Sweet Valley High - Characters

Characters

Ned and Alice Wakefield are the parents of a son, Steven, and identical twin daughters, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. Ned Wakefield, a lawyer, and Alice Robertson, an interior designer, met while they were at college. Flower child Alice was engaged to conservative Henry Patman, Bruce Patman's father, at the time. After meeting Ned, she realized that she did not love Henry and broke off the engagement moments before the nuptials were to occur. She and Ned wed soon after. When the series began, they were said to have been married for twenty years; this would place their marriage in 1963.

Their first child, Steven Wakefield, was named after Ned's late college best friend. Shortly after Steven's birth, Ned became a partner at his law firm. Two years later, Alice gave birth to Elizabeth and Jessica, who were named after Alice's ancestors, Elisabeth and Jessamyn. They were the third set of identical twin girls in her family in six generations.

Their children grew into spitting images of their parents. Blonde, youthful Alice is often mistaken for the twins' older sister.

Ned is a general practice lawyer and the head of a prominent firm in Sweet Valley. Alice works as an interior designer at one of Sweet Valley's major design firms. Although they are quite comfortable, they are not wealthy and have no intention of becoming so. They are, however, close friends of heiress Lila Fowler's family, having come to know them better when the Fowlers housed the Wakefields following the massive earthquake that ripped apart Sweet Valley. Alice has two sisters: Nancy, who has two daughters named Robin and Stacey; and Laura, who also has a daughter named Kelly. Laura was divorced from Kelly's father, Greg Bates, who had a violent temper and lashed out at her. Ned's parents live in Michigan, and he has a half-brother named Louis.

