Tagline: Be my valentine… or else!
Back tagline: Ty Sullivan thinks he’s so hot.
Summary: Especially since he’s seeing three girls—all at the same time. And when Ty gets a valentine from the mysterious Amy, he decides to go out with her, too.
But Amy isn’t like the other girls… she’s dead.
First impressions: I was really looking forward to going back to the Seniors after the flop that was Party Games, but that excitement has drastically dimmed now that I realise this book is focused on Ty, who is one of the worst seniors in the series. I’ve wanted him to die the last few books, so maybe it’ll finally happen! Or maybe we’ll grow to like him now that it’s his turn as a protagonist. (Probably not though!)
On the inside cover, we have Ty dancing front and centre with Marla Newman (who is not his girlfriend) and in the background we have what looks likes Phoebe Yamura (who is his girlfriend) with a guy not in the yearbook and another random couple that don’t seem to be in the yearbook. The blonde might be Trisha Conrad, but we can’t really see her face.
Plot-wise, this seems like our typical stalker type plot, albeit with a dead girl. Hopefully it won’t be the same kind of dead girl stalker plot as In Too Deep, which was actually Ty’s first appearance. Hopefully this will be his last!
Will Ty redeem himself, or will he get what he deserves? Let’s find out!
Recap
As usual, our yearbook, with Jade’s entry updated, and any other relevant characters in our roll call:
The book begins one afternoon in Tyler Sullivan’s room as he’s on the phone with Mickey Meyers [Spelled Meyers, while the yearbook now has his last name listed as Myers. In some of the other books, it’s the other way around!] bragging about having his three girlfriends. There’s ‘Phoebe Yamura, his “official” girlfriend’, [Lol not the quotation marks] as well as his two secret girlfriends, Trisha Conrad, who’s still dating Gary Fresno publicly, and Marla Newman. Marla and Trisha both know about Phoebe, but he’s told them he’s thinking of breaking up with her. But naturally, the breakup will take forever, if it even comes at all. [Please, Stine, kill him off!] Marla should actually be here any minute, and Phoebe will be over later. Mickey’s heard that Phoebe’s the jealous type, But Ty assures him none of the girls will figure out what’s going on. Mickey also warns him that bad boy Gary Fresno is pretty possessive over Trisha and isn’t afraid of a fight: he was suspended just last week for breaking some guy’s nose. Ty’s got no idea what Trisha sees in Gary, [I’ve got no idea what any of these girls sees in you, Ty] and agrees Gary’s one to watch out for, but there’s only one problem on is mind at the moment — ‘”which one of these three beauties do I take to the Valentine’s Dance?”‘ [Maybe Phoebe, your actual girlfriend] Mickey suggests he put pick a name from a hat and would love to know how he explains to the other two why he didn’t take them. Ty realises having three girlfriends is harder than he thought, then says goodbye to Mickey because Marla’s car’s just pulled up.
Ty’s 11-year-old sister, Kelly, answers the door before Ty intercepts and tells Kelly to go away, explaining they need to go over some biology notes. Kelly disappears, and Ty leads Marla up to the attic, which is nice and private. It’s also filled with dusty cartons, suitcases and furniture, including a rolltop desk with cubbyholes and tiny drawers next to an old-fashioned loveseat. Marla sets her books on the desk and explains she can’t stay long because she has to go to a yearbook meeting. Ty agrees that they should actually go over the notes, but suggests they get comfortable first and pulls her towards the loveseat. She teases that if she gets comfortable she’ll never leave and pulls away, bumping into the desk. Some junk escapes from a cubbyhole as the desk shakes, including an envelope addressed to Tyler Sullivan. The envelope is yellowed with age, and Ty pulls out a heart-shaped card which has the silhouette of a man and woman on the front, their lips almost touching:
THE TOUCH OF YOUR LIPS IS SWEETER THAN CANDY, read the printed message. Below it was a note written in the same script as on the envelope.
DEAREST TYLER,
I’VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR YOU. I ACHE FOR YOUR KISS. WRITE TO ME, OR I WILL DIE. BRING YOUR LETTER TO THE SHADYSIDE CEMETERY, AND LEAVE IT UNDER THE OLD ELM TREE NEAR THE FEAR FAMILY TOMBSTONES.
LOVE, AMY
[Does she actually mean the Shadyside Cemetery, or the Fear Street Cemetery? Surely the Fears would only ever be buried in the latter] Ty wonders if some girl has snuck into the attic to leave it here, or got his sister to do it, but has know idea who Amy is. Marla seems to be jealous, so Ty thinks on his feet and suggests that based on how yellowed it is, the valentine was probably written by an old girlfriend of his great-grandfather. Ty claims his great-grandfather had the same name, but in reality the man’s name was James. [Lol, I hate Ty] Marla buys the lies and remarks that Amy sounds pathetic and desperate, but Ty secretly thinks she sounds pretty hot and wonders who she is. It’s time for Marla to go now, so Ty walks her to the front door where she brings up the Valentine’s dance, which is being held at Red Heat this year. It’s obvious she’s fishing for an invite, but Ty’s determined not to discuss the topic until he figures out who he’ll be taking, so he makes it seem like he’s not interested in going. She leaves her biology notebooks with him and heads off, while Ty goes to the kitchen for a drink. Kelly’s left a note saying she’s gone to a friend’s house, and Ty continues to examine the valentine’s card.
