the_oracle

Too Much In Love
September 1985

Will DeeDee's dependence chase Bill away?

Hanging on for love...

Bill Chase and DeeDee Gordon have been happy together for along time. But lately DeeDee has become too dependant on Bill. She wants to do everything and go everywhere with him. Bill feels that he doesn't have any room to breathe and decides it's over between them.
Elizabeth doesn't know why DeeDee is acting the way she is, but she knows DeeDee's strange behavior is killing her relationship. Can Elizabeth help DeeDee regain her strength and independence before it's too late?

I read this book twice within the last month or so and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. That should tell you something. Namely, that either the book blows [or is, at the very least, wholly unmemorable] or that I've actually been busy. The truth is more of a combination of the two. The book is rather dull and mind numbing all at the same time. But since my personal life isn't why anyone is here, we'll go with that.
DeeDee Gordon and Bill Chase return for a second go at annoyance, er, love. You might remember them from Heartbreaker, you might not. It really doesn't matter as Jessica'll remind you of the events leading up to her dislike of DeeDee and disdain for Mr. Chase. [The mere fact that Deeds is with Bill is enough to annoy the almighty Jessica, k?] Only, as Liz noted last book, something seems to be wrong in the Valley. DeeDee is acting a hundred and thirty-seven different kinds of odd, and none of them are at all interesting. They'll make your brain hurt, sure, but I'm not sure that's what you should be looking for in a novel.
For instance, DeeDee is asked by Saint Liz to do the sets for the talent show Mr. Collins is ~~making~~ letting her put on. DeeDee of old would have either jumped at the chance or explained she was too busy/totally not interested, but she would have done either one immediately. New and very much unimproved Deeds says she'll have to ask Bill. Saint Liz has a complete wtf? moment, and if one were artistically inclined, one should draw this scene, complete with little thought bubble over her head. Yes.
Uh, anyway. Turns out DeeDee's worried about her relationship with Bill, although we haven't been given any reason as to why. Just that Deeds is clearly insane and that whole "issues? nah, she's got a whole subscription" joke also applies. It seems that despite her parents having been divorced for awhile, and that being one of the things she and Bill have in common, she's just now getting around to turning it into a big angsty thing. Perhaps the fact that her art teacher shared her own failed marriage story with Deeds pushed DeeDee to the conclusion that if one is to keep a man [specifically the one you've already chosen, in this case Bill] one must forgo one's own life and do nothing but bleed him dry in his own life. You are to have no interests outside of your man. NONE! When he starts to pull away, honey, you tackle that man of yours down and you love him til he can't move. Or, in DeeDee's case, you cling so tightly that he'll be lucky to make it out alive.
Naturally, instead of enriching her relationship with Bill, her actions are killing it. Bill fell for bright, vibrant, opinionated, crazy busy DeeDee, not her pale, weak, imitation. Thing is, DeeDee never gets that. She knows he's unhappy because things between them are forced when they used to be easy, but she never seems to grasp that what's driving a wedge between them is the fact that she no longer exists. So she holds on tighter and gives up what few things she has left.
Needless to say, this does not sit well with her best friend, Patty Gilbert. But anytime Patty sort of tries to hint that maybe Deeds should work on reclaiming her life, Deeds shuts her out. So, Patty does what any teen in trouble at SVH does. She waits for opportunity to knock, and when it does, she tricks Saint Liz into helping her. Yeah, this time Liz is tricked into her Saintly behavior, because... well, because by now we've established the series works so long as the C-list characters interact with at least one of the twins, and Jess ain't about to help DeeDee do anything.
Patty has Liz pretend to be sick so that DeeDee [who has by now been guilted into working on the talent show] will have to take over. They even get the okay from Mr. Collins for this, although he has a few reservations, what with him not being completely stupid. Just mostly.
This only works because Bill has broken up with DeeDee and she has a shitton of time on her hands, what with him being her entire existence and all. You see, after a horrible weekend with Patty and her boyfriend Jim where DeeDee first ran down the bleachers [I swear, for the last twenty or so years, I've thought DeeDee ran down them pushing people out of the way, not down the aisle meant for such a thing, and to realize she didn't just shove past people sitting there, minding their own business just about broke my heart. I hope you're happy!], so overcome with joy that Bill was winning and embarrassed the hell out of him, then she proceeded to sulk/cry/something because she felt that Jim, Patty, and Bill were all getting along and she was just a lump... Bill decides that telling DeeDee about his afternoon plans with Dana Larson is just an invitation for trouble. Of course, this cannot go unpunished. After a fantastic movie-non-date, Bill and Dana run right into Cara Walker and Jessica Wakefield. Jess tells DeeDee about it, DeeDee freaks out, sure that Bill is cheating, and she blows up at him. Bill says to hell with this, I'm out. Done. We're over. See ya.
