You two-timing weasel!

Showdown
May 1985

Jessica and Lila are in love with the same boy!

More than she bargained for...

   When Lila Fowler's mysterious new boyfriend finally appears at her pool party, Jessica Wakefield is dazzled. Jack is handsome, sexy, and exciting-even more perfect than Lila described him. So Jessica wastes no time making sure he notices her, too.
   Unknown to Lila, Jack dates both girls- Jessica during the week and Lila on weekends. But the sight of Lila's happy face on Monday mornings is more than Jessica can stand! Jessica's twin sister, Elizabeth, warns her to drop Jack before she really gets hurt. But Jessica would rather get Lila out of the picture. Then Jack will be hers-all hers.


  Ah, Lila versus Jessica. If ever there was a story as old as time itself in the Valley, this would be it. Lila meets boy. Lila gushes about boy to all her friends, throws him a huge "I'm trying to impress you!" party, and Jessica tries to steal boy. The twist in all this is that Lila doesn't realize that Jessica is still after her boy, which puts Jessica squarely in the bitch corner, yet again. G'ah.
  Lila met Jack towards the end of Head Over Heels, and is impressed with how unimpressed he is by her last name. At the start of Showdown, she's devised a plan to throw a huge party to introduce all her friends [and hell, all her classmates, really] to Jack and Jack to them... as well as impress him with her fabulous mansion. Win/win, yes?
  Well, no. You see, Jessica has decided that the only thing Lila has over her is money, and this Jack guy should be easy enough to snatch away from Lila. Great friend, huh? Lila hasn't had an actual boy-toy the entire SERIES thus far [we're 19 books in, and given things people have said, we're at least in late, late, LATE winter, early spring. That's pretty much the entirety of her junior year relying on backup dates and throwaway boytoy mentions.] and Jessica makes a plan to steal the only one to show up. Bitch.
  And she tries her hardest, only Jack shows up late to his own party, which complicates matters. Jess does manage to sneak him her phone number via the old matchbook trick, but then Lila has Jack tell Jessica what he does for a living. Jess backs the fuck off when she finds out he's a lowly construction worker, and there are numerous mentions of how Jessica and Lila would normally consider such a thing beneath them, but since he's obviously SO MUCH MORE than just a grunt, they'll make an exception. It alternates between acting as if this is perfectly okay and mocking them. Fine line and someone falters more than once.
  Anyway, Jack confides that he's not just a grunt, he's the son of a VIP and while he can't tell Lila who his father really is, rest assured he's a big shot. Right, first rule of BS? That's a classic load if ever there was one. Lila's thrilled because this means that her father can't shoot down her boytoy, yay! But before she can dance around too much, realization dawns. Her father will loathe an estranged big shot almost as much as a lowly construction worker. So when Mr. Fowler returns earlier than planned, Li sneaks Jack away, promising to tell no one of his secret identity.
  For a moment, it appears Li will keep her promise. But the lure of the powder-blue princess phone is too strong, so she calls Cara and spills her guts. Cara calls Jessica and apparently everyone else at SVH and soon the rumours have spread. He's royalty! He's a rock star! He's... you get the idea.
  Jess gets a call from Jack and they set up a weekday date. Jess is thrilled as it's before Lila's, and it's proof that he's lying to her, so he can't possibly be that into her. Score one for the sneaky Wakefield twin! She throws a hissy fit when Liz shares her fear that maybe Jack is a jerk for so obviously two-timing Lila. Jess doesn't care as she's currently under the impression that it's not like he could possibly like anyone as much as he likes her, so straying from Jessica is obviously not an option. Lack of confidence is rarely a problem for Jessica.

