eee wrote:WAAAYYYY too much information there, Krystal!
I think Jessie is telling the truth. We've seen she seems to have greater depth and self-knowledge than the stereotype of the Alpha Cheerleader. And if her mother IS that sort of stereotype, she might well understand it, and hate it, but also know how to use it.
And it's kind of... sad... that Krystal suggests she and Jessie only have each other as friends. If they CAN forge a relationship with the Dork Brigade, it might cost them a lot of their social status, but give them more people they can talk to and hang out with. Although lighting farts might be out.
I also think that's Berdine giving Jessie the what-for. Not only is she the more vocal and aggressive of the two, she's the one with long hair.
And, Berdine is the one who decided to "wear" a pair of pert little boobs. Nadette is wearing a more flat-chested form.
I'm seeing an interesting sub-theme start to develop here, as part of Paul's "growing up" arc. You could call it "Choices And Actions Have Consequences".
Cricket is certainly facing this. Her decision to "return humiliation for humiliation" has certainly had consequences... she risked being "exiled" back into her family's closed-penthouse environment, or being confined to Tartarus, or having to deal with the Jaguar Girl on an ongoing basis (one which appears close to life-or-death for her). She's been seriously chewed out by Berdine, and told that she has lots of hard work to do to earn friendship.
Jessie and Krystle also have consequences to face. Even if what they're saying is true... even if they don't like and don't share in the stereotypical belief and value system of the other mermaids... they
chose to act as if they did. Jessie admitted that their actual behavior was every bit as snobbish and superficial as the stereotype... and the fact that she rose to become the Queen Bee of the mermaid clique suggests that she was pretty damned good at backbiting and social climbing. She certainly started jabbing at Atsali at the first opportunity, with comments which were certainly intended as a hurtful put-down. She and Krystle are scarcely "innocents". They "took the low road", deciding to play the Catty Mermaid game publicly in order to "survive high school", rather than "opting out" of that game and taking the chance of being the picked-upon rather than the pickers-upon. So, now, they too have amends to make.
Calista... yeah, there's a Sward of Damocles hanging over our little plant's head, too. She killed a Fae - one who in fact meant her no harm but was trying to protect her. She's already twigged to the fact that Fae aren't just all nasty stupid evil little things... they can cry, they have feelings, they're actually people. For now, she believes that the Fae she killed was trying to kill her and that she needn't feel bad about what she did... but it seems likely that she'll learn the truth at some point, and have to face the consequence of having killed an innocent person who was only trying to help her.
Even Atsali has had to deal with this, in a way... she's still dealing with the fact that her impulsive decision to drag Katherine into a Big Adventure, led pretty directly to her participation in the death-throes of an entire civilization.
The Bear Twins... we don't know enough about their backstory to know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if they, too, have some event in their past which led to their move to Gryphon High, and which has consequences they'll have to deal with.
) and Atsali is the knowledgeable one here of the school territory, etc. so i think that she's been going here for a few years (at least since she was put into the orphanage i'd say)... to paraphrase Berdine: this reeks of behind-the-scenes-manipulations in order to get all these girls who are individually social misfits on their own gathered together at the same school at the same time, but as a group, they are pretty good for each other... ooh... i can't WAIT to see how this gonna turn out!!!
