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== Synopsis ==
== Synopsis ==
On a cold autumn walk, [[Mike]] shivers, [[Lucy]] tells him to wear a sweater, and [[Paulo]] picks a bad moment to offer to warm her up. One smack later he's flat on the ground, and [[Tess]] wonders aloud whether something happened to make Lucy this way. Paulo has no idea, since she's been like this as long as he's known her. Mike, though, is willing to tell Tess everything on one condition: "'''TAKE ME HOME!! IT'S SO COLD!'''"<ref name=":c26p1">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p1}}</ref> Soon he's parked in a bean bag chair at [[Tess's house]], wrapped in a borrowed striped scarf and sipping homemade cocoa. He's so comfortable that Tess has to yell to get the story started.<ref name=":c26p1" />
On a cold autumn walk, [[Lucy]] smacks [[Paulo]] flat for hitting on her, and [[Tess]] wonders whether something happened to make her this way.<ref name=":c26p1">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p1}}</ref> [[Mike]] offers to tell Tess everything if she takes him home out of the cold.<ref name=":c26p1" /> Soon he's settled at [[Tess's house]] in a borrowed scarf and begins the story of Lucy.<ref name=":c26p1" />


Mike's story starts back in preschool, where Lucy only ever wanted to play with his toys. He told her that was weird for a girl, and she turned fiercely competitive and clingy in response. Kindergarten split them into different classes, and a ribbon-wearing girl soon invited Lucy to play Pretty Princess Adventure.<ref name=":c26p2">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p2}}</ref> Lucy drove a toy car over the dolls and offered the survivors a ten-buck ride to the castle, which got her banished from the group. The boys playing cars wouldn't have her either ("Cooties!! Eww!!"), so she spent playtime alone, which Mike says only reminded her of how alone she felt.<ref name=":c26p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p3}}</ref>
Mike's story starts in preschool, where Lucy only ever wanted to play with his toys.<ref name=":c26p2">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p2}}</ref> Kindergarten split them into different classes, and a ribbon-wearing girl invited Lucy to play Pretty Princess Adventure.<ref name=":c26p2" /> Lucy drove a toy car over the dolls and got banished from the group.<ref name=":c26p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p3}}</ref> Rejected by the boys too, she spent playtime alone.<ref name=":c26p3" />


[[File:c26_p3_panel4.png|alt=Lucy's toy car drives over the princess dolls as she shouts "Taxi's here!"|thumb|Lucy's taxi service charges ten bucks a ride to the castle.]]
[[File:c26_p3_panel4.png|alt=Lucy's toy car drives over the princess dolls as she shouts "Taxi's here!"|thumb|Lucy's taxi service charges ten bucks a ride to the castle.]]
First grade put the two of them back together, much to Mike's dismay. He wanted his self-appointed rival gone, and told her so, but he always gave in. Over the years they grew genuinely close. At lunch one day Lucy admitted she had no other friends, boys being mean and girls being stupid, but said she wasn't lonely anymore. "We're friends, right?" It was the first time Mike really saw her smile.<ref name=":c26p4">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p4}}</ref>
First grade put them back together, and though Mike wanted his clingy rival gone, he always gave in.<ref name=":c26p4">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p4}}</ref> At lunch one day Lucy said she wasn't lonely anymore — "We're friends, right?" — the first time Mike really saw her smile.<ref name=":c26p4" /> Then [[Sandy]] arrived, Mike fell head over heels, and Lucy spent the whole year isolated, resolving not to need anyone.<ref name=":c26p4" /> On her first day of middle school, older strangers cornered her with catcalls.<ref name=":c26p5">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p5}}</ref> Badly shaken, she refused Mike's help and cracked her knuckles, the beginning, Mike says, of the Lucy Tess knows.<ref name=":c26p5" />


Then third grade brought [[Sandy]], and Mike fell head over heels. Lucy spent that whole year isolated, refusing Sandy's repeated invitations to play and getting no encouragement from Mike, until she tearfully resolved not to need anyone at all.<ref name=":c26p4" /> Around then she found an egg near a bush, and [[Yashy]] became the first of the pets she poured all her trust into. When Sandy left, Lucy took Mike back without hesitation.<ref name=":c26p5">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p5}}</ref>
Back in the present, Tess calls young Mike a real jerk but tells him to keep the scarf.<ref name=":c26p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p6}}</ref> Walking home, Mike finds Paulo still lying where Lucy left him.<ref name=":c26p6" /> Paulo puts two and two together and radios, "Calling all girls. We got a cheater on the premises. Over."<ref name=":c26p6" /> A mob of furious girls chases Mike off as Paulo cackles that this never gets old.<ref name=":c26p6" />
 
The story ends on Lucy's first day of middle school, where older strangers cornered her in the hallway with catcalls. Badly shaken, she refused Mike's help and cracked her knuckles instead, promising to be ready for the creeps next time. That, Mike says, was the beginning of the Lucy that Tess knows.<ref name=":c26p5" />
 
Back in the present, Tess's verdict is that young Mike was a real jerk. Mike points out that he was nine, and would like some slack. The bad times are long over anyway, he says, and Lucy has other friends now, even if she'd never admit it. Tess tells him to keep the scarf. Mike heads home admiring the autumn leaves, thinking over everything the year has brought him.<ref name=":c26p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c26/p6}}</ref>
 
He doesn't get far before he finds Paulo, still lying where Lucy left him and grumbling that nobody helped him up. Paulo tells Mike he looks like Harry Potter, then puts two and two together about Tess giving him a scarf. Out comes the walkie-talkie: "Calling all girls. We got a cheater on the premises. Over." A mob of furious girls chases Mike off screaming, while Paulo cackles that this never gets old.<ref name=":c26p6" />


== Character dynamics ==
== Character dynamics ==

Latest revision as of 13:12, 21 July 2026

Left Behind
Chapter26 of 127 (list of chapters)
PublishedOctober 20, 2006 (2006-10-20)
Page count6
Major charactersMike, Lucy, Tess, Paulo
Minor charactersYashy, Sandy, Flower Girl
LocationsTess's house
Collected inVolume One, Omnibus 1
Chapter navigation
← Humble ApproachFlirting with Disaster →
Read chapter

Why is Lucy the way she is? Tess wants to know, and Mike is willing to tell her everything — for the price of a warm house and some cocoa. A childhood's worth of history later, Mike walks home with a brand new scarf.