  Liz, on the other hand, is wondering if she managed to bite off way more than she could chew. Penny, the editor at the paper, has mono, and Liz volunteered to help put The Oracle together in Penny's absence. Thing is, it's a little more difficult than Liz thought it would be. Luckily, Mr. Collins points out that once Liz actually digs in and begins working with a plan in mind, things will work out. When she does, Liz finds a hilarious picture of Tad Johnson, linebacker for the SVH football team, kissing a teddy bear. The picture is really, really good, but neither Allen [paper's photographer] nor John has taken the picture, and they have no clue who took the picture. When Liz calls Penny to ask her opinion, Penny says she doesn't know either, but to run the damn thing, DUH. Also, please find the photographer so that they can join the Oracle staff.
  Back to the real action. Jess is miffed when she finds out that Lila spent all weekend with Jack. I don't blame her. First date is nice, but weekend dates tend to be more elaborate than weekday ones. She asks him what the hell is going on and he says that Friday was just a thank you for being you sort of deal, Saturday was a just friends excursion, and Sunday was a completely random bump into one another at the mall moment. Jess is skeptical, but he's so convincing that she falls for it. FOOL. There's some crap about him renaming the North Star Jessica, but my eyes rolled so far out of my head at that moment that the less said about it, the better.
  Naturally, the next time we see Jack and Lila, he pulls the exact same romantic crap with her. And she falls for her, because he cranks it up a notch. He says he wants to be with Lila forever and she goes crazy internally, proving that Lila really needed a boytoy prior to this. However, she's not thrilled about not being able to brag about her new man, but agrees to wait to go public with their engagement. Ignoring the absolute stupidity that is wanting to marry a guy you've been dating for less than a month, let's point out that Lila is not all about the delayed gratification, ok? The pair decide to celebrate the following night at Jack's apartment, considering Papa Fowler will be around and he'd frown on his baby girl dating this guy.
  Unfortunately for Lila, she wakes up feeling like absolute crap. They try and play it off as a 24 hour flu, but I could have sworn we were told that didn't actually exist and you must've gone and eaten something funky. Whatever it is, Lila's doctor makes a housecall, declares her ill, and she has to cancel her date with Jack. He immediately calls Jessica to fill in the hole in his schedule. Away they go for pizza at Guidos, which makes me want pizza something fierce. While there, they run into Nicholas and his friend David. What I neglected to mention, was that when Jack finally showed up to his party, Nich thought he recognized good old Jack, and Jack freaked out a little. This time Jack all but climbs out the bathroom window to avoid Nicholas and David, creeping Jessica out just a little. He tries to play it off as not wanting David to tell his father where he's seen the mysterious wayward son, but the only person buying this even a little is Jessica, and even she's not so sure about it.
  Still, he's insistent that she head back to his place so she can see these amazing pictures he took while vacationing in the Caribbean, and Jessica's really curious as to Jacki's mysterious money, so she agrees.
  While that's happening, Liz is busy figuring out who the mystery photographer is. Now, we all know the second Liz goes over to Penny's and runs into Penny's little sister that Tina, little sis, is the photographer. You just know, despite knowing nothing about Tina other than how wildly different she is from Penny physically. Sure enough, Thursday night Liz stays really late to assemble the paper and as she's leaving at quarter to nine, she bumps into Tina who attempts to hide the photos she was going to drop off. Liz is too quick and busts her, and then admires the photos. Well, she does until photo number three, which proves that while the whole school may know all about the twins, they don't know jack about Enid Rollins. Tina's taken a picture of George, Enid's boyfriend, and Robin Wilson, locked in a heated embrace. I feel like such a goof saying that, but hey, there it is. Liz is horrified and Tina is dismayed because she thought she was just getting a really romantic picture. Bitch, you just proved that you don't pay attention to the social hierarchy of the school. Robin Wilson is co-captain of the cheerleaders, and if you don't know that she's been dating Allen Walters, then you don't deserve your coveted spot on The Oracle. :P Anyway, Liz heads home and mulls it over. Come Saturday, she decides to go to the graduation for the flying class Robin and George have been taking. Why, oh why, isn't Enid there? That's what I want to know. I guess because if she were there, George and Robin couldn't be all over one another. And they are. Right up until they notice one very pissed off Wakefield twin.
  They sort of explain and Liz is like, "You do realize I'm Enid's best friend, right? So now I have to hate you both with the power of a thousand suns!" George promises to tell Enid after he takes her for a ride in the plane. Robin has already told Allen. FF to Sunday and Liz has told Penny about Tina and everyone's happy as Tina's now part of The Oracle staff.
  Back at Guido's, Nicholas asks David why Jack seems so familiar, and David thinks about it, only to come up with a fantastically over the top story. Seems Jack went to their prep school briefly, right up until he robbed his girlfriend at knife point, cuz he's cuckoo. His family died a few years ago and the trauma caused the poor boy to snap like a dry twig. When his uncle scrounged up the cash to send Jack to school, Jack began to pretend that he was richer than all the other kids, and infinitely more important as well. Thing is, he picked up a drug habit which did nothing for his meager finances or his temper. On the other hand, he only really seems to lose it when someone digs a little too much into his past.
  GASP! Jessica is nothing if not nosy, so Nicholas and David run around trying to find Jess. They find Liz instead and Liz is forced to tell Lila that Jessica stabbed her in the back, Liz knew about it, and no one did a damn thing until now. Lila's pissed and ready to tell Liz she can tell her twin to drop dead, but Liz spills that Jack is a psycho, and Lila caves and forks over the address before promptly hanging up.
  Away the trio run to find Jessica. Turns out that Lila only had the street address, not the exact apartment number. They split up and begin trying each apartment. Liz finds some guy, badgers him, and he finally says try 4B.
  Now, back to Jess. Jess decides to peek around in Jack's dismal little apartment and finds nothing until she ransacks the bathroom. There she finds more drugs than she knows what to do with. She confronts Jack and he snaps. He tries to strangle her, and when that doesn't work as planned, he decides a good old stabbing is the way to go. When Liz and company bang on the door, Jess screams for her life and things get dicey. Luckily, David and Nich kick the door down and a quick wrestling match, complete with cheerleader kick later, Jack is subdued and on his way to jail.
  After the twins fill out the legal paperwork, they're all set to head out to dinner to celebrate when they hear that there's an airplane in trouble. BA 329, registered to George Warren. GASP!

