the_oracle

Apr. 6th, 2008

Winter Carnival
December 1986

A winter wonderland...

   Winter's here and everyone at Sweet Valley High is excited about the upcoming Winter Carnival. It's a very special weekend at a mountain ski resort, with ice skating, skiing, sledding, and a spectacular ball.
   But Elizabeth Wakefield's got the midwinter blues. She's especially upset with her twin, Jessica, who's been avoiding chores and borrowing clothes without asking. Elizabeth is so sick and tired of Jessica's inconsiderate attitude that she sometimes wishes she never had a sister! And when Jessica's string of broken promises threatens to destroy Elizabeth's romance with Jeffrey French, it looks as though Winter Carnival will turn into a snowy disaster!
   Join the Sweet Valley High gang for their mid-winter break at Winter Carnival!

Let's get one thing straight right away. Reality has no place in the Valley. None. And I don't mean that "twelve strangers picked specifically for their drama-queen/skanky ways in the hopes of generating insane ratings" reality, I mean honest to God reality. Mundane, normal stuff. No place!
That said, Winter Carnival would have been much better off had they left out the over-the-top surrealism of the last few chapters. Until then, it's an interesting look behind the perfect twin facade. Liz, you see, is an unhappy camper. While the rest of us would probably consider her life more than charmed, psychotic sister, true-luv shipped to Vermont, and that whole kidnapping thing aside, she does have to put up with Jessica on a daily basis.
And thus begins our trouble. Liz has to walk home, in the rain, because Jessica just took off with the car, leaving Liz stranded. You or I might have asked our twin if she needed a ride home. We might not, considering Liz does have Jeffrey/Enid/the numerous people who owe her for fixing their lives, whether they asked her to or not. So we might conclude that like Kim Possible, Liz is never without options. We'd be wrong. Anyway, Liz is grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Lately Jessica has been getting on her nerves something fierce, what with her borrowing things without asking, ducking out of dinner detail repeatedly... basically being Jessica.
Liz gets a bit snippy when Jessica lets her parents think that the delicious meal they're eating was her own creation when all she did was reheat Elizabeth's masterpiece. Then Liz notices Jess is wearing her mulberry sweater, which was a gift from Enid that Liz hasn't worn all that often. Liz goes apeshit. But what's really getting to Liz is that Jessica and Amy swiped Enid and Elizabeth's answers for a trivia game show, and then Amy and Jess won. Liz points out that if their roles had been reversed, Jess would have wheedled her way into a spot on TV, but Jess calls bullshit. [Honey, that only works if the other person IS full of it, not if it's true...] Then she says it doesn't matter, Amy's so excited that even if Jess wanted to hand it over, she couldn't possibly. Rightio.
Then Liz finds out that she didn't win the essay contest she entered, but she did get an honorable mention. Liz is bummed that she didn't win flat out and when she finds out that the cheerleaders, led by Jessica, are on their way to All State, she hits a new low. She's jealous of Jessica in a big way, and nothing anyone can say can snap her out of it.
Well, not entirely true. Jeffrey [you remember Jeffy, right?] sweet talks her out of her funk, only to send her home to bathe [mmhmm, not going there] and then he'll whisk her away to dinner and all her worries will fall by the wayside, cuz... well, let's not be too explicit. That's not the sort of guy Jeffrey is, after all.
Problem is that Jessica, despite promising to make dinner on her actual night to do so, flits off to Amy's to cram for the trivia show. Liz calls Amy's house to bitch the blondes out, but Lana, Amy's maid [I know, right?] says the girls have gone to the library to look up the longest river in Africa. Let's take a moment, shall we? How many of you know that answer? Mmmhmm. How many of you knew that when you were the recommended reading age for these books? Mmmhmm. I figure nothing else I can say will point out that Amy lost all her braincells and then some. I think the sucking void that is her mind also took out half of Jessica's brain. Instead of using her superior intellect to figure out which library the two might've gone to and, I dunno, called and asked if two stunningly vapid blondes were running around killing braincells, Liz goes full on martyr and cancels her date with Jeffrey. Jeffrey sort of understands, but tells her that she should tell her twin where to shove it, because this shit just can't keep happening. If she can't tell Jess where to step off, she should tell her parents.

