Sweet Valley High #35: Out of Control

Aaron Dallas is totes out of control. He came home from school one day to find his parents waiting for him. After having an affair with a man, his mom decided to leave his dad for this other guy and move across the country with him. His dad kind of shut down after that. Aaron is now super aggressive and always in a bad mood.

That makes thing tough for Elizabeth, given that this is one of those Jeffery books and his best friend is Aaron. They go out on a double date with Aaron and his girlfriend Heather. Heather kind of seems like a Jessica clone, but for some reason, Liz can't stand her. She *gasps* talks during the movie and then wants to chat when they go for ice cream. Liz finally tells her that she's private and doesn't like to talk about herself (ha!), which leaves them sitting there in silence. It doesn't help when Aaron fights with some guy and Heather does baby talk to calm him down.

After another altercation on the soccer field, the coach tells Aaron that if he screws up again, he's off the team. This isn't good news since there's some huge game coming up. Liz sits down and writes an article that's all about how he's a screw up. Aaron goes off on her and makes it clear that they are no longer friends, and even Jeffrey wants to know why she couldn't take it easy on him. Liz stands by her article and uses the whole "I'm a journalist" line.

This leads to problems with Aaron and Jeffrey. They have a fight that ends with Aaron punching him before running away. Heather tracks him down and talks with him about all his issues. She convinces him to talk to the counselor. The counselor works out a deal where he'll come in for regular sessions and the coach will let him play. He then apologizes to Liz and makes up with Jeffrey before winning the big game.

Who cares about that story? This is the book where Jessica becomes a Tofu-Glo girl! She finds out that women who sell the products make thousands every month and borrows money from Liz to get the introductory pack. There's a skin lotion, shampoo, and some other stuff that is made from all natural ingredients.

Jessica throws a party at her house and tries to sell it to her friends. She even offers a money back guarantee. After selling to them, she goes door to door and makes a bunch of more sales until one woman asks to try the lotion. It sticks to her skin like a big oil slick. Cara then calls and says that the shampoo wouldn't come out of her hair.

Alice points out that she really should have tried the products before selling them. It turns out that she has all the same problems too, and then all her customers call and demand their money back. The company refuses to take back any of the products because each one had a label that said they needed stored in the refrigerator. Ned then finds out that there was a lawsuit against the company and a huge settlement. Jessica will get back all the money she paid and a little more too.

*Liz claims that journalists should always be neutral, but her article calls Aaron out a lot. It comes across less neutral and more like a story about him being a bad guy.

*Liz makes fun of Heather's baby talk to her friends, and they think it's so funny that they keep asking her to do it again. She doesn't feel bad until she finds out that it's the only way Heather can help Aaron calm down.

*It turns out that Heather is really into fashion and wants to go to design school. Liz kept making comments about all her fancy clothes and how she spends too much on clothes and then finds out that Heather makes everything herself.

*Jessica paid $150 for her starter kit and got multiple boxes of each product. Damn, that's a lot of stuff for a low price.

*Who would come up with something like Tofu-Glow? My bathroom and kitchen are on two separate floors, and there is no way that I would want to walk downstairs to grab shampoo every time that I wanted to take a shower.

*This book was so boring. The Aaron story was the same thing over and over again: Aaron gets annoyed and throws a hissy fit and then Aaron gets annoyed and throws another fit.