Episode Report Card Niki: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Experience Is The Teacher
By Niki | Season 3 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.31.2002
"You have to help me!" Grace pleads, barging into Eli's garage. She finds Jessie there, hanging out, and apologizes for interrupting. Jessie says it's okay; she'll leave. Grace says she may as well stay, since she's probably heard all about it at school anyway. "Heard about what?" Eli asks. "Oh, so she hasn't told you. I'm having an affair. With Mr. Dimitri," Grace snarks. Eli guffaws, and Jessie tells him to can it. Grace boo-hoos that she can never go to school again. Eli pops up off the bed, saying, "Are you serious? Do you know how old he is?" Heh. Actually, I looked it up, out of fear that I might be in the neighborhood, and it turns out that Eric Stoltz is, like, forty-one. Forty-one! I would have guessed mid-thirties, so there you go, Mr. Stoltz. My gift to you. Grace emphatically tells Eli to shut up. Jessie jumps to her feet and tells Eli it might be a good idea for him to leave. He protests that it's his garage. "Leave, Eli!" Grace barks. Jeez, if she doesn't make it as a writer, Grace could have a brilliant future as a drill sergeant. Eli curls his tail between his legs and slinks out. Grace flops on the bed, and Jessie takes a seat on the edge of it. Grace asks whether people are "really talking about this." Jessie lies that they aren't. "And now he's in trouble. I got him in trouble, which is just the worst feeling. I can't take this feeling!" Grace wails. Jessie watches her sympathetically. "And now he won't talk to me at all! What am I going to do?" Grace cries. Jessie assures her it will be okay. She reaches out and puts her hand on Grace's shoulder. The camera moves in for a lingering close-up, to make sure we didn't miss it. "We'll figure something out," Jessie promises. Awww. Grace takes a deep, shuddering breath, and wishes she could believe it.
Cut to a computer screen, showing some version of MS Word. The camera pans back to reveal Grace at the keyboard, typing frantically and nodding her head, pleased.
The sound of Grace's typing carries us over to Creepitri's place, where she's knocking on the sliding door and calling out his name. She bounces nervously and yells that it's important. Finally, his reflection appears in the door. She begs, "Could you please just open the door?" Reluctantly, he does. She tells him that she rewrote the end of the story and then waltzes into his place. Because her story couldn't possibly wait until, oh, I don't know, their Creative Writing class the next day? That's some pretty selfish behavior for someone who claims to be torn up about wrecking his life. He glances out to see if anyone could have seen her enter. Oy, don't even get me started.