Nup, that won't happen. What I don't get is why neither Ned nor Alice ever call Jess on this shit UNLESS it's one of the "woe is Jessica!" books that happen every so often. Otherwise they smile and wish her good luck on not getting knocked up this go round. Hell, this time Alice comes home, asks where Jess is, is told she's out despite it being her night to do dinner, and in response she shrugs and shows off this spangly [Liz's word, not mine] silver Lycra ski suit she bought her youngest for the Winter Carnival.
Um, no. I don't care if she is "studying." It's easy enough to figure out that out of, let's say 10 nights, Liz has made dinner eight times. I figure that the weekends are iffy on whether the Wakefields eat together or require dinner made by either of the twins, but I factor in that either Sunday or Friday, they might. Anyway, the point is for them to share the workload, and it's not sharing if one of them is doing all the work. Even at the height of my brother's do nothing and get away with it-'phase', my parents still noticed after awhile. And not just because I'd rat him out at every given opportunity.
Liz, stuff the older sister crap and tell your parents that Jessica's taking advantage of you. Then tell her yourself and actually stick to it, dammit.
...Surprisingly enough, she actually does this. Well, not the part where she tells her parents, but the part where she tells Jessica that she's skipped dinner duty three times in two weeks and that while it's annoying to have everyone else expect her to be perfect-robo-twin, it's particularly vexing for her very own twin to expect the same. Jessica is horrified at the thought of having to be Saint Elizabeth and vows to be a better sister.
If you believe this, well...
Liz puts Jess to the test almost immediately. Liz has promised to drive little Teddy Collins home from Ricky Alden's birthday party while Mr. Collins is out of town. Seems his sister, Heather, doesn't drive. But Liz is playing tennis Friday afternoon with Jeffrey and won't be back in time to get Mr. Alden's call about where his house is [why not call BEFORE for the directions, Liz?] annnnnnd what time to pick Teddy up. Jessica promises to take the message, and leave a note telling Liz when/where so that when Liz gets back from tennis, she can run out and pick Teddy up.
You know this is going to end badly. It has to. And so it does.
Oh, Jessica takes the message alright. She takes the message along with her on her date with David. Which means Liz never picks Teddy up and looks like a total flake, and I wouldn't blame Heather if she were mighty ticked at Liz. If I were Ricky's dad, I would wonder why a high school girl was picking Teddy up in the first place, but as other people have mentioned, Liz and Mr. C have an odd sort of relationship.
So, Jess has a disastrous date. David is the cute guy on the opposing trivia team, and Jess has fallen for him for obvious reasons. Namely, he's cute and she figures that if she can get him hot and bothered enough, he'll let her and Amy win the mock game and then they'll get to be on TV. David tells her she's lovely, but that's never gonna happen. Prior to that, though, he takes Jessica to meet his older sister, sister's boyfriend, and they all have sushi. Jessica inhales horseradish instead and damn near chokes, then realizes she fucked up big time with the whole Teddy/Ricky/Liz fiasco. THEN David tells her no.
So she's in a right pitiful mood when she gets home, and heads straight to Liz to offer a half-assed apology and some serious sympathy over what a jerk David is.
Liz is pissed the hell off and tells Jessica to go fuck herself, cuz Liz is sick and tired of being unable to depend on her stupid, selfish, flighty, flaky, self absorbed skank of a twin.

   Jess: 137 million, Liz: 1.

