Sweet Valley Sunday: Sweet Valley High 2: Secrets

What I remembered about this book from long ago: Sweet, loyal Enid Rollins went through a rough patch when her parents got divorced and did some bad stuff. Scheming Jessica outed her to the whole school because somehow that would help her win Bruce Patman. Elizabeth is caught in the crossfire.

What I know having re-read it: Jessica is still a jerk, but WOW SVH is the most easily scandalized group of teenagers ever. Even by book two Francine was losing continuity and SVH has too many damn dances.

Guys, when I read this as a youngster, Enid was my favorite character because she was quiet and had brown hair and giant green eyes, so I assumed I could relate to her. Upon the re-reads I realize that Enid is... quite boring. She serves no function other than to encourage Liz and be supportive of her and be different from Jessica's friends. Disappointing, but that's what you get for not being blonde in Sweet Valley.

We start with Jessica in a state of rage and despair once more. This time she is still angry with Elizabeth for tricking the student body into throwing her into a pool (a fair payback for claiming that someone tried to rape her, I think), so this book pretty much picks up immediately after the last one left off.

OR DOES IT? Because she suddenly starts fretting about whether or not Bruce Patman saw it and how humiliated she would be if he saw because she's been in love with him since freshman year. Sorry, what about Todd Wilkins? The guy she was so into that she was willing to screw over her sister and ruin his reputation if he didn't like her? Which is it, Wakefield?

Gossip-monger and BFULBMI (best friend until Lila becomes more interesting) Cara Walker acts as Jessica's enabler here and assures her that she looked sort of sexy (cue description of her perfect looks) and that she'll have Bruce Patman for sure when she is crowned queen of the fall dance and he is king. Jessica is worried that Enid might win because her boyfriend Ronnie is on the dance committee and could swing a lot of votes her way (yes, because the people PLANNING the dances always had so much influence. Her worries are really unclear here).

Back at the Wakefield's Stylish, Split-level Spanish-style home Elizabeth is trying to cheer Enid up by making homemade chocolate chip cookies (no hate. That would work for me.), but Enid is still in a state and is being mysterious and saying how Ronnie will never forgive her if he finds out. After some coaxing it finally turns out that after her parents divorce two years ago Enid fell in with a bad crowd and got into drinking and drugs (btw, I will not remember until I find a book that specifically tells me so, but I seem to remember Enid having skipped a grade, which makes her fifteen here and thirteen when all this went down).

Enid and George pictured here.

One night she and her buddy George were joyriding stoned and hit a kid that was playing in the road. He wasn't seriously injured, but Enid went to therapy and George went to juvie. That is pretty heavy stuff, but mostly she is worried that he's about to be out and since they've been writing letters the whole time he wants to come visit her and Ronnie will lose his mind because he's really possessive on account of his mom running off on his dad*.

*Ladies, if you are with a guy who you can't say "I've stayed in touch with a friend I went through some hard times with and he'd like to come visit" for fear that he's gonna flip out on you, don't be with him anymore. Please.

Liz calms her down and then they have a stupid pillow fight and a letter falls to the floor.

The next day in school, Jessica gossips with Cara (who the book points out is "pretty and popular in her own right" with her "sleek, dark good looks" but "no match for the stunning Jessica". Thanks for reminding us that beauty totally isn't subjective) and Lila about how their pretty French teacher Ms. Dalton is totally the apple of Ken Matthews (blonde football hunk and Lila's date to the dance)'s eye. They speculate that maybe they're having an affair and the rumor mills start a-turning. Jessica tries to flirt with Bruce, dropping her books, pretending to lose her necklace and he just isn't super interested. Upset, she goes home to cry to her mom, who is marginally sympathetic, but mostly just trying to make the fucking dinner without her daughter's histrionics. So now she heads to Elizabeth's room because it's nicer than hers and spots Enid's letter and decides to tell Ronnie (and the rest of the school) her awful secret.

So on their double date with Todd and Elizabeth everyone is noticing odd vibes from Ronnie. Todd and Liz talk about how if you love someone you should trust them "like us". Once again, they got together, like, yesterday. But now they're a couple and have all these things.

Ronnie takes Enid parking and gets really aggressive and then unceremoniously dumps her because he's convinced that she seals a handjob into ever letter she sends to George. She is angry and betrayed because she only showed those letters to Liz and also horrified that her reputation is going to be garbage not because she struck a kid with a car, but because she wrote a man letters.

"That whore!"

And that's most of the book. Sweet Valley High flips their everloving shit because Enid wrote a guy letters. Jessica makes Ronnie her date to the dance to get him on her team for queen and exacerbates things between Enid and Elizabeth, Ms. Dalton is so horrified that kids are spreading rumors about her that she is thinking about quitting her job. Guy Chesney, keyboard player for The Droids, SVH's hottest band tries to convince Elizabeth and the staff at the paper that they should do a write-up about it because it would be the only way to get all the guys at school to buy a paper (Guy Chesney is kind of a trip. I think I like him. He's an ass, but I guess he actually has a personality, unlike most of the dudes).

Then Liz figures out that maybe, just maybe Jessica had something to do with ruining someone's life, Enid inspires Ms Dalton to hold her head high and ignore the rumors, George gets out of juvie and is hot now, so he takes Enid to the dance and Elizabeth sets it up so that Winston (who is enamored of Jessica) wins the king of the fall dance instead of Bruce. Jessica is humiliated and heartbroken, Enid has a hot new man and Ken Matthews doesn't take Lila to the dance since she started the Dalton rumors.

Notes: To be such assholes, these kids are easily shocked. The Droids play every school event and most of the parties, it seems. I'm not sure if that's a sign of a supportive school or a really unimaginative cheap on. Also, there's this thing that has been going on in the books where they talk about how different Jessica and Elizabeth's style is (Jessica being flashy and revealing and Elizabeth being still stylish, but more casual and conservative), but they also talk all the time about how Jessica takes Liz's clothes. So maybe Elizabeth is super flashy, she just never gets to wear any of her own shit?

I was a little disappointed in the lack of outfit description in this book. Particularly outfits that I can replicate. It was pretty much restricted to formal wear and long, dangling rhinestone earrings. But never fear. Tween-Lit Tuesday should be a good one.