SVH 53: Second Chance
Today is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Help me, Sweet Valley, you’re my only hope!
Um, yeah, I just crave the lulz. I turned my apartment upside down looking for SVU: Escape to New York, which I began recapping months ago. But it’s still missing. I guess I’m going to have to put up missing fliers all over the neighborhood. It’s too bad there isn’t some kind of Amber alert for missing Sweet Valley books. There should also be some kind of Sweet Valley special response team that will come in and find your book. Some people just don’t understand that this is an EMERGENCY.
Luckily, I did find my copy of Sweet Valley High #53: Second Chance. It’s been recapped already, but I’m desperate here. Desperate!
My edition is a hardcover library edition. I only mention it because it makes me laugh to think of some book binder trying to save this book, thinking it’s some kind of classic literature that needs to be preserved for posterity. I mean, it is classic and does need to be preserved, but… not in the way that was intended!
Enid and Elizabeth have been “working closely with Roger Collins” (I bet) to get approval to start a Big Sister-Little Sister program at Sweet Valley High. Enid is really excited about helping one of the girls. She probably just wants to finally have someone who will call her Sidekick.
Elizabeth and Jessica were identical twins: five-feet six inches tall, with willowy figures, shoulder-length blond hair, and eyes the blue-green of the Pacific Ocean. Although they looked alike, the twins were vastly different.
I’m really impressed that the ghostwriter got all the “alike but different, Pacific ocean eyes” stuff packed into two sentences. If only she had reference a perfect size six figure, she would’ve gotten Sweet Valley paragraph BINGO. I didn’t know the twins sere five six though. That means if Jessica wants to become America’s Next Top Model (and you know she does), she’ll have to go on the shorties season-oh the indignity.
Anyway, Enid and Liz want Jessica to sign up to be a big sister because they think there is a girl that sounds just like her. Jessica tells them she can’t. See, Bruce Patman is having a party at the end of the month and she really wants to work on her tan. This cracks me up. Oh, Jessica, never change. Eventually she agrees because the girl, Allison, “sounds like fun.” The last little girl to need a big sister is Emily (what a beautiful name. I wish I were named Emily-oh wait, I am.) who plays tennis (it’s not me then). Jeffrey suggests that they ask Kristin Thompson to be her big sister. Kristin is a star tennis player, but she’s almost always busy training.
I’d just like to state here, for the record, that if I were the Emily who needed a big sister, I would want Lila. In fact, I want to call dibs on Lila being my big sister should 1bruce1 ever have a Little Poster-Big Fictional Character program. I know a lot of you would want Lila too, but you snooze you lose. I called dibs and that shit is for life.
Now there is a pointless scene in which Kristin talks to Shelley Novak in the library. Two books from now it’ll be her turn to put boys before sports.
Well Liz asks Kristin to be a big sister. She explains that little Emily’s mother died and it would be good if she had a female role model. Kristin says she’ll think about it. See, she has a really big tennis competition coming up soon and she hopes to make the pro-tennis circuit. We learn that Liz is not aware (half-assed meddling helps no one!) that Kristin’s own mother died when she was a child. The ghostwriter tells us that the happy part of her life ended then and after that all she had was tennis. Is it wrong of me to laugh? Melodramatic, much?
Kristin has dinner with her father and her current coach, Dorrie. Kristin is hoping to catch the eye of some fancy coach, Nick Wylie, at the big tennis match that is coming up. But until then, she has Dorrie who was a friend of her mother's and her kind of surrogate mother. Kristin just wants Dorrie and her father to tell her that they love her no matter what. She asks them what they would do if she lost and, because this is Sweet Valley Land of Bad Parenting, her dad is like “But why would you lose?” Wrong answer! You’re supposed to say you’d still love her.
Unrelatedly, rhitroadkill made a snark that I’m jealous of in her recap of this book. I have snark envy, it's a real psychological condition. She said Kristin’s coach is Dorrie (unfortunately, not a fish looking for a lost clownfish) who was her mom’s best friend and doubles partner before her death. Oh how I wish I’d thought of that. I love Finding Nemo. Do you know how much more awesome this book would be if Dorrie was actually Dory, a tiny fish with memory problems voiced by Ellen DeGeneres? I would love it if the whole cast of Finding Nemo played SVH characters but I don’t think you could find anyone who fits the Marlin/Nemo dynamic--that would mean a loving and protective father. Good luck finding one of those in Sweet Valley. But! Bill Chase could be the sea turtle.
