Joy & Vanessa
This story follows two main characters who are navigating their lives at high school in their senior year. Joy Humphrey is an openly lesbian teenager who is shy, poor, smart, friendless, fairly good-looking but she is a social outcast and bullied by her peers. She has a crush on the most popular girl in school, Vanessa Hernandez. Vanessa Hernandez is a closeted bisexual teenager who is pretty, popular, rich, not school smart. She can be snobby and bitchy at times, but she is respectful to people and well-liked by all of the students. She's in a relationship with her boyfriend, Noah Wallace, who is a captain of the football player and he's pretty along with his girlfriend. During senior year, Joy harbors a crush on Vanessa, but while they seem to be a little intimate with each other, they see each other as friends. But Joy wants to be more than just friends. When will these two girls end up with each other?
This book contains the following tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: Most of the adults have never done anything to stop bullying other kids, not even the teachers. But it gets better when they expelled Lindy.
- Zig-zagged with Joy's mother, who is a busy mother dealing with work, but it doesn't stop her from raising her daughter and helping with her problems.
- Downplayed with Vanessa's wealthy father who is caught up with his job more than being around for his daughter. That's why Vanessa became this way.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Both Lindy and Vanessa are high school cheerleaders who are popular and pretty, they were beloved by all of the students. Joy has the hots for Vanessa.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Joy is the high school's biggest outcast, she was mocked and even teased by other students.
- Alpha Bitch: Lindy, Vanessa's best friend. Lindy is popular, rich, pretty, rude and she bullies other unpopular kids, especially Joy. She gets even worse in the course of the series.
- Beta Bitch: Greta and Olivia are Lindy's minions, until they cut her off.
- The Beautiful Elite: All the most popular kids in Brookdale High School are defined to be beautiful, rich, athletic and has high standards in most ways.
- Brainless Beauty: Lindy, Vanessa and Noah are good-looking teenagers, but not that bright.
- Break the Cutie: The lead female characters like Joy and Vanessa, got all the brunt of it.
- Coming-Out Story: Vanessa is given one to the entire story, she even comes to her boyfriend Noah. Noah have took it well, but he's not happy that she lied to him.
- Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: Popular girl Vanessa befriended Unpopular girl Joy, before developing feelings with each other.
- Former Friend of Alpha Bitch: Vanessa was no longer friends with Lindy after unintentionally abandoning her.
- Girl Posse: Lindy has her four best friends in her group including Vanessa, who ruled the Brookdale High School with their iron fist.
- Hate Sink: Unlike Noah who has changed, Lindy is the only character who is unlikable and a despicable character, even after Vanessa come out as bisexual, she gets even more nastier.
- High-School Sweethearts: Vanessa and Noah are Brookedale High's most power couple, they're both beautiful, popular and athletic. But they broke up.
- Humans Are Flawed: It took long enough for the students that they don't have to hide anything, and accepting people for who they are unlike Lindy.
- Jerk Jock: Noah, Vanessa’s boyfriend and ex-boyfriend. Although he has his sympathetic moments and gradually becomes a better person.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Noah in the later episodes, he gets even better.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Lindy, all the way and it's even after Vanessa had coming out to her. She STILL manage to make up with her by stealing Prom Queen all to herself.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Vanessa is a snobby popular girl, but she’s probably the nicest person.
- Nice Girl: Both of the leads are Joy and Vanessa, their defining trait are constantly friendly, supportive, caring, endearing and heroic girls.
- Popular Is Dumb: Lindy and Vanessa are the most popular girls in Brookdale High, but they're not school smart.
- Rich Bitch: Lindy is rich and a not a nice person, contrast to Spoiled Sweet Vanessa.
- Senior Year Struggles: Vanessa was worried that she doesn't know what the future is after high school, well if she doesn't stop falling behind in her classes, partying too much and hanging out with the worst types of people.
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Gender-inverted: Unpopular Joy has a crush on Lovable Alpha Bitch Vanessa, they're match is made in heaven.
- Sucky School: The entire school has never done anything about the bullying and the homophobia incident. Plus most of the students in the school are animals and not very nice people. See Teens Are Monsters below.
- Teens Are Monsters: Most students in Brookdale High School are cruel, rude and childish, and they have no remorse for bullying and laughing at Joy. They got better.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Lindy in the later episodes, after Vanessa abandons her, she gets even meaner and more spiteful.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Vanessa becomes more sympathetic and humble after becoming close with Joy. Noah as well.
- Uptown Girl: Wealthy Vanesssa is to Joy, coming from a low-income neighborhood.
- Valley Girl: Both Lindy and Vanessa are popular, fashionable, wealthy and mindless bimbos.
- We Used to Be Friends: Lindy and Vanessa were friends at very beginning, until Vanessa abandoned her and hangs out with Joy.
- With Friends Like These...: Lindy was not a faithful friend to Vanessa, not even Greta, Olivia and Izzy were thankful to her.
