Runaway from the pain
Oct. 10th, 2007 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_oracleRunaway
July 1985
Jessica's had enough!
Jessica's had it with Sweet Valley...
If this book were any easier to describe, your brain would leak out of your ears. Jessica Wakefield has finally realized she's the royal screwup of the family. What we've been bitching about for months/years/decades [though not quite that long at the point Runaway was published] has finally dawned on Jessica. Her sister is a fucking Saint. Does the Catholic Church know that one look from Saint Elizabeth can save a person's entire life? Cuz I'm betting they don't. Why, if they did, imagine how they'd fix things all around the world! World peace would finally be realized if only someone could go back in time to the mid 1980's and harness that power. With our luck, they'd just grab SVH:SY Liz and then we'd all be deader than dead.
But I digress.
Jess is tired of feeling second best, which isn't so bad when you realize she's got two siblings, so second best isn't last... Wait, no, logic wouldn't really be helpful at this point. She's tired of her family refusing to let go of her past misdeeds, and it's not even like they focus on her really big fuck-ups either. They keep making the same damn "Whoa, Jess is in the kitchen, someone call poison control!" jokes, or they mock her about her room, or worst of all, they proceed to love Liz even when she's so wrong that it's painful.
The book begins with Steven having decided to temporarily quit school. He's left for the rest of the term, as he can't hack things without Tricia. He's drowning in depression and school isn't helping him take his mind off it. So home he comes, to the place that's got to be positively infested with Tricia memories, but is also... home.
Now we come to our first true moment where I suspect we've entered The Twilight Zone. Liz is trying to brainstorm ideas of how to keep Steve's mind occupied, but since the school is on a week long break and they'd have more time to spend with him, she's stumped because there won't be any parties or anything. Jessica points out that, no, there will be one party, at Cara's. Liz practically rubs her palms together while saying, "Exceeellllllllleeeeeeeent." Jess is perplexed, and Liz tells... to hell with this. Behold:
Liz: Jess, you don't have a date for the party, right?
Jess: *miffed* Yeah, thanks for rubbing that in. Why?
Liz: So ask Steve to take you!
Jess: The hell would I wanna do that for? He'll think I'm setting him up with Cara again and I don't want to die anytime soon, thank you very much.
Liz: Oh, silly, he will not. He'll just think you don't want to go to a party by yourself and be THRILLED to escort his little sister. I would, but I've got to go with Todd and well, you don't have a Todd, do you?
Jess: I hate you, but I love our brother, so I'll do this favor you ask. I will, however, resent you when I'm proven right, you're proven wrong, and I'm still the bad guy even though it's all YOUR idea.
Liz: Fair enough.
Now, we all know that Liz is so totally wrong, but Jess agrees anyway. At dinner, opportunity knocks and even if Jessica had thought of not answering, Liz damn near maims her, so Jess brings up the party. At first everyone else is saying how fun and nice it'll be. Then Jess asks Steve if maybe he'll take her. He accuses her of wanting to set him up with Cara and she says, "No way!" And he throws a giant hissy fit. Neither Ned nor Alice say anything to Steve, and instead jump all over Jessica. When Liz points out it was all her misguided idea, they practically sprain something in their effort to bend over backwards to congratulate her. Jess says to hell with this and points out that it's not exactly fair that if it had been Jessica's idea, it must be wrong, but for Liz to come up with it, suddenly it's all okay.
Of course, had it been Jessica's idea, the underlying trick would have been to put Steve and Cara together. Probably. Occasionally she does something without any real agenda [it's usually just icing on the cake in these instances] behind it, so we do have to throw that out there. So it's hard to know where to fall on this. Jess generally does things for her own purposes, and Liz, well, Liz is just nosy. But it's not fair to scream at one kid and then gloss over it when you find out it was the other kid's idea. Meh.
Liz explains things to Steve and convinces him to go to the party and he half-heartedly apologizes to Jessica and she spends the night babysitting him while Liz flirts it up with Todd. At first I think Jess is exaggerating when she says Liz is so wrapped up Todd that she doesn't notice that Steve's being even more anti-social than I am, but no, she ignores the sarcasm in Jessica's answer that he's the life of the party.
Jess is miserable. Part of it is that she's not the life of the party, and part of it is because people keep coming up to her and rehashing the events of previous books. She can't very well say, "Yeah, I know, I was there" so she grits her teeth and listens as people extol the virtues of Saint Elizabeth. She finally snaps when Todd starts to wax poetic about Saint Lizzie, and she heads off to Cara's bath house, which I keep envisioning the wrong way. Inside she finds Nicky Shepard, whom she'd previously flirted with after her disastrous dinner conversation at home the night before. They flirt some more, they kiss, and they bond.
