+ some extras where Pete also gets trolled by the girls because he sucks and I hate him (he's my second favorite character in the Club)

•In one of my older posts about Mandi, I wrote about her and Jerry meeting when they got paired up for a journalism project for their English class. I mentioned them not having the best impressions of each other since she knew about him and the bullsh1t he got into with the rest of the Club. Jerry was awkward around everyone, and he could easily tell she wasn't thrilled to be stuck with him for the project. Mandi seemed so cold towards him, and only focused on getting the work done. Jerry was used to this since most people weren't fond of him due to the reputation his friends had. He kept to himself since he didn't want anyone to dislike him more than they already did.

•At the start, Jerry also took it a little personally that she didn't bother to learn his name for the first few weeks when they worked together. Instead of saying his name she just referred to him with various ways to say "Blonde guy." Mandi's other friends did the same thing, but Jerry just rolled with it since he's not the type to speak up. Jerry never bothered to correct her so it just stuck, even when she knew his actual name. It turned into something affectionate later on, and Jerry got so used to it that if she just called him "Blondie" in a crowd he'd know she's talking about him. (This is kind of an inside joke between me and my friend back when we didn't have the Club's name's memorized at the start so we just referred to Jerry with various ways to say "Blonde guy" too).

•Jerry and Mandi grew closer together when she went to his place to work on the project and saw all the nerd stuff he had in his room. She was impressed by all the Magic Cards he had, all the Zelda merch, and the fact that he had a GameCube. Jerry was surprised she liked this stuff in the first place cause Mandi kept her interests hidden and even said she avoided most things related to nerd culture at the start due to bad experiences. Even if she hid her interests, her love for it never actually went away. Her and Jerry ended up spending hours playing Smash Bros on his GameCube once they finished the work they had to do. Playing video games and card games together ended up being a routine thing they did after getting their homework done. Jerry always ended up having to rush to Club Meetings after though, and Mandi didn't get why he seemed so worried about it.

•Jerry didn't think their friendship was gonna last after the project was over, but surprisingly Mandi wanted to keep in contact. Despite Mandi having other friends and being sociable, she never opened up to them the way she did with Jerry. She kept coming over to play video games with him whenever his parents weren't home, and she eventually caught feelings for him. It was hard for Jerry to make time for her, but he tried to do that since he genuinely enjoyed having her as a friend. Mandi liked hanging out with him too, even if Jerry didn't talk much. They surprisingly balanced each other out despite having opposite personalities with Jerry being more shy and passive and Mandi being more assertive and outgoing. They both challenged each other's views in a positive way too.

•Part of what drew Mandi to Jerry was that she felt like she could be herself around him since he wasn't judging her or gatekeeping things from her based on her gender or race. Mandi's had a lot of horrible experiences in fandom culture so hanging out with Jerry really made her feel more comfortable with being open about her interests. Jerry's had similar experiences where he felt like he couldn't openly like a lot of things he genuinely enjoyed. Jerry knew that his friends would make fun of him for liking things that were "for girls," and he didn't wanna get bullied even more. Even if Mandi was judgmental towards most people she met in fandom settings due to bad experiences, she never judged Jerry for liking those things. Mandi understood what it was like to be treated unfairly because of her gender since so many guys instantly assumed she wasn't a "real" fan of the things she loved. She reassured Jerry that she didn't think there was anything wrong with a guy liking things made "for girls," and it didn't make him "weak" or "less of a man."

•Mandi was used to dating casually since she figured high school relationships never lasted, but what she felt for Jerry was genuine. She tried flirting with him directly, but he panicked, shut down, went quiet for almost an hour, and almost passed out. When Jerry was ready to talk, he assumed she was pranking him. She wasn't, but she decided to drop the subject. It was obvious Jerry wasn't ready, and she wasn't gonna push further. Mandi already appreciated their friendship the way it was, and she was fine just being close friends too.

