Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sex, Lies, and Bugaboos
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.11.1999
Grace, meanwhile, is hanging out with a couple of friends at the mall, eating frozen yogurt. They're discussing what one of them is going to wear...I don't know where. The girl suggests her "black lace top, slingbacks, and a miniskirt. Just, you know --" "What a lawyer would wear?" the other sagely supplies. No lawyer I'd ever hire. Then again, they're probably taking their fashion cues from the likes of Ally McBeal. Grace has been looking past both of them up to this point, and she suddenly snaps, "Can we go, please?" as she hops to her feet. The Sage looks where Grace has been staring and rolls her eyes with a knowing "Sammler." The camera follows her gaze and there, in fact, is Eli engaging in a shameful display of public affection with Jennifer. Get a seedy, stained room, you two! The Lacy Lawyer informs Grace, "He's going to be places. You can't just --" "For the last time, I couldn't care less about Eli Sammler," Grace asserts, way too fast, with a sorry stab at scorn. Her friends just look at her. After a pause, Grace races on, complaining, "How am I supposed to eat, when she's all slobbering all over him?" The friends take in the action one more time. The slobbering looks pretty mutual. The Sage sighs, "I love her taste in clothes, though." Grace jabs her spoon into her yogurt, grousing, "You know, she's obviously, like...desperate. For attention." "Oh, she's totally an exhibitionist," Lacy concurs before adding, "But she is so sweet!" Huh. Who knew you could be both those things at once? The other friend wonders what Jennifer will wear to Mock Trial. A-ha. That's what they were talking about earlier. Grace is about to blow a gasket, what with the clowns to the left of her, perverts to the right. She chokes, "Why can't people just control themselves?" Because they're sluts and degenerates, obviously. She catches her breath and asks, "What's Mock Trial?"
We fly over to Eli and Jennifer in time to catch his gripping observation that she has a little pocket on her sleeve. He thinks it's "cool" because she "can, like, hide things in there." This prompts her to declare him "too adorable." She must have a newer thesaurus than I do, because mine doesn't list "adorable" as a synonym for "banal." After yet another kiss, Eli announces that he has to go find his sister.
Grace is getting the lowdown on Mock Trial from her friends. Apparently "it starts tomorrow," and "you have to use legal terminology and stuff." Grace thinks it "sounds hard." Lacy disagrees, saying, "It's totally easy. Just watch The Practice." Uh, yeah. It's known for it's authentic portrayal of lawyers and the system, right, Ragdoll? But nice plug, ABC. The Sage points out that Grace can get extra credit for doing it. Grace glances over at Eli and Jennifer again, asking, "And Jennifer's doing it?" She's the prosecuting attorney. Lacy laughs and says, "Grace should be the judge!" Grace fails to see the humor in it. She mumbles that she doesn't know whether she has time after school and mutters again, "Can we get out of here?" as she watches Eli and Jennifer leave.