Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Destiny Turns On The Radio
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 5 | Aired on 11.01.2001
When everyone else is gone, Grace approaches Creepitri, smiling and apologizing for laughing during the rehearsal, adding, "But he was practically..." Creepitri waits expectantly, but Graces waves it off, saying, "Never mind." "But he what?" he calls after her. Grace answers, "Nothing. I don't actually mind --" "Mind what?" Creepitri asks. Grace replies, "You know. Him flirting with me! Now you look shocked or something." Creepitri dismisses it: "I wake up looking shocked, or something." He packs his thermos into his backpack and stands up, far too close to Grace for my comfort, and says, "I have heard of flirting." Grace looks a touch uncomfortable and says, "I just didn't want you to think I wasn't taking it seriously." Creepitri starts to walk away, assuring her, "Giggling is allowed in Shakespeare. No flirting, though." He strides up the aisle as Grace goodie-goodies, "Well, tell Tad. He's the one who keeps..." Creepitri cuts her off by throwing a smile over his shoulder to let her know he was kidding. Grace stands there for a second, smiling and feeling a little silly.
Cut to Manning Manor, where everyone's converging on the dining room and a bag of take-out that Rick is trying to wrestle open. Lily's expressing her concern to Grace about how much time the play is taking, and Grace pooh-poohs her. Rick says he's concerned about the rehearsal schedule, too. "You are?" Jessie asks. The parentals wonder how the kids can fit everything in, and Grace insists, "We just will, okay?" "Exactly," Jessie agrees. Ah, solidarity. Grace adds that Creepitri is counting on them, and, even more importantly, "Do you even realize how many people wish they were us?" "They do?" Jessie asks, incredulous. Grace assures her that it's true as the phone rings. She rushes to the kitchen to answer it.
"Grace, uh, it's Tad," the hunka hunka burning teenage love says. He sounds caught off-guard. You can practically see Grace's heart burst through her chest, like on those old Looney Tunes cartoons. "Tad! You were making me laugh so hard today!" she says through a huge smile. "Yeah, I was, uh, just acting," he says, a little stiffly. Grace says it struck her as funny, nonetheless. "So, hi," she adds, leaning against the counter and slipping into flirtation mode. "Hi. [major pause] Uh, is Jessie there?" Tad asks, scrunching his nose in discomfort. Grace's face falls, almost as hard as that anvil of a plot point, and she fights to keep the disappointment out of her voice as she tells him to hold on. Her ego rapidly deflating, she holds the phone against her shoulder for a few seconds.