Now's as good a time as any to intro Nicky. Despite having never been mentioned before, Nicky has been on Jessica's radar for awhile. Seems that while he hangs out with the drugged out/burned out crowd, he still looks cool enough. Doesn't hurt that he's cute, with longer than average blond hair, pale blue eyes that scream sensitive, and because he hides out at parties, still maintains a bit of that mysterious aura. Of course, you've got to contend with the drug rumors, but they could be just that. Rumors. Nicky's also got family problems. His father is a workaholic and his mother has her hands full with her youngest son, Danny, who is asthmatic and constantly sick. Nicky acts out and instead of giving a damn, his parents have all but written him off. How this compares to Jessica being mocked isn't exactly clear, but they're both tired of people and their preconceived notions about them, so that works. I mock a little, but it's actually done well enough that only a little part of your brain shrieks, "The two don't compare and you both know it! Nicky wants them to because he's tired of being alone, not because it's true!"
Back at the party, they dance up a storm, because of course he's a fantastic dancer. Liz and company are a bit worried and Liz basically tries to get Jess to at least go on a group outing, not off to make out with Nicky alone. Worded badly on purpose. Jess points out that she's sixteen and Liz is not her mother and maybe Saint Liz should concentrate on someone else.
After her make out session with Nicky, Jessica concludes that she's just going to have to show her family that she's changed, or at least changing. She contemplates cleaning her room, but wants immediate results. So she decides she'll make dinner, no one will die, and maybe they'll talk things through.
And this is where they stump me again. Apparently, one giant blunder aside, Jessica is a fantastic cook. Her teacher, while blissfully unaware of her feelings for him, thought she was great, and wanted her to move on to the next level. So why can't her family let go of their wariness even after Liz has sort of pointed out that something is wrong with Jessica?
Because they're jerks, that's why. Jess busts her ass, makes a great dinner, sets the table, goes all out, and they still act like the damn thing is poisoned. Which hurts her feelings. They make jokes, and considering Jessica isn't known for her subtlety, I imagine it's got to be obvious by the look on her face when something stings. And it is, at least so that Liz notices. Somehow they end up on the topic of Ricky Capuldo, whom Liz saw that afternoon working at Casey's. Ned points out that Ricky's parents have split and that in order to punish Mr. Capuldo for ditching them, his wife is denying his parents access to Ricky and his sister Toni. Jess points out that sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do, and if Mrs. C believes that denying his parents the right to see their grands will force 'em to put pressure on their son so he'll fork over the money he owes her, then maybe that's what she has to do. Ned then adds, just to make Jess look like a jackass, that they tried and that their son is just an ass who won't pay child support. Liz thinks, gets her Saintly glow on, and says that the real people being hurt are the children. She goes on and everyone is enraptured. Jess is not pleased. Her dinner was mostly ignored except for culinary capability jokes, and yet Saint Liz is getting all sorts of love. Why, she's even going to suggest that The Sweet Valley News should let her write an article, or a series of them, on the case.
Hold up, wait a minute. Liz doesn't even begin to think that maybe Ricky wouldn't want his family's business in the newspaper, and when he later asks her to PLEASE not do this to him, she's all, "I know you don't really feel this way. Why, your pain will be great for MY career!" Do I need to repeat that? He asks her, points out their friendship, and WHY this would be bad for him, and she still does it anyway. In fact, she tells her father Ricky's concerns and he all but tells her to do it anyway.
Did the twins switch places again and I missed it? Because furthering your own agenda, someone else's pain be damned, sounds more like Classic Jessica than Liz. Oops, now I'm guilty of what Jess is bitching about.
Thing is, no one else calls Liz on this aside from Ricky. Annie talks to Liz, but doesn't say anything other than Ricky's mad as hell and things aren't looking so good at the moment. The hell? You take your boyfriend's side, bitch, when you know that he's right. Maybe he's wrong to be taking his pain out on his grandparents [he is], but asking Elizabeth to drop the story is the right thing to do, and she should. It's not going to help anyone else in SV to know that the Capuldos are imploding.
Back to Jessica. She's withdrawing even more, and after a really bad party [mainly just dull until her drunk driver, Nicky, nearly kills them both in an accident], she realizes that his family is just as bad as he said, if not worse. He tells her that he's leaving for San Francisco come Friday, and she should go with him. They'll be together, their families will be better off, and it'll all work out. She doesn't want to, but she says she'll think about it.
Jess knows full well that her family loves her, they just need some sense talked into them. They aren't the Shepards who didn't even ask if Nicky and Jess were okay after the accident, even though Nicky is bleeding. So she figures the next day, she'll talk to her family and explain her feelings and it'll all be okay. It'll all be okay, damn it.
