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== Synopsis ==
== Synopsis ==
Lunch starts off innocently enough, with [[Mike]] and [[Lucy]] chatting happily about [[Sandy]] while [[Tess]] and [[Abbey]] mutter their doubts about the long-distance girlfriend from across the table. Mike hears every word and snaps at them. [[David]] leaps to his defense by lovingly describing just how inseparable Mike and Lucy have been for years, which doesn't help matters one bit. [[Paulo]] pops up with a crude question about Sandy and earns a beating for his trouble.<ref name=":c27p1">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p1}}</ref> Tess then goes digging into Lucy's love life, and David springs truth or dare on her so Tess can ask who her first crush was. Mike, still throttling Paulo, scoffs "Oh '''C'MON!''' You already know what she's gonna say!" Lucy blushes and confirms it.<ref name=":c27p1" />
Lunch turns into a game of truth or dare, and [[Tess]] asks [[Lucy]] who her first crush was.<ref name=":c27p1">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p1}}</ref> [[Mike]] scoffs "Oh '''C'MON!''' You already know what she's gonna say!" Lucy blushes and confirms it.<ref name=":c27p1" />


The answer, to everyone's shock, is Paulo. Lucy takes the table back to fifth grade, when Paulo arrived as a transfer student. She expected the new kid to look as weird as his name sounded; instead she spent the whole morning hiding her bright-red face in her arms.<ref name=":c27p2">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p2}}</ref> [[Daisy]] was the one who welcomed him, showing him the playground and applauding his tree-climbing. When Paulo finally came face to face with the shy girl hiding behind Mike, both of them blushed and turned away with a "Hmph!". Then Paulo abruptly bolted. Young Lucy took it as one more sign that something was wrong with her.<ref name=":c27p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p3}}</ref> Back in the present she shrugs the whole thing off: he became much more of a jerk afterwards, so she figures she dodged a bullet.<ref name=":c27p4">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p4}}</ref>
The answer, to everyone's shock, is [[Paulo]]. Lucy takes the table back to fifth grade, when Paulo arrived as a transfer student and she spent the whole morning hiding her bright-red face.<ref name=":c27p2">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p2}}</ref> When he finally came face to face with her on the playground, both of them blushed and turned away, and then he abruptly bolted, leaving young Lucy convinced something was wrong with her.<ref name=":c27p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p3}}</ref> In the present she shrugs it off, figuring she dodged a bullet since he only became more of a jerk afterwards.<ref name=":c27p4">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p4}}</ref>


Paulo is devastated, and he insists on telling his own side. He wasn't rejecting her at all. She was "the prettiest girl I'd ever seen", and he simply panicked.<ref name=":c27p4" /> His flashback picks up in sixth grade, when he was still hopeless around girls. Then a day at the mall put him in front of Aaron, a slick high schooler with a girlfriend on each arm. Caught tailing the group, Paulo reflexively fired off his first flirty line, and to his own amazement it worked.<ref name=":c27p4" /> Making girls swoon felt so good that he practiced on half the school, eventually working his way up to a smitten eighth grader named Alexa. Then he tried his new confidence on the one girl he had built it for in the first place. Lucy punched him in the head and screamed that he was just like all the rest. She stormed off in tears, leaving him baffled on the floor.<ref name=":c27p5">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p5}}</ref>
Paulo is devastated and insists on telling his own side. He wasn't rejecting her — she was "the prettiest girl I'd ever seen", and he simply panicked.<ref name=":c27p4" /> A year later he stumbled into flirting by imitating a slick high schooler at the mall, and soon had girls all over school swooning.<ref name=":c27p4" /> Then he tried his new confidence on the one girl he had built it for, and Lucy punched him in the head, screamed that he was just like all the rest, and stormed off in tears.<ref name=":c27p5">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p5}}</ref>


Lucy softens once the whole story is out, telling him he had nothing to be ashamed of because "the real you is always inside." Paulo is touched for all of a moment, then caresses her cheek with a fresh pickup line and gets flattened by an instant uppercut.<ref name=":c27p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p6}}</ref>
[[File:c27_p6_panel10.png|alt=Lucy uppercuts Paulo, knocking him flat on his back with his feet sticking up in the air, as she says "I've seen enough of him."|thumb|Lucy has seen enough of flirt-Paulo, thanks.]]
[[File:c27_p6_panel10.png|alt=Lucy uppercuts Paulo, knocking him flat on his back with his feet sticking up in the air, as she says "I've seen enough of him."|thumb|Lucy has seen enough of flirt-Paulo, thanks.]]
Lucy softens once the whole story is out. Paulo admits the rejection crushed him, but the other girls still liked the new him, and pride kept him from ever explaining himself. She tells him gently that he had nothing to be ashamed of, because "no matter how much you pretend to be someone else, the real you is always inside." Paulo is touched for all of a moment. Then he caresses her cheek with a fresh pickup line, and Lucy flattens him with an instant uppercut.<ref name=":c27p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c27/p6}}</ref>


Even flat on the floor, Paulo finds his silver lining. It has now been "confirmed", he tells Mike, that Lucy would take him first, and Tess and Daisy solemnly agree. David pronounces Mike "Owned, son." Paulo caps things off with a crack about Mike's imaginary girlfriend, and the two are soon brawling again. Tess calls the whole lunch hour educational, and David swoons over Lucy's great taste.<ref name=":c27p6" />
Even flat on the floor, Paulo consoles himself by needling Mike that Lucy would clearly take him first, and the two are soon brawling again.<ref name=":c27p6" />


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

Latest revision as of 13:12, 21 July 2026

Flirting with Disaster
Chapter27 of 127 (list of chapters)
PublishedNovember 3, 2006 (2006-11-03)
Page count6
Major charactersLucy, Paulo, Mike, Tess
Minor charactersDavid, Abbey, Daisy
LocationsRoseville High School, Roseville Elementary School, Roseville Middle School
Collected inVolume One, Omnibus 1
Chapter navigation
← Left BehindLucy's Birthday →
Read chapter

A game of truth or dare corners Lucy into naming her first crush, and the answer isn't the boy anyone was betting on. Two flashbacks later, the whole table knows exactly how Paulo learned to flirt, and why Lucy hits him for it.

