Sweet Valley High Magna Edition: A Night to Remember Part 2
Sweet Valley High Magna Edition: A Night to Remember Part 2
"Elizabeth wanted to have it all, even what doesn't belong to her!"
Continued from Part One.
That weekend, Jess makes Lila go to the track meet so she can keep busy and not have time to mope. Again, see what I mean? If nothing else, Jess obviously cares very much about Lila. If only she could be as considerate of her sister once in a while. On the way to the meet, Jess broods about how much she hates being mad at Liz and having Liz mad at her, since they’re two sides of the same coin. It’s not natural for them to argue. She’s angry that Liz has picked this fight: “She’s not satisfied with being her half of the coin-she’s trying to be the whole coin!” She can’t believe that Liz would want to be prom queen and deny Jess of her “inherent right.” This is getting pathological. At the same time, Liz is musing on a similar subject. She cares way more about the environment than Jess, who, she muses, thinks recycling means wearing the same outfit twice. Burn! She thinks that the prom wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for her work, and she deserves to be Queen.
Bruce goes to the marina and thinks for a moment that Roger might be sad Bruce didn’t go to the track meet, since Roger makes a point of going to all of Bruce’s tennis matches. He muses that life was a lot cooler when he was an only child. Roger is a way better cousin-brother than Bruce deserves. And speaking of brothers, who should Bruce meet on the dock but Nicholas Morrow, Heroically Deaf, Dead From Coke Regina’s brother! Nicholas is like, “I haven’t seen much of you since Regina’s death,” and Bruce doesn’t understand how Nicholas can talk about it without screaming. Bruce can’t even speak because of the lump in his throat. Nicholas exposits that he used to date useless Andrea, and Bruce thinks about how fitting that is, since she and Nicholas are both boring. Hee. Bruce finally chokes out that he’s moved on from Regina, and runs away to his boat. He resents that Nicholas looks at him with pity.
SVH wins the track meet, and the SVH cheerleaders gave the Big Mesa cheerleaders trick gum that turned their teeth green. They were stupid to take anything from their rival team. And what kind of school is this, that cheerleaders go to track meets? I was a cheerleader in high school, and during the spring, when track usually is, cheerleaders are deep in competition season. They barely have time to sleep, much less go to track meets. On the way home, Jess and Lila stop at the beach. They run into Nathan walking JD the dog. Jess starts to flirt, but she downshifts into plain friendliness the moment she realizes that Nathan is Lila’s therapist. After Nathan leaves, Jess says that Nathan seems like a kind man, and Lila should talk more nicely about him. She’d assumed he was mean, from hearing Lila’s descriptions. Lila feels bad for giving people a bad impression of him, since Nathan has been so good to her. Jess realizes that she’s forgotten to go to Sam’s dirt bike practice. She was supposed to drive him home, and she’d be mad at him if he stranded her like that. She figures he probably had to call someone for a ride. Lila helpfully tells her she should chew some of the trick gum and then tell Sam she had an emergency dentist appointment.
Liz drives home from somewhere or other and sees Sam walking on the side of the road, so she picks him up and drives him home. When Sam realized Jess had forgotten about him, he’d started walking to the Wakefields’, figuring someone there would take pity and drive him back to Bridgewater. Liz gives him a pep talk for his big race coming up, and Sam tells her he’s not taking sides in the Prom Queen thing. He doesn’t want it to get in the way of his friendship with Liz, or her friendship with Jess. He’s a nice boy.
Bruce gets home from his boat ride, goes to his room, and pulls a photo of Heroically Deaf Regina out of his drawer. He remembers how much she loved him, and thinks in anguish, “No one would ever look at him that way again.” And then he sobs! If he loved Regina so much, he shouldn’t have cheated with Amy and then rubbed Regina’s face in it in front of the whole school. But maybe that’s just me. I have a hard time feeling sorry for Bruce.