She tries her parents. Alice has to leave early for work, so Jess figures she'll talk to her father. Ned has to go to the office, too, although he offers her the option of "tagging" along to see how the case turns out. I should point out that earlier in the book, Liz asked her father to go on up and ask Jess to go to the hearing, as Jess was feeling unloved. Ned refused on the grounds that they shouldn't cater to Jessica's every whim and the logical reason that he didn't think it would interest Jessica, and sooner or later Liz would have to face the facts. She and Jessica might look the same, but what interests one does not necessarily interest the other. Course, that argument is crippled by his own earlier observation that something is bugging Jess, but when presented with an easy fix, he actively decides not to do anything.
Back to breakfast Jess. Okay, another thing about this, she's awake before Elizabeth and no one realizes something is up with that. The hell? She tries to talk to Steven, but Steve's on his way out the door to jog. She asks if he really has to go right that minute, and again, despite being told and realizing on his own that something is wrong with her, he still blows her off. So finally Jessica tries talking to Elizabeth. Liz is acting very Jess-like, asking/demanding to borrow things and whatnot, and when Jess asks if they can talk, Liz checks her watch and says, sure, you've got a little time. And Jess, by now looking for ways to get out of it, bemoans the watch check. Liz offers to blow off the Capuldo case, but Jess assures her that she's fine. Heartbroken, Jess calls Nicky who tells her that he's leaving tonight, a day early, as things have hit the shitter with his family after the accident. Well, no shit, Sherlock, you crashed the car while DRUNK. My sympathy can only go so far, y'know.
Anyway, Jessica decides she'll leave on Friday as planned. She says goodbye to Elizabeth and then finishes cleaning her room until it's spotless. She contemplates leaving without saying anything, but worries they'll think she's been kidnapped, so she writes a letter, addressing it to her twin, since Liz is the only one who can read Jessica's messy handwriting. [I knew I loved Jess for a reason. We can bond over chicken scratch!] Thing is, when she closes her door, the breeze knocks her letter behind her dresser so that Liz will never find it. This is particularly bad since Jessica is counting on her family acting on her last ditch effort to reach through to them; she's hoping beyond all hope that they'll come to her rescue and assure her that of course they love her and it'll all work out.
The Capuldo case hits a snag when it becomes clear that since the kids don't want to spend time with their grandparents either, Ned's "Think of the children, the CHILDREN!" plea isn't going to work. Ricky leaves the courtroom and Annie goes to follow, but is stopped by one look from Elizabeth. It actually says that! Saintly glow activated, Liz follows Ricky who blows up at her, and rightly so. It's impossible for Saint Liz to be misfiring all over the place, so she tells him he's being ass for hurting his grandparents this way, when it's obvious they actually do love him, but if he's so fine without them, then good, he's not good enough for them anyway.
My headache, I should point out, began to actually throb along with my heartbeat at this point, anticipating the moment when Ricky would cave to Saint Liz's demands and crumble in court. He does, and there's a happy ending that one can only assume will end with Saint Liz getting her byline. Party at Palomar House on Marianna West's dime!
They go home to invite Alice and Steve along for lunch, and Liz goes into the Hershey Bar to return Jessica's scarf and realizes the room is clean. Worse yet, the closet is empty, as are the drawers, and ohmygod, Jessica must have run away! She tells everyone, they freak out, but immediately latch onto the Nicky connection. Ned and Liz go to the Shepards and Mrs. Shepard is a complete bitch, saying that it's okay that Nicky's gone as she'll be able to deal with Danny exclusively! I wish Ned had punched her, and this is from someone who abhors violence AND has a brother who acts out to get attention and thus I should, in theory, at least feel a little for the Shepards. I don't by the time Mrs. S says this, so bring on the punches. Alas, there are none.
Back at Casa Wakefield, it takes them forever to realize that Jessica is most likely at either the bus station or the airport. Idiots. Steve makes a call to a friend who only rats Nicky out when he thinks Steve is paying Nicky a hundred bucks. San Fran, says Steve, and the family splits up. The kids hit the bus station and the parents hit the airport.
Best scene happens at the bus station when Steve is trying to describe his sister and realizes he doesn't have to; he grabs Liz and all but says, "She looks EXACTLY like this." They hurry out to the bus, but it's left already. So they find out where the next stop is and drive after Jess.
Jess, by the way, has been at the station for hours, because she keeps waiting for her family to show up. When they don't, she finally gets on the last bus bound for San Fran, sure that her family is glad to be rid of her. When her seat mate makes a frantic plea for the bus to stop so she can call her neighbor to unplug something so her house doesn't burn down, Liz and Steven appear to "save" Jessica.
