Original Commentary
Unfortunately there really isn't too much to be said about this one... I'm mainly just trying to show time passing while showing their awkward "relationship"...blooming? Just sort of sitting there? Who knows... -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Honestly, the best way to learn something is to explain it to somebody else. If you understand it well enough to do that, you're most of the way there - Terrence

Original Commentary
Yeah, I pretty much just used Sherup Community College (or whatever it's called- I forget ;_;) background for this one. Not saying this is either college or High School though- mostly because I really don't know.... Jake's background is kind of fleshed out- we know he worked at Lemon Tech. for a few years till he got tired of Miz Taylor... but neither of us is sure how much, if any, time he spent in college. Perhaps his time with the college ended shortly after all this... who knows. Hopefully one day Terrence will flesh out his background a bit more- I'm not going to do it, it'll just tick him off. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I love how the last panel is framed.

Also, notice how Isabel doesn't throw in a bunch of random friend names? I would've done that. Yeah, versimilitude is important but no point bringing up information that doesn't actually mean anything. That just distracts from the meaningful bits when I do it. - Terrence

Original Commentary
On one hand, I understand Jake's anger- he's probably a short tempered guy, and it probably felt good to him to help a lady in distress. Finding out that it was always the other way around would frustrate anyone...unfortunately he's so mad, he can't see the kindness behind the intention, which brings us to Sandra- who wanted to help, but understood Jake enough to not go about it in a traditional manner. Unfortunately for her, she underestimated his anger, which has backfired on her. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Sandra is a helper. She enjoys helping people, even if they don't ask for it. Unfortunately, that can lead to people taking advantage of your kindness or, like you see here, folks getting angry that you tricked them into being helped. - Terrence

Original Commentary
I didn't mean to draw Sandra looking so... ugly on the outside in panel three. I wanted her to have a shocked face and thinking about it... you'd probably make an ugly face too if someone told you that. Not that I hope that's ever happened to you, personally. It just a hypothetical case.

Their not moving that far from that bell tower, are they? Oh well... that background isn't too long, it was only used once previously that I can recall in "Success without fanfare". Although I should mention, this background is just a variant on the plain old bell tower image, only with more trees, grass and closer brick walls. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I mean, if Sandra didn't have an excuse to Be Helpful, I don't think she would have talked to Jake. And if she had just started talking to him, I don't think he would have trusted her. - Terrence

Original Commentary
Yeah, "Probably working right now" is Jake's default status when he's hanging out here. I'm sure he's supposed to be holding aggro or putting a red four on a black five or something right now - Terrence

Modern Commentary
She's trying again. Maybe she can get through to him and fix him for real this time... - Terrence

Original Commentary
Jake would be a lot happier if he didn't remember Sandra right now. He probably doesn't even notice that his party's healer just died, and they'll have to start that dungeon all over again - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Jane doesn't usually invite Jake along to these gatherings. I can only assume that she did so here so she could try to set Jake and Sandra up together. Dude needs all the help he can get - Terrence

Original Commentary
So, does Sandra remember? She's not telling anyone... although I'm sure our little paranoid Jake has his own ideas about it. No matter what she said, it would have been awkward for them.

Does Jake regret what he did? probably... but he wouldn't say... does Sandra? Most definitely. I'm sure if she knew how he would have reacted, she would have taken another course of action.

Of course, this isn't over, but for now Sandra is off to lick her wounds... and get some aspirin, finally. If she didn't need it before, she definitely needs it now. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Sandra remembers. And Jake, well, after that surge of anger passed, he realized that he hadn't exactly made a lot of friends at college; Robert (and most of Jake's other high school friends) went off to college elsewhere.

It's not just that he drove off a girl who was interested. He drove off the only person who was trying to befriend him.

Did he learn from it? Not as much as he might have hoped. - Terrence