Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Baby Blues
By Niki | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 01.09.2001
She's in some lounge, where a meeting for the school's literary journal has just dispersed. Wannabe shows up as Grace packs up her bag. She says that she's thinking of submitting something. Grace is incredulous. Wannabe explains that she wants to do something like "what the guy in that Stephen King book did, where he wrote the same line over and over again for like five pages." She laughs smugly. I have to admit, though, I'm a little surprised that she referenced the book, rather than the movie version of The Shining. Still, shut up. Everything that comes out of your mouth is boring and repetitive and not at all freaky as it is, so why even bother? Grace doesn't give her the response she was hoping for. Wannabe sighs and tries a new tack. "Do you have a problem with me and Eli?" she asks. "No," Grace says, and she actually doesn't seem to be lying. Hmmm. She adds that Wannabe "could've told [her] what [she] had in mind, though. [She] could've done that." Carla says that she doesn't necessarily plan things out -- she just does them. Oh, whatever. Like her maneuver at the pep rally wasn't something she could've discussed with Grace before calling Jessie to join them. Wannabe starts to say that she just thought…Grace cuts her off: "You just thought what?" "I just thought that where you and Eli were concerned, that you wouldn't be interested because basically he's going to be like your stepbrother, and that's sick!" Grace says that it's not a question of her liking Eli, because she doesn't and she never has. Oh, she's a bad liar. Grace says the problem is that Carla isn't the person she thought she was. Wannabe apologizes and says she'll never do it again. Grace calls her on it and says that she will. Wannabe relents and says, "But you'll forgive me, won't you?" Grace reluctantly agrees that their friendship is okay. Can I just say that Wannabe's hair, now that it's finally free of those stupid barrettes, looks disturbingly like cocker spaniel ears?
On the Stool, Grace says defensively, "I have nothing to say."
Back in the lounge, Eli appears in the doorway to rub a little more salt in Grace's tiny secret wound. He's there to get Wannabe. They head out together, and Grace watches them go, her face a mix of sadness, bitterness, and resentment. Been there, baby.
Later, in her room, Grace is interrupted by Lily. She sits on Grace's bed and picks up a book, saying she's surprised they make kids read Bleak House in tenth grade. Grace says that she's reading it on her own. Lily says she wants to talk about what happened the other night. Grace tries to get her to stop. Lily keeps on talking in her super-soothing voice, assuring Grace that she and Rick are not trying to have a baby. Grace couldn't care less. Lily says, "I need you and I to be upfront about this." I need, I need, me me me. Lily says she doesn't want to have to hide the fact that she and Rick are together. Grace is getting fed up. She tells Lily that it really isn't her business what Lily and Rick do. Lily insists that it is. She starts yammering about how it's very intimate, and she knows that it's hard for Grace…"Mom, stop it!" Grace spits through clenched teeth. That soothing voice of Lily's doesn't seem to be working. Lily looks surprised and starts to say something else, but Grace cuts her off, pleading, "Please, stop telling me these things!" Lily, of course, thinks that Grace is just upset about her relationship with Rick and starts to say something. Grace jumps to the far side of the bed, her back to Lily, crying, "Oh! God! I can't take it anymore!" Lily reaches across and touches Grace's arm, apologizing in her sugary voice and saying, "I didn't know how much this was upsetting you." Grace is outraged and jumps to her feet. "Ugh! This is so! You are so! You are so far off on this!" she rants. "Don't you see! [arms waving frantically] Don't you even see?" Lily looks blank. Grace fills it in, tearful with frustration, "I don't even care about your life! I have my own life, which happens to be miserable right now, and then you come in here and everything's about you! And the truth is, I could be falling apart right now and you wouldn't even know why." Grace winds down, looking at Lily who's looking absolutely shell-shocked. "Honey, did something happen?" Lily asks. She's so perceptive. Grace looks at her with a disappointed expression and chokes out, "Nothing." Lily walks over to Grace's side of the bed and sits down, pulling Grace down next to her, all the while cooing in that syrupy voice that makes my teeth hurt. But then she does something I can't fault at all: she just grabs Grace and hugs her tight. She doesn't try to make the kid talk to her or let her in. She just holds her and lets her cry and shuts the hell up. When they pull apart, Grace notices Lily's tears and tells her not to cry. They hug again, and Lily tells Grace that she's "so sorry."