Sweet Valley Twins #22: Out of Place

Ms. Waldron is one of the teachers at the twins’ school and she’s fairly well liked by everyone else. Except Ellen Riteman, who’s pissed off that the teacher gave her a bad grade. Ms. Waldron’s niece Ginny Lu Culpepper is coming to live with her for awhile. Her mom and Waldron had a bad childhood and she wants her niece to have more opportunities.

Ginny Lu randomly arrives in town early and stops by the school, interrupting the first class she finds. She’s described as having red hair in braids, wearing a worn dress and raggedy boots. Of course she has a horribly stereotypical accent. Ellen makes fun of her and Ginny Lu turns it around, saying that they’re laughing at her because her slip is showing.

Ms. Waldron decides to take her niece to the mall and pick out some new clothes, so she’ll fit in better with the other kids. I think she needs a lot more help than that. Ellen pops up and offers to help, since the teacher doesn’t know what those crazy kids are wearing. Yeah, she’s only around kids five days a week so I’m sure she couldn’t help her. Ellen and Lila pick out a horrible outfit and run outside, so they can laugh at her when she comes out. Waldron thinks it’s all her fault because the kids don’t like her.

There’s a huge arts and crafts fair getting ready to take place in Sweet Valley and everyone plans to enter. Ellen is selling pictures she draws of horses, but that’s the only description we really get of anyone’s plans. Liz is covering the whole thing for the newspaper.

Ginny Lu has a bad day at school and runs off. She finds her way to the stables and discovers Snow White, a horse that reminds her of her life back home. Liz shows up and tells her that the horse belongs to Ellen and like clockwork, Ellen pops up and demands that she stay the hell away from her horse.

The two girls bond and Liz notices that Ginny Lu is carrying around a small doll. It turns out that she makes them herself and her grandpa taught her how to whittle. Liz encourages her to make a few pieces and submit them into the arts and crafts fair. She even helps her pick out a spot and set up her stuff.

Charlie Cashman and Jerry McAllister stop by and become fascinated with how fast she whittles. A bunch of other people stop by too and check things out. Everyone thinks she’s really cool…until she starts reciting this lame poem, which has a repetitive line about coon dogs baying at the moon. The kids all make fun of her and she runs off in tears.

She makes her way to the stables and finds that Snow White just had a foal. No one can get near the baby and it can’t get on its feet, so it can’t feed. The vet is on her way, but they’re worried that she might die in the meantime. Ginny wiggles her way into the stable and gets the baby up on its feet.

Ellen arrives and pitches a fit, demanding that she get away from her horse. They all explain what happened and Ginny saves the horse. Ellen apologizes for being such a bitch and Ginny decides to stay in Sweet Valley. Liz announces the Ginny also won the award for having the best craft or something stupid like that.

The other storyline involves Jessica lending their dad’s expensive racket to Janet, the president of the Unicorn Club. Janet ruins the racket, but Jess won’t make her replace it because she’s worried about her hating her for it. She decides to replace it and luckily has two weeks to do it before their dad comes back from a business trip.

The first thing she does is try to wheedle the money out of Liz because Liz has a bunch saved up for a new pair of riding boots. She gets the down payment from her, but still needs the rest. She tries to hold a yard sale, but only wants to sell Liz’s stuff. Then she takes over Steven’s chores and he splits his allowance with her.

After Alice points out how talented Ginny is and suggests that people might by them, she takes them around to a bunch of stores in the area. One shop offers to buy them for $25 each and Jess takes a cut, as her agent. She has enough to pay for a new racket and spend money on herself.

*Can I point out that Liz is the one who found the poem for her to read? She knows that everyone makes fun of her from being from the country and yet she picks a poem about dogs baying at the moon. I think she did it on purpose.

*The total amount that Jess needs for the racket is $50. Remember when that was a ton of money and you’d have to work for weeks to earn that much?

*The stereotypical way they made Ginny Lu talk (not to mention that name) really made my head hurt.