The doorbell rings, so Ty heads back to the front door to greet Phoebe, who asks if that was Marla driving away. Ty admits it, pointing at Marla’s notebooks and explaining she was dropping off some of her notes for him to look at for their upcoming biology test. He then leads her to the kitchen for some Coke, where she comments on the valentine he’d left on the table. He denies that it’s for him and feeds her the same story that Marla got, and Phoebe admits she’s glad it’s not his: ‘”I couldn’t blame anybody for being crazy about you, but I still wouldn’t like it.”‘ [Phoebe, you deserve so much better. Oooh, wouldn’t it be nice if Amy’s an imaginary girl created by either Phoebe, Trisha or Marla to get back at him about his cheating? Or all three of them, because it’ll nice to see the Trisha and Marla supporting other girls for once! We’ve already had that plot, but it’s not like Stine hasn’t recycled storylines before] Ty assures Phoebe he’s all hers, and we get this little insight into his romance logic — ‘It’s true, he thought. The girl I’m with is the one I like the best. But then the next one comes along and I go nuts for her. What can I say? They’re all great.’ As he gives Phoebe a smooch, he can’t help but think about Amy, who he decides must be in another year level at school. She’d said ‘Write to me or I will die,’ and Ty can’t possibly let that happen!
A few days later, Ty’s driving back to town from one of the Conononka River lookouts with Trisha Conrad after a totally hot makeout session. We learn that Ty had been seeing Trisha the whole time he was dating Jennifer Fear back in The Gift, and poor Jennifer is still none the wiser. Trisha brings up the dance, still trying to figure out how to tell Gary she won’t be going with him. She clearly thinks Ty will be taking her, but he suggests they blow the whole thing off and do something else anyway. Despite how excited she is to go to the dance with Ty, he manages to convince her it’s not worth it if people seeing them together will cause trouble.
He also asks why she seems so stressed today, and she admits to having a vision of someone chasing him and her; she couldn’t see who, but she knows it was someone from the past. He asks if it was Amy by any chance, and tells her about the letter to his “great-grandfather”. He also admits to writing a letter back and leaving it under the big elm tree at Shadyside Memorial, just as a goof. [Yeah, right] She seems to buy it but still seems stressed, and mentions feeling like they’re being followed. As she gazes around at the other drivers on the road, she spots Gary’s beat up vehicle a few cars back and quickly ducks. He’d wanted to take her home to school but she’d lied about needing to go to the library, and she realises he mustn’t have believed her and has probably been driving around looking for her! She regrets not coming up with a better lie but assures Ty she doesn’t regret being here; she’s willing to lie to Gary as long as she knows Ty’s serious about her. Ty insists he’s serious about her, which isn’t a total lie — ‘When he was with Trisha, he was serious about her. When he wasn’t… well, he still liked her.’
They manage to lose Gary, and Trisha’s hopeful she ducked down in time without being spotted. At a red light, though, Gary reappears behind them and leaps out of his car, marching to the passenger side of Ty’s vehicle. It’s locked and he can’t get the door open, so he slams his fists on the door and yells at Trisha to get out. She refuses and tells him they’ll speak later, and Ty eventually steps out of the car and tells Gary to piss off. Gary seems to back down and walks towards his car, but at the last moment races around Ty’s trunk and charges at him. He pretty much only jabs him a few times, warning Ty to stay away from Trisha, but Ty doesn’t do anything because he knows he’ll lose if he tries to fight back. Some onlookers from other cars manage to restrain Gary as he’s about to throw a punch, and Ty slips back into the car. To his surprise, Trisha opts to leave with Gary, and Ty decides she just wants to make sure he’s not going to flip put again. Driving home, Ty wonders if Trisha’s worth the risk of having Gary on his case, but ultimately decides he can’t dump her just yet because she’s way too hot.
At home, he finds a new Valentine from Amy, an old-fashioned card with chubby cupids on the front: ‘DEAREST TY, I KNEW YOU WOULD COME. I KNEW YOU WERE MY SOUL MATE. NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US NOW. NOT EVEN A HUNDRED YEARS. PLEASE BRING ME ANOTHER NOTE. LOVE, AMY’. Ty’s confused by the 100 years part, [Same, is Amy from that long ago? How does that work? Surely this is all an elaborate prank orchestrated by one of the girls or something] and checks for a company logo on the back of the card, but it’s all worn away. He used to collect stamps and recognises that the one on the envelope seems incredibly old, and he also spots a return address: 2713 Village Road. He quickly jumps in the car to head over there, realising she wanted him to leave his reply at the cemetery because she lives close by. Strangely, though, there’s just an empty lot between 2711 to 2715 where 2713 should be!
