Sweet Valley High #44: Pretenses

Abbie Richardson isn't a new student at SVH but she might as well be. Though she was super close to Jessica during their freshman year, she met a guy named Doug from another school and dropped her life for him. They broke up, so now she suddenly wants to be everyone's best friend again.

Meanwhile, Cara is incredibly in love with Steven, which makes Jessica very unhappy. After warning her that she shouldn't settle down with anyone in high school, she suggests that Cara put some spice back into their relationship. When Steven announces that he suddenly has allergies and needs to come home for testing, she thinks they can finally spend some time together. All Steven wants to do is sleep and study, which makes her feel like he doesn't care.

The Oracle decides to run a humor contest for the newspaper. Abbie enters a comic strip about a girl named Jenny that pretty much mirrors her life, and while everyone loves it, they also love a funny Miss Manners column that Amy enters. Abbie starts spending time with the twins and their friends, but she also wants to go to Cara's birthday party, which is at some fancy restaurant.

Cara told Abbie about it, but she never planned to invite her. Abbie buys a new dress, gets her a present, and then cries about the party. Steven acts really distracted at the party, and when Cara catches him with a letter on pink stationary, he acts super defensive. She does point out that he shouldn't hide things from her, but he ignores her and gets snippy.

Elizabeth later sees Steven with another letter, and he acts the same way. It's a love letter from some unknown writer, and he has no idea who wrote it, but he does think it's strange that it's the same stationary that Tricia used. He received two letters from the same person, and the letters make him rethink his relationship with Cara.

Abbie starts spending more time at the Wakefield house, which leads her to becoming friends with Steven. He ends up telling her about the letters and all about his relationship problems. Abbie eventually develops a crush on him and starts dreaming of what might happen if Cara wasn't in the picture. Liz tells Jessica about the letters, and Jessica later sees Abbie holding one in her hand before hiding it in her bag.

The twins find blue stationary in the same pattern at some store. The clerk can't remember much about it except that she sold it to someone their age. Though they decide not to do anything, they later freak out. Ned gets Lakers tickets for the family and Cara, but Steven decides to ask Abbie instead because he doesn't know what will happen with Cara.

Jessica pours her heart out to Lila, but makes her promise not to tell Cara. Cara then sits down and acts super mopey about Steven. When she decides that she'll just apologize and try to make up with him, Lila tells her about the basketball game. Cara decides to go over and yell at him, but she changes her mind. She does reveal that she was the one writing letters to Steven because she wanted to spice things up.

The twins finally decide to confront Abbie. They tell her that they knew she wrote the letters, which sends Steven over the edge. After a big fight, Abbie storms out of the house. Cara shows up, says she wrote the letters, and everyone feels like crap. Steven kind of apologizes and they make up. They then apologize to Abbie and ask her to come to the game anyway, and she wins the competition, which is strange because she never appears again.

*Steven likes that Abbie is so sweet and such a great listener because his sisters' friends are always so superficial and gossipy. Um, like your girlfriend?

*Uh, I hate Steven so much. He constantly dicks Cara around, never really apologizes, and she always takes him back. She never even blames him either. She just thinks it's strange that he never realized the letters were from her.

*I also hate the stupid Jenny cartoon. It's all about some depressive teenage girl and everyone thinks it's so funny. One strip shows her watching a special about an assertiveness seminar, she decides that she should stop depending on others, and then she calls her boyfriend for a ride to the seminar. Oh so funny.

*It's funny when different people realize it was the same stationary that Tricia used because even when this book came out, I don't think people used a lot of stationary.

*Abbie pisses me off so much. She decides that Cara doesn't want to talk about her party in front of other people because it's really expensive and she probably can't afford to invite everyone. She even assumes that Sandy and Jeanne, two of Cara's actual friends from cheerleading, wouldn't be invited. Then why the heck would she invite you? You barely know her!

*Oddly enough, Cara does invite Bruce to her party. Given that it's mentioned he dated and dumped her in the past, it's weird that she would invite him. Then again, he is rich, so she'll probably get a good gift.