SVT #94 - Don't Talk to Brian
There has been a lot of talk in this community about how badly SV butchers various issues - drug overdoses, anorexia, stalking, etc. - but I feel pretty confident that this book is the holy grail of Sweet Valley’s “issue books.” It was so bad that I had to put the book aside for over a month before having the courage to pick it up and write this recap.
Oh, and a funny side note: Last summer, I went in this big new/used bookstore (searching for SV books - I’m not ashamed to admit it!) and discovered two copies of this book, plus a few others. Weird thing was, the books were in the “new” section. So I brought this book up to the front to buy and asked the guy about it, since they’re out of print and all, and the employee said that yeah, they are new and that they must not have been sold since they were printed. Which means this book was sitting, unsold, on the shelf since March 1996, just waiting for me to buy it.
Brian Boyd (of Sweet Valley tackles the Holocaust fame) walks into homeroom sporting a black eye. Ken, Todd, and Aaron egg him on, asking what happened and whether Brian decided to start wearing eye makeup. Brian claims he got into a fight; Liz, who’s eavesdropping, shivers and thinks how much she hates fighting. Wait another four years, Liz, and you’ll be swooning whenever Todd throws a punch in your honor.
Mr. Bowman announces to the class that as part of a new statewide initiative, they’ll be spending the next two weeks studying parents and families; they’ll be discussing contemporary families in class and then writing a paper about their own families. The winning essay will be read at a reception the school’s going to have for the parents.
Jess is determined to win because she wants to read her essay in the spotlight. When she tells her family this, however, they’re less than supportive, assuming that Liz will win because Liz is the writer and Liz is in the class. Also, let’s face it: Liz wins everything. Jess is pissed and thinks that if her family doesn’t start treating her with respect, she’ll write a scathing expose about them for her essay!
At school the next day, they begin the family seminar. Brian makes a lot of snarky remarks during class; for example, when the teacher asks what’s important for a parent to have, Brian shouts out, “Cash, and lots of it.” Then he interrupts as other people give answers, mocking them. Finally, Mr. Bowman sends Brian to the principal’s office. Liz figures that Brian is trying to prove how tough his is.
At the Unicorner, the Unicorns talk about the upcoming school dance. Jess wants a new dress but doesn’t have the money for it. She decides to ask her parents for a raise in her allowance and judge their parenting skills on their response.
Brian has detention after school and gets home late because of it. His mom is waiting for him and yells about how he’s been getting into trouble a lot lately. Brian can tell she’s drunk by the way she’s slurring her words. He goes to his bedroom to wait for his dad to get home and hopes that his dad is in a good mood and won’t hit him.
Tuesday night, Liz is trying to study in her room when she hears a weird noise coming from outside. Apparently the Wakefield house backs to an alley (*snicker*), and it’s not unusual to hear a cat fight coming from there. But this time, it doesn’t sound like a cat, so Liz goes outside and climbs the fence to investigate. There, she spies Brian Boyd! Crying! He yells at her to get lost, and Liz obeys. She figures that he’s crying because he got hurt in another fight and that he deserves whatever’s coming to him for being such a bully.
Jessica tries hitting up her parents for a raise in her allowance and admits it’s because she wants to buy a new dress. They shoot her down, and she takes note of it for her paper.
Thursday, Mr. Bowman asks the class if they’ve been working on their essays. Jessica says she’s been talking notes nonstop, and Liz is shocked because she hasn’t even thought about it yet. Mr. Bowman calls Liz, Maria Slater, and Brian up to the front of the room to act out a parenting situation where Maria and Brian are “parents” trying to discipline their “daughter” (Liz) for staying out too late. Brian makes a joke out of it; when Mr. Bowman tells Brian he’s being graded, Brian changes course and tells Liz that she’s grounded for life.
Heading home from school, Liz passes Brian’s house and sees a police car pull into Brian’s driveway. There are also two other official-looking cars there with the California state seal on them. Liz figures that they’re there because Brian got into another fight.
