Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Wake Up, Little Susie
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 1 | Aired on 10.23.2000
Cue B/W Jessie, right on time. She says that, in high school, you're supposed to be "older -- that's the whole point. If you're not older, then why be there?"
Back to the crowded hallway, where lone little Jessie tries to make her way past clumps of bigger and intimidating kids. Her discomfort is palpable. Anyone else having flashbacks? I just had to hit pause and remind myself that it isn't real, and I'm not back in that bad, bad place. Deep breaths, deep breaths. God, do I know how this kid feels. Not that I was unpopular or picked on, but I was so shy and so terrified of all the new people at high school, that I was literally sick after school every day for the first two weeks. Then they crowned me Miss Grade Nine at orientation (sadly, I'm not kidding), and since I could never be more mortified than that, I relaxed. I still hated high school, but at least I wasn't physically ill about it anymore. But enough about me.
B/W Jessie continues breaking my heart: "You're supposed to have a body. And you're supposed to know how to talk to boys. You're supposed to know what to wear."
Back in the hallway, Jessie passes Grace hanging with a couple of other girls. A familiar face in a swirling mass of intimidation, someone who'll acknowledge her presence and make her feel visible, human...
B/W Jessie continues: "But you're supposed to know all that before you get there. So...how's that supposed to work?"
Jessie and Grace get closer, as Grace chats away to her friends. Jessie casts a hopeful glance at Grace, then drops her eyes to the floor, back to Grace, then to the floor. They pass one another, and Grace gives Jessie a tight, forced half-smile. Jessie, disappointed, glances over her shoulder, then lowers her head and continues walking, looking as lost and miserable as a wet stray puppy.
Grace's friends want to know who that was. "Nobody," Grace answers. "She was staring at you like she knows you," snots one of the friends. Grace confesses that Jessie is her mother's boyfriend's daughter. "Well at least my dad's girlfriends are too young to have kids in high school," says the other girl. They round the corner and discover a girl beating the shit out of a vending machine because it ate her dollar. She's supposed to be a rebel, I think. Grace and her friends pause and look a little nervous at the sight of her kicking the machine. "This thing ate my dollar," the stringy-haired girl complains before asking one of Grace's friends for a dollar. Oooh, she's bold, breakin' all the rules! When Grace's friend declines, the girl complains that if she doesn't "get caffeine, [she'll] never make it through World Civ," while rolling her eyes and puffing out her lips. I think she must've studied Angelina Jolie in Girl Interrupted to prepare for this role. And she's even more annoying, if that's possible. (Nothing against Ms. Jolie, it was the character I loathed.) She turns her attention to Grace, stating, "You're Grace. You dated that cute black guy." "S-s-sort of," Grace stutters. "Then you broke up," G.I. Jolie says. "I guess so," Grace answers. "Ya got a dollar?" Grace fishes around for one and then hands it to G.I. Jolie. The girl feeds it into the machine and gets no action. They watch her attack the machine again, their faces a mix of fear and admiration for the crazy girl in the army-fatigue skirt. "Son of a bitch!" G.I. Jolie yells before landing one last punch on the hapless machine and then walking away. She jams her finger into the coin return of a pay phone. 'Cause she's a rebel. A rebel without a dollar. "She's really nice for someone who just got out of rehab," one of Grace's friends notes. Grace's face falls a little.