Jessica’s Blind Date (Sweet Valley Twins and Friends #79)
Blind Dates, personal ads
We start with Jessica, sitting at the Unicorn lunch table and bitching internally about her ‘sort-of boyfriend’ Aaron Dallas. She’s starting to wonder if he’s ‘cool’ enough for her, because (and this is her reasoning) his hair looks like he doesn’t own a comb and he’s wearing the neon-shorts that the other boys stopped wearing weeks ago. That’s it?
The other Unicorns agree with her, “He used to be so cool”, but ultimately decide that as long as Jessica likes him, that’s the important thing. She agrees, and then moodily watched as Janet’s boyfriend Denny puts aside one of his brownies to give to Janet later. Next to him, Aaron crushes up his potato chips and pours them in his mouth. Jessica scowls.
She decides to escape before he sees her, but is thwarted by Elizabeth who wants to ask about a tutor for Amy. Jessica keeps looking over her shoulder in a way that’s not suspicious at all, and finally just yells, “Elizabeth! If Amy needs a tutor, just have her run an ad in your newspaper!”
But it’s too late, because Aaron has spotted her, and Jessica has to ditch Elizabeth and run for the door. But she’s stopped again, this time by Caroline, who tells her, “Aaron’s calling you.” “Thank you Caroline,” Jessica snaps. “I never would have known.” Caroline’s eyes light up. “Are you two having problems?” and so on.
Meanwhile, Aaron catches up and Jessica immediately takes a couple of steps back. Ha.
He asks if she wants to go to Casey’s after school and get ice cream, and she reluctantly agrees.
Later at Casey’s, Jessica walks up behind Aaron and almost faints when he turns around and she sees that he's wearing a Donald Duck shirt. She orders a swirl cone and Aaron orders bubblegum ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. ( ☺ That’s awesome, I love Aaron)
They sit down, and when he keeps calling her ‘Jess Wess’, she finally loses it and they start fighting. She calls him immature and mentions his, “stupid Donald Duck shirt” and he yells back, “at least everything I own isn’t purple! I hate to tell you, but it's really not your color.” and then calls her a stuck up snob. They break up and Jessica storms off.
She dramatically throws herself on Elizabeth’s bed and tells her it’s over. “He called me a snob, can you believe it?” Elizabeth continues working, not overly concerned. “Jessica and Aaron broke up all the time. Jessica always over-reacted and Aaron always apologized. Elizabeth had learned that it was better just to stay out of it.” (Yeah, that lasts long)
Jessica finally asks what Elizabeth is working on, and she tells her that she decided to take Jessica’s advice and start a ‘Classified’ section for the Sixers newspaper. Later as she’s lying in bed, Jessica has the idea of writing a personal ad so that she can get a date for Rick Hunter’s party that’s coming up.
She gives Elizabeth her ad the next morning at breakfast, but Steven just laughs at her and Elizabeth gets on her ‘journalism-is-serious’ horse and says that advertising for a date isn’t what a newspaper is about. Jessica wears her down and she agrees to run it anyway.
Jessica is on her way to go and check her personals box when she runs into Lila, who is on her way to her one-month anniversary date with Jake. Jessica wishes her luck. She picks up her responses and goes home to read them.
She dismisses the first couple because: she doesn’t like hockey, one messy person in a relationship is enough (His letter is so messy she can’t read it: “Dear Blind Babe, you sound like lots of fin. I like to potty too.”), one’s a poem signed by Donald Zwerdling (“Roses are red, violets are blue, Gorgeous I’d be honored to meet you”), and one that’s too boring.
The last one says that he’s a high schooler, a musician, and the cousin of Johnny Buck. She’s all excited. Jessica is really gullible. Turns out (of course) that he’s really Steven in a Halloween mask.
Jessica runs into Lila the next day, who’s depressed and wearing dark sunglasses. Jessica asks her what’s wrong and when she finds out that Jake forgot their anniversary, reminds Lila about the personal ad from ‘Gorgeous Blond’ and tells her that she should write an ad.
Lila makes a comment about “that desperate loser who calls herself Gorgeous Blond” and Jessica’s teeth grind as she reminds herself that Lila doesn’t know it’s her.
Lila’s ad (as written by Jessica) is, “Material girl seeks material guy”, and she tells Janet, who asks Jessica for her help too. And so on and so on, with couples like Mandy/Peter, Amy/Ken, Sophia/Patrick deciding maybe they need a change too.
Elizabeth naturally freaks out about how no one is reading the real news because they’re too obsessed with the personals, which she blames Jessica for, and then she fights with Amy, who tells her it’s fun and she should lighten up.
