This is the long way down

Say Goodbye
December 1986

Can Elizabeth survive the heartache of losing Todd?

A time for tears...

   Elizabeth Wakefield's heart is breaking: Todd Wilkins, her longtime boyfriend, is leaving Sweet Valley and moving to Vermont. Todd and she have only one week left. After that the only boy Elizabeth has ever loved will be gone-forever.
   Jessica, Elizabeth's scheming twin, is ecstatic; she never liked Todd anyway. The moment Todd leaves, Jessica begins to hunt for a new boyfriend for Elizabeth.But when Jessica's plot backfires, it threatens to destroy Elizabeth and Todd's enduring love!

   What does one day about Say Goodbye, the beginning of the end for Todd & Liz as a semi-stable couple? I guess we'll start there. We found out at the end of Too Much In Love that Todd is moving. We find out now that he's got less than a week left in the Valley. On the one hand, if I were Liz, I would be mad as hell that Todd wasted so much time in denial. On the other, they would have just moped that much longer.
  The week flies by in no time at all and come Saturday night, the lovebirds are brokenhearted at Todd's going away party. Again, if it were me, I'd be a little more ticked than Liz was that Enid chose Todd's last night to throw a party instead of figuring that the couple would want to be together, alone, but Liz points out that if left to their own devices, Todd and Liz would have just cried. Or made out, passed go, decided to collect $200 and have sex while they still could. So for Liz's sake, I guess it was a good thing Enid decided to take no chances.
  Now, with Todd gone [and he does go. He doesn't stay gone for long, but he does get the hell out of Dodge and move to Vermont] Jessica decides to match Liz up with Nicholas Morrow. Again. Nick, naturally, has been pining for Liz this whole time. I'd have been right there with Jess when she was on her twins on the prowl plan, but she just wants Liz with Nick so she can get some of the perks that go with your twin dating a gazillionaire. If SVH were just starting out, Jess would eventually try and hook Liz up with Lila for the same reasons. Must take a moment to ponder that...

  Anyway. Liz goes batshit crazy without Todd in the immediate vicinity. Everyone has told her that maybe a long distance relationship is not the best course of action for two 16 year olds, and she's out to prove them wrong. Dead wrong. They'll see. They'll all see! Muhahahaha! HA!
  Yeah, in doing so she writes Todd a letter every day, and one gets the feeling Todd at least writes every other day. They call entirely too often for the times and fuck, man, I'm jealous. Even in the age of cellphones, I don't hear from my non-Todd that often. Maybe for Christmas I'll send him selected pages. Anyway, Liz won't go out for fear of missing one of her thrice weekly calls. She doesn't work on the Oracle with the same fire, or much of anything at all. Yet the only person who seems overly concerned is Jessica, and she figures that if she replaces Todd with Nick, things will be back to normal. And by normal, she means yacht races every third Saturday of the month, barbecues on the following Sunday, and champagne before noon every day. It'll be fantastic.
  In wacky-Jess hijinks side story news, Jess is forced to get a job because she owes her parents about $90 for some matchy-matchy skirt and blouse she charged to their Lisette's account. Seriously, why does Alice [we presume it's Alice] have a Lisette's account if Jessica is so freakin' irresponsible? Sigh. Naturally Jess gets a job her first day out, and it's as a receptionist for Perfect Match, a matchmaking company. While there, she decides to hook Steven up with a couple of ladies.
  Her choices are interesting. There's Beatrice Barber, the desperate 43 year old. We're not sure how desperate she is, just that she really does keep trying to get a hold of Steven. Then again, she's been told he's been matched up with her, so yeah. Steve's a little freaked out about that. I love that Jess doesn't see 43 as too old for her brother. Then we've got Jody, a twenty year old punk-new age chick who just defies all sorts of reason. She goes on and on about the vibes in the room while dressed in leather. In my experience the two don't really mesh, but Jody's 20 and obviously confused. She freaks Liz and Steven out and pretty much outs Jessica as the matchmaker in question. Missy Porter, the foodie, never actually appears. Which is for the best, I guess, since if she had, she'd have been like 300 pounds and eating at every turn. I say that last bit with confidence as her little bio was all about food and she turns down the opportunity to try and snag a date with Steve because she feels safer with food. [Jessica reasoned that with Steve bitching about dorm food so much, a foodie would shut him right the hell up. It's sort of sweet.]