He genuinely believes he’s somehow communicating with a dead girl now [He’s jumped to that belief pretty quickly] and since he’s convinced Amy’s a total babe, [Which he’s basing purely on her words…. If she is real, I hope she’s fugly and she kills him and he gets stuck with her forever in the afterlife] he writes his own note on the back of an old flyer from his glovebox to drop off at the cemetery: ‘DEAR AMY, NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME. IT’S UNREAL—EXCEPT I GOT YOUR CARD, AND IT WAS REAL. I WISH WE COULD MEET, BUT I GUESS THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE. MAYBE YOU COULD SEND ME A PICTURE OF YOURSELF. AND DON’T WORRY, I’LL KEEP WRITING AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.’ [You think meeting a ghost is impossible but fully believe that same ghost will be able to snap a picture of herself?]
The next day, Ty’s messing around in the hallway between classes with Mickey [Who’s last name is spelled Myers in this chapter, lol] and Kenny Klein, boyfriend of the now-deceased Jade Feldman who had his own affair with a dead girl. [Maybe he can give you some tips, Ty!] They bully super-nerd Justin Thompson for a bit before Mickey ends up revealing to Kenny that Ty has three girlfriends. Kenny thinks he’s crazy because what if they find out about each other? Then Gary walks past and drags his finger across his neck, mouthing ‘”You’re a dead man”‘ to Ty, and Mickey and Kenny warn that Ty should just forget about Trisha. But Ty won’t admit how scared he is of Gary and tells the boys he’s ready if Gary tries anything. The bell rings, and the hallway soon clears out. Ty, however, decides to skip history class for today, since Gary will be there, and then grabs his backpack from his locker. Amy’s valentine slips out and as he rereads the message, he senses someone nearby and is positive Gary’s back to bash him. But it’s just Justin Thompson waiting to get into his locker, which is right next to Ty’s.
After school, Ty takes Phoebe back to his place where they find a new valentine from Amy in the mailbox, this time with a old-fashioned woman carrying a basket of hearts on the front: ‘BELOVED TY, YOUR NOTES KEEP ME ALIVE, EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SEPARATED BY SO MUCH TIME. I SHALL ALWAYS BE TRUE TO YOU, MY DEAREST. ARE YOU BEING TRUE TO ME? I AM ASHAMED TO CONFESS THAT I HAVE A TERRIBLE, JEALOUS TEMPER! LOVE, AMY’. Ty admits that he’s written two letters to Amy, and Phoebe’s sure he’s fallen for someone’s joke. Ty doesn’t think it’s a prank, explaining he went to the address on the envelope and found nothing but a vacant lot. [I don’t really get how he sees this as proof it’s not a joke. Like, anyone could have written that address down?] Phoebe’s still not buying it so he decides to let her believe whatever she wants.
Phoebe teases that maybe she should leave, since Amy’s got such a jealous temper and wants him to stay true to her. What Amy doesn’t know won’t hurt her, though, and soon they’re making out on the couch. The phone starts ringing, and they try to ignore it but the answering machine is broken and unable to pick it up. Phoebe simply cannot continue making out while a ringing phone goes unanswered so Ty picks it up , and amongst crackling static he hears a very faint voice saying, ‘”It’s me.”‘ The static grows louder so he just hangs up, and is soon making out with Phoebe. The phone rings again though, and this time Ty can hear the voice say that it’s Amy. Startled, he hangs up, and when the phone rings again, Phoebe picks it up and drops it back onto the cradle straight away. She then suddenly realises she’s supposed to be babysitting her cousin in 30 minutes and rushes off home, opting to walk instead of having Ty drive her. With the phone silent now, Ty realises it was only ringing when he was making out with Phoebe. Remembering Amy’s latest card, he decides there’s no way Amy could know he was with Phoebe just now, but he doesn’t seem so sure…
Meanwhile, Trisha’s regretting letting Gary drive her home from school because he wants to talk about her sneaking around with Ty. He thinks maybe it’s karma, since he cheated on Mary O’Connor to be with Trisha, but Trisha’s denying that anything is happening with Ty — they just went for a drive, and she lied about it because she knew Gary wouldn’t understand. Gary’s sure whatever’s going on with Ty is a big deal and is positive that he’s being dumped for being poor. Trisha assures him he’s wrong, and she never said anything about breaking up, but Gary can see clearly what’s going on and he’s not about to let Ty Sullivan come between them! So he gives her a weird smile and starts speeding way too fast along a road with a lot of sharp curves. Trisha’s so terrified that she promises to stop seeing Ty, and only then does Gary slow down and drop her home.
Inside, Trisha isn’t sure what to do. She’d liked Gary for his roughness, but she’s never been scared of him until now. But she also doesn’t want to stop seeing Ty! She discovers a yellowing envelope on the table beside the door and opens it, revealing to ripped pieces of paper that fit together to make a heart, with a message on the back: ‘STAY AWAY FROM TY. HE’S ALL MINE NOW.’ And then she has one of her a visions, this time of a guy sprawled face down on the floor, blood pooling around his head. She thinks it must be Gary or Ty, but she can’t make out any identifying features; all she knows is this boy is going to die!