  The end.

Triiivia:

• A Lila's party, you could find Todd, Liz, George, and Enid sunbathing, Winston and Nicholas having a dog paddle race in the pool, and Olivia playing guitar. One does wonder if Olivia was only there because Roger was probably invited to spite Bruce who wasn't.


• Ken can do at least one trick on waterskiis.


• Nicholas used to go to Teela Locca sailing camp in NH as a kid, and the Morrows had a summer house on Martha's Vineyard.


• Jack claims his mother died a few years ago, so it's just his father, him, and Valerie, his little sister, who is two years younger than Jack.


• He also claims that his father had him set to go to Princeton, just as daddy, and granddaddy before him did.


• More claims from the Jack vault: That his grandfather had a chalet in France, they had a Parisian Governess named Veronique, and that he's fluent in French, and knows a fair bit of Latin as well.


• The French thing bombs when Liz makes a lame joke in French and no one, not even Jack, gets it.


• Fowler Crest has a private road.


• To avoid having her father meet Jack, Lila lies and says she's not allowed to have boys over when her father is away, and then she says he's having a dinner party and thus they can't celebrate there.


• Lila has a pale blue princess phone.


• The aftermath of Lila's party: expensive vase broken, pool drain clogged, and her father's gold cuff links, and tie clip went missing.


• Jess is reading Strindberg's Miss Julie.


• Jack brings Jessica a long stemmed red rose the night he renames the North Star for her.


• Tina, Penny's little sister, is a ninth grader, and described as small, plump, with freckles on the bridge of her nose.


• Penny's room is covered with the front pages from around the world, because she dreams of being the editor of an international newspaper.


• Robin is writing a piece on her flying course, and Penny is surprised at how good it is. Liz reminds her that prior to Robin being pretty and popular, she used to write all the time and was pretty damn good at it.


• To block Lila's chatter about Jack, Jessica imagines back stories for everyone at the Dairi Burger. This is actually really amusing.


• Jess likens Lila and Jack to Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and never once recognizes that these aren't exactly happy romances.


• Jess and Jack go to see Help! at Somerville Quad.