Synopsis

Lunch turns into a game of truth or dare, and Tess asks Lucy who her first crush was.[1] Mike scoffs "Oh C'MON! You already know what she's gonna say!" Lucy blushes and confirms it.[1]

The answer, to everyone's shock, is Paulo. Lucy takes the table back to fifth grade, when Paulo arrived as a transfer student and she spent the whole morning hiding her bright-red face.[2] When he finally came face to face with her on the playground, both of them blushed and turned away, and then he abruptly bolted, leaving young Lucy convinced something was wrong with her.[3] In the present she shrugs it off, figuring she dodged a bullet since he only became more of a jerk afterwards.[4]

Paulo is devastated and insists on telling his own side. He wasn't rejecting her — she was "the prettiest girl I'd ever seen", and he simply panicked.[4] A year later he stumbled into flirting by imitating a slick high schooler at the mall, and soon had girls all over school swooning.[4] Then he tried his new confidence on the one girl he had built it for, and Lucy punched him in the head, screamed that he was just like all the rest, and stormed off in tears.[5]

Lucy softens once the whole story is out, telling him he had nothing to be ashamed of because "the real you is always inside." Paulo is touched for all of a moment, then caresses her cheek with a fresh pickup line and gets flattened by an instant uppercut.[6]

Lucy uppercuts Paulo, knocking him flat on his back with his feet sticking up in the air, as she says "I've seen enough of him."
Lucy has seen enough of flirt-Paulo, thanks.

Even flat on the floor, Paulo consoles himself by needling Mike that Lucy would clearly take him first, and the two are soon brawling again.[6]

Character dynamics

  • Lucy and Paulo: Their whole routine up to now has been Paulo flirting and Lucy hitting him for it.[7] This chapter finally unearths the history underneath. It turns out to be a mutual fifth-grade crush, a panicked flight Lucy read as rejection, and years of silence kept up out of hurt on her side and pride on his.[2] Hearing his side softens Lucy considerably. She offers him genuine comfort, and the uppercut that follows only means flirt-Paulo is still unwelcome. The surface routine carries on, but both of them finally know the truth.[6]
  • Mike and Paulo: The standing rivalry picks up a fresh scorecard. With Lucy's confession on record, the table rules that she would take Paulo over Mike, and Tess and Daisy back it up in deadpan.[6] Nothing deeper changes. Paulo gloats, takes a jab at Mike's "imaginary girlfriend", and the two end the chapter in their usual brawl.

Trivia & observations

  • All six pages carry the same publication date, November 3, 2006, so the chapter went up in one batch rather than as a serialized run.[1]
  • Veronica's commentary reveals that everything from Paulo's flashback onward was rewritten for the Omnibus. The original version tied his flirty turn to the villains of Confrontation, a storyline link she came to find "embarrassing and cringy", so she replaced it with the current, more grounded version.[4]
  • Per Veronica, Lucy whispered her answer in the hope that nobody would catch it. "Mike just has ridiculous hearing."[1]
  • Veronica's commentary under the playground page notes that Paulo transferred in at the beginning of winter, which is why he and Daisy wear coats while cold-sensitive Mike goes without. She also points out that Daisy's fifth-grade crush on Mike, confessed in Humble Approach, can be seen sprouting in that very scene.[3][8]
  • Paulo mentions he came from a city called "Marashino", a rare bit of his pre-transfer background. Maraschino City turns up under both spellings across the series, and one later page manages to use both at once.[3][9]
  • Present-day David wanders into the middle of Lucy's flashback to give her childhood misery a thumbs up and an "Owned!"[3]
  • Paulo's parting shot coins the "imaginary girlfriend" jab at Mike. He keeps it in rotation for years afterwards.[6][10]

Related chapters

  • Left Behind: This is the companion backstory chapter, told from the same lunch table one release earlier. Its final scene shows the older creeps harassing Lucy on her first day of middle school, which is exactly who she means when she screams that young Paulo is "just like ALL the rest!"[11]
  • Lucy's Birthday: Released immediately after this chapter, it's one of the series' short ".1" birthday intermissions, and David's "Owned!" carries right along into it.
  • Feline Festivities: David tries the exact same truth-or-dare trap on Lucy again. This time she isn't falling for it, and says so.[12]
  • Unfulfilled Fantasy: The mirror chapter. Mike named Sandy as his own first crush there, and this chapter is Lucy's counterpart reveal.[13]
  • Happy Hour: The who-would-Lucy-pick argument gets restaged years later at Rachel's party, drunk and with even less dignity.[14]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 1
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 2
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 3
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 4
  5. ↑ Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 5
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 6
  7. ↑ Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 1
  8. ↑ Chapter 25: Humble Approach, page 3
  9. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year's Resolution, page 8
  10. ↑ Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 10
  11. ↑ Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 5
  12. ↑ Chapter 28: Feline Festivities, page 9
  13. ↑ Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 4
  14. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 20
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