. Angel says he'll think about it and leaves before he starts to cry. What a weenus.
Tia and Jessica discuss their boy woes (see B Plot), and Tia gets a fantastic idea; she, Jess, Elizabeth (who's still moping over Conner from several books back), and Maria should all get together for a girl's night. They watch movies and eat popcorn in their skimpy pyjamas (I'm not kidding; the ghostwriters have evidently watched too many teen movies); all is going well, until Elizabeth forgets she's supposed to be the sensitive twin and starts asking Tia about Angel, despite knowing the situation. Now it's Tia's turn to break down and cry. Maria suggests Angel get a position as an RA at the university, which should provide him with free room and board. The waterworks stop immediately.
Conner's mom staggers home from her fancy dinner meeting stinking drunk. She forgot all about Angel and the scholarship, and Conner yells at her. He's actually kind of a jerk about it, telling her what a screwup she is and how he can't even be bothered with her anymore. I mean, it was a crappy thing for her to do, but dude, that's still pretty harsh. When he's finished yelling at her, she takes off, and the last thing Conner hears is the sound of screeching tires. Duhn-duh-duhn!
Tia looks up the cut-off date for RA applications, and finds out there's six days left. She rushes over to Angel's house with the necessary paperwork. Angel, meanwhile, is summarizing the book for us, I guess in case someone slept through all the angst. He's not only lost the money for his schooling, he's also lost his job, his parents' respect, and he's shut out all his friends. Not to mention the highest aspiration he can hold in life as a non-university student is to become a janitor. Oh noes! This is, of course, where Tia comes in. And they manage to fix up their Big Misunderstanding. It's not that she wants to send him away; it's that she loves him and wants what's best for him! And that, of course, is university, so he doesn't have to be a janitor for the rest of his life. (For the record, I'm pretty sure there are worse fates.) They get all makey outy, and Angel fills out the university forms, as well as the RA application. And all that angst? It's like it never happened. They all live happily ever after, through the power of Tia's Unconditional Love.
Everyone except Conner, that is. Because he's just gotten a phone call telling him his mother has just been in a car accident and is now in the hospital.
The B Plot:
Jessica is desperate to explain to Jeremy that when he saw her and Will out together, it wasn't a date, despite the rumours. She thinks if she can convince him of that they can get back together and forget the whole incident. She talks to him at work and he says he believes her; however, he also thinks she has feelings for Will. She's indignant about this, despite the fact that he's totally right. Jeremy says they should take a break until she's got her feelings sorted out. She's pretty sure she wants to be with Jeremy and not Will, but Jeremy's not so sure. Jessica decides the best way to prove her feelings for Jeremy is to stay as far away from Will as possible; not a bad plan in theory, except that the two of them, along with Tia, are responsible for planning the cheerleading/football team kidnap. Jessica asks Tia make sure she's there for the rest of the planning meetings, since she really doesn't want to be alone with Will. She spends the whole book fighting her feelings for Will, but every time they cross paths, they have special little connecting moments. Finally, the day of the kidnap arrives, and the pre-arranged drivers start waking up the cheerleaders and football players to force them into breakfast in their pyjamas and face cream. I still think this is a really weird tradition. At one of the football player's houses, everyone climbs into his bedroom and jumps on his bed in a major pileup. Will ends up falling on top of Jessica, and they start kissing. Seems an odd place to get it on, with so many witnesses, but whatever. The noise of the rest of the crowd snaps them out of it before very long (but apparently wasn't enough to keep it from happening...) and they pull apart. Jessica is conflicted. She knows this is a bad thing, and decidedly not what she wants. However, she feels really good and wants it to happen again. I'm thinking Jessica needs some psychoanalysis.
