Farewell, Middle School

Farewell, Middle School
Chapter	18 of 127 (list of chapters)
Published	August 9, 2006 (2006-08-09)
Page count	6
Major characters	Mike, Lucy, Paulo, Daisy, David, Yashy
Minor characters	Flower Girl, Katie, Stacy, John, Sue, Amaya, Sex-Ed Teacher
Locations	Roseville Middle School, Prom Venue
Collected in	Volume One, Omnibus 1
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Middle school goes out in style. David floods the hallway with chocolate ice cream, the teachers deliver some memorable goodbyes, and Mike gets placed into Honors English whether he likes it or not. A summer time skip at the end carries the whole cast toward high school.

Synopsis

The Monday after prom, David wanders in bandaged and black-eyed after finally dancing with his crush, Flower Girl, who got dizzy and accidentally threw him through a window. His own review of the evening is "I think I got laid." Paulo fared worse, chased off in tears when David caught him making a move on Flower Girl. As the bell rings, Mike lingers behind, musing that maybe he really should sit back and enjoy what he has here.

The last day of school opens on David's senior prank, a river of chocolate ice cream through the hallway that Yashy floats blissfully down. Next year's placements put Mike into Honors English without being asked, right alongside a delighted Daisy. Lucy teasingly congratulates "Maishul" on the news, borrowing the pet name Sandy coined in Unfulfilled Fantasy, and the janitor mops the flustered Mike straight into the ice cream.

David's farewell gift to the school suits Yashy just fine.

At the final bell, Mike and Lucy move in for a hug, but Lucy kicks his cane out from under him instead, telling him "It's unfair to your girlfriend."

Calendar pages flip past June and July, and Mike, his leg healed, dozes under a tree over his Honors reading of 1984. Lucy sits down to needle him, with Daisy, Paulo and David trailing in behind her. For once, Mike catches himself thinking he's never been so happy to have these guys around. Lucy gets the chapter's last word: "I THOUGHT THE POINT OF SUMMER VACATION WAS TO GET A BREAK FROM THESE IDIOTS"

Character dynamics

• David and Flower Girl: Until now, David's crush was strictly a background gag, and the two had shared exactly one scene, an accidental run-in back in Pep Rally. At prom he finally gets his dance, she happily plays along, and he defends her from Paulo with a single growl. Nothing comes of it on-page afterwards, but Veronica's commentary teases that "Perhaps David's crush is not truly random.."
• Mike and the friend group: Mike starts the chapter merely tolerating his friends, resolving on Monday morning to sit back and enjoy what he's got. The plan pays off under the summer tree, where being stalked, teased and lectured somehow leaves him genuinely content.
• Yashy and Daisy: Yashy's campaign against Daisy is a long-running one. She's been calling her a whore since the dance-planning days of Prom Preparation. This chapter escalates things to mutual locker threats, and the news that Daisy will share Honors English with Mike does nothing to improve Yashy's mood.

Trivia & observations

• Per Veronica's commentary, the chapter was built out of pages scrapped from the end of Unfulfilled Fantasy. She loved the day-after-prom page too much to throw away, Oliver felt the original ending was too abrupt, and page five was closely based on a canned page as well.
• The whole chapter was published in one go, all six pages on 23 March 2010.
• Veronica drew David's lovestruck expression in the prom flashback from memory, aiming for "that onion-headed guy from Di Gi Charat".
• Paulo's handsy crowd-work revives a gag from the pre-BCB comics, where Mike was the one doing it. Per Veronica's commentary, Paulo didn't exist yet, so Mike "had to encapsulate any and all 'male' traits".
• The teacher farewells are genuine send-offs. This is the last appearance of the poodle teacher, whom Veronica calls a fixture of the old series, as well as the sex-ed teacher and the middle school janitor. Her commentary also notes that in the pre-BCB comics, Mike and Lucy never actually made it to high school.
• Yashy gets progressively coated in chocolate over the course of the chapter, from a smeared mouth in homeroom to total submersion by the final bell. Veronica's commentary cheerfully labels this "CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT".
• Years later, Veronica described Yashy as representing "Lucy's mean intrusive thoughts a lot of the time" while advocating for Lucy "when she couldn't", which goes some way toward explaining her treatment of Daisy in this chapter.

Related chapters

• Unfulfilled Fantasy: The immediate predecessor, and the source of much of this chapter's material. Prom happens offscreen during it, and Sandy coins "Maishul" there by mispronouncing Mike's name.
• Field Day: This is where Mike broke his leg, tripping over a turtle in the final race. The cast and cane he carries through this chapter both come from there.
• Off to the Movies: Paulo's fear of barking is first revealed here. It's the exact weakness David exploits twice, first with the growl at prom and again with a single "woof" on the last day.
• Enter High School: The class placements handed out here pay off quickly. The Honors English teacher opens by asking whether everyone has read their assigned novels, and Mike panics.
• Onwards to Adventure: The David and Flower Girl thread gets its ending there. David spots her again, and Lucy reveals she transferred to a private school.