•There were so many times where Jerry would have to make excuses or bail on her without telling her why. She tried not to take it personally at first, but it eventually got frustrating. Especially when Jerry would ignore her in school whenever he was with his friends. Mandi already didn't have a good impression of the Eltingville Club or understand why Jerry hung out with them. She was fed up though so she confronted them at lunch and made it clear her and Jerry were close. She sadly got met with Bill lashing out at her. Jerry saw this as a repeat of the Agnes situation, but ten times worse cause Mandi fought back and fought hard.

•Jerry tried to apologize to Mandi on Bill's behalf to try and mediate the situation, but Mandi refused to accept it. She thought that if Bill was so "sorry" he would apologize to her himself. Either way, Mandi's the type to hold grudges forever at the start of the story, and she wouldn't have forgiven Bill for saying all that horrible shit and picking a fight with her. Jerry felt embarrassed about what happened, and he told her this was why he was so avoidant towards her around his friends and always had to bail on her. Mandi understood that Jerry wasn't at fault for his friends' behavior, but she bluntly told him she didn't get why he considered them "friends" if all they did was bully him. She also thought it was weird that Bill didn't let Jerry befriend girls and always had to know what Jerry was doing. Jerry practically had to lie to Bill to hang out with her secretly.

•Jerry was relieved Mandi stuck around after that, knowing how Mandi is with grudges and his former friendship with Agnes, he figured Mandi would've been gone. Mandi did hold grudges, but it was against the other three (mostly Bill) and not Jerry. Jerry cares about his friends a lot, and the last thing he wants is for Mandi to hate them so he wanted to try and convince her that there was some good in them. Jerry knew Bill, Josh, and Pete ever since they were kids, and he was still attached to how they used to be. Jerry was idealistic and figured that if he could see the good in them, he could try and get Mandi and the Club to get along.

•They obviously couldn't get along... When Jerry invited Mandi to her first Club Meeting, it resulted in a massive fight. Mandi didn't even wanna be there in the first place, but she hated seeing the other three push Jerry around so she went as back up. Mandi ended up having to put up with Pete's dogshit flirting, Josh acting like Mandi's "not like other girls," and Bill constantly provoking her with his prejudice views. All of this annoyed her to no end no matter how hard Jerry tried to mediate between everyone. Mandi hated that Pete and Josh only wanted her around because they found her attractive, and Bill only agreed to let her stay so he could have a rematch and prove he could've won the last time they fought. Bill lost anyways like usual.

•Nothing was going as planned for Jerry, but Mandi unofficially became part of the group just because she hung out with them more frequently than she wanted to. Jerry reassured her she was "part of the Club," but she tried to tell him in the nicest way possible that that was insulting. She really didn't wanna be part of the Club. Mandi was almost gonna cut ties with everyone in the Club other than Jerry after the first Club meeting she went to, but she only stuck around because she hated constantly seeing Jerry with new sets of bruises he was failing to hide. It bothered her a lot that he would even make excuses for them too. Jerry would constantly claim that he "didn't even know he had those bruises" which would then turn into "they probably didn't think they hit me that hard." Mandi tried to get it through his head that his friends shouldn't be hitting him like that to begin with.

•Mandi felt like she was trapped in a cycle with Jerry, constantly defending him while he tries to convince her that she's being too judgmental, even when she had every right to hate the Club. She constantly had to deal with bullsh1/t, especially from Bill. Bill tried way too hard to exclude Mandi from the group and even did everything he could to ruin her friendship with Jerry. From stalking them while they're hanging out so he can interrupt them, breaking into Jerry's house when he knows they're alone together, or trying to convince her to hate Jerry over the most menial things.

•Bill even tried to spread rumors about Jerry and Mandi the same way he did about Agnes. Agnes couldn't handle the undeserved bullying that resulted from those rumors, but when Mandi heard about this the first thing she did was confront Jerry. She was aggressive about it at first, but realized Jerry wasn't the one who spread those rumors. Mandi already experienced a lot of sl/ut shaming either from the other three in the Club or from people at their high school so this wasn't new to her, and unlike Agnes, she fought back. Mandi managed to connect the dots and figured out Bill spread those rumors, and at this point she knew why Bill was doing it.

