A New Leaf

Mike arrives at school grinning from ear to ear, and none of his friends can work out why. The answer turns out to be one long-overdue phone call to Sandy. Daisy takes the news about as well as you'd expect.

A New Leaf
Chapter	23 of 127 (list of chapters)
Published	September 14, 2006 (2006-09-14)
Page count	4
Major characters	Mike, Sandy, Paulo, Daisy, Tess, Lucy
Minor characters	David, Sue
Locations	Roseville High School, Mike's house
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
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Synopsis

Mike breezes past the girls in the hallway with a wave and a peace sign, weirdly cheerful about earning his first late slip of the year. Tess can't make sense of it, pointing out that he was "a complete emotional wreck" only yesterday, while Lucy dryly suggests the previous day's mob of angry girls knocked something loose in his head. The good mood follows Mike into Honors English, where he welcomes a surprise essay with raised fists. Over in English I, David's teacher laughs at his answers before remembering exactly which class he's grading.

Mike comes clean at lunch, after Paulo demands answers and David asks if he got laid — he called Sandy the night before. In flashback, Mike can't bring himself to write and ask whether she's really his girlfriend, so he winds up rereading her old letters instead. At the bottom of one written two years ago, he spots her cell phone number, one he's tried once or twice before without any luck. He gives it one more shot, and this time she actually picks up. The two talk for what feels like hours. When Mike finally works up the nerve to ask what he is to her, Sandy doesn't hesitate: "I LOVE you, Maishul.. What else would you be?" The relationship is now "official", and Mike says it's made him the happiest he's ever been.

Be careful what you wish for, Paulo.

The news lands hardest on Daisy. Realizing Mike really is taken, she bursts into tears and buries her face in Paulo's chest. Paulo freezes up, blushing and loudly conflicted about the whole arrangement. David, for his part, just wants to know why Paulo gets a hug.

Mike also has some thank-yous to hand out, and the biggest goes to Paulo, whose stunt yesterday turned the fangirls against Mike for good. He demonstrates by cheerfully greeting a passing classmate, Carey, who recoils and refuses to talk to an "awful awful cheater". Paulo decides all those spurned girls are now his for the picking and promptly slides across the table at Lucy. Mike grabs him by the tail, flips him clean over his shoulder, and sweetly warns him not to mess with his friend. Daisy wails "WHY DOES HE HAVE TO BE SO COOL!!" while Lucy, unimpressed by the whole show, falls asleep at the table.

Character dynamics

• Mike and Sandy: Sandy has been Mike's penpal ever since she moved away in Unfulfilled Fantasy, and it took Tess's pep talk in A Difficult Choice for him to concede that "Sandy really is like a girlfriend to me". This chapter turns that concession into the real thing. He asks the question outright, she answers with an "I love you", and Mike credits the new "official" status with lifting every burden off his shoulders.
• Daisy and Mike: Two chapters back, Daisy was delighted just to be sharing Honors English with her "Mikie". Hearing about the phone call puts that dream to bed. "So Mikie.. Really is taken.." she realizes, before spending the rest of lunch in open mourning.
• Mike and Lucy: The two only just patched things up at the end of A Difficult Choice, after Mike's sleep-talking "Sandy?" slip and his apology in gym. Now that he's officially taken, Mike stakes out a new position in public: "She's still my friend, and I'm not letting you mess with her ♥", complete with a tail-flip to make the point stick. Lucy herself barely reacts all chapter and is asleep by the end of lunch. Veronica's commentary takes her side of things, pointing out how Mike's treatment of her back in Off to the Movies reads now that he has a quasi-girlfriend.

Trivia & observations

• Veronica has said this chapter exists because a fan found the ending of A Difficult Choice a bit confusing, "so I made 'A New Leaf' to clear things up". All four pages were published on the same day, March 22, 2010.
• Mike goes without his scarf for the entire chapter. He tossed the old blue one aside at the end of Hot Pursuit, and won't wear a replacement until Tess gives him a new one in Left Behind. Veronica's commentary jokes that the scarf "was the source of his depression and trauma".
• The chapter was later redrawn and rewritten. Per Veronica's commentary, Oliver thought David looked like a Goomba in one panel of the original version, and she liked the expression enough to keep it in the redraw, admitting "he still looks a little Goomba-ey."
• Sandy's "I LOVE you, Maishul" makes good on the dream Mike had in A Difficult Choice, where a dream-Sandy told him "I love you so much, Maishul ♥".
• Veronica's commentary offers Daisy's breakdown no sympathy, quipping "I love that Daisy is mourning Mike as if he just freaken died... get in line, Daisy."
• This is Carey's first and only appearance in the comic. Her entire role in the series is refusing to talk to a cheater.

Related chapters

• A Difficult Choice: This chapter is a direct epilogue to it. Mike's sleep-talking slip outed the Sandy situation there, Tess pushed him to finally talk to her, and Paulo's "cheater" campaign is the stunt he gets thanked for here.
• Unfulfilled Fantasy: Sandy moves away in this chapter, promising to write every day, which is where Mike's pile of old letters comes from. The "Maishul" mispronunciation is born here too.
• Hot Pursuit: Mike's failed reunion with Sandy happens here, and it's what left him such a wreck the day before. It's also the chapter where he ditched the scarf he's missing now.
• Enter High School: The gang's first days at Roseville High. The classroom split on this chapter's first page is set up there, with Daisy sharing Honors English with Mike and Paulo winding up as Lucy's English classmate.
• Left Behind: Tess gives Mike his replacement scarf, and Paulo revives the angry-girl "cheater" mob gag for another round.