Oh I love that question and have a pretty solid take on it.

I along with most of the fandom share the common view that Van is somewhere along the Neurodivergent spectrum.

Now being raised as a girl in the 90s meant that there was no way the public education system would be attending to those needs if the student wasn’t ’disruptive’ (quotes bc old problematic 90s schooling 😭) so I think there was definitely things Van struggled with.

Many people Headcanon Van as dyslexic too, which would ALSO be ignored in the school system for a girl in the 90s.

All that to say, I think Van made it pretty far through grade school. I could see Laura Lee helping Van with homework.(I hc Tai going to a different elementary school than Van) Then relying on their charm and earnestness with the teachers to get leniency on due dates or extra credit.

I think most teachers could see that Van was bright, and they could also see that she tried really hard.

(Sorry can’t help but think of this scene)

So yeah! Van gets through most of grade school just fine. Then she hits high school!

Whoa! Laura Lee doesn’t have all the same classes with me.

I have so many more teachers now.

Oh I have to get at least a C average to stay on the soccer team.

I think Van struggled at first in high school, but I could absolutely see Taissa being concerned nosy about it. She knows how sharp witted Van is so would probably assume that they aren’t teaching Van correctly.

And because she is Taissa Turner she will do it correctly. So she began helping Van study.

Oooh what a great question!

Okay let me break it down in some ways. Not excusing this behavior at all, just weighing in on what I think applies to it.

1. Home life. From what we can gauge, Van has a troubled relationship with her mom. One that she has no problem with being physically violent. That tells me that she was very likely hit or physically abused by her own mother.

It also safe to assume that her dad is not in the picture, since she only talks about her mom raising her.

This isolation coupled with a physically abusive parent with a drinking problem leads to poor conflict resolution skills (obviously).

2. Van and Misty. I feel that Van has some definite signs of being neurodivergent. Misty reflects a lot of traits around this that I think remind Van of herself. The infodumping, the over earnestness, the inability to read social cues. Van has all of those traits!!

She is just better at masking them! And I think she deeply tries to remind everyone, ESPECIALLY Misty, that she is not the same.

3. Social hierarchy. Van’s visible gayness, lack of dressing in name brands (i know they don’t show brand names but I can kind of guess that Van doesn’t buy the latest and greatest fashion), nerdiness, and messed up home life (people would bully others about that shit in the 90s 😭) means she was absolutely bullied in school.

As someone also bullied for similar things+growing up in a messed up home life, I developed being mean back as a defense mechanism. I think Van started bullying other bullies. And then it seeps into other interactions because it’s hard to get out of that aggressive headspace.

The Gambler

If you owned any saloon within a 300 mile range, you knew of what to expect when the red headed stranger strolled into those doors:

The drinks would pour heavily.

♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️

The poker table would become the hotbed of attention

♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️

Your saloon girls would forget their regular clients and all try their luck with the stranger with the gruesome scars.

What was there to know about this mysterious drifter? She played a wicked game of poker.

You had to make a plan to placate the men she would surely infuriate in her wake; be it by winning all of their earnings on the drive, or stealing the attention of the girls they were vying for.

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

The strife with the men was well worth it. The stranger would take her winnings and either buy the whole place a round, or pay for a few of the girls to “have a night off”.

This infamy at poker sometimes came with men angry or foolhardy or drunk enough to accuse the stranger of cheating.

♠️♠️♠️♠️♠️♠️♠️

“Take that back” She’d warn with a growl around her cigar.

That was another thing you knew about the red headed stranger:

She didn’t like her honor questioned.

If you dared to question it in public, her aim in a duel was as sharp as her card skills…

Just some of the ideas I have about these two:

- Lottie is the only one that can snap Van out of her infamous grouchy mood. Natalie gets too impatient with Van’s shit mood, and Van genuinely enjoys being grumpy to Taissa. (I love grouchy Van)

- When Lottie first transferred to Wiskayok as a kid, she was terribly shy. Nice girl Laura Lee and her motormouthed pal, Van, were the first people to befriend Lottie and ask her questions not relating to her family’s wealth. Lottie endearingly calls Van “motormouth”.

- Lottie would spend extra time with Van working on the goalie’s footwork. They would do drills to New Wave and Jazz music to get complex rhythms down. This has helped them develop excellent non-verbal field communication (I do not know soccer, just playing fast and loose with this)

- Lottie knew about Tai and Van. No one told her and she didn’t catch them in the act. Lottie can just read Van like a book.

- Lottie and Van both love the “oldies” and will always sing along to old songs on the radio.

- These two are the most Pisces characters. Lottie seems like a Pisces Rising or Mercury (if mercury then Aquarius is Lottie’s Sun) and Van is a Pisces.

Shauna went to a concert in her Junior year that Van was unable to attend. Van was devastated.

Despite not being especially close, Shauna bought Van a concert tee. Van cherished the gift.