Sweet Valley High

Characters

• Elizabeth Wakefield and Jessica Wakefield are identical twin sisters and the main characters of the series. Elizabeth is sensible and down to earth, being practical and known to be a good listener. Jessica is outgoing and wilder, cares more about fashion and appearances, and is somewhat more devious. Jessica is the typical Valley girl. Both girls are popular with their peers in their own ways.
• Ned and Alice Wakefield are the parents of a son, Steven, and identical twin daughters, Elizabeth and Jessica. Lawyer Ned Wakefield met interior designer Alice Robertson while they were at college and flower-child Alice was engaged to conservative Hank Patman. After meeting Ned, Alice realized that she didn't love Hank and broke off their engagement; she wed Ned soon after. They were said to have been married for 20 years at the start of the series, so would have married in 1963. Ned is a general-practice lawyer and the head of a prominent Sweet Valley firm. Alice works as an interior designer at one of the town's major design firms. Although they are quite comfortable, they do not consider themselves wealthy.
• Steven Wakefield, the twins' older brother, is tall and dark-haired like his father Ned. Although he loves both sisters equally, he's partial to Elizabeth. He teases Jessica, but understands her more than any other member of their family. In the beginning of the series, he dates Tricia Martin, whose family didn't have the best reputation. After Tricia dies of leukaemia, he dates Cara Walker. They plan to marry until she decides to move to London. During the university books, Steven moves in with Billie. He ends up marrying Cara after college.
• Todd Wilkins, Elizabeth's on/off boyfriend, is tall, popular, handsome, a captain of the basketball team and a fraternity member. He has dark-brown hair and eyes. Todd is initially romantically pursued by both Elizabeth and Jessica, but he and Elizabeth date. He is a scholar and an athlete. While Elizabeth and Jessica look alike, Elizabeth and Todd have almost identical personalities. Todd and Liz break up when Todd's family moves to Vermont and Todd eventually becomes romantically involved with the terminally ill Suzanne. He also shares Liz's passion for creative writing and eventually gets a job writing a professional sports column for several newspapers. On Todd's return to Sweet Valley, he and Elizabeth reunite. They repeatedly cheat on one another as well as break up and reunite. But Todd eventually ends up with Jessica. Elizabeth only finds out after she finds them having an affair during her and Todd's engagement. Todd and Jessica eventually wind up getting married and have a son, Jake.
• Enid Rollins is Elizabeth's best friend when they meet in a creative-writing class pre-series, until they grow apart in senior year. 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 since 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 elite 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 abuse. She also has an affair with Todd Wilkins, even falling for him and becoming dependent on him when Mark abandons her. She does patch things up with Elizabeth, but never again are they close friends. 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. She never marries.
• 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 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 each 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 wants to modernize Sweet Valley, while Bruce's family wants to maintain the history of the town, from when canning was the main industry. One of the wealthiest people in town, Lila is a "poor little rich girl" archetype. 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 her parents' remarriage, helped make her more sympathetic. In Sweet Valley Confidential, she is married to Ken Matthews and they're expecting.
• 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 a clerical error leads to his placement in an all women's dorm, where he meets popular sorority girl Denise Waters, arguably the love of his life. Unfortunately, life after university sees Winston transform from a goofy, cheerful oddball into a mean, resentful businessman whose wealth from the dotcom boom can't cure his loneliness. Later he meets Edith and she changes his ways. they later marry.
• Nora Dalton is a French teacher who once dated Lila's father, George Fowler. Later a romance bloomed between her and English teacher Roger Collins.
• Roger Collins is an English teacher who 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 is 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. He is an avid tennis-player and race-car driver. Known for his trademark black Porsche with a license plate that read 1BRUCE1. While Elizabeth and Jessica only look alike, Jessica and Bruce actually are alike—personality-wise. He is as shallow, self-absorbed and materialistic as she is. He once dated Jessica, which ended badly and made them bitter rivals. Later he dated Regina Morrow, who helped him become a bit more sincere, but after her untimely death he fell back into his arrogant routine. Later he dated Pamela Robertson. Despite his arrogance, family means much to him and he becomes very caring toward his orphaned cousin Roger. His parents' deaths softened him and made him more sincere, and according to Sweet Valley Confidential, this leads to an eventual romance with his one true love, Elizabeth Wakefield. But just as Elizabeth seems like she's found the love of her life, he confesses he's in love with Annie Whitman.
• Olivia Davidson is the arts editor of the Oracle and 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 breakup with Bruce 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 boy-crazy gossip. Later, she mellows and becomes enamored of Barry Rork.
• Jeffrey French is Elizabeth's "preppy" ex-boyfriend, the handsome blond 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 is Jessica's close friend. Early in the series she was a notorious snob and gossip, but her parents' split made her more mature and attracted Elizabeth's warm concern. She dated Steven Wakefield for a time and almost ran away to get married so they wouldn't be separated when her family moved to London, but they realized it wasn't practical. Years later they are reunited married, though unhappily. Cara bakes constantly, eating to hide her feelings of hurt at Steven's rejection as rumors of his cheating run rampant in Sweet Valley - and worse when the truth is revealed that he's actually involved with another man, former SVH soccer star Aaron Dallas.
• Ken Matthews is a 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 soon disappears. He is Jessica's steady boyfriend for part of junior year, and also secretly dates Elizabeth after Todd moves away. In Sweet Valley Confidential, he is a famous football player, husband of Lila Fowler, and - as he learns at the end of the sixth book - a father-to-be.
• AJ Morgan is 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 she relaxes enough around him to be herself, and finds that he much prefers her fun-loving, outgoing personality.
• Sam Woodruff is 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. Jessica later felt guilty for inadvertently causing his death, but couldn't confess to her wrongdoing knowing her family will be angry at her.