SVT #52 - Booster Boycott
In which we learn that men can't be discriminated against. And unlike the name suggests, there is no boycott of the Boosters. And they don't really boycott anything either.
This book has a darling cover of Winston cheering into a megaphone whilst Jessica stands to the side, letting flies into her mouth.
A-plot
There’s no messing about in this book - we know from the very first page that Winston Egbert wants to join the Boosters, and the Booster aren’t happy, especially as the Southern California Middle School Cheering Championship is in three weeks and Sweet Valley are hosting it! The Boosters (Unicorns by another name, but including Elizabeth’s usually dull friend Amy) are panicked by Winston’s request to join. They can’t have a boy in the team! Amy is in favour, probably because she realises how awful the Boosters are. So is Grace Oliver, a tiny sixth-grader with long, silky black hair and dark eyes.
Enter Winston! He has a huge pile of science books with him, because he’s a NERD. The Booster reception is hostile, but he stands his ground, arguing that most high school cheering squads are co-ed, and that with a guy they could do new routines. With just one guy? Will it really revolutionise the Boosters, ignoring their mediocrity? This exchange sums up why the Boosters are rubbish:
“Besides, Winston, what do you think we do when we’re not practising cheers?” Janet asked.
Winston shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Warmup exercises? Baton drills?”
“Wrong.” Janet crossed her arms over her chest. “We talk about guys.”
Yes, maybe a little more practice would help.
Jessica helpfully points out that it’s not discrimination, because you can’t discriminate against boys. Winston leaves, but he’s not giving up without a fight! We know, because he said so.
Outside the gym, Winston bumps into Todd, who helps him with his pile of science books (because he’s a NERD). Todd works out that Winston was trying to join the Boosters, and is relatively supportive. Winston admits that he’s trying out because a) he likes gymnastics and b) he wants to meet girls. These girls? These girls who already know you, and dislike you?
Elizabeth talks to Winston about his aborted audition, having heard all about it from Jessica. Winston tells her that he’s taken gymnastic lessons, and watched co-ed high school and college cheerleading squads. He’s already shown way more interest and dedication than the Boosters, who basically exist because the Unicorns wanted an excuse to buy purple cheerleading uniforms. Elizabeth says she’s sure plenty of students would want him on the team. Genius!
As ever, the correct response for any dilemma in Sweet Valley is to start a petition. It must get to the point where the students don’t even know what they’re signing and just do it to eat lunch in peace. Winston goes around the lunchroom getting signatures. A whole three so far! Also, Winston’s middle name is Xavier. Like Professor Xavier. Elizabeth, Amy, Belinda (who is apparently a Unicorn, yet she sits with Elizabeth. Is she on day release?), Todd and Ken all sign. Winston heads over to the Unicorner…
He presents the petition, complimenting their “illustrious” cheerleading squad. Kimberly gets offended because she thinks that’s an insult. Winston smiles at Grace whilst he says “Why else would I want to join?” Hmmm. The Unicorn reaction is hostile, except for new member Mandy Miller. They decide he needs 100 signatures to get an audition. Winston starts with Grace, until she’s pulled into line by head unicorn Janet. Ellen calls her Benedict Armhole. I love how Ellen is dim in every book.
The Boosters practice. They are rubbish. Janet yells at them, saying the championships are in three weeks, and they don’t want to look like idiots in front of their boyfriends, right? There is no other motivation here. Jessica and Lila argue over which of their new cheers is better. Lila’s is “Go Sweet Valley- please don’t dally.” Ouch. They blame all their problems on Winston, rather than their lack of motivation, work ethic or talent. So they’re going to lead a smear campaign against Winston. Middle school is so political.
Their campaign consists of good old-fashioned peer pressure. Winston is talking to Leslie Forsythe and Randy Mason about his petition. The Unicorns consider all these people to be geeks, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made. Lila and Jessica tell Leslie and Randy that Winston can’t be a booster because it would lower school spirit, and that his petition is a fake. Randy isn’t buying it. Lila and Jessica move onto Leslie, saying that if she doesn’t sign it, they’ll be friends. By which they mean they’ll say hi to her in the corridor. Or maybe wave. Who needs Mean Girls when you’ve got the Unicorns?
Leslie says “There are a lot more nerds in this school than there are Unicorns.” Nerd uprising! Storm the winter palace!
Winston gets more than a hundred signatures. He’s feeling proud. He delivers it to Janet, who is aghast to hear that Mandy and Grace have signed it. Emergency Boosters meeting at Casey’s!
