The lifestyles of the rich and whiny

In Love Again
October 1989


Todd's back and Elizabeth's got him!

Reunion...

   Todd Wilkins and Elizabeth Wakefield are back together! After living in Vermont for several months, the Wilkins family has returned to Sweet Valley. Now it's just like old times between Elizabeth and Todd-only better. In fact, they've never been so much in love.
  But before long Elizabeth notices that Todd is different now. His family has a lot more money. Todd lives in a mansion, attends an elite private school, and drives an expensive car. He even has a whole new set of friends, and some of them don't like Elizabeth. Can Todd and Elizabeth's love survive the changes in Todd's life?



   When we last left our heroine, Elizabeth had finally chosen between her boyfriends and good old Todd Wilkins came out on top because he is truly the love of Elizabeth Wakefield's life.* In a particularly touching move, the lovebirds would have continued to be separated if not for the valiant intervention of one Jeffrey French. Deciding that his girlfriend's happiness was worth more than his own, he unselfishly** gave up his claim on the middle Wakefield and helped reunite the lovebirds who were only separated because of one Courtney Kane, bitch of Lovett Academy, who only liked Todd because all Courtneys are contractually obligated to do so.

  So looking at the cover you probably think that this is a book all about the joys of Liz and Todd being Liz&Todd again, perhaps with a slice of Jeffrey guilt thrown in for good measure, and probably a wacky Jessica B or C plot, depending on how much they're going to milk Jeffrey's anguish for, right? (Also, you might wonder why Todd is gripping Liz so tightly that she's attempting to pry his hands off her arm before she loses circulation completely. But that's probably a different book entirely.)
  WRONG. This book is little more than Lovett Academy vs. SVH, with a little brokenhearted Jeffrey thrown in for good measure. Who would ever have guessed that?

   Todd's back and Liz is over the moon. The couple are all lovey dovey and so thrilled at being with one another again that they gladly give up important activities just to squeeze in more time together. (Remember, Lovett is an hour away from SVH, so that really eats into their after school time together.) I can't really say anything bad about this because come on. Pretend for a moment that this isn't the place where logic goes to die. Your first serious boyfriend, who isn't your boy/girlfriend anymore simply because he's geographically undesirable and you figured the next time you'd live in the same state, let alone city, would be two years away, suddenly moves back and you can be together again? Hell yes, you're going to be all over one another.
  The problem here is that neither Liz nor Todd is a slacker. Todd's doing basketball at Lovett and wants to pick up some other extracurriculars and Liz has The Oracle and meddling in other people's business. Todd misses so many practices that they threaten to kick him off the team and Liz leaves an Oracle meeting early just as they're about to seriously debate axing her column (how's that for bad timing?) and screws up her column with some fun typos. I'd like to pretend that they're the sort that ruined a relationship or two because I'm just that vindictive and petty. Sure, they'd probably include that information in the book, but it could happen off screen. Most of Jeffrey's moping does, for instance.
  Our lovebirds agree to dial back their obsession and settle for trying to cram as much fun into evening dates and weekends. Because this still doesn't resolve the big problem at hand (Todd's not at SVH! Whatever will the Gladiators do?) we must create MORE CONFLICT.
   Liz is pretty judgmental, which I'm sure you've picked up on since we're 60+ books into this series. Saint Elizabeth feels that the Lovett Academy kids are like Lila Fowler and Bruce Patman, only cranked up to 11. Spoiled, vain, self-involved, and painfully boring would probably all cross Elizabeth's mind when describing them. But she's not sure if she just resents the school because it's something she and Toddles don't have in common or if the students really do all suck, aside from Toddles and Shef, of course. We know Courtney does, but what about the others?
  Yeah. If you went to a rich boarding school/private school, you should either have devoured this long ago or run screaming from the building because it is not pretty. Courtney invites Todd to a Country Club thing in Cedar Springs (didn't we get this whole big thing about how Lila and Courtney know one another from the SV Country Club? How many of these things do you need to be apart of anyway?) and he finagles an invite for Liz, too. Liz doesn't really want to go, but of course she does. While there, Liz is uncomfortable and matters are not helped by Todd disappearing to mingle with his new classmates. Left alone, Liz zeros in on the first familiar face she sees. Turns out there's some Ben Somethingorother who works as a caddie at the Club, and of course the moment the Lovett girls catch sight of Liz mixing with the help they turn their noses up and disappear, making catty comments as they exit stage left.
  Of course they do.

