To the Top

To the Top
Chapter	55 of 129 (list of chapters)
Published	July 7, 2010 (2010-07-07)
Page count	11
Major characters	Sandy, Sandy’s mom, Mike
Locations	Sandy’s house, Modeling agency
Collected in	Volume Two, Omnibus 1
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For once, the comic spends a whole chapter on the other end of Mike’s phone calls. Sandy’s life of modeling contracts, volleyball practice and rote yes-Mom answers looks glamorous from Roseville. Up close, it’s a pretty lonely business.

Synopsis

An alarm beeps and a girl gets up, showers and dresses, kept carefully in silhouette while her mother’s voice hurries her along from beyond the door. She answers every nag with a weary “Okay, Mom.” Only as she ties a blue bow into her hair does the comic show her face: it’s Sandy, and she’s frowning.

She is headed to a modeling agency. Her mother drops her off with a parting mantra of professionalism, loyalty and charisma, which Sandy rehearses all the way down the agency’s portrait-lined hallway. After a time skip, she has the job. Now she juggles school, where her latest exam comes back with a C-, plus volleyball, friends, “and modeling. .. not always in that order.”

The narration over the time skip turns out to be one side of a speakerphone call with Mike. Sandy starts out light, teasing that he’s far too handsome for anyone else to photograph. Soon she’s hugging a framed photo of the two of them as kids. “I really miss you, Maishul..” she admits, mourning the life she had before moving to Rickter. Mike scrambles for a plan. She could come visit, he says, and he’d take her to dinner, show her his school and introduce her to his friends. Sandy says it sounds nice and that she’ll check with her mom.

The next day is presented without a single word. Sandy waves off a classmate’s heart-sealed love letter, runs track, and half-listens to a friend at lunch. When her locker refuses to open, she hits her limit and slams her fist into it as hard as she can. She is left standing as a lone black-and-white silhouette in the empty hallway.

Her mother’s prescription is a shopping trip. Cleared to buy whatever she wants, Sandy tries on an elegant gown, then stalls at a bakery case, eyeing a picture of a thin, glamorous model before walking off with a pastry anyway. That night she tells Mike all about her chocolate tart and offers to have some bonus photos taken just for him. Her smile comes and goes as they talk, and the chapter closes on her gazing aside. “Yeah, wonderful. I hope it makes you happy.”

Character dynamics

Mom-approved retail therapy after a client meeting.

• Sandy and Mike: For the first time, the series shows the relationship from Sandy’s side. Though worn down by her overbooked life, she’s warm with Mike. He is the one part of that life Sandy picked for herself, and the nightly calls plainly keep her going. Most of all, she misses the life they had together before Rickter, and Veronica has agreed that Sandy’s attachment to Mike is “a reminder of happier times before the mantle of responsibility was thrown upon her.” Mike answers her homesickness with plans for a visit. Sandy’s pensive, polite last words leave it unclear how much of her cheer is for his benefit.
• Sandy and her mom: Sandy’s mother acts more like a manager than a parent in her first on-panel appearance. She books the schedule, drills the mantras, quizzes Sandy on her rest, and pays out shopping money after client meetings. Sandy answers it all with automatic yes-Mom compliance. There is warmth underneath, though: her send-off outside the agency (“You’ve done it before. I know you can make it.”) is the one moment the coaching softens into encouragement.

Trivia & observations

• Veronica’s commentary notes that Oliver scripted this chapter, a first for him, while she handled the art. Years later she confirmed on Tumblr that he wrote both this chapter and On Our Own.
• The opening pages are staged so the mystery girl reads as Lucy waking up. Per Veronica’s commentary, she “tried SO HARD to hide that it was Sandy.” One accidental clue slipped through anyway, since the alarm clock beeps instead of ringing like Lucy’s, and Oliver joked that “One day I am going to get Veronica to fix Lucy’s alarm clock.”
• Veronica has said on Tumblr that Sandy’s mother used personal connections to push her into modeling, adding that it helped that Sandy “always bombed in school”. The C- exam rather backs her up.
• Per commentary, the wobbly outlines on Mike’s speech bubbles show he’s coming through a speakerphone, not that his voice is shaky. Veronica notes he’d actually sound elated. Oliver also pushed the gloomy nighttime scene’s colors darker than usual, a choice Veronica liked.
• The magazine Sandy lazily browses during that same call turns out to feature Sandy herself as the model.
• Sandy’s whole school day is told in pantomime, and it ends on the chapter’s only black-and-white panel.
• Veronica and Oliver disagreed over the ending: she first drew Sandy “with a very somber expression” and redrew it when Oliver pushed for something more hopeful. Her commentary adds that the chapter was never meant as a huge revelation about Sandy, just a look at what she does, what drives her, and how close she is to Mike.
• The empty shopping bags on Sandy’s floor come from “Fancy Pants Inc” and “Rich Pplgoods”.

Related chapters

• Unfulfilled Fantasy: The childhood flashback where Sandy first calls Mike “Maishul” and where Rickter gets its first mention. It also shows Mike tutoring her grades from a D- up to a jubilant B-, which makes this chapter’s C- a quiet backslide.
• Just Beautiful: Mike’s proposed visit finally happens here. This time, Sandy is the one working to make the trip “extra special” for him. It’s also the only other chapter where Sandy’s mom appears.
• Model Girlfriend: Much later in the series, Sandy collects on the rest of Mike’s promise. She finally sees his school and meets his friends, greeted by the whole group at the doors of Roseville High School.