SVH072The moral of the story: When you first move to Sweet Valley, you’re not allowed to drive yourself around in your own car without raising suspicion and breaking hearts.

The Big Deal: Nothing happening today. These kids have gotten boring lately.

Synopsis:

There’s a new girl in town, Andrea Slade, who just moved to Sweet Valley from New York. Andrea has blond hair, blue eyes and a peaches-and-cream complexion. Ooh, I hope they do the triplet prank in this book. Liz and Enid like Andrea immediately and invite her to join them at the beach on Saturday. Liz offers to pick her up, but Andrea says she’d rather meet them there because her house is still a mess. Then Liz goes home and Jessica asks her to make dinner so she can go to Lila’s and check out the “amazing compact disc player” her father brought home from Japan.

Lila, Jessica and Amy are all chilling in Lila’s room listening to the new Jamie Peters album on the aforementioned compact disc player and reading a magazine article about the guy. Jessica and Lila are in love with Jamie Peters and nearly die of excitement when they read he’s thinking of moving to California to start a film career. Amy starts making fun of Jessica and Lila because she’s too cool to be in love with a rock star. Lila informs her friends that she’s decided to become a professional musician. Her private music teacher, Max Sharpe, will decide soon what instrument she’ll be playing. A few days later, Lila invites Jessica and Amy over to tell them the results: she will be playing the marimba.

Enid and Liz have a wonderful time at the beach with Andrea, and then invite her to go to the Dairi Burger with them later. She again declines Liz’s offer to pick her up and says she’ll meet them there. Enid and Liz wonder why she’s being so secretive, and even though Andrea already said her house is a mess because it’s not unpacked yet, they’re sure she’s hiding something. All of Liz’s friends love Andrea, but they can’t figure out why she’s so mysterious and reluctant to talk about her father. A week or so later, Liz, Enid and Andrea run into Nicholas Morrow at the mall. Andrea and Nicholas get to talking and it’s clear they like each other, but when he asks her to go sailing with him, she says she’ll meet him at the marina. Enid and Liz exchange knowing glances and I want to punch them both in the face.

Lila has a dentist appointment one day, and when she gets back to school she tells everyone she saw Jamie Peters at the drugstore. Nobody believes her, but then Jessica figures that if Jamie is in Sweet Valley, she needs to be the next one to spot him. Lila calls that evening during dinner and tells Jessica she saw Jamie again and is currently speaking to Jessica from her car phone while she sits at the end of the driveway Jamie pulled into. She and Jessica make plans to sneak onto the property over the weekend and see Jamie up close. Um, girls? That’s stalking. And it’s creepy.

Andrea and Nicholas have a wonderful time sailing and Andrea accepts when Nicholas asks her to dinner that night. But when she again offers to meet him rather than be picked up, he gets all hurt and annoying. Andrea starts thinking she’d like to tell him “the truth,” but she just can’t. Gee, I wonder what the truth is. Their dinner is great and they go out again the next night. Andrea is all aflutter about being a normal and happy teenage girl.

Jessica, Lila and Amy sneak over to Jamie’s house. It seems he bought the old Kitterby estate in Lila’s neighborhood. Lila used to be friends with Alexis Kitterby, so she knows the best places for spying. The three of them are hiding in some bushes when Jamie Peters walks out to the pool and sits in a lounge chair. Amy makes a noise and Jamie looks in their direction, so they run away. They decide that the only person they’ll tell is Cara because they don’t want to share Jamie with everyone. Cara wants to go with them to spy on Jamie some more, so they all go on Monday after school. When they see Andrea Slade at Jamie’s house, they get all crazed and can’t believe Andrea is Jamie’s live-in girlfriend. Wow, these girls are idiots.

At school the next day, Liz gets an anonymous suggestion for her Eyes and Ears column that insinuates a relationship between Andrea and Jamie Peters. Then Penny comes in and says she found out from a friend at the Sweet Valley news that Jamie Peters has moved to Sweet Valley. Liz tells Enid she thinks Jamie is Andrea’s father. Jessica and the girls announce to Liz and Enid that Andrea is Jamie’s girlfriend. Liz is disgusted by the rumor, but then wonders why Andrea would hide her identity if she was Jamie Peters’ daughter.

When Andrea comes back to school the next day (she’s been out with a cold), everyone treats her differently. She realizes that her secret has come out somehow. Lila comes up to her at lunch and tells her she plays the marimba and wants her to set up an audition with Jamie Peters because, after all, he is Andrea’s boyfriend. Andrea laughs at her sarcastically and walks away. Lila and Jessica are shopping that afternoon and they run into Nicholas, who is on his way to meet Andrea. Lila tells him Andrea is a two-timer living with Jamie Peters. Nicholas gets pissed and leaves a nasty note for Andrea at the restaurant where they’re supposed to meet. Andrea is crushed. Later that night, Jamie Peters himself calls Liz and asks if she knows where his daughter is because she never came home. He asks her to call Enid and then come over to his house so they can all figure out where to look.

Liz picks up Nicholas, and on the way to Enid’s house, she tells him Andrea is Jamie’s daughter. Nicholas feels like an ass. They go to Enid’s, then they all get in Enid’s car to go searching around town. Nicholas has a sudden flash of inspiration and tells them to go to the marina. They find Andrea, tell her they like her for herself and then take her home. Jessica and Lila are hiding in the bushes again when Andrea comes home and introduces her friends to Jamie. Lila almost falls over into the bushes and the noise brings everyone outside. Lila apologizes to Andrea for spreading the rumor and somehow comes out of the whole thing with a bit part in the movie Jamie is making.

Setup for the next book: Mrs. Morrow has something of Regina’s that she wants to give to Liz.

Quotes:

“I think I’ve practically memorized the whole first side of Pride.”

CDs were newfangled contraptions back when this was written and I’m guessing Ms. Ghostwriter didn’t have one. A big deal is made of Jessica having Jamie Peters’ “compact disc,” and then she says this.

“Your friend Lila is calling from her car phone,” [Ned] said, half amused and half annoyed. “Apparently something earth-shattering has come up, and unless she can talk to you this very second, she claims she will die.”

I’m cracking up trying to imagine Lila explaining this to Mr. Wakefield in a perfectly reasonable tone of voice. “Mr. Wakefield, it is essential that I talk to Jessica right now, or I will simply perish.”

“Nicholas…our house is still a complete mess. I think it would be a lot easier if I came over to your house, and we went from there.”

Nicholas bent over the boat and secured the rope. When he stood up again, he looked really hurt.

“It isn’t me, is it?” he asked seriously.

God, everyone is so uptight about Andrea wanting to drive her own car and meet people instead of having them pick her up. What’s the big deal, guys?

The Cover: At no point in this book does Andrea show any interest in a guitar or in scowling. And she only talks to Jessica once at the end. But look at that awesome shirt she’s wearing. Remember when we all had shirts like that? Weird turtleneck/tank top monstrosities.