YA book about a rich kid with absent parents and some sort of twisted high school [s]

[Elizabeth]

I read this book in high school. I'm a little bit afraid the story is so trite that no one will be able to figure it out. Here's what I remember:

The main character is a girl, I think, and she becomes friends with this guy in high school. I think she's new to the town, and it's a fancy sort of place.

Eventually she learns that her male friend is a rich kid and his parents are rich hippies or something like that. In the book, I remember him calling them "kids" and that they never "grew up" (the parents).

Spoiler* Someone dies? in a car crash at the end. I can't remember who--not the male friend and not the main character. I think it might be some sort of popular person from the high school, who maybe was friends with protagonist (girl) and then perhaps protagonist did something to betray the popular girl.

I think there is a lot of drinking in this book as well. When the car crashes, the guy in the car is slurring. There may have been a woman in the car with him. I'm not sure if someone dies. They might have. And I'm not sure if it was the boy or the girl, or if I was just a guy alone in the car.

[Marilyn]

Oo, that is going to be a tough one. When you say you were in high school, around what year are we talking? And do you have any sense of if the book was new then?

[Jessica]

Princess Ashley by Richard Peck.

[Elizabeth]

Oh my gosh, that's it! Thank you so much Jessica. I've been trying to remember the name of this book for years.
Cheers,
EKC