Jess: You do love me after all!
Liz: Duh!
Jess: But what took so long, didn't you get my note?
Liz: What note?
Jess: Never mind, this way I can keep my jeans, as they'd look like crap on you. Yay, me!
Liz: ...crackhead.
Ready for the absolute best part? After we're told everyone has talked it all through and it'll all work out for the best, and that the Wakefields understand that Jessica is sensitive, Jess offers to make them all dinner, and her family looks at one another and offers to pay for dinner out.
Luckily, Jess has been drugged once again, and doesn't take this to heart. Meanwhile, I'm wishing my fictional counterpart could hike to SV and kick someone's ass. Or maybe the ghostwriter's ass for this, since it invalidates everything that just fucking happened, all for the sake of a joke about Jessica and shopping. [If it's killing you, Jessica counters the offer with, "How about I take the money, order pizza for all of us, and with the cash I didn't spend, buy a fabulous new sweater I've been wanting?" and everyone laughs with an, "Oh, Jessica!" sort of vibe.] Nyargh!
We leave on some foreshadowing of Bill and DeeDee and trouble in their paradise, but who really cares? Well, Enid and Liz do, but you don't. Not really.
Notable:
Quote-a-liscious:
For Jessica, it was perfectly natural to keep her hairbrush under six sweaters and nine scarves. - Of course, doesn't everyone? p6
"You know," their father said, laughing, "I have never been able to teach your mother how to do justice to a salad. That woman has a master's degree, and she still can't mix a decent dressing."
"My master's was in design," Alice Wakefield called from the door. "You'd be surprised how few salad courses we had to take." - p10
Elizabeth Wakefield, everybody's best friend, Jessica added to her list of silent complaints about her twin. p30
"Do you know what she said to me awhile ago?"
Jessica cut him off bitterly. "Something wonderfully sweet and profound, I'm sure!" Todd and Jess discuss Saint Lizzie, p32
"Well"-Jessica fumbled for words-"everybody's parents care about them."
Nicky laughed again, this time a short, bitter laugh. "Oh yeah? What television show have you been living in?" p36
"Jess, are you mad at me about something?" she asked.
"Don't be silly, Liz," Jessica said, sarcastically. "Why would anyone be mad at you? You're perfect." Jess earns my love the old fashioned way. Via sarcasm. p42
137:
"I had a date with Neal, and he's seen everything in my closet at least hundred and thirty-seven times."
Elizabeth shook her head. She doubted that her twin had worn much of her wardrobe twice, let alone a hundred and thirty-seven times. p2
I'm not sure if you caught it, but I love Runaway. I think it manages to capture what it's like when you're unable to articulate your own pain to someone else, even when you know that it's not as bad as you think, and that if you could only somehow find the words and the nerve at the same time, you could fix it. There are also lots of slams on the saintliness of Liz, and I'm good with that, it's a good, fast read. Really fast. Like, despite the effing migraine I had, I still finished it much faster than any of the other books thus far. Thumbs way up.
Now, for a couple of little things. Caroline shows back up this book, as does her boytoy Jerry. Yay! She hasn't reverted to gossip queen yet, which is nice in that it means her makeover took hold a little longer than I remembered.
When Steve thinks of calling his friend Joe, he mentions that he used to play basketball at SVH and all I could think was, "Ohmylord, Liz is dating her brother." Tall, brown haired, brown eyed, usually nice but definitely has a temper, especially if someone's treating someone he loves badly, and a basketball player. Based on that description alone, you could be describing Steve in high school or Todd. F-reaky.
To avoid having that be the last thought I leave you with, I will say that I like the pastel-y reprint better than the original cover. Go figure, eh? Also, when the little old lady mentions that she left her humidifier on and she's afraid that when the water runs out, it'll start a fire, all I could think about was the summer we went to my grandmother's house for a week. When we came back, our downstairs hall had flooded because the dehumidifier was left on. Oriental rugs and water. *shudder*
July 1985
Jessica's had enough!
Jessica's had it with Sweet Valley...
If this book were any easier to describe, your brain would leak out of your ears. Jessica Wakefield has finally realized she's the royal screwup of the family. What we've been bitching about for months/years/decades [though not quite that long at the point Runaway was published] has finally dawned on Jessica. Her sister is a fucking Saint. Does the Catholic Church know that one look from Saint Elizabeth can save a person's entire life? Cuz I'm betting they don't. Why, if they did, imagine how they'd fix things all around the world! World peace would finally be realized if only someone could go back in time to the mid 1980's and harness that power. With our luck, they'd just grab SVH:SY Liz and then we'd all be deader than dead.
