Starring Jessica

Starring Jessica was the 71st book in the Sweet Valley High book series. The story focused on the appearance of a TV talk show at SVH and of Jessica and Lila's competition to be on the show.

Jessica and Lila are vying to be on The Eric Parker Show, a television talk show that is doing a special teenage edition. (The host, Eric Parker, was said to be a SVH alum, and hailed from Sweet Valley) Both Jessica and Lila want to be the one he chooses to be on the show, and, as was usual for those two, became rivals for the spot. Ultimately, Jessica wins the spot, and an infuriated Lila becomes the understudy.

Lila teams up with her perennial rival, Bruce Patman who has his own score to settle with Jessica (due to an article she wrote in The Oracle which insults him), to try to get her kept away from the SVH auditorium long enough for Lila to steal the spot from Jessica. Bruce impersonates a police officer from Cold Springs, a community nearby Sweet Valley, warning the town's shop keepers that there was a shoplifter, who matched Jessica's description perfectly.

Bruce took the name of Detective Tapnam (a glaring misspelling of his last name). Jessica and Lila go to Cold Springs, to buy her a new dress, when Jessica is accused of shoplifting and is detained. The vicious Lila then drives off and strands her in Cold Springs. On the way home, she calls Bruce and gloats about the plan working as they had hoped.

The store clerk told the police officer that a Detective Tapnam had given an accurate description of Jessica. The officer who arrested Jessica revealed to a stunned shopclerk that there hadn't been a shoplifting problem in Cold Springs in weeks, and to top it off, there was no Detective Tapnam on the Cold Springs force. The shopkeeper, realizing that it was a prank, finally dropped the charges, but told Jessica to never set foot in her shop again. Which Jessica was all too glad to comply with.

After that, the police officer drove her back to Sweet Valley, after his shift was over. By this time, Jessica was enraged at both Lila and Bruce.

This would mark the first time that Jessica would have troubles with being in Cold Springs, the second time would occur in SVH#92 She's Not What She Seems, when she was led on a wild goose chase in town by the conniving Paula Perrine.

Upon discovering what Lila and Bruce had done to her sister, Elizabeth Wakefield decided it was time for her to help Jessica get even with what the wealthy snobs did to her. Absolutely infuriated with Bruce and Lila's deception and conniving, she vows to make them pay for what they did to Jessica. She reassures her sister that Lila will not be on that show, if she can help it. A disgusted Elizabeth trapped Lila in the dressing room by wedging a chair underneath the doorknob,

Then, doing something that she would do only in very dire circumstances (of which this was counted as one), Elizabeth impersonated her twin for the talk show. Jessica arrived and was proud and pleased that her sister would do that for her.

Jessica received the accolades, as she felt she deserved, and thanked her sister for saving the day. She also overheard Lila and Bruce arguing over their foiled plan. Lila's car keys were taken by Jessica and were tossed into the rolled up curtains, in retaliation for Lila driving off and stranding her in Cold Springs.