- The next morning, Mclean is late for school and she spots Riley sitting in the hallway. She goes to her locker and decides to take off the mirror that the last student left—an ugly feathered monstrosity that says SEXXY on it.
- When she finally yanks the mirror off, though, the door of the locker swings toward her face and hits her in the nose—and Riley comes running to ask if she's okay.
- Riley insists on taking her to the nurse's office and staying with her while she ices her nose (which doesn't look too good). Everyone knows who Mclean is now, and that her stepfather is the Defriese head coach.
- Mclean tells Riley that she's a good friend, and that because she moves around so much, she doesn't really get to form close friendships anymore. Look who's letting her guard down a little bit—go, Mclean, go.
- Riley points out that Mclean hasn't really done that in Lakeview—she's made some connections and even has friends (like Riley) who will stay with her at the nurse's office when she's gotten into a jam. That's a thought.
- At lunch, people stare at Mclean like crazy, which is weird because she only has a swollen nose—it's not like she looks that messed up.
- Deb runs over and says that there's a story going around that Riley punched Mclean in a jealous rage because she went to the Defriese game with Dave. Say what? The high school rumor mill is clearly alive and well here.
- Mclean assures her that none of it is true and asks her what she's listening to. When she puts the headphones on, she hears speed-metal playing and is surprised—especially when Deb tells her that it's music from a band that Deb was a drummer for. This girl is full of surprises, isn't she?
- Dave comes to sit next to them and the whole school pretty much stops to stare at them because they believe the whole love triangle story.
- Deb remarks that love triangles are more trouble than they're worth, which makes Dave and Mclean crack up—they're learning more and more about Deb's rich past.
- Then Dave asks Deb if she'll help with the model of the town. She responds enthusiastically and says that she'll be there for sure—apparently she also loves group projects.
- When Mclean gets to Luna Blu, she finds her dad and Opal laughing hysterically about how they used a numeric system to rank the staff, and they have the worst staff ever. That's definitely one way to deal with the fact that they have a failing business on their hands.
- After Opal leaves, her dad admits to her that he doesn't know how the restaurant is going to turn out; Chuckles might just want to sell the building, since it's worth a lot of money.
- That night, Mclean is doing homework when she hears a knock on the door and sees that Dave is outside with a whole saucepan of chicken soup. Hidey ho, neighbor.
- They settle down to eat the soup, and Dave says that it can use more thyme. He goes looking for their spices, but realizes that there is basically nothing in their kitchen—the cupboards are pretty much bare.
- She admits that they've moved four times in the past two years, and that now they just don't spread out much when they settle into a new house.
- He says that it's kind of sad, because she doesn't have anyone to be her 2:00AM—the person that she knows she can call no matter what, even if it's 2:00AM.
- They're interrupted when Dave's mom calls to him to say that the documentary about the lives of cells is coming on. How fascinating. Dave asks if she wants to come watch it too, but Mclean says no.
- As Mclean sits there in the empty house by herself, the phone rings and she answers it. Lindsay Baker, the councilwoman, is calling for her dad and says that she wants to take him out for lunch. Mclean's dad sure is popular with the ladies.
- There's a knock at the back door and Mclean goes outside to find that no one is there. There is a box with a single plastic container of thyme inside, though. How thoughtful of Dave.
- Mclean goes back into her room and sticks the little spice container on her bedside table so that it'll be the first thing that she sees in the morning when she wakes up. Uh-oh… is someone developing a little crush?