Mike

From Candypedia
Mike
GenderMale
Age16
BirthdayAugust 10, 1992 (Leo)
GradeJunior as of Table for One
SpeciesCat
BreedKorat
Family
OccupationStudent
AffiliationTrack team, SwordsVale, Junior friend group
ResidenceMike’s house
DebutSimple Pleasures, page 5
November 2, 2009 (2009-11-02)

Mike is the quiet, well-mannered Korat at the centre of the Roseville High School junior friend group, an honors English student and a runner who has spent most of his life being described by other people as the nice one. He was best friends with Lucy for much of his childhood and has known Sandy since third grade. Their long-distance relationship only became official in freshman year, and the pull between those two relationships has shaped almost everything that has happened to him since. Over the course of the comic he has worn three scarves, and every single one of them came from a girl or was chosen with one in mind.

Personality

Sandy reassures Mike, who has already decided he is an idiot.

Mike is usually easy company: quiet, intelligent, skilled at running, and well liked by his female friends. He is dutiful in his friendships, regularly helping with homework or other chores, and he will catch you if you get knocked flying by a skateboard and scold whoever was riding it. He likes fish, video games and peace, he apologises reflexively, and he would rather avoid a fight. He is also the person who, pushed far enough, told his best friend that nobody could ever love her. Lately he is not entirely sure himself whether the nice boy everyone keeps describing is really who he is.

Rejecting admirers is harder when Mike can see their disappointment.

Mike is more comfortable offering help than turning down unwanted affection. His very first pages have him catching Lucy mid-air, asking whether she is alright, and inviting her out for early ice cream.[1][2] As a third-grader he volunteered to tutor Sandy without being asked, on the grounds that he helped Lucy all the time anyway.[3] The problem begins when someone wants more than friendship. Faced with a love letter in Puppy Love, he calls it sweet, says he would feel worse rejecting all these girls in person, and then blurts out “I’m not interested in girls.” before realising how that sounded.[4] Years later he is still saying much the same thing to Paulo, only without the joke. He does not want to hurt people who like him, and he hates that he had to turn down James and Daisy.[5][6]

He is protective, and he is a little proud of it. In Confrontation, drunk on liqueur chocolates, he dropkicks Alejandro off Lucy, warns Alejandro not to hurt any girls, and works his way through a list of every friend the man had wronged.[7][8] Once the fight is over, he is relieved that at least he still has the money he won.[9] The pattern holds sober, too. On the island trip he dives after Lucy when a bridge gives way and throws her to safety.[10]

Mike treats a promise as a test he is not allowed to fail. Explaining to Lily why he keeps waiting on a girl who barely writes, he asks whether their promises would mean nothing if he gave up, and then spells it out: “It’s a test, Lily.. and if I’m failing it, I’m failing her.”[11] He holds onto that logic for years. When he cannot explain to Augustus why he took Sandy back overnight after learning of her feelings for Francis, the best he can offer is that otherwise there was no point in having tried so hard.[12] Lucy’s later accusation, that he never once stopped writing to Sandy from the day she left to the day they got together, lands because he cannot deny it.[13]

He shrinks himself around Sandy in particular, and has done for years. He excuses her silences to anyone who asks and apologises for wanting so much as a heart emoji.[14] When he talks her into a race despite her impractical shoes and she snaps at him, he promises never to do it again.[15] He hides his game consoles when she visits and tells her that his job is to cheer her on.[16][17] When she admits she loves another man, he begs her to tell him what to do while his own claws draw blood from his knee.[18] He knows this about himself. Sitting with Augustus afterwards, he calls himself “such a stupid pushover”, and it is hard to argue.[19]

Sandy’s defence gives Mike an excuse to make Daisy the enemy.

When his resentment boils over, Mike can push back far too hard and then insist it was somebody else’s fault. The December speech to Lucy is the worst of it, and a week later he mutters to Sandy that things might be fixed if Lucy simply died.[20][21] Walking away from the hospital he tells himself it was not his fault and that she was a terrible person, and only then falls apart.[22] He screams at Daisy about being a meaningless acquaintance, slams Paulo’s face into a lunch table, and grabs Augustus by the face and throws him down, then turns straight around and blames Lucy for stringing him along.[23][24][25][26] He can describe the mechanism perfectly well when he is calm. When he does stand up for himself, he tells Daisy, he ends up pushing everyone away.[27]

He also nurses a real grievance about always being cast as the villain. Drunk at Rachel’s party he wants to know why everything is supposed to be his fault, and then lets the whole table have it: “It’s ALWAYS about HER. She’s always right, and I’m ALWAYS the asshole.”[28][29] He grumbles about being the bad guy once again when Sandy urges him to make peace, and when Sue finally asks after his problems he wants to know why everybody suddenly cares.[30][31] The complaint is not baseless. His friends did rally around Lucy, and Paulo did punch him.

