Tagline: Now she has to pay….
Back tagline: No way out!
Summary: Carter Phillips is under a lot of pressure to ace her math achievement exam—so much pressure that she gets Adam Messner to take the test for her…in exchange for one date. But Adam wants more than a date—much more. Carter has no choice. She has to do whatever he asks. If not, he’ll tell her secret and ruin her life.
Adam’s control over her gets more and more unbearable. Carter is desperate to get rid of him—but how? Is murder the only way?
First impressions: After the frustrating experience of reading The Dare I’m hoping this one will be more enjoyable, but it sounds like Carter might also be a bit of an idiot. I’m praying I’m wrong there because I don’t know if I can handle it so soon after Johanna’s dumb ass.
I like this cover, it’s simple but ominous. Does Carter know he’s out there and is calling the police, or is something else going on? Let’s find out!
Recap
Meet the cast:
Carter — Our titular heroine who finds herself in a huge mess.
Adam — Carter’s co-conspirator who takes advantage of Carter’s situation.
Dan — Carter’s loving boyfriend who’s worried about her and their relationship.
Jill — Carter’s supportive best friend who briefly gets caught up in the Carter-Adam situation.
Judge Phillips — Carter’s father who’s set on her going to Princeton.
Sheila — Adam’s girlfriend who suspects something between Adam and Carter.
The book begins at the end of white-blonde haired [It’s yellow on the cover lol] Carter Phillips’s advanced math class as she wonders why she thought this class would be a good idea. The teacher reminds everyone that they can retake the math achievement test on Saturday at Waynesbridge Junior College if they’d like a chance to improve their scores, and Carter plans on being there. It’s not that she wants to; she scored 570 on the test originally, which isn’t a bad score, but her overbearing father, ‘”Judge Carter. Who judges all the time”‘, [Should that say Judge Phillips, or did he name his daughter after himself?] is set on her following his footsteps to Princeton, and she’ll never get in with a score like that. Carter’s never asked herself if she even wants to go to Princeton, it’s just always been a given. Carter’s successful in every other aspect of her life, like winning tennis tournaments and school prizes and making honour roll every year, but now it seems one little test score is going to undo all that in her father’s eyes.
After class, the final one of the day, Carter complains to her boyfriend, Dan Mason, about the situation; Daddy expects her to score at least 700, and that’s just not achievable for our mathematically-challenged heroine. She’d studied so hard for the original test and is studying hard for the retake as well, but she just feels hopeless because you’d have to be a math genius to score so high! Dan, who’d scored 720 but is super modest, changes the subject because he doesn’t want Carter to be upset and suggests they head to The Corner for a milkshake.
So off they go, but Carter can’t stop thinking about the test. Things are so tense at home because her father, who hates publicity, is presiding over a high-profile murder case involving notorious gang leader Henry Austin. The press can’t get enough of the story, so Judge Phillips is hounded by reporters and comes home every day in a terrible mood. Her inattentive mother’s no help either, basically living in her own little world, ignoring the tension in the house. And now Carter’s got to worry about her math score on top of all that! She took a practice test last week and only scored 600, so she has absolutely no hope of pleasing her father with the score he wants. If only she could borrow Dan’s brain for a day! That thought gives her an idea, and half-laughing, she suggests Dan take the test for her. He could easily get a 700 again, and Carter could be a boy’s name. Dan frowns so Carter plays it off like it was a joke, pretending to be offended that he thought she was serious, but she can tell he doesn’t entirely believe her.
Dan leaves soon after to pick up his mother from the country club, and as Carter sips on her milkshake, she thinks about her boyfriend. He’s very honest and straight-laced, which she likes, but it also bothers her at the same time. Carter’s just like him, but sometimes she has the urge to do something bad. Dan’s always there to keep her sensible and honest, though, making her feel guilty for even thinking about doing whatever it was that would have satisfied the urge. Carter then notices Adam Messner, who works at The Corner, smiling at her from across the counter. He’s in her math class and it’s clear he’d heard her conversation with Dan when he quietly offers to take the test for her. The pair aren’t friends; she’s a popular North Hills gal while he lives in a shabby Fear Street house and hangs with a rough crowd, but she knows he’s a math whiz, so she’s seriously considering his offer. Thinking of her father’s disappointment if she doesn’t score favourably, she accepts Adam’s offer.
Adam isn’t helping her out of the kindness of his heart, though; he wants a date with Carter in return. It seems simple enough to her, but could cheating on the test really be this easy? [No] She’s nervous they’ll be caught out, but Adam took the test at Waynesbridge last time where there was hundreds of kids, but the officials didn’t check IDs or anything. like that. Carter agrees to the deal, positive she can go on one date with Adam without anyone finding out. Adam’s actually kind of cute; there’s an air of mystery and sexiness about him that all-American Dan doesn’t have. He wants to take her out Saturday, the night of the test, which means Carter has to break the date she already has planned with Dan. She also wonders what Adam’s girlfriend, Sheila Coss, will think about the date. Carter doesn’t know her well, but Sheila’s a tough girl and doesn’t mind a fight, which worries her. ‘”What Sheila doesn’t know won’t hurt her”‘, says Adam!
