Lizzy, Serenity, and Jake
LIZZY
The character of Lizzy was inspired by a girl I knew in middle school. The girl that inspired her was a student-athlete like me, so that was our main connection. We might have not been friends if it weren't for us being in close proximity and being on the same basketball team. It's important to note she mainly talks to the other members of the middle school friend group, not so much Lily. Why is that? Outside of the court, she didn't really consider Lily as anything more than a stranger. It's not personal, but sometimes that's how people interact with each other, especially at such a young age.
Lizzy often tends to feel entitled to other people's information if Serenity does. Those two are thick as thieves and are quite a dangerous duo when put in a situation that calls for conflict (such as Mr. E). It's good to note that Lizzy is constantly being sarcastic, but only cares about others when it piques her interest.
SERENITY
The character of Serenity is based on one of my first bullies in middle school. It may or may not be clear in the script, but it's supposed to be unclear for a reason, Serenity is a fake friend. She's not directly mean, but she'll often say backhanded comments and won't attack you unless she feels she'll be agreed with. We could put her in the category of being a follower to a certain degree, but she absolutely isn't afraid to shout out what she's thinking. She often keeps her jealousy to herself, but she is very insecure and projects these insecurities onto others (especially Lily).
Serenity's best friend in middle school is Lizzy, but she keeps Lily somewhat close to make sure that she doesn't progress further than she does. Imagine a snake creeping up your back, a nice massage at first, until she finally strikes you (scary metaphor, but true.) Also, in case it wasn't obvious, she loves attention, especially from boys.
JAKE
Jake, oh sweet, Jake...Where to begin? Jake is based on a culmination of different people I knew in middle school and transitioned to high school with. Unfortunately, some of the funniest people I knew were assholes. When it came to writing the character of Jake, I wanted him to be someone the audience guilt-ishly loves because he's funny, but is a bit hotheaded at times to a degree you can understand. He's just a teenage boy living life the way he thinks is best, but we try to give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll grow. This is also why Lily remains a friend of his in high school despite what happens in the Mr.E scenes. Unfortunately, Jake grows in the wrong direction.
When looking at Jake, we can not ignore his relationship with Mr. E in middle school. Similar to David, Mr. E is a role model to him and a man he aspires to be when he's older. When the truth is revealed about Mr. E, we don't see Jake's reaction to it. It's up to your own interpretation of how he took the news, but it's safe to say he didn't learn very much from it and most likely tried to block it out. This could be for a multitude of reasons:
- He feels guilty about accusing Lily
- He can't fathom the information is true about Mr. E
- The damage Mr. E did to his values as a person has been done, so he accepted the way he was and embraced it even more when he got to high school
The theories about this can go on and on, but we need to consider the effects Mr. E had on him as a person and the way he treats girls. However, we also can't discuss Jake without discussing his relationship with David. In this relationship, David is the leader and Jake follows him around like a puppy dog. We could offer that Jake now idolizes David because his first role model failed him, forcing David to accept this role. Not only this, but Jake often appears to try and win David's praise and admiration but often doesn't receive it in a genuine manner. He is almost desperate to appear cool to Matty (who doesn't care very much what other people think) and almost tries to see himself above him so he can feel better about himself. It's clear he has no true independence as a person because even after he becomes scared of David in the high school fight scene, he still runs right after David. We can only imagine what he tried to say to David in that time, but it's safe to say he'd probably follow David anywhere as long as he was allowed to.