Mike’s reputation for being nice has become a source of doubt rather than reassurance. By junior year he flinches at the word “nice”. Daisy means it kindly, and he hears Sandy saying it, and asks aloud “what if I was never really ‘nice’, underneath it all?”[27] His mother, Ellen, reinforces the role when she calls him her perfect boy who never asks for anything, and his face darkens even as he smiles.[32][33]

He can still be an encouraging friend. He reassures Stacy about her writing, helps Paulo talk through liking a boy, and thanks James for giving him something to look forward to at school.[34][35][36] Lately, though, he has been pulling away from the people around him. Asked directly how he is, he tells Paulo he is fine and sends him off to look after Lucy instead, forcing a smile at his phone.[37] Even so, he is not quite as alone as he thinks. The track team, at least, still asks him to sit with them.[38]

Appearance

Mike is a Korat, and like others of his breed his fur is short and blueish gray, with extremely sensitive hearing to match. That last detail is deliberate: Veronica’s commentary explains he was originally going to be a Russian Blue and was switched to a Korat partly because the breed is known for sensitive ears.[39] The comic treats it as a real limitation rather than a one-off gag. The marching band in Pep Rally leaves him desperate for quiet, and a high school pep rally has him cringing the following spring.[40][41]

The New Year’s party has one opinion about Mike’s new colour.

Mike is most often seen clothed in just a scarf, and has worn three different scarves over the course of the comic. Initially, he wore a plain blue scarf, which he later admits he chose with Lucy’s eyes in mind.[42] By A Difficult Choice, it had been ruined by the crowd of girls Paulo sicced on him after accusing him of being a cheater. Mike stopped wearing it altogether once he discovered Paulo had also been using it to wipe his nose.[43] The old blue scarf turns up again in his locker in sophomore year, and it is the one he wears in Lucy’s dream.[44][45] Not long after the mob, Mike began wearing a yellow striped scarf given to him by Tess, which he describes in his own words as “Orange and yellow”, a change to match the colours of autumn.[46] Much later, at the fashion show in Just Beautiful, Sandy replaced it with a light blue scarf matched exactly to the new bow in her hair. Her reasoning was that the two of them should “keep on matching up”, and she kept his old one for herself.[47][48] His friends greet the new colour with a chant at the New Year’s party.[49] Tess acts devastated at being replaced, but it is only a prank.[50]

The scarf is also where Mike goes when he is flustered. He tugs it over his mouth when uncomfortable, keeps his phone tucked inside it, and has been grabbed and even choked by it by irritated friends more than once.[51][37][52][53] Mike has also been seen wearing a beanie and a jacket, a winter coat in the snow, and, from junior year, the blue HORNETS jersey and shorts of the track team.[54][55] For Mischief Night he went as a tentacled monster.[56] At the very end of middle school he got around on a cane after breaking his leg, though he insists hopping around on it is fun until Yashy jumps on his cast.[57]

Significant events

Middle school

In Pillow Talk, Lucy remembers a snowy afternoon from when she and Mike were about twelve. A snowball fight ends with the two of them in her bedroom, where Mike tells her he really likes her and kisses her.[58][59][60] Lucy panics and orders him out.[61] He leaves promising to wait until she is ready, and never raises it again.[54][62]

Mike’s first appearance in Simple Pleasures is a small, complete portrait of him. He catches Lucy as Paulo’s skateboard sends her flying, checks that she is alright, tells Paulo off, and asks her to hang out because the ice cream place opens early.[1][2] The rest of eighth grade runs on that same bickering closeness. In Pep Rally he scores the last five points of a volleyball game just to make the gym quieter, braces himself for the band, and collapses when Lucy simply asks them to turn it down, managing only “why.. didn’t.. you ask them sooner..”[40] In Puppy Love, a love letter in his locker gets a public reading from Lucy and an accidental announcement from him that he is not interested in girls, which Paulo and David make sure nobody forgets.[4][63]

Mike’s apology for Sandy is heartfelt, unwanted, and impressively difficult to escape.

In Confrontation, drunk on liqueur chocolates at the Cinder Station hideout, Mike knocks Alejandro off Lucy and shouts after him as he flees.[7][9] Walking home from school the next day, Lucy kisses him in thanks, and he spends the following chapter thinking about very little else.[64][65] He ends the year on a cane with a broken leg. In Unfulfilled Fantasy he tells Lily the whole story of Sandy and decides in his own head that she belongs to a life that did not happen, then turns up wailing an apology at Lucy’s door.[57][66][67] That decision lasts about three chapters.

Freshman year

Abbey makes Mike face the damage his inattention has caused.