After more melodramatic backstory about how Kristin’s mother’s plane crashed into the ocean on the way to Wimbledon and now playing tennis is the only way she can reconnect with her dead parent, Kristin heads to school the next day to talk to Liz. She agrees to be a big sister to little Emily. She thinks while doing so that she’d like to have a boyfriend like Jeffrey French (who is with Liz when they talk) because he is so awesome. Hey, keep hope alive, Kristin. In a few books he’ll be single but still just as awesome!
After school, Kristin finds out Dorrie is running late so she has an hour to kill. She thinks how nice it is to have free time, which makes me want to pat her on the head. She ends up with a group of girls watching Bruce Patman play tennis. She gives Bruce some tips. Then Jessica suggests she play against Bruce (because she wants to humiliate him about being beaten by a girl). Kristin throws the game-which is just what Bruce likes in a girl. Bruce seems to know it too so he drives her to her tennis club for practice. I know I should make some snark about how pretending to be less than you are will help you win guys but he drives her in 1bruce1! I’m so excited; I can barely contain myself. If fangirling a car is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. Bruce asks Kristin out.
They go to a movie and have fun. But Kristin makes him take her home early. She thinks, Deep down she knew she was right to insist on going home. If Bruce was worth getting to know, he would understand how much tennis meant to her. Exactly! You keep that backbone, Kristin. You’re gonna need it.
On Saturday, Liz interviews Kristin for the school paper. It’s just random insertion of Liz, designed by the ghostwriter so she can know all of Kristin’s problems and meddle in her life.
While Kristin is at practice and spilling her guts to Liz the Bard, Bruce calls her house. He speaks to her dad, Neil, and leaves his numbers. Numbers plural because Bruce has a car phone. Hehe. Remember car phones, you guys? Kristin thinks this is extravagant. When she calls him back, he invites her over to look at some new toy he bought and Kristin is like “Um, no, I have plans.” Bruce is all, “Pish posh! What is more important than me?!”
On Sunday, Kristin goes to meet little Emily. Emily is described as “small” for her age, with “dark brown hair, dark brown eyes” and a “shy” expression. Okay, I take it back, she might be me. Emily is really impressed by all Kristin’s tennis stuff (okay, again, not me). Kristin thinks that seeing the club through Emily’s eyes makes it fun again. I aww a little. Bruce calls again that day, causing a fight between Kristin and her father. Having wee little mini-me girl friends are way better than stupid boys, you guys!
Bruce invites her to Casey’s for ice cream and she’s like, “Er, I can’t have ice cream” and reacts like she’s speaking another language. No ice cream! Unheard of! Then of course he takes her somewhere else entirely because Bruce has whims, and she ends up late and her father is pissed.
On Tuesday, Kristin has her first game in the Avery Cup Tournament. Wee little Emily is in the stands with a ‘Go Kristin’ sign. I love her. But Kristin loses the first match. She’s too tense. She eventually wins it but it’s hard.
Bruce calls to congratulate her. He wasn’t at the game-unlike Emily-because he was working on the car. I’m okay with it (1bruce1 is important) but he shouldn’t tell Kristin that. He invites her to the big Patman party that Jessica referenced earlier in the book. But the party is on Friday night and on Saturday she has another big tennis match. Bruce, as per usual, doesn’t care.
At school, Amy is worried that Bruce won’t go with her to his big party. Jessica and Lila are like, “Is she pretending she has a relationship with Bruce Patman again?” Lila and Jessica heard he invited Kristin and Lila is like, “OMG it’s going to be awesome when Amy finds out.” Ha.
At the next tennis thingy (I’m always confused about the difference between, game, match and whatever), Kristin is losing again. She’s behind. She’s beating herself up and just wants a hug. Where is wee little Emily when you need her? Kristin wins anyway but Dorrie says she let her down, by panicking on the court. Kristin flips out and cries. I know that is what a coach is supposed to say, but it still seems harsh.