In an effort to make things up to Liz, Jessica decides to try and figure out what's REALLY bothering her twin. Because it couldn't possibly be that Jessica is royally screwing her over every day that ends in "y", could it? No. Then Todd of all people calls! Jess is sure that this means that Liz is really in love with Todd still, and that with him visiting for the Winter Carnival, Liz is all torn up over Jeffrey vs. Todd. So when Todd asks her to pass along a message about the PTA dinner he's asked Liz to attend with him, Jessica does just that. She skips out the door, heads right to the DB, and tells Liz that Todd's all atwitter about their non-date-date, wink wink, nudge nudge.
Right.
In.
Front.
Of.
Jeffrey.
   Who had no idea Liz was bailing on the first night of the WC so she could go out with her ex. He's pissed and excuses himself, ready to leave Liz at the DB. Man, early Jeffrey had balls. Todd would never have done that until later in the series when he was an asshole all the time. Liz and Jeffrey fight it out and when he drops her off, Jeffrey doesn't really make any motion to see her in safely, or even really say goodbye.
So what does Elizabeth do? She asks Jessica for relationship advice. Jess tells her that a little jealousy never hurt anyone [the mind, it boggles!] and that Liz should let Jeffrey think he's got a little to worry about, just so their relationship won't get stale, and they won't take one another for granted.
And Elizabeth agrees.
The next day at some picnic or party or whatever the hell it is the popular kids at SVH do on their weekends, Enid tells Elizabeth that she's pretty sure Jeffrey's sensitive and besides that, he's not a headcase like Jessica, and she didn't think Liz was either. Liz ignores Enid, fucks things up further with Jeffrey, and can't even really blame Jessica, because this one? Not really Jessie's fault.
Damnation!
Days pass and Liz is worried. She thinks it's ridiculous that Jeffrey is SO jealous of a PTA dinner with Todd, but Jeffrey's never had a serious girlfriend, leading the less mature of us to wonder about his boyfriend history. Um, anywayyyyyyyyyyyyy....
So Jeffrey decides he'll drive out to this deserted little slice of canyon and if Liz shows up, they'll have a little chat about the state of their union. And if she doesn't show up, obviously there's nothing to talk about and their relationship is as dead as it looks at the moment.
Liz tells Jessica that she HAS to have the car back by 4:30 because the Liz/Jeffrey relationship depends on it. Jess agrees, but this is where everyone else realizes it ain't. gonna. happen. You see, today is the day when Jessica and Amy go all trivia nerd and beat the pants off real trivia nerds and win the coveted TV time for a local access trivia bowl game show. Exciting. Anyway, upon winning, they all go out for pizza and Jessica has totally forgotten Elizabeth.
A couple of things come to mind in all this. The first? Why didn't Elizabeth just drive Amy and Jessica to the trivia thing? Or why didn't she insist Amy drive? Doesn't Amy have a car? They've got a housekeeper, so I imagine the Suttons have the money for Ames to have her own transportation. Barring that, where are Lila and Cara? Or ANY of Jessica's admirers? By choosing to leave your fate in the hands of your ditzy sister and even flakier former best friend, you have actually spoken volumes about what you think of your relationship with Jeffy, Lizzie.
Also, when Jessica doesn't make it home on time [SHOCKER] and you can't find a car to borrow, or afford the taxi out to the canyon, why don't you hike/bike ride/take the taxi/bus to Jeffrey's house and wait for him? Huh? Explain that you tried your second-best and when you realized you'd never be able to meet him, you ran right over to wait for him to get home.
And if you can't be bothered to do that, you call and leave a thousand messages for him. But seriously, you haul yourself over there and plant your ass on the porch until he comes home. If he tells you to fuck off, fine. That's his right. But at least you'll have tried.
Why, oh why am I at all invested in Elizabeth's stupidity at this point?

Now that Jessica's botched just about everything up, she decides she has to fix it. She gets Todd to back off on the PTA thing, which makes Liz feel worse since she fought so hard to convince Jeffrey she SHOULD go since he's a friend and all. Then Jess forges a note from Liz to Jeffrey and tells him to meet her at the ski-lodge at 6:30 Friday evening. Problem this time? She never has time to tell Liz to meet Jeffrey, because Amy fucking Sutton proves she's a moron. When you're going away for a weekend, don't you start to pack a little beforehand? Even if it's just finding the fucking suitcases prior to the hour before you're supposed to leave? Not Amy. Amy runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, only less coordinated. Just when Jessica thinks she's home free, Amy's all "I forgot my allergy pills, Jess! I NEED them." Bitch, I would have pawned you off on Sandy Bacon when she drove by. Not Jessica. She and Amy drive up to Mont Blanc and since they run out of gas, hit all the lights, and various other hi-larious problems ensue, Jess has just enough time to run to the lodge and pretend to be Liz. It works, Jeffrey thinks they're on their way to being cool... Only Jess is spotted by Chrissy Nolan, a gossipy senior girl who makes a comment about the cute blond and the other twin and Liz. Freaks. Out.

