For Thirteen (2003)'s character sheet, click here.
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Evan Goldman
The main character, who moves from New York City to Appleton, Indiana right before his Bar Mitzvah, and tries to become popular fast before the big day.
- In with the In Crowd: The main conflict revolves around him trying to decide whether to be popular with jerks, or be unpopular with true friends.
- Heel Realization: Has one when he finds out Brett is a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, and is not the kind of friend Evan wants.
- The Matchmaker: Tries to set up Brett and Kendra to win Brett’s favor.
- New Transfer Student: Moves from New York City to Indiana after his parents’ divorce.
- Peer-Pressured Bully: The cool kids refuse to come to his bar mitzvah if Patrice is invited, so he rips up in her invitation in front of everybody.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Towards Patrice. He tries to remain friends with her, but his drive to be accepted by the popular kids makes him do some pretty mean things to her.
Patrice Parker
The first friend Evan makes after moving to Appleton. The main conflict is him trying to decide between staying friends with her and risk being a loser, or ditching her and becoming popular.
- Alliterative Name: Patrice Parker
- Beware the Nice Ones: She is super nice, but hurt her, and she gives you a shoulder so cold, it’s made of ice.
- Brainy Brunette: Averted, as she is blonde and gets good grades.
- Dumb Blonde: Subverted. She is blonde and brainy.
- Girl Next Door: Literally and figuratively, as she is the Nice Girl living next door to Evan’s new house.
- Nice Girl: Hands down the nicest character in the show.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Archie.
Archie
A friend of Patrice who walks on crutches because of his muscular dystrophy. He agrees to help Evan, but only in exchange for setting him up with Kendra.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: He pines for head cheerleader Kendra.
-
Disabled Character, Disabled Actor; In the Netflix adaptation, actor Jonathan Lengel has muscular dystrophy in real life. - Dogged Nice Guy: To Kendra. He tends to be a more entitled and underhanded example of this trope, as he is willing to manipulate others to get close to her, and does not seem to even care that she doesn’t like him back, or even know he exists, for that matter.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He starts out willing to guilt and blackmail Evan to get the girl, but is shown to truly care about Patrice and eventually Evan.
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Jerkass Woobie: He has a disability, but is not above using it to manipulate Evan into helping him get what he wants. - Manipulative Bastard: He is willing to guilt people with his muscular dystrophy to get whatever he wants, like hooking up with Kendra and threatening to crash Evan’s bar mitzvah if he doesn’t help him.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Patrice.
- Single-Target Sexuality: He is obsessed with Kendra. Subverted in the end when he realizes she’s an idiot and not worth his time.
Brett Sampson
The most popular guy at Evan’s new middle school in Appleton. Evan tries to win his favor by setting him up with Kendra.
- All Take and No Give: Evan finds out Brett never planned to attend his party in return for helping with Kendra, even if his plans did work. He was using Evan all along.
- Betty and Veronica: The Archie between Kendra’s Betty and Lucy’s Veronica.
- Big Jerk on Campus: He is the most popular guy in school, but he is also cocky and rude, and only pretends to be Evan’s friend to get his help.
- False Friend: He was never going to attend Evan’s party, even if Evan did succeed. He just wanted Evan’s help getting with Kendra without having to return the kindness.
- Jerk Jock: He’s a football player and vicious bully.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his arrogance, Brett seemed to really like Kendra, and was willing to forgive Evan for screwing up the first time.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk:…but then Evan finds out Brett was just extorting him, and never planned to attend the bar mitzvah like he promised, even if he did succeed.
Kendra
The most popular girl at Evan’s new middle school. Evan tries to help Brett get together with her to get into the popular crowd.
- Alpha Bitch: Downplayed. She seems like nice enough, but she is still part of the crowd who refuses to attend Evan’s party if Patrice goes, and cheers with the rest of them when he rips up Patrice’s invitation.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Brett’s Archie against Lucy’s Veronica.
- Brainless Beauty: Beautiful, blonde, popular, and not very bright.
- Class Princess: Zig-Zagged. Most of the time, she’s a Nice Girl, but she still boos when Patrice is invited, and cheers with the others when Evan humiliates her.
- Cruel Cheerleader: Downplayed. She is head cheerleader, and acts nice most of the time, but still cheers when Evan humiliates Patrice and rejects Archie for Brett even after the jerk disses her.
- The Ditz: She’s kind of an airhead.
- Dumb Blonde: She’s blonde, and kind of a ditz, as she falls for Lucy’s tricks too easily.
- Idiot Ball: Drops this when she forgives and trust in Lucy right after the latter betrayed her and stole her boyfriend.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She refuses to go to the party if Patrice does, and cheers when Evan disinvites her. But most of the time, she seems genuinely nice.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: She thanks Archie for being nice to her after Brett dumps her in front of her friends, and kisses him on the cheek. But then she realizes that she’s surrounded by losers, and goes running back to Brett.
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: She only has eyes for Brett. Even after he dumps her for Lucy twice and humiliates her in front of their friends, she still chooses to go running after him, begging him to take her back.
- Single-Target Sexuality: She only wants Brett, even after he dumps her and calls her a slut, and even after Archie is sweet and compliments her.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Flips between being a Nice Girl who just wants to be with her crush to a typical mean girl who takes delight in Patrice’s humiliation.
Lucy
Kendra’s best friend and the main antagonist of the musical. She does everything she can to sabotage Kendra and Brett so she can have him to herself.
- Alpha Bitch: Much more so than Kendra.
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Does this to Kendra twice to steal her boyfriend.
- Beta Bitch: To Kendra, although she is much meaner and more vicious than she is.
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Brett’s Archie against Kendra’s Betty.
- Cruel Cheerleader: On the squad with Kendra and the other popular girls, bad to the bone.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Blows up when Brett so much as says “hi” to another girl.
- Face–Heel Turn: If Lucy and Kendra really were friends before the start of the show, this would have happened to her sometime before Evan moved in, as it means she went from being Kendra’s best friend and biggest supporter to being a Green-Eyed Monster seeking to undermine her and steal her popularity.
- False Friend: To Kendra.
- Fetishized Abuser: Once she and Brett start dating, she is really nasty to him, keeping him away from his friends and getting easily jealous.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Tries to sabotage Kendra so she can steal her boyfriend.
- Manipulative Bastard: She sabotages Brett and Kendra’s date to make a move on him, then when he dumps her, she starts rumors that she’s cheating on him with Evan.
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: It’s hinted that Lucy is more into Brett for his popularity rather than for who he is. Than again, there’s not much else there for a girl to be into.
Malcolm and Eddie
Brett's two friends
- Those Two Guys: Are pretty much never seen apart.