We jump ahead to Saturday morning now, and Carter pretends to head to Waynesbridge Junior College for the test, but passes the Waynesbridge exit and heads to a nearby state park instead. She anxiously waits there in her car for the next three hours [I’d be sooooo bored] before finally heading home. She tells her father she aced the test as she makes him a sandwich, and the front page of his newspaper catches her eye. The headline states Henry Austin’s right-hand man has testified against him, admitting to murders, bribery and fraud, and I’m not sure if it will have any relevance to the story or not but it seems kind of important so it’s worth mentioning. [Maybe Adam’s part of the gang!]
Carter heads upstairs and calls Adam from the phone in her room, and he tells her the test was a breeze until he tried to leave — they asked everyone for ID! It’s just a little prank, though, and he assures her they’re in the clear. [Funny bugger!] Carter fights back her anger and realises that while her whole future relies on this test, Adam’s blasé attitude is because he has nothing to lose. They agree to meet at an intersection several blocks from her house at 8pm tonight and before hanging up, Adam instructs her not to dress like a North Hills princess because they’re going to his world tonight ‘”and it’s no country club.”‘ Carter’s offended because she can handle any place he wants to take her, but even so, she dresses in ripped jeans and a black top with no jewellery when she heads out to meet him later.
Adam, looking like a rock star with his longish dark hair, [Which also doesn’t match the guy on the cover] jeans and plaid shirt, takes her to the Underground, a dance club in an old warehouse in a seedy part of Shadyside. Despite her attempts to dress down, Carter clearly doesn’t fit in and can see the hostile glares from the other girls in the place. On the plus side, she won’t run into anyone she knows here! Adam takes her onto the dance floor, and he’s the first guy she’s ever danced with that doesn’t look stupid while he grooves. He moves loosely, with a cool detachment, and seems to be in his own little world, but every now and then he gazes at her with a smile.
They dance for a few hours and then head home, with Adam pulling over at the end of Carter’s street at her request. As she turns to think him, he leans over and kisses her long and hard. She’s surprised at first, ‘but then she lost herself in it, just as she’d lost herself in the music at the Underground.’ [So she’s a cheater in more than one way! Is it really that hard not to kiss someone back?] The kissing finally ends and she thanks him for the test and the date before exiting the car. Through the open window, he asks what she’s doing tomorrow, then invites himself to play tennis at the club with her and her bestie, Jill Bancroft, [Any relation to Lily?] at 1pm. He speeds off before she can protest that they only agreed on one date, and as she hurries home, she wonders what she’ll do with a guy like Adam at the North Hills Country Club. And how will she explain it to Jill, who doesn’t know about the test or the agreement?!
She convinces herself that Adam was just teasing, and as she’s approaching her front door, Sheila Coss steps out of the bushes. [Why do Fear Street/Point Horror teens love waiting in the bushes?] Scary Sheila wants to know what’s going on between Carter and Adam, but Carter lies that she has no idea what Sheila’s talking about. Lighting up a cigarette, Sheila announces that Adam’s been sneaking around with another girl for the past few weeks, but she’s just not sure who it is… Yet. If it’s Carter, she’d better hope Sheila never finds out because when she learns who the other woman is, Sheila’s s going to make her wish she’d never laid eyes on Adam. In bed that night, Carter can’t help but wonder why Sheila had shown up at her house; what would make her suspect Carter was seeing Adam, if she didn’t already know something?
The next day, to Carter’s horror, Adam’s standing at the gates of the country club with a security guard who’d refused to let him in. Carter admits that Adam’s her guest, and Adam’s allowed in with her but sticks out like a sore thumb. Jill arrives but before she can ask about Adam’s presence, Carter quickly explains they’re going to play doubles, but they need to find a fourth. A tall, good-looking blonde boy at the next table offers to join them, and Carter’s heart sinks when she realises who it is — Richard Smith, a super-snob who’s been trying to get her to go out with him since ninth grade. The four head off to the courts, where Adam is surprisingly good at tennis, quickly humbling Richard who ends up storming off after one match. [Poor little rich boy 😔 ]
In the dressing rooms, Jill finally has the chance to ask about Adam, and Carter lies that she saw him out front and invited him to play as a good deed. This surprises Jill because Carter’s never given Adam the time of day before, but she accepts the lie anyway, agreeing that it was pretty great how Adam showed Richard up on the court. Wanting to steer the conversation away from Adam, Carter asks about Jill’s date with Gary Brandt. It went great and Jill thinks it might be the real thing, like Carter and Dan! [Or Carter and Adam!]