Synopsis

On a cold autumn walk, Lucy smacks Paulo flat for hitting on her, and Tess wonders whether something happened to make her this way.[1] Mike offers to tell Tess everything if she takes him home out of the cold.[1] Soon he's settled at Tess's house in a borrowed scarf and begins the story of Lucy.[1]

Mike's story starts in preschool, where Lucy only ever wanted to play with his toys.[2] Kindergarten split them into different classes, and a ribbon-wearing girl invited Lucy to play Pretty Princess Adventure.[2] Lucy drove a toy car over the dolls and got banished from the group.[3] Rejected by the boys too, she spent playtime alone.[3]

Lucy's toy car drives over the princess dolls as she shouts "Taxi's here!"
Lucy's taxi service charges ten bucks a ride to the castle.

First grade put them back together, and though Mike wanted his clingy rival gone, he always gave in.[4] At lunch one day Lucy said she wasn't lonely anymore — "We're friends, right?" — the first time Mike really saw her smile.[4] Then Sandy arrived, Mike fell head over heels, and Lucy spent the whole year isolated, resolving not to need anyone.[4] On her first day of middle school, older strangers cornered her with catcalls.[5] Badly shaken, she refused Mike's help and cracked her knuckles, the beginning, Mike says, of the Lucy Tess knows.[5]

Back in the present, Tess calls young Mike a real jerk but tells him to keep the scarf.[6] Walking home, Mike finds Paulo still lying where Lucy left him.[6] Paulo puts two and two together and radios, "Calling all girls. We got a cheater on the premises. Over."[6] A mob of furious girls chases Mike off as Paulo cackles that this never gets old.[6]

Character dynamics

  • Mike and Tess: Tess is still fairly new to the group and can't get Lucy to say a word about herself, so Mike becomes her way in.[1] He trades the whole history for shelter from the cold, and she repays him with cocoa, a bean bag chair, and eventually the scarf itself, upgraded from a loan to an outright gift. By the end of the visit the two are proper confidants.[6]
  • Tess and Lucy: Tess starts the day with no way to find out what made Lucy so guarded, and ends it knowing more of her history than anyone else in the newer crowd.[1] The shift is entirely one-sided, though, since Lucy herself has no idea anything changed.[6]
  • Mike and Lucy: Nothing changes between them in the present. What the chapter does instead is lay out their whole shared history for the first time, from preschool rivalry to first friendship to the Sandy-era rift and back.[2] Mike's own summary is a generous one: "She has other friends now, even if she wouldn't ever admit to it."[6]

Trivia & observations

  • Veronica's commentary under the first page says Tess threatening to kick Paulo's ass was inspired by a Pchat with Lily, which she used to develop Tess's personality.[1]
  • The scarf has a long life ahead of it. Mike wears it to Tess's Christmas party in Feline Festivities, keeps it until Sandy swaps it out for a blue one in Just Beautiful, and years later Tess teases him for no longer wearing the present she picked out.[6][7][8][9] The commentary under the final page frames the gift hopefully, wondering whether "the orange and yellow scarf can make him.. happy? Maybe?"[6]
  • This is the only time Yashy's origin is shown on-panel. Veronica has said the pets were inspired by wanting Lucy to hold cute little animals, like Misty's Togepi in Pokémon and the baby Yoshis in Super Mario World.[5][10]
  • Flower Girl has a background cameo in the kindergarten flashback, chronologically her earliest in-story appearance, though her publication debut came in Pep Rally.[2][11]
  • Per Veronica's commentary under the second page, the original version of the chapter spelled "Kindergarten" as "Kindergarden", a mistake editors later corrected.[2]
  • All six pages went up on the same day, March 22, 2010, rather than page by page.[1]

Related chapters

  • Flirting with Disaster: The very next chapter is this one's companion piece, with another childhood flashback filling in Lucy and Paulo's history, including his arrival as a new student in fifth grade. That puts Paulo around for about a year before the middle-school turn Mike describes here.
  • Feline Festivities: Mike returns to Tess's house for her Christmas party wearing the scarf she gave him in this chapter, and admits he was too cold to pay attention on his first visit. It's also Lucy and Yashy's first look at the mansion.
  • Unfulfilled Fantasy: The third-grade Sandy era gets a full chapter of its own here, told from Mike's side, right down to the goodbye that this chapter covers in half a sentence.
  • A Difficult Choice: The girl-mob cheater gag got its start in this chapter, with Paulo whipping up a crowd against Mike. By this chapter's final page it's an acknowledged running bit.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 1
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 2
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 3
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 4
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 5
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 6
  7. ↑ Chapter 28: Feline Festivities, page 4
  8. ↑ Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 25
  9. ↑ Chapter 77: Study Buddy, page 12
  10. ↑ . 2021-02-21 https://bittersweetcandybowl.tumblr.com/post/643684785814994944/hi-why-did-you-get-rid-of-the-pets-in-the-comic. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ Chapter 11: Pep Rally, page 2
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