Dance: Discomarathon
Synopsis:
Robin Wilson’s mother calls Liz begging for her help. She says Robin is going to drop out of school because she thinks she’s so unpopular, but a nomination into Pi Beta Alpha would solve all her worries. She stops herself before actually asking Liz to nominate her. Robin comes over to drop off some buku for Jessica. She totally doesn’t mind running errands for her because she thinks she and Jessica are best friends. Liz knows Jessica is never going to nominate Robin, so she offers to do it herself.
So Liz puts Robin’s name up and Jessica, Lila and Cara go to Robin’s house to tell her the news. Jessica tells her to meet them after school the selanjutnya hari to start her first pledge. Robin is so excited she eats an entire ceri, cherry cheesecake. The selanjutnya day, Liz is horrified when she goes to the track after school to find a bunch of other kids watching Robin jogging. She has to do five laps every hari for a week while everyone heckles her.
Robin manages to survive her week of jogging, and her selanjutnya task is to put on a bikini and play bola voli on the pantai on Saturday. She doesn’t think she can do it, but Liz tells her it’ll be fine. She says she and Enid are going with Todd and George and says Robin can be on their team. With Liz’s help, Robin makes it through the day, but her selanjutnya task will be impossible: she has to get Bruce Patman to take her to the upcoming Discomarathon dance. Liz tells Bruce she’ll write an artikel about him for the Oracle if he takes Robin to the dance. He does take her, but then deposits her in the middle of the dance floor and walks away. Robin runs to the restroom, and Liz runs after her. She tries to convince Robin she has a pretty face, but Robin’s not buying it. She runs out the door, determined never to come back to school again. Liz starts to go after her, but Enid says Todd is about to beat up Bruce. Liz wants to stop him, so she gets some nerdy kid named Allen Walters to go get Robin. He catches up to her in the parking lot and gets her to come back inside with him. They dance together and then Allen takes Robin home. Aw, how sweet.
The Pi Beta Alphas hold a vote on Robin, and Jessica blackballs her. The twins meet Robin at Casey’s Place to tell her the news. She doesn’t take it very well. She says there’s “no reason for me to go on,” and leaves in tears. Liz is disgusted with Jessica and she writes an artikel for the paper about snobbery at Sweet Valley High. Robin doesn’t come back to school right away, but Mrs. Wilson calls Liz after a while and says Robin was visiting an aunt in L.A., but she’s back now and doesn’t want to talk to anyone.
When Robin comes back to school, she walks around like a robot, not talking to anyone and being really bitchy and cold to anyone who talks to her. She runs on the track every morning and afternoon, and Liz notices that she’s losing weight. Unable to stop herself from interfering, she asks Robin if she’s starving herself and then says she thinks Robin is just terrific.
So now that Robin is hot and thin, she starts to be less of a bitch. She tries out for the cheerleading squad and is named co-captain with Jessica, Bruce starts following her around everywhere, and she even wins the judul of Miss Sweet Valley High. When she’s crowned football queen, she disses Bruce and asks Allen to be her escort. Good for you, Robin.
My biggest problem with this book is the complete personality change in Robin. When she’s fat she seems mentally challenged (“Omigod, Jessica is my best friend!”). Then she gets thin and acts like a zombie for a while. When she gets over it, she talks about her old self like she’s a totally different person. Ugh, what kind of character development is that?
While we all cinta a good story about retribution and revenge, the B story was pretty interesting, too. Lila’s been shoplifting to get daddy’s attention. It all gets straightened out oleh Liz when mall security gets involved (because even though they don’t like each other, Lila called her first, of course), and everyone lives happily ever after.
Quotes:
“My mom is soooooo excited! She always told me that being best friends with the Wakefield twins could be great for me,” [Robin] gushed.
Of course she did.
She had been awake much of the night, unable to forget her suspicions. Should she confront Jessica about the gifts from Lila?
Really? That kept her up all night? Ah, Liz. anda and your damn morals.
The hari after her confrontation with Jessica, Elizabeth decided to make it up to Todd oleh getting him a special gift for his birthday…She’d get him a really nice new band.
Just what every high school boy wants, a watchband. How special! And how nice of Liz to make up for a fight with Jessica oleh getting a gift for her boyfriend. What?
“You’re too much, Liz. anda know that? anda can’t see the rottenness in anybody! She’s the one who blackballed me.”
“Jessica? No!” Elizabeth couldn’t beruang for Robin to be so hurt, so disillusioned. “She was your friend!”
Wasn’t Liz the first one to point out that Jessica was only using Robin? Sometimes Elizabeth’s twin worship can be a little much.
“If anda never expect too much, you’ll never be disappointed.”
That’s right, Robin. Teach everyone that if they just keep their standards low, they, too, can become beautiful and populer and win contests.
Jessica and the number 137
“Robin can get carried away four hundred and thirty-seven times a day, anda know?” p. 14
“She’s taking about thirty-seven extra courses.” p. 16
“And everybody knows we have thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents in the treasury, so there’s no need for a treasurer’s report.” p. 19
“Maybe if she ran around the track about a hundred and thirty-seven times a hari for the selanjutnya five years, she might lose some of that fat!” p. 29
“Oh, my head is going to burst into at least five hundred and thirty-seven pieces!” p. 50
“If I told her once, I told her eight hundred and thirty-seven times that blimps were not populer people!” p. 83
Nothing but the usual hundred and thirty-seven disasters and boring business and politics. p. 123
“Bruce Patman is the jerkiest person in thirty-seven states and Mexico.” p. 124
“Oh, Liz, that nonsense is about seven hundred and thirty-seventh on my daftar of concerns.” p. 148
