A Different Side

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A Different Side
Chapter37 of 127 (list of chapters)
PublishedJuly 4, 2007 (2007-07-04)
Page count16
Major charactersPaulo, Tess, Daisy, Lucy, Mike, Jessica, Katie
Minor charactersRachel, David, Abbey, Sue, Amaya, Yashy, Alec McCain, Stacy, Three Weird Girls, Gym Teacher (High School), Principal
LocationsRoseville High School
Collected inVolume One, Omnibus 1
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Tess's past finally goes public, and the school has plenty of opinions about it. Between a kickball ambush, a pep rally turned riot, and some truly poisonous mall advice, Daisy shows everyone the different side the title promised.

Synopsis

Paulo arrives at lunch ready to declare war on the entire tenth grade, still stewing over an upsetting phone call from Tess the previous Friday.[1] Daisy shows up in her cheerleader uniform, which tips a horrified Mike off that today is a pep rally. Lucy and David gleefully torment the noise-sensitive Mike by screaming about how much they love pep rallies, right up until David wonders "WHY ARE WE YELLING ANYWAY?!"[1]

Gym class is no calmer. Paulo checks in on Tess, who admits she avoided him at lunch out of shame. He scolds her for hiding the bullying from him, and she fires back that he's no better, "RUBBING UP TO LUCY OVER THERE!!"[2] The gym teacher, who has clearly been enjoying the drama, breaks things up with a kickball game.[2]

Kickball is where sophomore Jay makes his move. He bounces the pitch off Tess's leg and claims it counts, then throws her "out" with a ball to the back of the head.[3] Paulo demands to know what Jay muttered afterwards, so McCain helpfully translates it as "He considers your girlfriend a mendacious harlot."[4] When the bell rings, a furious Paulo grabs Tess by the wrist and walks her out past a crowd of hostile students.[5]

Lucy sings with her eyes closed, her face surrounded by sparkles, as everyone stops to listen.
Lucy silences the whole gym, much to her own horror.

During the school song at the rally, the gym teacher glares Lucy into singing, and her voice turns out to be so beautiful that the whole assembly goes quiet to listen. Lucy sinks below the railing in mortification.[6] Daisy, spotting Mike comforting Lucy in the stands, loses focus at the top of the cheer pyramid and falls flat in front of the whole school. She laughs it off, strangely delighted by the attention.[7]

Tess's day bottoms out after the students win the teacher-versus-student games. Shoved on stage for closing words, she is booed, heckled, and hit with a thrown can.[8]

Paulo stands up to defend her, and that's when Daisy breaks. Jessica shouts that Tess is scum getting what she deserves, and Daisy publicly rounds on Paulo: "What about those of us who never NEEDED a second chance?" The crowd roars its agreement, and the rally collapses into chaos.[8]

Later that day, Tess finally tells Mike and Lucy her whole history. Lucy doesn't sugarcoat anything. Tess isn't entitled to anyone's forgiveness, but she does have friends, namely "Mike and Paulo and Abbey and David and stuff."[9][10] Tess quietly notices Lucy isn't counting herself.[10] A battered-looking Jay turns up to apologize stiffly while Abbey glares at him from a nearby hill, and Tess accepts it.[9]

Daisy, bracing for a lonely Easter break, is instead thanked by Jessica and Rachel for sticking it to that kid and swept off to the mall with Katie.[11] When she lets slip that her crush is in a long-distance relationship, the older girls declare him as good as single. Katie's advice is simple: boys get desperate when their girlfriends aren't around, so just be there when it happens — "'Cuz if ya aren't, it'll be that other girl."[12] Daisy thinks of Lucy and protests that she couldn't do something like that. Then she privately decides there are sure to be opportunities after Easter break, and walks off laughing with her new friends.[12]

Critical moments

  • During kickball, sophomore Jay bounces the pitch off Tess's leg and claims it counts, then beans her in the back of the head to get her "out".[3]
  • Forced to sing the school song at the rally, Lucy silences the entire assembly with her voice, then hides below the railing in embarrassment.[6]
  • When Paulo defends the booed and heckled Tess on stage, Daisy publicly turns on him with "What about those of us who never NEEDED a second chance?", and the crowd sides with her.[8]
  • Later that day, a visibly roughed-up Jay apologizes to Tess while Abbey glares at him from a hill. The comic never says who got to him.[9]
  • At the mall, Katie advises Daisy to simply be there when her taken crush gets "desperate", and Daisy starts anticipating opportunities after Easter break.[12]

