SVH Senior Year #14: Split Decision
Due to the perplexing lack of SVH books at my library, I'm going to keep going with the Senior Year books. There are much fewer parties, and not nearly as many people get thrown into pools, but the total lack of continuity when compared to SVH or SVU is worth the recaps. I'll become known as that girl who does the Senior Year books. I think I can live with that.
The A Plot:
Angel has left for University, and Tia misses him. It doesn't help that he's not answering her phone calls or e-mails. Of course, he's been gone for maybe a couple of weeks at this point... isn't that, like, forever in high school years? So insecure and lonely, Tia got drunk and started making out with another guy at a party. Now that right there is the true measure of missing someone. The book starts with the morning after, when Tia wakes up, remembering what happened the previous night. She feels horribly guilty, and she even yells at her younger brothers. Which of course indicates how bad she feels, since no teenage girl in her right mind would yell at her younger siblings without provocation.
Tia takes a drive to clear her head, and re-affirms to herself that yes, Angel is the one she wants. She gets back home to realize she's just missed a phone call from a boy! Only it's not Angel, it's Trent, the guy from the party. Since he took the trouble to track her down, she calls him back to let him know she has a boyfriend. That plan doesn't go too well, though, since he's so obviously into her, and Angel can't seem to bother himself to even pick up the phone. Tia is flattered by the attention, and agrees to meet him at the coffee shop. She justifies it by telling herself she'll let him know about Angel in person rather than over the phone. Because after a drunken make-out session at a party, he totally deserves that much respect. Or something.
Of course, Tia has fun on her "but-it's-not-really-a-date," and never ends up telling him about Angel. Instead, she agrees to go out with him again. But still, it doesn't really count. At this point I'm not sure how she figures she's not really dating Trent, since they're getting pretty flirty, and he even tells her he likes her so much, he'd like to take things slower so they can build up a real relationship instead of just making out. You'd think that'd be a good cue to say something, wouldn't you? Apparently not in Tia's mind, though.
Meanwhile, Tia is calling Angel every five minutes. Seriously. I lost track of how many times she calls his answering machine and leaves a message. And then she starts thinking "I'm going to come across as clingy, so I'll stop leaving messages when I call." Yikes. Stalkerish much? No wonder Angel's not calling. I'd be scared, too.
On their next date, Trent takes Tia bowling. But it's not really a date, Tia figures. Because even her grandfather goes bowling. Seriously, she thinks that. But when he takes out nachos later, she is forced to concede that this is, in fact, a date. Especially when he pays. So does she take this opportunity to come clean? Does she at least beat it out of there? Please. She sits there and talks about what they're planning to do on their next date. When Trent takes her home, he comes thisclose to kissing her, and although she's feeling guilty, it's not enough for her to stop him... until she sees Angel's car sitting in her driveway! Oh noes!
Even now, she still doesn't tell Trent what's going on. She just makes some lame excuse and runs into the house. Angel has come down for the weekend to visit her! He seems to be Todd-caliber dense and doesn't realize anything's wrong; he and Tia start making out. And Tia decides that yes, Angel is definitely who she wants to be with and not Trent. Angel takes her out to dinner, but she can't eat anything, since she filled up on nachos earlier, and the conversation is stilted and awkward. Then they get into a fight about how he's e-mailed her once since he left, and it was about one line long.
Now Tia is thoroughly and utterly confused. She loves Angel, but things just aren't the same since he left. And she really likes Trent, who's been very attentive. What's a girl to do? She's hoping she can keep the boys separate for the rest of the weekend, so she'll have more time to work out what she's going to do. Jeremy blows her plans, though, when he tries to talk to Angel about the recent breakup with Tia. He assumes Angel and Tia must have broken up, since he's seen Tia around town with another guy... On hearing this, things click into place for Angel, and he heads straight for Tia's house, where he catches her with Trent. Angel is enraged, Trent is confused, and Tia is living her "worst nightmare." Trent takes off, leaving the other two to talk. They come to the conclusion that the relationship isn't working for them long distance and decide to take a break. When word gets out, everyone is shocked! Angel and Tia called it quits! No relationship is safe, and the very meaning of true love has crumbled! I'm not even kidding. Elizabeth's journal at the end of the books says something to that effect. It was kinda painful, actually.