On the last weekend before high school, Mike bolts to Maraschino City after a news report about Sandy. He misses her, only to discover that she visited his house while he was away and left him a bonsai.[68] Paulo, meanwhile, spreads word that Mike is a cheater and sets a mob of girls on him.[69] In A New Leaf, Mike phones Sandy and asks outright what he is to her, and comes back to the lunch table with a girlfriend.[70] The first scarf meets its end in A Difficult Choice, after the mob has egged it and Paulo has used it to wipe his nose.[43] Tess gives him a new scarf in Left Behind, and he makes honor roll and dances about it.[46][71] A flashback in Troubled Waters returns to the summer before sixth grade, when Paulo saved both Mike and Lucy from drowning. Afterwards, Mike asked Lucy to promise not to risk her life for him again.[72]

In the spring the Daisy problem comes to a head, mostly thanks to Abbey. He nearly fights Mike over ignoring her feelings in Rising Temperature, and the carnival date in Love My Way ends with Mike firmly turning her down.[73][74] The year closes with a toast in Moving On, and Tess kidnaps him for a summer island trip in Invitation.[75][76] Out there he dives after Lucy when a bridge collapses in Search and Rescue, and afterwards, in Intervention, he tells Zachary what he has come to think Lucy’s clinging really means.[10][77]

Sophomore year

By sophomore year, the triangle has stopped being funny. Lucy confesses to him in A Distance Apart and he turns her down.[78] Sue casts him in her play despite a very sweaty audition, and he and Paulo build a whole competitive “system” around soda cans.[79][80] He gets his first iPhone in Call Waiting, and the texting with Sandy begins in earnest.[81] He goes cold on Lucy through the autumn, and then, in December, a text from Sandy announcing a visit sets off the speech in which he tells Lucy he hates her and that nobody can love her.[82][83] He leaves Lucy upstairs and goes to tell his family about Sandy’s visit. Lucy is gone by the time he returns.[84][85][86]

Sandy’s visit follows in Just Beautiful, where she gives him his third scarf and he tries and fails to see Lucy, with Lily stopping him outside her house.[47][87] He kisses his phone at Sandy’s New Year text and stumbles through an apology to Lucy backstage after the play in Curtain Call.[88][89] Then comes Breaking Up. Jordan tells him it is all his fault, and at the hospital Mike learns that Lucy will be out in a week and will not be coming back to Roseville.[90][91] Paulo punches him and then breaks down in the snow in Leaving Home, while Mike pats his head, and Sue half-strangles him with his own scarf in Study Buddy.[92][93][53]

The group only hears what he actually said at Rachel’s birthday in Happy Hour, where a drunk Mike finally explains the December argument and takes a punch for it.[94][95] The year is quieter after that. He joins Paulo and Abbey in the online game SwordsVale only to be mortified when another player tries to make out with his female character. In Boy Toy he waits on a reply from Sandy while helping Paulo work through liking a boy.[96][14] Tess graduates in Class of 2008.[97]

Junior year

Junior year opens with SAT talk and Mike sitting alone at the park tree.[98][99] Sandy comes to town for a shoot in Model Girlfriend and the visit leaves him apologising for being childish.[100] Lucy returns to Roseville High in Love Again, and when he tries to talk things out in Unspoken Rule she tells him flatly that she no longer likes him.[101][102] His temper frays through the autumn. He slams Paulo’s face into the lunch table in High Expectations, and on Halloween in Witch Hunt he screams at Daisy and then discovers Paulo has left Sandy a voicemail on his phone.[24][23][103]

Mike begs Lucy not to hate him, then holds her close.

Sandy pulls the pin in Eternal Flame, telling him over the phone that she loves someone else and breaking up with him. Mike later finds Lucy at the park tree, begs for their friendship back, and shares a kiss with her.[104][105][106][107] The next morning, after an overnight call with Sandy, he is back together with her and saying so within Lucy’s hearing.[108][109] He confesses the whole mess to Augustus in Burnt Bridges and swears never to speak to Lucy again.[110] In Double Down he kisses Daisy in the library, and she kisses him back.[111][112]

The winter that follows is busier than he would like, mostly thanks to James. James, who has been watching him for months, recruits him for the track team in Track Meet, leaving Mike to marvel at having become “a jock.”[55] Mike breaks his promise to Augustus at the arcade in Link Play.[113] James kisses him after a film in Date Night and is turned down, and on New Year’s Eve in New Year’s Resolution Mike tells a sobbing Paulo that he loves him and that he cannot keep losing people.[114][115] In Second String David outruns him at practice and his mother tells him he is her perfect boy, and in First-Degree Burn James chooses David’s company over his.[116][32][117]

Homework put away, Mike struggles to stay awake through Sandy’s conversation.

Augustus confronts Mike in Line in the Sand about his treatment of Lucy in front of James, ignoring her attempts to stop him. Mike attacks him, and Lucy kicks Mike in the stomach for blaming her, leaving James glad to be rid of him.[118][26][119] Afterwards he trains through recess without eating, starts skipping track, and tells Paulo he is fine.[120][121] As of Tickets Please he puts away his homework and lies in bed, struggling to stay awake while Sandy vents on speakerphone, and Lucy is telling Carol that he is staying away.[122][123]

Major relationships

Lucy

Lucy answers Mike’s question in the only language their friendship has ever made easy.

