A Difficult Choice

Mike insists he doesn't have a girlfriend. Lucy calls him a liar, Tess calls it a Freudian slip, and Paulo calls him a cheater — repeatedly, and with a bat. Freshman year is off to a wonderful start.

A Difficult Choice
Chapter	22 of 127 (list of chapters)
Published	September 12, 2006 (2006-09-12)
Page count	5
Major characters	Mike, Lucy, Tess, Paulo
Minor characters	Daisy, David, Yashy, Sandy, Sue, Katie, Gym Teacher (High School)
Locations	Roseville High School
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
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Synopsis

Between classes, Mike is fretting about yet another English essay, but the real trouble starts when the conversation turns to girlfriends. Lucy points out the hallway's mopey emo kids, pleading exes, and brawling boys, and Tess welcomes the pair to high school and all its angst and heartbreak. Her advice for Mike is simply not to get a girlfriend, which Lucy pointedly notes is too bad for him. When he insists he doesn't have one, she rounds on him with open disgust: "You goddamn liar." David breaks the frozen silence with a well-timed "AWK-WARD~!"

English class doesn't offer much of a break. Daisy is delighted to hear that Mike isn't taken after all, right before their Honors teacher announces class presentations. Over in CP English, Paulo needles Lucy about Mike's new ball-and-chain and tries to sneak an arm around her, which gets him hurled into a wall by their twenty-year-old teacher. The crack is news to Yashy, who pops out from behind Lucy and swears to kill whoever has upset her. Lucy insists, with a frighteningly severe glare, that nothing is wrong, and Yashy shrinks into a timid "M-Mom?".

Mike's lunchtime nap goes about as badly as a nap can go.

Lunch is where things really fall apart, once Mike dozes off at the table after a week of late-night assignments. Tess quietly asks Lucy what the girlfriend business is about. Lucy explains that Mike is in a long-distance relationship with a girl he refuses to call a girlfriend, even though she plainly is one and just gave him a lovey-dovey gift. The sleeping Mike, meanwhile, is dreaming of Sandy. He wakes up with his arms around Lucy and murmurs "Sandy?", at which point Tess breaks into a cold sweat and David prances in to sing the reprise.

Tess talks Mike down from his denial afterward, and Paulo makes him pay for it. As far as Tess is concerned, the answer is obvious between the Freudian slip, the dreams, and the bonsai tree Sandy gave him with little figures of the two of them. Mike finally admits that maybe they do have something serious, and that he needs to talk to her. Paulo and David draw a different conclusion. Lucy is now up for grabs, and Mike, having pined after her while a girlfriend waited on him, is a cheater. The guilt trip escalates into punches, a bat, and a whole crowd chanting "Cheater". Sue objects, for all the good it does.

Mike catches up with Lucy in gym class, bruised from head to toe, and she coldly asks whether her new name is Sandy. The bruises soften her a little, and Mike gets to apologize properly. Sandy really is like a girlfriend to him, he says, and it was cruel of him to pretend she wasn't. Lucy looks glum for a moment, then turns away with a "Duh, like I even care" that Mike happily takes as forgiveness.

He doesn't get to enjoy it for long. When he reaches out toward her, a dodgeball knocks him out cold, and Paulo rallies the girls into burying the cheater under a mountain of balls. Lucy stares at the pile for a moment, then picks up a ball and throws it back into the game: "Just let me win this one round."

Character dynamics

• Mike and Sandy: The two have been stuck in long-distance limbo for years, trading letters without ever putting a label on things. Tess's prodding, plus the memory of the bonsai tree Sandy left him in Hot Pursuit, finally gets Mike off the fence. She really did wait for him, he decides, and he needs to talk to her. By the end of the chapter he's saying out loud, to Lucy of all people, that Sandy is like a girlfriend to him.
• Mike and Lucy: Lucy has known about Sandy ever since the letter fell out of Mike's mail in Unfulfilled Fantasy, and his flat denials are what set her off here. Getting hugged and called "Sandy" doesn't help matters. She does accept his gym-class apology, but only from behind a wall of feigned indifference, and she'd rather win the dodgeball round than dig him out. Veronica's commentary on the first page puts it plainly: Lucy is "slowly closing off."
• Tess and Mike: They only met the day before, but Tess slides straight into the confidante role, prying the truth out of Mike one smirk at a time and pointing out that the bonsai was Sandy's answer.

Trivia & observations

• All five pages carry the same publication date. The whole chapter went up on 22 March 2010 in one go.
• This is a redrawn and rewritten chapter, and the rewrite changed the ending's meaning. Per Veronica's commentary, Mike originally "just plain ol' decides he's dating Sandy, without actually confirming it with her". A fan pointed out the problem, so the new version makes it clear he intends to actually talk to her first. Veronica credits the fan with "You changed history!"
• Yashy hears about a girlfriend here, yet Sandy still comes as a shock to her much later. Veronica has since explained that Yashy dismissed the whole thing as a stupid rumour, since nobody ever told her who Sandy was.
• Speaking of Yashy, Veronica's commentary explains that she almost always comes to school with Lucy, riding in her bookbag or being carried, unless she stays home to play games with Blur and Lily.
• David does his "AWK-WARD" bit twice in this chapter, once spoken and once sung, and then never again in the entire comic.
• Veronica admits to feeling a bit bad about Mike reaching for Lucy right after his apology: "it's obvious he still has feelings for her. Rude boy.. this is why Paulo assaults you.."

Related chapters

• Enter High School: This chapter picks up one school day later. That one introduced Roseville High, sorted the gang into their three English classes, and brought Tess to the lunch table.
• Unfulfilled Fantasy: This is the root of Lucy's grudge. A heart-covered letter slips out of Mike's mail, and Lucy learns he's been writing to Sandy for years.
• Hot Pursuit: The bonsai tree comes from here. Mike misses Sandy's visit, and his mom hands him the gift Sandy left behind for him.
• A New Leaf: The very next chapter is the direct payoff, with Mike phoning Sandy to ask where they actually stand. Veronica has said it was made specifically because a fan found this chapter's ending a bit confusing.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: A flashback there restages this chapter's mob, with Mike getting egged while a crowd chants "cheater".