Friday, a bunch of students aren’t at school; Mr. Bowman jokes that they must be taking long weekends. Liz notices that Brian is one of the absent students and wonders if the police car she saw at his house has anything to do with it.
Saturday morning, as she’s eating breakfast, Liz picks up the newspaper to read the local news. One of the stories is about Child Protective Services removing a twelve-year-old boy from his home after responding to the third abusive situation in six months; the parents will go to a hearing, and the state will determine whether the child should be permanently removed from the house.
Liz realizes this has to be Brian that they’re referring to! After all (and I quote), she was pretty sure nobody else in town had had the police at their house last Thursday night. She gasps his name out loud, and Jessica sees the article and realizes what’s going on. They decide not to say anything about it, just in case they’re wrong and it’s not Brian.
Jess goes out shopping with Lila and Janet, then to Casey’s for sundaes, moping because she has no money to spend. She starts getting angry because Lila and Janet are acting superior because they have money and decides to prove that just because they have money, it doesn’t mean that they know everything. So Jessica tells them about Brian.
Monday morning at school, Saint Elizabeth approaches Brian as he arrives and asks if he needs anything - someone to talk to, a place to stay... He is confused, tells her to beat it, and leaves.
Word had spread around the school; everyone knows it was Brian in the newspaper article. Some kids, like Maria and Lila, don’t care because Brian’s a bully and therefore deserves it, while others, like Mr. Bowman, are treating Brian extra-specially because of it. Mr. Bowman announces that they were supposed to talk about foster families in class today but - with a glance at Brian - they won’t. Always good to ignore the issue at hand.
Brian mopes around the school, thinking about how his dad yelled at him and called him a “good-for-nothing little brat”. At lunch, Ken, Aaron, and Todd call him over and ask if he wants to play video games with them one of these days. Then Todd ruins the guy-bonding moment and says that “everyone” has heard about what happened and does Brian need anything? Brian says they can’t help and accidentally knocks over the table when he stands up. Mr. Clark, the principal, sees this and calls Brian to his office.
Mr. Clark tells Brian that he’ll have to tell someone about this behavior and that this sort of outburst is not acceptable. Brian gives him the phone number to a pay phone that won’t be answered, pretending it’s the number for his new foster family. Mr. Clark says that Brian can talk to him if he needs anything.
After school, Liz is working on some article for the Sixers and decides to go to the office to ask a question about some upcoming field trip. In the office, a number of parents are waiting to talk to Mr. Clark, and other are calling in to vent their anger and concerns, all because they don’t want Brian at the same school as their kids.
The Unicorns have a poolside meeting at Lila’s house and discuss what a pain Brian is. Then Lila announces she’s going to have a slumber party to celebrate the season finale of the TV show Snob Hill 90214 Thursday night (Gee, I wonder what real-life TV show this is imitating?). Jessica’s heart sinks as she realizes that her parents will never allow her to go to a sleepover on a school night.
Brian takes his time going to his “safe house” and thinks about what’s happened with his family. He used to have a great relationship with his parents, but then a few years back, Mr. Boyd got fired and had to move to Sweet Valley to take a worse job, and he started taking out his anger on Brian, yelling at and hitting him. Brian thinks his family doesn’t want him and no other family will want him either.
Liz has a nightmare that night, dreaming that Mr. and Mrs. Boyd are out to abuse her as well. Her parents wake up her, and Liz tells them what’s going on with Brian. Ned “Hotshot Lawyer” Wakefield says that in his practice, he’s seen lots of child abuse cases (in Sweet Valley? No!).
Jessica asks her mom if she can go to Lila’s sleepover, and Mrs. Wakefield says no. She then tells Jess that this is a time when the family should be sticking together and that she wants all her kids close by for the next few days. Jess wonders why her mom looks so worried.
At school, Brian starts thinking about his essay for Mr. Bowman’s class and is angry that Mr. Bowman saw all the bruises on him, week after week, and didn’t notice or do anything about it.
I don’t know about any other states, but in California, if a teacher suspects child abuse, he/she is required to report it.