Character dynamics

Daisy yells "Shut UP, Paulo!!" as Lucy looks on in shock.
The side the title was talking about.
  • Daisy and Paulo: Longtime friends, though Daisy's resentment of Tess's second chance was seeded by Augustus back in Bonding.[13] Watching Paulo champion Tess all day is the last straw, and her rally outburst is aimed at him by name.[8] Paulo ends the day huddled on a hill over it, with Abbey warning him it might already be too late to change her mind.[10]
  • Daisy and the sophomore cheerleaders: Before today, Jessica barely knew who Daisy was ("Daisy, was it?"). Her outburst against Tess buys instant approval, a mall trip, and a whole new social circle for Easter break, with Rachel proving genuinely sweet to her.[11]
  • Daisy and Mike: Daisy has long written her crush off as hopeless, since he's taken. Katie's advice turns that resignation into a plan — be around when the boy gets desperate, or "that other girl" will be. Daisy knows exactly who the other girl is, and by the last page she's musing that there are sure to be "opportunities coming after Easter break.."[12]
  • Paulo and Tess: The two have been circling each other since Tess's kiss in Feline Festivities and her confessional phone call at the end of Under Pressure.[14][15] Her jealous slip in gym drags her feelings halfway into the open, and Paulo spends the rest of the day as her loudest defender. Nothing gets declared, and he denies Jay's "girlfriend" label, but they end the chapter visibly closer.[2][4]
  • Tess and Jay: Jay starts the day as her most active tormentor and ends it bruised and apologizing. Mike figures he'll leave her alone from now on, and Tess accepts the apology while doubting it was voluntary.[10]

Trivia & observations

  • All sixteen pages carry the same publication date, 22 March 2010 — the chapter went up as a single batch rather than the usual page-at-a-time drip.[1]
  • The pep rally speech was heavily rewritten for the remaster. In the original version, Tess got on stage because her family had donated computers to the school, which Veronica later called "super lame". Oliver also rewrote the crowd's jeers.[7]
  • Mike's remark about Lucy's bluntness originally called it "the closest Lucy will get to saying that she likes you". Veronica rewrote the line because it felt like "generic dialogue you would say about a tsundere".[10]
  • Mike's comment that Lucy sings beautifully on "rare occasions" points back to the Spanish lullaby she sang on Tess's balcony in Feline Festivities, which ended in much the same mortification.[16][17]
  • Paulo's "600 laps" grudge refers to the punishment scene in Under Pressure, where the sentence was actually sit-ups. The number 600 comes verbatim from Paulo's own mocking imitation of the gym teacher.[1][18]
  • Katie calls Daisy "Danica", "Debbie" and "Maisy" over the course of a single afternoon. The gag resurfaces years later when she fawns over Sue while calling her "Sally".[11][19]

Related chapters

  • Under Pressure: The direct setup for the whole day. Tess dials Paulo in its final panel, and that call is the one he's still brooding over here.
  • Follow Me: Jessica and Rachel made their debut in this chapter, where Rachel slapped Tess over her brother's ruined soccer career. That grudge is the fuel behind the rally riot.
  • Bonding: Augustus tells Daisy about Tess's past as Roger's girlfriend, planting the resentment that erupts at the pep rally.
  • Rising Temperature: Daisy puts Katie's advice into practice with a "couples only" carnival ticket trap for Mike, and Katie coldly drops her once Easter break is over.
  • Pep Rally: The middle-school original of this chapter's rally, complete with Mike's terror of the noise.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 1
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 3
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 4
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 6
  5. ↑ Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 7
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 9
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 11
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 12
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 13
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 14
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 15
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 16
  13. ↑ Chapter 34: Bonding, page 3
  14. ↑ Chapter 28: Feline Festivities, page 14
  15. ↑ Chapter 35: Under Pressure, page 10
  16. ↑ Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 8
  17. ↑ Chapter 28: Feline Festivities, page 15
  18. ↑ Chapter 35: Under Pressure, page 7
  19. ↑ Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 11
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