   The rest of the outing sucks just as much. Eventually Liz decides that Lovett must be destroyed is doing horrible things to Todd and when he's late for a date of theirs because he's doing Lovett Stuff, she flips her shit. First she asks Todd how he's doing, what his day was like, the usual. Poor clueless bastard proceeds to tell her that he got his CD player fixed, that he made some new friends and went riding with Shef and the guys, and that he's finally starting to feel like he fits in at Lovett. Which is fair enough. If these girls are so snobby about saying hello to a caddie, I'd imagine the fact that Todd's family is only a couple of months into Super Wealth probably means that he doesn't necessarily fit right in.
  Liz starts to twitch because all she apparently hears is Lovett is taking her man and changing him. Right. So she asks him to change the subject and tell her about him, that they haven't really Talked lately. And in the way of guys everywhere, Todd stumbles for a moment. He thought they were talking. He thought they were discussing his life. But no. Liz just doesn't want to hear because she hates all mentions of Lovett.
  So far I'm going to have to side with Todd, Liz. Liz protests that she doesn't hate Lovett but Todd isn't buying what Liz is selling. He starts to freak out a bit because it's just so hard to be newly rich and his father so obviously wants him to be at Lovett like all the other kids of the company's higher ups. Why can't she just pretend to be supportive?
  Now, if this were Todd from SVTwins with a father who I do believe did flip out over his boy's activities (did he? Am I confusing things? Doesn't tween Toddles run away because of daddy?) I'd still be on his side.
  But in a stunning upset, Liz channels her inner Jessica (or Mary Anne if you're more of a BSC fangirl at heart) and stands up for herself. Sort of. By bringing Todd down. She wants to know if he's fucking serious about wanting sympathy for his oh so difficult life of luxury because she doesn't see what's so fucking difficult about it. She finally officially calls BS on his "but Dad wants this for me!" line and then shit gets real.
  Todd bristles at the "poor little rich boy" response and somehow they end up breaking up.
  Somewhere Courtney and Jeffrey both leap back from their voodoo dolls in amazement.
  Stunned, Liz clings to her pride and refuses to tell Todd she doesn't want to break up, she just wants the Todd she's in love with back. Yeah. That's a great idea, Liz.


   So who wants a wacky B-plot now?
  For whatever reason, Jessica has decided that the place she most belongs is no longer SVH. Instead, she wants to join Todd at Lovett. Whenever she mentions this to anyone, they all assume that instead of furthering her education, she simply wants to meet someone rich. Truthfully, they're right. Jessica seems more interested in making a mental montage of herself walking the school campus, captivating everyone's attention than she actually does in learning anything.
  The kicker is that Lovett is extremely difficult to get into. The entrance exams are exceptionally tough and Jessica actually spends two weeks studying. No. I'm serious. Liz is all aflutter over Todd and the fallout of their differing schools, and Jessica is home. Studying. And this starts because Jessica wants to be the center of attention, not merely the center's twin.
  To achieve this goal she... studies. A lot. o_O What have you done with the real Jessica Wakefield?!
  Why is the sky green? Why is up down and down is sideways? My world, she is not right!