•Mandi tried to tell Jerry that Bill was the one who spread those rumors, but Jerry still had an idealized view of Bill at this point and didn't believe her. Mandi felt like she was at her limit with putting up with this so she decided she was done. Mandi stopped being friends with Jerry and got tired of defending him when he barely did the same for her. Sure, Jerry hated how the other guys in the Eltingville Club were treating her, but quietly asking them to stop never amounted to anything. Jerry always got ignored by his friends, and he always backed down whenever he tried to stand up for himself or Mandi. As much as Mandi cared for Jerry , she started feeling like fighting his battles was pointless cause he clearly wasn't going to help himself.

•While Mandi was distancing herself from Jerry, she still somehow missed him and wasn't used to that. Mandi never really got as close to her other friends as she did with Jerry so it felt like she was putting up a front again while she was with them. She went back to hiding her nerdy interests, hanging with different crowds, and jumping from different friend groups. Jerry missed her a lot too, but he was too anxious to reach out. Nothing that his friends did were fun anymore, and the only time he ever felt like he was having fun was when he was with Mandi. It made him start to reconsider whether his friends were even worth defending, and what he could've done better to stand up for her and himself. (When Jerry finally stands up to Bill on both Mandi and Agnes's behalf during the Epilogue, it's a sign of growth from him).

•What made Mandi eventually contact Jerry again was when she came across Agnes on accident. Agnes ended up leaving the high school they went to after the rumors Bill spread about her got so bad it was unbearable for her to deal with. (I have another comic in progress regarding this). Mandi didn't know how to approach her, but Agnes was receptive when she did. They talked for a while and Mandi ended up telling Agnes that Jerry didn't spread those rumors. Mandi knew that Jerry cared a lot about Agnes as a friend, and even if Mandi cut ties with him she didn't want Agnes to hate him for no reason. When Agnes learned the truth, she wasn't surprised that Bill did all of that just to hurt her. Agnes hated being reminded of what happened but she thought that Mandi standing up to Bill was comforting. Despite learning the truth, Agnes made it clear that she didn't want anything to do with Jerry or the Eltingville Club ever again.

•Mandi respected Agnes's decision, but it made her have the opposite feeling. Mandi didn't like the Club, but Jerry was the exception. She normally didn't forgive people, and didn't take it seriously when Jerry pushed her to try being more forgiving until she decided to forgive him. Jerry might've been flawed but she spent time with Jerry for longer than Agnes did. With all the time she spent with him, Mandi started understanding how hard it was to leave abu/5ers. What Jerry had with the Club, specifically Bill, went beyond a toxic friendship. It was difficult for Jerry to grasp that his childhood friends weren't the same people they were back then. Mandi never knew what the Club was like when they were kids, but the way Jerry described them compared to how they were now was jarring to her. She started to understand that Jerry's perception of his friends was so skewed because of the years of abu/5e he endured from them. Mandi felt bad for leaving Jerry at a vulnerable part of his life, and even if it wasn't her job to intervene she still felt like she should instead of letting this happen.

•After Mandi reached out to Jerry again, and they both apologized to each other for how their friendship ended. It was difficult for them to see things from the others' perspective because of how different they are. They were still willing to try and understand each other though, even if they disagreed on how they went about things. Both of them also tried taking in the others' advice more. Mandi tried to be more forgiving and hold grudges less, and Jerry tried to actually learn to stand up for himself and others better.

•Mandi found out one of the reasons why Jerry stayed with the Club was because he had feelings for Bill. Mandi didn't judge him for it, and this was the first time Jerry felt comfortable actually talking to someone about it. Jerry was so used to hearing his friends say h0/0mph0b1c things that he never felt safe talking about this until Mandi told him there wasn't anything wrong with how he felt. Mandi had feelings for Jerry still, but she put them aside and just let him vent. Mandi never understood what Jerry saw in Bill at first, but hearing Jerry describe it honestly for once made things more clear. Jerry didn't understand his feelings at the start, but when he did he still didn't know what to do. Jerry also found out Bill liked him when he realized Bill assumed he was dating Agnes, and got jealous of her. Jerry knew that's why Bill hated Mandi too. Jerry was too scared to bring it up, fearing that Bill would lash out and hurt him again, so he kept it to himself. Bill and Jerry were kind of in a pseudo-relationship ever since, where nothing happened, nothing was established, but Bill still expected commitment from him. Surprisingly Jerry gave him that without telling him.

