Rising Temperature

Rising Temperature
Chapter	38 of 129 (list of chapters)
Published	May 27, 2007 (2007-05-27)
Page count	14
Major characters	Mike, Abbey, Daisy, Paulo, Augustus
Minor characters	Tess, Lucy, Sue, Amaya, Katie, Stacy, Kevin, Janet, Molly
Locations	Roseville High School, Abbey’s house, Roseville Park, Daisy’s house
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
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Paulo’s forgotten essay lands the boys at Abbey’s house, where Mike gets a crash course in his classmate’s home life and very nearly a fistfight. Meanwhile, Daisy’s awful afternoon ends with someone holding her hand, and a very bad idea taking shape.

Synopsis

At lunch, Paulo realizes he never started the English essay due tomorrow, and Abbey grudgingly agrees to tutor him at his house once Mike offers to come along.

After school, Daisy hunts down Katie, convinced their Easter-break outings made them friends. Katie publicly sets her straight, sneering that Daisy is “not exactly in my, like, league”, and Abbey witnesses the whole thing.

At Abbey’s house, the boys discover that Abbey’s parents are a cat, Kevin, and a dog, Janet. Paulo is still doing the arithmetic on that pairing when Mike snaps “HE’S ADOPTED YOU IDIOT”.

That evening, Mike stays behind after Paulo leaves, but he and Abbey are soon arguing. When Mike defends Paulo, Abbey rounds on him for only paying attention to girls he has a crush on and not even knowing Daisy was in tears today. The argument turns physical when Abbey throws a punch. Mike vents his resentment of Lucy’s dependence: “You think I wouldn’t cut her off if I could?!” It takes Abbey’s little sister Molly, in tears between them, to stop the fight, pleading that if Abbey goes to the hospital he might not come back.

Daisy, meanwhile, drifts through a crowded plaza, feeling like the only one without weekend plans, until a hand closes around hers. It belongs to Augustus, half-hidden behind a pillar. He talks her past every objection, and Daisy’s resentment pours out over Sandy, who was her own best friend before Mike came along. Then Daisy declares that “Sandy doesn’t deserve him”, and for a moment even Augustus looks unsettled. That evening, Mike apologizes when Daisy passes him in the park and walks her home. Outside Daisy’s house, she asks him to the carnival’s couples-only night, insisting it doesn’t have to mean anything. Mike squirms, then agrees. Once he’s gone, Daisy pumps her fist in triumph, and Augustus watches from afar as she thinks, “It’ll be a night you’ll never forget.. .. my love”

Character dynamics

Augustus turns up exactly when Daisy is at her loneliest.

• Mike and Abbey: Before today they were barely more than classmates, and Mike didn’t even know Abbey was adopted. During the essay session, Mike gets his first look at Abbey’s family. As they fight, each boy exposes his rawest nerve to the other — Abbey’s protectiveness of Daisy and Mike’s exhaustion with carrying Lucy. They part with mutual apologies, and Mike spends the walk home ashamed of how little he ever noticed about Abbey’s life. Veronica’s commentary takes neither side, noting Mike “isn’t a horrible person.. nor is Abbey.”
• Mike and Daisy: Daisy has been skipping lunch and feeling abandoned for weeks, while Mike never once wondered where she’d gone. Abbey was the only one who noticed. Abbey’s tirade is what finally makes Mike look. He seeks Daisy out, apologizes, and walks her home. Just like that, they patch up the friendship. But Daisy immediately compromises it by selling the carnival as “just as friends” while privately planning something rather different.
• Daisy and Augustus: Back in Bonding, Augustus offered to make Daisy feel like the most desirable girl in the world, and she fled, unable to let go of Mike. This time he steers her toward Mike instead, patiently dismantling every scruple she raises. Daisy goes further than he bargained for. Her cold verdict on Sandy visibly worries him.
• Daisy and Katie: The friendship only ever existed on Daisy’s side. Katie could barely remember her name when the older girls recruited her. Katie ends the illusion publicly and cruelly, and the humiliation is what sends Daisy drifting into Augustus’s reach.

Trivia & observations

• Veronica’s commentary under the final page notes readers “don’t have to wait a week for it” and calls the chapter a lead-in to “a season finale of sorts.”
• Kevin and Janet were originally written as Abbey’s foster parents. Veronica later rewrote it so that, four years on, Abbey is fully adopted: “They’re his parents!”
• Paulo’s confusion establishes that cats and dogs can’t have children together in the BCB universe. Veronica’s commentary confirms it’s “just a matter of what kind of ANIMAL you are” and notes the roadblock will matter for one relationship down the line.
• This chapter is the first appearance of Kevin, Janet and Molly, and the first time the comic confirms Abbey is adopted.
• Katie has used the “ugly duckling” jab before. She aimed the same insult at Lucy back in Catty Remarks.
• Daisy’s outburst that Mike took Sandy “when she was MY best friend” is the first time the comic mentions the two were ever close. The authors have confirmed on Tumblr that Daisy and Sandy really were childhood friends.

Related chapters

• A Different Side: Katie and the older girls take Daisy in over Easter break, creating the “friendship” that Katie disowns here.
• Bonding: The earlier offer behind Augustus’s “I’ve told you what you can do” scared Daisy off over her feelings for Mike.
• Love My Way: Published immediately afterwards. Paulo and Tess go to prom, while Mike and Daisy go on their carnival date, where Mike ends up quoting Daisy’s own “just as friends” line back at her.
• Moving On: On the opening page, Augustus reports to Toby and Alejandro, and he isn’t happy that Daisy got pulled into it.
• At Loose Ends: The reason for Molly’s fear finally comes out here. The children’s mother Charlotte went into the hospital and never came back, and the kids were never told the truth.