To say I don't blame him is such a gross understatement...
Anyway, now that we've mentioned the divine Ms. Jessica, we should get to the B-plot. Ned and Alice [I keep wanting to type Stacy] go to Mexico for the week [ten days, but I gather they come back a little early, so we'll go with week] and leave the twins alone. BRILLIANT. Why didn't that happen sooner?
Oh, yeah, because Jessica was toying with college boys, cheating death with college age boys, driving people to suicide, ruining reputations with lies, and Liz has been busy... picking up after her twin. Rightio. Let's move on.
The first day of freedom, Jessica overloads the washer and floods the basement and, at the same time, burns mushrooms for the omelet she was going to make. Yup, good times. Then, after Liz agrees to fake sick for Patty, Jess gets locked out of her own house and the police bust her for breaking and entering. Mmmhmm. Her string of bad luck culminates in a party that Liz never actually told her not to have, and everything that could go wrong, does. Something is broken, the one thing they were told to guard with their lives is ruined, the house is trashed, and there's a busload of college boys no one actually really wanted there.
Yup, fun-tastic. Back to DeeDee. As things go horrible wrong on her end, DeeDee never realizes she's being set up. For the longest time I was sure that the various things that went wrong were also set-up by Patty, but alas, no, they were real. The sound goes screwy, Olivia's sewing machine bites it, and oh yeah, the PTA thinks they've got the room instead of the talent show. DeeDee rises to the occasion, but not before Jessica confuses "laryngitis" with "life threatening illness." Liz gets like, three days off from school out of this deal. Sweet. DeeDee eventually puts on her big girl panties [thanks, Dr. Cox!] and deals with it. She secures the room, has the PTA sign up to be her bitches, gets Olivia an entire room of sewing machines, and I dunno, sells Winston's soul to Radio Shack to fix the sound issue. She has minions to actually paint the sets after she's designed them and only paints the one herself. That would be Patty's, for her modern dance version of something from West Side Story. It's beautiful! Fantastic! It sounds like what you'd expect, a city-scape done all in shadows, but with lights in the windows. But it gets her creative juices flowing again and Deeds realizes, after blowing Bill off by accident [he calls, she's painting Patty's set and off-handedly says, tell him I'll call him back, mmkay?] and a small chat with her mother, that maybe she helped kill her relationship. But here's the curveball. You ready?
I don't think you are. Sit. Closer to the ground. On the floor, if possible. If you can't read this while sitting there, well, find a solution that leaves you sitting.
Okay. She blames Bill for half their relationship troubles because he liked the attention at first. Despite trying to get her to go back to her art, to do something she LOVED, it's his fault, too, for liking the initial attention.
Um, okay, I guess. But that's a bit of a stretch, honey. It's like if you made someone a cake, and they said, "That was the best cake EVER! Thanks!" so YOU decide to make them more crap until you feel taken advantage of and underappreciated, even though they stopped you after the third and said, "Dude, you've turned me diabetic. Seriously, stop with the Cake-a-thon, ok?"
Or maybe it's not. But it could be.
If you'll throw your mind back to the B-plot, Jess, Liz, and Steve are freaking out because after the cops raided their party [yes! trifecta of perfect fictional party throwing glory!] they find that the plans Alice asked them to keep sacred are of course, totally ruined thanks to someone's misplaced beer. Liz suggests asking DeeDee, and Jessica goes over there first thing in the morning to grovel. Deeds is still a little unsteady, but Jessica turns up the charm, apologizes for being a total bitch, and Deeds agrees to look at the ruined plans. Yay! Of course she fixes them because original!DeeDee is super girl and good at everything, even more so than Liz.
Anyway, the talent show is a huge success, despite the unusual ending where Todd reads a heartbreaking poem. Liz freaks out, possibly thinking he's dying, and runs backstage to find him. Worse than death, he's moving. To Vermont.
Will true love find a way, or will we be introduced to another boytoy instead?

...duh, you find out next book.

Oh, and Bill and DeeDee don't get back together like they were before the crazy started, but they're well on their way, now that DeeDee is 50% less crazy. Yay?

Notables:

Todd works ten hours a week at his father's office.

Ned is working a case involving 'illegal importation of goods over the Mexican border.' This case is why he and Alice go to Mexico for a week.

Mrs. Lawrence used to babysit the twins.

