The adventure begins with DIALOGUE.  The true sign of great writing, especially when the conversation has little to do with the plot.  "Well, Lizzie, what do you think. Are these sneakers the greatest or what?"  This immediately takes us into the world of Jessica and Elizabeth at the Valley Mall, where Jessica is trying on a pair of purple sneakers, which Elizabeth thinks are hideous (and maybe she's right), but Jessica thinks they are perfect, because even though they look exactly the same "from their long, sun-streaked blonde hair and sparkling blue-green eyes to the tiny dimples on their left cheeks (page two, paragraph one)," they are actually different people with different opinions.  But they are best friends and share a bond that only twins can share. Anyway, Jessica needs purple sneakers because she is the (self-proclaimed) star player of the sixth grade basketball team.  Oh so sadly, that is keeping her from cheering with the Boosters, and apparently a Random Girl Booster named Tracy is moving and her absence is also complicating the Boosters.  Whatever will they do?  

Jessica doesn't worry for long. Lila just happens to show up at the mall and is all excited because people at the other end of the mall are shrieking about Kent Kellerman, "the cutest boy on TV" whose show all of the lil' Sweet Valley tweens watch faithfully. Since Sweet Valley is apparently the center of the universe, Kent Kellerman is OF COURSE going to be filming scenes from his show there... but on a school day.  Who needs an education when there are boys around?  Lila might... she somehow thinks that because people are shrieking Kent Kellerman's name, that something significant is happing that she and Jessica must witness.  Jessica "charmingly" cons Elizabeth into standing in line and paying for her sneakers and Elizabeth irritatingly does just that.  She doesn't end up waiting alone.  Brooke Dennis (pre-Rock Star mom) is also in line waiting to pay for some riding boots, maybe so she can ride Sweet Valley's one horse.  Elizabeth wonders why she isn't off with the Kent Kellerman groupies, and Brooke, with her insider knowledge knows that it is a mere Kent Kellerman poster everyone is screaming over.  Brooke knows all about the show, because her dad, the famouse Hollywood screenwriter just so happen to be working on the show.  It's a small world after all.  Brooke's too much of a "normal kid" to brag about Kent Kellerman or be impressed by him.  Mr. Dennis must be, though, because apparently he talks to Kent more than he talks to Brooke and has done so for the past five weeks.  Would a television series really devote that much time to one episode? And would a writer really be spending that much time with a star?  At any rate, Kent Kellerman is supposedly 16, so I hope these five weeks were carefully supervised by a parent or guardian.  Anyway, Brooke cries over her her father neglecting her in favor of a teenaged boy (the son he never had? a potential boyfriend for Brooke?) and Elizabeth buys her a sundae to drown her sorrows with, and even offers her a spot on The Sixers, because Elizabeth likes to play mommy.  Elizabeth leaves Brooke alone in a world of neglect to go join her mommy (and Jessica) and stupidly shares with Jessica that Mr. Dennis is working with Kent Kellerman.  

Jessica immediately plans to use Brooke as a way to gain access to the set.  She gets Lila in on the act and they devise a plot of offering Brooke a spot on the Boosters... in exchange for passes to the set (the don't seem to care at the moment that it's on a school day).  They intercept some meeting Elizabeth had planned to invite Brooke to The Dairi Burger. Brooke stupidly complies and of course thinks Lila and Jessica are suddenly just great.  They offer gullible Brooke the chance to be taught cheers by the great Lila Fowler.  Then the conversation "happens" to shift to Kent Kellerman.  Brooke, with her Hollywood parents, is too stupid to realize she's being used, she offers Jessica and Lila passes just like that and assures them that Kent should still be filming after school lets out.  She does this all in front of Elizabeth, who'd creepily stormed to the Dairi Burger after learning Brooke had gone their instead to her meeting (assume she's not interested and move on).  Brooke even fails to ofer Elizabeth a pass to the set and leaves her to go practice cheers with her "new friends."

On Monday, Brooke produces passes for her pals, with the sad news that Kent Kellerman would be gone by the early afternoon when they were stil in school.  So why did she still bring the passes? (see the title of the book).Also, Jessica meets boyish future Unicorn and basketball star Billie Layton.  The Unicorns laugh at her tomboyishness and "garage sale looking" clothes, temporarily forgetting their Kent Kellerman dilemma, while Caroline Pierce delivers the news that Ms. Langberg has been summoned to jury duty and would be gone all week.  Lila and Jessica pounce on the news.  Apparently, since it is a gym class substitute, they assume she can't count or look at a placement chart and wouldn''t realize Jessica and Lila were absent, so long as a friend can say "here" when their names are called.  They decide to leave at lunch. 

Jessica oh-so-brilliantly shares the plan with Elizabeth, who OF COURSE scolds and lectures and tells Jessica not to expect her to bail her out.  Since she Saint Elizabeth, she worries, especially after finding out that... Ms. Langberg was not called for jury duty.  Apparently Ms. Langberg is not one to take skipping class lightly based on Elizabeth's decision: she leaves to go get Jessica and Lila and bring them back to school.  That Saint Elizabeth.. even when she's doing wrong, of course it's for the right reasons!