The B Plot:
Jessica, against her better judgement, has been dating Will, and has discovered she really likes him. He's been kind of a jerk lately, but she's decided to forgive him for it... up until he breaks up with her to go back to Melissa. Actually, I kinda think those two should stay together, get married, never have kids... no sense in destroying more households than necessary. Jessica is heartbroken. Will and Melissa are all over the school, and everyone is watching to see how she deals with it. She does her best to get through, and her friends help, but when she gets home all she wants is to sob into her pillow and stuff herself with oreos. Elizabeth, of course, can't resist sticking her nose in, even after Jessica tells her (repeatedly) to mind her own business and how she just wants to be alone. Actually, it kind of made me giggle how blatantly unwelcome Liz was making herself. She drags an unwilling Jess out all over the place, especially to Conner's first gig (Liz and Conner are now officially dating). While there, Jess meets an unkempt but intriguing guy named Evan, who immediately writes Jess off as a shallow, dumb blonde. Evan is awesome. She grumbles about him for the next day, and is shocked when he shows up at the coffee shop when she's working. In fact, she doesn't recognize him at first, because he's wearing his hair back instead of all in his face. And he's hawt. She banters with him a bit and discovers he's not being mean to her, he's teasing (mostly). Now she's kind of interested. After all, when he brushes his hair, he's hot! And it's been at least five minutes since Will dumped her. Liz thinks this is a good thing, since clearly it means Jessica is recovering from her heartbreak. They all go out to celebrate Liz's new job selling makeup (What? Yeah, I know, me too. Actually, Jessica says the same thing, too) and of course Evan is there, with his hair back in his face. And he asks Jessica to dance. And... she can't do it. She panics. She can't figure out why. Is she really that shallow, that she can't even dance with this guy because people will talk? Or is it that she's just not over Will yet? She just doesn't know. Liz tries to talk to her about it, and Jessica tells her off for being a nosy busybody. It was the best scene in any Senior Year book so far.
The C Plot:
Andy has no idea what he wants to do after graduation. The school counselor told him he should start participating in extracurricular activities to look more well-rounded for his college application. Trouble is, he can't think of any clubs that appeal to him. He's the class clown, he's not athletically inclined, and he has no interest in... pretty much any of the clubs available at school. He'd rather stay home and play video games. His friends point out he likes camping, though, so he checks out the Outdoors Club. They're a little more rugged than he'd like, but they seem friendly enough, especially Travis and Six Hanson (ghostwriters were watching a little too much Blossom, it seems). Andy invites Six to come hang out with the group, and at the end of the evening, Liz warns Andy that Six has a crush on him. He laughs it off, because it's not like anyone's expressed interest before. The next club meeting, they go for a hike/rock climbing. When Andy finally makes it up the top of the mountainous thing they're climbing, Six ends up kissing him. Andy thinks "this is interesting..." but he's really really not into it... or her. Although he's afraid to tell her that, since she just might throw him off the mountain. I guess there's no pool nearby. How disappointing.
The A Plot:
Angel has left for University, and Tia misses him. It doesn't help that he's not answering her phone calls or e-mails. Of course, he's been gone for maybe a couple of weeks at this point... isn't that, like, forever in high school years? So insecure and lonely, Tia got drunk and started making out with another guy at a party. Now that right there is the true measure of missing someone. The book starts with the morning after, when Tia wakes up, remembering what happened the previous night. She feels horribly guilty, and she even yells at her younger brothers. Which of course indicates how bad she feels, since no teenage girl in her right mind would yell at her younger siblings without provocation.
Tia takes a drive to clear her head, and re-affirms to herself that yes, Angel is the one she wants. She gets back home to realize she's just missed a phone call from a boy! Only it's not Angel, it's Trent, the guy from the party. Since he took the trouble to track her down, she calls him back to let him know she has a boyfriend. That plan doesn't go too well, though, since he's so obviously into her, and Angel can't seem to bother himself to even pick up the phone. Tia is flattered by the attention, and agrees to meet him at the coffee shop. She justifies it by telling herself she'll let him know about Angel in person rather than over the phone. Because after a drunken make-out session at a party, he totally deserves that much respect. Or something.
Of course, Tia has fun on her "but-it's-not-really-a-date," and never ends up telling him about Angel. Instead, she agrees to go out with him again. But still, it doesn't really count. At this point I'm not sure how she figures she's not really dating Trent, since they're getting pretty flirty, and he even tells her he likes her so much, he'd like to take things slower so they can build up a real relationship instead of just making out. You'd think that'd be a good cue to say something, wouldn't you? Apparently not in Tia's mind, though.
Meanwhile, Tia is calling Angel every five minutes. Seriously. I lost track of how many times she calls his answering machine and leaves a message. And then she starts thinking "I'm going to come across as clingy, so I'll stop leaving messages when I call." Yikes. Stalkerish much? No wonder Angel's not calling. I'd be scared, too.
