Gym teacher (High School)

From Candypedia
Gym teacher
GenderFemale
SpeciesCat
OccupationRoseville High School gym teacher
DebutA Difficult Choice, page 5
September 12, 2006 (2006-09-12)

The unnamed Gym teacher (High School) runs physical education at Roseville High School, where she spends freshman through junior year informing Mike, Paulo, Lucy and the rest of the gang that they are out of shape. She has a front-row seat to the class’s fights and love triangles, and she would much rather watch them play out than break them up. Her punishments run into thousands of laps; her patience for anyone asking her to intervene is considerably shorter.

Personality

The fat kids get no gentler welcome in A Distance Apart.

Picture a referee who has decided the match is more fun than the rules. The gym teacher blows her whistle, announces dodgeball or laps, and then folds her arms and watches whatever the class does with the time. She is bored by the exercise, entertained by the arguments, and honestly a bit invested in who ends up with whom. Her one reliable enthusiasm is telling the class how fat they have gotten since she last saw them, and her favourite tool is a punishment far too large to take seriously.

A responsible teacher would have stopped the love triangle much earlier.

She rarely breaks up a fight herself. In Under Pressure she swims over to a shouting Mike, Paulo and Daisy and admits that a responsible teacher would have stopped them after the first offense, rather than sitting there watching their little “love triangle” play out.[1] She is nowhere to be found while Mike is buried under a pile of dodgeballs in A Difficult Choice,[2] and in A Different Side she watches Paulo and Jay square off with a perfectly blank face until the bell saves everyone.[3][4] Veronica’s commentary compares her to a BCB reader who keeps up with the drama.[5] She also tends to be right about what she is watching. She has the Mike, Daisy and Paulo triangle pegged before Paulo even knows what the phrase means.[1]

Her running gag is the class’s waistline. In Humble Approach she orders more laps than ever because of how unfit everyone is looking.[6] On the last day of freshman year she tells them they are as fat as the day she first laid eyes on them,[7] and she opens sophomore year in A Distance Apart by asking, “Are you kids even fatter than before?”[8] The punishments run on the same scale. Talking back turns fifty sit-ups into five hundred,[1] asking her to do her job costs Sue two thousand laps,[3] and a cheer routine in Unspoken Rule is worth four hundred.[9]

Most of her jokes arrive with a straight face. She warns the swimming class how horrible it will be to see their teacher in a swimsuit.[10] Later she sorts the pool into three top swimmers and everyone else, who are “mediocre or worse” and should try to call out if they start drowning.[11] All the same, she will hand out real credit when a student earns it, and when Lucy knocks Paulo cold in Wardrobe Malfunction she kneels beside him shouting for a medic.[12] She is also, on at least one occasion, more interested in her cable bill than in the game she is refereeing.[13]

Appearance

The gym teacher makes Mike’s ejection sound less like a decision than a fact.

The gym teacher is a grey cat with short, dark hair, and her standing prop is a whistle. She holds it up in her debut in A Difficult Choice and wears it into the pool in Carry On.[2][10] It is in hand on the first day of sophomore year and again during junior-year dodgeball,[8][14] and she blows it hard enough to start the class in Unspoken Rule.[13] She is often shown with folded arms, half-lidded eyes and a scowl that ranges from bored to disapproving depending on what the class has done this time.[6][5][14][15]

She usually wears a plain shirt, with her whistle hanging around her neck.[2][15] For the swimming unit she changes into a black swimsuit.[10][1] She also turns up to the first gym class of sophomore year in a turtleneck with her hair a mess.[8]

Significant events

She makes her debut in A Difficult Choice by announcing dodgeball. She takes no further part in the scene as Paulo leads a group of girls in burying Mike under a pile of balls for being a “cheater”.[2] In Wardrobe Malfunction she nags the class through warm-ups,[16] sends a bloodied Paulo and a screaming Daisy off on mile-long laps under threat of failing them,[12] and answers Mike’s declaration that he hates everyone by telling him to start running.[17]

In Troubled Waters she announces the new semester’s mandatory swimming unit, and her decision to excuse Lucy prompts Tess to ask Mike why, bringing Lucy’s fear of water into the open.[18] The unit runs through Carry On, Follow Me and Under Pressure, where she fields Katie’s claim to be allergic to water,[10] shouts down David’s cannonball,[19] and closes with an extra-credit race whose aftermath she watches instead of refereeing.[11][1] In A Different Side she runs the kickball game that feeds into Tess’s bullying,[20] then joins the teachers’ side at the pep rally and does not enjoy losing the ping-pong finale to the students.[21] She sends the freshmen off for summer in Moving On with orders to run until their legs are red and swollen.[7]

She opens sophomore year in A Distance Apart with a mile run that frames Lucy’s failed attempt to confess to Mike,[8] and in Back and Forth she lets Lucy’s face-shot on Paulo slide.[22] Junior year is dodgeball and volleyball. She calls a dazed Mike out in Model Girlfriend,[14] and she referees Unspoken Rule’s dodgeball game while on hold with the cable company.[13][23] In Time Out she sends Paulo and Abbey to the principal after Paulo hits Abbey in the head with a volleyball.[24][25] In Rain Check she sends the shivering class out for another mile run to keep them warm, while she is bundled in a puffer jacket.[26]

Major relationships

Paulo

Paulo learns that beating Mike comes with its own penalty in Under Pressure.