After Jill hurries home, Carter finds Adam waiting for her out front of the country club and thanks him for putting Richard in his place on the court. In the parking lot, Adam leans against his Mustang and suggests a better way she can thank him; go on another date. Part of Carter wants to say yes, but when he suggests Friday night, she definitely can’t go because she’s got plans with Dan, and she can’t break them again. She tells Adam she’s not available, but he suggests she change that, warning that ‘”if I were you, Carter, I’d want to keep me happy. Know what I mean?”‘ Carter knows exactly what he means and as she watches him drive off, she wonders how long this will last.
We jump forward to Wednesday after school now, and Carter gets summoned to her father’s study as soon as she’s home. Princeton will need her test score ASAP because they’ll be finalising their decisions this month, so he wants to call the testing service to see if they can have her score early. Carter waits nervously while he makes the call, and once he hangs up he tells her he’s never been prouder — she got a 730!
Dad scurries out of the house to run an errand while Carter tells Mum her score. It’s great news, so Mum wonders why Carter doesn’t seem too happy about it, and Carter lies that it just hasn’t sunk in yet. Dad returns home bearing a gift for his little math whiz — a pair of beautiful diamond earrings! Carter knows she doesn’t deserve them and can’t stop thinking about how she’d cheated on the test, resolving to never let her father find out. [Just gotta get rid of Adam somehow. I wonder if her word against his would work, since there was no security measures in place or anything to actually prove she wasn’t there. But then they could ask her to take it again to prove she could score that high! Oh, Carter, what have you done?!]
The next day after school, Carter and Dan stroll around the Division Street Mall, and he asks about her test score. She tells him what she got and shows off her new diamond earrings, and Dan couldn’t be happier for her, knowing how hard she’d been working. [Oop] They stop in front of a jewellery store window and Dan asks which necklace she’d pick from the display if she could have any of them. “Which would you pick” is a game they often play, and even though Carter’s not really in the mood right now, she points out a gold locket just to make him happy, then continues walking.
Dan wants to do something special tomorrow night on their date to celebrate, which is the perfect time for Carter to tell him she won’t be able to go. She fibs that her Dad wants to take the family out to celebrate and Friday night is the only night he can do it, and since Dan can’t hang out Saturday night, they make plans to meet at the country club that day instead. Carter apologises profusely for breaking another date, and while Dan says it’s fine and he understands, he seems distant the rest of the afternoon.
It’s Friday night now, and Adam takes Carter to see a horror movie, and as soon as the lights dim he puts his arm around her, and she doesn’t fend him off. Afterwards, she assumes he’s taking her home but quickly realises they’re not heading towards North Hills. They end up at his house on Fear Street, where they’ve got the place to themselves because his mother works nights. Carter isn’t sure she wants to be so completely alone with Adam, but she’s also curious to see what his house is like. And she can’t forget the kiss last week — will he kiss her again? Half of her is afraid he will, and the other half is longing for it. [Carter, plz]
He gets some sodas from the fridge and they sit down in the living room before he asks about the math score. She tells him what he’d got her and thanks him again, and then he notices her diamond earrings. Carter had meant to take them out before coming on the date, and when she admits her father gave them to her, Adam realises they were a gift because of the test score.
Carter wants to change the subject, which Adam’s more than happy to do, shifting the conversation to Jill, who his friend, Ray Owens, has a crush on. Adam wants Carter to set up a double date for tomorrow night, but with his five tattoos and three earrings, Ray and Jill practically live on different planets as far as Carter is concerned. Ignoring Adam’s audacity to demand another date, she explains that Jill already has a boyfriend and can’t see other people. [Neither can you, but that’s not stopping ya!] Adam argues that Jill’s relationship status doesn’t matter and insists Carter set up the date. When she starts to protest, he presses his mouth against hers and she instantly melts. [Carter, please. How are you falling for this blackmailer?!] It’s a great kiss at first, but then Adam starts pressing down harder and won’t let her get up. [Uh oh] She screams at him to stop and manages to push him off and back away, but he follows her, grinning, before pressing her against the wall.
When it’s clear that he holds all the power here, physically and metaphorically, he suddenly lets her go. She angrily tells him she appreciates him taking the test for her, but she’s been on two dates now, which is more than what they’d agreed. Adam seems super pissed and starts pacing the room and, worried that she’ll piss him off further if she doesn’t compromise, she asks if he’ll finally leave her alone if she sets up the double date. He tells her it’s worth a shot [Which clearly means he won’t leave her alone] and makes her call Jill right now, even though it’s after 11pm. Jill is confused by Carter’s request but ultimately agrees, if only to find out what exactly is going on between Carter and Adam.