Mike has never worked out whether he is Lucy’s friend, her keeper or her boyfriend, so he has spent most of his life being an awkward mixture of the three. He met her in preschool and told her it was weird for a girl to play with his toys. They were separated in kindergarten and reunited in first grade, when she latched onto him.[124][46] When Sandy arrived in third grade he admits he left Lucy to rot. As he tells Tess, he was nine, so cut him some slack.[46] Later, when he tried to see Sandy’s face on her, little Lucy screamed that she would never be like her.[125][126] By middle school things had settled into insults and kicks on her side and a slightly baffled devotion on his. When they were about twelve he kissed her in her bedroom after a snowball fight, and she panicked and ordered him out.[60][61] He left telling her “I can wait ’til you’re ready.”[54] He never brought it up again. Lucy turns the afternoon over years later, at the sleepover in Pillow Talk.[62] Walking home from school the day after Confrontation’s fight, he asks whether he is really her best friend, and gets a kiss she insists is only repayment.[127][64]

On the island trip, Mike finally puts his resentment into words. After the cliff fall and Lucy’s breakdown he tells Zachary that she clung to him out of need rather than love, and that this is where it begins and ends.[77] When Lucy finally says she loves him in A Distance Apart, he accepts the confession with “Well.. Okay.” but says “Yes.” when she asks whether a girl hundreds of miles away really means more.[128][78] Asked whether he wanted her before, he thinks back to her kiss after Cinder Station and says he did.[129] Things happened since, he tells her, and now the answer is no. He goes cold on her through the autumn that follows.[82]

Even an apology cannot make Sandy disappear from the conversation.

Neither of them has got past what he said in December. Told that she is glad someone makes him happy, Mike informs her that he is only ever upset because she is always around and that he hates her, crediting Sandy with helping him understand it.[130][131] He lists who will follow him when he leaves the lunch table, and finishes with “You’re a parasite.” and “Nobody can love you for who you are.”[132][20] Then, in Breaking Up, Lily tells him at the hospital that Lucy will be fine and will not be coming back, and asks whether that isn’t what he wanted. He walks out insisting it was not his fault, and then crumples against a wall, apologising to nobody.[133][91][22][134] Jordan, Lily, Augustus and eventually Mike himself all name his words as what put her there.

Since her return he has wanted to talk and she has usually kept her distance. Their brief moments of warmth have not restored her trust. In Unspoken Rule he claims he was only venting, and when she asks what he did mean he has no answer at all.[135] The night Sandy leaves him, in Eternal Flame, he finds Lucy at the tree and swears he never hated her. He realises the spot he thought was his safe place was Sandy’s thing all along, and that Lucy sat there with him for years anyway.[136][137] He tells her the first scarf was for her: “I chose it thinking about your eyes.”[42] They kiss, she tells him to sort himself out, and by morning he is back with Sandy.[107][138] In Line in the Sand he blames her for stringing him along, and she kicks him in the stomach before reminding him that he kissed her and never once stopped writing to Sandy.[26][139] Veronica’s Art Fight sheet gives Mike’s own view of her in a single line: “I can’t have her, I’m dating someone else. But she must always be mine.”[140]

Sandy

Sandy turns a matching scarf into proof that their old romance still fits.

Mike and Sandy were grade-school sweethearts, and much of the relationship is still running on third-grade fuel. She caught him doodling her, mispronounced his name “Maishul” and never stopped, and let him tutor her in exchange for salmon. They confessed their love cloud-watching, and then she moved to Rickter promising to write every day.[141][3][142][125] The letters came almost weekly at first and then slipped, until Sandy felt to him more like a memory than a friend.[11] He made her his girlfriend anyway, by phone, in A New Leaf, and they became frequent texters once he had a phone of his own.[70][81] Her gifts furnish his life: the bonsai still sits on his desk, and her light-blue scarf is the one around his neck.[143][47]

Sandy helps Mike recognise how much Lucy’s hitting hurts him, but he takes that recognition much further than she asks. In flashback phone calls, Mike mentions Lucy hitting his shin and Sandy panics, asks whether he is going to tell somebody, and, over his protests that Lucy is a good person really, decides “I don’t like her. At all.”[144][145][146] To be fair to Sandy, when he says at the fashion show that Lucy dying might fix things, she taps him on the nose with a firm “No! Bad!” and makes him promise to talk things out.[21][147]

Day to day, the pattern is her silence and his excuses. He tells Paulo it is not her fault and that even a little heart symbol would tide him over, then apologises for saying so.[14] In No Service, which only exists in print in Volume Four, his photos and texts go unanswered, and even her voicemail box is full.[148] A message from Paulo cheers him up, though he notes that Paulo messages him more than his own girlfriend does.[149] When she does visit, he persuades her to race in unsuitable shoes and gets a screamed “GROW UP?!” for it, and he apologises until she softens and tells him “That silly boyishness is what makes you so cute!”[100][15] The same visit also has them happily playing games together and kissing.[150][151] He disowns Paulo to her over the Halloween voicemail, and her verdict is that he is too nice.[103][17]

Mike keeps trying to make their betrayals balance. Sandy confesses in Eternal Flame that she loves Francis, the man who does her hair, and Mike asks whether it is his fault and begs her to tell him what to do.[104][18] She breaks up with him, and that night he kisses Lucy. An overnight call brings him and Sandy back together; afterwards he describes Sandy’s relationship with Francis as cheating, but cannot explain to Augustus why he forgave her so quickly.[105][107][108][19] In Double Down he says Sandy has got rid of Francis and that he is still not happy. “I cheated first,” he tells Daisy, putting his lingering feelings for Lucy alongside Sandy’s feelings for Francis.[152][153] His later kiss with Daisy is a deliberate attempt to even the score.[112] Sandy thanks him for taking her back, but by Tickets Please he sounds distant even with her on the phone, offering an “I trust you.” while she presses for a reaction.[154][155]

Paulo

A friendship confession catches Mike by surprise in New Year’s Resolution.