The C Plot:
Ken is still mooning over having lost poor, temporarily dead Olivia and football. Seems he gave up football when Olivia died because it made him feel too alive. And why should he be alive when Olivia is dead? Only now he wants to play again, because life without football has no meaning. Maria is trying to talk him through it, telling him not to take no for an answer. However, the coach has already told Ken off for showing up at practice, since he's no longer part of the team. Maria tells Ken he just needs to be more persistent. I'm thinking Maria's version of persistence is bordering on insanity, but she seems to make sense to Ken. Or perhaps it has something to do with her being the first girl to show up in his dreams since... Olivia! On Maria's suggestion, Ken shows up to the next practice and participates in the warmup, despite the coach repeatedly telling him to go home. Eventually, the coach grants him permission to practice with them, and possibly sit on the bench for a game or two, although he's still not officially on the team. Ken is happy, because life has meaning once more. Hopefully this means the ghostwriter won't harp on poor dead Olivia anymore.
Oh, and seriously? Someone needs to tell the publisher that italicizing a different font does not look like someone's handwriting.
The A Plot:
We start the book back at the racetrack with Angel, who has just lost everything. He had been trying to find a quick way to make enough money so he could go to Standford University, and apparently nobody ever told him it's as easy to lose money as win it when you're betting on horses. Poor lad. Conner and Tia, who went looking for Angel, found him at the tracks. Tia is shocked (and hysteric). Conner not so much.
The next day, Angel admits to his parents that he lost all his savings at the track. His dad throws a hissy fit and fires him from the shop. This makes no sense to me... your son has no money, he can no longer afford to go to school, so you take away his job? Way to be supportive and understanding, Dad.
Tia, Conner, and some guy I don't recall hearing about before, Andy, all start plotting, trying to figure out how they can help Angel. Why is Angel not scheming with them? He's too busy wallowing in his own misery to do much of anything, it seems. Fortunately for him, Conner's mother is involved in a number of charities, some of which have scholarships attached to them. You'd think the charities could use that money for something else... like, oh, maybe the cause they're supposedly supporting? I dunno, where I come from, scholarships are usually sponsored by companies looking for a little PR, but that wouldn't fit as neatly into the plot, I suppose.
Conner goes to talk to his mother about the possibility of a scholarship for Angel... and is amazed when she's actually sober for the conversation! Not only that, she's paying bills! Will wonders never cease? He's very suspicious about her acting like an adult, but she agrees to see if she can pull a couple of strings.
Tia goes to Angel's to tell him about their scholarship idea and try to cheer him up, and is shocked when she finds him cheerful instead of the depressed, irritating bore he's been for the first half of the book. He tells her the money doesn't matter anymore, since he's decided not to go to school after all. Because losing all that money? It was totally fate. He's destined to never go to university. Instead, he's supposed to stay here with her forever and ever! Isn't that great? Tia is less than impressed, but she's not nearly as creeped out by this as I would have been. She tries to talk reason into him, telling him it was a mistake and not fate, that he should go to university. Angel gets all huffy and starts blaming all his troubles on Tia and gets to shouting about how if she loved him, she'd be happy for him to stay in Sweet Valley with her. Angel's sounding like he's taken a few too many estrogen pills. Tia tells him to get a grip on reality and takes off. Good for Tia.
Now Angel is back to being emo because the conversation with Tia didn't go the way he wanted it to. He's even more depressed when Conner stops trying to convince him to go to school, even though he was the one who told Conner to stop harrassing him. I'm with Conner on this one; Angel doesn't deserve the time his friends spend worrying about him, what with the way he's been acting. He spends his days at home watching tv and angsting, when he sees an ad in the newspaper for a promising-sounding job! They never actually tell us what sort of job, just that it's in the "computer industry." Inexplicably, Angel seems to think they'll hire just anybody off the street. He goes in for the interview, which seems to go well; in fact, they offer him a position... as the janitor. Angel says he'll think about it and leaves before he starts to cry. What a weenus.
Tia and Jessica discuss their boy woes (see B Plot), and Tia gets a fantastic idea; she, Jess, Elizabeth (who's still moping over Conner from several books back), and Maria should all get together for a girl's night. They watch movies and eat popcorn in their skimpy pyjamas (I'm not kidding; the ghostwriters have evidently watched too many teen movies); all is going well, until Elizabeth forgets she's supposed to be the sensitive twin and starts asking Tia about Angel, despite knowing the situation. Now it's Tia's turn to break down and cry. Maria suggests Angel get a position as an RA at the university, which should provide him with free room and board. The waterworks stop immediately.
