Funny / Berrybrook Middle School

As is typical with almost any school story, Berrybrook Middle School is rife with the typical follies of youth.

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Awkward

• The Running Gag with Jensen freaking out about sunspots, and making everything he does for the Art club about them.
• Peppi noting that the only meaningful contribution they've made to the school is designing the logo for the football team...which they didn't even like.
• Peppi's Oh, Crap! expression when Ms. Tobins finds her mermaid picture alongside her homework.
• Chapter 2 has a pic of Ms. Tobins drinking from a mug reading Student Tears.
• The Running Gag of the definition of Awkward being described simply as THIS when Peppi and Jaime are together in silence. It reaches its logical conclusion near the end with it being defined as THESE TWO. FOREVER.
• Jaime stating that Peppi's mermaid is a mammal due to her...well, he cuts to the point before saying any more while blushing.
• Peppi sporting Exhausted Eye Bags and a manic expression after working extensively on her mermaid diagram.
• Mr. Ramirez keeps getting too many copies of paper to the point where one kid points out twice that they might as well build a paper jet while they're at it.
• Jensen swatting like a dog at the drone holding the water balloon.
• When Mr. Ramirez catches the Science club using the drone, he gives them a Death Glare... and then screams for Ms. Tobins to do something instead.
• Jason Nguen, the guest speaker at the Discovery Center, at one point finishes a story about him and a polar bear that we don't get to hear. Judging by his tone, it wasn't exactly a pretty experience.
• Jenny's Establishing Character Moment in which she calmly tells the Art club the rules of submitting to the school paper, but when she gets to rule three, she suddenly starts looking like a wrathful ghost while Suddenly Shouting "MISS YOUR SUBMISSION DEADLINE, AND I WILL CANCEL YOUR PAGE FOREVER. AND HAUNT YOUR NIGHTMARES. ALSO FOREVER."
• Jaime stating that Peppi's scream might have been heard all the way from space.
• Jensen geeking out over the Science club's solar plane and hoping they call it Skydog, much to everyone's irritation. Ironically, his name becomes official, and he's appropriately delighted.
• Peppi and Jaime manage to unite the two suspended clubs under a common project...after what she describes as "several centuries later". As it turns out that much bad blood between clubs doesn't go away instantly.
• The design gallery at the end of the book has some amusing bits in it, such as Jaime getting a case of Ash Face from a science project and just about every sketch of Mr. Ramirez.

Brave

• Mr. Kristoffer's huge mustache. It's saying something that in one of Jensen's imagine spots in which he's become elderly, his stache is twice its original size.
• Jensen depicts a typical school day as the Gauntlet, a 2D-sidescroller-esque video game complete with a pixelated Imagine Spot featuring Foster and Yanic as a two-headed tentacle monster.
• According to Jensen, everyone in Music class is terrible, himself included, but it hardly matters because the teacher, Mr. Hisaya, is deaf to the point where he can't hear the cacophony.
• The school paper's superviser, Mrs. Crabbler, is so old she spends 90% of her time in the story sleeping through everything. When she DOES wake up to help, it ends up costing the protagonists at least two hours of valuable time.
• Once again, Jenny takes her job very seriously. She is outright described by Jensen as having three default settings. Namely, cool and professional, freaking out and frantic, and "Don't mess with me, for I am the wrath of angels" apocalypse.
• Jensen having an Imagine Spot about Foster and Yanic triggering a Zombie Apocalypse.
• The news show at the school brings up Mrs. Rashad curb-stomping Mr. Aaranson in a push-up competition, with the latter begrudgingly stating that he plans on heading to the mountains to train and try again. Later, he clarifies to his class that he isn't actually going to do that, so they don't get out of doing work.
• Tessa teasing Peppi about her friendship with Jaime.
• At one point, Jensen excitedly heads to the newspaper office declaring "I AM THE NIGHT. Like a swift shadow I come to the rescue of those in need!" in his head...only to end up with the rather mundane task of organizing papers.
  This is not a very exciting rescue.
• Jensen describes Akilah, Jenny, and Felipe's dreams. Akilah wants to work for the New York Times, Jenny wants to RUN the New York Times (or build a media empire from the ground up), and Felipe wants to see how many stairs he can jump at once on his skateboard.
• One of Jensen's imagine spots has him on Mars having learned how to grow potatoes utilizing the same methods literally from The Martian.
• Jenny's fiery reaction to Jensen not reading the material she gave him, gaining razor-sharp teeth and eyes Burning with Anger. Akilah manages to turn it into the subject of their video, much to her indignation.
• Akilah's reaction to some girls arguing about the new dress-code following Felicity's lifted suspension.
  Akilah: Ahhh, the sweet, sweet sound of democracy at work...
• Liv exploding in fury at her ex-boyfriend Sean while another student urges him to run. Jorge has to hold her back.