• Steven Wakefield, the twins' older brother. Tall and dark-haired, he looks very much like his father Ned. Although he teases both his sisters equally, he is more partial to Elizabeth. He teases Jessica a lot, but ultimately he understands her more than any other member of their family. In Sweet Valley Confidential, he becomes an attorney, like his father and is married to Cara Walker. During the novel, he realizes that he is gay, and is in love with the twins' schoolmate, Aaron Dallas. He cheats on Cara and the two eventually divorce, and for a while, doesn't speak to Jessica who had told Cara that he was gay.
• Todd Wilkins, Elizabeth's on/off boyfriend. Tall, popular, handsome and captain of the basketball team (as well as wide-receiver for the football team in the revised edition) and fraternity member. He has dark-brown hair and eyes. Todd is initially romantically pursued by both Elizabeth and Jessica, but is always more interested in Elizabeth, and they begin steadily dating in "Double Love". He shares many of Liz's intellectual interests and pursuits. He is a scholar and an athlete. He also has a speech impediment. He even shares Liz's passion for creative writing--he starts falling so deeply into it that he begins to neglect basketball, much to his father's chagrin. He is a notably bad cook--making a mess of every single meal he attempts, even when following a recipe. They break up when Todd and his family move to Vermont, and Todd eventually becomes romantically involved with the terminally ill Suzanne. On Todd's return to Sweet Valley, Todd and Elizabeth reunite. They break up again over Elizabeth's infidelity and later involvement with Devon Whitelaw at the end of Sweet Valley High, but reunite at the beginning of Sweet Valley University, only to break up again when Elizabeth won't sleep with him. He then loses his virginity to Elizabeth's good friend Enid while they're at the college looking for sanctuary and companionship. The two are constantly breaking up and getting back together as well as committing infidelity. Liz cheats on Todd numerous times (as does Todd on her, once even with a supermodel) and is later horrified to find out Todd's been having a recurring affair with Jess on-and-off for a while. And Liz finally finds out only after all the wedding plans she's made for herself and Todd. According to Sweet Valley Confidential, Todd eventually marries Jessica and they have a son, Jake. He eventually gets a successful job as a sports journalist and his column is picked up by several papers.
• Enid Rollins, Elizabeth's best friend when they meet in a creative writing class pre-series, until senior year, where they begin to grow apart. Enid is described as pretty, with curly brown hair and big green eyes. As a young teenager, Enid was a problem user of drugs and alcohol, until she was involved in a bad accident; she has reformed and become a model student, quiet, sweet and straitlaced. She is a member of the Pi Beta sorority, but joined only to lend Elizabeth moral support. In college, Enid reinvents herself and begins to use her middle name, 'Alexandra'. She immediately joins an elitist sorority and enters into a high profile romance with big-shot college basketball player Mark Gathers. Life in the fast lane proves too much for Enid/Alex and she eventually suffers a re-occurrence of her substance dependence. She also has an affair with Todd Wilkins. She does patch things up with Elizabeth, but aren't ever close friends again. Later on, in Sweet Valley Confidential, she becomes extremely self-centered and arrogant, becomes a well respected OB/GYN, and has plans to run for City Council.
• Maria Slater In late-series, Maria shares the title of Elizabeth's best friend with Enid. She is a beautiful former child actress and star reporter for the Oracle. Senior year sees her friendship with Elizabeth begin unravel as Liz makes new friends from the school merger but they eventually mend their relationship. Maria holds the distinction of class valedictorian, snatching it out from under both Liz Wakefield and Winston Egbert, who were both considered a shoo-in for the honor.
• Lila Fowler, Jessica's best friend and arch-rival. She and Bruce Patman are bitter rivals, as her family (her father George owns a computer company) wants to modernize Sweet Valley; while Bruce's family wants to maintain the history of the town. This was when canning was the main industry. A "poor little rich girl" stereotype, she is also one of the wealthiest girls in town. The Fowlers and the Wakefields are close friends and even Elizabeth, who usually doesn't move in the wealthier circles, is often friendly towards Lila. At first, Lila is very snobbish and devious, but an attempted rape by John Pfeifer, plus the remarriage of her parents, helped make Lila more sympathetic.
• Winston Egbert, the class clown, had a major crush on Jessica, mainly during the first few books. He dates a girl named Mandy Farmer, who later moves away, and then begins dating Maria Santelli, a popular cheerleader. In college, he starts going by the name of "Winnie" and clerical error leads to his placement in an all women's dorm, where he meets Denise Waters, a popular sorority girl, and arguably the love of his life. Unfortunately, life after university sees Winston transform from a goofy, cheerful oddball into a mean and resentful businessman whose wealth from the dotcom boom can't cure his loneliness. After a night of drunken debauchery, he falls from a balcony to an untimely death.
• Nora Dalton, a French teacher who once dated George Fowler, Lila's father. Later on in the series it was hinted that there was a romance blooming between her and English teacher Roger Collins.
• Roger Collins, An English teacher who also serves as adviser to the school newspaper, The Oracle and is one of Elizabeth's favorite teachers.
• Mr. Cooper, Sweet Valley's somewhat stuffy Principal, nicknamed Chrome Dome because of his bald head.
• Bob Russo, The sternest teacher at SVH, he teaches Chemistry.
• Bruce Patman, a rich, handsome snob. Considered to be a rival of the nouveau riche Fowler family, as he and his old money family want to preserve the town as it was when canning was the main industry. Once dated Jessica, which ended very badly, making them bitter rivals; and for a time, dated Regina Morrow, who helped him become a bit more sincere, but later, after her death, he fell back into his arrogant routine. He later dated Pamela Robertson. Despite his arrogance however, family means a lot to him and he cares about and would protect his orphaned cousin, Roger. The death of his parents leads to a softer more sincere Bruce, and according to Sweet Valley Confidential, this leads to an eventual romance with his one true love, Elizabeth Wakefield.
• Olivia Davidson, the arts editor of the Oracle. One of Elizabeth's best friends. She dies in the earthquake that hit Sweet Valley.
• Nicholas and Regina Morrow, wealthy but down-to-earth siblings and close friends of Elizabeth. Elizabeth did not normally move in the wealthier circles of Sweet Valley, but the Morrows' down-to-earth nature won her over. Regina was deaf, but had radical surgery to restore her hearing; she dated Bruce seriously and helped change his personality for the better. Regina got in with the wrong crowd following her break-up with Bruce Patman and experimented with drugs; she died after snorting a small amount of cocaine, which aggravated a rare heart condition. Nicholas once had romantic feelings toward Liz, but nothing came of it as she had a steady boyfriend, and they chose to remain friends. Liz helped Nicholas cope when his sister died.
• Amy Sutton, Elizabeth's best friend in the Sweet Valley Twins books and then Jessica's good friend in Sweet Valley High. Amy returns in the Sweet Valley High books as a completely different character. Whilst she once shared interests with Elizabeth, such as working on the school newspaper, she returned much more like Jessica, a gossip who is a little bit "boy-crazy". Later, she mellows and becomes enamored of her boyfriend, Barry Roark.
• Jeffrey French, Elizabeth's "preppy" ex-boyfriend, the handsome blonde star of Sweet Valley High's soccer team who disappeared from the series following their breakup. They begin a serious relationship after Todd moves to Vermont, but break up shortly after Todd's return.
• Cara Walker, a close friend of Jessica's. Early in the series Cara was a notorious snob and gossip. Then her parents split, separating her and her brother, and this made her more mature. Her maturity impressed Elizabeth so much that they became friends. Cara dated the twins' brother for a time and then moved to London. Steven and Cara almost ran away to get married so that they would not be separated but they realized this was not practical. Years later, they are back together and married, though unhappily. Cara bakes constantly, eating to hide her feelings of hurt and dismay at Steven's rejection of her: the rumors of his cheating run rampant in Sweet Valley. Worse still, is the knowledge that her husband isn't running around with other women at all. His involvement is actually with former SVH soccer star, Aaron Dallas.
• Ken Matthews, star quarterback and dater of several Sweet Valley ladies during the course of the series. In the first few books, he is called "Kenny" by his friends and teachers, though that nickname disappears fairly soon. He is Jessica's steady boyfriend for part of junior year, and also secretly dated Elizabeth after Todd moved away.
• AJ Morgan, Jessica's first serious boyfriend. Jessica is instantly smitten with the redhead when he moves to Sweet Valley, and becomes shy and demure when he is around, acting more like Elizabeth. Eventually, however, she relaxes enough around him to be herself, and finds that he much prefers her funloving, outgoing personality.
• Sam Woodruff, Jessica's second long-term steady boyfriend and a dirt-bike rider. Sam is killed in a car accident while riding as Elizabeth's passenger after Jessica spikes their drinks with alcohol.