Oh. My. GOD, Liz, take a chill pill. For the last time! Jeffrey and Jessica aren't romantically entangled just yet! But no. Liz runs off, cons Ken into taking her to the bus station, where she runs into Steve and Cara as she takes the bus home. When she does get home, Jessica gets a hold of her and Liz tells her to fuck off. Again. Then she lies down for a nap.
She's woken by the sound of the phone ringing, and when she answers, it's a cop. Never a good sign when the cops call, unless you're related to the one on the phone. She's not. He's calling because Jessica was in an accident on the way down from Mont Blanc. She's at Fowler Memorial and it doesn't look good. Liz runs out of the house, only to realize that Steve's car is in the shop, her parents are both out [why'd they take both their cars?], and she doesn't know anyone else who can take her since they're all up at Mont Blanc. Then Todd of all people drives by and she flags him down. Why in the HELL is Todd driving a black Camero? Doesn't matter. He takes her to the hospital where she arrives just in time to find out that Jessica is gone. Liz faints.
When she comes to, Jessica is still dead. Her parents are in shock, Liz is in denial and to help her deal, her pediatrician has prescribed some major pills, which she takes and helps take the edge off everything. The days pass by in a blur, due to the drugs and all, and Liz is handling all of this remarkably well considering she's sure that her family blames her for Jessica's death, since Jess wouldn't have died if the twins hadn't been fighting. Enid's throwing a small 'remember Jessica' sort of thing at her house. The guest list is a little odd, with Steve, Cara, Enid, Liz, Todd, Winston, Amy, Lila, Regina & Bruce, Roger, and Olivia. You had me right up until Roger and Olivia. I guess they're there to support Liz, not so much because they'll necessarily miss Jessica. Jeffy shows up and the shit hits the fan. He and Todd duel in the yard and the world goes even wonkier when Enid runs out into the yard wearing Jessica's silver ski suit. She's calling Liz's name only...
Not.
Because everything after Liz drifted off to sleep has been a dream. Jess, Steve, Cara, and Jeffrey are all at the Wakefield's! They're fine! Jess is alive! Liz instantly forgives everything, hugs her twin to death, and all is well.
The book ends with the Snow Ball Enid's been working on for the WC. Happily ever after. Oh, and the Todd/Jeffrey jokes literally write themselves as they bond over the weekend.

Trivial Matters:

Liz calls her essay for the Young Writer's Society, "Double or Nothing." Like everything else she writes, it's about being a twin. Later, she'll think that she should have called it "Double Standard." Her faculty sponsor is Mr. Collins, and she gets honorable mention.

The Winter Carnival weekend is for juniors, seniors, and SVH alumni. Am I the only one thinking of all the pervy guys trying to get with a naive/super slutty SVH student? Guess so.

The WC is held at Mont Blanc, a ski resort an hour and a half away from SV. Among other amenities, there's a ballroom.

The local TV station has created a trivia game show, and they've run a contest to get names for the show as well as contestants. After they swipe Liz and Enid's answers, Amy and Jessica are chosen, and their bit of witticism for a name? Trivia Bowl. Egads, Brain...

There's one team from SVH and one from Westwood High. Come on, ghosties, how many frickin' high schools are we up to by now?

The Trivia Show's entry form has ten sample questions and a space for a name suggestion for the show.

Trivia Bowl will air on KSVC. Those are some easy call letters, eh?

Jessica's all over the cold lasagna. While I agree leftover lasagna is better than fresh from the oven, I prefer mine warmed. To each their freakish ways, I suppose, Wakefield.

The Trivia Bowl people called Amy first. Luckily Jessica was there, too.

Winston demands that the dance at the WC be called the Snow Ball. Enid caves, but holds firm against all his other wackily lame ideas. In my head, Enid and Win were totally doing other things rather than planning the Snow Ball. Just sayin'...

Enid is co-chair of the dance committee, in case you hadn't figured that out yet.

Friday night there's a pizza party to begin the WC weekend. It's at 7pm, which happens to fall too close to the PTA dinner Todd's invited Elizabeth to go to.

Various chaperons include Ms. Dalton, Mr. Collins, Ms. Howard...

There are four students to each room. The only rooms worth noting: Liz/Enid/Olivia/Regina and Jessica/Cara/Lila/Amy. That last one sounds like a bad idea begging to happen.

Amy is organizing a miniture ice show for the WC. Ken and Bill are setting up a mock winter Olympics, with four teams competing for the glory and bragging rights of winning.

If you're not athletically inclined, there's always card or board games inside the lodge, as well as ping pong.

Elizabeth is Jeffrey's first serious girlfriend.

Todd played Big Brother to Timothy Bryce, who won a basketball scholarship to b-ball camp and is being honored [along with a zillion other snot nosed brats] at a PTA dinner, originally scheduled for Sunday, but moved to Friday for no reason other than to fuck with Elizabeth's weekend plans with Jeffrey.