• Jess is really ticklish, and the twins end up in a tickle fight.


• While crawling around on the theatre floor, there's an unnecessary crack about the fat woman sitting next to Jessica. Whomever was responsible for this, I hope they're fat, or at least have a really good excuse for their fat phobia.


• Jack claims to have seen The Police.


• Liz stayed at the Oracle office until 8:45. Why? I can't imagine. But most unbelievable of all? Tina is able to get into the school, no problem. ...the hell? Did she walk? Steal a car? Take the bus? Wouldn't her parents notice that their 14 year old was missing at 9PM?


• Liz loves The Maltese Falcon, as it's her favorite old movie.


• The Fowlers have a sculpture garden. I say they have too much money.


• Mr. Fowler is not pro-underage drinking, but Li swipes a bottle of wine anyway.


• Eva is the Fowler's tiny, snowy haired housekeeper.


• Dr. Johnstone is Lila's doctor and he makes housecalls. Awesome!


• Jaime Duncan is a swimmer who just transfered from Florida, and he fell fast for Emily Mayer after seeing a Droids performance.*


• Jack claims to have a "little cottage" in the Caribbean.


• David Matson, Nicholas's friend from prep school, is a lanky redhead who's planning on becoming a lawyer.


• Jack's family actually died in a boating accident, when Valerie was 11 or 12, making Jack 13 or 14. Which might explain why Ned and Alice are so forgiving of someone who just TRIED TO KILL THEIR DAUGHTER. Seriously, they're preaching psychiatric help, not kick his ass. What kind of parents are those?


• Jack lives at 38 Vine, apartment 4-B, just past the railroad tracks.


• In his effort to save Jessica, Nicholas managed to get a lovely gash in his left shoulder. Poor baby.

Quote this, bitch:

Jessica came up and wrapped her arm around her twin's shoulders, watching Jack's confused expression turn to one of understanding. - Jessica doing something I would totally do if I had a twin, p12

"And I'm Liz Wakefield."
"I know." Tina grinned. "Everyone at Sweet Valley High has heard of you and Jessica." Not at all creepy, Tina Ayala! p52

"I told my parents that I had volunteered to drive over to the mall to pick up those new pompoms we ordered for the cheering squad."
"But I thought Sandy Bacon was doing that," Cara put in.
"That's true. But I did volunteer to do it," Jessica said smugly. "I just let Sandy volunteer harder." Atta girl, Jess! p60

"You're kidding! And I thought you'd come all the way over here to stand in front of me and shield me from the harmful rays of the sun. You know, my own personal parasol." - Liz has rare moments of supreme fantasticness. This? Would be one. p69


Return of the number of the beast:

"You're usually so generous with your clothes. If I'd known you were going to a hundred and thirty-seven fits, I wouldn't have put on the dress in the first place." Jessica confuses generosity with being a doormat quite often where Liz is concerned. p40



  Oddly enough, I don't think I read Showdown during my first brush with Sweet Valley. During the middle years, yes, but not during my rush to read all I could initially. Weird. I'm going to guess the library didn't have a copy, or that it was always checked out when I went on my binges. Anyway, I waffle on whether I like the book or not. I like the idea, but I hate that Jessica so easily goes after a guy she knows Lila likes, and then continues to chase after him, knowing full well how happy Lila is. Lila has no idea that Jack is cheating on her, and Jessica seems okay with this. Sure, she wants him to break up with Lila, but she doesn't care that it'll hurt Li. Bitchtastic, and not in a complimentary way.
  As to Tina and Penny, lovely little look into Penny's life, but that's about as close as we come for the next twenty books.

  Oddly enough, Caroline has been mostly absent since her spotlight. Weird. Also, Bruce is back to being a jerk, and I point and laugh at anyone who voted for him instead of Ken. When will you lot learn? Oh yeah, NEVER.

  * What is it about SV that brings the transfer kids? Do you know how many new kids the junior [and possibly senior] class have had so far? That's right, a lot. Also, what are the odds that Jack would move to a place where he'd run into TWO people from his life back East? Yeah, that's what I thought.

