SVH Super Edition: Special Christmas
I like the cover art on this one. http://cgi.ebay.com/Sweet-Valley-High-Special-Christmas-Francine-Pascal_W0QQitemZ7995746476QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting I think it's the half-closed eyes on both Liz and Jess that makes them look older. And of course, they both look ecstatically happy, even though very little happens in this that is joyful.
So it's the last day of school before Christmas vacation, and Liz is on her own private cloud because TBT is coming back from Vermont. She's somewhat anxious that he might have changed, but it almost comes off like she's worrying for the sake of making the reunion more exciting. John Pfeifer (booooooo!) sends her a note asking her to be his Secret Santa. Naturally, this is Mr. Collins' idea, and Liz is naturally the student volunteer for it. This means a week of anonymous gift exchanges, and the identities will be revealed at the stroke of midnight at the Christmas dance.
Jessica is crushing on Hans, the German exchange student who arrived in school like five minutes ago, and drags him over to the Secret Santa table, taking for granted that Liz will make sure he gets her name. Which she can't do. Hans draws Lila's name and has to ask Liz who that is. Really, what an awkward position for Jessica to put him into. We're not told who did pull Jessica's name, but we all know it's Winston. We do know that she drew Bruce Patman, and Liz drew Aaron Dallas. Meanwhile, Liz is still fixated on Todd, and is happy for him that he won't be "stuck" in Vermont with "all that snow." Because having Christmas in a cold climate is so weird. Uh, okay.
Liz notes that Jessica and Lila are "just about due for a huge fight," and sure enough, the two bitch queens are about to duke it out over who gets to be Miss Christmastime. But forget that for a sec: at home, Steven tells them that Suzanne Devlin (dunt-dunt-DUNNNN!) is going to visit for Christmas! I know SVH #11 has been reviewed her, so I can skip the recap. Currently, Jessica and Steven are determined to stop this. Or pay Suzanne back. Or something. Saint Liz, however, says it's a lost cause. "You two didn't spend any time with Demolition Devlin, remember?" Christmas is ruined and that's that. Steven wants to talk to the parents, which to Jessica means fly off the handle, so Ned and Alice won't budge, except for some talk about goodwill towards man and all that.
Liz calls Suzanne and tries telling her that this is not a great time, and she really wouldn't have any fun in boring old Sweet Valley and so forth. Suzanne is totally contrite, though, and insists that she wants to visit, boring or not, so she can atone for her sins. Saint Liz doesn't believe her, but what can she do. So Jessica starts plotting a campaign of harassment. Really, I feel bad for Ma and Pa Wakefield. They try their best, but it just goes in one of Jess's ears and right out the other.
And don't forget, Jessica still wants to be Miss Christmastime. But first, she has to be an elf for the mall Santa. Which means she has to wear a green trash bag full of newspaper, and a produce carton on her head. Is this her own invention, I wonder, or the standard-issue costume? Because I was a Santa's elf at my church once, and my costume was a knockout. Green tights, a red jacket kind of thing, jingle bell boots, and a jester's cap. I looked cute as a bag full of buttons, and no one made me wear garbage! And if you haven't guessed already, the elf gig will go on long enough to make sure Jessica won't get to audition for Miss Christmastime, and of course it was Lila's setup. So now Jessica has TWO people to pay back.
So, the Secret Santa thing. Jessica got her first gift: a music box that plays Fur Elise. Which means it's from Hans, right? She tells Winston, who is soooooo NOT her Secret Santa, that whoever he is, he has impeccable taste, and he acts all crushed. And Olivia gets serenaded by the swim team. Wearing only Speedos. In the Dairi Burger. I'd be mortified too. And Liz is counting down to TBT's arrival, and starts wondering what it would be like to be utterly unattached. And Jessica asks how she'd feel if she found out TBT had fallen in love with someone in Vermont. Dunt-dunt-DUNNNN!
So Ned and Alice collect Suzanne from the airport. She's all subdued and ladylike, and Alice notes that Suzanne no longer seems to be putting on a performance. It just doesn't quite ring true with me, though. The last time we saw her, the impression was that the evil Suzanne, who snooped and lied and was mean, was the real one, and the niceness was the act. In fact, there was a scene in which she reflected on how little attention she'd ever gotten from her parents, and it seemed that she'd simply never developed a conscience or any compassion or empathy. So I'm not sure why she suddenly cares if people like her or not.
At any rate, we find out that Suzanne sent Mr. Collins a letter of apology, so that's all good, but she still has to face everyone ELSE in Sweet Valley. And she has a big secret she doesn't want to reveal, but it calls for a lot of sympathy. Except she doesn't want pity. Which is good, because when she gets to the house, Jess, Liz and Steven are all indifferent, and have short-sheeted her bed and stuff. Also, she gave up going to Saint-Moritz with her parents, and Jessica wonders why she couldn't torture the Swiss instead. That's actually kind of funny. Then Todd calls, and Liz tells him he'll never guess who just arrived.
And Todd about swallows his tongue. Because whaddya know, he recently met Suzanne skiing in Vermont. It was his friend who was crushing on her, but she wanted to hang out with Todd, and apologize and catch up and stuff. And it was obvious she'd changed, and they had a nice little interlude, and almost kissed, and, uh, he just never told Liz about this.