Crush

• EVERY. SINGLE. SOLITARY. Expression that Jorge makes whenever he sees/talks to/even thinks about Jazmine for most of the story. It's Not So Stoic at its finest when his eyes dilate into tiny black dots and he can barely get words out.
• After seeing Jazmine for the first time, Jorge leaves telling the reader "YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT."
• While helping Jazmine with moving things, he completely fails to even talk to her before Liv diverts her attention.
  Jorge (in his head): I CAN. Form WORDS. "Hey, Jazmine! How's it going?" Just like that. (Only out loud)
  • Related to that, he tries his luck when asking where to put a box. So how does he do on the first try?
  Jorge (looking more than a bit strained): Uh. Box. Where...?

  • For what it's worth, he considers it a victory.
• Jorge getting hit in the head by a football with a dazed expression.
• After Liv hatches a plan to make Garrett's party better, Jorge states that if she were to weaponize her social skills, everyone would be doomed.
• Liv mentioning a Noodle Incident in which Garrett pooped in Old Man Dan's bushes when he was six. Jorge than brings up a point when he and Garrett built a tent in Liv's backyard, and it folded on top of her.
• Garrett accidentally triggering an Imagine Spot for Jorge of him and Jazmine going to the Athletics Ball like it's their wedding, causing him to openly panic and leave the cafeteria while internally screaming.
  Jorge: I gotta get a grip.
• At first, it seems like Jorge can be by himself near a tree...only for Zeke to show up to his chagrin.
  • Zeke brazenly asking Jorge to be his bodyguard and his source for the Yearbook Club. The big guy's face upon hearing this along with seeing Zeke's anticipating smile just screams "Are you kidding me?!?!" Reluctantly, he accepts (because in his words, he makes bad decisions)...and ends up around Jazmine more than ever.
  Jorge: I SHOULD'VE SAID NO.
• Jorge's reaction to being dragged to Garrett's party with Jazmine and Zeke. Following a Big "NO!" in the panel, he's later seen carrying some of his mom's cooking, which evidently isn't all that great.
• Liv and a friend of hers teasing Garrett about his "new bromance" with James. Garrett tells them to shut up before reluctantly agreeing with them.
• In one of the few moments of Black Comedy in this series, Jorge has an Imagine Spot of him snapping Zeke's neck while Jazmine cheers for him.
• Liv freaking out in excitement over Jorge crushing on Jazmine, something that spreads like wildfire to some of the people he knows. Jorge is not amused by the gossip.
• Jorge describing Liv's breakup with Marcus as the night of a thousand texts he didn't want.
• Liv's anger with Garrett is shown as her separating him away with a block of ice between them. Jorge is in the middle, looking very annoyed.
• Upon hearing about the girls' haircut party, Jorge looks at his own buzz-cut and understandably decides to skip it.
• Jorge flushing with embarrassment when Garrett brings Jazmine up as "that cute chick from the Drama club".
• After Brooke dumps James, Jorge begins to crack under all of the constant conflict around him.
  Jorge: What is happening to everyone this year?! Drama EVERYWHERE!! There's no escape!
• When Jazmine, Liv, and Brooke show up at the Athletics ball, their Glamor Mode is on while the boys are described as being in Stunned Mode (complete with a more unimpressive label).
• Jorge smiling a big toothy grin knowing that talking is not necessary at the ball due to all the loud music.
• Jorge's stomach growling in the middle of a tense moment between him and Jazmine.
  Really? Stomach?! Now?!
• After the dust settles, Nic over-dramatically tells Jazmine that they hate Jorge because she saved her spring rolls for him...only to immediately say that they love her boyfriend when she says that she has cheesecake for them. Jazmine comments that Nic is easy to tame with food.
• In order to get Garrett's attention during his suspension, Liv had to chuck a rock with a note attached to it through his window. She adds that he was hoping it would hit him. In the same talk, she calls Jorge a precious, pure cinnamon roll.