You two-timing weasel!

Showdown
May 1985

Jessica and Lila are in love with the same boy!

More than she bargained for...

   When Lila Fowler's mysterious new boyfriend finally appears at her pool party, Jessica Wakefield is dazzled. Jack is handsome, sexy, and exciting-even more perfect than Lila described him. So Jessica wastes no time making sure he notices her, too.
   Unknown to Lila, Jack dates both girls- Jessica during the week and Lila on weekends. But the sight of Lila's happy face on Monday mornings is more than Jessica can stand! Jessica's twin sister, Elizabeth, warns her to drop Jack before she really gets hurt. But Jessica would rather get Lila out of the picture. Then Jack will be hers-all hers.


  Ah, Lila versus Jessica. If ever there was a story as old as time itself in the Valley, this would be it. Lila meets boy. Lila gushes about boy to all her friends, throws him a huge "I'm trying to impress you!" party, and Jessica tries to steal boy. The twist in all this is that Lila doesn't realize that Jessica is still after her boy, which puts Jessica squarely in the bitch corner, yet again. G'ah.
  Lila met Jack towards the end of Head Over Heels, and is impressed with how unimpressed he is by her last name. At the start of Showdown, she's devised a plan to throw a huge party to introduce all her friends [and hell, all her classmates, really] to Jack and Jack to them... as well as impress him with her fabulous mansion. Win/win, yes?
  Well, no. You see, Jessica has decided that the only thing Lila has over her is money, and this Jack guy should be easy enough to snatch away from Lila. Great friend, huh? Lila hasn't had an actual boy-toy the entire SERIES thus far [we're 19 books in, and given things people have said, we're at least in late, late, LATE winter, early spring. That's pretty much the entirety of her junior year relying on backup dates and throwaway boytoy mentions.] and Jessica makes a plan to steal the only one to show up. Bitch.
  And she tries her hardest, only Jack shows up late to his own party, which complicates matters. Jess does manage to sneak him her phone number via the old matchbook trick, but then Lila has Jack tell Jessica what he does for a living. Jess backs the fuck off when she finds out he's a lowly construction worker, and there are numerous mentions of how Jessica and Lila would normally consider such a thing beneath them, but since he's obviously SO MUCH MORE than just a grunt, they'll make an exception. It alternates between acting as if this is perfectly okay and mocking them. Fine line and someone falters more than once.
  Anyway, Jack confides that he's not just a grunt, he's the son of a VIP and while he can't tell Lila who his father really is, rest assured he's a big shot. Right, first rule of BS? That's a classic load if ever there was one. Lila's thrilled because this means that her father can't shoot down her boytoy, yay! But before she can dance around too much, realization dawns. Her father will loathe an estranged big shot almost as much as a lowly construction worker. So when Mr. Fowler returns earlier than planned, Li sneaks Jack away, promising to tell no one of his secret identity.
  For a moment, it appears Li will keep her promise. But the lure of the powder-blue princess phone is too strong, so she calls Cara and spills her guts. Cara calls Jessica and apparently everyone else at SVH and soon the rumours have spread. He's royalty! He's a rock star! He's... you get the idea.
  Jess gets a call from Jack and they set up a weekday date. Jess is thrilled as it's before Lila's, and it's proof that he's lying to her, so he can't possibly be that into her. Score one for the sneaky Wakefield twin! She throws a hissy fit when Liz shares her fear that maybe Jack is a jerk for so obviously two-timing Lila. Jess doesn't care as she's currently under the impression that it's not like he could possibly like anyone as much as he likes her, so straying from Jessica is obviously not an option. Lack of confidence is rarely a problem for Jessica.

