Sweet Valley High #29: Bitter Rivals

*I swear that I read and recapped this one before! I must have done it last year before my computer got infected and I lost my review file. Anyway, I bought this at a book sale last October, so it’s definitely been a long time coming!

Amy Sutton, slut extraordinaire, is moving back to Sweet Valley and for some reason, Liz Wakefield is super excited. Naturally we get a short recap of their friendship and how Amy moved away after sixth grade. Was this covered in any of the books? I know she isn’t in The Unicorn Club, but I wonder if she appeared in any of the other books or had a goodbye book.

Liz and Enid made plans to spend a weekend with Enid’s aunt Nancy at her ski cabin in Tahoe. They put off the trip until Amy gets into town and Enid even suggests she join them. Liz runs around, telling everyone about Amy coming back. She can’t wait to show her the Oracle, take her on a tour of town and introduce her to Enid.

Liz makes plans to meet Enid at the beach, but Amy calls because they got to town early. She runs over to her house and invites her to spend the night, conveniently forgetting about her best friend. Amy and Jessica get along great because Amy loves boys, gossip and makeup. Liz brushes it all off because she remembers their friendship.

Liz takes Amy out to breakfast and invites Enid along. Amy goes overboard with a fancy outfit and tons of makeup. She makes the other girls feel bad for ordering pancakes and sticks to coffee and grapefruit. Enid keeps waiting for Liz to pickup on how superficial the other girl is, but Liz is just proud of her new friend.

Amy makes a big splash at school. Liz invites her to join the newspaper, but she tries out for cheerleading. In case you were wondering, Helen Bradley moved away, so I assume her brother left too. Remember that Tim dated Annie Sutton? I always kind of wondered what happened to those characters! She also makes new friends and ignores Liz. She stands her up for lunch multiple times and flakes on other plans.

Lila decides to throw a huge party for her cousin Christopher because she wants everyone to meet him. Liz and Enid decide to go to Tahoe on the same weekend as the party. Amy agrees, but then changes her mind because she doesn’t want to miss the party. Enid agrees, but isn’t happy about ruining their plans. She makes it clear that this is the last time she will change the arrangements because they are acting shitty towards her aunt.

Amy tells Liz that she and Christopher are in love. Forget the fact that they haven’t met yet, Lila showed her tons of pictures. She assumes that as soon as they meet, he will fall head over heels too. Liz and Enid go shopping for ski equipment and buy matching gloves. When Liz tells her that they need to give Amy a ride to the party, Enid backs out and has her mom drive her.

Amy suggests that she and Liz go to a movie together, but shows up two hours late and full of excuses. When Liz calls her on her bull shit, she bursts into tears and cries over losing their friendship. She also confesses that she doesn’t like Enid and thinks Enid is trying to steal her best friend. Liz feels bad and thinks she neglected her. Isn’t Liz supposed to be the smart one?

Cut to Lila’s costume party. Liz dresses as a skier and sees Enid wearing a matching outfit, while Amy dresses as a ballerina. Lila introduces her cousin Christopher to the party and he makes an instant beeline for Enid. It turns out that he worked as a counselor at some East Coast camp she went to. Since when did her family have money for fancy camps?

Amy sees them and hates it. She makes a play for Chris and he shoots her down. She keeps asking him to dance with her, get her punch, take her on a tour of the grounds, and does whatever it takes to get him away from Enid. Every time, he goes back to Enid and makes it clear that he wants her. Amy goes off on Enid, telling her that she cannot steal anything from her, not Liz and not Chris.

Enid tells Liz that Chris is driving her home. Then Amy pops up and says he is giving her a ride home. Liz asks what happened and Amy says she lied about not having a ride. Just as Liz tries changing her mind, Enid walks up and goes off on her for going along with Amy’s lie. She stomps off and Liz is left alone.

Liz goes to Enid’s house and apologizes. Enid accepts her apology because Chris stopped by her house that morning, apologized and asked her out to dinner. They pick a weekend for the ski trip and Enid decides that it is okay if Amy comes along. Liz talks things through with Alice, who calls Amy “manipulative”. Um, has she met her daughter? She also thinks that Enid probably saw something in Amy that Liz could not see.

Liz talks to Amy the next day at school and she seems really cold. She gives up and tells Liz that it isn’t her fault she picks bad friends like Enid. Liz brings up the ski trip and Amy makes it clear that she wants to go with just Liz and does not like Enid. Amy asks if she is mad at her and Liz says no. She walks away, feeling sad that they aren’t friends anymore, but glad she has other people in her life.

The B-plot is all about Jessica being a manipulative, jealous bitch or in other words, a regular Tuesday. After talking to this guy Jay a few times, she decides that he is her soul mate. He and Denise Hadley started dating months ago and seem happy. Jessica and Cara start an advice column in the newspaper. She writes two fake letters, making it seem like they aren’t happy because Denise is a whopping year older than him.

They start having problems and Jessica makes her move. Jay takes her on a date and takes him up to Miller’s Point. When he confesses that he is still in love with Denise, she tells him that Denise has been cheating on him for a long time and everyone else knew. They kiss and he takes her to Lila’s party, but when he sees Denise with another guy, he storms off.

Denise and Jay both write letters to the paper. Jessica forgets to write the column for that week. Liz finds the letters and prints them in the paper. When they see what the other one said, they get back together and Jess looks like a huge tool.