Sweet Valley High #41: Outcast

Molly Hecht is a complete and total pariah and outcast at Sweet Valley High. Didn’t you know that she killed Regina Morrow? Of course Regina willingly took the coke and folded due to peer pressure faster than I fold towels, but that’s not the point. The point is that Molly is totally a killer. All the kids at school think so, including her ex Justin, who was getting a little too close with Regina, Nicholas Morrow thinks so and her parents definitely think so.

Molly, to her credit, pretty much just sits back and takes it from everyone originally. She over hears people talking about her in the hallway, like Jess who calls her a druggie and a murderer. Jessica is, as we all know, just a harmless (usually) psychopath and that’s somehow a lot better. She decides that she’ll talk to Liz because Liz seems nice, but Liz completely blows her off. Then she goes to Regina’s grave and Nicholas goes off on her.

I think it’s funny how in this book they (once again) try to establish Liz and Regina as best friends, but I just don’t buy it. Liz cries herself to sleep, thinking about how she used to talk to Regina about all her hopes and dreams, but I’m just not remembering that book. I remember Liz frequently mentioning Regina as a good friend, but doing little to back that up. Come on, you just know Liz was her “friend” because it meant she was a good person to befriend a former deaf girl.

Molly gets down in the dumps and then Buzz calls, the drug dealer who supplied the drugs for her party. It’s funny because the police are “after him” and telling people to call the special tip hotline if they have information. It’s not like they have any proof that he did anything; they can’t even prove he supplied the drugs so I’m curious what they’ll do if they catch him. Buzz invites her out and she meets him at Kelly’s.

Buzz wants to skip town, but first he wants Molly to buy him beer. Once he sees that she has money, he tells her that she’s his soul mate and she means so much to him and he’d be so much happier if she agreed to give up her life and come with him and oh, by the way, does she happen to have any money? Molly has a few thousand saved for college, but she decides that she’d rather get away now.

Liz of course sees Molly withdraw her life savings and then decides to do something. She tries to talk to her, but Molly totally blows her off because Liz already had a chance to help, when Molly really needed someone. Liz talks to Justin, but he doesn’t want to hear it because Molly killed sweet Regina. Liz also tries her parents, but they don’t care because Molly killed that poor, sweet girl…who they never met or heard anything about until she was dead.

Justin changes his mind, they realize what she’s doing and chase her and Buzz across town. He finally confronts her, apologizes for not being there and they all share a big hug. No one mentions that everyone at school will still call Molly names and that her own parents will still keep her chained to the radiator because those aren’t fun storylines.

The B storyline involves Jessica setting up a memorial scholarship for Regina through the sorority. She deals with all the organization stuff and just as she’s about to throw up, Ned volunteers to take over and deal with it all so Jess just has to worry about raising money. Jessica smiles and thinks that it’s great how she always gets in over her head and then something/someone comes along to help. Yeah, that about sums up Sweet Valley.