•Mandi actually found out Bill's feelings for Jerry went past platonic first, but she never told Jerry about this because it wasn't her place to say it. All she did was tell Jerry that the Bill he used to know isn't the same person he used to be, and if Jerry was gonna end up with a guy he deserved someone who didn't physically abu/5e him or take advantage over the fact that he's so forgiving. Mandi came from a toxic family environment and Jerry didn't so it was easier for her to spot warning signs compared to Jerry. Jerry's parents were mostly absent due to work, and he lacked a lot of guidance cause of it. Jerry never understood that being treated the way the Club treated him wasn't right. He also felt like he needed to hide what they did to from his parents too so he wouldn't lose them. Anyone who tried warning him never got through to him until Mandi did.

•Mandi understood forgiveness is important and she learned a lot from Jerry. It's part of why she decided to befriend him again. Despite that, she needed Jerry to understand how important boundaries are too. It's part of why Jerry decided to finally walk away during the Zombie Crawl issue. The Club's broken up so many times before, but Jerry tried his hardest to stay away this time no matter how hard it was for him.

•After the Zombie Crawl, the Club spent about 2 weeks apart before Jerry decided to see Pete and Josh again. Mandi wasn't happy with this, but she let Jerry make his own decision even if she was upfront about disagreeing with it. Seeing a movie with your friends and stopping by the comic book shop seemed harmless, but Jerry was wrong. When the fire happened, Mandi and Jerry didn't talk for a few months. Jerry never picked up her calls, and she was worried for him. She didn't even know if he ever got bailed out of jail before the trial until she decided to show up at his front door just to see if he was okay. Jerry didn't expect to see her, he felt like nobody would want to associate with him after the fire so he isolated himself heavily. Jerry was terrified of the upcoming trial and didn't think anyone would believe him when he said he tried to stop Pete from fighting Bill. Mandi reassured him that she believed him since she knows how he is as a person.

•Jerry was going to therapy while he was waiting for the trial, and when Mandi came back into his life he started updating her on how things were going. She got to slowly see him progress into someone who's a lot more healthy than how he was when she first met him. Mandi did what she could to support him as a friend, and spend time with him to get his mind off everything. Mandi was showing up to his house every day, and even staying over just to keep him company. Jerry's parents didn't know how to feel about her at first, but they eventually warmed up to her. She might have feelings for Jerry, but she didn't expect anything from him at this point. Especially after everything he went through. Jerry needed to work on himself first before he got into a relationship.

•Jerry started liking Mandi back around the time they were 19 and started dating around the time they turned 20. Mandi made the first move, and she was fully expecting it to turn out the way it did when they were 17 but surprisingly Jerry reciprocated. Sure, he was nervous, but he felt like he was finally in a good place to try. He was just scared of messing up. Jerry regretted letting his low self esteem get in the way by making him think she wasn't serious when she first expressed having feelings for him. Jerry felt like he wasted his time trying to expect his old friends to be better when he could've just focused on someone who actually cared for him like Mandi did.

Anyways here's some more stuff I wrote about Mandi meeting them as teens:

Starting with Mandi as a character:

•Mandi is discreet about her interest in nerd culture while she's a teen. She's a little judgemental towards nerds, but only cause of bad experiences. She doesn't "look" like a nerd so whenever she expresses having extensive knowledge on some nerdy stuff it surprises people. Being a pretty girl with nerdy interests made her experience things differently since a lot of the spaces she was exposed to mostly consisted of guys. A lot of them didn't treat her like a human being, and either gatekept her from stuff, acted like she was faking her interests, or got really parasocial with her just because she liked the same stuff they did.