The SVH squad has been picked as a finalist for the All-State cheerleading squad, leading Jess to prance around shrieking, "Can you believe we might be the best in the state?!?" as if we couldn't figure out what All-State meant.

Nina Davidson is a VIP from an architecture firm in San Diego who has been running Alice ragged.

Another high school! Bayberry Hills Academy, Jess is sure that they would have gotten the All-State nomination instead.

David Campbell is a senior at Westwood High. He's got brown eyes that wrinkle at the corners like Ned Wakefield's. His mother owns Bibi's, and his sister, Barbara, is 19 and crazy in that affected way that seems to be an epidemic in the Valley. Her boyfriend Mitch is just as affected/crazy.

Scott Hamlin runs Trivia Bowl.

Jeffrey's big plan was to whisk Liz off for a romantic evening at Tiberino's. The plan dies when Jessica and Amy go to the library to look up the longest river in Africa. No word on whether they figured it out or not.

The Suttons have a housekeeper named Lana.

Jessica is convinced her father needs to watch his weight, so she's vowed the family will eat salad 2 nights a week. Um, it might also have something to do with salads being impossibly easy to fix...

Alice picks up a silver, Lycra ski suit for Jessica at The Ski Shop.

Enid recently gave Elizabeth a mulberry sweater and Liz goes nuts when Jessica borrows it. Jess just borrowed it because she promised to show Amy her pants. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

When asked to name all the states starting with the letter M, Jessica misses Massachusetts, Mississippi, Maryland and Minnesota.

Winston informs Jessica and Amy that Charles Darwin's most famous voyage was made while sailing in The Beagle.

Also, the first two letters on every boat registered in California? CA. Jess is sure they wouldn't ask something like this. Uh, it's a trivia show, Jess. You're lucky they aren't asking really off the wall crap.

Mr. Collins has a sister, Heather, but she doesn't drive.

David drives a blue MG.

David, Barbara, Mitch, and Jessica go to A Taste of Tokyo [for sashimi], which is half an hour away.

Jessica thinks David is a jerk for not promising to take it easy on Amy and Jessica during the Trivia Bowl, but concedes that he's a considerate jerk when he waits until she's safely inside before starting his car and driving off.

Ned and Alice both work in downtown Sweet Valley.

At the picnic where Jeffrey and Liz prove they suck at playing proper headgames, Jessica plays Frisbee baseball. Also at the picnic? Caroline, Enid, Ken, and Bill. Man, the way they keep pairing Bill and Ken up, a girl could get to thinking the wrong thing. But I won't. Much longer. Promise.

Jeffrey is looking super sexy, in Elizabeth's opinion, in his madras pants. Go on, google 'em. I've got time.

Jeffrey drives out to Las Palmas Canyon, where he'll be waiting at the intersection of Route 27 and Canyon Drive. If Liz hasn't shown up by 6pm, I dunno, he'll go find Todd and get down and dirty. Who knows.

The Trivia Bowl starts at 3:30 and Jess is sure she'll be home by 4:30. She might've been had she not gone out for pizza with the gang at Pizza Palace. Hell, she volunteers to drive, thus further damning herself.

Jake Thomas is David's partner. Mike Mallory is the host of Trivia Bowl.

David and Thomas dominate the first half of TB *snort* and Amy and Jessica take the second half. There's a tie, and the tie-breaker? How many fluid cups are in a gallon. David says 24, but Jessica and Amy say, "Nuh uh! 16!" The girls win. Yay for them.

The drive to the canyon takes at least half an hour and a taxi ride'll cost $30. Liz doesn't have that much cash, and while she considers raiding the emergency money, she still wouldn't have enough. Bummer.

When Jessica is gossiping on the phone, she prefers to lie on her stomach, stretched across the bed, her ankles crossed in the air, her chin propped up on one hand. Now you know.

Todd visits with such regularity that the ghosty gets away with saying that when he does visit, you can be sure he'll be staying with either Ken or Winston. For the record, Winston won bunk rights this time.

Todd's flight comes in at 3pm, and he'll be back at Winston's by 4:30.

Amy can't drive a stick and has terrible night vision because her contacts make oncoming headlights shimmer.

The girls are bunking in the main building at Mont Blanc and the guys are in the Lodge, a hundred yards away. Woo?

