Sweet Valley High #15: Promises

Publication Date: January 1985

Well, we’re gonna start out with some sad news. The Wakefields are all at the hospital with Tricia Martin when she dies. Before she goes, she makes Steven promise that he’ll look out for her disaster of a sister, Betsy. Betsy doesn’t get to the hospital until after Tricia dies because she was out getting drunk and high. She vows she’ll never touch any of that stuff again.

Nobody knows where Betsy’s dad is so the Wakefields take her home to stay with them until he shows up again. Jessica isn’t happy but she tries her best to act like a human being for Steven’s sake. Liz comes home from school the next day to find Betsy drawing in a sketchpad. It turns out she’s a very talented artist and Liz gets her to open up to her a little about it.

Dad Martin doesn’t show up to the funeral. What a piece of shit. Does he even know Tricia’s dead? After the funeral, Betsy demands that Steven take her to Kelly’s Roadhouse, but he adamantly refuses and says she’s coming back to the Wakefield house for good. This is the worst thing that’s ever happened…to Jessica. Lila and Cara suggest she go through Betsy’s things to find her drugs and tell the Wakefield parents and get Betsy kicked out. Unfortunately, Jessica can’t find any drugs in Betsy’s room. She does find Betsy’s sketchbook, in which she’s drawn a picture of Steven. She assumes this means Betsy’s in love with him and she’s more determined than ever to get her out of their lives. Apparently, Betsy is making good on her vow to stay clean. She hasn’t done any drugs or drinking since Tricia died and Jessica overhears her on the phone one day telling Crunch McAllister she’s not going to the Shady Lady with him ever again.

Everyone’s having a terrific time at the Beach Disco one night when Steven and Betsy show up. There are a lot of snide remarks and Steve tells her to ignore them. Then Steve’s friend Jason shows up. He teaches a life drawing class and Steve thinks Betsy should take it. She’s rude to Jason at first but she warms up a tiny bit and says she’ll do it. But then at art class, Jason commits the terrible crime of asking her out. She assumes he’s heard all the gossip about her and only wants one thing, and it doesn’t really occur to her that Jason is in college and probably would have never heard of her if it weren’t for Steven.

Jason comes by the house the next day while Steven, Liz, and Betsy are sitting around the kitchen table. Betsy left her sketchbook when she ran out of class the day before and he’s bringing it back to her. Jason tells her there’s an art contest happening and the prize is a full scholarship to an art school. She seems interested until he offers to help her pick out which of her drawings to send in. Then she starts ranting about how he only wants a night alone with her. Jesus, Bets, get over yourself. She storms out of the room, and Steven, Jason, and Liz decide to enter the contest for her.

In a completely unrelated storyline, Winston Egbert is trying to break the world record for pizzas eaten in a single sitting. There’s like a whole chapter about it. Even the news shows up at Guido’s Pizza for the occasion. Winston eats six and a half pizzas before he runs to the bathroom to puke. This has nothing to do with anything but I thought I should let you know.

Betsy’s dad finally shows up at the Wakefield house one night and Betsy shuts the door in his face and calls Steven to ask him what she should do. Steven drops everything at college and drives home. Dad Wakefield tries to have a talk with Steven about how unhealthy this whole Betsy thing is, and Steven tells him about his promise to Tricia. Jessica overhears this, and as soon as she and Betsy are alone in the house she tells Betsy about Steven’s promise. So Betsy flies off the handle and starts whining about how the Wakefields are only being nice to her because of Tricia (I mean, yeah) and she packs up her things and leaves.

Steven and Jason show up ready to tell Betsy she won the art contest, and when they find out she’s gone they go off looking for her. They find her at the Shady Lady with Crunch McAllister and Charlie Cashman. The boys coax, Betsy yells, the hoodlums get restless and start a fight. You know how these things go. Jason knocks Charlie on the ground and leaves with Betsy. He’s a brown belt in karate, of course. Betsy can suddenly see in his eyes that he really likes her so that’s all fine now. The book wraps up, as so many of them do, with a party at the Wakefield house.

The end.

Notes:

1. Roger Barrett’s mother has had a heart attack and Bruce Patman’s dad is paying the medical bills. Nobody knows why until the very last page when we find out Bruce’s uncle Paul was Roger’s real father.

2. At the Beach Disco, Jessica’s dancing is described as, “stretching, strutting, kicking her legs up, and spinning around.” Which obviously makes me think she dances like Elaine from Seinfeld.

3. Steven and Elizabeth have got to stop making stupid unbreakable promises.