Big Mesa sends Liz another copy of their school paper. This time, they’re accusing SVH of cheating at the track meet and the SVH cheerleaders of poisoning their own. Hee. Todd is like, “They looked better with green teeth.” The article finishes by calling for the Big Mesa student body to revenge itself against SVH on and off the athletic field. Again, what drugs is their teacher on, that he’d let them print that kind of thing? Liz is sick of turning the other cheek and wants to retaliate. Todd tells her not to take it personally, and she bites his head off. They head to the cafeteria for lunch, and Jessica is handing out Save the Rainforest buttons for everyone. Liz overhears some sophomores gushing about how Jess bought the pins with her own money, and how awesome and globally engaged she is. Liz is even more steamed, and Todd and Enid tell her to relax, because it’s not worth getting so worked up over something so trivial. Todd is like, “Who cares? Kids are still just going to vote for who they like best and, anyway, didn’t you say you both came up with the prom idea?” Bad move, Todd. Liz is like, “But who’s doing all the work?” Todd replies, “The prom committee.” Very true. Meaning more people than just Liz. Liz is like, “She doesn’t care about the environment!” and Todd is like, “You don’t know that for sure.” He’s really not helping. He tells Liz that he hopes she wins and all that, but he wishes she would just chill about the whole thing, because it’s supposed to be fun. Liz disagrees. It’s only fun if she wins.
Jess and Sam go out to dinner, and Jess tells him all about how successful her buttons were. She’s like, “People will definitely remember now that the prom was my idea too!” Sam tries to point out that the important thing is raising money for the environment, but Jess doesn’t listen. She’s just outraged that Liz would dare to want to be prom queen. Sam tries to change the subject by telling her about his new training regimen for the big race coming up, but Jess doesn’t pay attention. She interrupts him to talk about Prom Queen some more. Man, these girls are boring conversationalists. I’d be annoyed too, if I were Todd or Sam. Poor Sam then tries to talk about the bet he and Jess made on who would do better on their upcoming tests, and Jess doesn’t even remember. She’s like, “What bet? Anyway, about Prom Queen….” Sam tells her that Liz had to pick him up the other day when Jess forgot about him, and Jess angrily accuses Liz of being sneaky. Sam is like, “It was a coincidence she passed me on the road,” and Jess all, “She was looking for opportunities to make me look bad!” Seriously pathological. Jess is like, “I can’t even trust her anymore.” You forgot to pick your boyfriend up and went to the beach with Lila instead, bitch. Which twin is the unreliable one?
Lila looks through her fancy dresses and decides that she’ll go to the prom after all. She also decides that Jess is right: Nathan is a lot nicer than she’s been giving him credit for, and he’s done a lot for her. He’ll never give up on her. She doesn’t need her father as long as Nathan is in her corner, looking out for her. And he’s cute. This is veering into dangerous, kind of sick territory. She figures she’ll be okay going to the dance alone, since Nathan will be a chaperone, and she figures that she could always hang out with him. I can’t believe she’d consider going to a dance in order to hang out with her guidance counselor, and this is not going to turn out well.
Jess drags Amy, Robin, and Lila to a Prom Committee meeting. They point out that they’re not even on the Prom Committee, but Jess is like, “You are now. Move. Liz is making it look like she’s the one with all the ideas and initiative,” and Lila points out that it’s because it’s true. Hee. At the meeting, Jess signs up for the last decorating shift, figuring that all the work will be done by the time she shows up. Finally, Jess gets to the point: she doesn’t think Big Mesa kids should be allowed. Liz protests that SVH has always had an open policy when it comes to their dances; people from other schools are always allowed to buy tickets. Really? That seems weird. Why would you want to go to another school’s dance, unless you’re dating someone who goes there? Some people agree with Jess for security reasons, but others agree with Liz since it wouldn’t be fair to kids like Enid, who are dating Big Mesa students. Liz checkmates Jess, though, when Liz says that, in that case, the prom should be closed to all non-SVH students, not just the ones from Big Mesa, which means that Sam wouldn’t be able to come. Either the prom is open or it’s closed. Jess thinks that’s completely unfair. The committee (including Jessica and her ringers) votes, and it’s a tie. So, they’re going to have to ask the Principal to have the whole school vote at the assembly the next day. Jess is satisfied that, once everyone hears about the upcoming vote, they’ll all be impressed by her loyalty to SVH and elect her Prom Queen.
Liz takes her anger out on Todd. He suggests going out to dinner before the dance, to make it unforgettable, and she’s all, “The only thing that could make it unforgettable is being elected Prom Queen.” He’s like, “Forget it, then,” and walks away. Liz feels bad for a second, but then figures, “He’d better start getting used to the new me.” The new you is rude and takes your boyfriend for granted, Liz.
