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Context Recap / PennyAndAggieTheBestOfEnemies

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1--> "Why does life hate me as much as I hate her?"\
2'''--Penny'''
3
4This arc introduces the title characters, toward the end of their high school freshman year. Penny Levac is well-off, fashion-conscious, popular and something of a snob; her rival, Aggie D'Amour, is an eccentric loner, an aspiring progressive activist who resents everything she assumes Penny stands for and shows it with a constant stream of snark and attempts at showing her up in various situations.
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6As summer vacation begins, a lonely Penny, her few close friends having left town, takes a job at a bookstore, only to find Aggie working there as well. The two of them attempt to outperform each other in customer service, and are both fired for overdoing it. Penny then finds work at a clothing store, where Aggie becomes her customer from hell. Fed up with Aggie's harassment, Penny swears revenge, recalling how she once pranked the former school AlphaBitch, Meg, and took her place as queen bee.
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8Knowing next to nothing about Aggie, she insinuates herself into her home so that she can sneak a look at her diary and learn her secrets. Instead, she finds in the bathroom a journal of her impenetrable poetry...just as Aggie gets home. Keeping hidden, Penny overhears Aggie getting upset with her father, Nick, for attempting to throw out her late mother's medical journals she'd been saving as a memento.
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10Penny is now prepared to get back at Aggie by taunting her about her deceased mom...or is she? Troubled by scruples, she asks her parents if they've ever sought revenge; they both answer that they've resisted the temptation. So the next time Aggie shows up at her workplace, intent on further harassment, Penny acts unexpectedly friendly and kind. When the bewildered Aggie asks why, Penny replies, "We all have our secrets."
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13!!Tropes
14* BumblingDad: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Penny's initial plan to gain access to Aggie's journal--claiming to have found Aggie's earrings and wishing to surprise her by leaving them in the diary--relies on Nick being this trope, but he's too sharp for that. Also [[DiscussedTrope discussed]], when Penny thinks, "Why can't he be clueless like every other dad?"
15* CatsAreSuperior: Penny's cat Charles, judging from his [[http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=5 sole in-continuity line]] in the comic.
16* LonelyAtTheTop: Penny.
17--> The hardest part of being popular is keeping your distance from people.
18* LovableAlphaBitch: Penny is much more ethical and compassionate than she lets on.
19* MissingMom: Aggie's mother, Melody.
20* MockingTheMourner: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Penny considers responding to Aggie's next provocation with "That would really hurt if my mom weren't right there to build up my self-esteem," but decides to TurnTheOtherCheek instead.
21* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The [=iTunes=] version of the [[http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=1 first strip]] substitutes the fictional "Jeffy Blossoms" for Music/JustinTimberlake, and "his fiancée" for Cameron Diaz. Elsewhere, writer T Campbell [[WordOfGod commented]] that he was concerned about dating the comic with too many RealLife pop culture references.
22* {{Revenge}}: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Penny has too much of a conscience to use Aggie's grief against her.
23* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Aggie, in the early arcs, is a master of this. In contrast, Penny often, as here, fails to keep her cool during their exchanges.
24* TheSnarkKnight: Aggie toward Penny.
25* StylisticSuck: Aggie's poetry. (See also under the [=YMMV=] tab.)
26* ThoughtBubbleSpeech: Charles, in the fifth strip. This is the only in-continuity line an animal has in the comic.
27* TurnTheOtherCheek: A mild example. Penny opts to be kind to Aggie instead of vengeful.

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