The next day at school, Trisha takes a seat next do Dana Palmer in the cafeteria, and Dana can sense something’s bothering her. Trisha opens up about her vision and her fears that either Gary or Ty will die, and Dana reveals Mickey accidentally told her about Trisha seeing Ty, but she won’t tell anyone. She actually warns Trisha against him, since she’s knows about his reputation. Trisha also knows, But Ty’s fun, and she thinks things could potentially work out with him. Dana disagrees with that last part, and also warns her to be careful with Gary, because he’s dangerous.
After school, Trisha drives to Gary’s house and warns him about the vision, but he thinks she must have been thinking about him being out of the picture for good so she could date Ty in order to prompt it. Trisha denies his horrible words and he kicks her out with a warning of his own — ‘”I’m going to make sure that it’s Ty you saw in your vision.”‘
Later, Trisha heads to Waynesbridge with Ty, paranoid that Gary may be following them again. She also shows him the valentine she got, and after Ty parks at the multiplex and inspects the valentine, he recognises the handwriting — it’s from Amy! [Duh] Neither of them can enjoy the movie much, since she’s still paranoid about Gary and Ty seems spooked by the valentine she showed him. When they arrive back to Ty’s car, they discover all four tyres slashed. Trisha then has another vision — this time, she’s staring down a dark tunnel and at the end of it is a male body, unmoving. Once again, she can’t tell who it is, and the vision ends. Trisha goes to open the car door but screams in horror as she notices dark-red blood covering the window.
Ty opens the door while Trisha protests since she’s sure there’s the dead body from her vision in there. She’s half right; there is a dead body, but it’s a rabbit, pinned to the backseat with a knife. Ty suspects Gary’s to blame, but Trisha doesn’t agree, pointing out that he’d just beat Ty up instead. She also tells Ty about the second vision she had of a dead boy laying face down in the parking lot, [A parking lot was never mentioned in the second vision, I went back and checked!] but again not being able to tell who it was. She explains that she’d warned Gary earlier today, who’d promised that it would be Ty she’d seen in the visions. Ty vows to get Gary back, exclaiming, ‘”I’d like to see him dead.”‘ [You can both die xx]
It’s just after 8pm now, and Ty’s waiting at a gas station on the outskirts of Waynesbridge for his car to be fixed, having gotten his car towed here after calling Trisha a cab to get home. [They have repairers that work at night in America?] Two tyres were able to be patched, but the others needing replacing, and he’s pissed because it’s costing him $150 that he can’t afford. [That’s a fkn bargain in today’s economy!] When the car’s fixed, Ty heads to Gary’s place and finds him in the garage. He immediately accuses him of being behind the tyres and rabbit and charges at him, but Gary punches him in the face and denies responsibility, although he is happy to hear about the damage. Gary points out that he’s been working on his car all night trying to figure out why the engine isn’t working, and Ty believes him after noticing the engine block isn’t even in the vehicle. Before Ty leaves, Gary warns him to stay away from Trisha, ‘”Because I won’t waste time with your car. I’ll come straight for you.”‘
On the drive home, Ty’s confused about who could have damaged his car and supposes that maybe some random kids decided to trash a car and they happened to pick his. At home, he finds a new envelope from Amy and scampers up to his room to open it. Instead of a valentine this time, there’s an old, cracked, brown-tinted photo of a girl dressed in an old-fashioned cloak down to her ankles and a deep-brimmed bonnet that casts her face in shadow. He can’t really make out her features, but notices her lips turned down at the corners and her eyes look sad. Ty is amazed that he’s actually received a photo from a dead girl, and turns the photo over to find a short message on the back, the words slashed violently into the paper — ‘I WARNED YOU ABOUT MY JEALOUS TEMPER.’
Realising Amy was responsible for his car’s damage, Ty decides it’s time to break things off because it’s getting way too weird now. [Now it’s getting weird? Lol] He scribbles Amy a reply on a piece of notebook paper: ‘DEAR AMY, I GOT YOUR PICTURE AND YOUR MESSAGE. I’M NOT SURE WHAT’S GOING ON, BUT I THINK WE SHOULD STOP WRITING TO EACH OTHER. IT WAS FUN AT FIRST. NOW IT’S NOT. THIS WILL BE MY LAST NOTE. DON’T WRITE TO ME ANYMORE, BECAUSE I WON’T ANSWER.’ He doesn’t want to wait until the morning, so he drives to the cemetery immediately to drop off the note.
The next morning, Ty almost bumps into Justin in the hall [Ooh, what if Justin is catfishing Ty as Amy as payback for all the bullying?] before catching up with Kenny and Mickey, who remind him about the Valentine’s dance in six days. The boys have a $10 bet on who Ty’s taking to the dance; Mickey’s money’s on Marla, while Kenny reckons Phoebe will be Ty’s date. Ty’s not concerned about the dance right now and tells them about what happened to his car, explaining how Gary can’t have been behind it. He doesn’t want to tell them about Amy, so he claims not to have any idea who could have done it.