Carter had been fiddling with the handle of the drawer in the phone table and absentmindedly opens it as the call ends, revealing a gun. You never know when you might need a gun according to Adam, who pushes the muzzle against her. She takes this as a threat, but Adam smugly says he doesn’t need a gun to threaten her. With that, Carter flees the house and runs down the street, where she hitches a ride on a bus and gets off a few blocks from home. As she’s walking the rest of her journey, though, she’s aware of a car that seems to be inching along behind her. She turns around to see who it is, but the headlights are too bright, although she suspects it’s Adam.
Frightened, she runs home to safety and peeks through a side window, spotting the car right out front with its lights still on, but she can’t make out the make of the car in the darkness before it drives off. As she heads up to bed, she wonders if maybe it was Sheila’s car that had been following her…
The next day, Carter meets Dan at the country club, and he asks if she’s breaking up with him, because Ryan Dalton [Never heard of him. I wonder if him and Richard Smith appear in a later book] saw her at the movies with Adam Messner last night. Faking outrage, Carter assures Dan that she really was out to dinner with her parents, and Adam’s date must have just looked like her. Dan warily accepts her story and by the end of their tennis match, Carter’s satisfied that things seem OK between them. They part ways at the locker rooms and as Carter’s gathering her things, Jill arrives, wanting to discuss the double date. Carter can’t explain it to her now but assures Jill there is a reason for the date and it’s not because she’s into Adam. She begs Jill not to ask questions or mention anything to Dan — ‘”We’ll go out and that will be that. Okay?”‘ [What makes you think it’ll be that easy, Carter?]
Jill frowns but doesn’t argue, then heads for the showers. Carter, hoping things will go back to normal after the double date tonight, reaches into her bag for a hairbrush, but instead finds a warm, sticky animal’s heart with a note pinned to it — ‘Careful—or you’ll break Daddy’s heart.’ How could Adam be so cruel? And how had he gained access to her bag in the first place!? And how could she go out with him again tonight, and force Jill to come along too, after everything he’s done so far? She knows the answer to that last question at least, because she’d practically do anything to keep Daddy Phillips from finding out she’s a dirty little cheater.
That night, Carter and Jill meet Adam and Ray at Benny’s, a basement club in the Old Village. There’s not many other girls here, and Adam and Ray waste no time being creeps, introducing the North Hills girls to Curt and Manny, who are just as seedy and on their way out. Ray forces Jill to the dance floor for a boogie, which she clearly isn’t into, and the mood gets even darker when the song ends and Jill tries to walk back to the table. Ray grabs her and pulls her back, holding her tight and continuing to dance as the other men in the club watch on, some even laughing at Jill’s discomfort. [I do not like the way this is going…]
Carter is furious that no-one, including Adam, is going to help Jill, so she marches over there herself to pry Ray’s grimy fingers off of her friend. Jill’s hysterically crying by this point and Ray continues to hold on as a crowd begins circling them. To Carter’s horror, Adam stands outside the circle and encourages the other men, taunting the girls. Ray eventually lets Jill go but the girls remain trapped in the circle of men close in. [This would be so scary]
The girls start thrashing about and end up instigating a bar fight when Carter kicks Ray into two other guys. The girls take the opportunity to flee the bar and quickly race home, where Carter comforts Jill. After calming down a bit, Jill demands an explanation for why they even went out tonight. Carter feels awful that she’d almost got her best friend hurt, but doesn’t want to tell her the exact truth because Jill would never forgive her for using her like that. So instead, Carter lies that she’d bet Adam that he couldn’t beat Richard in tennis, and the date was the price she had to pay. She’d begged Jill to come along so she didn’t have to be alone with him. She apologises profusely for how the night turned out, and Jill is quick to forgive her, knowing that Carter didn’t mean for anything bad to happen. [Jill’s so lovely! I’d still probably be a little mad if I were her]
After Jill leaves, Carter gets a call from Sheila, who knows she’d been out with Adam tonight and is certain something’s going on between them. Sheila assures Carter that she knows everything Adam does, and she’ll find a way to keep Carter and Adam apart for good…
After advanced math class on Monday afternoon, Adam approaches Carter but she tells him he needs to leave her alone before he can speak. Surprisingly, he agrees that things aren’t working out, but Carter’s correct to be wary — most people would pay a lot of money for what he did for her, and she got the valuable service for free! He wants $1,000 now, and although Carter tries to argue she’s already gone way beyond the deal they made, she knows she doesn’t have a choice — ‘If she didn’t do what he wanted, he could ruin her life.’ She’ll give him the money if he promises to leave her alone, and once again he basically says it’s worth a shot and she should at least give it a try. [It didn’t work last time, Carter, it’s not going to work this time] He heads off, leaving her wondering where she’ll get $1,000, and the answer comes to her as soon as she opens her locker, her expensive diamond earrings staring back at her in the door’s mirror.