Penny, editor in chief of the Oracle, catches up to Liz and Jess. She tells them that a features editor from Sweet Sixteen magazine called her yesterday because they heard about the Jungle Prom from a PR person at EA and they want to do a story about it and an interview with the prom organizer. I don’t know why they didn’t just call the Wakefields directly, but whatever. The magazine was thrilled to hear that the organizers were identical twins, and they want to do a Jungle Prom fashion pictorial too, with organic clothes or something. They want to meet both girls after school tomorrow, in the main lobby at 4:30! The twins agree, and Liz gets paranoid, thinking she can’t turn her back on her sister for a moment or Jess will discredit her somehow.
Liz shows up on time, and the photographer and interviewer gush about how gorgeous she is. They wait and wait for Jess, and the magazine people get impatient. They have to take the pictures before the light is gone. Liz stalls as long as possible, talking about how she hopes that other kids will have Jungle Proms for the environment at their own schools after reading the article. Liz looks for Jess in the locker room, and feels funny about doing the interview and photo shoot without her, but finally the photographer is like, “Either we do this now or not at all.” Liz knows Jess wouldn’t hesitate if their situations were reversed, so at 5:00 she agrees to do it alone and leaves with them. Jess shows up at 5:15 and is like, “Huh! I guess I’m the first one here!” She asks Lois Waller, daughter of the school dietitian (A dietitian? Well, I guess a girl needs a little help if she’s going to maintain her perfect size six figure.) if she’s seen Liz, and Lois tells Jess that Liz left with some people about ten minutes before. Jessica is enraged, and figures that Liz probably told the magazine people that Jess was sick and couldn’t come, and didn’t even wait for her because Liz had plotted to steal the publicity all for herself. Has Jessica ever met Elizabeth? How could she think that was something her sister would do? Also, you were FORTY FIVE MINUTES LATE, KID. What the hell is your problem?
Lila goes to therapy and is happy to see Nathan. Nathan wants her to talk about why she’s in such a good mood, but she’d rather just enjoy it without examining it too closely. She figures she’s cured, but wants to stick with therapy anyway because she likes being around Nathan.
Roger goes into Bruce’s room (Bruce is lounging on his bed reading A Tale of Two Cities!) because a girl named Rosa has agreed to go to the prom with him, and Roger is so excited that he needs to tell someone. Bruce thinks Roger is more boring than Charles Dickens. He tells Roger he’s going to the dance alone, and tells him, “I’ve had everyone at Sweet Valley High I wanted to have-and the others aren’t worth bothering with.” Charming. Roger shakes his head and leaves, and Bruce cries again. Bruce Patman is turning into quite the weeper!
Jess waits for Liz to come home, thinking, “Who does she think she is? I’m the one who likes to pose. I’m the one who’s good at that sort of thing!” She was the one who enters pageants and wants to be on soap operas! She thinks to herself, and I actually think this goes a long way toward explaining why she’s so affronted by Liz stepping out of her usual sphere:
She had never really thought about it, but it now occurred to her that being a twin was a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, you looked alike physically, and emotionally you were incredibly close. But despite that, or maybe because of that, you had to create some distance, maintain some differences. If you set all the same goals…you’d never get a chance to be your own person.
That’s actually very well put, I think. Jess takes it too far, though, when she thinks that, by wanting to be Prom Queen, Liz is stealing Jess’s entire identity. Liz comes home, and Jess accuses her of sabotage. Liz points out that Jess was the one who was late, not Liz. Jess is like, “You only waited for five minutes!” even though Lois told Jess they’d waited for over half an hour, and Jess was forty five minutes late. Liz is like, “I showed up on time. You didn’t show up at all. Don’t blame me for your mistakes.” Go Liz! Jess calls Liz a bunch of names and accuses her again of sabotaging the photo shoot, and Liz calls her a jerk and stomps out. Jess chases after her all, “You want to be Prom Queen but you won’t play fairly!” Liz isn’t the one who’s trying to exclude other people’s boyfriends from the dance to score political points and stealing newspaper interviews with Caroline Pierce, Jessica. Liz points out that exact same thing, and Jess calls Liz a backstabber. She says that Liz can lie and cheat all she wants, but people will figure it out and Jess will come out on top because she plays fair. Jessica has a delusional self-image.