Ty heads to his locker now, and as he approaches he notices a dark liquid oozing from the bottom of it. Opening it, he finds a huge paper heart taped to the door’s inside, streaked with bright red blood that’s been smeared all over the door. There’s also a finger-painted threat on the heart: ‘YOU’RE DEAD. LOVE, AMY’.
After school, Ty hurries to his car, constantly checking over his shoulder, paranoid he’s being watched by Amy. He runs into Phoebe, who confirms she’ll be over at 7pm tonight, and Ty hurries home to find a new letter waiting for him: ‘DEAREST TY, I CANNOT FORGIVE YOUR CRUELTY. I CANNOT LET YOU LIVE. YOUR GIRLFRIENDS MUST DIE, TOO. LOVE, AMY’. Ty’s stressing now that Amy’s threatening his girlfriends too, and decides maybe Amy’s upset over the way he broke things off, rather than the break-up itself. So he writes her a nicer letter: ‘DEAR AMY, I’M REALLY, REALLY SORRY. I DIDN’T MEAN TO HURT YOUR FEELINGS. I DON’T HATE YOU OR ANYTHING. BUT IT WILL BE BETTER IF YOU STAY IN YOUR TIME AND I STAY IN MINE. PLEASE FORGIVE ME. AND PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE. GOOD LUCK, TY’.
We jump forward a few hours now, and Ty’s home alone with Phoebe, making out on the couch. Phoebe brings up the dance again, but Ty’s saved by a loud pounding on the door. It’s Marla Newman, [Uh-oh] who frantically barges inside — someone just tried to kill her! Her jacket and jeans are torn, and blood seeps from scratches on her hands and knee. A painful-looking scrape runs down her right temple, bleeding into her red hair. Phoebe comes into the hall and gasps at the sight of Marla, asking what happened, and Marla explains that she parked her car a few houses down and someone attacked her when she got out. Ty wants to call the police, but Marla says it’s too late and the attacker is already gone. Phoebe leads them into the living room and asks why Marla’s here anyway, and Ty remembers that he’d also had plans with Marla tonight. He quickly lies that she’d come to pick up the biology notes she’d leant him a few days ago, and naturally doesn’t mention that she was also coming over to make out.
Marla continues describing the attack; something slammed into her from behind when she got out of her car and she fell to the ground, winded. She’d tried to get up, but kept getting pushed back down, over and over and over. She thought she was going to die; ‘”And she just kept shoving me and hitting me and yanking my hair.”‘ Phoebe’s surprised the attacker was female, and Ty feels a jolt of fear as Marla reveals the girl was laughing at her the whole time, ‘”such cold, cruel laughter.”‘
The next morning on the way to school, Ty tries to convince himself that it wasn’t Amy who attacked Marla, but he knows the truth. Especially when he runs into Marla in the parking lot and she shows him the note she found in her car this morning: ‘I MAY BE DEAD—BUT YOU ARE NEXT TO DIE. STAY AWAY FROM HIM.’ She asks if Ty’s seeing someone else, and even though he recognises Amy’s handwriting, Ty questions how Marla knows it’s about him. Marla quickly shuts that down, since the attack last night and now this note could only be about Ty, especially because she’s not seeing anyone else. He suggests that it’s just a joke, which Marla could believe if it was just the note, but not after the attack. Marla then asks why Phoebe was at his house when he was supposedly breaking up with her, and he lies that Phoebe had just shown up. He also realises Marla’s thinking Phoebe’s behind the note and quickly asserts that she’d never send a threatening note like that. Again he insists it’s somebody’s idea of a joke, and Marla hopes he’s right because if not, she could wind up dead!
At lunch, Phoebe shows Ty a note she’d found in her locker, and again Ty recognised Amy’s handwriting: ‘HE’S MINE, NOT YOURS. I’LL MAKE SURE YOU CAN’T HAVE HIM. BECAUSE YOU’LL BE DEAD—LIKE ME.’ Later in English class, Ty can’t stop thinking about the notes as he waits for the teacher to arrive. He’d told Phoebe that the note must be a joke, just like he’d told Marla. He needs to find a way to stop Amy, but how?! Trisha approaches his desk and hands him a piece of paper, and he knows exactly what it is: ‘I WARNED YOU, BUT YOU DIDN’T LISTEN. YOU DIDN’T STAY AWAY FROM HIM. YOU WILL PAY—AND JOIN ME WITH THE DEAD.’ Trisha’s also learned that Marla and Phoebe have gotten similar notes, since they all have history together. She’d found the note in her locker right before class and she’d been reading it when she walked it. They’re all super scared, and none of them can figure out the connection. [There’s no way these girls don’t know what’s going on lol] He insists it’s just some kind of dumb joke, and the teacher walks in before Trisha can protest. As the class begins, Ty returns to stressing about Amy and her threats, and he remembers Trisha’s vision about the seniors dying. Is Amy somehow part of the senior curse? ‘Will Amy make the curse come true again by killing the three girls I’m going with? And then killing me?’