Paulo is her favourite show, and he knows it. In A Different Side she clears her throat behind him mid-argument with Tess and announces that she enjoys watching him “ping-pong between love interests”, which leaves him blushing and demanding to know what she keeps saying about him.[5] She is happy to reward him when he earns it, and names him one of the three best swimmers in Under Pressure.[11] The prize for coming second in her race, though, is fifty sit-ups, and every time he argues the number climbs, from fifty to a hundred to two hundred to five hundred. Even asking what “love triangle” means earns him another increase. So much for a prize: as she tells him, nobody remembers second place.[1]

She does eventually put her foot down with him. In Time Out, after he throws a volleyball at Abbey’s head, she bellows both boys off to the principal’s office. The two end up side by side on the waiting-room couch.[24][25][27]

Mike

Mike is the student she praises most, and she never lets the praise stand on its own for long. She calls his swim a new school record in Troubled Waters,[28] names “Michael” among the three best in the class in Under Pressure,[11] and tells him it was “very valiant” to rescue Daisy before handing him a hundred sit-ups for finishing third.[1] The praise only goes so far. Her dodgeball announcement in A Difficult Choice is the last thing she does before the class mobs him as a cheater.[2] By junior year she is the one calling him “out” when he stands dazed and lovestruck in Model Girlfriend.[14] In Unspoken Rule she tells the class to lighten up on the mind games after his standoff with Lucy, all without getting off the phone.[23]

Lucy

Lucy gets the closest thing to kindness the gym teacher hands out, and it does not last her past the pep rally. In Troubled Waters she excuses Lucy from the swimming unit to “Room 104” for the marking period with no explanation, which keeps Lucy out of the pool even as it leaves Tess wondering why.[18] At the pep rally in A Different Side, though, a glare and a pointed throat-clear are enough to force Lucy to sing along with the school. Veronica based the pressure to join in on teachers making reluctant students recite the pledge of allegiance.[29]

Otherwise she leaves Lucy’s aim well alone. When Lucy hits Paulo square in the face during basketball in Back and Forth, the teacher points out that the hoop is the other way and accepts “I missed.” as a full answer.[22] The cheer routine Lucy joins in Unspoken Rule does cost her four hundred laps.[9]

Minor relationships

Sue

Sue makes the mistake of asking her to act like a teacher, and is punished for it. During Paulo and Jay’s kickball standoff in A Different Side, Sue points out that the teacher really ought to stop them, and gets “No wet blankets in this gym class. 2000 laps.” for her trouble, a sentence she is still protesting when the class ends.[3][4] By Unspoken Rule, though, she trusts “Susan” to captain a dodgeball team, and her side wins.[13][23]

Tess

The gym teacher’s answer is no, with none of the sympathy Tess was hoping for.

Tess gets very little help from the gym teacher. When Tess asks about alternative activities to swimming in Troubled Waters, the teacher pretends to be delighted somebody asked before scowling out a flat “No alternative activities.”[18] In A Different Side she calls “Tessa” up to kick, and after Jay deliberately beans her in the head she offers him a mild correction and a compliment on his aim, then sends Tess back to her team while the class jeers.[30][20] Tess does get to grin at her across the pep rally games when the students win.[21]

Quotes

However, if I was a responsible teacher, I would have stopped you idiots after the FIRST offense.. Instead of sitting here watching your little love triangle play out. Gym teacher, explaining her methods to Mike, Paulo and Daisy in Under Pressure

No wet blankets in this gym class. 2000 laps. Gym teacher, to Sue, for asking her to break up a fight, in A Different Side

The rest of you are mediocre or worse. Just splash around a bit until I say it’s enough. If anyone starts drowning, try to call out. Gym teacher, sorting the swimming class in Under Pressure

While you’re all still as fat as when I first laid eyes on you, there’s no reason to give up today. Run laps until your legs are red and swollen. Don’t let me down. Gym teacher, sending the freshmen off for summer in Moving On

Now I know how horrible it is to see your teacher in a swimsuit, but bear with me here.. Gym teacher, from the pool in Carry On

And Susan’s team wins! Congratulations, everyone.. but let’s lighten up on the mind games. Gym teacher, still on hold with the cable company in Unspoken Rule

Trivia

  • Veronica’s commentary on A Different Side says listening to her students bicker is her own way of watching soaps, since she can’t watch them at home right now.[3] Oliver’s commentary on Under Pressure agrees: “That teacher reads comics like these.”[1]
  • She is one of three teachers deliberately brought back for sophomore year. Veronica notes that teachers repeated at her own high school, and asks why anyone would waste an already perfectly-designed adult.[8]
  • She favours students’ full first names: Michael, Tessa, Susan and Abraham.[28][30][13][25]
  • Dodgeball is her default activity, to the point that Mike asks whether they always play it in this period.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Chapter 35: Under Pressure, page 5
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Chapter 22: A Difficult Choice, page 5
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 6
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 7
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 3
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 25: Humble Approach, page 1
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 40: Moving On, page 5
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Chapter 50: A Distance Apart, page 7
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 96: Unspoken Rule, page 20
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Chapter 31: Carry On, page 1
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Chapter 35: Under Pressure, page 3
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 24: Wardrobe Malfunction, page 3
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 Chapter 96: Unspoken Rule, page 13
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 3
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 9
  16. ↑ Chapter 24: Wardrobe Malfunction, page 1
  17. ↑ Chapter 24: Wardrobe Malfunction, page 4
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 1
  19. ↑ Chapter 32: Follow Me, page 5
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 5
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 11
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 14
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Chapter 96: Unspoken Rule, page 19
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 12
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Chapter 108: Time Out, page 13
  26. ↑ Chapter 122: Rain Check, page 4
  27. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 14
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 12
  29. ↑ Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 9
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 4
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