I loved this book and think it's my favorite of the four College Years books. I liked it because the characters seemed more real, the story was interesting, and I enjoyed the Christmas themes and sentiment.

At the opening of the book, everyone is getting ready to go home for Christmas vacation, but in the meantime, they are taking finals, shopping for "Secret Santa" gifts, and making things more festive around the dorm. Jessie is about to come back for a visit, but Slater is apprehensive about seeing Jessie again. Zack can't wait for Jessie to arrive. He thinks it will be like old times and make his relationship with Kelly stronger. Kelly wants peacefulness over the holidays and she is sure that Jessie's visit is going to cause upheaval. However, she invites Jessie to stay with them anyway, even though she knows it might cause problems. However, Jessie declines the invitation. She is working for an organization called Women Unite! and she is staying at their headquarters, which I think is on the campus, though I was unclear about that part.

Alex isn't thrilled with the idea of Jessie coming to stay with them--or about her coming at all. She and Slater had decided to be "just friends," but she felt a little awkward about having his old girlfriend around just the same. She and Leslie also both thought that they might feel left out when there was one more member of the old Bayside gang in their midst.

However, when Jessie arrived, Alex liked her right away and they became friends. Leslie liked her too, and she fit right in. However, her cause--equal funding for men's and women's sports--caused a division among all the friends. Kelly, Alex, and Screech sided with Jessie and Zack, Slater, and Leslie sided against Jessie's cause. Zack was mostly making stupid jokes and not taking it seriously, but Kelly took it very seriously and she took Zack aside and broke up with him--just like that. Zack was stunned. When Zack tried to talk things out with Kelly, she took offense at everything he said and it just made things worse.

The "sub-plot" is the "Secret Santa." Zack schemed to get to be Kelly's Secret Santa and Kelly was Zack's. However, since she broke up with him just after the "Secret Santa" thing started, she never got him a single gift the whole time! Zack, on the other hand, was really sweet in picking just the right gifts for her--and she really enjoyed them. She was convinced her Secret Santa was someone she knew well and who was very thoughtful. She thought it might be Leslie or Screech.

Screech had a major crush on a girl and Zack managed to scheme to make Screech her Secret Santa, too, but she didn't like any of Screech's gifts. However, her roommate had a crush on Screech, so she kept all of the gifts meant for the other girl.

Meanwhile, Slater and Jessie fell for each other in a major way. They decided to keep it a secret, but they did discover a newfound respect for each other. Slater was proud of Jessie for being so strong and standing up for what she believed in, and Jessie respected that Slater had a different opinion. She was secure enough that she didn't feel she had to force him into her way of thinking.

In the meantime, Kelly got a major crush on the football quarterback. He was injured so she met him at the health center. He came on to her big time, and pretended that he was going to support the Women Unite! cause--mainly because he wanted to tell Kelly just what she wanted to hear so she'd fall for him. He tricked her in a mean way, too, and her pride was hurt.

Meanwhile, Zack had found the perfect gift for Kelly--as the main Secret Santa gift to give her at the special Christmas dinner. It was a special charm that she could wear on the gold chain she'd received as a graduation gift from her parents. However, he couldn't afford it.

Kelly also began to feel guilty about not getting Zack any Secret Santa gifts. She realized that she'd been too hard on him and decided to make it up to him by getting him something really special as the main gift to give him at the special dinner. However...she didn't have enough money--she really didn't have any money!

At the dinner, at first everyone was awkward and uncomfortable, but eventually they all relaxed. Jessie's and Slater's relationship was "discovered" and it did help Zack and Kelly to realize that they could disagree and still be together. When they all opened their gifts, Zack never even went to the tree to get his. He said he hadn't got any gifts so far, so he wasn't even going to bother to look, but Kelly urged him on. There were only two gifts left--one for her and one for him.

So...can you guess what happened with Zack and Kelly? LOL Kelly sold her gold chain to buy something special for Zack: a football stand for his prized autographed football (that he swore he'd never, ever, ever sell for any amount of money). Well, Zack did sell his football in order to get enough money to buy the charm for Kelly, to go with her gold chain. In a special Saved by the Bell version of The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, they discovered that their true gift was the love they had for each other.

Screech also ends up with the roommate of the girl he had the crush on. She really liked him and appreciated his uniqueness and he really liked her, too.

In the end, Jessie's big protest didn't work out, but all the gang--including Leslie, Slater, and Zack--supported her, even though they didn't support the cause. Their friendships meant enough to them that they all joined in her protest so Jessie, Kelly, Alex, and Screech wouldn't be there alone. Dean McMann was impressed with the protest and called the media, too, so it wasn't a total bust. Jessie was interviewed by a reporter and the coach of the football team actually came out to say that he supported their cause (if not the protest) because he had a daughter who would be attending Cal U the next year. He said Jessie had got him to think about the way things were and how things might be changed and that was important. Jessie was happy with that.

Slater and Jessie didn't make any commitments to each other. They realized that they really loved each other and they would always have this special time together to remember.

The book ends with all the gang caroling around the dorm just before they are getting ready to leave for the holidays.

Can you tell I loved the book? :-) The only part I didn't like was Kelly's crush/romance with the football player. She was way too quick to just forget about Zack if he was really her true love. I don't think she would have so easily just forgotten about Zack, even if she had gone out with another guy during their breakup. The things she liked about this guy (that he respected her and so on) were never really resolved in a major way in her own mind or with Zack. He was lying to her about it all and when she discovered it, she was hurt. She did begin to think she'd been too hard on Zack, but if the kind of guy she wanted was one who was going to be ultra respectful to her and of her (Zack sort of made light of her job at the health center also, and she resented that), why was she so quick to get back with Zack? I think she and Zack would have had a talk about this, at the very least. LOL I think Zack really did respect her and Kelly did say she realized that he did support women's rights, but she never confronted him and allowed him to explain that he was mostly just joking, and she should have let him know that those jokes hurt her and that he should take her job more seriously. I think they would have resolved this matter when they were getting back together.

Email: frankie_82@yahoo.com