Chrissy Nolan is a senior and a gossip to boot.

Ms. Dalton and Ms. Howard at the second floor chaperons, where Liz's room happens to be.

Ken took Liz to the bus station. He wanted to stay with her, but she wouldn't let him.

Steve and Cara took the bus to MB because Steve's car was in the shop.

Liz takes the 7:15 bus back to SV, and she's the only passenger, so she sits up front with Hank, the bus driver.

Liz actually wishes, repeatedly, that Jessica had never been born; that she had no sister at all. Damn, Liz.

Jessica 'crashes' on Route 17, down from MB, when she smashed into a tree. The docs say she didn't suffer, I say it was a fucking car accident and she didn't die immediately. I don't think she was having fun waiting for someone to drive by and call 911 for her.

Todd drives up in a black Camero.

Dr. Davis is the twins pediatrician. He appears wearing large coke-bottle glasses that he doesn't normally have outside of dreamtime.

Jessica's last words were, "Tell Liz I love her and I'm sorry." Guilt trip from beyond the grave!

Ned starts smoking after Jessica's death. Liz is shocked.

After less than a week, Alice turns the Hershey Bar white chocolate, and cleans everything out to make a guest room. Guess Liz isn't the only one knocking back the happy pills...

Enid's little shindig for Jessica involved the following: Steve, Liz, Todd, Winston, Amy, Lila, Regina, Bruce, Roger, and Olivia.

When Liz comes home in a tizzy from MB, Ned and Alice are out at a party.

On the way back to MB, they're running late because Jessica overslept.

Mock Olympics: Jessica is on the blue team, Bruce is building the world's biggest snowman which bears more than a little resemblance to Chrome Dome Cooper, Todd and Jeffrey are both part of the red team, Aaron and Bill are part of the yellow team, and your guess is as good as mine for the white team.

The Droids wrote Snow Girl for the Snow Ball. They're all dressed in white, as is everything else at the SB.

Quote me:

"She's like a whirlwind!" Elizabeth had exclaimed once to Enid Rollins her best friend.
"And you're so dependable," Enid had said loyally. - Uncool, Rollins. Whirlwind versus dependable? Which is more flattering, hmm? p4

"What's wrong?" Jessica asked, still gorging herself on lasagna.
"Nothing," Elizabeth lied. "It's just that Enid and I really wanted to be on that show. We worked so hard on our entry form and-"
"Don't worry about it," Jessica advised her. "It's just a dumb trivia show. It's not such a big deal."
Elizabeth just stared at her. "But if I'd won and you really wanted to be on it, I bet you'd twist my arm until I have in and let you," she pointed out.
Jessica giggled. "I wouldn't do that," she protested. - And a hundred and thirty seven people just called bullshit, Jessica. p9/10

"It's only an essay contest anyway," Jessica pointed out. "Come on, Liz. Don't be depressed. Who cares about essays?" - Thoughtful she is not, ladies and gentlemen. p29

Since her own taste was conservative, it amazed Elizabeth that Jessica borrowed so many of her things. - Truer words were never spoken. p48

"You're you, and I'm me, and wherever we go people are going to expect me to be on time and to wear navy-blue and they're not going to expect you to do either."
Jessica stared at her sister. She couldn't imagine a worse fate than the one Elizabeth was describing for herself.- The horror! p57/58

Mitch was even worse. He kept talking about Hollywood and going into "film," and he was wearing the weirdest clothes-an oversized Hawaiian shirt fastened at the throat with a jeweled pin, and strangely cut linen pants that made him look emaciated. His glasses were kelly green, and when Jessica made a remark about them Mitch gave her a scornful look. "I have twenty-five pair of glasses," he told her. "I change them to go with what I'm wearing." - Mitch, congrats. You're the biggest tool we've had in awhile. Yay, you! p72

My favorite thing about Winter Carnival, aside from the reality of Liz not always loving being "dependable" as opposed to glamorous? Jeffrey being jealous of Todd's history with Liz. He's heard so much about how awesome Todd was at EVERYTHING, and how everyone expected Todd and Liz to be together, forever, aww, that it makes complete sense that he wouldn't be looking forward to the guy coming back and hanging out immediately with Elizabeth. But he never actually tells Liz any of this during their fighting madness, so she just things he's jealous and overprotective, and more than a little cro-mag in his mindset.
Superficially speaking, I had a sweater like Elizabeth's, without the funky turtleneck thing going on. But then again, I was in elementary school...

