Finders Keepers

In what seems like a reincarnation of Sweet Dreams #148 Riddles of Love, "Finders Keepers" offers another stab at a mystery/romance, with about the same level of success. This time around, though, the mystery element is quite engaging, but the romance has an almost embarrassingly bashful "aw shucks" quality to it. Laurie Adams is a bit of a space cadet. She's always doing something humiliating around her huge crush Matt Harding, like spilling the entire contents of her locker on his head, accidentally chaining his bike to hers, or flying literally head over heels from her own bike while carrying a bunch of balloons and wearing an oversized clown costume. Of course it turns out that seemingly surly Matt isn't really a jerk; he's just a nice guy who's been down on his luck ever since his dad's car accident left the family basically destitute. The answer to Matt's money woes may just come in form of a generous gift from Mr. Allerton, the stock feisty old guy Matt has befriended - but somehow he and Laura have to wrestle the gift away from Mr. Allerton's greedy, mean-spirited daughter. A genuine mystery and several colorful episodes involving Laurie's singing telegram job later, and all is once again right with the Sweet Dreams world.