   Somehow Liz manages to fall into a relationship with Nick that she and Nick both take very seriously. But... but what about her EPIC ROMANCE with Todd?

  Well, that's where Jessica cuts in. She tells Todd that Liz is basically wasting away and that if he really loved Elizabeth, he'd think of her and cut ties with her. If you love something, set it free. Wise for butterflies, not so wise for girlfriends, boy. The Todd kills communication with Liz without another word and she mopes around. She tries calling, but he won't answer. She writes, he doesn't write back. After a week, if that, she gives up. A week. A WEEK. That sound you just heard? That was my head hitting the desk. Repeatedly. I'm not sure where I fall in the romantic spectrum, but even I know you don't give up on a together forever love after a week of radio silence. A week of finding your love screwing everything that walks and a few things that don't? Yeah, sure. But not silence from two thousand miles away, Lizzie.
  Everyone who was originally worried about the 'ship lasting is now all, "but weren't you and Todd together forever? What's the deal with Morrow?" and Liz is exceptionally touchy about it. Yeah, well, I got nothing for that. She who proclaims that her relationship is made of sterner stuff and then switches boys so fast Lila Fowler's head spins deserves the comments.
  It's a book that ends in a number, so Lila's throwing a party. For a second someone expects us to believe Lila would actually throw a post-op themed party, but I gather she just goes with "Dude, it's a Fowler fiesta. Be there or be one of the nameless freaks we'll parade around on the covers in the next 50 or so books. Toodles!" Liz is there with Nick, but she's planning on breaking up with him afterward. She loves Todd, yes? Yes. Nick is just a piece of eyecandy. She can't do this to him. WOE! The angst, it's crushing me.
  Todd is back in town and the only person who knows is Winston. Why? Cuz I left out that bit where the Egberts and the Wilkinses are like, bestest friends. Also, Winston's daddy is apparently a real estate agent and he's selling Todd's old house and packing their stuff and sending it off to Vermont. Anyway, banks are letting Todd close out family accounts and crap, and I'm not buying that at all. It's just an excuse to have Todd there so he can surprise Liz at Lila's party without a pesky father to haul him off to the Home Depot or something manly.
  Only, of course, she surprises him because she's happily slow dancing with Nick. Personally it sounded like she was sort of half asleep in Nick's arms, probably pretending he was Todd anyway, but Todd sees it as the ultimate betrayal [too tired for caps, darlings] and runs away. Liz screams, "TODD! TOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDD!" and the music swells. I'm thinking something poppy and heartbreaking all at once. Liz has Nick take her home and the dude sort of realizes the end is there, but even with her big freakout, he's still willing to believe that Liz will come around. Liz sets him straight and says no, she's in love with Todd and even if things don't work out, she has to try. Nick's like, fine, I'll wait. Again she says, dude, no. I cannot, will not do that to you. And Nick gets it. Finally. He says if that's the way she wants it, he'll drop it, but this is her last chance at him. He won't have the courage to try again, and besides, I think we all know he wouldn't trust her to not dump him the second Todd moved back. [He never did share this view with Jeffrey. Poor Jeffrey.]

   So Liz is ready to go find Todders, but Jess finds her first and confesses that what she did, she did out of love, but in typical Jessica fashion, made a bad situation infinitely worse. Shock! Amazement!
  Liz drives around looking for Todd, but he's not at any of their usual haunts. Woe. She's all but given up when she drives by his old house and what do you know, he's there. They embrace, cry, makeout, it's all lovey dovey stuff. They agree that while they love one another, they can't say no dates for other people if it feels right. Til they meet again and whatnot.
  After less than a month, the relationship is on the back burner.

