Sweet Valley High #2: Secrets

Publication Date: November 1983

Elizabeth’s BFF, Enid Rollins, confides in Elizabeth that she has a terrible secret. She’s afraid it will get out and her boyfriend, Ronnie Edwards, will break up with her. The secret is this: two years ago, Enid’s parents were going through a divorce and it took a toll on her. She started drinking and drugging with her then boyfriend, George Warren. They were stoned on a joyride one day when they hit a little kid. The kid was okay, but it was a wake up call for Enid and she’s been clean ever since. She and George have stayed in touch, and in his latest letter George says he’s coming back to Sweet Valley for a visit and he wants to see her. Enid is worried because Ronnie gets jealous when other dudes even exist around her, and she’s also concerned that somehow the drinking and drug use will come to light when George is there. Ronnie is gonna have a real problem with that.

Jessica is determined to be crowned queen at the upcoming fall dance. Her main competition is Enid, and usually Jessica wouldn’t be too worried, but Ronnie Edwards is head of the dance committee and I guess she thinks that means people will vote for Enid. Jessica, by the way, hates Enid. Aside from being a nerd, a mortal sin in itself, she also takes up entirely too much of Elizabeth’s time and it makes Jessica jealous. Jessica is moping around in Liz’s room one day and she finds one of George’s letters to Enid. Enid had brought them over to show Liz when she revealed her terrible secret to her. Jessica takes the letter and comes up with a dastardly plan.

Ronnie and Enid go on a date but he acts cold and weird all night. He takes her to Miller’s Point, Sweet Valley’s makeout spot, and Enid has to push him away when he gets too rough. He goes off on a rant about how he guesses he’s not as good as George. He says he knows everything and takes her home. Enid can only assume Elizabeth told him her secret and she’s furious with her. I say good riddance to Ronnie. He sucks.

Obviously, it wasn’t Elizabeth who told Ronnie about George. She would never. Jessica made a copy of the letter she found and put it in Ronnie’s locker. Then she goes to a party at Lila’s where Ronnie is sitting in a corner snarling to himself about Enid. Jessica asks him to the dance. Her whole plan is to get Ronnie to help her win queen, and her big reason for that is because she’s sure Bruce Patman will be king and she’s in love with him. If they both get crowned at the dance he’ll just have to notice her. Meanwhile, I’m still fuzzy on how Ronnie can help anyone get voted queen.

Oh, here’s something fun and awful. Jessica’s best friend, the fabulously rich Lila Fowler, is positively disgusted that her father is dating one of Sweet Valley High’s teachers, Ms. Dalton. So she starts a rumor that Ms. Dalton is having an affair with popular football player Ken Matthews. Ms. Dalton stops coming to school.

The day of the dance, Enid shows up on Ms. Dalton’s doorstep to talk about her woes. Ms. Dalton tells her it’s pretty unlikely that Liz was the one who told Ronnie about George. She convinces Enid to go to the dance alone and hold her head high. So Enid is getting ready that night when George Warren shows up at her house. He’s wearing a suit and he’s taking her to the dance. Even though they’ve written letters, Enid hasn’t seen him in two years and now he’s gorgeous.

Elizabeth is cleaning her room before the dance and she finds one of George’s letters sticking out from under her bed. Suddenly she knows exactly what happened and that Jessica is responsible. As revenge, she makes sure Winston and Jessica are voted king and queen. This means Jessica is stuck with Winston at every major school event for the semester. Ha.

Oh, Enid and Elizabeth make up at the dance. Now that George is her boyfriend, Enid doesn’t really care about being angry anyway. The end.

Best outfit: Dana Larson

Here are my notes.

1. Let’s talk about Enid showing up at Ms. Dalton’s house. Throughout the series we see a lot of the students going to their teachers’ houses, mostly Ms. Dalton and Mr. Collins. It seems pretty inappropriate. Also, when I was a kid I had no idea where any of my teachers even lived.

2. When Enid and George were first dating and drinking and drugging, she was fourteen and he was sixteen. Which I guess isn’t unheard of, but seems a little weird. Now he’s about to graduate and go to Sweet Valley College next semester. [Edit: Enid has a sixteenth birthday party in book #6, so she was thirteen when she was dating George.]

3. Speaking of Sweet Valley College, I guess Sweet Valley University hasn’t been established yet.

4. Shout out to Dana Larson’s outfit. Tight black velvet jeans, sparkly pink leg warmers, purple satin blouse.