Sweet Valley High Super Edition: Falling for Lucas

The twins and most of their friends are heading off to Colorado for a school sponsored ski trip. Lila and Jessica spend time shopping and bitching about how they need to find the perfect guy. Enid is less than happy at the idea of competing with them for guys. Liz doesn't seem to care one way or the other, but she is excited about getting away from home for awhile.

While on the bus, Todd wakes up and can't go back to sleep. He thinks that things will be better if he could just fall asleep in Elizabeth's arms. That leads to him sneaking over to her seat, trying to cuddle with her, and kissing her. Liz wakes up and flips out at him, which causes Mr. Collins to wake up and scream at him. It becomes the talk of the bus as people keep gossiping about it.

Liz is completely mortified when they stop for breakfast at a rest stop. Olivia and Enid keep telling her that he meant well, but Liz starts thinking that maybe Todd is a pig who only cares about one thing. After they lecture her for a bit, she decides that maybe it's okay that he tried to ruin her reputation. They even kiss before making up.

Jessica and Lila spend their rest stop time checking out guys and snapping at each other. They spend so much time checking out one guy that they almost miss the bus. It turns out that the guy in question is actually married to their waitress though. Enid stops by the gift shop and picks up a book about how to be sassy on the slopes and meet your dream guy.

This is when we spiral into a few different stores. First is Liz and Todd. Todd makes arrangements with Winston to have the room to himself on their first night. Poor Winston winds up sleeping on the couch in the lobby. Todd gets Liz alone and asks her to check out his room. She thinks he's just trying to protect her reputation and wants to kiss her in the privacy of his room. When he lets it slip that Winston is gone for the night, she goes to the bathroom. Though he thinks that she's just freshening up, she comes back and drops ice cold water in his lap.

Though he's super in love with her, he can't help noticing this gorgeous woman in her 30s who keeps staring at him. The woman even stops to talk to him while he's waiting for Liz. When he tells her that he's with someone else, she tells him not to stand outside in the cold for too long or he'll get frostbite. Todd spends most of his time trying to get Liz alone, while Liz keeps trying to avoid him.

After a particularly bad argument on the slopes, she skis off away from him. Just as he goes after her, an avalanche happens. Liz runs straight for ski patrol and meets Dirk, the leader of the patrol. He tells her that there is nothing they can do until the morning because the storm that caused the avalanche is still so bad. Todd is still on the mountain and runs into the gorgeous woman from before. They find a little cabin and break down the door to get inside.

Cassandra, the woman, uses all her feminine wiles on Todd to no avail. They wind up reaching an agreement that he's too young for her and that she shouldn't hit on him. That works up until he wakes to Liz rubbing his body in the middle of the night and realizes that it's actually Cassandra. She laughs at him, makes it clear that there's room in the bed for him, and tells him not to wait too long or she might change her mind.

Liz spends hours with Dirk. They manage to get Todd on the radio and hear that he's with someone before his radio dies. When ski patrol finally does get a helicopter up in the air, Liz demands to go. Dirk says no but then changes his mind because it's oh so important to her. They find the cabin and manage to get inside just in time to see Cassandra throwing herself at Todd once again.

Naturally, Liz assumes that Todd realized she wouldn't sleep with him and went after someone else. She refuses to speak to him and mopes around all the time like she never cheated on him before. Dirk finds her and tells her that she's way more beautiful than Cassandra and that the woman has nothing on her before kissing her. Todd catches them and shouts at Liz about how she's been cheating on him this whole time. To make a long story shorter, Enid points out that Todd saw the same thing that she did. They make up and find out that Cassandra and Dirk are now dating.

Enid uses her book to find a fling but fails at every turn. One tip says to wear fluorescent sunblock. She wears bright green sunblock and meets a guy with a nose ring and his hair dyed both purple and green. One tip says to offer help to a bad skier, but the guy she picks is there with his girlfriend. Another recommends yelling single in the lift line, which leads to her sitting next to a family man who wants to sing opera.