   Will I ever recover?

  Oh, and as a C-story, Steve stumbles across Cara Walker whose car has gotten a flat. He fusses and helps her and realizes in the span of twenty seconds that gosh, she's matured and is no longer the silly, vain girl he thought he knew, but instead a sad, tortured soul, someone he feels he can fix. How the hell did he and Billie hookup in SVU? She's neither sad, nor tortured, and that is so his type. Maybe the two years helped more than I thought...
  Anyway, at Lila's party, Betsy Martin blows up at Steve for having a good time while Tricia the Saint is rotting. Drama!

Trivial:

• Liz's mole gets a mention. When did that become pretty much mandatory for the intros?


• Jessica gets all the information about Todd's move from Winston, whose father is close with Mr. Wilkins, as well as his real estate agent. Mr. Egbert's first name is Sam.


• According to Double Love, Todd is a newbie in the Valley, yes? I know every other series will forget this piece of info, but we're still way before all that, so we'll take this as fact. His father was presumably transfered to SV, so what sort of job does the man have where they'd transfer him again after less than a year?


• The VP of Mr. Wilkins's company found them a house in Burlington, Vermont. I guess if the BSC taught us anything, it was that the VP was a glorified hostess...


• Todd plans to be back with his father by the end of the month to tie up loose ends.


• Jess racked up a $87.95 bill at Lisette's and she has one month to pay her parents back.


• Her job? Receptionist at Perfect Match Computer Dating Agency.


• PM has a heart theme. The notepads are pink hearts, the keyring has a heart. I think I'd puke...


• Mary Ann runs PM. She's a 27 year old "pert brunette" with bouncy curls. She began PM with her older sister, but now she runs it alone. Hence the Jess help, I suppose.


• Steven saying "hometown honeys" makes me laugh until I cry.


• Todd gives Liz a gold locket with a fine gold chain. Later he'll remind her that it's not meant to hold her down, just a reminder of his love. Aw?


• Todd sold his blue Datsun Saturday, before his going away party.


• Jessica and Liz send mail with Ned so he can mail it from his office... Why?


• Todd wrote a coded "I Love You" message on the inside of Liz's locker. We just aren't told what it is.


• Cara's father recently moved out. She's been a bit of a downer since. Imagine that.


• Not only did he move out, but he went to Chicago, and took Cara's little brother Charlie with him.


• Jess likens Liz and Todd's relationship to smoking. You know you shouldn't, but you've just gotten so used to the bad habit...


• Mr. Davis is the chairman of the Sweet Valley Boat Club.


• Nicholas Morrow's yacht is called the Seabird and he secretly thinks of it as "My Favorite Twin." All together now: GAG. MFT has navy and white sails.


• Nick takes Liz to a Bond flick and she gets all emotional because Bond, that sexy beast, will easily seduce someone else's girlfriend away. Then she'll probably die, Lizzie.


• Nick's cousin Jeffrey is from NY, 21, brown curly hair, wire-rim glasses, and future archaeologist.


• Liz tells Steven about Nicholas and says, "He's an awful lot like you." Which is creepy since Todd can also be described the same way... And to think, some people insist Jess is the one with the brother fixation.


• Cara's car got a flat on Route 29.


• After Steve changed her flat, he took her to the Whistle Stop for some coffee and then asked her to go to Lila's party with him.


• Jess thinks "Spence Millgate" is a romantic name. Naturally he turns out to be a disaster. Jess is not meant to be with a future undertaker.


• Somehow by the end of the book, Perfect Match morphs into Lonely Hearts. How?

