Sweet Valley High #43: Hard Choices

Enid’s grandfather died a few months ago and now her grandmother is moving to Sweet Valley. She gives up her bedroom to move into the unfinished attic. Liz comes over to help her finish moving. Even though she loves her grandmother, she is still a little upset because they can’t afford to fix up her room and she doesn’t even have space for her clothes.

She has dreams in mind of her friendly grandmother, but nana is not what she expects. She complains about her flight, complains about having to walk upstairs to her bedroom and complains about the flowers that Enid bought for her room. She seems better when she wakes up, but still isn’t what they expected. Mrs. Rollins, i.e. Adele, invites her new boyfriend Richard over for dinner. Everything he does seems to rub nana wrong. She thinks he’s an alcoholic because he has bourbon, thinks he orders her daughter around and thinks that he is rude. Enid starts doubting him too because she thinks that her grandmother knows best.

Elizabeth hears about a new documentary contest and decides to enter with a documentary about how great Sweet Valley is. Jeffrey agrees to film and Jessica acts as the narrator. They hold a meeting at Enid’s house, but her grandmother stays in the room. She makes everyone uncomfortable and makes Enid leave in the middle to make her tea.

That pretty much sets the tone for the whole book. Nana expects Enid to do everything for her and Adele keeps leaving Enid in charge. She goes out to dinner with Richard and Enid stays home. She runs errands around town and leaves her daughter with her mother. Enid keeps blowing off her friends and commitments to take care of her grandmother. She’s also unhappy because she and Hugh are having problems yet again. They only see each other on the weekends and they rarely have time for each other then.

Her grandmother sees Hugh kiss her goodnight and complains to Adele about it being improper. Hugh invites Enid on a school-sponsored overnight camping trip. Adele agrees that she can go, but changes her mind at the last second because nana wouldn’t shut up about it. Enid has to cancel on Hugh, he gets pissed and storms off.

The documentary group goes to the television station for an interview and run into Richard. He makes it clear that he’s upset Enid didn’t tell him about a project that involves his station. He offers to let them edit their film on their equipment. Liz points out how nice it was and Enid snaps that he’s only doing it because he wants to get close to her.

Enid makes plans with her friends again to help on the film. Her grandmother decides that she wants to go comparison shopping that night and Adele can’t take her because she has plans with Richard. Nana decides that she absolutely cannot do it after dinner because she wants to watch television, so Enid has to spend the entire afternoon with her grandma at a drugstore.

Elizabeth and Jeffery are editing the film when they hear Adele and Richard fighting. Apparently he proposed, but she never gave him an answer. Enid knows that he proposed too, but doesn’t know what to think. She doesn’t tell her mom because she doesn’t want to get in the middle of it. She liked him before her grandmother got to town and now she doesn’t know how she feels about him.

Richard has a big awards ceremony and asks Adele to be his date. She agrees, but then remembers that Liz is showing the premier of the documentary that same night. Nana decides that she wants to see a movie that same night, but Adele holds her ground. She decides to get their neighbor to spend the night with her mother. Nana rushes off to bed, suddenly feeling sick.

The night of the premier/awards comes up and nana decides that she doesn’t want a stranger staying with her. Adele flips out, but cancels the neighbor’s visit. Nana then decides that Adele must stay with her because she might get sick. Adele refuses because of Richard and leaves with him, apologizing to Enid for going out. Enid once again gets stuck with her grandma.

Hugh shows up and Enid cancels on him. He storms off and she flips her lid. She starts screaming/crying at her grandma for taking over her life. Nana says that she’s disappointed in her, which makes her feel even worse. She drives off in a huff and goes to the premier alone. When she gets home, she finds her grandmother baking cookies.

Nana confesses that she felt bad moving to a new town and didn’t know what to do. She apologizes for being a brat and offers her cookies. Hugh comes back, apologizes and says he should have been more understanding of her situation. Adele comes home and decides to eat cookies and discuss the future later. Nana decides to go back to Chicago and start living her life again, where no one will ever mention her again.

*The whole camping trip pissed me off. Adele literally tells her Friday morning that she can’t go on the camping trip that starts that night. Then, she can’t figure out why Enid is so upset about it.

*Adele tells Richard that she has spent a lot of time with her mother, which is complete BS. She spends the whole book blowing her off so she can be with Richard.

*Richard and Adele decide to hold off on marriage talk until later, but I’m pretty sure this is his only mention in any of the books.

*Winston follows Jessica around with a fake arrow in his head. They all think it’s hysterical and leave it in the finished film, but I have no idea why it’s so funny.