As a moments page, spoilers will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
There you have it, folks - always be careful with your retainers if you ever get one.
- Raina learning what having braces is going to be like.Jenny: You're getting braces, too? It's not that bad. You can't chew popcorn... or... apples... or carrots. Or gum. Or taffy. Or caramel. Or...
Raina: (thinking) Maybe that means I'll stop chewing my nails, too!! - After knocking her two front teeth out, Raina sees herself in a mirror.Raina: Hey, mom! I look like I'm six again!! Ha ha ha ha ha!
Sue: (thinking) She's in shock. - Raina: You can only watch your sister die at Super Mario Brothers so many times...
- Raina's friends interrogate her about how she knocked her teeth; when Kelli, who's indirectly responsible for causing Raina's injury (Raina tripped while racing her to the doorstop), asks her how she's doing. Then Raina's friends begin to interrogate her.
- When it turns out that Raina had accidentally pushed her two front teeth up into her gums: "I look like a vampire!"
- Sue takes both her daughters to Toys "R" Us so that Raina can choose a get-well present. (Amara was teasing Raina for looking like a little kid). Amara tries to get Raina to buy the same she wants:Amara: Aw, c'mon... you don't really want get stupid Wizards & Warriors, do ya? How 'bout Ducktales? What if we got California Games?
(cut to Sue buying Raina's game) - "...Let's walk to your house this time." "Good idea."
- After Emily says her ponytails make her look like a baby, Raina has this internal monologue:Raina (thinking): I do look like a baby. But do I really care what anyone else thinks? (beat) Yes.
- Raina has to go to an endodontist.Karin: What's that?
Raina: ...I'm not exactly sure!
Karin: Well, the name makes it sound like it'll be the end of you!! - Raina's face when she tries laughing gas for the first time.
- Raina's narration of her time at the endodontist: "The cement is sealed with a red-hot metal tool, which I SMELLED as it accidentally touched the room of my mouth before I felt it."Endodontist: Ooooo! Sorry!
- Sue's initial reluctance to let Raina pierce her ears:Sue: My ears got infected when I pierced them when I was twelve!
Raina: That's because you did it with a sewing needle and an ice cube!
Sue: Yes... well... - "I guess we'll have to take a new polaroid. Your mouth looks pretty different from the last time you were here!" Raina isn't amused.
- Raina's face when the nurse at her dentist's office shoves the impression material into her mouth.Raina: (thinking) Ten more seconds and I would have puked!
Dr. Dragoni: Now for the bottom teeth!
Raina: Aaa!! - Raina gets earrings for her 12th birthday.Raina: Now you have to let me pierce my ears, Mom!
Sue: (amused) I know, I know.- Raina gets her earrings a week after her braces are put on:
Melissa: Cool, so you'll look normal soon? - "You may experience slight discomfort during this time."
- "Why don't you bang it against the wall a few times? That way, when you stop banging, it'll hurt less!!" "Thanks for the sympathy, Dad."
- Raina remembers that she's afraid of needles the day she's about to get her earrings.
- Raina tells Jane that she's sure that no boy would like her messed up face. Jane insists that someone at school likes her:Raina: Well... Jeremiah likes me... and Abraham... and Elias... so do Dan, and Andre, and Matt P... oh, and Aaron, and Stephen... but they don't count, I mean cute boys!
- "C'mon, Mom, let's go get me some glasses, a pocket protector, and some velcro shoes."
- Raina's has gym right before band class:Emily: So you'll smell funny during seventh period.
Raina: Emily, beginning band's gonna be me an' a bunch of sixth graders. I don't care what they think of me.
(to Raina meeting Sammy)- Raina is too lovestruck after meeting Sammy to even hear what Melissa is saying.
- Denis is safe from the earthquake; his priorities, however:Denis: The phone lines are so overburdened, it's almost impossible to get to anyone! And worst of all, they had to postpone the World Series!
- Also, Amara is upset that the whole Bay Bridge didn't fall down.
- And two days later when they have school, Raina daydreams about Sammy saving her from the earthquake.
