\\#2 Say It to My Face;

Liz, Conner, Maria, and Conner's Friends

After Liz walks in on Conner in the bathroom they sling a few words back and forth and Liz continues to stand there looking at him like an idiot for about five minutes. Conner finally asks her to leave. Megan then barges in and tells him to be nice to Liz.

The next day at school Maria notices Conner after drama and checks him out. She finds Liz and tells her that he checked her out. [Okay, Maria, whatever you say.] Maria says she thinks he’s hot and Liz admits that she’s living with him. Maria bugs her to invite her over for a study session. Liz doesn’t want her and Conner getting too friendly.

Jess tells Liz what the nasty cheerleaders did to her (see below) and Liz pities her and tries to make her feel better. Liz then invites her over to the Sandborns and shows her her room. They miss each other. Jess leaves and Conner’s friends show up.

His friends are Tia Ramirez, Andy Marsden, and Tia’s boyfriend, Angel Desmond. Tia (a cheerleader, but not an evil one) mistakes Liz for Jessica and Liz corrects her. They throw around a few wisecracks and then invite Liz to go with them to HOJ. She does, even though she has homework, and they leave a note for Conner.

Meanwhile, Conner is trying to pick his mother up from a country club. She is drunk and we are told she gets drunk like this often. Conner is disgusted and finally gets her home and tries to get her up to her room.

Liz and Conner’s crew have a great time. She is super rude to their waiter (Jeremy) and the others are embarrassed, but then she explains she works there. They have fun and bring her back to Conner’s. She gets home just as Conner gets his mother into her room. He’s in a bad mood and is mean to her. He’s mad because he knows it’s inevitable that she’s going to find out his mother is a drunk and he’s not too fond of her hanging out with his friends, either.

Tia, Angel, and Andy have a conversation in the car. They all agree that Liz is cool and not fake. Then they start talking about Angel leaving for Stanford in a few months. Tia obviously has a bit of a problem with it and doesn’t volunteer much in the conversation. Andy and Angel pick up on her unease and change the subject.

The next day Liz has the "worst morning of her life" and misses the bus. Conner drives her to school and she realizes she is extremely physically attracted to him. In fact, she’d been having a vivid dream about him before she woke up. She doesn’t say anything intelligent to him and thanks him several times before getting out.

After school Liz and Megan are on their way to an Oracle meeting when Tia calls to them. Tia and Andy want them to go to the mall with them. Liz lies to Mr. Collins and says she has to work that day and goes to the mall while Megan goes to the meeting. When they’re leaving they run into Maria who plays on Liz’s conscience and Liz assigns her to assign people to do something. Maria, who thinks she’s boring and has no life--which is true--agrees to cover for her.

Late that night Liz goes into the kitchen to get a drink. She sees Conner half naked and drops the glass and she and Conner clean it up together.

The next day Liz blows off Maria for lunch to go eat at the mall with Tia and Angel. Maria, understandably, gets a little tiffed. She goes to Liz’s locker to confront her about it and Liz is all happy and non-Lizlike. She then invites Maria to come with her and her newfound friends to the Riot the following evening. Liz pretty much ignores Maria the whole time they're at the Riot. Angel’s the only one there who tries to warm up to her, showing that he is one of the nicest characters in the books. Liz, Andy, and Tia diss people.

Maria gets up to get a drink at the “bar” area and sees Conner and sits down by him. He decides that since she’s so gorgeous and everything to let her get to know him better. They talk and discover that she was in a movie with a Christmas elf that Megan makes Conner watch every Christmas and they go upstairs for a little make-out session and have fun.

Liz and Maria had agreed that if the two got separated they would meet at 11. Maria is a half hour late and gushes to Liz about Conner.

Tia and Angel kiss a bit in the car then she goes out to the patio in her backyard to think and finds Conner. She knows Liz is the problem and when she brings it up he makes it clear he doesn’t want to talk about it, so they decide to talk about her problem with Angel leaving instead. He tells her that Angel loves her and that he won’t forget her and tries to make her feel better. She feels a little better afterwords, but the doubts about Angel leaving are still there.

The next morning Tia and Liz meet at HOJ and have a little talk about what’s going on with Jessica’s rep and what Melissa’s doing to her. Tia says that Melissa’s pulled that kind of crap before and eventually people get sick of it. Then they change the subject to Conner and Liz tells Tia about his and Maria’s make-out session. Tia then tells her that Conner has a problem with girls getting too serious and that it probably won’t last. Liz is kind of happy at this. Tia leaves and Liz wishes her luck with her cheerleading tryout.

In French Maria writes Liz a note asking why Conner isn’t in school. Liz writes back that she doesn’t know and about Conner’s short-lives relationships. Maria gets mad that Liz doesn’t support her relationship with Conner.

Tia has a disturbing revelation that she understands exactly how Melissa feels and in order to avoid becoming the clingy girl back home she decides to break up with Angel that night, but he surprises her after cheerleading tryouts with flowers and a card, one for victory, and one for defeat, both incredibly sweet. Tia’s so happy she almost cries.

After Liz gets home for work Mrs. Sandborn goes out on a date and she and Megan decide to have sandwiches. Liz goes to the pantry to get some juice and sees Conner and Maria in the living room making out. She stands there and watches it for a minute, then grabs Megan and drags her out of the house to go out to eat.