Paulo has been hitting Mike since middle school, but even their early rivalry leaves room for friendship. Paulo calls him a pansy over Lucy, brands him a cheater and sics a mob of girls on him twice, and wipes his nose on Mike’s scarf as well.[69][46][43] Underneath that, Daisy’s memory of their childhood has Mike quietly handing a crying little Paulo his money.[111] They squabble over pillows on the island and invent a soda-can “system” in sophomore year, with an ease that their later fights can obscure.[156][80]

Once Lucy is gone, the rivalry turns into something closer, and it does so by way of Paulo’s fists. He punches Mike and then breaks down in the snow in Leaving Home, with Mike patting his head. At Happy Hour he punches him again once a drunk Mike explains what he said during the history project.[92][94] Asked how he could make her feel so alone, Mike answers “It’d make for two of us.”[52] Later that night, crying into Paulo’s shoulder, he admits he loved her, and Paulo’s answer is that Mike is so smart and “so much.. fuckin’ better ‘n that..”[95] From there Mike becomes Paulo’s confidant in return, talking him through liking a boy in Boy Toy.[35] Their friendship survives Mike slamming Paulo’s face into a table in High Expectations: after the pudding incident, Paulo hugs him and begs him not to give up on him, and Mike apologises for hitting him.[24][157][158] Yet Mike later calls him an idiot to Sandy over the Halloween voicemail.[103]

By New Year’s Eve, in New Year’s Resolution, Mike is telling a sobbing Paulo that he is asking because he loves him, and is visibly startled to hear himself add “Wow. Paulo’s my best friend.”[159] Paulo, who has a crush of his own by now, accuses him of giving out false hope. Mike is explicit that he means friendship, but his answer is a plea as much as a principle: “Isn’t being my friend enough?”, followed by the promise that he loves him just as strongly and cannot get through life if everyone leaves.[160][5][6][115] Paulo stays with him, happy to be his friend.[161] Veronica’s Art Fight sheet has Mike calling Paulo a really nice guy who is a lot like Lucy in a way.[140] Lately, though, Mike is the one doing the leaving. He waves Paulo off with “Take care of Lucy. She deserves it.” and insists he is fine.[37]

Daisy

After Love My Way, Daisy and Mike choose friendship, though Daisy still does most of the hugging.

Since the very beginning, Daisy has had a huge crush on Mike, but Mike has usually valued her as a friend rather than a romantic prospect. She is fawning over him in Merry Snow Day and telling him this is exactly why she likes him so much after the Cinder Station fight, while he is preoccupied with the girl standing next to her.[162][163] Abbey takes him to task for ignoring her pain in Rising Temperature, and she does not actually go out with him until the carnival in Love My Way, which goes disastrously wrong. He tells her he will never be interested and shoves her kiss away, and they patch things up the following chapter.[73][74][164]

Daisy often takes Mike’s side even when he is plainly in the wrong, and he both leans on that and abuses it. At Rachel’s party she is the one insisting Lucy was not nice, though she also wants to know what made Lucy better.[165][166] She does have limits; earlier in Witch Hunt she tells him it is not about him all the time.[167] Later in that same chapter, when she defends him, he rounds on her, shouting that Sandy cannot remember her because third grade was eight years ago and that she has no time for “meaningless little acquaintances.”[168][23] Mike feels terrible for not returning her feelings, especially since they got in the way of her own relationships, and that guilt does not stop him using her as a punching bag when he is cornered.

In the library in Double Down, Daisy tells him she is over him, and her gentle “You’re just too nice, Mikie.” wrecks him, because it is exactly what Sandy always says.[169] Out of spite at Sandy’s cheating, Mike kisses her on the cheek, reasoning that this makes him and Sandy even, and asks aloud why he never gave her a chance. Daisy answers with a kiss on the lips, which he returns before the two fall into embarrassed silence.[112][170] She promises afterwards to keep it between them. It is Daisy who later says she does not want to repeat her mistakes with Mikie, and who confides her secret romance with Paulo to him.[171][172] Veronica’s Art Fight sheet has Mike file her simply as one of his closest friends.[140]

Minor relationships

James and the track team

James kisses Mike after the movie in Date Night.