Later that night, Dorrie suggests that Kristin take some time to find the joy in her game again. Kristin is like, “I’m glad you suggested that because I’m going to a party on Saturday.” I don’t see what that has to do with her game, but her dad and Dorrie eventually agree.
So Kristin goes to Bruce’s stupid party. But Amy manages to monopolize his time. Kristin thinks Bruce wants to have his cake and eat it too, which is spot on. She hadn’t realized that Bruce had a bad reputation until Winston tells her so at the party. Basically, she goes home feeling like she really didn’t miss anything by giving up a social life for tennis. I’m relieved she’s not going to drop everything to go out with Bruce but I’m a bit disappointed there was no scene with Amy, and I’m sure Lila is also. I mean, couldn't she at least have pushed him into the fountainpool?
Sadly, the next day Kristin loses her tennis match. The big coach she hoped to impress (of course there has to be a guy to impress), says he’ll keep her as an alternate and she can try again next year. I don’t understand why he can’t just coach her anyway? Is it a team thing? I don’t know anything about tennis but I wasn’t aware there were teams in tennis.
Kristin has one of those tantrums when she leaves the dinner table and throws herself on her bed crying. Dorrie comes up and tells her that her mother planned to quit tennis after Wimbledon, so she could mother Kristin better. I’m not sure what to say about this. Here’s a girl that wants someone to love her unconditionally and your answer is to tell her, “Hey turns out your mother did. Too bad she died!” How is that comforting? For some reason it is for Kristin though. She always thought of her mother as “a winner” and she’s surprised that she had doubts and challenges. Duh, of course leaving your small child to play matches around the world would be hard. But she’s so fucked up in her head that she thinks being a winner means being single-minded in pursuit of a goal not overcoming obstacles and getting there anyway. Ugh, parenting in Sweet Valley is always really depressing.
At school the next day, Kristin tells off Bruce. He has the nerve to get mad at her for leaving early and she says, “If you worried about anyone even half as much as you worry about yourself you would have remembered [that she had a match the next day].” I’m so pleased that for once the girl isn’t giving up her life so she can have a boyfriend! But I still want her to get with Jeffrey once this is all over.
After school, Kristin is worried little Emily won’t be interested in her now that Kristin won’t be turning pro. But when she gets to Emily’s school, she finds that Emily is in tears. See, Emily wanted to go to this tennis camp but she didn’t get in. She thinks Kristin will be disappointed in her. Kristin reassures her that is not the case. Instead of being like, “Yay I got to do something that was never done for me” she thinks that must be how her father feels about her. I’m sure it is how her father feels, except her father has never said such a thing. So… it’s still his fault that his kid felt that way, not Kristin being silly.
(Later in the book, Kristin and her father have a Talk and he confesses he doesn’t care about her tennis, which feels like a cop out to me. Oh Sweet Valley, when will you learn that parents can’t just say “I retroactively care about you” and have it mean they’re good parents. They have to be good parents. You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.)
Kristin promises that she will train with Emily and then Emily can get into the camp next year. I’m not gonna lie, I get a bit misty. Because I think it’s good for Kristin to spend time with Emily and relearn the joy of the game (like Dorrie had said earlier) but also it’ll be good for Emily to have Kristin to bond with.
The next day at school, Mr. Collins announces an essay writing contest. It’s called “Sweet Valley in the Year Two Thousand”. Oh my god you guys, if we ever get more tote bags I totally want to have that as the theme. Golly, I can’t imagine what Sweet Valley would be like in the 2000s, can you? Maybe everyone will have car phones! IN FLYING CARS!
After class, Kristin talks to Liz. She’s all, “Oh thank you great St. Liz. If it were not for you, I would never have meet wee little Emily.” Kristin should take credit for doing it even though she had a lot of other shit going on. And Emily can take credit for being wee and awesome. But Liz? Kinda didn't do much yet somehow all the resolution is thanks to her meddling skills. I feel a bit sick so I’m going to have to skip ahead.