Quotable:



Jessica stared at her twin in disbelief. This was worse than she feared-much worse! She'd better do something right away. No dinner! This was serious! - Oh, the melodramatic Jessica, p46
"Old I can handle." Jessica snorted. "What I can't handle is ancient. That guy's mind is back in the third century B.C." - Jess, p 87




  The LDR-having side of me feels more strongly for parts of this book than I would otherwise. I mean, a month and they break up. Wusses. But it's not like it's an easy thing, so I guess I can only bitch so much. But I would have killed for a book where Liz buddied up to Lila so she could score some long distance calls to Todd, figuring Li would never know the difference. Siiiiiiigh. Guess I have to settle for Liz buddying up to pre-teen Lila for a chance at Li's horse.
  It's a classic in terms of the L&T relationship, but I miss bitchy Jessica. Wacky hijinks are nice, but they make me think of wacky TV Jessica and I don't want to remember her that way.

  In my head, Nick and Jeffrey got together after SY and Nick fixed Jeff up real nice. First they bonded over repeatedly losing Liz and then they just bonded...

  Anyway, good stuff to read, not so good to blather on about. I blame NaNo!
  Now, I do have to wonder why Steven and Enid are so against Liz and Todd trying to keep their relationship up despite the miles. Jessica I understand, since she can't even keep the enthusiasm up for one guy for longer than a month unless he's Bruce. I could understand their parents taking them aside and having the talk. If I strain and justify real hard, I guess I can understand Enid and Steven, as they're probably the people Liz respects the most, opinion-wise of the non-adult variety. Except... Enid ended up with George before Robin stole him away, in a large part due to their keeping in touch. Steven I could buy the concerned older brother routine if he hadn't lost Tricia. Hometown honeys my ass, he'd be rooting for the couple to make it against the odds. Unless, of course, he didn't like Todd.

  ...GASP! That must be it.


Couple of last second things.
Liz looks a bit like one of those toy/lap dogs with her hair like this. Also, it's weird how you can use pretty much stock Daniel twin photos and get two remarkably different covers. One actually looks sort of fitting, and the other is green. Weird.

And to those having a really shitty week/month/time, I'm sorry. :/

This is the long way down

Say Goodbye
December 1986

Can Elizabeth survive the heartache of losing Todd?

A time for tears...

   Elizabeth Wakefield's heart is breaking: Todd Wilkins, her longtime boyfriend, is leaving Sweet Valley and moving to Vermont. Todd and she have only one week left. After that the only boy Elizabeth has ever loved will be gone-forever.
   Jessica, Elizabeth's scheming twin, is ecstatic; she never liked Todd anyway. The moment Todd leaves, Jessica begins to hunt for a new boyfriend for Elizabeth.But when Jessica's plot backfires, it threatens to destroy Elizabeth and Todd's enduring love!

   What does one day about Say Goodbye, the beginning of the end for Todd & Liz as a semi-stable couple? I guess we'll start there. We found out at the end of Too Much In Love that Todd is moving. We find out now that he's got less than a week left in the Valley. On the one hand, if I were Liz, I would be mad as hell that Todd wasted so much time in denial. On the other, they would have just moped that much longer.
  The week flies by in no time at all and come Saturday night, the lovebirds are brokenhearted at Todd's going away party. Again, if it were me, I'd be a little more ticked than Liz was that Enid chose Todd's last night to throw a party instead of figuring that the couple would want to be together, alone, but Liz points out that if left to their own devices, Todd and Liz would have just cried. Or made out, passed go, decided to collect $200 and have sex while they still could. So for Liz's sake, I guess it was a good thing Enid decided to take no chances.
  Now, with Todd gone [and he does go. He doesn't stay gone for long, but he does get the hell out of Dodge and move to Vermont] Jessica decides to match Liz up with Nicholas Morrow. Again. Nick, naturally, has been pining for Liz this whole time. I'd have been right there with Jess when she was on her twins on the prowl plan, but she just wants Liz with Nick so she can get some of the perks that go with your twin dating a gazillionaire. If SVH were just starting out, Jess would eventually try and hook Liz up with Lila for the same reasons. Must take a moment to ponder that...