Two days later, Ty’s decided who he’s taking to the Valentine’s dance and phones Trisha to ask what time he should pick her up. Unfortunately, she’s opted to go with Gary instead to avoid the scene he’ll definitely cause if she were to show up with Ty. Ty understands, and calls Phoebe next, but she’s sprained her ankle at cheerleading practice and can barely walk, let alone dance. Ty’s understanding once again, and then calls Marla, but she’s got a surprise birthday party for her grandmother that she can’t get out of! Ty knows Phoebe and Marla were lying, and Trisha probably realised she’ll be safer with Gary, but he doesn’t blame the girls for not wanting to be seen with him. He’s scared to, and regrets ever replying to Amy’s original valentine.
It’s time for the dance now, and Ty’s rocked up to Red Heat alone. he’s hoping to pick up a girl there, but it won’t be his ex Jennifer Fear, who gives him a cold glance as he walks past. Kenny finds Ty, eager to know who he came with, but Stacy Malcolm drags him away for a dance before Ty can reveal he was turned down by all three girls. Eventually, he sees a girl in a long cloak and bonnet on the other side of the crowded dance floor. Amy! He shoves his way through the crowd, hoping to talk her into leaving him and the girls alone, but she’s disappeared by the time he reaches where she’d just been standing. He then spots her standing on the balcony that overlooks the dance floor, and races up there, but again she’s gone by the time he reaches the top. Now he sees her downstairs again and races back down just for her to have disappeared once more. He spots her again on a different part of the balcony and dashes back up there, and she doesn’t disappear this time. She’s standing at the railing, half turned away from him, and he sneaks up and grabs her wrist.
She quickly pulls out of his grasp and slams him against the railing, gripping his shoulders. With incredible strength, she begins trying to push him over the railing, and Ty begs her not to kill him. As his arms flail about for something to grab onto, he ends up tearing the bonnet off Amy’s head and revealing… Phoebe?!? Behind her are two girls wearing the same outfit, and they take their bonnets off to reveal… Trisha and Marla! [I knew it!] They all laugh as they explain they were behind the whole thing after learning he’d been sneaking around with all three of them. Marla had written all the notes, and the girls had taken turns delivering them to Ty’s place. The costumes are from the school play, and they’re surprised Ty didn’t recognise them. [They don’t mention how they faked Marla’s attack, though, which would be my first question since her wounds must have been very believable. I guess one of them could just be really good with make-up, but we have no idea] Ty’s humiliated, but that doesn’t stop him from embarrassing himself further when he says, ‘”So listen, now that everybody knows, why don’t we forget about it? We can still go out together, right?”‘ [Which girl are you asking, Ty?] The girls just laugh in his face, and Ty doesn’t stick around when Matty Winger and Josie and Josh Maxwell walk past and ask what’s so funny. [This seems like this would be the end, but there’s still about 50 more pages, so there must be another twist coming] Ty flees downstairs, aware the whole school will know what an idiot he is by Monday. Maybe everyone already knows, because he’s sure that Dana Palmer’s smirking at him, and Kenny Klein’s staring up at the three girls with an amused expression.
As he makes his way to the exit, Ty notices a girl standing in the doorway dressed in a long cloak and big old-fashioned bonnet. He glances up at the balcony and sees Trisha, Marla and Phoebe still up there, so who’s the girl at the door, staring at him? He suddenly feels an icy chill down his spine and wonders if it really is Amy this time. [???? Did you not just hear that the girls made it all up? Idiot] As he stares back at the girl, she picks up her skirts and exits the building, with Ty chasing after her. [Could this be Justin in a wig? That’s gotta be the second twist, right? Justin’s doing something here too]
Cut to Trisha, Marla and Phoebe as they finish taking off their costumes to reveal their real outfits for the dance underneath. Trisha actually feels bad for Ty, and the other girls agree that maybe they were a little harsh, but he definitely deserved it. Trisha thinks the dead rabbit was a bit far, and the other two are surprised that she thinks one of them did it; none of them would kill an animal just to get back at Ty. Phoebe suggests it was maybe some Waynesbridge kids playing a prank, but Trisha still feels uneasy; maybe Gary could have been responsible. [Wait, we were pretty much in Trisha’s mind at the time of the rabbit discovery, and she didn’t think about her revenge plot with the girls once at the time. Like, you’d think she would think to herself ‘I can’t believe Phoebe and Marla did this’ or something. I don’t know why Stine even bothered having that scene from her perspective anyway, it would have worked a lot better from Ty’s, especially with the big reveal] She gets even more nervous when she doesn’t see Gary or Ty in the crowd downstairs and convinces the girls they should find Ty to apologise. Marla had seen Ty run out the door a few minutes ago, so they head outside.
The girls walk through the parking calling out to Ty, but they don’t see him anywhere. Phoebe thinks he probably had to park towards the back since it would have been packed already by the time he got here, but Marla reckons he probably already left. She wants to get out of the cold and apologise tomorrow instead, but Trisha insists they just look through a few more rows of cars. The girls split up to cover more ground, and the cars start thinning out as Trisha approaches the end of the parking lot. She eventually notices a dark shape laying at the edge of a pool of light cast by a street lamp. She’s sure it’s just a bag of trash, but needs to make sure, so hurries towards it:
Trisha stopped two feet away. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She felt the blood drain from her head and thought she was going to pass out.