Liz shows Todd an article about Big Mesa that she wrote for the Oracle. Todd thinks it’s mean, and that Liz is compromising her journalistic ethics to score points for Prom Queen. Liz gets mad and stomps away, telling him that she’s becoming a different person and he’ll just have to get used to it. Todd is like, “But you’re kind of a bitch now,” except he says it nicer than that. Enid tells Liz that this is just another dance - SVH has ten thousand of them each year, after all - but it’s more than that to Liz, and Liz tells her off for lecturing.
Jess cheers at the big basketball game, and Liz gets resentful that her sister is in the limelight. Enid’s boyfriend, Hugh, stayed home because he didn’t want to be caught up in anything between the two schools. Liz says, “It’s bad enough that he goes to Big Mesa. At least he could have the guts to support his rotten school.” Wow. That’s the kind of thing Jess would say. Enid is angry that her best friend is insulting her boyfriend, needless to say, and all Liz’s friends are like, “That was over the line.” Liz feels bad right away, but instead of apologizing, she calls Hugh a wimp. What a snot. Liz also tells Enid to shut up and be grateful, because if it weren’t for her, Hugh wouldn’t even be going to the Prom. I guess that the open ticket policy won the vote. Bruce and the thuggy Club X guys, high off their tennis victory (which happened off-camera, apparently), throw water balloons on the court to disrupt the game. How badass. Anyway, Todd sinks a three point shot at the buzzer to win the game by one point. (He seems to do that a lot.) Todd tries to line his team up for a handshake, but his display of good sportsmanship is disrupted when the Big Mesa kids in the bleachers start to rumble with the SVH students. They quickly realize they’re outnumbered, though, and run away, vowing revenge.
At the Dairi Burger after the game, Jess and Liz won’t speak to each other. Todd and Sam roll their eyes. All the kids cheer for Todd for being the high scorer and keeping the team in line, even with all the harassment they’ve been getting from Big Mesa. Jess has a sinking realization: Todd is a shoo-in for Prom King. And if he wins King, Liz is sure to win Queen. Jess thinks that she’s going to have to play rough if she wants to win, and vows to take any opportunity that might come to stop her sister. Everyone is also worried that Big Mesa will try to trash the prom.
Liz visits the gym the next day, and the decorations all look great. She has a pang, though, thinking that she’s made a mistake in wanting to be Prom Queen so badly. Jess would be great at it, she knows, and she’s sad that it’s cost her so much of her relationship with her sister. She wishes she could share her happiness and excitement with her twin, and is sorry they’re fighting.
Later that day, Jess is in the gym alone. She finds Liz’s datebook on the floor, and thinks that Liz must’ve been pretty distracted to forget it. She has an attack of conscience at that, thinking about all the hard work Liz has put into the dance. Maybe Liz does deserve to be Queen. And she’s sad for the same reason Liz is: she doesn’t like fighting any more than her sister does. Jess goes home to get ready.
Lila gets ready for the dance, feeling happy and excited. She thinks that she’s her old self again, and it’s all thanks to Nathan.
The twins get ready without speaking to each other. It’s all very tense, in contrast to their happiness getting ready for the beach party at the beginning of the book. The boys arrive and Ned and Alice take pictures, but the twins’ smiles are fake.
They get to the dance, and everyone is having an awesome time. The music and decorations are great. Jess is mad that people are giving Liz all the credit, and Sam points out that she did do a lot of work on it. Jess is all, “Whose side are you on?” and rues her useless boyfriend who goes to a different school and therefore won’t help get her any votes at all, unlike basketball star Todd. She decides that Sam is just going to get in her way, and stomps off, telling him that he should ask someone to dance, since she has to go campaign. At this point, I’m thinking that neither one of these girls should win. They’re both wretched.
Ten kids from Big Mesa show up in tuxedoes and dresses. They bought tickets ahead of time and are like, “We don’t want to make any trouble. We just want to dance.” Why would you want to go to another school’s prom? Bruce wants to fight them, but Todd gets in his face, telling him to not ruin the dance for everyone else. Todd says, “The Big Mesa kids seem to be acting okay. We’re their hosts; we should try to do the same.” Apparently Todd has checked his violent tendencies at the door, so the Big Mesa kids are let in and everyone is impressed. Jess is miserable; Liz will win Prom Queen now for sure.
