Runaway

Sweet Valley High 21.

One theme in this volume is Jessica feeling underappreciated and extremely jealous of her sister, Elizabeth.

There is a problem here. Jessica is, basically, a badly behaved, egocentric, untrustworthy person. She is constantly getting herself into situations where her sister needs to help her.

Yet it doesn't seem to dawn on her that if she behaved better and made more of an effort at school then those around her would really begin to appreciate her more.

There is one saving grace for her, though, and that is that her parents don't really seem to pay attention to her enough.

Jessica is jealous of Elizabeth being praised on her efforts at school. Elizabeth does try to do as good as she can at school while Jessica basically fluffs off a lot of her schoolwork. Yet this factor of Jessica's behavior doesn't seem to be something she considers.

Jessica does try to change her behavior, though, but those around her don't really seem to notice so some of the fault of what happens does fall upon them.

Jessica also seems to be pulling away from her friends which should be a massive blinking red light to her parents. It's something that could indicate that she is considering suicide.

So, Jessica has a boyfriend who has moved away and she ends up deciding to runaway from home to be with him. It's not an easy decision for her at all and it is a sign of the major mental difficulties she is having.