- "I can barely eat or sleep. I can't think, without thinking of his sparkling eyes, the shine of his hair, his shoulders, his chest... Sometimes I can't breathe... And I want this feeling to never, ever stop."
— Aggie
When a coworker at her summer fast food job asks her out, Aggie considers how to let him down gently, including claiming she's not sure she likes boys. She briefly wonders whether she in fact prefers girls, but based on the few girls—Karen, Penny and friends—she knows, she quickly dismisses that idea, deciding instead that she's just not into anyone. That is, until the following week, when she meets the gentle, handsome, athletic Marshall Gryvanski and falls for him on sight.
Noticing he's a runner, Aggie decides to re-establish contact by going jogging herself. However, mere moments after coming across him again, she passes out from a combination of inappropriately heavy clothing and lack of running experience. Marshall carries her to a neighbour's home and tends to her until she revives, at which point he chides her for being so careless with her health. Aggie returns home to weep inconsolably, until Nick, eager to say anything to cheer his daughter up, suggests that Marshall may have been angry because he was concerned and scared for her. This gives Aggie a new resolve to win his heart. She learns of a party he's going to and makes her way there, only to find that Karen's snatched him up first.
Aggie decides to take her anger and frustration out on Penny once again at her workplace, but no sooner does Aggie begin snarking that she bursts into tears. A sympathetic Penny offers a listening ear.
Tropes
- Betty and Veronica: With Aggie as Betty and Karen as Veronica.
- Bonding over Missing Parents: Played for Laughs. Aggie dreams that Marshall opens up to her about having lost his mother, just like her, and then they kiss. However, she then "wakes up" to find him in her room, calling her "sick" for wishing his mom dead so they could bond.
- First Love: Marshall is this for Aggie (but not vice versa). Previously, Aggie was curious about dating but had yet to be interested in any specific person.
- Foreshadowing: Aggie wonders whether she likes girls. In Dinner for Six she gets tingles from accidental contact with Karen's chest, and in There Are No Rules, she concludes she does prefer girls to boys.
- Imagine Spot
- Aggie visualizing different excuses for letting Tom down easy.
- Aggie picturing Marshall's face as the sun.
- Love at First Sight
- Love Makes You Dumb: Aggie, in order to break the ice with Marshall, takes up jogging without boning up on proper conditioning or dress.
- Love Triangle: Aggie, Marshall and Karen.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Aggie pictures herself, as a possible way to decline Tom's date request, manifesting Mind-Control Eyes and a goofy smile while saying that her Magic 8-Ball advised against it "and then broke."
- Oblivious to Love: Marshall, in this and nearly every storyline with him and Aggie.
- Smitten Teenage Girl
- Sorry, I'm Gay: Aggie considers this as an excuse to turn Tom down, but decides against it because "that just makes [guys] more interested." Also played with in that Aggie momentarily wonders whether she does prefer girls.
- Unrequited Love