Todd wins Prom King, and has to go on stage and draw tickets for the raffle winners. Jess is pissed. She thinks, “It’s not fair. Everyone’s going to pick [Liz] because she goes out with Todd, not because she deserves it. Unless I do something fast.” Just then, a drunk Big Mesa boy comes up and tries to hit on Jess. She’s cold to him, and gets angry when he guesses that her name is Elizabeth. She’s even more furious when she sees that Liz is dancing with Sam: how dare Liz steal her boyfriend as well as her crown! Jessica has had a complete break with reality at this point, it seems. Do I really need to point out that she ditched Sam in the first place because he was useless as a vote-getting tool? And Liz is being friendly and obviously doesn’t have the slightest interest in Sam romantically? And the crown isn’t Jess’s yet? Psychotic Jessica thinks Liz is trying to get Sam to fall in love with her, and then she has an idea.
She asks the drunk Big Mesa boy if she can have some of his vodka, and gets her own cup. She asks him to fill it all the way up so she can share it with her girlfriends and talk them into leaving the dance with him, so they can all go party together. She sees Liz and Sam laughing, and thinks that they’re laughing at her and her shattered, hopeless dream of being Prom Queen, and gets even more coldly furious at Liz. She goes to the cup by Liz’s purse, and pours the vodka into Liz’s punch, wondering if it’s true that she won’t be able to taste it. She scurries away and sees Liz taking a drink, and gloats about how stupid Liz is, that she can’t tell there’s booze in the punch. Jess thinks: “So, Elizabeth wants to have it all, even what doesn’t belong to her. Well, this’ll show her!” I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Jess’s behavior is actually, honestly, cruelly insane here. Or maybe not: on one hand, it seems like she’s had a complete break with reality, but on the other, she knows full well that what she just did to her sister is wrong. Maybe she’s evil, not crazy. She turns away and doesn’t see Liz tipping half her cup into Sam’s empty one.
Lila is dancing with Nathan when another teacher comes up and points out to him that it looks like Liz and Sam are drunk. Lila tells Nathan that’s impossible; she’s known Liz since kindergarten, and Liz would never, ever drink. (Except when she’s been in a personality-altering motorcycle accident, but whatever.) Nathan listens to Lila’s judgment and figures that Liz is just excited about Todd being Prom King. Just then, thirty Big Mesa kids show up. They didn’t buy tickets in advance, but they have money and they’re dressed okay, so Nathan leaves to figure out if they should be let in or not.
Liz and Sam are each absolutely plastered from their half-cups of spiked punch. Liz gushingly apologizes to Enid for being so mean at the basketball game, and Enid is like, “Are you okay?” The drunks dance off, bumping into people and doing all kinds of wild moves. Liz is like, “Competition is stupid. It isn’t me, it’s Jessica. She was born to be Prom Queen.” Sam agrees and mistily says that that he loves Jessica so much. Liz drags Sam over to the rest of the Prom Committee and tells them that she’d like to wifdraw from the Prom Queen contest. They should let Jessica have it. Sam is like, “Yeah! Jessica rules!” That’s very generous, considering she called him useless and abandoned him. The Committee members are worried about Liz and her inability to pronounce words, but nobody asks her about it.
And then the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Jessica wins Prom Queen. On her way to the stage, she overhears some girls saying that she might have won anyway, but it didn’t hurt that Liz dropped out at the last minute. In that moment, all the triumph of her moment is gone. It doesn’t mean anything if she didn’t beat Liz. Suddenly, she feels awful for sabotaging her sister’s chance to become Queen, and probably also destroying their relationship in the process. Todd pretends to be happy for Jess, but he’s sorry that Liz didn’t win. He hopes Liz isn’t too upset, but is suddenly heartbroken to see that she’s drunkenly jitterbugging (!) with Sam. He’s like, “How could she do this to me?” Todd is so stupid. She’s not cheating on you, moron. She’s just dancing. Jess sees that Liz can hardly stay upright, and bites her lip, feeling terrible.
Bruce sadistically stops by where Lila is standing to tell her to watch herself, because some of the Big Mesa guys would make John Pfeifer, her attempted rapist, look tame. How cruel. She looks scared, and that makes him happy. Just then, the Big Mesa kids start a riot. Everyone starts running out to the football field for the fight (there are more Big Mesa kids out there, it seems), and Bruce is thrilled. He chases after them, and can’t wait to smash some heads.