But I digress.
Jess is tired of feeling second best, which isn't so bad when you realize she's got two siblings, so second best isn't last... Wait, no, logic wouldn't really be helpful at this point. She's tired of her family refusing to let go of her past misdeeds, and it's not even like they focus on her really big fuck-ups either. They keep making the same damn "Whoa, Jess is in the kitchen, someone call poison control!" jokes, or they mock her about her room, or worst of all, they proceed to love Liz even when she's so wrong that it's painful.
The book begins with Steven having decided to temporarily quit school. He's left for the rest of the term, as he can't hack things without Tricia. He's drowning in depression and school isn't helping him take his mind off it. So home he comes, to the place that's got to be positively infested with Tricia memories, but is also... home.
Now we come to our first true moment where I suspect we've entered The Twilight Zone. Liz is trying to brainstorm ideas of how to keep Steve's mind occupied, but since the school is on a week long break and they'd have more time to spend with him, she's stumped because there won't be any parties or anything. Jessica points out that, no, there will be one party, at Cara's. Liz practically rubs her palms together while saying, "Exceeellllllllleeeeeeeent." Jess is perplexed, and Liz tells... to hell with this. Behold:
Liz: Jess, you don't have a date for the party, right?
Jess: *miffed* Yeah, thanks for rubbing that in. Why?
Liz: So ask Steve to take you!
Jess: The hell would I wanna do that for? He'll think I'm setting him up with Cara again and I don't want to die anytime soon, thank you very much.
Liz: Oh, silly, he will not. He'll just think you don't want to go to a party by yourself and be THRILLED to escort his little sister. I would, but I've got to go with Todd and well, you don't have a Todd, do you?
Jess: I hate you, but I love our brother, so I'll do this favor you ask. I will, however, resent you when I'm proven right, you're proven wrong, and I'm still the bad guy even though it's all YOUR idea.
Liz: Fair enough.
Now, we all know that Liz is so totally wrong, but Jess agrees anyway. At dinner, opportunity knocks and even if Jessica had thought of not answering, Liz damn near maims her, so Jess brings up the party. At first everyone else is saying how fun and nice it'll be. Then Jess asks Steve if maybe he'll take her. He accuses her of wanting to set him up with Cara and she says, "No way!" And he throws a giant hissy fit. Neither Ned nor Alice say anything to Steve, and instead jump all over Jessica. When Liz points out it was all her misguided idea, they practically sprain something in their effort to bend over backwards to congratulate her. Jess says to hell with this and points out that it's not exactly fair that if it had been Jessica's idea, it must be wrong, but for Liz to come up with it, suddenly it's all okay.
Of course, had it been Jessica's idea, the underlying trick would have been to put Steve and Cara together. Probably. Occasionally she does something without any real agenda [it's usually just icing on the cake in these instances] behind it, so we do have to throw that out there. So it's hard to know where to fall on this. Jess generally does things for her own purposes, and Liz, well, Liz is just nosy. But it's not fair to scream at one kid and then gloss over it when you find out it was the other kid's idea. Meh.
Liz explains things to Steve and convinces him to go to the party and he half-heartedly apologizes to Jessica and she spends the night babysitting him while Liz flirts it up with Todd. At first I think Jess is exaggerating when she says Liz is so wrapped up Todd that she doesn't notice that Steve's being even more anti-social than I am, but no, she ignores the sarcasm in Jessica's answer that he's the life of the party.
Jess is miserable. Part of it is that she's not the life of the party, and part of it is because people keep coming up to her and rehashing the events of previous books. She can't very well say, "Yeah, I know, I was there" so she grits her teeth and listens as people extol the virtues of Saint Elizabeth. She finally snaps when Todd starts to wax poetic about Saint Lizzie, and she heads off to Cara's bath house, which I keep envisioning the wrong way. Inside she finds Nicky Shepard, whom she'd previously flirted with after her disastrous dinner conversation at home the night before. They flirt some more, they kiss, and they bond.
Now's as good a time as any to intro Nicky. Despite having never been mentioned before, Nicky has been on Jessica's radar for awhile. Seems that while he hangs out with the drugged out/burned out crowd, he still looks cool enough. Doesn't hurt that he's cute, with longer than average blond hair, pale blue eyes that scream sensitive, and because he hides out at parties, still maintains a bit of that mysterious aura. Of course, you've got to contend with the drug rumors, but they could be just that. Rumors. Nicky's also got family problems. His father is a workaholic and his mother has her hands full with her youngest son, Danny, who is asthmatic and constantly sick. Nicky acts out and instead of giving a damn, his parents have all but written him off. How this compares to Jessica being mocked isn't exactly clear, but they're both tired of people and their preconceived notions about them, so that works. I mock a little, but it's actually done well enough that only a little part of your brain shrieks, "The two don't compare and you both know it! Nicky wants them to because he's tired of being alone, not because it's true!"