And another day dawns. Liz catches Suzanne taking pills, and brushes off her attempt to apologize. Jess gets daisies from her Secret Santa, and makes a snide remark to Suzanne about being glad they're not flowers with thorns, knowwhatImean? She also accuses Suzanne of stealing something of hers, and is generally gleeful that Suzanne is getting rattled. Steven is starting to soften up, though, which sends Jessica off the rails, and at the peak of tension, the doorbell rings and it's TBT!!!111!!!! Suzanne takes one look at him, drops the flower vases, bursts into tears and runs out of the room. OMGWTFBBQ.
So Todd has a whispered conclave with her, and Jessica naturally overhears, and now the gloves are coming off. So what to do? Badmouth Suzanne further to Winston and Aaron, exaggerating true events and making up other stuff, and make plans to be Evil Secret Santas. And the guys go for it! Crimeny! You know, apart from the fact that this makes them jerks too, guys don't usually go for this backstabbing jazz. Steven doesn't know about this, but he does urge Jess to lay off poor Suzanne. As if!
Meanwhile, Liz's reunion with TBT is not as joyful as she'd anticipated. They haven't had much time together, and in general, things just feel...off, somehow. Perhaps because of this, she's more sympathetic when Suzanne tells her she feels terrible, wants to make up for her previous behavior, and so forth. Suzanne almost blurts out her Big Secret, but that will have to wait, of course. And she wants to start her apologizing with Aaron Dallas -- I forget, what did she do to him? Anyway, they play phone tag, and Jessica finally gets hold of him and screeches that Suzanne is trying to SEDUCE him! Oh, the outrage! Only a Sweet Valley guy would see that as a bad thing, so of course he does, and they make plans to "invite" Suzanne to a "party" which will be at an empty house, and then she'll run home crying.
And Saint Liz feels almost as bad for Suzanne as for herself, because Todd is acting so weird around her. They go for a walk, and she asks him point blank what the problem is, and he turns it around on HER. They haven't seen each other for so long, so why does she want to start an argument. Smooth, Toddy, real smooth. Then they try to get romantic, but it just doesn't work. Snif.
And it's almost Christmas, and Jessica is almost having second thoughts, but then she overhears another convo between Todd and Suzanne, one that's just ambiguous enough to lead her to think that Suzanne Is Evil And Trying To Steal Todd And Probably Carrying His Baby. Okay, not that extreme. But it seems to me that the reason Jessica never trusts anyone is that SHE is never sincere, and assumes no one else ever is either. Meanwhile, Liz is starting to accept that it's over for her and TBT, and she'd be all happy for him if he did find someone else, but she just wants him to be okay with it and I'm going to be sick.
And it's almost Christmas, and it's a red-and-green dinner, and tree-trimming, and all pastoral and homey. And it's the first Christmasy Christmas Suzanne's ever had, and she'd be all cozy if only Jess didn't keep giving her evil looks. Then she almost faints, and incredibly, this only makes Jessica more irate! Because Suzanne HAS to be faking it for sympathy, right? And the revenge thing is for Liz, right? Right? It can't be that Jessica just gets off on being devious and vindictive. I'll never understand why she thinks it's okay to judge other people, as scummy as she is.
So the next night, Suzanne's ready to go the fake party. She takes her medication for her mysterious illness, but she doesn't have the list of contraindications. But it should be okay to have a sip of champagne, right? And then drive to the fake party. So as soon as she shows taillights, her doctor calls and says, OMG, she's not supposed to drink alcohol or drive. And at that moment, Suzanne is flipping her car, causing a passing cop to say "Jesus!" Has anyone blasphemed in SVH before? And the Wakefields plus Todd race to the hospital, and Todd is gray with anxiety, except when he's wanting to tear Jess's head off her shoulders. And Jess makes with the tears and remorse, as usual. You'd think she'd have learned after Annie Whitman's suicide attempt, at least. And it comes out that Suzanne has MS, and Todd wants just one chance to tell her how he feels before...
But first, he makes a full confession to Liz (and Jess). It was totally innocent, you see, except that he's in love with Suzanne now. And they were being secretive because first they didn't mention anything because it wasn't a big deal, and then not mentioning anything made it look like it WAS a big deal, so they just had to work harder at not mentioning it. Uh, I think. A lot of twisting and turning in order to make Todd NOT look like a traitor. Ah, heck, I guess I can cut him some slack. At that age, it is possible for different people to fill different gaps in your life without it being a total betrayal. And Liz takes it like a champ, of course. Suzanne deserves a break, what with her dying and all. And if Todd cares for her so much, then they should be together, and Liz will gift him to Suzanne as the bestest Christmas present ever.
So Suzanne, who is only a little bit banged up, no permanent damage, stays at the hospital to have some tests run. Everyone else goes to the party. Jess finds out that Winston is her Secret Santa -- AAAUGH! And Hans is Lila's -- AAAAUGH! And Liz has a last dance with Todd, her best friend in the entire world. Which is actually rather sweet. What I always hated about breaking up was the lack of closure, so I'm glad Todd didn't just chuck Liz away the way my boyfriends did me. And Jessica's other evil plan comes true: she simply stole Lila's crown and robe, leaving the elf costume in their stead, and got on the Miss Christmastime float. I'm sure no adult had any problem with this, or even noticed anything odd. And of course, Lila is all grumpy, being an elf. Again I say, it's not terrible to be on the ground, interacting with people, instead of up on a pedestal. But it's all about winning with both Lila and Jess.
Oh, and guess what? The fancy New York doctors misdiagnosed Suzanne! She doesn't have MS; she has mono! Woohoo! And the swim team, wearing shorts and t-shirts this time, comes in and serenades her. Awwwww... I still don't buy the personality change in Suzanne, but I will say that her character as shown here is more plausible than the psycho in SVH #11. Jessica still has issues, though.