The phone rings at the Thompson household. It’s Nick Wylie, the tennis coach. Of course it is. We all knew he couldn’t stay away from Kristin all book didn’t we? Sharon, the girl that just beat Kristin, sprained her ankle so Kristin is in the tournament. She’s psyched.
Enid and Liz find out that Kristin will be in the Avery Cup from wee little Emily. They’re all “Ooh! We have to pretend to be friends with her now that she’s almost famous!” so they arrange to get a group of people to cheer her on. I would like to point out that only wee little Emily was there with her precious “Go Kristin” sign at the first match so the rest of y’all are front runners. Suck it.
The group that shows up to cheer on Kristin: Emily, Dorrie, Liz, Kim (Liz’s little sister), Jessica, Jeffrey, AJ, Enid, Winston, Amy Sutton(wha?) and Bruce (oh that explains that). Kristin is furious that Bruce is there, as she should be. She thinks she’ll show him. She’s determined to play the best game ever. I love the idea of her rubbing Bruce’s nose in it, but disturbed by the notion that, even if they aren’t going out, she needs a guy to give her confidence.
It’s tough, but Kristin beats the other girl, who happened to have been the top seed. Awesome. She hugs wee little Emily and everyone is happy. Yay.
Then Kristin and her dad have the talk I mentioned before. He’s all “I love you” and “I shouldn’t have tried to control your life”. Kristin is happy but it’s too little too late for me. Then he says he wants to ask Dorrie out. Kristin is ecstatic. I’m creeped out. I don’t know why. I mean she was Kristin’s mother for all intents and purposes, so it seems like it should fit. Except if he screws that relationship up as badly as he screwed up with his daughter, then Kristin will be in the middle of it all. Ugh.
The next day at school, Bruce hits on Kristin again. She thinks that now that she is a winner, he wants her again. Kristin is like, “Eff off.” As she walks away from him, head held high, she thinks she would love to fit a boy into her life but it would have to be the right boy and she was willing to wait for him. It’s Jeffrey! Book 58! Make it happen!
Then there is some set up for the next book, 54: Two Boy Weekend, about AJ entering the essay competition. What will Sweet Valley be like in the year 2000? Find out!
Um, yeah, I just crave the lulz. I turned my apartment upside down looking for SVU: Escape to New York, which I began recapping months ago. But it’s still missing. I guess I’m going to have to put up missing fliers all over the neighborhood. It’s too bad there isn’t some kind of Amber alert for missing Sweet Valley books. There should also be some kind of Sweet Valley special response team that will come in and find your book. Some people just don’t understand that this is an EMERGENCY.
Luckily, I did find my copy of Sweet Valley High #53: Second Chance. It’s been recapped already, but I’m desperate here. Desperate!
My edition is a hardcover library edition. I only mention it because it makes me laugh to think of some book binder trying to save this book, thinking it’s some kind of classic literature that needs to be preserved for posterity. I mean, it is classic and does need to be preserved, but… not in the way that was intended!
Enid and Elizabeth have been “working closely with Roger Collins” (I bet) to get approval to start a Big Sister-Little Sister program at Sweet Valley High. Enid is really excited about helping one of the girls. She probably just wants to finally have someone who will call her Sidekick.
Elizabeth and Jessica were identical twins: five-feet six inches tall, with willowy figures, shoulder-length blond hair, and eyes the blue-green of the Pacific Ocean. Although they looked alike, the twins were vastly different.
I’m really impressed that the ghostwriter got all the “alike but different, Pacific ocean eyes” stuff packed into two sentences. If only she had reference a perfect size six figure, she would’ve gotten Sweet Valley paragraph BINGO. I didn’t know the twins sere five six though. That means if Jessica wants to become America’s Next Top Model (and you know she does), she’ll have to go on the shorties season-oh the indignity.
Anyway, Enid and Liz want Jessica to sign up to be a big sister because they think there is a girl that sounds just like her. Jessica tells them she can’t. See, Bruce Patman is having a party at the end of the month and she really wants to work on her tan. This cracks me up. Oh, Jessica, never change. Eventually she agrees because the girl, Allison, “sounds like fun.” The last little girl to need a big sister is Emily (what a beautiful name. I wish I were named Emily-oh wait, I am.) who plays tennis (it’s not me then). Jeffrey suggests that they ask Kristin Thompson to be her big sister. Kristin is a star tennis player, but she’s almost always busy training.