Back at the party, they dance up a storm, because of course he's a fantastic dancer. Liz and company are a bit worried and Liz basically tries to get Jess to at least go on a group outing, not off to make out with Nicky alone. Worded badly on purpose. Jess points out that she's sixteen and Liz is not her mother and maybe Saint Liz should concentrate on someone else.
After her make out session with Nicky, Jessica concludes that she's just going to have to show her family that she's changed, or at least changing. She contemplates cleaning her room, but wants immediate results. So she decides she'll make dinner, no one will die, and maybe they'll talk things through.
And this is where they stump me again. Apparently, one giant blunder aside, Jessica is a fantastic cook. Her teacher, while blissfully unaware of her feelings for him, thought she was great, and wanted her to move on to the next level. So why can't her family let go of their wariness even after Liz has sort of pointed out that something is wrong with Jessica?
Because they're jerks, that's why. Jess busts her ass, makes a great dinner, sets the table, goes all out, and they still act like the damn thing is poisoned. Which hurts her feelings. They make jokes, and considering Jessica isn't known for her subtlety, I imagine it's got to be obvious by the look on her face when something stings. And it is, at least so that Liz notices. Somehow they end up on the topic of Ricky Capuldo, whom Liz saw that afternoon working at Casey's. Ned points out that Ricky's parents have split and that in order to punish Mr. Capuldo for ditching them, his wife is denying his parents access to Ricky and his sister Toni. Jess points out that sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do, and if Mrs. C believes that denying his parents the right to see their grands will force 'em to put pressure on their son so he'll fork over the money he owes her, then maybe that's what she has to do. Ned then adds, just to make Jess look like a jackass, that they tried and that their son is just an ass who won't pay child support. Liz thinks, gets her Saintly glow on, and says that the real people being hurt are the children. She goes on and everyone is enraptured. Jess is not pleased. Her dinner was mostly ignored except for culinary capability jokes, and yet Saint Liz is getting all sorts of love. Why, she's even going to suggest that The Sweet Valley News should let her write an article, or a series of them, on the case.
Hold up, wait a minute. Liz doesn't even begin to think that maybe Ricky wouldn't want his family's business in the newspaper, and when he later asks her to PLEASE not do this to him, she's all, "I know you don't really feel this way. Why, your pain will be great for MY career!" Do I need to repeat that? He asks her, points out their friendship, and WHY this would be bad for him, and she still does it anyway. In fact, she tells her father Ricky's concerns and he all but tells her to do it anyway.
Did the twins switch places again and I missed it? Because furthering your own agenda, someone else's pain be damned, sounds more like Classic Jessica than Liz. Oops, now I'm guilty of what Jess is bitching about.
Thing is, no one else calls Liz on this aside from Ricky. Annie talks to Liz, but doesn't say anything other than Ricky's mad as hell and things aren't looking so good at the moment. The hell? You take your boyfriend's side, bitch, when you know that he's right. Maybe he's wrong to be taking his pain out on his grandparents [he is], but asking Elizabeth to drop the story is the right thing to do, and she should. It's not going to help anyone else in SV to know that the Capuldos are imploding.
Back to Jessica. She's withdrawing even more, and after a really bad party [mainly just dull until her drunk driver, Nicky, nearly kills them both in an accident], she realizes that his family is just as bad as he said, if not worse. He tells her that he's leaving for San Francisco come Friday, and she should go with him. They'll be together, their families will be better off, and it'll all work out. She doesn't want to, but she says she'll think about it.
Jess knows full well that her family loves her, they just need some sense talked into them. They aren't the Shepards who didn't even ask if Nicky and Jess were okay after the accident, even though Nicky is bleeding. So she figures the next day, she'll talk to her family and explain her feelings and it'll all be okay. It'll all be okay, damn it.
She tries her parents. Alice has to leave early for work, so Jess figures she'll talk to her father. Ned has to go to the office, too, although he offers her the option of "tagging" along to see how the case turns out. I should point out that earlier in the book, Liz asked her father to go on up and ask Jess to go to the hearing, as Jess was feeling unloved. Ned refused on the grounds that they shouldn't cater to Jessica's every whim and the logical reason that he didn't think it would interest Jessica, and sooner or later Liz would have to face the facts. She and Jessica might look the same, but what interests one does not necessarily interest the other. Course, that argument is crippled by his own earlier observation that something is bugging Jess, but when presented with an easy fix, he actively decides not to do anything.