  Liz, on the other hand, is wondering if she managed to bite off way more than she could chew. Penny, the editor at the paper, has mono, and Liz volunteered to help put The Oracle together in Penny's absence. Thing is, it's a little more difficult than Liz thought it would be. Luckily, Mr. Collins points out that once Liz actually digs in and begins working with a plan in mind, things will work out. When she does, Liz finds a hilarious picture of Tad Johnson, linebacker for the SVH football team, kissing a teddy bear. The picture is really, really good, but neither Allen [paper's photographer] nor John has taken the picture, and they have no clue who took the picture. When Liz calls Penny to ask her opinion, Penny says she doesn't know either, but to run the damn thing, DUH. Also, please find the photographer so that they can join the Oracle staff.
  Back to the real action. Jess is miffed when she finds out that Lila spent all weekend with Jack. I don't blame her. First date is nice, but weekend dates tend to be more elaborate than weekday ones. She asks him what the hell is going on and he says that Friday was just a thank you for being you sort of deal, Saturday was a just friends excursion, and Sunday was a completely random bump into one another at the mall moment. Jess is skeptical, but he's so convincing that she falls for it. FOOL. There's some crap about him renaming the North Star Jessica, but my eyes rolled so far out of my head at that moment that the less said about it, the better.
  Naturally, the next time we see Jack and Lila, he pulls the exact same romantic crap with her. And she falls for her, because he cranks it up a notch. He says he wants to be with Lila forever and she goes crazy internally, proving that Lila really needed a boytoy prior to this. However, she's not thrilled about not being able to brag about her new man, but agrees to wait to go public with their engagement. Ignoring the absolute stupidity that is wanting to marry a guy you've been dating for less than a month, let's point out that Lila is not all about the delayed gratification, ok? The pair decide to celebrate the following night at Jack's apartment, considering Papa Fowler will be around and he'd frown on his baby girl dating this guy.
  Unfortunately for Lila, she wakes up feeling like absolute crap. They try and play it off as a 24 hour flu, but I could have sworn we were told that didn't actually exist and you must've gone and eaten something funky. Whatever it is, Lila's doctor makes a housecall, declares her ill, and she has to cancel her date with Jack. He immediately calls Jessica to fill in the hole in his schedule. Away they go for pizza at Guidos, which makes me want pizza something fierce. While there, they run into Nicholas and his friend David. What I neglected to mention, was that when Jack finally showed up to his party, Nich thought he recognized good old Jack, and Jack freaked out a little. This time Jack all but climbs out the bathroom window to avoid Nicholas and David, creeping Jessica out just a little. He tries to play it off as not wanting David to tell his father where he's seen the mysterious wayward son, but the only person buying this even a little is Jessica, and even she's not so sure about it.
  Still, he's insistent that she head back to his place so she can see these amazing pictures he took while vacationing in the Caribbean, and Jessica's really curious as to Jacki's mysterious money, so she agrees.
  While that's happening, Liz is busy figuring out who the mystery photographer is. Now, we all know the second Liz goes over to Penny's and runs into Penny's little sister that Tina, little sis, is the photographer. You just know, despite knowing nothing about Tina other than how wildly different she is from Penny physically. Sure enough, Thursday night Liz stays really late to assemble the paper and as she's leaving at quarter to nine, she bumps into Tina who attempts to hide the photos she was going to drop off. Liz is too quick and busts her, and then admires the photos. Well, she does until photo number three, which proves that while the whole school may know all about the twins, they don't know jack about Enid Rollins. Tina's taken a picture of George, Enid's boyfriend, and Robin Wilson, locked in a heated embrace. I feel like such a goof saying that, but hey, there it is. Liz is horrified and Tina is dismayed because she thought she was just getting a really romantic picture. Bitch, you just proved that you don't pay attention to the social hierarchy of the school. Robin Wilson is co-captain of the cheerleaders, and if you don't know that she's been dating Allen Walters, then you don't deserve your coveted spot on The Oracle. :P Anyway, Liz heads home and mulls it over. Come Saturday, she decides to go to the graduation for the flying class Robin and George have been taking. Why, oh why, isn't Enid there? That's what I want to know. I guess because if she were there, George and Robin couldn't be all over one another. And they are. Right up until they notice one very pissed off Wakefield twin.
  They sort of explain and Liz is like, "You do realize I'm Enid's best friend, right? So now I have to hate you both with the power of a thousand suns!" George promises to tell Enid after he takes her for a ride in the plane. Robin has already told Allen. FF to Sunday and Liz has told Penny about Tina and everyone's happy as Tina's now part of The Oracle staff.
  Back at Guido's, Nicholas asks David why Jack seems so familiar, and David thinks about it, only to come up with a fantastically over the top story. Seems Jack went to their prep school briefly, right up until he robbed his girlfriend at knife point, cuz he's cuckoo. His family died a few years ago and the trauma caused the poor boy to snap like a dry twig. When his uncle scrounged up the cash to send Jack to school, Jack began to pretend that he was richer than all the other kids, and infinitely more important as well. Thing is, he picked up a drug habit which did nothing for his meager finances or his temper. On the other hand, he only really seems to lose it when someone digs a little too much into his past.
  GASP! Jessica is nothing if not nosy, so Nicholas and David run around trying to find Jess. They find Liz instead and Liz is forced to tell Lila that Jessica stabbed her in the back, Liz knew about it, and no one did a damn thing until now. Lila's pissed and ready to tell Liz she can tell her twin to drop dead, but Liz spills that Jack is a psycho, and Lila caves and forks over the address before promptly hanging up.
  Away the trio run to find Jessica. Turns out that Lila only had the street address, not the exact apartment number. They split up and begin trying each apartment. Liz finds some guy, badgers him, and he finally says try 4B.
  Now, back to Jess. Jess decides to peek around in Jack's dismal little apartment and finds nothing until she ransacks the bathroom. There she finds more drugs than she knows what to do with. She confronts Jack and he snaps. He tries to strangle her, and when that doesn't work as planned, he decides a good old stabbing is the way to go. When Liz and company bang on the door, Jess screams for her life and things get dicey. Luckily, David and Nich kick the door down and a quick wrestling match, complete with cheerleader kick later, Jack is subdued and on his way to jail.
  After the twins fill out the legal paperwork, they're all set to head out to dinner to celebrate when they hear that there's an airplane in trouble. BA 329, registered to George Warren. GASP!