I’d just like to state here, for the record, that if I were the Emily who needed a big sister, I would want Lila. In fact, I want to call dibs on Lila being my big sister should 1bruce1 ever have a Little Poster-Big Fictional Character program. I know a lot of you would want Lila too, but you snooze you lose. I called dibs and that shit is for life.
Now there is a pointless scene in which Kristin talks to Shelley Novak in the library. Two books from now it’ll be her turn to put boys before sports.
Well Liz asks Kristin to be a big sister. She explains that little Emily’s mother died and it would be good if she had a female role model. Kristin says she’ll think about it. See, she has a really big tennis competition coming up soon and she hopes to make the pro-tennis circuit. We learn that Liz is not aware (half-assed meddling helps no one!) that Kristin’s own mother died when she was a child. The ghostwriter tells us that the happy part of her life ended then and after that all she had was tennis. Is it wrong of me to laugh? Melodramatic, much?
Kristin has dinner with her father and her current coach, Dorrie. Kristin is hoping to catch the eye of some fancy coach, Nick Wylie, at the big tennis match that is coming up. But until then, she has Dorrie who was a friend of her mother's and her kind of surrogate mother. Kristin just wants Dorrie and her father to tell her that they love her no matter what. She asks them what they would do if she lost and, because this is Sweet Valley Land of Bad Parenting, her dad is like “But why would you lose?” Wrong answer! You’re supposed to say you’d still love her.
Unrelatedly, rhitroadkill made a snark that I’m jealous of in her recap of this book. I have snark envy, it's a real psychological condition. She said Kristin’s coach is Dorrie (unfortunately, not a fish looking for a lost clownfish) who was her mom’s best friend and doubles partner before her death. Oh how I wish I’d thought of that. I love Finding Nemo. Do you know how much more awesome this book would be if Dorrie was actually Dory, a tiny fish with memory problems voiced by Ellen DeGeneres? I would love it if the whole cast of Finding Nemo played SVH characters but I don’t think you could find anyone who fits the Marlin/Nemo dynamic--that would mean a loving and protective father. Good luck finding one of those in Sweet Valley. But! Bill Chase could be the sea turtle.
After more melodramatic backstory about how Kristin’s mother’s plane crashed into the ocean on the way to Wimbledon and now playing tennis is the only way she can reconnect with her dead parent, Kristin heads to school the next day to talk to Liz. She agrees to be a big sister to little Emily. She thinks while doing so that she’d like to have a boyfriend like Jeffrey French (who is with Liz when they talk) because he is so awesome. Hey, keep hope alive, Kristin. In a few books he’ll be single but still just as awesome!
After school, Kristin finds out Dorrie is running late so she has an hour to kill. She thinks how nice it is to have free time, which makes me want to pat her on the head. She ends up with a group of girls watching Bruce Patman play tennis. She gives Bruce some tips. Then Jessica suggests she play against Bruce (because she wants to humiliate him about being beaten by a girl). Kristin throws the game-which is just what Bruce likes in a girl. Bruce seems to know it too so he drives her to her tennis club for practice. I know I should make some snark about how pretending to be less than you are will help you win guys but he drives her in 1bruce1! I’m so excited; I can barely contain myself. If fangirling a car is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. Bruce asks Kristin out.
They go to a movie and have fun. But Kristin makes him take her home early. She thinks, Deep down she knew she was right to insist on going home. If Bruce was worth getting to know, he would understand how much tennis meant to her. Exactly! You keep that backbone, Kristin. You’re gonna need it.
On Saturday, Liz interviews Kristin for the school paper. It’s just random insertion of Liz, designed by the ghostwriter so she can know all of Kristin’s problems and meddle in her life.
While Kristin is at practice and spilling her guts to Liz the Bard, Bruce calls her house. He speaks to her dad, Neil, and leaves his numbers. Numbers plural because Bruce has a car phone. Hehe. Remember car phones, you guys? Kristin thinks this is extravagant. When she calls him back, he invites her over to look at some new toy he bought and Kristin is like “Um, no, I have plans.” Bruce is all, “Pish posh! What is more important than me?!”
