Episode Report Card Pamie: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Ryders On The Storm
By Pamie | Season 1 | Episode 6 | Aired on 08.15.2000
The Range Rover pulls up, and Ryder hangs out the side. Bella puts her book down and walks over to him. "Where's me li-ill Townie tour guide?" "With her father, who's gonna personally kick your ass if you don't stay away from my little sister." "Ooh, fiesty!" Bella smiles. Ryder says, "As much as I'd love to hang around and play Taming of the Shrew with you, I've got a li-il...situation with one of your more...colorful local characters." "Yeah, heard about that." "Krudski." Will walks up with his hands in his pockets. Will tells Ryder that he should be "pretty careful" around Joe and his group. He tells Will that they took his "Li-il Red Corvette." "Unlucky night?" Will asks. Ryder's face is beaming with sunshine as he licks his lips, squints his eyes, and says, "Something like that." I do believe this boy might fancy Will. Will says that he knows Joe pretty well and could probably talk him into giving Ryder back his car. Will gets all sassy and says that it'll cost him "I don't know...five hundred dollars." Smirks and squints and head nods all around.
Terri walks back out of the women's restroom in her boy clothes. "My mom would die if she knew I used that bathroom," she says. "And that you wear boxers? And a corset?" Terri laughs and says, "Yeah, she does think I am pretty strange." "Well..." Verve says. "Really? You think I'm like, a freak or something?" Verve squints, shakes his head and says, "No. Not at all." "So, does that mean you still like me?" Verve says of course he still likes her. "I'm just confused. You know? About who you are. About what we are." Terri says she's just her. She says when she's with him she's herself. "Look, Jake. You're my best friend. Okay? And, sometimes you're my best guy friend in school. And sometimes you're my best girlfriend, who I'm totally in love with." He tries to keep talking, but Terri stops him to ask what he just said. "I don't know how to act..." "No, no, no, no. Before that." "The part about you being my best guy friend?" "No." Verve starts playing all coy. "Ohhh. The part...about...I love you?" The Acoustic Guitar of See-They're-Really-Not-Gay Love strums up. "Yeah, that'd be the part," Terri smiles. "Well, I do," Verve says. "Me too. I mean. I love you, too." I imagine it's difficult to say all of those lines when you're director makes you stand two inches from each other's mouths to speak. They kiss. "So, can I drive home?" Verve asks, still in her mouth. "Not a chance," Terri laughs. "Beat it." She tells him to get on the bitch pad and they laugh. Okay, so they still haven't really explained anything, and somehow it's okay for Verve to have treated Terri like that because he just told her that he loved her? Maybe it's the summer heat.
The Corvette pulls up in front of the house from The 'Burbs. The Steel Drums are playing here, so it's a bit confusing. Will runs into the house as Bella screams, "Will! Don't forget about the letter!" How can anyone forget about the letter for even three seconds? Really. It's not like she's letting anyone even come close to thinking about something else. Not even sweaters or betters or David Letterman. Scout and Bella get out of the car. Will stands at Joe's door. Joe comes out in a black vest and blue sweat pants. They share a manly handshake/arm pat/ half-a-hug thing and go back into the house. Scout and Bella stare at each other for twenty-three seconds. Scout starts to apologize, but she says that he was right and that she shouldn't have written that letter down. She says it was selfish. "Honest," Scout interrupts. He says that she wrote it for herself and that she was just being honest about her feelings. This causes Bella to look away and swallow. Scout looks down to make sure that Richard and Gertrude are still there. Yep. Bella stares at Scout for a few more seconds, swallows, and then kills our souls. "Dear Senator Calhoun. It's almost impossible to know where to start. My name is Bella Banks. I'm sixteen years old. I live in New Rawley. I go to Edmon High. And I'm your daughter." This wasn't in the first letter. Suddenly Bella is sixteen. I guess that's why she got to drive Ryder's car. Extreme close-up on Scout as he uses his Adam's apple to gouge his eyes into tiny fits of tears. The jaw is a-flexing, people. Scout went to the Andrew McCarthy School For Onscreen Sobs. "I know this may be hard for you to believe, but it's simply the truth. All my life, I've wondered about you. Who you are. The color of your eyes. Your hair. Your voice. Are you tall? Do your hands look like mine? And the other day, there you were. You drove into our gas station in New Rawley and I spoke to you." Pieces of Scout's jaw shatter from the strain, and scratch the paint of the Corvette. His eyes widen even further, because that's what Andrew taught him. The drier the eyes, the quicker the "tears." "It all happened so fast. I couldn't find the words to say hello." Bella is bragging about her crying abilities and shedding real tears right in front of Scout. Oh, Bella. You really had us at "hello." You didn't have to keep going. But she does. She's not done. "But I want you to know that I've led a good life. The man who raised me is strong and loving. And he's looked after me since my mother left about ten years ago. I guess I'm writing you this letter because I wanted you to know that I exist." Scout exhales through his tears because he's so touched. "So take from it what you will. All I hope is that someday you'll wonder about me, too. Love, Bella." She wipes off her little Blair Witch nose. She says the letter went "something like that." Scout smiles proudly. "You remembered it?" "I've written that letter like, twenty times, Scout. Since I've seen him. In my head. And I guess I just wanted to write it on paper, so I had someone to say it to." Scout says she does have someone to say it to. "No, I don't because I'm never gonna send it, Scout." Scout says, "Mmm," and shakes his head so a tear falls down to his smile. She says she meant what she said in the letter. She loves her life, and doesn't want to do anything to change it. "So, promise me." He starts to disagree. "Scout, promise me." He promises and wipes his nose. "I have been a jerk about this whole thing. I have only thought about how my life would become complicated." He says that his dad would be very disappointed in him right now. She smiles, looks down, and says, "Guess we knocked down a few bricks, huh?" He says they did. Where are the bricks? There's a wall? Will walks up, as he's contractually obligated to ruin every moment where they might kiss again, and leans against the car with a sigh. He pulls that, "Man, I've got bad news...no I don't!" thing and pulls out Bella's letter. She hugs him and thanks him profusely. She takes the letter and rips it into tiny pieces. Scout and Will look on incredulously. "Kinda had it memorized," she says. Everyone laughs and gets back into the stolen car, but Bella is still holding onto the pieces, which means she'll probably leave it in the car and Ryder will tape it together and figure out what's going on. Will drives this time, ensuring one more broken law before curfew.
They pull into the parking lot and exhale. "I cannot believe we pulled this off," Scout says. Bella laughs. Will says he has to go print out his essay. He checks the clock (which is still on, even though the car is off) and sees that it's 4:30. He says that the post office closed half an hour ago and he missed the deadline. Scout asks where the nearest open post office is. Bella says, "Uh, probably in Carson?" Will says it's forty miles away and he'll never make it. Happy teen music plays as Ryder walks up and asks, "What's this? Daisy and the Dukes?" Everyone gets annoyed until they get their scathingly brilliant idea. Ryder says he owes Will one, and Will says as a matter of fact he does. They bust out racing in the car, so that they can also get an underage speeding ticket. They screa