On their next date, Trent takes Tia bowling. But it's not really a date, Tia figures. Because even her grandfather goes bowling. Seriously, she thinks that. But when he takes out nachos later, she is forced to concede that this is, in fact, a date. Especially when he pays. So does she take this opportunity to come clean? Does she at least beat it out of there? Please. She sits there and talks about what they're planning to do on their next date. When Trent takes her home, he comes thisclose to kissing her, and although she's feeling guilty, it's not enough for her to stop him... until she sees Angel's car sitting in her driveway! Oh noes!
Even now, she still doesn't tell Trent what's going on. She just makes some lame excuse and runs into the house. Angel has come down for the weekend to visit her! He seems to be Todd-caliber dense and doesn't realize anything's wrong; he and Tia start making out. And Tia decides that yes, Angel is definitely who she wants to be with and not Trent. Angel takes her out to dinner, but she can't eat anything, since she filled up on nachos earlier, and the conversation is stilted and awkward. Then they get into a fight about how he's e-mailed her once since he left, and it was about one line long.
Now Tia is thoroughly and utterly confused. She loves Angel, but things just aren't the same since he left. And she really likes Trent, who's been very attentive. What's a girl to do? She's hoping she can keep the boys separate for the rest of the weekend, so she'll have more time to work out what she's going to do. Jeremy blows her plans, though, when he tries to talk to Angel about the recent breakup with Tia. He assumes Angel and Tia must have broken up, since he's seen Tia around town with another guy... On hearing this, things click into place for Angel, and he heads straight for Tia's house, where he catches her with Trent. Angel is enraged, Trent is confused, and Tia is living her "worst nightmare." Trent takes off, leaving the other two to talk. They come to the conclusion that the relationship isn't working for them long distance and decide to take a break. When word gets out, everyone is shocked! Angel and Tia called it quits! No relationship is safe, and the very meaning of true love has crumbled! I'm not even kidding. Elizabeth's journal at the end of the books says something to that effect. It was kinda painful, actually.
The B Plot:
Jessica, against her better judgement, has been dating Will, and has discovered she really likes him. He's been kind of a jerk lately, but she's decided to forgive him for it... up until he breaks up with her to go back to Melissa. Actually, I kinda think those two should stay together, get married, never have kids... no sense in destroying more households than necessary. Jessica is heartbroken. Will and Melissa are all over the school, and everyone is watching to see how she deals with it. She does her best to get through, and her friends help, but when she gets home all she wants is to sob into her pillow and stuff herself with oreos. Elizabeth, of course, can't resist sticking her nose in, even after Jessica tells her (repeatedly) to mind her own business and how she just wants to be alone. Actually, it kind of made me giggle how blatantly unwelcome Liz was making herself. She drags an unwilling Jess out all over the place, especially to Conner's first gig (Liz and Conner are now officially dating). While there, Jess meets an unkempt but intriguing guy named Evan, who immediately writes Jess off as a shallow, dumb blonde. Evan is awesome. She grumbles about him for the next day, and is shocked when he shows up at the coffee shop when she's working. In fact, she doesn't recognize him at first, because he's wearing his hair back instead of all in his face. And he's hawt. She banters with him a bit and discovers he's not being mean to her, he's teasing (mostly). Now she's kind of interested. After all, when he brushes his hair, he's hot! And it's been at least five minutes since Will dumped her. Liz thinks this is a good thing, since clearly it means Jessica is recovering from her heartbreak. They all go out to celebrate Liz's new job selling makeup (What? Yeah, I know, me too. Actually, Jessica says the same thing, too) and of course Evan is there, with his hair back in his face. And he asks Jessica to dance. And... she can't do it. She panics. She can't figure out why. Is she really that shallow, that she can't even dance with this guy because people will talk? Or is it that she's just not over Will yet? She just doesn't know. Liz tries to talk to her about it, and Jessica tells her off for being a nosy busybody. It was the best scene in any Senior Year book so far.
The C Plot:
Andy has no idea what he wants to do after graduation. The school counselor told him he should start participating in extracurricular activities to look more well-rounded for his college application. Trouble is, he can't think of any clubs that appeal to him. He's the class clown, he's not athletically inclined, and he has no interest in... pretty much any of the clubs available at school. He'd rather stay home and play video games. His friends point out he likes camping, though, so he checks out the Outdoors Club. They're a little more rugged than he'd like, but they seem friendly enough, especially Travis and Six Hanson (ghostwriters were watching a little too much Blossom, it seems). Andy invites Six to come hang out with the group, and at the end of the evening, Liz warns Andy that Six has a crush on him. He laughs it off, because it's not like anyone's expressed interest before. The next club meeting, they go for a hike/rock climbing. When Andy finally makes it up the top of the mountainous thing they're climbing, Six ends up kissing him. Andy thinks "this is interesting..." but he's really really not into it... or her. Although he's afraid to tell her that, since she just might throw him off the mountain. I guess there's no pool nearby. How disappointing.