Current Mood: drained

Liz calls her essay for the Young Writer's Society, "Double or Nothing." Like everything else she writes, it's about being a twin. Later, she'll think that she should have called it "Double Standard." Her faculty sponsor is Mr. Collins, and she gets honorable mention.

The Winter Carnival weekend is for juniors, seniors, and SVH alumni. Am I the only one thinking of all the pervy guys trying to get with a naive/super slutty SVH student? Guess so.

The WC is held at Mont Blanc, a ski resort an hour and a half away from SV. Among other amenities, there's a ballroom.

The local TV station has created a trivia game show, and they've run a contest to get names for the show as well as contestants. After they swipe Liz and Enid's answers, Amy and Jessica are chosen, and their bit of witticism for a name? Trivia Bowl. Egads, Brain...

There's one team from SVH and one from Westwood High. Come on, ghosties, how many frickin' high schools are we up to by now?

The Trivia Show's entry form has ten sample questions and a space for a name suggestion for the show.

Trivia Bowl will air on KSVC. Those are some easy call letters, eh?

Jessica's all over the cold lasagna. While I agree leftover lasagna is better than fresh from the oven, I prefer mine warmed. To each their freakish ways, I suppose, Wakefield.

The Trivia Bowl people called Amy first. Luckily Jessica was there, too.

Winston demands that the dance at the WC be called the Snow Ball. Enid caves, but holds firm against all his other wackily lame ideas. In my head, Enid and Win were totally doing other things rather than planning the Snow Ball. Just sayin'...

Enid is co-chair of the dance committee, in case you hadn't figured that out yet.

Friday night there's a pizza party to begin the WC weekend. It's at 7pm, which happens to fall too close to the PTA dinner Todd's invited Elizabeth to go to.

Various chaperons include Ms. Dalton, Mr. Collins, Ms. Howard...

There are four students to each room. The only rooms worth noting: Liz/Enid/Olivia/Regina and Jessica/Cara/Lila/Amy. That last one sounds like a bad idea begging to happen.

Amy is organizing a miniture ice show for the WC. Ken and Bill are setting up a mock winter Olympics, with four teams competing for the glory and bragging rights of winning.

If you're not athletically inclined, there's always card or board games inside the lodge, as well as ping pong.

Elizabeth is Jeffrey's first serious girlfriend.

Todd played Big Brother to Timothy Bryce, who won a basketball scholarship to b-ball camp and is being honored [along with a zillion other snot nosed brats] at a PTA dinner, originally scheduled for Sunday, but moved to Friday for no reason other than to fuck with Elizabeth's weekend plans with Jeffrey.

The SVH squad has been picked as a finalist for the All-State cheerleading squad, leading Jess to prance around shrieking, "Can you believe we might be the best in the state?!?" as if we couldn't figure out what All-State meant.

Nina Davidson is a VIP from an architecture firm in San Diego who has been running Alice ragged.

Another high school! Bayberry Hills Academy, Jess is sure that they would have gotten the All-State nomination instead.

David Campbell is a senior at Westwood High. He's got brown eyes that wrinkle at the corners like Ned Wakefield's. His mother owns Bibi's, and his sister, Barbara, is 19 and crazy in that affected way that seems to be an epidemic in the Valley. Her boyfriend Mitch is just as affected/crazy.

Scott Hamlin runs Trivia Bowl.

Jeffrey's big plan was to whisk Liz off for a romantic evening at Tiberino's. The plan dies when Jessica and Amy go to the library to look up the longest river in Africa. No word on whether they figured it out or not.

The Suttons have a housekeeper named Lana.

Jessica is convinced her father needs to watch his weight, so she's vowed the family will eat salad 2 nights a week. Um, it might also have something to do with salads being impossibly easy to fix...

Alice picks up a silver, Lycra ski suit for Jessica at The Ski Shop.

Enid recently gave Elizabeth a mulberry sweater and Liz goes nuts when Jessica borrows it. Jess just borrowed it because she promised to show Amy her pants. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

When asked to name all the states starting with the letter M, Jessica misses Massachusetts, Mississippi, Maryland and Minnesota.

Winston informs Jessica and Amy that Charles Darwin's most famous voyage was made while sailing in The Beagle.

Also, the first two letters on every boat registered in California? CA. Jess is sure they wouldn't ask something like this. Uh, it's a trivia show, Jess. You're lucky they aren't asking really off the wall crap.