- Sammy runs past Melissa (Raina told her about her crush on him) and Raina. Melissa's response?Melissa: Wow, what a shrimp.
- Even funnier when you realize that Sammy is at least a head taller than Raina.
- "Raina likes a tiny tot 6th Grader!"
- Sue takes Raina and Amara to see The Little Mermaid.Raina: (thinking) Whatever. I'm too old for this Disney stuff. I'm totally gonna hate this movie. I just know it. I'm totally gonna...
(cut to Raina being totally entranced by how good the movie is)- And she grows a crush on Sean when he says it was good.
- Before Raina's two front teeth can be pulled out, her braces have to (temporarily) come off.Dr. Dragoni: When most people get their braces off, it's because their teeth are finally perfect!
Nurse: But not you! - Raina's grandmother sends the Telgemeiers peanut brittle... right before Raina's teeth are removed.
- Raina has a flashback where she accidentally pulled her two front teeth out. Denis makes her a paper stand in, and places it under her pillow, where she finds money the next day.Young Raina: (reading) "For Raina, from the Tooth Fairy"... How come her handwriting looks just like Dad's?
(Sue's face is priceless) - "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"
- Raina's face looks insane when she puts on her new retainer. And she looks absolutely adorkable flipping it out to screw with her friends.
- Too bad she can't eat corn while wearing it.
- "Yikes! That was embarrassing... my face turned totally red. I hope he noticed!"
- Raina is initially hesitant to ask Sammy out to the Valentine's Dance:Raina: I could never (ask Sammy out) do that!
Melissa: Why not?
Raina: I'd want him to ask me.
Melissa: Ahhhhh... - Raina asking Sean out, and Sean turning her down.: "Soooooooo!!... are you guys goin' to the valentine's dance?" (internally: Say "yes," say "yes," say "yes", say "yes"...) "I dunno."Raina: [thinking] Darn!!
- Heartbreakingly echoed a panel later by Raina and Sammy, though.
Sammy: Hey, Raina! Are you going to the Valentine's Dance?
Raina: I dunno. - Raina getting food from under her retainer.
- After Sammy gives Raina a box of chocolates and a Valentines card, she tries not to notice the "...Price tag!"
- Even though Raina's bullies are more mean than funny, they do tell a few good jokes.
- Raina walks into a locker while looking at Sean. Even funnier, the top right panel of her picture on her character page is the panel in the book right before it happens.
- Raina's friends trick her into wearing a tube top and a short skirt. The funny part is that Raina doesn't figure out what's going on until they start laughing at her.
- "Honey, it really is time you started wearing some sort of bra..." "MOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"
- Raina tries out for the girls basketball team despite having the athletic ability of a quadriplegic sloth.[internally] "I think I'm doing... (gasp, pant) ...pretty good!"
- Mr. Fischetti reading Raina's note about Sean in front of the class.
- Raina passing to play Spin the Bottle, partly due to her insecurities and partly due to the boys being so gross.
- Sue's freak out when she learns that the periodontists basically did surgery on Raina without asking for permission or even giving her laughing gas. Say it with me: "I DON'T CARE! MY DAUGHTER JUST FAINTED, THANKS TO YOUR NEGLIGENCE!!"
- On Raina's first day of high school, her mother practically tackle-hugs her and starts crying about how grown up her daughter is.
- "Looks like's SOMEONE'S trying to cover up their dog breath!"Raina: Excuse me. I'm going to go get a snack.
Nicole: ...Milkbone? - While the scene where Nicole and Karin pull Raina's skirt down is played straight, Kaylah's justification for what happened is a little humorous: "At least you had leggings on underneath."
- "Oh, there's a guy in my bio class who went there (Aptos Middle School), maybe you know him? His name's Sean." "Sean?! Ha ha! Oh, yeah. I definitely know Sean..."
- Raina's reaction to her teeth after her braces are removed: ...Why do they look so weird?!
- While the moment where Raina's new friends see her without her braces is mostly very sweet, Raina's reaction to their nonchalance is hilarious.