She finds Jessica and Lila at the crowded set and tells them the bad news.  Fearing the wrath of Ms. Langberg, Lila and Jessica IMMEDIATELY follow Elizabeth away from the busy set, towards the school.  Unfortunately, on their mad dash out, they spot the principal's secretary within the crowd and she "stares right at them."  She does not say anything to them at the set, but goes tattling to her boss.  She mistakenly reports only two students, so Lila and Jessica are called to the principal's office.  They pass the secretary, who again ignores them because they are apparently too evil and threatening for her to talk to.  What if Jessica and Lila had had parental permission (technically they had "Mr. Dennis's") and the parents had somehow failed to clear it with the school? The secretary could at least have asked instead of assuming they were cutting class.  She could have at least gotten some sort of explanation.  Instead, guilty-without-a-chance-to-be-proven-otherwise Lila and Jessica are immediately handed the punishments:  they are to wash the blackboards every day after school for a week.  For some reason they are not allowed to participate in afterschool activities for two weeks.  What if they were troubled, antisocial kids who didn't participate in after school acivities in the first place?  The principal knows they're not.. he even looks right at Jessica as he delivers the evil blow of: "no basketball."

Poor, poor Jessica.  That means nobody will see her purple sneakers.  It also means that the other kids will hate her for two weeks, because apparently Jessica's such a basketball pro that the team will suffer without her.  That means they are not a good team if they rely on one player.  Fortunately, Jessica remembers her not-as-good identical sister on the team and finds a way out of her punishment:  Elizabeth can take her place!  If only everybody could have a twin to bail them out of all activities they didnt want to do.  I wonder if any real identical twins ever tried pulling Jessica's stunts on their look-alike sister and if any of the twins dumbly gave in, like Elizabeth.  I wonder about the relationships these twins would have now, if that were the case, like if the "Elizabeth" didn't cut the Jessica off or kill her in some fit of passive-agressive rage.  Because of course Elizabeth AGREES to Jessica's scheme since Jessica is "the whole reason the basketball team is any good."  That means the team actually sucks, and so does Elizabeth, especially after she agrees to wash the boards so Jessica can pracice all week ("as Elizabeth.")

In the midst of all of this, Brooke realizes she was used and decides to go back to Elizabeth and join the Sixers instead of The Boosters.  Elizabeth sends her to interview some ballerina after she is too preoccupied with basketball/washing the boards to do it herself.  It is actually Jessica-as-Elizabeth who gets Brooke the interview (and off the Booster try-out list) and in typical Jessica fashion, she gives bad interview tips and gives Brooke the wrong location so that she misses the interview.  Brooke and Elizabeth are given the task of finding another interview by the end of the week.  Brooke also mentions a dinner party her father is giving about a thousand times during find-a-person-to-interview meetings. Brooke mentions her father's dinner guests are "from work."  Oh, where can this be headed?  Just as poor, tired from washing black boards, and sad from not having anyone to interview, Elizabeth is deciding to cancel her dinner invitiation, Brooke calls with the oh-so-stunning news that she has found an interview.  Guess who's coming to diner at the Dennis house:  Kent Kellerman.  Even though his show wrapped days earlier, he's still in Sweet Valley hanging around Mr. Dennis.  Some dinner party, too, with two twelve-year-olds and a sixteen-year-old as the guests.  In some homes, Kent would be at the kids table, but in Sweet Valley, he's probaly at the head of it.  Stunningly, Jessica is not allowed to go to the Dennis's, due to her school skipping, but of course St. Elizabeth scores an autographed photo.  I'm surprised she didn't stay home and send Jessica in her place, or bring Kent to the Wakefield's...  Jessica may not have ben able to dine with a star, but she does participate in the basketball game.  Since she's playing as Eizabeth,  she's demoted to the bench, while tomboy Billie gets to start in the game and receives the attention Jessica is used to.  Since Jesica is so great and talented, once she is able to play she wins the game for the time and is--ugh--hoisted onto the teammates shoulders and paraded around.  She is also given the MVP trophy... but this was all "as Elizabeth."  I guess that's supposed to be some sort of a moral message, like don't skip school or somebody else might get the attention you deserve.  

It gets "worse" for Jessica, because Elizabeth--being Elizabeth--decides her conscience has been bothering her so much over her "noble" school skipping that she  goes to the principal to confess.  Seizing anoher opportunity for cheap labor, he sentences Elizabeth to a week of blackboard washing (but she can still participate in extracurriculars, apparently) and Elizabeth actually makes Jessica go in her place and Jessica actually agress without whining and crying.  Elizabeth shares what she did with Amy and Sarah Thomas (who apprenently was on the basketball time and could thereby tell the coach about the little twin switch) and Sarah begins to freak out over the prospect of ...weekends.  Cue the stage for the next book:  "Left Behind,"  starring Random Sarah and featuring Random crappy parenting.  Only in Sweet Valley.