Mr. Collins has a sister, Heather, but she doesn't drive.

David drives a blue MG.

David, Barbara, Mitch, and Jessica go to A Taste of Tokyo [for sashimi], which is half an hour away.

Jessica thinks David is a jerk for not promising to take it easy on Amy and Jessica during the Trivia Bowl, but concedes that he's a considerate jerk when he waits until she's safely inside before starting his car and driving off.

Ned and Alice both work in downtown Sweet Valley.

At the picnic where Jeffrey and Liz prove they suck at playing proper headgames, Jessica plays Frisbee baseball. Also at the picnic? Caroline, Enid, Ken, and Bill. Man, the way they keep pairing Bill and Ken up, a girl could get to thinking the wrong thing. But I won't. Much longer. Promise.

Jeffrey is looking super sexy, in Elizabeth's opinion, in his madras pants. Go on, google 'em. I've got time.

Jeffrey drives out to Las Palmas Canyon, where he'll be waiting at the intersection of Route 27 and Canyon Drive. If Liz hasn't shown up by 6pm, I dunno, he'll go find Todd and get down and dirty. Who knows.

The Trivia Bowl starts at 3:30 and Jess is sure she'll be home by 4:30. She might've been had she not gone out for pizza with the gang at Pizza Palace. Hell, she volunteers to drive, thus further damning herself.

Jake Thomas is David's partner. Mike Mallory is the host of Trivia Bowl.

David and Thomas dominate the first half of TB *snort* and Amy and Jessica take the second half. There's a tie, and the tie-breaker? How many fluid cups are in a gallon. David says 24, but Jessica and Amy say, "Nuh uh! 16!" The girls win. Yay for them.

The drive to the canyon takes at least half an hour and a taxi ride'll cost $30. Liz doesn't have that much cash, and while she considers raiding the emergency money, she still wouldn't have enough. Bummer.

When Jessica is gossiping on the phone, she prefers to lie on her stomach, stretched across the bed, her ankles crossed in the air, her chin propped up on one hand. Now you know.

Todd visits with such regularity that the ghosty gets away with saying that when he does visit, you can be sure he'll be staying with either Ken or Winston. For the record, Winston won bunk rights this time.

Todd's flight comes in at 3pm, and he'll be back at Winston's by 4:30.

Amy can't drive a stick and has terrible night vision because her contacts make oncoming headlights shimmer.

The girls are bunking in the main building at Mont Blanc and the guys are in the Lodge, a hundred yards away. Woo?

Chrissy Nolan is a senior and a gossip to boot.

Ms. Dalton and Ms. Howard at the second floor chaperons, where Liz's room happens to be.

Ken took Liz to the bus station. He wanted to stay with her, but she wouldn't let him.

Steve and Cara took the bus to MB because Steve's car was in the shop.

Liz takes the 7:15 bus back to SV, and she's the only passenger, so she sits up front with Hank, the bus driver.

Liz actually wishes, repeatedly, that Jessica had never been born; that she had no sister at all. Damn, Liz.

Jessica 'crashes' on Route 17, down from MB, when she smashed into a tree. The docs say she didn't suffer, I say it was a fucking car accident and she didn't die immediately. I don't think she was having fun waiting for someone to drive by and call 911 for her.

Todd drives up in a black Camero.

Dr. Davis is the twins pediatrician. He appears wearing large coke-bottle glasses that he doesn't normally have outside of dreamtime.

Jessica's last words were, "Tell Liz I love her and I'm sorry." Guilt trip from beyond the grave!

Ned starts smoking after Jessica's death. Liz is shocked.

After less than a week, Alice turns the Hershey Bar white chocolate, and cleans everything out to make a guest room. Guess Liz isn't the only one knocking back the happy pills...

Enid's little shindig for Jessica involved the following: Steve, Liz, Todd, Winston, Amy, Lila, Regina, Bruce, Roger, and Olivia.

When Liz comes home in a tizzy from MB, Ned and Alice are out at a party.

On the way back to MB, they're running late because Jessica overslept.

Mock Olympics: Jessica is on the blue team, Bruce is building the world's biggest snowman which bears more than a little resemblance to Chrome Dome Cooper, Todd and Jeffrey are both part of the red team, Aaron and Bill are part of the yellow team, and your guess is as good as mine for the white team.