   Obviously we need a C plot. Though technically I think Jessica's plot is small enough to count as a C plot. Whatever. You can letter these next time, smartass. Courtney, remember her? The one who has to like Todd not because he's kinda cute or usually a decent guy, but because all Courtneys love Todd? Yeah. She's not thrilled that he chose Elizabeth over her, especially not when Courtney went to all that trouble to try and ensnare him with her elaborate soap opera-y setup. Still, he's Todd and she's still drawn to him. So she keeps flirting.
  Wait. Fuck. We can't make a C-plot about this. You know what we need? Inter school rivalry! Oh, sure, we've got SVH vs. Big Mesa (or Palisades when we need to be their big rival instead) but we need to really drive home the whole private vs. public school rivalry. So Courtney's father owns a television station, and some new guy at the station (the PR guy) decides to host a Battle of the Schools but calls it that instead of something, I dunno, catchy. Lovett will be hosting because they've got the best campus/equipment/they're rich as hell so if something goes wrong, they can fix it.
   Courtney decides that Lovett's biggest competition is probably SVH and because she HATES Elizabeth, Lovett cannot lose to such a tacky hellhole. So she prances around declaring that since her father owns the station holding the competition, Lovett can't possibly lose, even if they... you know, do. Everyone else is appalled that she'd think of having her father rig the competition and I had to laugh. Caddie mocking is fine, but rigging a contest is too much? Really? And it's not even like they're just sure that they're better than everyone else. Color me surprised as hell.
  With that plan thwarted by her father, Courtney decides that she and her best friend, Dominique will hang around and figure out how to rig the competition in Lovett's favor. (Despite the fact that there are 8 other schools in the running, SVH and Lovett win the qualifiers.) They'll twitch the curtains during the conveniant true/false Quiz Bowl thing so obviously yet only Jessica manages to notice them doing so. (Are these things normally true/false?) Still not enough bitchery in this itty bitty book.
  Odds are good that if you remember one thing about this book, you remember this: Courtney and Dominique help set up the obstacle course and of course when told to avoid the rope in the back because it's rotting, Courtney uses that for the SVH side. Liz is trying to shimmy up the rope when it snaps and sends her toppling to the ground. This is a Big Freakin' Deal because the scores are tied and whichever team wins this wins the whole shebang. So as Liz falls down boom, the audience is silenced. Except for Courtney who screams for Todd to keep going.
  Yeah. Someone looks like a stone cold bitch. Todd jumps down from the rope (I'm thinking rope burns are involved) and sees to Lizbeth. She's fine, she's fine, really. Another event has to be thought up and someone decides on a tug of war. Liz and Todd both sit it out and Jessica takes Elizabeth's spot because she realizes that going to school with Courtney at a place where pretending to be Elizabeth doesn't even get you respect is just so not for her. SVH wins.
  Hurray.
  Todd decides to go back to SVH. The world is once more reset on its axis.
  There's a bit of set up for the next book involving Amy and Ken and this book is done.


*Well, if you ignore Ken, Luke, Devon, and basically any guy Liz meets while on holiday.
** You could argue that Jeffrey realized just how much life with Liz would suck and bailed when he had the chance.


Trivia:

• Lovett offers Russian and Chinese in addition to French and Spanish.


• No one really buys this as a reason for Jessica to attend the school, though she does try really hard to sell it.


• You must do well on three of the five entrance exams to get in. Science, Languages, Literature, Math... and fifth is given. Toddles took the first three.


• Jessica is jealous of the attention Elizabeth's soap opera love life is getting her.


• Proof that Jessica's life is in the dumps, according to her: Skip Harmon ignored her in the lunch line and she failed a math test.


• The twins are described as "unusually pretty" in their little intro. This amused me greatly.


• When discussing Lovett with Jessica, Ned and Alice act as if they've discussed private/boarding schools with her before and not necessarily as a threat. Interesting...


• Todd's old house is described as being really similar to the split-level ranch house the Wakefields live in. His new house? "Their new home was entirely different; it was more like a mansion. In fact, home was probably the wrong word to use to describe the huge place, with its high ceilings, marble floors, elaborate furnishings, ballroom, and Olympic-size pool!"


• Proof that Liz is letting her life slide: Eyes and Ears is on the chopping block and she ducks out of that pivotal meeting early, she gets busted for not doing her math homework, and her column goes to print with four typos, causing Penny to break out the ruler of justice. The horror!


• Tim Sollers (a classmate of Todd's) claims to have been invited to dinner at Michael Jackson's house. *bites lip and sits on hands which makes typing increasingly difficult* Still. Too. Soon. Yes?


• Sandy Winters, another guy at Lovett, likes basketball and soccer like Todd. Since when does Todd give a damn about soccer? Oh. Since he wiped the field with Jeffrey, at least in terms of Elizabeth's affections.


• Dominique Roy, Courtney Kane's best friend, drives an Alfa Romeo.


• Mr. Kane owns the WXCY television station. Mr. Wright, the new public relations director at the station proposes the lamely titled Battle of the Schools competition between public and private schools (ten in all) including: SVH, Lovett, Big Mesa, Palisades, and Crestville Academy. There's swimming, running, track and field, a relay race, tennis, a spelling bee, and a mini College Bowl. Later Tug of War is added as a tie breaker.


• The BoS is being backed by Kidd, a tennis shoe company. I love that they keep saying "tennis shoe." It's so cute.