  Anyway. Liz goes batshit crazy without Todd in the immediate vicinity. Everyone has told her that maybe a long distance relationship is not the best course of action for two 16 year olds, and she's out to prove them wrong. Dead wrong. They'll see. They'll all see! Muhahahaha! HA!
  Yeah, in doing so she writes Todd a letter every day, and one gets the feeling Todd at least writes every other day. They call entirely too often for the times and fuck, man, I'm jealous. Even in the age of cellphones, I don't hear from my non-Todd that often. Maybe for Christmas I'll send him selected pages. Anyway, Liz won't go out for fear of missing one of her thrice weekly calls. She doesn't work on the Oracle with the same fire, or much of anything at all. Yet the only person who seems overly concerned is Jessica, and she figures that if she replaces Todd with Nick, things will be back to normal. And by normal, she means yacht races every third Saturday of the month, barbecues on the following Sunday, and champagne before noon every day. It'll be fantastic.
  In wacky-Jess hijinks side story news, Jess is forced to get a job because she owes her parents about $90 for some matchy-matchy skirt and blouse she charged to their Lisette's account. Seriously, why does Alice [we presume it's Alice] have a Lisette's account if Jessica is so freakin' irresponsible? Sigh. Naturally Jess gets a job her first day out, and it's as a receptionist for Perfect Match, a matchmaking company. While there, she decides to hook Steven up with a couple of ladies.
  Her choices are interesting. There's Beatrice Barber, the desperate 43 year old. We're not sure how desperate she is, just that she really does keep trying to get a hold of Steven. Then again, she's been told he's been matched up with her, so yeah. Steve's a little freaked out about that. I love that Jess doesn't see 43 as too old for her brother. Then we've got Jody, a twenty year old punk-new age chick who just defies all sorts of reason. She goes on and on about the vibes in the room while dressed in leather. In my experience the two don't really mesh, but Jody's 20 and obviously confused. She freaks Liz and Steven out and pretty much outs Jessica as the matchmaker in question. Missy Porter, the foodie, never actually appears. Which is for the best, I guess, since if she had, she'd have been like 300 pounds and eating at every turn. I say that last bit with confidence as her little bio was all about food and she turns down the opportunity to try and snag a date with Steve because she feels safer with food. [Jessica reasoned that with Steve bitching about dorm food so much, a foodie would shut him right the hell up. It's sort of sweet.]

   Somehow Liz manages to fall into a relationship with Nick that she and Nick both take very seriously. But... but what about her EPIC ROMANCE with Todd?