Back to breakfast Jess. Okay, another thing about this, she's awake before Elizabeth and no one realizes something is up with that. The hell? She tries to talk to Steven, but Steve's on his way out the door to jog. She asks if he really has to go right that minute, and again, despite being told and realizing on his own that something is wrong with her, he still blows her off. So finally Jessica tries talking to Elizabeth. Liz is acting very Jess-like, asking/demanding to borrow things and whatnot, and when Jess asks if they can talk, Liz checks her watch and says, sure, you've got a little time. And Jess, by now looking for ways to get out of it, bemoans the watch check. Liz offers to blow off the Capuldo case, but Jess assures her that she's fine. Heartbroken, Jess calls Nicky who tells her that he's leaving tonight, a day early, as things have hit the shitter with his family after the accident. Well, no shit, Sherlock, you crashed the car while DRUNK. My sympathy can only go so far, y'know.
Anyway, Jessica decides she'll leave on Friday as planned. She says goodbye to Elizabeth and then finishes cleaning her room until it's spotless. She contemplates leaving without saying anything, but worries they'll think she's been kidnapped, so she writes a letter, addressing it to her twin, since Liz is the only one who can read Jessica's messy handwriting. [I knew I loved Jess for a reason. We can bond over chicken scratch!] Thing is, when she closes her door, the breeze knocks her letter behind her dresser so that Liz will never find it. This is particularly bad since Jessica is counting on her family acting on her last ditch effort to reach through to them; she's hoping beyond all hope that they'll come to her rescue and assure her that of course they love her and it'll all work out.
The Capuldo case hits a snag when it becomes clear that since the kids don't want to spend time with their grandparents either, Ned's "Think of the children, the CHILDREN!" plea isn't going to work. Ricky leaves the courtroom and Annie goes to follow, but is stopped by one look from Elizabeth. It actually says that! Saintly glow activated, Liz follows Ricky who blows up at her, and rightly so. It's impossible for Saint Liz to be misfiring all over the place, so she tells him he's being ass for hurting his grandparents this way, when it's obvious they actually do love him, but if he's so fine without them, then good, he's not good enough for them anyway.
My headache, I should point out, began to actually throb along with my heartbeat at this point, anticipating the moment when Ricky would cave to Saint Liz's demands and crumble in court. He does, and there's a happy ending that one can only assume will end with Saint Liz getting her byline. Party at Palomar House on Marianna West's dime!
They go home to invite Alice and Steve along for lunch, and Liz goes into the Hershey Bar to return Jessica's scarf and realizes the room is clean. Worse yet, the closet is empty, as are the drawers, and ohmygod, Jessica must have run away! She tells everyone, they freak out, but immediately latch onto the Nicky connection. Ned and Liz go to the Shepards and Mrs. Shepard is a complete bitch, saying that it's okay that Nicky's gone as she'll be able to deal with Danny exclusively! I wish Ned had punched her, and this is from someone who abhors violence AND has a brother who acts out to get attention and thus I should, in theory, at least feel a little for the Shepards. I don't by the time Mrs. S says this, so bring on the punches. Alas, there are none.
Back at Casa Wakefield, it takes them forever to realize that Jessica is most likely at either the bus station or the airport. Idiots. Steve makes a call to a friend who only rats Nicky out when he thinks Steve is paying Nicky a hundred bucks. San Fran, says Steve, and the family splits up. The kids hit the bus station and the parents hit the airport.
Best scene happens at the bus station when Steve is trying to describe his sister and realizes he doesn't have to; he grabs Liz and all but says, "She looks EXACTLY like this." They hurry out to the bus, but it's left already. So they find out where the next stop is and drive after Jess.
Jess, by the way, has been at the station for hours, because she keeps waiting for her family to show up. When they don't, she finally gets on the last bus bound for San Fran, sure that her family is glad to be rid of her. When her seat mate makes a frantic plea for the bus to stop so she can call her neighbor to unplug something so her house doesn't burn down, Liz and Steven appear to "save" Jessica.
Jess: You do love me after all!
Liz: Duh!
Jess: But what took so long, didn't you get my note?
Liz: What note?
Jess: Never mind, this way I can keep my jeans, as they'd look like crap on you. Yay, me!
Liz: ...crackhead.
Ready for the absolute best part? After we're told everyone has talked it all through and it'll all work out for the best, and that the Wakefields understand that Jessica is sensitive, Jess offers to make them all dinner, and her family looks at one another and offers to pay for dinner out.