  The end.

Triiivia:

• A Lila's party, you could find Todd, Liz, George, and Enid sunbathing, Winston and Nicholas having a dog paddle race in the pool, and Olivia playing guitar. One does wonder if Olivia was only there because Roger was probably invited to spite Bruce who wasn't.


• Ken can do at least one trick on waterskiis.


• Nicholas used to go to Teela Locca sailing camp in NH as a kid, and the Morrows had a summer house on Martha's Vineyard.


• Jack claims his mother died a few years ago, so it's just his father, him, and Valerie, his little sister, who is two years younger than Jack.


• He also claims that his father had him set to go to Princeton, just as daddy, and granddaddy before him did.


• More claims from the Jack vault: That his grandfather had a chalet in France, they had a Parisian Governess named Veronique, and that he's fluent in French, and knows a fair bit of Latin as well.


• The French thing bombs when Liz makes a lame joke in French and no one, not even Jack, gets it.


• Fowler Crest has a private road.


• To avoid having her father meet Jack, Lila lies and says she's not allowed to have boys over when her father is away, and then she says he's having a dinner party and thus they can't celebrate there.


• Lila has a pale blue princess phone.


• The aftermath of Lila's party: expensive vase broken, pool drain clogged, and her father's gold cuff links, and tie clip went missing.


• Jess is reading Strindberg's Miss Julie.


• Jack brings Jessica a long stemmed red rose the night he renames the North Star for her.


• Tina, Penny's little sister, is a ninth grader, and described as small, plump, with freckles on the bridge of her nose.


• Penny's room is covered with the front pages from around the world, because she dreams of being the editor of an international newspaper.


• Robin is writing a piece on her flying course, and Penny is surprised at how good it is. Liz reminds her that prior to Robin being pretty and popular, she used to write all the time and was pretty damn good at it.


• To block Lila's chatter about Jack, Jessica imagines back stories for everyone at the Dairi Burger. This is actually really amusing.


• Jess likens Lila and Jack to Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and never once recognizes that these aren't exactly happy romances.


• Jess and Jack go to see Help! at Somerville Quad.