Janet, Machiavellian leader that she is, has told the “traitors” (Grace, Mandy, Amy, Belinda) a later time for the meeting than the inner circle. (She orders a Casey’s special, which is four scoops of ice-cream on a chocolate brownie, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Sounds GOOD.) They all look at Winston’s petition, and by “look”, I mean tear it up into pieces, whilst cackling manically. The traitors, sans Amy, arrive and are upset. Amy, Elizabeth and others arrive and are upset. Winston arrives, and is not that upset. How… strange
The reason soon becomes apparent; he gave a copy of his petition to the Boosters’ faculty supervisor, Mrs Langberg. Because he knows what a photocopier is! She makes the Boosters give him an audition. Winston rules. I’m actually rooting for him.
The Unicorns watch a tape of last year’s cheerleading competition to get tips for Winston’s audition. Foolishly they do this at Jessica’s house, with the traitors present. Janet has a long way to go before she’s a totalitarian dictator. Inevitably, Elizabeth, Amy and Grace go to Winston’s house to warn him. Winston is practising his cartwheels in his back garden. His audience is his cat, Fuzzball. I love Winston. Enter Elizabeth and co. Grace loves Winston’s cat, and Winston loves her. Winston, being completely socially inept, offers them stale graham crackers and water. Nice. The traitors warn Winston, but he isn’t deterred.
The day of the audition! The bleachers are full of people, because people now care about cheerleading auditions. They begin the audition, not telling Winston what routine they’re doing. But he knows them all! He glides through the solo cheer (cheering for Grace!), somersaults, no-handed cartwheels (do they even exist?), forward and backward handsprings and performing a headstand for thirty seconds. Then he does some sort of flippy thing with Grace. The Boosters are thoroughly PWNED. They should make Winston their captain.
Of course, they can’t be happy with gaining a fabulously skilled new member weeks before a championship. Because he’s a boy! So they embark on a thoroughly lame campaign to oust him. They put pink bows on his locker. The only realistic part of this is some older guys calling him Winnie. Winston even manages to deflect this with some wit. Winston rules. Grace thinks so too. Winston/Grace 4EVA!
On his way to Booster practice, the bigger boys give him a black eye. :( Things take a turn for the worse when he gets to practice, because the Boosters’ lame plan continues. Lila puts peanut butter in Winston’s shoes (he practices bare-foot). Ellen puts quick-drying glue where he sits on the bleachers. Kimberly puts a baby doll in his bag, for some reason. Despite this he gives them some excellent pointers on making a human pyramid, although his instructions to Jessica to imagine herself as light as a feather on top of the human pyramid don’t actually work, because I tried them. Clearly the Boosters know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
More proof of how awful the Boosters are - one week before the championship and Jessica doesn’t want to practice because she’ll miss her soap. God. Winston solves the problem by suggesting that they practice for half the usual time. Winston Egbert: gymnast, diplomat.
Grace gives Elizabeth some cartoons she’s been drawing of Winston as a cheerleader. Elizabeth agrees to run them as the front page of the Sixers. Everybody loves them, even the Boosters. Except Winston, who, after tolerating public humiliation and being punched in the face, decides this supportive gesture is the last straw. He quits. The Boosters cheer.
Winston admits to Elizabeth that the real reason he joined the Boosters because he has a huge crush on Grace. Did he really get all those gymnastic lessons for her? He decides to un-quit, but Janet won’t let him. Idiot.
Cheerleading competition. The Boosters are awful, forgetting what VICTORY spells, dropping batons five times and having Lila fall over. Also, every other cheerleading squad is co-ed. Winston drops by to wish them luck for the second round. They beg him to return. The bigger boys from earlier return to beat Winston up some more. Is that why they showed up to a cheerleading competition? The Boosters save Winston, and Winston saves The Boosters. What a beautiful relationship! They go from last, to second place. But the biggest winner of all is Winston, who gets together with Grace. I can’t believe just typed that.
B-plot.
Todd gets huffy because Elizabeth is too supportive of Winston and his cheerleading dreams. This, from a boy who in the last book was annoyed at Elizabeth for being too mean to his friend (as he described him) Winston. To Elizabeth’s credit, she brings that up. Ken describes Elizabeth as “Winston’s very own private cheerleader” and Todd storms off in a huff. He’s GETTING a SODA. Even Jessica and Steven are teasing Elizabeth about her new boyfriend!
Todd switches from relatively nice guy to jerk so quickly he’s pleased that Winston is getting hassled about being a cheerleader, and doesn’t like that he has a girlfriend willing to stick up for him. What a jerk. Dump him, Elizabeth! But no. Instead she has a scheme. Amy will spend loads of time with him working on her science project, and Elizabeth will confront them! Then he’ll learn! No, really that‘s what they do. They all live happily ever after.