Luckily, Jess has been drugged once again, and doesn't take this to heart. Meanwhile, I'm wishing my fictional counterpart could hike to SV and kick someone's ass. Or maybe the ghostwriter's ass for this, since it invalidates everything that just fucking happened, all for the sake of a joke about Jessica and shopping. [If it's killing you, Jessica counters the offer with, "How about I take the money, order pizza for all of us, and with the cash I didn't spend, buy a fabulous new sweater I've been wanting?" and everyone laughs with an, "Oh, Jessica!" sort of vibe.] Nyargh!
We leave on some foreshadowing of Bill and DeeDee and trouble in their paradise, but who really cares? Well, Enid and Liz do, but you don't. Not really.
Notable:
- Ned is cooking dinner for Steve's "homecoming" and he's described as wearing an apron over his suit and tie and not looking ridiculous. Sorry, he may still be hot, but he'd also look stupid, kay? It's possible to walk that fine line and still look both, but all I'm seeing is this frilly white apron over his tasteful suit and wondering why he didn't change clothes first...
- We're told homecoming dinner is made of Steve's favorites, so that apparently means he likes roast beef, peas, and his father's salad.
- Alice Wakefield can't make a decent salad dressing to save her life. Luckily, Ned can.
- Recently, the Shady Lady got busted for serving alcohol to minors, and apparently the owners of the Dairi Burger don't like it when the SL customers come a-knocking.
- At Cara's party there are people playing Trivial Pursuit, and we're supposed to believe this is the cool party? Whoa.
- Cara's family has a pool and an accompanying bath house, though I like to think of it as a smaller version of Lila's pool house.
- Jessica repeatedly turns down offers of beer at the party she attends with Nicky in Tierra Verde [an hour away from SV], although he doesn't do the same.
- For their last birthday, Liz gave Jessica lavender stationary. Gimme, I want!
- Nicky lives on Riverdale Drive.
- Nicky goes to work/live with Denny Wyatt.
- Joe Seegar is the friend Steve calls to find out about Nicky/Denny.
Quote-a-liscious:
For Jessica, it was perfectly natural to keep her hairbrush under six sweaters and nine scarves. - Of course, doesn't everyone? p6
"You know," their father said, laughing, "I have never been able to teach your mother how to do justice to a salad. That woman has a master's degree, and she still can't mix a decent dressing."
"My master's was in design," Alice Wakefield called from the door. "You'd be surprised how few salad courses we had to take." - p10
Elizabeth Wakefield, everybody's best friend, Jessica added to her list of silent complaints about her twin. p30
Jessica cut him off bitterly. "Something wonderfully sweet and profound, I'm sure!" Todd and Jess discuss Saint Lizzie, p32
"Well"-Jessica fumbled for words-"everybody's parents care about them."
Nicky laughed again, this time a short, bitter laugh. "Oh yeah? What television show have you been living in?" p36
"Jess, are you mad at me about something?" she asked.
"Don't be silly, Liz," Jessica said, sarcastically. "Why would anyone be mad at you? You're perfect." Jess earns my love the old fashioned way. Via sarcasm. p42
137:
"I had a date with Neal, and he's seen everything in my closet at least hundred and thirty-seven times."
Elizabeth shook her head. She doubted that her twin had worn much of her wardrobe twice, let alone a hundred and thirty-seven times. p2
I'm not sure if you caught it, but I love Runaway. I think it manages to capture what it's like when you're unable to articulate your own pain to someone else, even when you know that it's not as bad as you think, and that if you could only somehow find the words and the nerve at the same time, you could fix it. There are also lots of slams on the saintliness of Liz, and I'm good with that, it's a good, fast read. Really fast. Like, despite the effing migraine I had, I still finished it much faster than any of the other books thus far. Thumbs way up.
Now, for a couple of little things. Caroline shows back up this book, as does her boytoy Jerry. Yay! She hasn't reverted to gossip queen yet, which is nice in that it means her makeover took hold a little longer than I remembered.
When Steve thinks of calling his friend Joe, he mentions that he used to play basketball at SVH and all I could think was, "Ohmylord, Liz is dating her brother." Tall, brown haired, brown eyed, usually nice but definitely has a temper, especially if someone's treating someone he loves badly, and a basketball player. Based on that description alone, you could be describing Steve in high school or Todd. F-reaky.
To avoid having that be the last thought I leave you with, I will say that I like the pastel-y reprint better than the original cover. Go figure, eh? Also, when the little old lady mentions that she left her humidifier on and she's afraid that when the water runs out, it'll start a fire, all I could think about was the summer we went to my grandmother's house for a week. When we came back, our downstairs hall had flooded because the dehumidifier was left on. Oriental rugs and water. *shudder*