• Jess is really ticklish, and the twins end up in a tickle fight.


• While crawling around on the theatre floor, there's an unnecessary crack about the fat woman sitting next to Jessica. Whomever was responsible for this, I hope they're fat, or at least have a really good excuse for their fat phobia.


• Jack claims to have seen The Police.


• Liz stayed at the Oracle office until 8:45. Why? I can't imagine. But most unbelievable of all? Tina is able to get into the school, no problem. ...the hell? Did she walk? Steal a car? Take the bus? Wouldn't her parents notice that their 14 year old was missing at 9PM?


• Liz loves The Maltese Falcon, as it's her favorite old movie.


• The Fowlers have a sculpture garden. I say they have too much money.


• Mr. Fowler is not pro-underage drinking, but Li swipes a bottle of wine anyway.


• Eva is the Fowler's tiny, snowy haired housekeeper.


• Dr. Johnstone is Lila's doctor and he makes housecalls. Awesome!


• Jaime Duncan is a swimmer who just transfered from Florida, and he fell fast for Emily Mayer after seeing a Droids performance.*


• Jack claims to have a "little cottage" in the Caribbean.


• David Matson, Nicholas's friend from prep school, is a lanky redhead who's planning on becoming a lawyer.


• Jack's family actually died in a boating accident, when Valerie was 11 or 12, making Jack 13 or 14. Which might explain why Ned and Alice are so forgiving of someone who just TRIED TO KILL THEIR DAUGHTER. Seriously, they're preaching psychiatric help, not kick his ass. What kind of parents are those?


• Jack lives at 38 Vine, apartment 4-B, just past the railroad tracks.


• In his effort to save Jessica, Nicholas managed to get a lovely gash in his left shoulder. Poor baby.

Quote this, bitch:

Jessica came up and wrapped her arm around her twin's shoulders, watching Jack's confused expression turn to one of understanding. - Jessica doing something I would totally do if I had a twin, p12

"And I'm Liz Wakefield."
"I know." Tina grinned. "Everyone at Sweet Valley High has heard of you and Jessica." Not at all creepy, Tina Ayala! p52

"I told my parents that I had volunteered to drive over to the mall to pick up those new pompoms we ordered for the cheering squad."
"But I thought Sandy Bacon was doing that," Cara put in.
"That's true. But I did volunteer to do it," Jessica said smugly. "I just let Sandy volunteer harder." Atta girl, Jess! p60

"You're kidding! And I thought you'd come all the way over here to stand in front of me and shield me from the harmful rays of the sun. You know, my own personal parasol." - Liz has rare moments of supreme fantasticness. This? Would be one. p69


Return of the number of the beast:

"You're usually so generous with your clothes. If I'd known you were going to a hundred and thirty-seven fits, I wouldn't have put on the dress in the first place." Jessica confuses generosity with being a doormat quite often where Liz is concerned. p40



  Oddly enough, I don't think I read Showdown during my first brush with Sweet Valley. During the middle years, yes, but not during my rush to read all I could initially. Weird. I'm going to guess the library didn't have a copy, or that it was always checked out when I went on my binges. Anyway, I waffle on whether I like the book or not. I like the idea, but I hate that Jessica so easily goes after a guy she knows Lila likes, and then continues to chase after him, knowing full well how happy Lila is. Lila has no idea that Jack is cheating on her, and Jessica seems okay with this. Sure, she wants him to break up with Lila, but she doesn't care that it'll hurt Li. Bitchtastic, and not in a complimentary way.
  As to Tina and Penny, lovely little look into Penny's life, but that's about as close as we come for the next twenty books.

  Oddly enough, Caroline has been mostly absent since her spotlight. Weird. Also, Bruce is back to being a jerk, and I point and laugh at anyone who voted for him instead of Ken. When will you lot learn? Oh yeah, NEVER.

  * What is it about SV that brings the transfer kids? Do you know how many new kids the junior [and possibly senior] class have had so far? That's right, a lot. Also, what are the odds that Jack would move to a place where he'd run into TWO people from his life back East? Yeah, that's what I thought.