•It was hard for her to legally get into nerd media without p1r acy since she didn't like going to stores, and online shopping wasn't as reliable in the 90s-2000s. She hated going to Joe's shop even if it was the nearest store. She had the worst experience there where she just wanted to buy a comic, but Joe practically berated her til she stormed out angrily. Mandi didn't wanna go back in there, but Iron Jaw approached her in school and handed her a the comic she wanted. She befriended him, and he told her to come in on his hours whenever Joe's not around if she ever wants to buy anything. Or he could just give her a five finger discount and hand her free comics outside of the store so she doesn't have to deal with any creepy losers. Iron Jaw's done this for other girls too, Geek Girl being one of them. I HC that's why she was so comfortable walking into Joe's, thinking Iron Jaw was there, but sadly got met with Bill instead.

•Mandi's pretty cool with Iron Jaw cause he gives her merch, even if she kind of hated nerd culture and the shitty people that gravitated to it. She was kind of judgmental towards him at the start, but realized he was cool. She got annoyed when Iron Jaw crushed on her since she just wanted a friend, and this happened to her so many times. It always upset her whenever she feels like guys have ulterior motives to being friends with her. Iron Jaw wasn't like that though, he took the hint and rolled with the rejection well. She actually respected him for it, and they kept being friends.

•Since Mandi keeps her interest in nerdy stuff hidden til she starts being more open about it, she ends up putting her time in other things. She hates living in Staten Island and tends to go out to other parts of New York City. Mainly Brooklyn or Queens. She has a social life outside of the Club, but she isn't too close to anyone. She gets invited to kickback with a bunch of different friend groups groups, and never stuck to just one. A lot of people invited her to a bunch of stuff, and even if people liked her she just struggled to open up since she wasn't truly being herself.

•Mandi's home life isn't great either. It's part of why she always goes out, and makes sure she goes far away and rarely ever goes back to her own place. She's still struggling to find her crowd at this point in her life and she isn't that close to anyone she hangs with frequently (until Jerry came around), but for now she just sticks to keeping her distance and having a good time with people.

•When she first met Jerry, she couldn't remember his name since he wasn't someone she interacted with regularly at first. She just called him "Blondie" for the first few weeks, and he didn't bother to correct her, he just knew who she was talking about when she said it. (Me and my friend didn't have the Club's name's memorized at the start so we just called Jerry that too). Her other friends that she hangs out with just call him that too since he's way too anxious to talk to anyone other than the Club. So it's not like they knew his name or bothered to try and find out.

•Mandi's dated around casually a lot and she never took middle school or high school relationships seriously. It's not that she doesn't care. She just doesn't really open up as easily to people, and she doubted anything in high school would last. She ended up actually crushing on Jerry after spending so much time with him alone. With the way I wrote her, I see her being a lot more assertive than Jerry is and she tends to hold grudges forever. Jerry on the other hand is way too timid and too easily forgiving. They're opposites who balance each other out, and she learns to soften up more around him while he learns to start standing up for himself better. Her friends just know she has a crush on him, and they don't get why. They know she can pull "better" and think she has pulled "better" in the past so they don't get why she got attached to him specifically.

•Mandi's not an official member of The Eltingville Club. Bill hates having her over so he banned her, but Jerry vouches for her and so do Josh and Pete. Josh and Pete only want her there for shallow reasons though. Mandi hates going to Club meetings, but she ends up going a lot more than she should cause she feels the need to protect Jerry. Jerry really can't fight his own battles at this point (and still struggles to in the Epilogue) so she tries to hit back on his behalf. She's thought of just letting him learn the hard way, but it clearly didn't teach him anything since he kept forgiving them. Mandi knows it's not her responsibility to do that or make sure he's okay, but Jerry always ends up with a new set of bruises every time she sees him so she can't help but intervene. She constantly tries to tell Jerry to find better friends, but he's too attached to leave and always gets gaslit by Bill or the others into staying.

•Jane adores her, especially after finding out Mandi beat the shit out of Bill at school. Jane instantly tries to befriend anyone who hates her brother, and her and Mandi hit it off pretty well when they first met. Mandi first met Jane when she went to her first Club meeting that Jane tried to barge into. Jane already knew stories about her since she overheard Bill whining about how Mandi kicked the shit out of him at school so Mandi already made a good impression with her in her eyes. Jane even wanted Mandi in her girl gang, but Mandi denied it. Despite that they still became friends and bonded over cosplay and fashion (and hatred for Bill). Mandi's a cosplayer and Jane's an aspiring fashion designer so Jane helped her out a lot with her costumes. They got closer after Jane got expelled from the private Catholic high school she was enrolled in and had to go to the same high school as Mandi + The Club. Mandi started noticing there was something off about Jane after being around her for longer periods of time. Jane's morbid "jokes" didn't seem like they were jokes sometimes. Jane just kept all that under wraps so she wouldn't lose a friend or have to kill her cause she found out about the sacrifices.

