Elizabeth has convinced her parents to keep it a secret from grandma, Jessica and Todd that Elizabeth is coming to the big birthday bash. Her parents agree on the condition that they only keep it a secret until the day of the party.
It’s confusing to me what this exactly accomplishes. Elizabeth says it gives her the upper hand, but if the whole point was to throw Jessica completely off at the party itself and give her no time to prepare…oops? Jessica has just had peace of mind for awhile thinking Elizabeth wasn’t coming, and Jessica lives and breathes drama, she doesn’t need more than a morning to prepare for this.
Elizabeth frets about seeing Jessica and Todd for the first time, and awkwardly segues into a flashback to Winston’s funeral.
No matter how much people liked him or didn’t like him, when a twenty-seven-year-old dies, there is a terrible sadness about it. The fact that it was an unnecessary accident only compounds the grief. According to the coroner’s report, Winston fell from his twenty-foot balcony and died when he hit the unforgiving white marble floor below.
The high percentage of alcohol in his system more than certainly contributed to the accident.
What a fantastic send-off for an important Sweet Valley character. Winston died a silly death and no one really liked him anymore anyway, and with him died the secret of Todd and Jessica. Bye, Winston!
It also sounds like Francine Pascal has a specific vendetta against Winston. Just look at the way Elizabeth mourns his death:
People who didn’t know him would have thought Winston was a winner, but we knew he was the model of a true loser.
[…]
After, he morphed completely into an arrogant, self-centered rich man who flaunted his wealth. Because he was still single he was much sought after, despite the fact that his ears still stuck out and his Adam’s apple jumped up and down on his long, skinny neck. More important, he treated women badly.
I guess it’s a shame a character I once was indifferent to morphed into a total dick off-screen (or on-screen in previous books? Not sure.) and then died also off-screen and with no real consequences for our characters since none of them liked him anymore.
One really excellent observation comes out of Elizabeth during her musings, though:
He was the perfect proof of my theory that you only see the truth of people when they’re on top. Everyone’s nice on the bottom when they need something.
Preach, girl.
Elizabeth tries to complain to Jessica and Todd about how people are gossiping about Winston and spreading rumors about his death, but they’re both distant.
Jessica somehow manages to make things about her when she starts blaming herself for how Winston ended up treating women. She says because she rejected him so much, it made him a jerk…
“So we should forgive his disgusting misogynistic behavior because he was rejected by cute girls in high school?”
“Actually, yes. It like scarred him.”
Jessica gets very passionate about blaming herself and forgiving Winston, and Elizabeth throws her a bone and is like, “Yeah, maybe we should excuse his behaviour because rejection is hard.” I’m glad we all had this discussion.
Jessica cries, and Elizabeth loves her more. I find it really sad that every time Jessica shows normal human emotions Elizabeth is so relieved/overjoyed that she just absolutely melts.
Back in the present day, Elizabeth is angry at herself for not realizing that Todd and Jessica were just acting weird because they were ashamed of themselves and not because they were sad about Winston. I am honestly not sure what Winston’s death has added to this book or this flashback.