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Jacqueline "Jacky" Hart
"It was a battle of wits. And I won f-f-fair and square. Well, maybe it wasn't totally fair because Mr. Kant's a half-wit, but I got three times more laughs than he did."
The protagonist, a troublemaker and class clown.- Appropriated Appellation: "Jacky Ha-Ha" actually started out as someone mocking the way she stuttered on her last name when introducing herself in preschool; she quickly embraced it and turned it into a badge declaring her wit.
- Attention Whore: She always likes being the center of attention, unless she's in trouble with her parents.
- Berserk Button: Jacky gets furious when her stutter is called a "speech impediment". She also doesn't like racist remarks being made about Meredith either.
- Class Clown: She always pulls pranks and makes jokes in class.
- Deadpan Snarker: When provoked, she's quick with the snarky remarks.
Jacky: Good afternoon, idiots. Wh-wh-what are you guys in [detention] for? Mispronouncing your own names?
Bubblebutt: We're here because we like to make dumb, stuttering girls c-c-c-cry.
Jacky: How? By burning off their eyebrows with your bad breath?
- Delinquent: Downplayed. Jacky never actually breaks the law (She mentions that some of her pranks are borderline illegal), and isn't a bully, but her antics earned her twenty detentions in the first week of school.
- Did Not Think This Through: A common failing of Jacky with such examples as "let's eat one of everything on the boardwalk" (she and Meredith end up throwing up), "I'll climb the local Ferris wheel" (she gets into massive trouble) and "let's call out the boardwalk thieves in song" (said thieves do it right back, forcing Jackie to come up with something else).
- Dude Magnet: In book 2, to her surprise, especially since one of her admirers is someone who spent years bullying her. Neither of them are the guy she ends up marrying though.
- Good Parents: Is one to her daughters in the in-universe present day and is writing the books, chronicling her childhood in the 90s, so they don't make her mistakes.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: Jacky doesn't like wearing dresses much. She can't win a bike race or climb a Ferris wheel in a dress.
- In-Series Nickname: Her nickname at school is "Jacky Ha-Ha".
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: "Jerk" would be a stretch but Jacky isn't afraid to take shots at others as part of her jokes; however, if one of her jokes is actively mean instead of annoying, she'll near-instantly regret it and racist or sexist jokes are off-limits completely.
- Middle Child Syndrome: She doesn't get as much parental attention, so she is often an Attention Whore.
- Motor Mouth: Jacky tends to ramble.
Ms. Alvarez: You come from a large family, correct?
Jacky: Well, no one is actually large. Hannah is what you might call pleasantly plump. She has a sweet tooth. Not sure which one it is. Probably a canine.
- The Prankster: Some of her pranks include replacing the class's presidential photos with pictures of actors, bringing a cooler labeled "Human head" to biology, and making droplet noises until the janitor thinks there's a leak.
- Sad Clown: She jokes to distract herself from issues outside school, and to make sure people laugh with her and not at her.
- Speech Impediment: Jacky has a stutter that comes out under stress. She hates when it's called a speech impediment.
- Tomboy: Jacky is a rebellious prankster who likes sports and isn't a fan of dresses.
- Trash Talk: When she played catcher on a Little League team, she would trade insults with the batters for the other team.