More on her dynamic with Bill:

If Bill and Mandi met as teens, I think Bill would hate her for the same reasons. Mandi doesn't have a fandom related career yet, but her existence goes against every predisposition Bill developed against women in fandom settings. The jealousy he felt towards her gets a lot worse too since he doesn't just interact with her one time, and I think he would eventually fail to mask it.

•Mandi first meeting the Club starts off similar to how it did in the Epilogue. I mentioned in my first post about Mandi that she met Jerry in class where they got paired on a journalism project together. She ended up befriending him, even if she didn't like him at first. They hung out a lot while they were alone, she but didn't get why Jerry would avoid her at school around his friends even if she waved at him and he clearly saw her doing it. Mandi knew his friends had a bad reputation, but she had no clue about the Agnes situation. One time she got fed up with Jerry ignoring her during lunch so she approached their table. Pete, Bill, and Josh were confused on why she was approaching their table, but they kept making objectifying comments about her as she did. They were even more surprised when she passive aggressively greeted Jerrry like they were close.

•Jerry was scared cause he knew how this was gonna go. Jerry vividly remembered Bill lashing out and having a meltdown over Agnes being his friend, and he doesn't want it to happen again. All of them were shocked when they found out Mandi was there to talk to Jerry, but Bill was seething over it. Jerry reluctantly introduced her to The Club, but they were already weirding her out since they didn't know how to be normal around girls. Pete was being a creep, Josh tried to be amicable at least, but Bill ruined it by lashing out at her in the most m1/sog ynistic way possible. It went exactly the way Jerry thought it would, but worse cause Mandi didn't leave crying like Agnes did. She snapped at Bill and kicked the shit out of him. Mandi's a teen so I wrote her being immature too like the rest, and it took her a while to learn how to walk away from people who antagonize her. The fight was really embarrassing for everyone involved, and they all got suspended for it.

•Bill and Mandi hated each other ever since, and they ended up having an intense antagonistic rivalry where Bill would pick fights with her every time he saw her. Mandi figured Bill just hated her for being a "fake fan" and for being a woman of color because he always directed his anger towards that. It seemed like he just wanted to hurt her since she's experienced a lot of prejudice throughout her life. Bill and Mandi constantly fought, and he tried way too hard to discourage her from engaging in her hobbies and fandom settings. Even if it made her angry, she decided not to let it discourage her and she learned to stick with her hobbies and interests regardless of what anyone thinks. People like Bill want her gone, and don't want her to enjoy her hobbies, and if she did abandon her interests she'd just be giving toxic fans exactly what they want. She ended up engaging with her nerdy interests a lot more openly instead of hiding it.

•Bill tried to frame his hatred for her as him just "hating girls who get into nerd culture for attention," but it extended to jealousy. He hated that she was knowledgeable on nerd media too. Not obsessive, but she still knew her shit and it pissed him off that she actually managed to talk to his friends about nerd stuff and they seemed to actually have fun with her sometimes. Seeing her bond with Jerry over it specifically hurt him in a different way. It reminded him of what he and Jerry used to have, and he hated that Jerry was getting close to someone that wasn't him. Bill didn't wanna admit it, but it hurt him that Jerry seemed so comfortable around Mandi but scared of him. It was entirely Bill's fault Jerry was scared of him, but Bill still felt like he deserved to have what he used to have with Jerry.

