Fear Street: The Rich Girl (R.L. Stine)

Sydney and Emma are best friends who work together. The only difference between the two is that Sydney's family is super rich and Emma has to work to buy everything she wants. Sydney convinces her to go outside with her to help her with the trash, and she accidentally drops her silver charm bracelet in the dumpster. After dealing with a big ass rat, she finds her necklace and a little something extra: a bag filled with $50 bills.

Emma instantly thinks of all the stuff she could buy with the money, but she also thinks about the medical bills her mother has that she can't afford. Sydney's idea of suffering for money is that she has to buy her own car insurance for the brand new car her parents gave her. They reach an agreement, they'll bury the money in the Fear Street Woods and watch for any news. If no one shows up on the news looking for it, they'll go back and split it between them.

Sydney then heads off to meet her new boyfriend Jason. Emma never said anything about him but she made it clear she didn't like him. After meeting him, neither do I. He goes off on her for being late to meet him, and then when she won't say why she's late, he goes off on her about cheating on him. Since she still won't tell him, he storms off and shouts about her being a cheating whore. When she finally does tell him about the money, he makes a joke about killing Emma to get the money for themselves and then shoves his tongue down her throat.

She's so distracted at school the next day that she can't really think about anything else. Emma seems super upbeat and happy, and she tells her that no one's come forward yet. Really, no one's come forward in the last five hours? Shocking. Later in the day, Emma falls down the steps and cracks her head on the floor. Sydney sees Jason standing at the top of the stairs with what looks like a smile on his face. Even though she instantly starts screaming about how her best friend is dead, she's totally fine. Some scrapes and bruises maybe, but she didn't even break anything.

When she goes to visit Emma later, Emma accuses Jason of pushing her down the stairs. Sydney goes to him, and since he's not an idiot, he completely denies it. He says he "accidentally" tripped and reached out to her for help and probably bumped into her. He even says that he was frozen, which is what made it look like he was smiling. Yeah that sounds like something that might happen.

Emma calls Sydney later and says that Jason came over, explained everything to her, and even fixed her car for her. They decide to go out later. When Jason hears, he acts weird and tells her to blow off her friend, which she refuses to do. When they're out driving around, the brakes go out, they blow through a four way stop, and almost get in a pretty bad accident. Emma makes Sydney look at her car, and it seems like someone cut the brake lines. She tells her that they need to kill Jason before he kills them first.

Since he apparently wants to kill them over money, Emma decides that they should just split it with him. They go to see him, he denies cutting the brakes, and seems horrified that someone would do that. When they let him in on their plan, he gets so excited that he demands they go right to the woods and look at the money. Sydney thinks it's too cold outside and leaves them in the woods to grab her sweater out of the car and suddenly hears screaming.

When she catches up with them, she seems them fighting over the duffel bag filled with money and shouting at each other. Jason raises his hand, and Emma hits him over the head with the shovel they took to dig up the cash. After checking his pulse, she tells her friend that he's dead and that they need to get rid of the body. The perfect thing to do? Dump him in Fear Lake. Since Sydney just watched her best friend murder her boyfriend and isn't necessarily in the mood to dump him in the lake, Emma does it. Sydney just stands in shock and listens to the splashing noise.

After a quick shower and some more shock, she manages to fall asleep only to wake up to the sound of someone in her room. Looking up, she sees Jason standing there and staring at her. She closes her eyes, counts, takes a few breaths, and looks up to see her room empty. Though she thinks it was a dream, she then sees two muddy footprints in her room. Emma tries to convince her that it really was a dream, but then she finds an envelope in her locker with his class ring in it and mud on the flap. Emma once again tries to calm her down, saying that she didn't remember seeing him wearing it the night before and that he probably just put it there earlier in the week.

They try to move on, but when they get in Sydney's car after school, they see more mud and fresh blood covering the seats. As an added bonus, the shovel is sitting in the front seat. Emma claims that she left the shovel in the woods and recalls Sydney hearing voices the night before. They wonder if someone saw them out in the woods. On the way home, Sydney sees a blue car following them, but when she tells Emma to look, the car is gone. Add to that, she gets home and finds an envelop addressed to her. Inside is a single sheet of paper that says "murderer" on it.

Sydney then remembers that they used her belt to tie down the rocks on his body. If anyone finds his body, they'll trace it back to her. The girls run to the woods, and Emma points out where she dropped his body. After digging through the water for a few hours, they realize that he's gone.

After sneaking into her house and taking a long shower, her mom interrupts her to tell her that they're leaving for the night. All she really cares about is climbing into bed and sleeping for the next year. When she goes to grab her teddy bear, she sees her missing belt wrapped around it with a note that says "murderer" on it. This time, she realizes that the note is in Jason's handwriting.

Sydney immediately calls Emma and tells her everything. Emma claims that someone must have told Jason about the money and that person is the one coming after them. As Sydney keeps freaking out, Emma finally agrees to come over and stay with her while her parents are gone. When Emma gets there and goes into her room, both the belt and the note are gone. Emma tells her that she's going off the deep end a little and needs to calm down. After her parents leave and Emma tries to put her to bed, she says she needs a drink. Once downstairs, she hears someone calling her name and sees Jason's dead body staring at her. He comes closer and she screams before passing out.

Cut to the end of the book and Emma standing and waiting in a hospital. She hears a doctor tell someone that he thought "she" was ready to see him but that she couldn't let go of the idea that he was dead. Jason comes out, murmurs something to the doctor, goes to Emma, and they leave together. Emma thinks that it's fine her best friend is in the nuthouse because her parents would get her help, put her in a fancy mental institution, and that she'd eventually come home. She also thinks it's okay because her family has money, which is why she went to Jason originally.

See, she knew that Sydney would never keep their secret, but she also knew that she needed that money. They giggle about everything and then head off to dig up the money. Emma then goes shopping and picks out a $600 leather jacket while Jason rolls his eyes and whines about wanting to shop for a new television. When she goes to pay, the cashier laughs at her and shows her that the money features a picture of Benjamin Franklin in a backwards baseball cap and has the word "United" spelled wrong. The book ends with him asking,

"Did you bring any real money?"