James wanted Mike, and Mike wanted a friend, which is a mismatch he has been on the wrong side of before. James recruits him for the track team in Track Meet after four months of watching him from a distance, and Mike goes along with it in some bewilderment.[173][55] After their film in Date Night Mike thanks James for giving him a chance, and James kisses him. Mike answers “I’m sorry. I have a girlfriend.” James admits he already knew. Mike goes on to tell him about the best friend he lost.[36][114][174]

By spring, the friendship between Mike and James is already falling apart. James pairs off with David, and Mike is left marvelling at how easily he has been forgotten, though Finn and Felix still invite him to sit with the team.[175][38] Then James witnesses the whole of Line in the Sand, and comes away feeling lucky to be out of it and sorry for Mike’s girlfriend.[119][176] Mike’s answer is to skip track, which sends James running to the others in a panic.[121]

Augustus

Augustus crosses the snow to tell Mike he only wanted to hear his side, in Burnt Bridges.

Mike has loathed seeing Lucy anywhere near Augustus since sophomore year, and Augustus has been paying attention.[177] He is the one Mike confesses to after Eternal Flame, hearing him out with the dry observation that people do not usually end up with their third-grade crushes and accepting his promise to leave Lucy alone.[12][110] Veronica’s Art Fight sheet gives Mike’s side plainly: Augustus is a creep, and Mike gets halfway through admitting it makes him jealous before deciding it is simply pathetic of Lucy.[140]

When Mike keeps coming outside anyway, Augustus asks him for space. Then, in Line in the Sand, he recounts Mike’s treatment of Lucy to James, despite her asking him to stop, and calls him “POSSESSIVE”, someone who has to be first in everyone’s mind even if he has to string them along.[178][118][179] Mike’s response is to demand what business it is of his, grab him by the face screaming, and throw him down.[180][25]

Tess

Tess’s advice on selfishness arrives with considerably more force than Mike expected.

Tess keeps trying to give Mike things, whether he asks for them or not. She gives him his second scarf in Left Behind and gets the whole history of Lucy in return.[181][46] In Invitation she kidnaps him for the island trip and offers him a ticket to go and see Sandy instead, ordering him to be selfish for once.[182] When Sandy’s scarf replaces hers she puts on a magnificent show of heartbreak, and then reveals she was pulling his leg.[50]

Sue

Mike’s scarf proves more durable than his patience in Study Buddy.

Sue wants Mike and Lucy to get along, and Mike often resents her interference. He has always wanted to act, though his audition for her play is a nervous, sweaty affair.[183] Sue later worries that she cared more about forcing him and Lucy together than making a good play.[79][184] Her patience has limits. She chokes him with his own scarf over the December business in Study Buddy, and when she presses him about his problems in High Expectations he snaps that it is none of her business.[53][31][185] He later apologises to her for lashing out.[186]

Family

At home, Mike is used to being the dependable one. Ellen is shouting at his father about childcare when he gets in. When Mike offers to watch Chris, she initially says he should not have that responsibility. He insists, and she contrasts him with Haley, who does not ace her exams the way he does. He never asks for anything, she says, and calls him her diamond.[187][32][33] In Tickets Please she notices how tired and scruffy he looks, makes sure he has money for breakfast, and worries that he is pushing himself too hard.[188][189] Haley mostly calls him a weirdo and laughs at him in his scarf.[190][191]

Lucy’s pets are part of the picture as well, and one of them is his. Lily is his confidante in Unfulfilled Fantasy, later stops him visiting Lucy and delivers the news at the hospital.[192][87][193] Blur, the pet in question, is the one who says outright that he cannot do without the others.[194]

David

David’s prank lands, although Mike’s review of the material is less enthusiastic.

David has appointed himself Mike’s sworn enemy, an appointment Mike has never actually accepted. Veronica’s Art Fight sheet for David bills Mike as his “SWORN ENEMY AND RIVAL FOREVER!!”, blaming Mike’s treatment of Paulo and Lucy. Their comic rivalry also includes prank texts in Call Waiting and races that David, annoyingly, keeps winning.[195][196][197][198] After Line in the Sand David writes him off entirely and jokes that he killed him.[199][200]

Quotes

TOLDYA NOT TO BE HURTIN’ ANY GIRLS! Mike, dropkicking Alejandro while drunk on chocolates in Confrontation

I was nine. Cut me some slack. Mike, to Tess, defending his neglect of Lucy while he was close to Sandy, in Left Behind

Well.. Okay. Mike, answering Lucy’s confession of love in A Distance Apart

Face it.. Your dumb rebound.. He doesn’t even love you. Nobody does. Why would they? You’re a parasite. Mike, to Lucy in December

I thought this was my safe place.. But I can’t even have one of those anymore, huh. Thanks, Sandy. Mike, at the tree, the night Sandy leaves him, in Eternal Flame

.. But what if I was never really ‘nice’, underneath it all? What if this actually is who I am? Mike, to Daisy in the library in Double Down

Gallery

For a complete gallery, see Gallery:Mike.