  Well, that's where Jessica cuts in. She tells Todd that Liz is basically wasting away and that if he really loved Elizabeth, he'd think of her and cut ties with her. If you love something, set it free. Wise for butterflies, not so wise for girlfriends, boy. The Todd kills communication with Liz without another word and she mopes around. She tries calling, but he won't answer. She writes, he doesn't write back. After a week, if that, she gives up. A week. A WEEK. That sound you just heard? That was my head hitting the desk. Repeatedly. I'm not sure where I fall in the romantic spectrum, but even I know you don't give up on a together forever love after a week of radio silence. A week of finding your love screwing everything that walks and a few things that don't? Yeah, sure. But not silence from two thousand miles away, Lizzie.
  Everyone who was originally worried about the 'ship lasting is now all, "but weren't you and Todd together forever? What's the deal with Morrow?" and Liz is exceptionally touchy about it. Yeah, well, I got nothing for that. She who proclaims that her relationship is made of sterner stuff and then switches boys so fast Lila Fowler's head spins deserves the comments.
  It's a book that ends in a number, so Lila's throwing a party. For a second someone expects us to believe Lila would actually throw a post-op themed party, but I gather she just goes with "Dude, it's a Fowler fiesta. Be there or be one of the nameless freaks we'll parade around on the covers in the next 50 or so books. Toodles!" Liz is there with Nick, but she's planning on breaking up with him afterward. She loves Todd, yes? Yes. Nick is just a piece of eyecandy. She can't do this to him. WOE! The angst, it's crushing me.
  Todd is back in town and the only person who knows is Winston. Why? Cuz I left out that bit where the Egberts and the Wilkinses are like, bestest friends. Also, Winston's daddy is apparently a real estate agent and he's selling Todd's old house and packing their stuff and sending it off to Vermont. Anyway, banks are letting Todd close out family accounts and crap, and I'm not buying that at all. It's just an excuse to have Todd there so he can surprise Liz at Lila's party without a pesky father to haul him off to the Home Depot or something manly.
  Only, of course, she surprises him because she's happily slow dancing with Nick. Personally it sounded like she was sort of half asleep in Nick's arms, probably pretending he was Todd anyway, but Todd sees it as the ultimate betrayal [too tired for caps, darlings] and runs away. Liz screams, "TODD! TOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDD!" and the music swells. I'm thinking something poppy and heartbreaking all at once. Liz has Nick take her home and the dude sort of realizes the end is there, but even with her big freakout, he's still willing to believe that Liz will come around. Liz sets him straight and says no, she's in love with Todd and even if things don't work out, she has to try. Nick's like, fine, I'll wait. Again she says, dude, no. I cannot, will not do that to you. And Nick gets it. Finally. He says if that's the way she wants it, he'll drop it, but this is her last chance at him. He won't have the courage to try again, and besides, I think we all know he wouldn't trust her to not dump him the second Todd moved back. [He never did share this view with Jeffrey. Poor Jeffrey.]

   So Liz is ready to go find Todders, but Jess finds her first and confesses that what she did, she did out of love, but in typical Jessica fashion, made a bad situation infinitely worse. Shock! Amazement!
  Liz drives around looking for Todd, but he's not at any of their usual haunts. Woe. She's all but given up when she drives by his old house and what do you know, he's there. They embrace, cry, makeout, it's all lovey dovey stuff. They agree that while they love one another, they can't say no dates for other people if it feels right. Til they meet again and whatnot.
  After less than a month, the relationship is on the back burner.

   Will I ever recover?

  Oh, and as a C-story, Steve stumbles across Cara Walker whose car has gotten a flat. He fusses and helps her and realizes in the span of twenty seconds that gosh, she's matured and is no longer the silly, vain girl he thought he knew, but instead a sad, tortured soul, someone he feels he can fix. How the hell did he and Billie hookup in SVU? She's neither sad, nor tortured, and that is so his type. Maybe the two years helped more than I thought...
  Anyway, at Lila's party, Betsy Martin blows up at Steve for having a good time while Tricia the Saint is rotting. Drama!

Trivial:

• Liz's mole gets a mention. When did that become pretty much mandatory for the intros?


• Jessica gets all the information about Todd's move from Winston, whose father is close with Mr. Wilkins, as well as his real estate agent. Mr. Egbert's first name is Sam.


• According to Double Love, Todd is a newbie in the Valley, yes? I know every other series will forget this piece of info, but we're still way before all that, so we'll take this as fact. His father was presumably transfered to SV, so what sort of job does the man have where they'd transfer him again after less than a year?


• The VP of Mr. Wilkins's company found them a house in Burlington, Vermont. I guess if the BSC taught us anything, it was that the VP was a glorified hostess...


• Todd plans to be back with his father by the end of the month to tie up loose ends.


• Jess racked up a $87.95 bill at Lisette's and she has one month to pay her parents back.


• Her job? Receptionist at Perfect Match Computer Dating Agency.


• PM has a heart theme. The notepads are pink hearts, the keyring has a heart. I think I'd puke...


• Mary Ann runs PM. She's a 27 year old "pert brunette" with bouncy curls. She began PM with her older sister, but now she runs it alone. Hence the Jess help, I suppose.


• Steven saying "hometown honeys" makes me laugh until I cry.