Then her breath rushed back, and she screamed in horror.
The dark shape was Ty, lying facedown in the parking lot.
Blood covered his hair and seeped from under his head, forming a dark pool on the pavement.
He had one leg drawn up, as if he were still trying to run. But he would never run again.
Ty Sullivan was dead.
[Woo, he’s dead! I’m glad it turned out to be Ty in her vision] A little later, Trisha’s in a small office at red heat with Phoebe and Marla, waiting for the police to come talk to them again. The police had said Ty’s death was a hit and run; he’d been ‘tossed into the air like a rag doll and crashed headfirst onto the pavement.’ He’d attempted to crawl, but barely made it half a foot before he collapsed and died. They’ve decided not to tell the police about their prank since it had nothing to do with Ty’s death, so when Detectives Patricia Ames and Ron Stanley walk in, the girls re-explain they simply stumbled across Ty’s body in the parking lot. They’d been searching for Ty because they wanted to talk to him, since they were friends. Mickey had already told the detectives that Ty had been dating all three of them, though, so the girls quickly clarify that Mickey didn’t know that they all knew what Ty was playing at; “Ty didn’t know it, either. He’s supposed to be going with Phoebe. But he was cheating on her with me and Marla, and we all found out about it.”‘
The detectives smell a motive and suggest the girls must have been angry about Ty’s behaviour, and they end up admitting to the playing a humiliating joke on Ty. The detectives pull out the most recent card Ty had received and ask who Amy is, and Phoebe explains that she died a long time ago. [Maybe the twist is the real Amy has returned from the grave after being used as a pawn in their game. But then why kill Ty? That’s probably not it. My money is still on Justin Thompson getting revenge for the bullying] They explain the whole trick they played, including writing threatening notes to themselves as well as Ty to scare him. It’s clear the three girls are the main suspects in Ty’s death, so they’ll be taken to the station for more questioning. Detective Ames explains that their parents have already been called and will meet them at the station, and as they’re led to the police cars, the girls see the entire senior class gathered outside the club, all staring.
Trisha arrives home two hours later with her parents, having finally convinced the detectives that she and the other two girls had nothing to do with Ty’s death. Up in her room, she thinks about Ty; we learn that she’d stopped seeing him weeks ago and only started seeing him again recently as part of the joke. But she realised how fun he was and started to really like him, and thought he liked her too, but now she understands that he just liked fooling around. She wonders who killed him, and Gary’s the only one who comes to mind. She doesn’t want to believe it, but she has to admit it’s a possibility, especially since he’d promised to make sure Ty was the one in her vision. Speaking of visions, Trisha has one now; except it’s not a vision of what’s to come, but of what’s already happened. Yes, she sees Ty’s murder as he’s run over by a red car. She doesn’t see the driver or the license plate, but she rules Gary out since his car isn’t red. But then she remembers he and his friends borrow each other’s cars all the time, so he still could be the killer. She tries to call him, but there’s no answer…
At school on Monday, Trisha tells Marla and Phoebe about her vision and the red vehicle, and while Marla wonders who they know with a red car, Phoebe suggests it may have been a complete stranger who’d gotten scared and took off after accidentally hitting Ty. Trisha considers Phoebe’s point on her way to class, but quickly dismisses the idea that Ty’s death was an accident; whoever ran him down meant to do it. At the end of the day, Trisha’s still trying to work out whether Gary killed Ty when she bumps into him in the halls, and he questions why she’s so tense. She admits she’s upset about Ty which sends him into a rage, slamming his fist into a locker because the guy is dead and he’s still on her mind! [Have some tact, Gary]
Trisha’s anger overpowers her fear of him as she remind Gary that she’s the one who found Ty, so of course he’s on her mind; he didn’t deserve to die no matter what Gary thinks. Gary immediately apologises and then wants to show her a surprise. She’s reluctant to go with him but eventually follows him to the doors that lead to the car park, where he tells her to close her eyes. She leaves them slightly open and watches her feet as he leads her outside and down the steps. When he tells her to look, she’s overcome by fear — parked at the curb is a shiny new car… a red car.
Gary hesitates as he tells her he borrowed the sleek, red BMW, which Trisha assumes means he stole it. He insists on taking her for a ride, but Trisha’s way too scared of him now and runs off. Gary chases after her, but she manages to lose him, [Wouldn’t you just run to your own car? Actually, maybe she doesn’t drive, I can’t remember if we’ve seen her in a car of her own before] and ends up cutting through Shadyside Memorial Cemetery, where she runs into Justin Thompson among the tombstones. [And I’m sure he’s about to reveal he killed Ty. But why is he at the cemetery right now?] She’s relieved to see him and he asks if someone was chasing her. She admits she thought so but it doesn’t seem like it after all, and he insists on walking her home because she might need protection if someone was chasing her. Trisha tells him it’s fine, knowing that Justin can’t even protect himself, but he goes on to say he’d feel bad if something happened to her because he really likes her. ‘Justin licked his lips and stared at her intensely’ as he admits he likes her a lot, and Trisha’s spine tingles with fear — the way he’s looking at her is giving her the creeps! Again he insists on walking with her, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and Trisha reminds him she already has a boyfriend. She starts to leave, but he grabs her arm and demands to know how could she blow him off like that after all he did for her?!