When using another tip, she comes thisclose to hitting on Winston. He told everyone he's this great skier but can barely stand upright. Her book falls out of her pocket, but he agrees to keep her secret. When she goes to the nightclub to ask a man to dance, she winds up sitting alone while all the other girls laugh about her scoping guys. The only thing interesting that happens is that she and Winston actually admit that they were kind of interested in each other on the slopes. Liz finally tells her to just do what she wants, which leads her to roast marshmallows in the fireplace.

Then we have Lila and Jessica. On the very first day, they meet Lucas. He's a gorgeous ski instructor, so Jessica pretends like she needs way more help than anyone else. She uses her parents' credit card to book an all day private lesson with him. This pisses off Lila. The two come up with a bet about who can kiss him first. The loser has to ski a double black diamond trail.

Lila forces Jessica to share the lesson with her. While she's in the bathroom, Jessica cancels the wake up call Lila set and begs Liz to wake her up in the morning. Though she does get Lucas alone for a few hours, nothing happens and Lila eventually shows up. They fight over him constantly, but it seems to me like he doesn't really have an interest in either one.

During another private lesson, he shows up with a girl who really can't ski. The girl kind of takes over the lesson, which pisses them both off. Lila gets him alone just as one of his friends stops by to tell him about a party. She overhears the location of the party and comes up with a plan. While Jessica is upset over Liz still being in the ski patrol office and Todd being missing, she pretends to go to the bathroom and actually sneaks out to the party. Jessica later sees Lucas and Lila coming back to the resort and has the perfect view of them kissing.

Since she doesn't want to welsh on their bet, she heads to the trail the next day. Lucas finds out where she is and thinking that she is still a novice, he rushes after her. It turns out that she isn't as good of a skier as she thought. Lucas tries to help her, he winds up crashing into her, and they both tumble down the mountain. Jessica then decides that it doesn't matter who kissed him first but who gets him in the end.

After lying to Lila about being in pain, she waits for her friend to go skiing and sneaks into his room. Lucas actually starts kissing her just as Lila comes back to see him. Jessica locks the door so she can't get inside and goes back to kissing him. Lila then bribes room service to sneak her in on a food cart. While Jessica is in the bathroom, Lila locks her in and throws herself at Lucas. The two girls start fighting, Lila lets her out, and they keep screaming at each other until they look around and realize he's gone.

When they head downstairs later, they find Lucas and Enid feeding marshmallows to each other and seemingly being in heaven. Both are so disgusted at losing out to someone like Enid that they pack a pact to never fight over a guy again. Yup, that should totally last.

*Jessica thinks that this trip is a fresh start and that a new guy is just what she needs to get over the whole breakup with Ken and Christian's death. Maybe you should just take a break from guys for awhile?

*They had to pay for this trip themselves, and Jessica says that she'll owe her parents money forever because of it. But then they say that Amy signed up and can't go because she's failing French and her mom won't let her go. It's not like Mrs. Sutton could get her money back.

*At the rest stop, Liz is envious of how put together Olivia looks in her painted leggings and tee shirt. She should be jealous of Lila, who wears leather pants and a silk blouse. I have no idea how she kept those looking good on a bus.

*Lila briefly remembers fighting with Jess over that guy Mick in the Caribbean and how maybe they should just avoid guys, but then changes her mind and decides to fight tooth and nail for some guy neither one knows.

*Liz is clearly thinking about sex as much as Todd does. While making out in his car near the beginning of the book, she has to stop herself because it just feels too good and she's worried about where it might lead.

*As someone in her 30s, I think the Cassandra story is icky. There is no way I would throw myself at a teenage boy. Hell, I have a hard time finding any teenager even remotely attractive!

*Jessica spots a 25 year old guy and says that he's too old for a relationship but just right for a fling. Why would a 25 year old guy even go after a 16 year old girl? That's just gross.

*I'm pretty sure Lucas would get fired for all this. I can't imagine the resort would be happy with him going after multiple teenage girls in a single week.

*Also, guys in their twenties aren't going to stay with a teenage girl who has no intention of putting out, and these books like reminding us that all the characters are virgins.