Bill Chase has an old plaid couch in the basement. Kink?

Ms. Susan Jackson was DeeDee's design course teacher.

DeeDee and Patty met at summer cam when they were much younger, and have been 'like sisters' ever since.

Patty Gilbert is ten months older than DeeDee, and this makes her a senior.

Patty is dating Jim Hollis, who lives two hours away. The two only see each other a couple of times a month, if they're lucky.

Bill's best event is the breaststroke. Yeah, I giggle like a school girl reading that, too.

The talent show lineup is as follows:

Todd originally planned on doing standup, Ken/Winston/Jessica did a magic act, Patty's West Side Story dance [and we're told there are twelve entries, but dude, that's three.] Olivia plays guitar and sings a song that happens to be Bill & DeeDee's song, and the Droids enter, bringing the act list up to thirteen at the least. Not that we know what the other acts are. Must be the filler students at SVH.

Bill spends ages with Mr. Fellows. If in doubt, have the ghost writer mention Bill & Mr. Fellows working on some project. This time it's Civial War research. Um, okay. Fascinating to Bill, not much information given.

Bill spends about ten hours a week swimming. Ten must have been the lucky number at the staff meeting.

DeeDee once said she'd like to be a politician one day. [what the fuzzy? left field much?]

You know we're in the mid eighties because Lila has to get up to turn the album over [record!].

Speaking of Li, she's dating Drake Howard, a sophomore at SVC and has been for two months. He's a Delta Theta.

Enid's dating some dude named Paul.

I thought Julianne's death was due to a drunk driver or something, but now we're told that her friend behind the wheel was inexperienced and slick roads lead to Julianna's fiery demise.

Dana Larson LOVES Hitchcock films, especially Psycho and The Birds.

She's seen The Philadelphia Story at least nine times.

Dana is dating some guy and leaves her non-date with Bill to pick said guy up at the station. Bus? Train? Who knows, this guy doesn't even get a name.

It cost the twins $75 to fix the washing machine. No total on the time it took to dry the basement.

Winston's mother is on the PTA board.

Sergeant Malone busts Jessica breaking into her own house and for having the music too loud at her party.

The PTA president is Mrs. Abernathy.

Mrs. Howard is the home ec teacher.

Mrs. Beckwith is the neighbor who finally gives up complaining to Liz and calls the cops sometime after 11:40PM. Seriously, could these old people have more traditionally old names?

Pete West is some random computer genius who seems like a perfect match for Li and the two get along until Drake shows up.

Louisa, a senior Pi Beta Alpha loves her beer, but can't frickin' hold it.

Todd reads Remember, by Christina Rossetti.

Quoted:
What matters is that he knows I need him. That's what keeps two people together. Before-the way I used to be-I must have made him feel useless, like just another casual friend. But now he knows I depend on him for everything. Nothing else matters but him. - DeeDee makes my brain hemorrhage. Good job! p42
"Cut it out, Jess! That mirror's to keep us from getting killed, not for you to admire yourself in!" - Liz lacks vision when it comes to the true use for the rearview mirror. p23

DeeDee drives me crazy. Her thought process hurts me each and everytime I read this book, from her choking Bill to her blaming him for daring to like it when his girlfriend made the time to show up at the occasional swim meet/surf thing/whatever it is Bill is doing this week. It hurts, okay?
Jessica's antics amuse me, because I've been there, done that, sort of. The first time you're left alone, you don't mind doing all the chores you normally hate. In fact, you do them to see what it'll be like when you're an Adult, and you can do laundry at 7am and no one will care. You will set something on fire at some point, and chances are it'll be when you inadvertently screw something else up at the same time. You'll get locked out. Fun stuff.
This book also makes it clear how Jessica gets away with being such a bitch all the time.
It's because she's not. Sure, she's a bitch on the inside, almost straight through [emphasis on the almost], but she's charming. Logically, you know she's up to something when she turns that winsome smile your way, but you can't help but be dazzled [not bedazzled, as that's an entirely different 80's craze] at the attention.
Now, you either get that this happens [or preen with the knowledge that you have the power of Charm yourself] or you think I'm full of it. If it's the latter, I hope one day you meet my brother. Except not. Because I don't need anyone falling for the boy. Bah. He's a complete... jerk... at times [most of the time] and as selfish as Jessica on any given day, but when he wants something, he's so charming that despite all logic and reason, people find it impossible to say no. "Borrow the car you've killed the last seven times you've driven it? Sure!"
So yes, Jess gets away with murder because she's charming. Sociopathic, sure, but charming.