Sweet Valley High #63: The New Elizabeth

Liz thinks that she’s boring and wants to be more spontaneous, so she gets a perm. When Lila starts teasing her, she makes a comment about going to the museum, which just makes things worse. Instead of the museum, she flips through sports magazines and decides to go to an adventure sporting goods store. This is great because she wants to buy all this scuba and hang gliding equipment, but has no clue that they cost like thousands of dollars.

She ends up finding an ad for cheap surfing lessons and drives up to Moon Beach. Sean, the instructor, has a bet with his buddies. He’ll take a new surfer, train them and get them to place in the big surfing competition that’s coming up. There’s a little tension with his friend Laurie. They went out on a date and she thought they’d start dating, but now he’s got a hot blonde in his sights.

Liz decides that no one can know about her lessons, so she lies and says she’s doing an extra credit marine biology project. No one seems to question the fact that (a) Liz doesn’t need extra credit and (b) no one else in the entire school is taking part.

During her first lesson, Sean shows her all the tricks and lets her practice, but she wants to jump on the board and do real surfing damnit! Doesn’t he know that the twins can pick up absolutely anything in less than an hour? She goes to his house to look at his surfboard collection and despite the fact that she acts like she knows everything, she gets all confused at the idea that some boards are worth thousands of dollars. Then again, she didn’t know what hang 10 meant either.

The whole book is basically a little of the same. Sean hits on her/flirts with her, she blows off Todd all the time and then can’t figure out why Sean won’t leave her alone. Laurie makes her think that they’re a couple, but then overhears Sean telling Liz that she’s like a little sister to him. Laurie starts surfing and hides it from everyone, but Liz sees her on the water.

Liz tells everyone, including Todd, about her big “presentation”. Jess tots doesn’t want to go, but then Lila says that there’s a big surf competition down the beach. New hot guys that don’t know her slutty reputation? You know that she’s going to be there.

Sean gives Liz a surfboard charm and tries to kiss her. She tells him that she has a boyfriend and he seems surprised. She finally pays some attention to said boyfriend when it’s raining and she can’t surf. They basically play Monopoly or Scrabble and drink hot chocolate. No wonder Todd’s not that excited to spend the day with her.

Now we all know Liz is an excellent surfer. She has exactly four days of practice, so she’s obviously perfect at it. Sean doesn’t want her to go surfing after the storm because the waves are too big, but she’s awesome. Instead, she wipes out and he has to drag her from the water. He gives her a ride home and when she sees Todd’s car, she makes Sean drop her off down the street.

Random mention of the split-level, as Sean mentions that he thought she lived in one. Do the ghostwriters not realize that split-level houses aren’t the best? For god’s sake, the Brady’s lived in one! Anyway, Todd makes up an excuse and blows her off because he’s not a complete moron and saw her down the street. She explains that he was her partner, but Todd doesn’t really believe her.

Cut to the day before the competition. Sean lets Liz use his fancy board and she heads out onto the water. She hangs 10 perfectly and Sean tells her she’s amazing because he didn’t even consider it until he’d been surfing for a long time. Yup, she’s blonde and she’s perfect.

The Sweet Valley group all sits together at the surfing competition, not finding it odd that no one has mentioned the marine biology thing. Liz hears Laurie talking to a friend about Sean and how she started surfing, just to impress him. She’s all mopey because she realizes that she can never, ever beat Liz so Sean will never realize she’s alive.

Liz goes out on her board, thinking about how she has this in the bag. The gang goes nuts, cheering and rooting for her. She does great, but at the last minute, throws it and falls down. Laurie does awesome and wins the competition. Everyone giggles at Liz thinking she could surf, except for Bill Chase. Bill wants to know why Liz wiped out and she just smiles and makes up an excuse. She wanders off, seeing Laurie and Sean making out.

Yeah…Liz would never win that competition so fast. It’s insane to think she would even place, plus Laurie wouldn’t win either. I kind of wish they had done a “Wakefield twin loses” thing. Let Liz wipe out because a huge wave crashes over her and then she learns a lesson. Oh wait, I forgot that there are no lessons in Sweet Valley.

The B-storyline involves Jessica and Caroline Pearce. Pearce is making fun of Jessica for faking two identities and tells everyone. She also has a new job at the Unique Boutique so Lila and Jess go in and torment her all the time. It’s actually a pretty cool system, they treat her like crap and then Lila buys something so the manager thinks they’re customers.

They even go in with a bunch of trash in shopping bags and get the manager to make Caroline help them out to their car. Of course it’s raining and she gets soaked. Jessica goes in one last time because she thinks Caroline might quit soon. Apparently she was only working there to pay for some damage to her mom’s car or something. Caroline acts all sweet, helping her find clothes. Then she leaves Jess stranded in the dressing room, completely naked and quits her job. The last scene is of her waving to Jess, as she walks off with her clothes. I think I love Caroline Pearce.

Oh and the new girl working at the Unique Boutique? Yeah, she looks exactly like Tricia Martin, yet another doppelganger in town. Liz and Steve happen to wander into the store and you know it’s bad news for Cara in the next book!