• Students of the winning school get a to be in the newest Kidd commercial. Well, some of them do, anyway, and there's a trophy, and as always, serious bragging rights.


• Jessica's tests to get into Lovett are 14 days away on a Saturday after the BoS. She spends a ton of time studying for once.


• Qualifying for the BoS is held on Thursday at Lovett.


• School/team colors: Red/White - SVH while Lovett is blue/grey.


• At the qualifiers, Lovett "swept most of the track and field", but SVH won swimming and tennis. Yay Bruce, Bill, and Kristin! Liz loses the relay race for SVH, so they come in second to Lovett, with Big Mesa and Palisades rounding out third and fourth.


• Mr. Kane throws a party at the Cedar Spring Country Club and Courtney invites Todd, who insists on an invite for Elizabeth. There's a pool party, polo, golf, tennis, and dancing.


• Cedar Springs CC: "The dark mahogany-paneled walls of the main room were covered with pictures of hunting scenes, and huge maroon leather chairs were set up against two walls. Elizabeth was tempted to laugh because it all looked so out of place in Southern California. But everyone else seemed to think the club was terrific." (Anyone else want to smack St. Liz?)


• Campbell Rochester the 4th, is Courtney's date for the Country Club pool party. He's the son of Wilson Rochester, who runs the Rochester Advertising Group. He's an ass and got a thing for Liz.


• Todd's old car didn't even have a radio according to Elizabeth, so she's irked when he keeps fiddling with the CD player trying to get it to work. (Liz, the future called: You will spend hours trying to fix a CD player in a car because, dammit, it should work! Also, I'd imagine iPods will blow your mind.)


• Ben Orson, a sophomore who has submitted a few pieces to the Oracle, is a golf caddy at the Cedar Springs CC.


• Liz thinks the Lovett boys are spoiled and boring because they keep "going on and on about their new cars or their new synthesizers" and I die. I really, really do. Synthesizers? Really, Liz?


• The CSCC dinner consisted mostly of salad with tiny, elegant hors d'oeuvre that weren't particularly filling.


• When Todd comes to cheer Liz on during the SVH practice for the relay race, Todd and Ken wrestle around and have a good time, but when it comes down to work, Ken kicks Todd out. Again, I die.


• Todd asks Elizabeth, semi-jokingly, to drop the relay, and she gets pissed at him.


• Apparently one of the things Todd liked best about their relationship was that they didn't really compete with one another.


• Todd met a guy whose mom is the diplomat at the French Embassy. His girlfriend is Jacqueline Livingston (of Livingston Pictures!) and the pair were just featured in the paper as one of L.A.'s hottest couples. Todd's excited, Liz is all, "Lovett. Rich people. Bah!"


• The Lovett kids see Crestville Academy, Big Mesa, Palisades, and "especially SVH" as big competition.


• The judges at eliminations are: Mr. Kane, Saul Robinson, and Dale Carter. They cannot be bought, but thank you for trying, Courtney Kane.


• After Todd and Liz break up, Courtney invites him to a Lakers game. He doesn't say no.


• The Battle of the Schools starts at 9AM.


• SVH's BoS teams: Bruce and Kristin Thompson - mixed doubles for tennis. Bill- swimming. Aaron and Shelley - track and field. Patty Gilbert, Peter DeHaven, and Winston - College Bowl. Olivia - spelling.


• Relay- Ken, Liz, Jeffrey, and Robin. Jeffrey and Robin are doing the three-legged race, Ken was doing the egg sprint/balance, and Liz is doing the rope climb.


• Lovett's relay team has Todd on rope climb. Roberta Thornton and Jonathan Davis are also on the relay team.


• Morning competitions at the BoS are College Bowl, spelling bee, tennis and swimming events, then we break for lunch, and after that other events proceed until the end of the relay race. Each event is worth 10 points and there are 10 events.


• Jake Iser beat Bill Chase in the swimming event, but Bruce and Kristin dominated in tennis. (I'd expect nothing less.)


• Lovett's College Bowl team consists of Sheffield Eastman, (nerdy senior) Bradly Tushingham (really?), and "a movie director's daughter named Alison deLong."


• Mr. Smithfield, an old and distinguished history teacher at Lovett, was moderating the bowl.


