Prom Preparation

Prom Preparation
Chapter	7 of 127 (list of chapters)
Published	June 3, 2006 (2006-06-03)
Page count	4
Major characters	Daisy, Mike, Lucy, Yashy
Minor characters	Paulo, David, Sue, Amaya, Katie, Stacy, Three Weird Girls
Locations	Roseville Middle School
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
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Daisy has been put in charge of the Spring Dance, which means polling the whole class on music, and finding out exactly which girls want to dance with Mike. Yashy has strong opinions about the second part, and she delivers them from the sky.

Synopsis

Daisy gathers her classmates to announce that she's planning the Spring Dance, and she polls the room for music suggestions. The answers are all over the map, from David's beloved Weird Al to Paulo demanding something to grind to.

When Daisy gets around to interviewing Mike and Lucy, Lucy shrugs that she doubts she'll even be going to the dance. That's all Daisy needs to hear, and she starts angling for the newly unclaimed Mike on the spot. She and Yashy bicker over him while he cowers, and when Mike begs them to stop fighting over him, Lucy sets him straight. "Who said we're fighting over you? Weirdo."

Sue and Amaya move in next, having heard that Lucy is staying home. Before they can finish asking, Yashy drops out of the sky and flattens Sue with a divebombing chop. She declares that Mike won't be dating either of them, because there's only one person he'd ever want to dance with: "She IS gonna say yes one day, I can assure you!" Mike blushes and says nothing.

Yashy manages Mike's dance card from the air.

Paulo's advice is that Mike should just say yes to everybody and enjoy the harem. Mike instead decides the right thing to do is turn everybody down, and he delivers the bad news to Sue, Amaya, and a heartbroken Daisy. Paulo keeps pushing the polyamory angle until Daisy innocently asks whether his time with Alegria didn't leave him daydreaming about that "one special girl" he could spend his life with. Paulo is mortified beyond words.

Character dynamics

• Mike and Lucy: Nothing romantic between these two has ever been said out loud. Up to now it's all been hints, like Mike going weak when Lucy hugs him. Yashy changes that on his behalf, declaring that Lucy is the only one Mike would ever want to dance with and swearing she'll say yes one day. Mike doesn't deny it, and privately he's already resigned to Lucy not feeling the same way. Nothing actually shifts between the pair on panel, but the crush is now out in the open.
• Mike and his admirers: Daisy's pursuit of "Mikie" is nothing new, but Lucy bowing out of the dance opens the floodgates. Sue, Amaya, and finally the Three Weird Girls all make a play for Mike before the day is out. Rather than lead anyone on, Mike turns the whole field down, and Daisy takes it the hardest.
• Paulo and the group: Paulo spends the chapter playing the crude harem advocate, and Daisy's Alegria question punctures the act completely. The group learns that his stint as a doll-father left him dreaming of "one special girl" to spend his life with.

Trivia & observations

Veronica's 2018 sketch recreating the chapter's "plop" panel.

• Veronica's commentary notes the chapter's first page was drawn in a brand-new notebook dedicated to BCB, and that this is where she decided the comic would be an ongoing series rather than one-off gags. Years later, she said she "always sorta felt like the comic 'started' on Prom Preparation."
• That same page is the oldest BCB page whose original art still exists. The originals before it were damaged in a flood and thrown out, and they survive only as low-quality 2006 scans.
• Asked whether Yashy falling over at the end of the Sue scene was a Condorito reference, Veronica said she didn't directly intend one, "but I'm sure I was super inspired by it!"
• Per Veronica's commentary, Mike's fangirl squad is a running joke rather than a crowd of girls madly in love with him: "They'll be a bit sad, but it's not the end of the world."
• This chapter contains the first appearances of Amaya, Katie, Stacy, and the Three Weird Girls. It's also the only time Sue shows any romantic interest in Mike.
• All four pages went up on the same day, 23 March 2010.

Related chapters

• The Burden of Parenthood: This is where Alegria comes from. She's the screaming baby doll from the Sex-ed project, and Paulo bonded with her hard enough to cry when he had to give her up — which is exactly why Daisy's question lands the way it does.
• Farewell, Middle School: The Spring Dance planned here happens entirely off-panel, and that chapter shows it only in flashback. Mike never went, and Daisy confronts him about it.
• Puppy Love: That chapter replays this one's setup on a larger scale, with Mike again mobbed by admirers and again rejecting the whole field, far less kindly the second time.
• Unfulfilled Fantasy: The pining Yashy voices here gets its fuller context in that chapter, where Mike sorts out his feelings for Sandy against his bond with Lucy.
• Unfit for Education: Sue made her actual first appearance there, and it established Yashy's habit of attacking anyone she takes issue with. The helmets on this chapter's last page suggest her reputation precedes her.