Episode Report Card Deborah: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Arcadia the Beautiful
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.21.2004
Luke and Grace are in a stairway at school. Grace: "Dude, your sister is looking to support the corrupt political system at Arcadia High which is totally symptomatic of the larger…" Luke: "Are we ever going to talk about your mom?" Grace looks at him, half-stunned, half-hurt, and says quietly, "No." Luke: "Grace, you IMed me that your mom is an alcoholic." Grace looks around like a cornered animal, but not that frantically. Luke says he knows she wants to talk about it. Grace doesn't say anything for a moment, but seems like she wants to. Then she says she just wanted him to know. Luke looks at her patiently. She grabs her bag and takes off.
Joan comes down another stairway and finds Adam sitting there, sketching. She sits down beside him and says, "Cool." Adam explains, "Yeah, Aaron, the lead singer of Manic Toolhead, asked me to do a drawing for their CD." It's a pencil drawing of musicians with -- yes -- tools for heads. It's actually kind of endearing, which -- just a guess -- is probably not what Manic Toolhead had in mind. Joan: "Wow, looks just like him -- if he was a screwdriver." Joan pulls a pamphlet for Arcadia Arts College out of his sketchbook: "This is the graphic arts program you were talking about." Adam keeps on sketching. Joan: "You've been working at that hotel for months. Haven't you saved anything?" Hey, way to be sensitive, Joan. In case you haven't noticed, Adam's dad wasn't exactly rolling in it before he got sick. The money Adam makes is probably hardly his own. Whereas you apparently spend your bookstore earnings on weird skirts. She adds, "Maybe they'd take a down payment." Adam dismisses that idea, saying his dad needs new glasses, and the sink leaks. He trails off, giving the impression that there's a lot of other things requiring funds they don't have.
Suddenly Brian comes up and says, "Hey, do you folks have a minute?" Joan narrows her eyes at him: "I'm not a 'folk.' My name is Joan. You fired me, remember, from the yearbook? Because you're a scuzzcrack." Adam gives Brian an obligatory dirty look, although I sort of suspect this is the first he's heard of it. I find it hard to believe that either Joan or Brian wouldn't remember the other; it's not like they didn't work together over a period of days, yell at each other, and so forth. It's not like either one's had an extreme makeover or anything. Brian could stand a session with the What Not To Wear crew, though. Brian, duly reminded, guesses she's not interested in reading his mission statement. Joan: "You have a mission statement? Hmph!" Brian: "Absolutely!" He stretches over the railing to look at Adam's sketch, and butt-kiss him: "Excellent draftsmanship, by the way. Philips head, right?" Adam: "Uh…yeah." Brian: "Excellent! I have got a six-point plan with key features like student tutoring, peer counseling, and a radical reexamination of standardized testing." He hands them two thick documents, and Joan flips through hers, wondering, "Are there Cliffs Notes for this?" Brian: "I trust you'll find it quite compelling. I know recent polls show me at 11% with Lars Klosterman running at 54%, but I'm optimistic [that] Arcadia voters want a candidate who's going to make a difference." He takes off after a couple of other girls who can't get away from him fast enough, but that last phrase caught Joan's attention.