Sweet Valley High #4: Power Play

Publication Date: January 1984

There’s a lot going on here, so buckle up.

This book is about Robin Wilson. Robin has two main character traits: she’s fat and she’s delusional. She comes over to the Wakefield house to drop off some of Jessica’s dry cleaning, which she does because she thinks Jessica is her best friend, and she eats two candy bars over the course of three pages. Jessica isn’t home, so Robin gushes to Liz about how great and terrific the twins are. Jessica has been promising Robin she’ll put her up for membership in Pi Beta Alpha and Robin asks Liz to remind her to do it at the next meeting. There’s no way in the world Jessica would ever do such a thing, so Liz says she’ll put Robin’s name in herself. This sends Robin effervescing again about how wonderful both twins are. It’s...well, it’s a lot.

Jessica is predictably furious at Liz. The Pi Beta girls are surprised when Liz nominates Robin, but they don’t dare oppose a Wakefield, especially since Jessica is somehow president of the sorority now. Jessica, Lila, and Cara go to Robin’s house after the meeting to give her the good news and tell her to meet them the next day after school for her first pledge. Robin is so excited to see them that she keeps offering them food. After they leave, Robin eats an entire cherry cheesecake. Because she’s fat, don’t forget.

Jessica, Lila, and Cara are horrible. Robin’s first pledge task is to run around the school track five times a day for a week. Her second task is to wear a bikini to the beach and play volleyball with everyone. She gets through both of those with encouragement from Liz, Todd, and Enid. But her final task is to get Bruce Patman to take her to the Discomarathon. These kids have entirely too many dance parties.

Elizabeth tells Bruce she’ll write an article for The Oracle about his awesome tennis skillz if he’ll take Robin to the dance. He agrees in a weird 1940s gangster parlance and says, “I want my picture in, see! A big one!” Which I found amusing. Unfortunately, when they get to the dance Bruce deposits Robin in the middle of the dance floor, asks anyone if they want to steer the Queen Mary around, and walks out. It’s not exactly Carrie but it’s pretty bad.

Robin runs out and Liz goes after her. She wants to stop Todd from beating up Bruce, so she enlists the help of the first person she runs into, Allen Walters, a tall and shy photographer for the school paper. She sends Allen after Robin, and after some initial yelling on Robin’s part about how much everything sucks, they talk a little and agree to go back into the dance together. They share a clumsy dance and Allen walks her home. Which is nice.

In other news, Lila has been giving Jessica all kinds of expensive gifts lately. Elizabeth is suspicious because Lila isn’t generally a sharer. Liz goes to the mall one day and while she’s checking out Lisette’s, the super expensive designer store, she sees a scarf just like one that Jessica got from Lila. She asks the store clerk about it and finds out the scarf is exclusive to Lisette’s and it could not have come from Lila’s aunt in New York or whatever Jessica had told her. And now the lady at the store is suspicious of Elizabeth, and Elizabeth thinks Jessica has been shoplifting.

So Liz stays up all night fretting about it. Then she worries about it all the next day. She only stops worrying about it when she gets to the Pi Beta meeting where they’ll be voting on pledges. They pass around a red lacquered box in a grand ceremonious manner and put in white marbles for yes, or black for no. Suzanne Hanlon gets all white marbles (you’ll meet her another time). Robin, unfortunately, gets one black marble. And that’s that, she can’t be in the sorority.

Everyone is shocked. What an embarrassing thing this is! They all voted for Robin because they think Jessica is friends with her and they don’t know who the traitor is in their mist who would betray their beloved president. Obviously, it was Jessica. She and Liz meet with Robin at the mall to tell her the news and...it does not go well. Robin runs out wailing dramatically about how she just can’t go on.

Liz is disgusted at Jessica and she writes an article for the paper about snobbery. Jessica is furious. Robin stops coming to school. After a few days, Mrs. Wilson calls Liz to tell her Robin was visiting an aunt in LA and she’s back now, but she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.