Justin explains that he couldn’t stand to see Ty cheat on Trisha, and couldn’t stand Ty in general, since he was making Justin’s life miserable; ‘”And he would have made your life miserable, too. So I got rid of him.”‘ He’d given Ty plenty of warning, but even the dead rabbit didn’t stop him. [Wasn’t that the only warning?] And then he heard the girls talking about the trick with the costumes, and he knew exactly what to do. Trisha calls him crazy, and Justin angrily declares that she should be thanking him, but now he now realise she’s just like Ty and doesn’t think he’s good enough. Trisha breaks free from his grasp and flees deeper into the cemetery, now wishing that Gary had followed her, but the clumsy ox ends up tripping over a branch. Her ankle’s twisted, and Justin catches up to her as she painfully climbs to her feet. He wraps his hands around her neck, and although she tries to fight back and pry his fingers off, his grip is too tight, cutting off her air.
As she’s starting to pass out, she gets an idea and gouges at his eyes with her nails, forcing him to let go of her neck. She staggers back, coughing and spluttering, bumping up against a tombstone. Justin, a bloody flap of skin hanging from the corner of one eye, lunges at her, but she leaps aside. His foot catches on the same branch that had tripped Trisha, and he crashes headfirst into the granite tombstone with a loud crack. His body slumps, and he rolls to the ground, unmoving. Trisha cautiously moves towards him and places a hand over his mouth, but Justin isn’t breathing. There’s a dent in his skull, and blood trickles from the wound in his forehead into his open, lifeless eyes. [That was kind of anticlimactic]
It’s Wednesday now, and the school holds a memorial for Ty at the end of the day. Afterwards, Trisha heads to her locker, where she finds a valentine from Gary, apologising for being a jerk and begging for a chance to make it up to her. She thinks it’s sweet, and as she’s leaving the school, Gary rides past on a bike. He spots her and approaches, and she thanks him for the valentine. He tells her he meant what he said in the card, and she suggests they forget about it and see what happens. She also asks what happened to the red car he had the other day, and he tells her he gave it back because he was too weirded out about it; ‘”It belongs to Justin Thompson. He—uh, loaned it to me, remember? On the same day he died.”‘ [I’m confused, did Justin actually lend it to him, or did Gary steal it? The latter sounds more accurate, but we never saw Gary and Justin interact, so maybe they were friendly with each other]
After school on Friday, Phoebe and Trisha are walking to Trisha’s place. Phoebe’s in a hurry because she needs to call her mum about something, and Trisha reluctantly agrees to cut through Shadyside Memorial to get home. They come across the tombstone that killed Justin, which still has police barricades around it. Trisha feels drawn to the spot so moves in closer, and the book ends as she’s shocked by the inscription: ‘AMY FEAR, 1872-1890’. [Spooky! So was the photo they had of Amy real? And coincidentally the school play costumes were similar to what she was wearing? Or was the photo one of them in costume, and they’d just decided on a random name and this is just a super strange coincidence?]
Final thoughts
Another enjoyable Seniors book! It was good to get to know Ty a bit more, but it’s clear he couldn’t be redeemed so I’m glad he was finally added to the death list. His death was even more satisfying because the girls successfully humiliated him right before, which he very much deserved. The two twists were easily guessable, but still I had a good time reading it, and was looking forward to seeing how it would all play out. I did think it was a bit weird that Ty would almost immediately believe he was chatting up a dead girl, but I guess stranger things have happened in Shadyside.
It’s disappointing that we won’t see Justin Thompson again, because he never got a chance to stand out in the series and all we’ve ever known about him was that he’s a nerd who got bullied. He was barely even in this book, and now he’s dead so we’ll never learn who he was as a person. This was also the most that Marla’s been featured so far, and she was a lot more likeable than she’s come across previously. I’m not sure how to feel about Trisha, though. The end of The Gift, revealed she’s not as sweet as she seems, but it feels like that development has been ignored here. She does really seem like a nice girl, but then she stole Gary from Mary O’Connor and was hooking up with Ty while he was dating her best friend and she was still with Gary.
The ending felt a bit rushed, because why was Justin just randomly in the cemetery? Why would he so quickly reveal he murdered someone? Why was his crush on Trisha never been mentioned before right at the end of book 8? And then he died so quickly that it didn’t really feel like Trisha was in any danger lol.
We’re approaching the end of the series now, and with 4 books left it’s a huge shame that more than half the yearbook is still alive. I am praying that we start getting more than 1-2 deaths per book lol. It would be nice if the weapon/item on the cover of these books started being relevant to the story, too. I have no idea why there’s a noose on this one, but that’s been the case with most of the series lol.
Oh well. Overall this was a quick and easy read that kept me turning the pages, so 118 love letters from a dead girl out of 189.