Elizabeth is pouting in the Sixers office when Todd wanders in. Elizabeth thinks that he’s there to check his own box and Todd (this is obviously non-crazy pre-high school Todd) says very sweetly that he doesn’t need to find another girlfriend because he already has the best one he could ever have. Elizabeth, happy again, makes up with Amy and Jessica.
Meanwhile, Jessica sees an ad by Athletic Guy, who likes rollercoasters, sports, and pineapple pizza. Jessica is surprised, because she thought she was the only one who liked pineapple pizza. She writes a note to Athletic Guy and freaks out when she doesn’t get a reply until she sees another article in the next paper saying, “Desperately seeking Gorgeous Blond! Thanks for the awesome letter, what’s your box number?”
Jessica writes him back, and surprise, they fall in love without even meeting. (I wonder who Athletic Guy could be?)
Everyone else is “falling in love” with their personal pen pals too, and they all plan to meet at Rick Hunter’s party for the first time.
Elizabeth decides to wear something a little different to the party, and with Jessica’s help chooses an off-the-shoulder black top and a black skirt. Todd gasps when he sees her, and why do I actually like Elizabeth/Todd in this book?
Elizabeth and Todd show up, see Sophia is with Rick, and realize where this is going. Elizabeth, Todd, and Sophia watch, amused, as Janet walks in with Ken (“Poor Ken” says Elizabeth), Belinda (random part-time Unicorn) is with Winston, Mandy is with Jake, (“Wait until Lila sees that Mandy’s with Jake, she’ll have a fit”), Lila is with Denny, and sure enough, the second she sees Mandy and Jake together she scowls and walks over.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Mandy turns pale. “Um, talking.” “Good,” Lila said, squeezing in between them. “I’ll join you.” Denny looks lost for a minute, then sees Janet and runs off.
Ellen walks in holding purple straw flowers and screams in horror when she realizes Donald Zwerdling (he of the roses are red, violets are blue poems) is holding purple flowers too.
Flashback to Jessica’s front door, where she opens the door and sees… Aaron. She’s surprised, but realizes of *course* Athletic Guy was Aaron. He tells her that he found out it was her about a week ago and that he was glad it was her, and she says back that she’s glad it’s him too. They go to the party, but leave early to go and get pineapple pizza.
The next day, all the old couples are back together and talking about how much better things are now. Lila and Jessica start talking about getting phones with three-way-calling and how great that would be, which of course sets up the premise for the next book~ #80, ‘The Gossip War’.
We start with Jessica, sitting at the Unicorn lunch table and bitching internally about her ‘sort-of boyfriend’ Aaron Dallas. She’s starting to wonder if he’s ‘cool’ enough for her, because (and this is her reasoning) his hair looks like he doesn’t own a comb and he’s wearing the neon-shorts that the other boys stopped wearing weeks ago. That’s it?
The other Unicorns agree with her, “He used to be so cool”, but ultimately decide that as long as Jessica likes him, that’s the important thing. She agrees, and then moodily watched as Janet’s boyfriend Denny puts aside one of his brownies to give to Janet later. Next to him, Aaron crushes up his potato chips and pours them in his mouth. Jessica scowls.
She decides to escape before he sees her, but is thwarted by Elizabeth who wants to ask about a tutor for Amy. Jessica keeps looking over her shoulder in a way that’s not suspicious at all, and finally just yells, “Elizabeth! If Amy needs a tutor, just have her run an ad in your newspaper!”
But it’s too late, because Aaron has spotted her, and Jessica has to ditch Elizabeth and run for the door. But she’s stopped again, this time by Caroline, who tells her, “Aaron’s calling you.” “Thank you Caroline,” Jessica snaps. “I never would have known.” Caroline’s eyes light up. “Are you two having problems?” and so on.
Meanwhile, Aaron catches up and Jessica immediately takes a couple of steps back. Ha.
He asks if she wants to go to Casey’s after school and get ice cream, and she reluctantly agrees.
Later at Casey’s, Jessica walks up behind Aaron and almost faints when he turns around and she sees that he's wearing a Donald Duck shirt. She orders a swirl cone and Aaron orders bubblegum ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. ( ☺ That’s awesome, I love Aaron)
They sit down, and when he keeps calling her ‘Jess Wess’, she finally loses it and they start fighting. She calls him immature and mentions his, “stupid Donald Duck shirt” and he yells back, “at least everything I own isn’t purple! I hate to tell you, but it's really not your color.” and then calls her a stuck up snob. They break up and Jessica storms off.