Conner's mom staggers home from her fancy dinner meeting stinking drunk. She forgot all about Angel and the scholarship, and Conner yells at her. He's actually kind of a jerk about it, telling her what a screwup she is and how he can't even be bothered with her anymore. I mean, it was a crappy thing for her to do, but dude, that's still pretty harsh. When he's finished yelling at her, she takes off, and the last thing Conner hears is the sound of screeching tires. Duhn-duh-duhn!
Tia looks up the cut-off date for RA applications, and finds out there's six days left. She rushes over to Angel's house with the necessary paperwork. Angel, meanwhile, is summarizing the book for us, I guess in case someone slept through all the angst. He's not only lost the money for his schooling, he's also lost his job, his parents' respect, and he's shut out all his friends. Not to mention the highest aspiration he can hold in life as a non-university student is to become a janitor. Oh noes! This is, of course, where Tia comes in. And they manage to fix up their Big Misunderstanding. It's not that she wants to send him away; it's that she loves him and wants what's best for him! And that, of course, is university, so he doesn't have to be a janitor for the rest of his life. (For the record, I'm pretty sure there are worse fates.) They get all makey outy, and Angel fills out the university forms, as well as the RA application. And all that angst? It's like it never happened. They all live happily ever after, through the power of Tia's Unconditional Love.
Everyone except Conner, that is. Because he's just gotten a phone call telling him his mother has just been in a car accident and is now in the hospital.
The B Plot:
Jessica is desperate to explain to Jeremy that when he saw her and Will out together, it wasn't a date, despite the rumours. She thinks if she can convince him of that they can get back together and forget the whole incident. She talks to him at work and he says he believes her; however, he also thinks she has feelings for Will. She's indignant about this, despite the fact that he's totally right. Jeremy says they should take a break until she's got her feelings sorted out. She's pretty sure she wants to be with Jeremy and not Will, but Jeremy's not so sure. Jessica decides the best way to prove her feelings for Jeremy is to stay as far away from Will as possible; not a bad plan in theory, except that the two of them, along with Tia, are responsible for planning the cheerleading/football team kidnap. Jessica asks Tia make sure she's there for the rest of the planning meetings, since she really doesn't want to be alone with Will. She spends the whole book fighting her feelings for Will, but every time they cross paths, they have special little connecting moments. Finally, the day of the kidnap arrives, and the pre-arranged drivers start waking up the cheerleaders and football players to force them into breakfast in their pyjamas and face cream. I still think this is a really weird tradition. At one of the football player's houses, everyone climbs into his bedroom and jumps on his bed in a major pileup. Will ends up falling on top of Jessica, and they start kissing. Seems an odd place to get it on, with so many witnesses, but whatever. The noise of the rest of the crowd snaps them out of it before very long (but apparently wasn't enough to keep it from happening...) and they pull apart. Jessica is conflicted. She knows this is a bad thing, and decidedly not what she wants. However, she feels really good and wants it to happen again. I'm thinking Jessica needs some psychoanalysis.
The C Plot:
Ken is still mooning over having lost poor, temporarily dead Olivia and football. Seems he gave up football when Olivia died because it made him feel too alive. And why should he be alive when Olivia is dead? Only now he wants to play again, because life without football has no meaning. Maria is trying to talk him through it, telling him not to take no for an answer. However, the coach has already told Ken off for showing up at practice, since he's no longer part of the team. Maria tells Ken he just needs to be more persistent. I'm thinking Maria's version of persistence is bordering on insanity, but she seems to make sense to Ken. Or perhaps it has something to do with her being the first girl to show up in his dreams since... Olivia! On Maria's suggestion, Ken shows up to the next practice and participates in the warmup, despite the coach repeatedly telling him to go home. Eventually, the coach grants him permission to practice with them, and possibly sit on the bench for a game or two, although he's still not officially on the team. Ken is happy, because life has meaning once more. Hopefully this means the ghostwriter won't harp on poor dead Olivia anymore.
Oh, and seriously? Someone needs to tell the publisher that italicizing a different font does not look like someone's handwriting.