Everything old is new again.
Panel 1: “Here I am with Martha again – just like summer camp, holding hands – walking in the moonlight.” Michael reminds the reader that:
- Martha is the girl he met 2 years ago at summer camp
- Their relationship has made no progress at all in the last 2 years
- They did in fact wander around the summer camp together in the middle of the night, holding hands and marching and not talking while Michael was lost in thought bubbles because everyone knows that teenagers don’t talk to each other and would rather march.
- He got to be entertained by a drunken student.
- Martha came to him and he did not go to her (twice).
- Martha was physically aggressive with him (twice).
- After spending time with him, Martha is apparently no longer spending time with her old girlfriends Megan and Janet, so she has ditched her friends for him as he wanted (either that or they didn’t come to the dance).
- Martha confessed that she liked him more than Lawrence.
- Gordon is there by his side and he is not talking or making a fool of himself
- He got to talk to Darryl Smythe for a long time without Gordon or Brian or Lawrence being there, and that may be the first time this has happened in the entire course of the comic strip.
Panel 3: Since the theme of this Valentine’s Day party appeared to be: “No adults seen anywhere and the kids do whatever they want”, it is not difficult to see why the sudden appearance of Elly might be jarring. Given where the end of that balloon is pointing to near Elly’s body, we can only hope that the “HONK!” came from the car.
Panel 4: Michael grimaces at the sight of his mother. Before we get too concerned about Michael, let’s remember that’s what he does when his parents are nice to him.
Summary: Michael is embarrassed to have a mother who picks him up at a middle school dance because that means he is like every single kid there.