She dramatically throws herself on Elizabeth’s bed and tells her it’s over. “He called me a snob, can you believe it?” Elizabeth continues working, not overly concerned. “Jessica and Aaron broke up all the time. Jessica always over-reacted and Aaron always apologized. Elizabeth had learned that it was better just to stay out of it.” (Yeah, that lasts long)
Jessica finally asks what Elizabeth is working on, and she tells her that she decided to take Jessica’s advice and start a ‘Classified’ section for the Sixers newspaper. Later as she’s lying in bed, Jessica has the idea of writing a personal ad so that she can get a date for Rick Hunter’s party that’s coming up.
She gives Elizabeth her ad the next morning at breakfast, but Steven just laughs at her and Elizabeth gets on her ‘journalism-is-serious’ horse and says that advertising for a date isn’t what a newspaper is about. Jessica wears her down and she agrees to run it anyway.
Jessica is on her way to go and check her personals box when she runs into Lila, who is on her way to her one-month anniversary date with Jake. Jessica wishes her luck. She picks up her responses and goes home to read them.
She dismisses the first couple because: she doesn’t like hockey, one messy person in a relationship is enough (His letter is so messy she can’t read it: “Dear Blind Babe, you sound like lots of fin. I like to potty too.”), one’s a poem signed by Donald Zwerdling (“Roses are red, violets are blue, Gorgeous I’d be honored to meet you”), and one that’s too boring.
The last one says that he’s a high schooler, a musician, and the cousin of Johnny Buck. She’s all excited. Jessica is really gullible. Turns out (of course) that he’s really Steven in a Halloween mask.
Jessica runs into Lila the next day, who’s depressed and wearing dark sunglasses. Jessica asks her what’s wrong and when she finds out that Jake forgot their anniversary, reminds Lila about the personal ad from ‘Gorgeous Blond’ and tells her that she should write an ad.
Lila makes a comment about “that desperate loser who calls herself Gorgeous Blond” and Jessica’s teeth grind as she reminds herself that Lila doesn’t know it’s her.
Lila’s ad (as written by Jessica) is, “Material girl seeks material guy”, and she tells Janet, who asks Jessica for her help too. And so on and so on, with couples like Mandy/Peter, Amy/Ken, Sophia/Patrick deciding maybe they need a change too.
Elizabeth naturally freaks out about how no one is reading the real news because they’re too obsessed with the personals, which she blames Jessica for, and then she fights with Amy, who tells her it’s fun and she should lighten up.
Elizabeth is pouting in the Sixers office when Todd wanders in. Elizabeth thinks that he’s there to check his own box and Todd (this is obviously non-crazy pre-high school Todd) says very sweetly that he doesn’t need to find another girlfriend because he already has the best one he could ever have. Elizabeth, happy again, makes up with Amy and Jessica.
Meanwhile, Jessica sees an ad by Athletic Guy, who likes rollercoasters, sports, and pineapple pizza. Jessica is surprised, because she thought she was the only one who liked pineapple pizza. She writes a note to Athletic Guy and freaks out when she doesn’t get a reply until she sees another article in the next paper saying, “Desperately seeking Gorgeous Blond! Thanks for the awesome letter, what’s your box number?”
Jessica writes him back, and surprise, they fall in love without even meeting. (I wonder who Athletic Guy could be?)
Everyone else is “falling in love” with their personal pen pals too, and they all plan to meet at Rick Hunter’s party for the first time.
Elizabeth decides to wear something a little different to the party, and with Jessica’s help chooses an off-the-shoulder black top and a black skirt. Todd gasps when he sees her, and why do I actually like Elizabeth/Todd in this book?
Elizabeth and Todd show up, see Sophia is with Rick, and realize where this is going. Elizabeth, Todd, and Sophia watch, amused, as Janet walks in with Ken (“Poor Ken” says Elizabeth), Belinda (random part-time Unicorn) is with Winston, Mandy is with Jake, (“Wait until Lila sees that Mandy’s with Jake, she’ll have a fit”), Lila is with Denny, and sure enough, the second she sees Mandy and Jake together she scowls and walks over.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Mandy turns pale. “Um, talking.” “Good,” Lila said, squeezing in between them. “I’ll join you.” Denny looks lost for a minute, then sees Janet and runs off.
Ellen walks in holding purple straw flowers and screams in horror when she realizes Donald Zwerdling (he of the roses are red, violets are blue poems) is holding purple flowers too.
Flashback to Jessica’s front door, where she opens the door and sees… Aaron. She’s surprised, but realizes of *course* Athletic Guy was Aaron. He tells her that he found out it was her about a week ago and that he was glad it was her, and she says back that she’s glad it’s him too. They go to the party, but leave early to go and get pineapple pizza.
The next day, all the old couples are back together and talking about how much better things are now. Lila and Jessica start talking about getting phones with three-way-calling and how great that would be, which of course sets up the premise for the next book~ #80, ‘The Gossip War’.