This book has a darling cover of Winston cheering into a megaphone whilst Jessica stands to the side, letting flies into her mouth.
A-plot
There’s no messing about in this book - we know from the very first page that Winston Egbert wants to join the Boosters, and the Booster aren’t happy, especially as the Southern California Middle School Cheering Championship is in three weeks and Sweet Valley are hosting it! The Boosters (Unicorns by another name, but including Elizabeth’s usually dull friend Amy) are panicked by Winston’s request to join. They can’t have a boy in the team! Amy is in favour, probably because she realises how awful the Boosters are. So is Grace Oliver, a tiny sixth-grader with long, silky black hair and dark eyes.
Enter Winston! He has a huge pile of science books with him, because he’s a NERD. The Booster reception is hostile, but he stands his ground, arguing that most high school cheering squads are co-ed, and that with a guy they could do new routines. With just one guy? Will it really revolutionise the Boosters, ignoring their mediocrity? This exchange sums up why the Boosters are rubbish:
“Besides, Winston, what do you think we do when we’re not practising cheers?” Janet asked.
Winston shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Warmup exercises? Baton drills?”
“Wrong.” Janet crossed her arms over her chest. “We talk about guys.”
Yes, maybe a little more practice would help.
Jessica helpfully points out that it’s not discrimination, because you can’t discriminate against boys. Winston leaves, but he’s not giving up without a fight! We know, because he said so.
Outside the gym, Winston bumps into Todd, who helps him with his pile of science books (because he’s a NERD). Todd works out that Winston was trying to join the Boosters, and is relatively supportive. Winston admits that he’s trying out because a) he likes gymnastics and b) he wants to meet girls. These girls? These girls who already know you, and dislike you?
Elizabeth talks to Winston about his aborted audition, having heard all about it from Jessica. Winston tells her that he’s taken gymnastic lessons, and watched co-ed high school and college cheerleading squads. He’s already shown way more interest and dedication than the Boosters, who basically exist because the Unicorns wanted an excuse to buy purple cheerleading uniforms. Elizabeth says she’s sure plenty of students would want him on the team. Genius!
As ever, the correct response for any dilemma in Sweet Valley is to start a petition. It must get to the point where the students don’t even know what they’re signing and just do it to eat lunch in peace. Winston goes around the lunchroom getting signatures. A whole three so far! Also, Winston’s middle name is Xavier. Like Professor Xavier. Elizabeth, Amy, Belinda (who is apparently a Unicorn, yet she sits with Elizabeth. Is she on day release?), Todd and Ken all sign. Winston heads over to the Unicorner…
He presents the petition, complimenting their “illustrious” cheerleading squad. Kimberly gets offended because she thinks that’s an insult. Winston smiles at Grace whilst he says “Why else would I want to join?” Hmmm. The Unicorn reaction is hostile, except for new member Mandy Miller. They decide he needs 100 signatures to get an audition. Winston starts with Grace, until she’s pulled into line by head unicorn Janet. Ellen calls her Benedict Armhole. I love how Ellen is dim in every book.
The Boosters practice. They are rubbish. Janet yells at them, saying the championships are in three weeks, and they don’t want to look like idiots in front of their boyfriends, right? There is no other motivation here. Jessica and Lila argue over which of their new cheers is better. Lila’s is “Go Sweet Valley- please don’t dally.” Ouch. They blame all their problems on Winston, rather than their lack of motivation, work ethic or talent. So they’re going to lead a smear campaign against Winston. Middle school is so political.
Their campaign consists of good old-fashioned peer pressure. Winston is talking to Leslie Forsythe and Randy Mason about his petition. The Unicorns consider all these people to be geeks, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made. Lila and Jessica tell Leslie and Randy that Winston can’t be a booster because it would lower school spirit, and that his petition is a fake. Randy isn’t buying it. Lila and Jessica move onto Leslie, saying that if she doesn’t sign it, they’ll be friends. By which they mean they’ll say hi to her in the corridor. Or maybe wave. Who needs Mean Girls when you’ve got the Unicorns?
Leslie says “There are a lot more nerds in this school than there are Unicorns.” Nerd uprising! Storm the winter palace!
Winston gets more than a hundred signatures. He’s feeling proud. He delivers it to Janet, who is aghast to hear that Mandy and Grace have signed it. Emergency Boosters meeting at Casey’s!
