Character Analysis
Ali is kind, smart, and hurting. A lot. Things used to be okay for her, but then her home life fell apart when her dad bounced and mom started drinking and sleeping around. Ali expresses her pain by sleeping with lots of guys, which has kind of destroyed her socially. Her heart hasn't hardened, though, which is clear in how much she cares about Chris missing and how repulsed she is by gossip. Plus she's a go-getter, helping Torey figure out what happened to Chris and protecting Bo from being framed for Chris's murder.
Turbo Slut or Turbo Saint?
Since Ali's Team Chris, she—like Torey—fills an apostle-like role in the book. Unlike Torey, though, she's a little quicker on the uptake when it comes to the whole outcasts-are-people-too bit. Part of the reason she's a quick learn, though, probably has to do with her own outsider status.
See, just as Ali's home life went down the drain, so, too, did her social status. She wasn't always a punching bag for the popular kids, but once she started sleeping around to express her anger at being abandoned by her dad and her mom's generally dysfunctional parenting, she promptly found herself on the outskirts at school (in addition to at home). So while she ignores teenage chatter and seeks the truth, she is at least partially tuned into the importance of doing so because some of the more vicious rumors being spread are about her.
Ali's ability to recognize the merits of outsiders isn't limited to herself, however, and we also see it in her decision to date Bo Richardson. Bo is king of the boons, feared and reviled and all that jazz, but Ali gives him a chance even though if anyone finds out it'll pretty much be the last nail in her social coffin. She sees Bo for who he is, which is actually pretty brave and kind, which in turn shows a bravery and kindness in Ali herself.
Speaking of bravery, after Bo confesses to making the phone call to Mrs. Creed (a call he never made) and Torey frantically tells Ali he'll confess to get Bo off the hook, she steps up and says she will call Torey a liar if he does so, and that she'll also say she made the phone call instead (15.2). We're not sure what constitutes bravery in your book, but that definitely fits the bill in ours. So while everyone at school just calls Ali a slut, we're thinking she's definitely closer to the saint category. She's just a wounded one.
Mary Magdalene
Fun fact: Ali doesn't sleep with Bo. But don't take our word for it—let Bo tell you himself:
"I ain't been with Ali. Not even one time." He must have noticed my look of total disbelief, because he laughed.
"Truth. I ain't playing with you." (9.44-45)
Interesting for a girl who's gotten a reputation for sleeping around, right? You know who also wasn't doing quite the sleeping around that everyone thought? Mary Magdalene. Yup, though it took the Catholic Church a couple thousand years to set the record straight, lo and behold the Bible makes no mention of Mary being a prostitute.
Guess what the Bible does mention Mary Magdalene doing, though? Seeing Jesus first when he's resurrected, and being given the task by the big J.C. himself of telling all the male disciples that he's back. In other words, Jesus comes back and Mary lets the world know—it's not what you'd call a small or unimportant job, and in it, we can see Mary as a beacon of truth.
And the same can be said for Ali. She sees the truth in Bo, the truth in society, and can even see into Chris Creed's bedroom from her own house, so she also knows the truth of the Creed family. And she shares these truths, whether it's by dating Bo or sharing what she's observed about the Creed family with Torey. So just like Mary Magdalene, Ali gets written off as a slut, but is actually way ahead of the game when it comes to recognizing and honoring the truth.