Trivia

  • Mike was originally going to be a Russian Blue. Veronica’s commentary on Show and Tell explains that she changed her mind mid-page, erasing pencilled dialogue to rewrite it, partly because Korats are known for their sensitive hearing.[39]
  • The love letter in his locker in Puppy Love praises his scarf as the symbol of loyalty and responsibility, which Lucy reads aloud as him being too sexy for it.[4]
  • Sandy has been calling him “Maishul” since the third grade. He has never corrected her.[141]
  • Fish is his favourite food. As a third-grader he followed the smell of salmon with his eyes closed straight into Sandy’s face.[201][3]
  • Veronica’s entire commentary on the page where he screams “I HATE YOU!!” at Lucy is “UH OH”. Her commentary on the scarf confession is “s-smooth”.[83][42]
  • Oliver has said that he looked into an official Mike scarf as merchandise, but finding one with plain edges, enough plushness, the right colour and a workable price proved difficult.[202]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 1: Simple Pleasures, page 5
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 1: Simple Pleasures, page 6
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 6
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Chapter 13: Puppy Love, page 2
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 31
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 32
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 22
  8. ↑ Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 24
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 25
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chapter 43: Search and Rescue, page 10
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 10
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 16
  13. ↑ Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 25
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Chapter 87: Boy Toy, page 23
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 34
  16. ↑ Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 36
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 105: Witch Hunt, page 40
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 29
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 15
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 68: December, page 31
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 19
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Chapter 75: Breaking Up, page 22
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Chapter 105: Witch Hunt, page 26
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Chapter 100: High Expectations, page 13
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 21
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 23
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Chapter 114: Double Down, page 31
  28. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 25
  29. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 28
  30. ↑ Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 18
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Chapter 100: High Expectations, page 14
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Chapter 124: Second String, page 18
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Chapter 124: Second String, page 19
  34. ↑ Chapter 82: Local Area, page 4
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Chapter 87: Boy Toy, page 27
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 8
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Chapter 128: Made Fresh, page 6
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Chapter 125: First-Degree Burn, page 16
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Chapter 9: Show and Tell, page 3
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 Chapter 11: Pep Rally, page 6
  41. ↑ Chapter 37: A Different Side, page 8
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 54
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 Chapter 24: Wardrobe Malfunction, page 1
  44. ↑ Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 2
  45. ↑ Chapter 49: Wonderland, page 2
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 46.3 46.4 46.5 Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 6
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 22
  48. ↑ Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 25
  49. ↑ Chapter 73: Ten Seconds to Midnight, page 8
  50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 Chapter 77: Study Buddy, page 12
  51. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 5
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 27
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 53.2 Chapter 77: Study Buddy, page 11
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 54.2 Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 50
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 55.2 Chapter 115: Track Meet, page 11
  56. ↑ Chapter 57: Mischief Night, page 2
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 1
  58. ↑ Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 40
  59. ↑ Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 47
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 48
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 49
  62. ↑ 62.0 62.1 Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 51
  63. ↑ Chapter 13: Puppy Love, page 4
  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1 Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 30
  65. ↑ Chapter 15: Aftermath, page 1
  66. ↑ Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 13
  67. ↑ Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 14
  68. ↑ Chapter 20: Hot Pursuit, page 12
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 Chapter 22: A Difficult Choice, page 4
  70. ↑ 70.0 70.1 Chapter 23: A New Leaf, page 3
  71. ↑ Chapter 29: Midterm Time, page 1
  72. ↑ Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 11
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 Chapter 38: Rising Temperature, page 8
  74. ↑ 74.0 74.1 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 15
  75. ↑ Chapter 40: Moving On, page 4
  76. ↑ Chapter 41: Invitation, page 9
  77. ↑ 77.0 77.1 Chapter 44: Intervention, page 5
  78. ↑ 78.0 78.1 Chapter 50: A Distance Apart, page 14
  79. ↑ 79.0 79.1 Chapter 53: Casting Call, page 5
  80. ↑ 80.0 80.1 Chapter 53: Casting Call, page 3
  81. ↑ 81.0 81.1 Chapter 62: Call Waiting, page 2
  82. ↑ 82.0 82.1 Chapter 64: Carry Me, page 26
  83. ↑ 83.0 83.1 Chapter 68: December, page 24
  84. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 34