After school, Carter heads down to Old Village to pawn the earrings, avoiding one she’d been to with her mother in the past, not wanting to risk any chance of being recognised. [Her mother went there to pawn the jewellery her stepmother had left to her when she’d died, which seems disrespectful to me] She successfully negotiates $1,000 for them and later at dinner, her father notices she’s not wearing them. [Oop] She lies that one had fallen out while she was changing for gym class because the back was loose, so she’d dropped them off at a jeweller to be fixed. Daddy wants to go pick them up for her, since they were a gift and he doesn’t want her paying, but Carter argues that he and Mum are both so busy lately, and she’s happy to go herself. Finally, he offers to pay her back whatever it cost, which she agrees to, knowing she’ll probably need the money soon.
The next day at school, Carter passes by Adam, who has his arm around Sheila. Adam doesn’t seem to be aware of Carter, but Sheila’s staring at her very smugly, as if she’s won Adam over Carter. [He’s all yours, Sheila!] The sight of them together is a bit of a shock for Carter, who up until this point has somehow viewed Sheila’s Adam as different to the Adam she’d been going out with — ‘He was a brilliant boy from the wrong side of the tracks, who wanted more out of life than his friends did.’ [Wait, wait, wait. Is Carter actually jealous?? Does Carter have some kind of genuine feelings for the guy who’s blackmailing and extorting her? The guy who seemed to be trying to get her gang raped at a seedy bar?????????? Is this a Wattpad fanfic or?]
After school Carter heads to The Corner, knowing that Adam’s will be working. She hands over the envelope of cash and firmly reiterates that he needs to leave her alone now, but he goes to help a customer instead of agreeing. He does end up leaving her alone the next three days, so she’s breathing a sigh of relief by the end of school on Friday. She heads over to Dan’s that night to watch a movie, and although to her everything is perfect between them, he seems a little off, as if he’s studying her the whole time. She thinks that he might be feeling a little insecure after she’d broken two dates with him, and gives him a big reassuring kiss that seems to go down well.
It’s after midnight by the time she leaves Dan’s and on her drive home, she’s tailed closely by a car with blinding headlights. As soon as they climb a steep section of road that overlooks the river, the other driver starts trying to nudge her off the road. She suspects Adam [I’m thinking maybe Sheila, though] and manages to briefly outrun the car after the road bends to the left, away from the river, but then the car appears to her rear right and attempts to force her into oncoming traffic!
After slamming on the brakes, Carter ends up in some hedges while the oncoming car manages to swerve around her. The driver gets out to make sure she’s OK and tells her to report that other car to the police before continuing on his way. Arriving home a short time later, Carter finds Adam standing by the garage, waiting for her, and immediately accuses him of trying to kill her. He seems to have no idea what she’s talking about and claims to have been waiting for her here for a while. And the reason he’s here is because he needs another $1,000 — Carter has til tomorrow night, Saturday, to figure it out, otherwise Adam will call her father Sunday morning. As he drives off, Carter’s left standing there in despair, with no way to escape Adam’s torment. She fantasises about shooting him with his own gun and is horrified by her own mind, but she knows that there’s really no other way out… [Cheater, liar, and killer? Princeton will love that!]
Carter’s parents head off to a wedding in Waynesbridge the next morning and won’t be back until late tonight, which will give Carter plenty of time to find something in the house to pawn. Dan interrupts her at 11am, though, wanting to find out what’s been going on with her lately. He bumped into Jill at the country club this morning and they’d discussed her weird behaviour. Jill even told Dan about their double date with Adam and Ray, but to Carter’s surprise, he’s not upset about it. In fact, he’s actually figured out that Adam took the math test for Carter and is now blackmailing her! [Hmmm, I feel like this is suss. Has Dan been following her or something, and is trying to scare her for whatever reason because he’s on his high horse? Or is he really just that smart? Am I too suspicious?]
Carter breaks down and tells him everything, and he’s quite supportive of her predicament, understanding that she made a mistake. [I think it’s more than just a mistake but okeh] Neither of them are sure how they can stop the blackmail, and a frustrated Carter goes to her father’s desk in the study and whips out a pistol, admitting if she had the guts, she’d kill Adam. Her father doesn’t know she knows about the gun, and Dan tells her to put it away because that’s not the way to solve problems. [Do you hear that, America?] He promises to help her find a way out of this mess and when he leaves soon after, Carter takes all of her jewellery to the same guy who bought her earrings, but he only offers $200 for a few of the chains. Unfortunately for Carter, none of the other antique/pawn shops are interested in her other jewellery, and she nervously heads to Adam’s house hoping that he’ll be OK with $200 for now while she finds a way to come up with the other $800.
