Sweet Valley High #20: Crash Landing!

George Warren is an ass, and Robin Wilson is a bitch. They "got to know" each other during flight classes and fell in love. Robin dumped her boyfriend, and George plans to dump Enid too. First though, he has to take her up in a rental plane because he promised that she'd be the fist one he took on a flight after getting his license. While she has fun, he can't stop thinking about the talk they need to have later.

Something goes wrong with the plane that causes the engine to go out. George has to make a crash landing in Secca Lake. Conveniently, half of SVH is there, including Robin who apparently wanted to be right there after the dumping so she could rub it in Enid's face. Enid wakes up first after the crash and realizes that she needs to save George. She gets out of the plane, swims around to his side, undoes his seat belt, and gets him out of the plane. When he falls out, he slams into her, which causes her back to slam into the metal door. Enid quickly realizes that she has no feeling in her lower body.

Jessica, Elizabeth, and their parents are all at the police station because this takes place right after she had that date with the psycho drug addict she stole from Lila. They hear the call come in, and Ned and Alice rush them both to the hospital. The doctor tells Mrs. Rollins that there is some swelling and that they won't know how bad her injury is until the swelling goes away. But on a happy note, George walked away with some scrapes and bruises. To save you some worrying, I'll let you know that Enid is okay.

Once the swelling drops, they decide to operate. Elizabeth stops by to see her the day before and finds George there. He seems really uncomfortable and makes an excuse to leave early, but he does promise that he'll come back and wait during her surgery. Liz gives him some mean looks and silently wishes that he'll stick with his promises this time. Oh, you mean like when he promised to love his girlfriend and not cheat on her with the first cheerleader that comes along?

Enid gets through the surgery, and the magic doctor tells her mom that she'll be fine. Not only can she walk again, but she can start physical therapy almost right away. George is relieved because as soon as Enid can walk again, he can dump her and live happily ever after with Robin.

Enter Jessica. She asks Lila to run her by Robin's house so she can tell her that practice changed. That changes when she sees George walking down her driveway. Turns out that Allen, her former boyfriend, told Cara that she dumped him for another guy. Other people saw her faint on the beach when she saw the plane go down. Jessica puts two and two together and comes up with whore. She, Cara, and their whole little group decide to freeze Robin out and give her the silent treatment.

Enid winds up in a wheelchair but does go to physical therapy. It doesn't take long for her to realize that something is off with George. He barely talks to her, she has to beg him to come see her, and he hasn't kissed her in a week. Liz plans a dinner party for her, Todd, Enid, and George. George leaves the party early, and Enid has to get a ride home with Todd.

This all leads up to some super uncomfortable scene. Enid tells him that he is the only thing that she has to live for and that if he wasn't around, she would have no reason to walk. George drops to his knees and cries about how he loves her and that she has a lot of things going on in her life.

Elizabeth spends most of the book acting super judgmental about how George is a lying bastard, even though she basically lies to her best friend too. Robin starts eating again and gains a bunch of weight. The two girls do meet up, but Liz leaves early because she just can't handle being around her, which causes Robin to gasp eat a whole hot fudge sundae by herself. George also whines about how he loves Robin ever so much and doesn't know what to do.

There's a big dance coming up, and Enid asks George to take her. He clearly isn't having fun, mainly because he can't stop looking at Robin. Enid gives him the chance to dance with someone else, and like a dumb ass, he chooses Robin. Robin then "dreamily" puts her head on his shoulder. Enid blows up and accuses him of being in love with her in the middle of the dance.

Liz is so worried about her friend that she waits until late the next day to talk to her. Enid claims that nothing happened and that Robin means nothing to George. She then says that George could never leave her when she was in a wheelchair and that it's clear she's not getting out of it anytime soon. Cue dozens of pages of Enid not walking and no one understanding why. Her mom even comes to talk to Liz because her doctors can't figure it out.

Since Liz is the only one with any sense, she realizes that it must be psychological. I'll spare you a ton of details. She borrows Teddy from Mr. Collins and asks him to pretend like he can't swim. Enid is sitting outside when he falls into the Wakefield swimming pool and starts "drowning." She jumps out of her chair and pulls him out of the water. Even though Jessica reveals that he's a great swimmer, no one cares.

Enid realizes that she could walk all along and that the doctors were right. She agrees to sit down with George and talk things through. It must go well because at the end of the book, she's fine with him dating someone else and looking forward to dating again herself.

In other news, Lila convinced Jessica to take gourmet cooking classes. Lila quits after a few classes, but Jessica sticks with it because the teacher is super hot. She fantasizes about him falling in love with her, them living in Europe, and her becoming a cooking celebrity. She does so well that he even asks her to join his advanced class. When she finds out that he's married, she goes to the dance with Ken but stays in the class.

Their parents anniversary is coming up, and she thinks that she can finally outdo her twin on something. Jessica comes up with all these plans to make her parents an elaborate dinner. She does a trial run with a seafood salad but pries open the mussels without knowing that it's dangerous and everyone gets food poisoning. Elizabeth then springs two tickets to some fancy dinner show on her parents. Jessica planned to make dinner that night, but they don't want to eat her cooking and make fun of her. They keep picking on her and to foreshadow the next book, she runs to her room and cries about how her family treats her.

*Robin literally only gains 10 pounds, but then she says that the only thing that fits her now is one shirt from her fat days. Seriously? She was so fat that everyone made fun of her, but she can wear some of her old clothes after gaining just 10 pounds?

*Also, people keep whispering about how much weight she gained. It was 10 freaking pounds!

*Liz is such a bitch in this book. She keeps thinking about how the truth will hurt Enid so much, but then she just decides to be quiet. She says that it's up to George to tell her the truth. Yeah, you're a great friend.

*Ms. Dalton is with Mr. Collins and Teddy and making dinner for them. Liz gets really uncomfortable and says that even though she knew they were dating, she didn't expect to see her at his house. Uh, doesn't Todd come over to her house like every day?

*Jessica explains that she's making a cold seafood and pasta salad. Liz makes several comments about how the dish doesn't have a name. What the hell does she think cold seafood and pasta salad means? Not all dishes have some fancy name.

*Yeah, food poisoning doesn't work this fast. They literally just finished eating dinner when everyone gets sick.

*Am I wrong in thinking that Jessica would always check for a wedding ring when flirting with an older guy?

*Poor Ken. He brings her a rose and rushes to get her something to drink, but she keeps thinking about how he's super boring but looks good.

*I really dislike the way Ned and Alice treat Jessica sometimes. They come home late and shout/snap at her about leaving dirty dishes in the sink. When they realize that Liz did it, they're all "oh, something must be wrong. We must talk to her" and don't even bother apologizing.

*There's another scene where they talk about George, and Jessica calls him slime. Ned lectures her on how there are two sides to every story and she shouldn't slander someone. When Liz says she understands where George is coming from, Ned gets all proud of her. Should you really be proud of your teen daughter defending a cheater?

*I'm sorry but cheating is never right. If you're unhappy with someone, break up with them before making out with someone else. These books make it out like George and Enid never had any problems and that he just accidentally fell in love with Robin. Yeah, it doesn't work that way.

*Also, this is the book where the twins get possession of the Fiat. Alice and Ned give it to them because they landed jobs as tour guides and need reliable transportation. Too bad they never actually take those jobs.