Jess leaps down from the stage as soon as the riot starts, her only thought to get to Liz and make sure she’s all right. She isn’t sure who’s a bigger idiot: herself for spiking the punch or Liz for not realizing she was drunk. (I just have to say: Liz is this trashed from half a cup of punch? Jeez.) Jess is terrified of what her parents would do if they found out she got Liz drunk, and is like, “She’ll be okay. I’ll make her some coffee.” Not good enough, bitch. Through the crowd, she sees Sam and Liz leaving together and panics. Todd catches up with her, angry and confused, and not knowing that Liz is drunk, but he and Jess are separated by the riot.
Lila panics in the crowd, afraid that Bruce is right and one of the Big Mesa boys will hurt her. She tries to fight her way to an exit.
Jess finally shoves her way through the mob to get outside, and chases after her sister toward the parking lot. Her shoes get stuck in the grass and she has to take them off to run barefoot. She freaks out when she sees them get into the twins’ Jeep, and screams for them to stop. She sprints after them but falls, tearing her dress. Todd catches up with her again Jess is like, “We have to go after them! Liz isn’t herself right now. We have to catch up with them!” Todd and Jess run for Todd’s car, and they drive off after the Jeep. Suspenseful!
Lila dodges a catfight between some SVH girls and some Big Mesa chicks with bad dye jobs (she’s not so panicked that she can’t judge their hair!), and she runs into Nathan. He pulls her out of the gym and into the school building, shielding her from the brawling crowd. She’s relieved that she has a grownup she can count on. He gets her into an empty classroom and shuts the door, then turns and says, “You’re safe now. It’s okay.” She looks at Nathan and suddenly panics, seeing John Pfeifer and remembering how she trusted him but he tried to rape her. Lila absolutely loses it and starts to scream her head off.
On the football field, Bruce throws punches at every single person he sees. He’s covered in blood, and feels wonderful. The fight is covering up the emptiness he’s felt for so long. Gag me, Bruce. Quit being so emo. He downs about ten guys, but then someone gets him with a baseball bat to the back of the head. He falls, and looks up to see the guy who hit him getting ready to bat his head again, and thinks that he might be about to die, but he doesn’t. A girl grabs the boy from behind, saying, “Craig, don’t! He’s down already-he’s hurt. Please, just leave him alone.” Bruce thinks her voice is sweet and otherworldly (shut up, Bruce), and he thinks for a moment that, with her dark hair and pale skin, it’s Regina. A moment later, though, he realizes that it’s “someone else, someone even more beautiful and rare.” He looks at her with “eyes naked with need and hope.” Then a kid kicks him in the head and he blacks out. Hee.
Bye, Heroically Deaf Regina. Bruce is magically over you now.
Todd speeds after the Jeep, and looks at Jess with her torn dress, smeared makeup, and bare feet. He thinks, “There’s something really wrong here.” Do you THINK, Todd? Could you try to not be an idiot for ONCE in your life? He realizes that Jess isn’t angry or jealous: she’s terrified. For the first time, it starts to dawn on him that this might not be a case of Liz running off to make out with Sam. GOD, he’s stupid. He asks what’s wrong, and Jess sobs that Liz is drunk and shouldn’t be driving. Todd is like, “Where did she get the booze?” and Jess sobs even harder that she has no idea.
They round a corner and see a bunch of lights up ahead. They’re police cars. There’s been an accident. As they sprint out of the car, they see the Jeep flipped upside down, and Jess screams.
The cops get to the school, and they hear Lila screaming. When they run to her rescue, she sobs and shrieks that Nathan tried to attack her. They cuff him while he insists that he’s her counselor and begs her to tell them the truth. The police ask Lila if she’s up to going to the station to file a report against her attacker, and she coolly says yes.
Jess and Todd run up to the accident. There’s shattered glass all over the ground, and dark splotches that Jessica realizes are blood. She hears an onlooker say that it’s such a shame. Nobody could have made it through that crash alive. And so young!
Realizing her twin and boyfriend are both dead, Jess sinks to her knees, screaming, “Elizabeth! Sam! No!”
Are Sam and Elizabeth really dead? Will Jessica face any consequences for being a sociopathic monster? Will Bruce find Better-Than-Regina again? Will Lila feel really bad for ruining her counselor’s life? We’ll find out more in the next book I’m writing up, #95: The Morning After. It’s a lot shorter than this one.