Liz takes a break from worrying about everything and goes to the mall to buy Todd a nice new band for his watch. While there, she sees Lila at Lisette’s putting a bracelet in her pocket. Stunned, Liz follows Lila and watches her get in her car and leave, and then she goes back to the jewelry store for some reason. The sales lady has noticed the missing bracelet, and when she sees Liz she starts yelling. Liz runs away and goes home to worry some more.

Robin is back in school and she’s gone weird. She walks around staring through everyone, not speaking to anyone, and she’s running the track again every day before and after school. She’s still wearing tent dresses but Liz notices that she’s eating healthy at lunch and she’s losing weight. She takes it upon herself to tell Robin she hopes she isn’t starving herself. Robin says she wouldn’t give the PBAs the satisfaction. Liz says, “Oh, Robin, I think you’re terrific.” So that’s one less thing for Liz to worry about.

Liz gets a call that night from Lila saying Jessica has been arrested for shoplifting. She meets Lila in the mall parking lot and Lila is freaking out. She starts talking about how her dad never spends time with her and Liz figures out she’s trying to get his attention. She makes Lila go in with her to tell the truth. Lila insists that Jessica can’t know anything, so Liz tells the mall cops to take her instead and tells Jessica to wait in the car. Lila starts to speak and then just faints. Her dad shows up and straightens things out. When he tells Liz he owes her a favor, she just tells him to spend more time with Lila.

Liz goes with Lila and her dad to court the next day as a character witness, which seems really fast. Lila is on six months probation but otherwise she faces no consequences. They all go have an expensive dinner and Jessica just about dies when she sees Liz get dropped off by the Fowlers’ limo. Liz, ever the honest one, will not tell Jessica anything and it’s driving Jess crazy.

Liz, finally able to stop worrying about everyone, starts digging into The Oracle work she’s behind on. While writing a thing about cheerleading tryouts, she’s shocked to see Robin’s name on the list of hopefuls. Robin is hot now. Once she reaches her goal weight she stops wearing tent dresses and gets some stylish clothes that fit. All the boys, including Bruce Patman, are falling all over themselves whenever they see her. She slowly stops being a weird zombie and she and Liz are becoming good friends.

Now that she’s thin, Robin is suddenly an amazing cheerleader even though she’s never done anything athletic in her life besides run the track for the last few weeks. She makes the squad immediately and for some reason is made co-captain with Jessica. You can imagine how Jessica feels about that. Now the question is who’s going to be crowned football queen at the Big Game against Palisades High. Lol, football queen. Jessica assumes she’s going to get all the votes. Until, that is, everyone sees the dramatic sign Robin posts at school saying the Pi Betas blackballed her and are now trying to forbid any non-members from running for queen. The PBAs are baffled because for once they didn’t actually do the thing they’re being accused of.

The queen is announced at halftime of the Big Game. To my utter lack of shock, Robin wins the crown. Traditionally, the queen and her date ride a lap around the field in a limo. Robin asks Bruce if she can ride in his Porsche instead. He loves the idea, until Robin announces that her escort is Allen Walters, remember him from the beginning of the book?

So Robin is football queen! She has a boyfriend! Sweet Valley wins the game! Liz gets a story about the game published in the Sweet Valley News! All is right with the world. The End.

Notes:

Best Outfit: Lila

That was a lot.

1. Elizabeth is too much. The constant worrying, my god. She also just keeps inserting herself into Robin’s life even when she’s clearly not wanted. At the first dance when Robin runs out, Liz follows her to the bathroom and tells her what a pretty face she has. Which, of course, overweight people just love hearing.

2. Fifteen years ago when I first blogged about this book, I had never been overweight in my life. Things have changed since then. I’m middle aged and I’ve gained a lot of weight and I can’t seem to get rid of it. I only mention this because Robin’s new regular lunch is lettuce leaves, two tomato slices, and a hard-boiled egg, and my refusal to eat like that is probably why I can’t lose weight.

3. I don’t even know how to process the fact that Robin’s entire personality changes from one end of this book to the other. I know the cruelty she experienced at the hands of the snobs messed her up, but the difference is a little over the top.

4. Best outfit goes to Lila: bright green skin tight pants and a loose striped blouse that “looked like it could accommodate two people.”