• Alison needs Courtney and Dominique to do their "two curtain twitches for true" deal for the following question: "The name of the man who made these words famous 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' was Neil Armstrong. True or false." ...Face, meet palm. She also nearly misses water boiling at 212 degrees centigrade being false.


• With Courtney and Dominique's help, Lovett wins 20 to 15. Poor Winston looks ready to weep.


• The four hundred meter race ended in a tie, giving each school 45 points leading up to the relay race.


• Bob something or other, a senior, trusts Courtney to help set up the relay race ropes. Fool.


• Most of this book would be rendered moot by the proliferation of cellphones. Todd and Liz could just text the hell out of one another, they'd call/text when they changed their minds about hanging out because they realized the plans they were blowing off were important after all... Yeah. This book would either have to rely on cell phone coverage being down in the Valley or be seriously retooled for today.

Quotes:

  "Here comes trouble," Enid Rollins said under her breath. "Trouble with a capital T, and that stands for Twin." - Enid occasionally cracks me up. ♥ p8

   Elizabeth blushed. She had a feeling it was going to take some time before she got used to being madly in love again. - That is just cold, Wakefield. If Jeffrey developed telepathic powers right now, you'd break his heart all over again. p 14

  Was he secretly thinking, You weren't like this when you and I were going out? - Elizabeth wonders if Jeffrey's thinking this about the time you start to think, "Jesus, Liz. You act like you've never had a boyfriend before" with the way she's all over Todd and slacking off in other departments. p29

   "Well, well, well. What are you doing in this part of the world, Elizabeth?" Courtney asked, looking Elizabeth up and down. "What a sweet little outfit," she added. "I didn't know you could find skirts that length anymore." - Oh, Courtney, sometimes I do love you. p58

  Elizabeth felt tears spring to her eyes. "I can't believe you!" she cried. "Why are you feeling sorry for yourself? Because you have to get used to having your own screening room and a mansion to live in and a brand-new BMW? I don't think it's your parents who care so much about Lovett Academy," Elizabeth continued, unable to repress her anger anymore. "Let's be fair, Todd. You like being at Lovett. And you can't blame it on your parents."
  Todd gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white. She had never seen him this angry before. "Cut it out, Liz. I mean it. Cut it out right now."
  Elizabeth hadn't meant to hurt him. The words had just slipped out. But she did feel as if Todd's values had changed. And she loved him too much not to speak her mind. "I have to tell you how I feel," she said weakly.
  "Well, I'm sick of you judging me," Todd snapped. - Told you it was worth the price of admission. p90/91


   Courtney thought one of Todd's least attractive trains was his loyalty to Sweet Valley High. It was so tedious the way he went on and on about it. - p126

  Honestly, Courtney thought to herself. Todd was incredibly cute, but he could be such a bore sometimes! - She. Read. My. Mind. No way! p127




   Here's the thing. I don't know how I managed to forget so much about Jeffrey's stint in the Valley as Liz's boytoy, but I did. There's a moment in the book where Liz and Jessica are talking about Jeffrey and Jess mentions that he's moping around school and Liz agrees. And she goes out of her way to avoid him because she can't think of anything to say or do to make things right with him.
  And I can't figure out if someone should get points for realism in the Valley or if I'm just too busy feeling bad for Jeffrey. He does the "right" thing and is... shunned for his good deed. No mention is made of his friends rallying around him. It's as if he and Liz broke up and BAM. Social pariah. So, irrational or otherwise, this little scene in the book irks me.

   Otherwise... *shrug* In Love Again isn't half the fun of Brokenhearted (how bitchy does that make me sound?) but I do sort of wonder what would have happened if Jessica had made it into Lovett. How crazy would that have made Liz if both Todd and Jessica ditched her? Not that we needed Jessica at an expensive boarding school. We already had Caitlin by then.
  I kind of love how dismissive Jessica is of Amy. Amy is Jessica's flirty, over the top, no boundaries self without any of the braincells beyond scheming and even Jessica finds her off putting each time she starts to plot. In a non snarky sort of way, I love how she's calling her Ames, too. That's just adorable.
   I also love how, ever briefly, you get the feeling that the Wakefields seriously discussed private/boarding school for the twins, Jessica in particular. It's not just the Switzerland thing that Liz tried to do, this comes across like Ned and Alice wanted to send them off, or wanted them (Jess) to know it was always a viable option. SV: Boarding School. Or, y'know, Caitlin, with blonds.