Sweet Valley High #17: Love Letters

Publication Date: March 1985

Caroline Pearce is basking in the afterglow of last night’s party at the country club. People finally seem somewhat stoked on her and it’s because she’s been showing everyone the love letters her boyfriend, Adam, has written her. For some reason having a boyfriend has made people dislike her less. Trouble is, Caroline made him up and wrote the letters herself. She’s been taking inspiration from Robert Browning’s letters to Elizabeth Barrett.

Caroline has a popular older sister, Anita, who is always trying to tell her that people would like her more if she stopped gossiping. But Caroline doesn’t see herself as a gossip. She just wants people to have a reason to talk to her. She doesn’t have any real friends, which would be sad if she wasn’t so annoying.

Caroline walks over to the Wakefield house to see if she can get a ride to the beach and Jessica makes Liz send her away. On her way back to her own house, she puts a fallen lid back on the Wakefields’ trash can and while doing so she sees a piece of paper. It briefly occurs to her to leave it in the trash, but she’s obnoxious so she takes it home with her. It’s a photocopy of a letter from Alice Wakefield to some company in San Francisco. Alice has been offered a job there and she’s thinking it over.

Jessica is at the beach with Lila and Cara later when Caroline shows up to irritate them. Jessica gets snotty with her and Caroline reacts by showing her the letter, which she has brought with her to the beach for some reason. Jessica goes home and shows it to Liz, and the two of them beg their mom not to take the job. Dad Wakefield looks at his crying daughters and gets angry and sends them to their rooms. Awesome parenting.

Later that night at the Dairi Burger, Caroline comes up to Liz and her table of friends to apologize for bringing up the letter in front of Jessica and her friends. She’s an idiot. So Liz has to break the news to Todd, Olivia, and Roger that she might be moving away.

Caroline tells her sister about Adam, which results in Anita offering to take Caroline to the mall for shopping and a makeover. She also keeps telling the girls at school about the letters and making excuses about Adam not coming to visit. He supposedly lives about two hours away in Cold Springs.

The twins are trying a variety of schemes to get their parents to stay in Sweet Valley, including asking the tourist bureau to mail them all the pamphlets and brochures they have about how great the town is. Then Jessica calls her dad’s office and says her car won’t start and he needs to come get her. She’s out at Las Palmas Canyon, one of Ned’s favorite places.

The twins prepare a dinner with all the parents’ favorite foods from around town. After dinner, Liz makes the family listen to the play she’s been writing for some drama contest. As fate would have it, the play is about Robert Browning and contains passages from his letters. Jessica recognizes the words from Caroline’s letter and she’s convinced Adam isn’t real. She talks to Lila and they tell Caroline they’re going to throw a party in Adam’s honor next weekend and there’s nothing she can do about it. Lila goes so far as to buy him a bus ticket.

Jessica gets Caroline to read one of Adam’s letters to Liz, who immediately recognizes it but thinks Adam is plagiarizing Robert Browning. Caroline confesses the truth to Liz and asks her not to read her play to the school because then everyone will know she faked the letters. Liz, a pushover, actually considers this even though that would mean withdrawing from the contest.

At home that night, Caroline’s sister asks how Adam’s doing and Caroline crumbles and tells her she made Adam up because she was lonely. Anita has a long talk with her about how to make friends and stop being a know-it-all gossip. Caroline is determined to turn over a new leaf. The next morning she apologizes to a couple people she’s spread rumors about and tells Liz not to cancel her play reading. She has every intention of telling Lila and Jessica the truth about Adam, but when she faces them she loses her nerve. She tells them Adam copied the letters from Robert Browning, but leaves out the part about how Adam doesn’t exist.

Liz spends a stupid amount of time thinking about Caroline’s problem. And now it’s the night of the party. Anita has helped Caroline get ready and she looks amazing. She’s about to announce to the party that she made Adam up when a cute boy rushes in and apologizes for being late. His name is Jerry. Todd knows him from sports and he’s asked him to pretend to be Adam for the night.

Caroline is grateful, but after a couple hours she starts feeling bad about lying to everyone. So she asks Lila to turn the music down and she tells everyone the truth. She runs outside and Jerry follows her. He says he likes her and would like to see her again.

By the way, the Wakefield parents decide not to move to San Francisco and Elizabeth wins the drama contest. Duh.

Notes:

1.     Bruce Patman has been seen flirting with Regina. Liz thinks about warning her he’s a bad guy, but she chooses this situation to mind her own business.

2.     Anita is kind of aggravating. She doesn’t show any interest in being friendly with Caroline until she thinks Caroline has a boyfriend, but then lectures her about being a good friend.

3.     Ned Wakefield’s parenting is pretty terrible. After Alice decides not to take the job, he tells her they should wait to tell the twins as a punishment for not being more supportive. So for a week the twins are worrying about whether or not they’ll have to move.