On Sunday, Kristin goes to meet little Emily. Emily is described as “small” for her age, with “dark brown hair, dark brown eyes” and a “shy” expression. Okay, I take it back, she might be me. Emily is really impressed by all Kristin’s tennis stuff (okay, again, not me). Kristin thinks that seeing the club through Emily’s eyes makes it fun again. I aww a little. Bruce calls again that day, causing a fight between Kristin and her father. Having wee little mini-me girl friends are way better than stupid boys, you guys!
Bruce invites her to Casey’s for ice cream and she’s like, “Er, I can’t have ice cream” and reacts like she’s speaking another language. No ice cream! Unheard of! Then of course he takes her somewhere else entirely because Bruce has whims, and she ends up late and her father is pissed.
On Tuesday, Kristin has her first game in the Avery Cup Tournament. Wee little Emily is in the stands with a ‘Go Kristin’ sign. I love her. But Kristin loses the first match. She’s too tense. She eventually wins it but it’s hard.
Bruce calls to congratulate her. He wasn’t at the game-unlike Emily-because he was working on the car. I’m okay with it (1bruce1 is important) but he shouldn’t tell Kristin that. He invites her to the big Patman party that Jessica referenced earlier in the book. But the party is on Friday night and on Saturday she has another big tennis match. Bruce, as per usual, doesn’t care.
At school, Amy is worried that Bruce won’t go with her to his big party. Jessica and Lila are like, “Is she pretending she has a relationship with Bruce Patman again?” Lila and Jessica heard he invited Kristin and Lila is like, “OMG it’s going to be awesome when Amy finds out.” Ha.
At the next tennis thingy (I’m always confused about the difference between, game, match and whatever), Kristin is losing again. She’s behind. She’s beating herself up and just wants a hug. Where is wee little Emily when you need her? Kristin wins anyway but Dorrie says she let her down, by panicking on the court. Kristin flips out and cries. I know that is what a coach is supposed to say, but it still seems harsh.
Later that night, Dorrie suggests that Kristin take some time to find the joy in her game again. Kristin is like, “I’m glad you suggested that because I’m going to a party on Saturday.” I don’t see what that has to do with her game, but her dad and Dorrie eventually agree.
So Kristin goes to Bruce’s stupid party. But Amy manages to monopolize his time. Kristin thinks Bruce wants to have his cake and eat it too, which is spot on. She hadn’t realized that Bruce had a bad reputation until Winston tells her so at the party. Basically, she goes home feeling like she really didn’t miss anything by giving up a social life for tennis. I’m relieved she’s not going to drop everything to go out with Bruce but I’m a bit disappointed there was no scene with Amy, and I’m sure Lila is also. I mean, couldn't she at least have pushed him into the fountainpool?
Sadly, the next day Kristin loses her tennis match. The big coach she hoped to impress (of course there has to be a guy to impress), says he’ll keep her as an alternate and she can try again next year. I don’t understand why he can’t just coach her anyway? Is it a team thing? I don’t know anything about tennis but I wasn’t aware there were teams in tennis.
Kristin has one of those tantrums when she leaves the dinner table and throws herself on her bed crying. Dorrie comes up and tells her that her mother planned to quit tennis after Wimbledon, so she could mother Kristin better. I’m not sure what to say about this. Here’s a girl that wants someone to love her unconditionally and your answer is to tell her, “Hey turns out your mother did. Too bad she died!” How is that comforting? For some reason it is for Kristin though. She always thought of her mother as “a winner” and she’s surprised that she had doubts and challenges. Duh, of course leaving your small child to play matches around the world would be hard. But she’s so fucked up in her head that she thinks being a winner means being single-minded in pursuit of a goal not overcoming obstacles and getting there anyway. Ugh, parenting in Sweet Valley is always really depressing.
At school the next day, Kristin tells off Bruce. He has the nerve to get mad at her for leaving early and she says, “If you worried about anyone even half as much as you worry about yourself you would have remembered [that she had a match the next day].” I’m so pleased that for once the girl isn’t giving up her life so she can have a boyfriend! But I still want her to get with Jeffrey once this is all over.