We jump forward now to Carter arriving home, which is a very suspicious time jump. It’s dark by this point, and after leaving Adam’s earlier, she’d driven around in a daze for a while. One thought kept floating through her mind as she drove — ‘Is the nightmare over now? Could it really be over?’ [What, did she kill him or something, and there was just no mention of her taking her dad’s gun over there? Or maybe she used his own gun!] Dan’s waiting at her front door and demands to know where she’s been. She avoids eye contact and ignores the question as she leads him into the house, so he asks what’s wrong and if she saw Adam. ‘She didn’t want to tell him. She tried to come up with another lie, something he’d believe’, but the doorbell rings before she has a chance to answer. It’s two policemen who want to ask Carter a few questions — Adam Messner’s been shot, and he’s dead! [Woooooo!]
Inside, the police ask if Carter knew Adam and if she saw him today. She admits to being in class with him at school, but denies seeing him today; they’re not friends, so she doesn’t see him outside of school. The police explain that a neighbour saw Carter’s car parked outside his house this afternoon, but Carter lies that the neighbour must be mistaken; she’s been home all day, studying with Dan. Dan looks confused and suspicious, then backs up her lie, and once the police leave he demands to know why she’s telling fibs. Carter didn’t want to risk the police learning about the test and swears she didn’t kill Adam, but Dan just stares at her. He seems cold and distant now, and she can tell he doesn’t believe her, especially since she’s done nothing but lie to him lately. [I’m thinking Dan killed Adam after Carter left earlier] He leaves quickly without a kiss, and all Carter can do now is pace around the house, her mind racing over everything that’s happened these past few weeks.
Later, the phone rings, and the caller whispers, ‘”I know what you did”‘ before hanging up. Carter’s sure it was Sheila and wonders what exactly she knows; did Adam tell her anything? Sheila’s been snooping ever since the day of the test, so perhaps she found something out all on her own! [Found out what, exactly, Carter? About the test? About Adam’s murder? Oooh, maybe Sheila killed Adam in a jealous rage and will now be trying to pin it on Carter! That’d been a fun twist]
At school on Monday, Carter’s prepared to go on with life as usual, but everyone seems to be staring at her. It becomes very clear that everyone knows she was visited by the police after Adam’s death, so she seeks out her best friend for support. As soon as Jill spots her, though, she turns and runs in the other direction. She searches for Dan next, and although he says hi back to her, he avoids her gaze and admits he doesn’t know what to say, and she realises he’s against her now too.
After a few days, the whispers at school stop, and people start sitting next to her in class again, although no-one talks to her. Carter jumps every time the phone rings, anticipating another menacing call, but it’s never for her; neither Sheila, Dan or Jill call. [What a loser!] One evening, though, Mum and Dad head out to a charity function, and Carter’s sitting in front of the TV when the power goes out. Then she hears movement coming from the basement and tries to call the police, but the line’s dead. In complete darkness, Carter backs herself into a wall in the hall [Instead of fleeing the house] and just stays there while she hears footsteps heading up the basement stairs. Then the basement door creaks open, and footsteps move closer before the intruder speaks — ‘”Careful—or you’ll break Daddy’s heart.”‘ [That’s what the note pinned to the animal heart said too!]
Despite him being dead, Carter suspects Adam and calls out his name, [Carter, plz] but there’s no response, so she slides her way along the wall until she reaches the study, then backs her way inside. She watches the doorway and through the darkness is able to make out someone wearing a ski mask enter the room. Terrified, Carter scurries around the desk to get the gun, but the drawer is empty! The intruder lunges at her and Carter can tell it’s not Sheila as hands wrap around her throat. This is a man, a strong one too, and he pins her against the wall, whispering he’d tried to run her off the road, but she slipped away and won’t be so lucky this time. His grip tightens, and soon Carter blacks out.