• Todd gives Liz a gold locket with a fine gold chain. Later he'll remind her that it's not meant to hold her down, just a reminder of his love. Aw?


• Todd sold his blue Datsun Saturday, before his going away party.


• Jessica and Liz send mail with Ned so he can mail it from his office... Why?


• Todd wrote a coded "I Love You" message on the inside of Liz's locker. We just aren't told what it is.


• Cara's father recently moved out. She's been a bit of a downer since. Imagine that.


• Not only did he move out, but he went to Chicago, and took Cara's little brother Charlie with him.


• Jess likens Liz and Todd's relationship to smoking. You know you shouldn't, but you've just gotten so used to the bad habit...


• Mr. Davis is the chairman of the Sweet Valley Boat Club.


• Nicholas Morrow's yacht is called the Seabird and he secretly thinks of it as "My Favorite Twin." All together now: GAG. MFT has navy and white sails.


• Nick takes Liz to a Bond flick and she gets all emotional because Bond, that sexy beast, will easily seduce someone else's girlfriend away. Then she'll probably die, Lizzie.


• Nick's cousin Jeffrey is from NY, 21, brown curly hair, wire-rim glasses, and future archaeologist.


• Liz tells Steven about Nicholas and says, "He's an awful lot like you." Which is creepy since Todd can also be described the same way... And to think, some people insist Jess is the one with the brother fixation.


• Cara's car got a flat on Route 29.


• After Steve changed her flat, he took her to the Whistle Stop for some coffee and then asked her to go to Lila's party with him.


• Jess thinks "Spence Millgate" is a romantic name. Naturally he turns out to be a disaster. Jess is not meant to be with a future undertaker.


• Somehow by the end of the book, Perfect Match morphs into Lonely Hearts. How?

Quotable:



Jessica stared at her twin in disbelief. This was worse than she feared-much worse! She'd better do something right away. No dinner! This was serious! - Oh, the melodramatic Jessica, p46
"Old I can handle." Jessica snorted. "What I can't handle is ancient. That guy's mind is back in the third century B.C." - Jess, p 87




  The LDR-having side of me feels more strongly for parts of this book than I would otherwise. I mean, a month and they break up. Wusses. But it's not like it's an easy thing, so I guess I can only bitch so much. But I would have killed for a book where Liz buddied up to Lila so she could score some long distance calls to Todd, figuring Li would never know the difference. Siiiiiiigh. Guess I have to settle for Liz buddying up to pre-teen Lila for a chance at Li's horse.
  It's a classic in terms of the L&T relationship, but I miss bitchy Jessica. Wacky hijinks are nice, but they make me think of wacky TV Jessica and I don't want to remember her that way.

  In my head, Nick and Jeffrey got together after SY and Nick fixed Jeff up real nice. First they bonded over repeatedly losing Liz and then they just bonded...

  Anyway, good stuff to read, not so good to blather on about. I blame NaNo!
  Now, I do have to wonder why Steven and Enid are so against Liz and Todd trying to keep their relationship up despite the miles. Jessica I understand, since she can't even keep the enthusiasm up for one guy for longer than a month unless he's Bruce. I could understand their parents taking them aside and having the talk. If I strain and justify real hard, I guess I can understand Enid and Steven, as they're probably the people Liz respects the most, opinion-wise of the non-adult variety. Except... Enid ended up with George before Robin stole him away, in a large part due to their keeping in touch. Steven I could buy the concerned older brother routine if he hadn't lost Tricia. Hometown honeys my ass, he'd be rooting for the couple to make it against the odds. Unless, of course, he didn't like Todd.

  ...GASP! That must be it.


Couple of last second things.
Liz looks a bit like one of those toy/lap dogs with her hair like this. Also, it's weird how you can use pretty much stock Daniel twin photos and get two remarkably different covers. One actually looks sort of fitting, and the other is green. Weird.

And to those having a really shitty week/month/time, I'm sorry. :/