  85. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 36
  86. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 38
  87. ↑ 87.0 87.1 Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 30
  88. ↑ Chapter 73: Ten Seconds to Midnight, page 26
  89. ↑ Chapter 74: Curtain Call, page 36
  90. ↑ Chapter 75: Breaking Up, page 15
  91. ↑ 91.0 91.1 Chapter 75: Breaking Up, page 20
  92. ↑ 92.0 92.1 Chapter 76: Leaving Home, page 2
  93. ↑ Chapter 76: Leaving Home, page 4
  94. ↑ 94.0 94.1 Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 26
  95. ↑ 95.0 95.1 Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 35
  96. ↑ Chapter 82: Local Area, page 14
  97. ↑ Chapter 88: Class of 2008, page 1
  98. ↑ Chapter 92: Table for One, page 7
  99. ↑ Chapter 92: Table for One, page 20
  100. ↑ 100.0 100.1 Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 33
  101. ↑ Chapter 95: Love Again, page 1
  102. ↑ Chapter 96: Unspoken Rule, page 26
  103. ↑ 103.0 103.1 103.2 Chapter 105: Witch Hunt, page 39
  104. ↑ 104.0 104.1 Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 28
  105. ↑ 105.0 105.1 Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 31
  106. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 44
  107. ↑ 107.0 107.1 107.2 Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 56
  108. ↑ 108.0 108.1 Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 63
  109. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 64
  110. ↑ 110.0 110.1 Chapter 111: Burnt Bridges, page 17
  111. ↑ 111.0 111.1 Chapter 114: Double Down, page 32
  112. ↑ 112.0 112.1 112.2 Chapter 114: Double Down, page 33
  113. ↑ Chapter 116: Link Play, page 24
  114. ↑ 114.0 114.1 Chapter 118: Date Night, page 9
  115. ↑ 115.0 115.1 Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 33
  116. ↑ Chapter 124: Second String, page 16
  117. ↑ Chapter 125: First-Degree Burn, page 15
  118. ↑ 118.0 118.1 Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 17
  119. ↑ 119.0 119.1 Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 34
  120. ↑ Chapter 128: Made Fresh, page 5
  121. ↑ 121.0 121.1 False Start, page 4
  122. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 3
  123. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 33
  124. ↑ Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 2
  125. ↑ 125.0 125.1 Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 9
  126. ↑ Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 12
  127. ↑ Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 28
  128. ↑ Chapter 50: A Distance Apart, page 12
  129. ↑ Chapter 50: A Distance Apart, page 13
  130. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 23
  131. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 25
  132. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 30
  133. ↑ Chapter 75: Breaking Up, page 19
  134. ↑ Chapter 75: Breaking Up, page 28
  135. ↑ Chapter 96: Unspoken Rule, page 25
  136. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 46
  137. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 49
  138. ↑ Chapter 110: Eternal Flame, page 58
  139. ↑ Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 24
  140. ↑ 140.0 140.1 140.2 140.3 Veronica. “Mike’s Art Fight character connections”. Art Fight. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
  141. ↑ 141.0 141.1 Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 4
  142. ↑ Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 8
  143. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 1
  144. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 26
  145. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 27
  146. ↑ Chapter 68: December, page 28
  147. ↑ Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 20
  148. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “No Service”, page 1
  149. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “No Service”, page 4
  150. ↑ Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 38
  151. ↑ Chapter 94: Model Girlfriend, page 41
  152. ↑ Chapter 114: Double Down, page 27
  153. ↑ Chapter 114: Double Down, page 28
  154. ↑ Chapter 116: Link Play, page 29
  155. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 2
  156. ↑ Chapter 42: Arrival, page 10
  157. ↑ Chapter 101: Mutual Assurance, page 4
  158. ↑ Chapter 101: Mutual Assurance, page 5
  159. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 25
  160. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 14
  161. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 36
  162. ↑ Chapter 3: Merry Snow Day, page 3
  163. ↑ Chapter 14: Confrontation, page 27
  164. ↑ Chapter 40: Moving On, page 2
  165. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 29
  166. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 30
  167. ↑ Chapter 105: Witch Hunt, page 11
  168. ↑ Chapter 105: Witch Hunt, page 25
  169. ↑ Chapter 114: Double Down, page 30
  170. ↑ Chapter 114: Double Down, page 34
  171. ↑ Chapter 122: Rain Check, page 14
  172. ↑ Chapter 123: Third Wheel, page 5
  173. ↑ Chapter 115: Track Meet, page 10
  174. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 12
  175. ↑ Chapter 124: Second String, page 5
  176. ↑ Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 35
  177. ↑ Chapter 62: Call Waiting, page 5
  178. ↑ Chapter 125: First-Degree Burn, page 8
  179. ↑ Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 20
  180. ↑ Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 18
  181. ↑ Chapter 26: Left Behind, page 1
  182. ↑ Chapter 41: Invitation, page 14
  183. ↑ Chapter 51: Unrequited, page 3
  184. ↑ Chapter 126: Participation Trophy, page 11
  185. ↑ Chapter 100: High Expectations, page 21
  186. ↑ Chapter 115: Track Meet, page 5
  187. ↑ Chapter 124: Second String, page 17
  188. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 4
  189. ↑ Chapter 129: Tickets Please, page 6
  190. ↑ Chapter 71: Just Beautiful, page 2
  191. ↑ Chapter 82: Local Area, page 10
  192. ↑ Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 3
  193. ↑ Chapter 75: Breaking Up, page 18
  194. ↑ Chapter 76: Leaving Home, page 10
  195. ↑ Veronica. “David’s Art Fight character connections”. Art Fight. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
  196. ↑ Chapter 62: Call Waiting, page 6
  197. ↑ Chapter 118: Date Night, page 16
  198. ↑ Chapter 124: Second String, page 2
  199. ↑ Chapter 127: Line in the Sand, page 30
  200. ↑ False Start, page 2
  201. ↑ Chapter 17: Unfulfilled Fantasy, page 5
  202. ↑ “Ask response on Mike scarf merchandise”. 2017-12-05.
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