Sirens bring Carter back to consciousness as the man releases her throat and soon, flashing red lights from outside illuminate the room. Dizzy, Carter crumples to the floor as she hears police storm into the house. Her attacker flees the room, but she hears him immediately get caught. A worried officer makes sure Carter’s OK and helps her out into the hallway, where a bunch of other officers have surrounded the intruder, his hands cuffed behind his back. One officer pulls the ski mask off, and a flashlight trained on the man’s face reveals…. a heavy-set, 45ish-year-old man Carter’s never seen before! [Ohhhh, it’s gonna be related to the Henry Austin case her father’s been working on that I completely forgot about. Why did this guy put an animal heart in her bag? What exactly is the relevance of him saying “Careful—or you’ll break Daddy’s heart”? Like, what’s the context there, if it’s not related to the cheating? Also, who shot Adam? There’s about 30 or so more pages, so there must be another twist coming]
Carter is super confused, but luckily her parents arrive home just now and demand to know what’s going on. The cops explain that a burglary alarm was tripped in the basement and they got here as fast as they could [They sure did! I don’t think we’ve ever seen Shadyside cops arrive so quickly! Maybe they just care more about the North Hills residents] and broke in when they heard a scream, finding this man strangling their daughter. After making sure Carter’s OK, Judge Phillips takes a gander at the intruder and immediately recognises him as someone that works for Henry Austin, the criminal at the centre of his current case. This only confuses Carter more, because what would Henry Austin want to do with her? [I don’t think it could be more obvious that you’re a target because your father’s the presiding judge over his trial, Carter. But what confuses me is why would Henry Austin try to have her murdered before Judge Phillips dishes out a sentence? Wouldn’t it be smarter to organise it after a ruling’s been made? Because now he’ll get a worse sentence, surely]
After everyone leaves, Daddy theorises that Henry Austin has been using Carter to send a message, trying to intimidate the judge into letting him go free. [Yeah, I guess that makes sense, but how would killing Carter help his chances of getting free?] Carter also learns that her father had his gun in his briefcase, which explains why she couldn’t find it in the drawer. She assures her parents she’s OK and heads upstairs to lie down, thinking about how she’d incorrectly blamed Adam for running her off the road and leaving the animal heart in her bag when it was this thug. [I still can’t make sense of the “Careful—or you’ll break Daddy’s heart” thing. Like, what does she need to be careful about, as far as the thug was concerned? The only way it would make sense if is the thug new about the cheating]
A detective comes over the next morning and reveals they got a lot of information from the intruder, who’d admitted he was working for Henry Austin. The police are sure there’ll be no more intimidation tactics, so the family should be safe from now on. A few days later, though, just as Carter is finally starting to feel safe, she gets a call from Sheila, who demands $500. She knows that Carter was paying Adam to keep quiet because he’d told her everything, and also knows that Carter killed Adam. [Stine’s really trying to make us believe Carter is a murderer, but I’m not buying it because Carter hasn’t outright confirmed it. After reading The Dare, I think Carter’s inner monologue would be banging on about it constantly. I think something else happened at his house, and he was shot afterwards. But also, why would she leave his house wondering if it was all over if she’d only given him $200?]
“That’s right, Carter. Don’t bother trying to deny it. I was the one who found Adam’s body. I was the one who called the police. I know you killed him. And I’ve got proof.”
[Ok, I reckon Dan did it, trying to protect Carter, but I’m not sure what he could have accidentally left behind that would incriminate her] Carter has no idea what proof Sheila could have [Which is ambiguous enough to not indicate either way if Carter’s a killer] and asks what she’s talking about, but silly Carter should know by now nothing comes for free! If Carter meets Sheila behind Adam’s house tomorrow night, at the edge of the Fear Street woods, and gives her the $500, Sheila will hand over the proof.
The next day, Carter smuggles the expensive sound system she got for her 16th birthday out of the house and manages to negotiate $500 for it at Marvin’s Bargains, which buys and sells used electronics. That night, she meets up with Sheila and trades the cash for a gold locket Sheila found next to Adam’s body. Carter recognises the locket and opens it up to reveal the inscription inside — ‘”For Carter”‘. [Yep, Dan’s definitely the killer. This is the locket from the jewellery store window Carter pointed out in ‘Which would you pick’, and Dan must have gotten it for her but somehow dropped it when he shot Adam]
We jump forward to the next day, Saturday, as Carter toys with the locket and calls Dan, who sounds surprised to hear her voice. She complains that her life is such a mess and she won’t be able to handle it if it gets worse, so she’s decided to tell her father everything today. Dan is supportive of the idea and agrees to come over this afternoon as moral support. Carter thanks him for staying with her through all of this, which means a lot to her, [What???? He’s ignored you for days, Carter, if not weeks. He might not have explicitly broken up with you, but I feel like it had been implied…] and he simply replies that he’d to anything for her, which I think is cryptic enough to suggest he’s the killer.
Dan comes over a few hours later and the pair head into Judge Phillips’s study to talk to him. It’s hard, but Carter confesses that Adam Messner took the math test for her to score the 730. She explains that Adam has been blackmailing her ever since, which gave her no choice — ‘”I killed Adam Messner.”‘ [I bet before Dan came over, Carter told her father everything and they came up with this plan to get him to confess] Carter looks at Dan, who’s staring at her in shock, but quickly composes himself before crossing the room to stand in front of the judge’s desk. He asks if Judge Phillips can do something about the situation to avoid Carter going to jail, suggesting with a panicky voice that Carter didn’t mean to do it and it might have been self-defence, and not really murder.
Judge Phillips simply states that it’s for the court to decide Carter’s fate now. She committed a terrible crime and must face the consequences, and ‘”I won’t use my influence in any way.”‘ Apologising to Carter, Judge Phillips picks up the phone to call the police, but is stopped by Dan, who has no idea why Carter confessed to the murder and admits to killing Adam himself.