After school, Kristin is worried little Emily won’t be interested in her now that Kristin won’t be turning pro. But when she gets to Emily’s school, she finds that Emily is in tears. See, Emily wanted to go to this tennis camp but she didn’t get in. She thinks Kristin will be disappointed in her. Kristin reassures her that is not the case. Instead of being like, “Yay I got to do something that was never done for me” she thinks that must be how her father feels about her. I’m sure it is how her father feels, except her father has never said such a thing. So… it’s still his fault that his kid felt that way, not Kristin being silly.
(Later in the book, Kristin and her father have a Talk and he confesses he doesn’t care about her tennis, which feels like a cop out to me. Oh Sweet Valley, when will you learn that parents can’t just say “I retroactively care about you” and have it mean they’re good parents. They have to be good parents. You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.)
Kristin promises that she will train with Emily and then Emily can get into the camp next year. I’m not gonna lie, I get a bit misty. Because I think it’s good for Kristin to spend time with Emily and relearn the joy of the game (like Dorrie had said earlier) but also it’ll be good for Emily to have Kristin to bond with.
The next day at school, Mr. Collins announces an essay writing contest. It’s called “Sweet Valley in the Year Two Thousand”. Oh my god you guys, if we ever get more tote bags I totally want to have that as the theme. Golly, I can’t imagine what Sweet Valley would be like in the 2000s, can you? Maybe everyone will have car phones! IN FLYING CARS!
After class, Kristin talks to Liz. She’s all, “Oh thank you great St. Liz. If it were not for you, I would never have meet wee little Emily.” Kristin should take credit for doing it even though she had a lot of other shit going on. And Emily can take credit for being wee and awesome. But Liz? Kinda didn't do much yet somehow all the resolution is thanks to her meddling skills. I feel a bit sick so I’m going to have to skip ahead.
The phone rings at the Thompson household. It’s Nick Wylie, the tennis coach. Of course it is. We all knew he couldn’t stay away from Kristin all book didn’t we? Sharon, the girl that just beat Kristin, sprained her ankle so Kristin is in the tournament. She’s psyched.
Enid and Liz find out that Kristin will be in the Avery Cup from wee little Emily. They’re all “Ooh! We have to pretend to be friends with her now that she’s almost famous!” so they arrange to get a group of people to cheer her on. I would like to point out that only wee little Emily was there with her precious “Go Kristin” sign at the first match so the rest of y’all are front runners. Suck it.
The group that shows up to cheer on Kristin: Emily, Dorrie, Liz, Kim (Liz’s little sister), Jessica, Jeffrey, AJ, Enid, Winston, Amy Sutton(wha?) and Bruce (oh that explains that). Kristin is furious that Bruce is there, as she should be. She thinks she’ll show him. She’s determined to play the best game ever. I love the idea of her rubbing Bruce’s nose in it, but disturbed by the notion that, even if they aren’t going out, she needs a guy to give her confidence.
It’s tough, but Kristin beats the other girl, who happened to have been the top seed. Awesome. She hugs wee little Emily and everyone is happy. Yay.
Then Kristin and her dad have the talk I mentioned before. He’s all “I love you” and “I shouldn’t have tried to control your life”. Kristin is happy but it’s too little too late for me. Then he says he wants to ask Dorrie out. Kristin is ecstatic. I’m creeped out. I don’t know why. I mean she was Kristin’s mother for all intents and purposes, so it seems like it should fit. Except if he screws that relationship up as badly as he screwed up with his daughter, then Kristin will be in the middle of it all. Ugh.
The next day at school, Bruce hits on Kristin again. She thinks that now that she is a winner, he wants her again. Kristin is like, “Eff off.” As she walks away from him, head held high, she thinks she would love to fit a boy into her life but it would have to be the right boy and she was willing to wait for him. It’s Jeffrey! Book 58! Make it happen!
Then there is some set up for the next book, 54: Two Boy Weekend, about AJ entering the essay competition. What will Sweet Valley be like in the year 2000? Find out!