That night Liz cries about Conner and feels sorry for herself, missing her old life on Calico Drive. She gives Enid a call and asks if she can stay with her. Enid tells her she has to ask her, um, parents. [Last I knew, her parents were divorced and she lived with her mother.]

After Conner and Maria’s make-out session he asks her to leave and she doesn’t want to. Conner can’t seem to stop thinking about Liz and regrets having Maria come over since she now seems to think that they are a couple. She eventually leaves, though. During their make-out session Conner unbuttoned two or the buttons on her blouse. [You never would’ve read that in SVH.] Conner leaves to go get drunk with people (foreshadowing) and get away from all the drama with Liz.

Liz wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a bunch of shadows on the walls. Conner comes in, drunk, and apologizes. He goes to kiss her, but stops and leaves, but not before telling her that she makes even flannel look sexy.

The next day, Liz waits for Enid at HOJ all day, and when she finally comes, Liz tells Enid that she’s decided to stay with the Sandborns.

Jessica, Melissa, Will, and The Posse

At lunch, Jessica gets her food and on her way to look for a table finds Melissa and her crew. She goes to apologize, but Cherie insults her first, referring to her (or rather, Lila’s) skirt. She sees Will and gets all upset again. Other people also insult her in reference to the skirt as well. Will goes to talk to her, sees Gina seeing them together, and runs back to his master. Jessica goes into math and everyone keeps looking at her and whispering. She gets paranoid, then notices the Jessica Wakefield is a slut. written on the board. She gets up and runs out. Lila runs after her and tries to make her feel better. Jessica decides to stay in the bathroom and Lila returns to class. Jessica sits on the windowsill and cries.

Next bell in French she tells Liz all about it and Liz tells her that soon something else will happen and they’ll forget all about whatever Jessica did. That afternoon Jessica goes over Liz’s new dwelling and they miss each other and do a mushy scene.

Melissa and Posse invite Lila and Amy as new recruits for the Posse to their Monday night dinner out. Cherie and Gina try to make Melissa feel better by saying how bad and not pretty Jessica is. As they diss Jessica Lila still seems to be on Jessica’s side, playing a secret agent of sorts, not betraying her.

Lila gives Jessica a ride to school the next day. Lila wants to make sure Jessica’s okay and will be all right for tryouts. She makes a point of telling Jessica how popular Melissa is and how good she is, telling her that she is a formidable enemy, and, perhaps, possible ally, in her own subtle way, but Jess misunderstands her. Lila assures her that she’s going to be captain, that Laufeld wouldn’t demote her.

At lunch that day Melissa and the Posse diss the cafeteria and Melissa snaps at her worshippers. She also reflects how incredibly good friends they are. Quote, “Loyalty was one thing, but voluntarily drawing lines, alienating people at a new school, was another.” The trio then strays over to Lila and Amy’s table and joins them just in time for Jessica to see. Jessica doesn’t have any friends she can sit with that don’t have evil El Carro people sitting at it as well and sits in silence with Maria as she’s being stood up by Liz for lunch. They don’t talk. And Jessica is lonely.

That night Jessica listens to music and waits for Lila to get home. When she does Jessica storms in there and yells at her about sitting with Melissa. Lila thinks she’s being incredibly melodramatic about the whole thing. Granted, Jessica has a reason to be upset, but she shouldn’t have taken it out on Lila. Jessica yells at her about how she’s just hanging out with Melissa to be popular by association. That pisses Lila off majorly and so goes a ten year friendship. Both are upset but both are too proud to apologize.

At lunch all the cheerleaders are hanging around each other practicing their routines by themselves except Jessica, who’s off looking like a geek practicing by herself. Melissa shows off how good she is for Jessica and Cherie adds a few sickeningly suck-up comments. [I’ve noticed something, Gina never says anything. Cherie gets all the lines.] Jessica gets sick of it and leaves.

At tryouts Jessica discovers her tape she practiced her routine to is missing. [I wonder who could’ve taken it? It couldn’t have been that devious Melissa Fox, could it?] Jessica and Lila look everywhere for it but it’s nowhere to be found so she has to do the routine without it. And she does horribly. Afterwords all the girls look to see how they did. Some laugh and jump and scream, some cry, but Jessica doesn’t have the guts to check. Laufeld comes over and sets her mind at ease. She did make the squad, but only because she’s seen her do better. And Melissa tries to take over the squad by inviting the squad to the Riot that night. Jessica decides to apologize to Melissa and let her have that one victory and hope that the nightmare would be over.

That night she works up the nerve to go to the Riot and tries to figure out what she should say. She goes over and just as she’s about to apologize Cherie crudely asks her what she’s doing there. [And, excuse me, Gina does have a line in this book, and what a whopper of a line it is.] “No one invited you. Slut.” Jessica tells them that she doesn’t need any of them. She then looks at Lila and Amy and tells them to go with her. But they don’t move. They’ve joined the enemy and Jessica realizes it and runs out of there. She leans against the jeep and cries, then she sees Todd. She asks him why they’re calling her a slut and he tells her in one of the best scenes in the entire series. He says that if she hits on one girls boyfriend and then sleeps with another guy the same night, what does she think they’re going to call her. Classic.