•Bill made so many efforts to try and sabotage Jerry and Mandi's friendship while trying to hide why he was doing it. He could tell Mandi had feelings for Jerry, everyone in the Club could tell except for Jerry himself. Pete and Josh were mostly hating on Jerry for being able to pull a girl and not do anything about it, wishing they got the same attention from Mandi. Bill on the other hand tried to frame it like he wanted Mandi's attention too, but he was so antagonistic towards her compared to the other two that it was easy to tell he didn't actually feel that way for her. (Referencing how Bill contradicts himself in the comic where he objectifies Mandi with Pete and Josh then proceeds to insult her for the very thing he "praised" her for). Making it obvious that he wanted her out of the picture so Jerry could stick with him made it obvious too.

•Bill obsessively stalks and monitors his friends' behavior, and he did this to Jerry a lot. Ever since he found out Jerry and Mandi were friends, he would try to stalk them aggressively as an attempt to sabotage their friendship. Whenever Jerry didn't pick up his calls or was late to Club meetings, Bill would always assume the worst and try to track Jerry down since Jerry never really traveled far or had anyone else to hang with other than Mandi or the Club. In the drawing I made, he basically saw them leaving the movie theater together. I was cloudier than usual, and Mandi wasn't dressed for the weather so Jerry gave her his hoodie to be polite. Bill was really petty and made a big deal out of it by throwing his own shirt in a puddle and telling Jerry to give him his. Bill constantly threw tantrums in public whenever he saw them together, and Jerry always had to apologize to her on Bill's behalf.

•Jerry and Mandi aren't even together at this point, but Bill tries to prevent anything from happening between them (embarrassing himself in the process) since he knows Mandi likes Jerry. Thing is, Jerry's not even ready for a relationship either. He's too scared of being in any kind of relationship right now, but Bill's too busy failing to deal with his own insecurities to notice that. All he sees is that he's losing his "best friend" to someone else that seems to have so many things he wishes he had. Bill knew that what he felt wasn't just regular jealousy, but it's not like he was gonna admit that to anybody or himself. Bill's too closeted and self hating to actually reflect on himself and handle his feelings healthily. Bill just takes it out on Mandi for "taking Jerry away" even though he's the one sabotaging whatever was going on between him and Jerry.

•I think Bill's also jealous of her appearance, he talks about her like she's some mastermind that could have anyone wrapped around her finger when really that isn't true. She's a person like anyone else, and even if she's deemed as "pretty" by a lot of people, it doesn't automatically bend people to her will. Bill assumes she thrives off of the weird parasocial attention she gets where some people can't interact with her like a regular person. She actually hates it and thinks its dehumanizing cause she ends up losing a lot of people she saw as friends. It's why she holds grudges for so long and doesn't wanna give people second chances. If he bothered to get to know her, he would understand that, but instead he just projects his insecurities onto her. Bill is shallow so I think he'd assume Jerry would like Mandi more than him based on her being "prettier" and the fact that she's a girl. Bill's jumping to conclusions again though. Jerry doesn't care about how he looks, and if Bill didn't constantly spout h0/m0 ph/0b1c garbage around people he'd probably end up learning that Jerry wouldn't care that he isn't a girl either.

•Mandi thought Bill's hatred towards her was shallow until she started picking up on his behavior more. Mandi didn't just interact with him once like she did in the comics, they ended up fighting for months in my AU before the fire. She ended up realizing that his hatred for her wasn't just out of prejudice, but out of jealousy too. It kind of surprised her, but things made a lot more sense to her now. Bill might not talk about his problems directly, but he's easy to read since he lashes out constantly. She'd also pick up on the fact that the majority of their arguments tie back to her getting close to Jerry, and nobody gets that possessive over someone they just see as a friend. She might hate Bill, but she never told anyone about what she found out because she'd never stoop low enough to out him. Mandi thought fighting over boys is dumb, and she's seen stupid high school drama like this so many times before so she tried to offer up a truce. She doesn't forgive him for all the preju/d1c e shit he's said to her, but she figured this could maybe stop the drama. Besides, Jerry sees some good in him, right? Maybe this time Bill could prove her wrong about how she felt towards him. Bill did the opposite and interrupted her before lashing out again and storming off. If Bill just let her finish talking, she would've told him she'd back off and respect Jerry's decision if he chose Bill over her as long as Bill treated him right and decided to change for the better.