Here is where it really gets surreal: The PTA has a last-minute meeting on Tuesday night, since so many parents want to voice their opinions on the Brian situation. Liz and Maria attend the meeting, since they’re the two student representatives. Mr. Clark tells the group that the child who was taken from his family will be placed with a foster family - and he’s interrupted by an angry man who cries out that Brian shouldn’t find a foster home in Sweet Valley. Someone else yells that Brian shouldn’t attend SVMS anymore because their kids shouldn’t be “hanging around somebody from a destructive home.” A bunch more parents start yelling, saying that Brian should be banished from SV and SVMS because he was abused.
As if this is even any of their business.
Mr. Clark says that this is clearly an emotional issue and that the state realizes this as well and has decided to move Brian to another district. However, Mr. Clark thinks it’d be best if Brian could stay at the same school because he already has enough problems and upheaval in his life. Mr. Clark wants the parents at the meeting to sign a petition urging the state to let Brian stay. He asks people who’d support this to raise their hands. Liz looks around; only half the crowd thinks Brian should stay, and her own parents want him to go. (Of course they do - SV parenting at its finest) Liz thinks, If her own parents weren’t going to support Brian… who was?
Liz rides her bike home and runs into Brian along the way. He’s actually pleasant to her and says his new foster family is great. Liz knows he’s lying because people at the PTA meeting talked about how Brian doesn’t yet have a foster home (does privacy mean nothing to these people?), but she doesn’t say anything.
That night, Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield knock on Liz’s door and ask if she’s okay. She’s angry with them for voting to banish Brian from SVMS. They claim they’re just trying to do what’s best and that they’re not doing anything, the state is. Because inaction is better than action?
Liz talks to Mr. Bowman at school the next day. Mr. Bowman says he hasn’t heard anything new but that he knows people are afraid of the situation. He tells Liz that they’ll think of something and that everything will be okay.
That afternoon, classes are cut short and all the students are ushered into the auditorium for an assembly. Mr. Clark gets on stage and says that he knows there have been a lot of rumors about child abuse flying around so he brought in a psychologist to explain things. The psychologist tells the audience what child abuse is and that a victim may sometimes lash out at others to deal with anger and low self-esteem. Liz is impressed, as are the rest of the students, and then Mr. Clark gets back on stage to announce that Brian is being transferred to Big Mesa Middle School. You know, just in case anyone was wondering who the assembly was about.
Jessica asks Mr. Bowman for a one-day extension on her essay, and he grants it. She brings to school her typed-up report, feeling confident that her list of parenting errors her parents made will be well received. Mr. Bowman passes everyone else’s essays back then reads them one that he says had a big effect on him. Everyone realizes that it must be Brian’s essay because everyone else received their essays back and he's not in class. The essay is about a king and a queen in a castle and how one day their child realizes it’s not a castle, it’s a dungeon, and that he runs out of hope for anything ever getting better. Jessica realizes that her life is actually quite good because it’s full of love, something Brian didn’t have, and so she crumples up her essay instead of turning it in; she will write a new one.
Liz stands up in front of the class and asks her fellow students for help in devising a plan to get Brian to stay at SVMS. They put together a petition and will present it to their parents at the Family Reception on Saturday, where Liz (who else?) will be reading aloud her winning essay. There, she reads the petition out loud, saying that child abuse is not the fault of the child, and that Brian shouldn’t be sent away because of it. When she’s done, all the parents head into the auditorium to discuss to petition, then return and say that they agree - Brian should stay; they should find him a foster family in Sweet Valley.
At home, Jessica tells her parents how much she appreciates them.
Meanwhile, Brian gets a phone call at the group home where he’s staying. It’s Mr. Clark, calling to say that all the students and their parents want Brian to stay at SVMS. In fact, they’ve even found a foster family for him! Brian is excited.
The Wakefields have a party to celebrate the fact that Brian doesn’t have to move, and everyone, of course, attends. Brian thanks Liz for her interference and help.