Janet, Machiavellian leader that she is, has told the “traitors” (Grace, Mandy, Amy, Belinda) a later time for the meeting than the inner circle. (She orders a Casey’s special, which is four scoops of ice-cream on a chocolate brownie, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Sounds GOOD.) They all look at Winston’s petition, and by “look”, I mean tear it up into pieces, whilst cackling manically. The traitors, sans Amy, arrive and are upset. Amy, Elizabeth and others arrive and are upset. Winston arrives, and is not that upset. How… strange
The reason soon becomes apparent; he gave a copy of his petition to the Boosters’ faculty supervisor, Mrs Langberg. Because he knows what a photocopier is! She makes the Boosters give him an audition. Winston rules. I’m actually rooting for him.
The Unicorns watch a tape of last year’s cheerleading competition to get tips for Winston’s audition. Foolishly they do this at Jessica’s house, with the traitors present. Janet has a long way to go before she’s a totalitarian dictator. Inevitably, Elizabeth, Amy and Grace go to Winston’s house to warn him. Winston is practising his cartwheels in his back garden. His audience is his cat, Fuzzball. I love Winston. Enter Elizabeth and co. Grace loves Winston’s cat, and Winston loves her. Winston, being completely socially inept, offers them stale graham crackers and water. Nice. The traitors warn Winston, but he isn’t deterred.
The day of the audition! The bleachers are full of people, because people now care about cheerleading auditions. They begin the audition, not telling Winston what routine they’re doing. But he knows them all! He glides through the solo cheer (cheering for Grace!), somersaults, no-handed cartwheels (do they even exist?), forward and backward handsprings and performing a headstand for thirty seconds. Then he does some sort of flippy thing with Grace. The Boosters are thoroughly PWNED. They should make Winston their captain.
Of course, they can’t be happy with gaining a fabulously skilled new member weeks before a championship. Because he’s a boy! So they embark on a thoroughly lame campaign to oust him. They put pink bows on his locker. The only realistic part of this is some older guys calling him Winnie. Winston even manages to deflect this with some wit. Winston rules. Grace thinks so too. Winston/Grace 4EVA!
On his way to Booster practice, the bigger boys give him a black eye. :( Things take a turn for the worse when he gets to practice, because the Boosters’ lame plan continues. Lila puts peanut butter in Winston’s shoes (he practices bare-foot). Ellen puts quick-drying glue where he sits on the bleachers. Kimberly puts a baby doll in his bag, for some reason. Despite this he gives them some excellent pointers on making a human pyramid, although his instructions to Jessica to imagine herself as light as a feather on top of the human pyramid don’t actually work, because I tried them. Clearly the Boosters know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
More proof of how awful the Boosters are - one week before the championship and Jessica doesn’t want to practice because she’ll miss her soap. God. Winston solves the problem by suggesting that they practice for half the usual time. Winston Egbert: gymnast, diplomat.
Grace gives Elizabeth some cartoons she’s been drawing of Winston as a cheerleader. Elizabeth agrees to run them as the front page of the Sixers. Everybody loves them, even the Boosters. Except Winston, who, after tolerating public humiliation and being punched in the face, decides this supportive gesture is the last straw. He quits. The Boosters cheer.
Winston admits to Elizabeth that the real reason he joined the Boosters because he has a huge crush on Grace. Did he really get all those gymnastic lessons for her? He decides to un-quit, but Janet won’t let him. Idiot.
Cheerleading competition. The Boosters are awful, forgetting what VICTORY spells, dropping batons five times and having Lila fall over. Also, every other cheerleading squad is co-ed. Winston drops by to wish them luck for the second round. They beg him to return. The bigger boys from earlier return to beat Winston up some more. Is that why they showed up to a cheerleading competition? The Boosters save Winston, and Winston saves The Boosters. What a beautiful relationship! They go from last, to second place. But the biggest winner of all is Winston, who gets together with Grace. I can’t believe just typed that.
B-plot.
Todd gets huffy because Elizabeth is too supportive of Winston and his cheerleading dreams. This, from a boy who in the last book was annoyed at Elizabeth for being too mean to his friend (as he described him) Winston. To Elizabeth’s credit, she brings that up. Ken describes Elizabeth as “Winston’s very own private cheerleader” and Todd storms off in a huff. He’s GETTING a SODA. Even Jessica and Steven are teasing Elizabeth about her new boyfriend!
Todd switches from relatively nice guy to jerk so quickly he’s pleased that Winston is getting hassled about being a cheerleader, and doesn’t like that he has a girlfriend willing to stick up for him. What a jerk. Dump him, Elizabeth! But no. Instead she has a scheme. Amy will spend loads of time with him working on her science project, and Elizabeth will confront them! Then he’ll learn! No, really that‘s what they do. They all live happily ever after.