Dan monologues that he’d hated seeing Carter so miserable because of Adam’s blackmailing, and he knew Carter would continue giving him money. He also feared Adam would end up taking Carter away from him, and Dan refused to let him ruin their future together, so he decided to pay Adam a visit. He saw Carter driving away as he was arriving and realised she must have given Adam more money, then pushed his way into the house when Adam answered the door. He’d ordered Adam to leave Carter alone, but Adam refused and had pulled the gun from the drawer as Dan started to lose it. Dan was surprised by the gun and ended up wrestling Adam for it, which caused the gun to go off, shooting Adam in the chest.
Dan was so panicked that he simply fled, and his instincts told him he had to go see Carter, so he waited for her to come home. He planned on telling her everything, but the police had arrived and Carter, not wanting the police to know about the blackmailing, created an alibi for the both of them without realising she was protecting Dan. Dan realised that if he confessed to killing Adam, all of Carter’s secrets would come out, and she was so desperate to hide it all, so he started to think that maybe he could get away with it. But Dan would never let Carter take the blame for Adam’s death, so he had to confess — ‘”I’d never do anything to hurt you.”‘ [Aww, Dan’s a little sweetie. I feel awful for him because Carter’s definitely about to rat him out. 😔 But maybe Adam’s death will be considered self-defence, or even just an accident, and Dan won’t go to jail?]
Just as I suspected, Carter points out to her father that she was right; ‘”I told you he would do the right thing. I knew Dan would confess.”‘ Dan’s confused now, so Carter pulls the locket from her pocket [We love a rhyme!] and reveals that Sheila had found it next to Adam’s body. Dan realises it must have fallen from his pocket while wrestling with Adam, and Carter tells him she’d recognised it straight away from the window of the jewellery shop at the mall. She’d told her father everything last night, including her suspicion that Dan was somehow involved in Adam’s death, and although Daddy wanted to call the police, Carter had insisted Dan would do the right thing when the time came. So they conjured up this little plot to see how far Dan would go to protect himself, and they’re both glad to see that he did the right thing. [True, what a nice guy Dan is. I feel like in real life, a person would be much more likely to let their innocent partner/friend/relative go down to save their own skin]
Judge Philips believes Dan is telling the truth about Adam’s death and is confident they have a pretty strong case to argue that it was accidental, or that at the very least self-defence, since Adam was the one who pulled out the gun. He promises to do everything he can to help, which Dan is super grateful for. Judge Phillips takes the teens to the police station to give their statements, and they both answer endless questions about the whole situation while the judge finds Dan an excellent lawyer. Carter’s mother is horrified that her daughter’s mixed up in such a scandal and at dinner that night, cries about how the papers will probably drag their name through the mud. Maybe they’ll even be kicked out of the country club! [Wow, she really doesn’t care about Carter, does she?]
After dinner, Carter heads to her room to change, planning on going over to Dan’s house to keep him company and talk things over. Her dad comes in and apologises to her for putting so much pressure on her with all that talk about Princeton [Oh yeah, what will Princeton think about this? Will Carter face any repercussions for cheating on the test? Or did they conveniently leave that part out at the police station, and make out like Adam was just stalking her or whatever? Sheila still knows about it, so it’s not like it’s just between Dan, Carter and her father] and demands about her math scores. What he’d really meant to do was show how much confidence he had in her, and he didn’t realise he was pushing her so hard. [I don’t know how he couldn’t realise, but okeh] He wants Carter to come talk to him next time something’s bothering her, and she promises she will.
Later that night, Carter’s at Dan’s house, and the book ends as a game of chess reveals the math test isn’t the only time Carter Phillips has cheated:
Carter groaned. “I can’t believe you’re beating me at chess!”
“That’s only because you didn’t cheat this time,” Dan said. “What’s going on? You always cheat at chess.”
Carter moved her pawn. “I think I’ve learned my lesson,” she said.
Dan glanced at the board and smiled. Then he moved his queen again and said, “Checkmate!”
[Cuuuuute]
Final thoughts
This one was slightly better than middle of the road, but gets bonus points for being quite a different plot to your typical Fear Street. It was a nice surprise to be wrong about Carter in my first impressions; she was a pretty good heroine and I liked that she wanted to deal with her predicament on her own instead of dragging others into her mess, although I guess it was for selfish reasons, not wanting to get caught. Of course, she was forced to bring Jill into it at one point, and something very bad almost happened, but I guess that was somewhat out of Carter’s hands.
I didn’t like that Carter seemed to be developing some slight feelings for Adam because it didn’t really make sense with his behaviour. We know the Shadyside girls love a bad boy, but Adam didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities that would appeal to our heroine.
Adding Henry Austin’s thug into the mix was a good choice to add some more mystery, but I really don’t see what the point of it was as far as Henry Austin was concerned. Like I said earlier, how exactly would having the judge’s daughter killed benefit his case, at all? It makes sense as a revenge thing, but not the way he was going about it, and I still don’t understand why the thug kept warning her against breaking Daddy’s heart.
Anyway, it was a quick and easy read with an interesting enough plot, so 97 double dates that become super dangerous very quickly out of 158!
