Friend or Foe

Connie Kendall discovers her younger half-sister Jules modeling a skimpy, expensive dress she has bought with their dad's credit card, planning to wear it to a Chains of Despair concert in Connellsville on a school night. Jules argues that she did this sort of thing all the time back in Los Angeles and that a famous actress wore a dress just like it, but Connie is unmoved - "If Angelina De Leonore jumped off a bridge, would you do that too?" She reminds Jules that she is responsible for her well-being, vetoes the concert, and makes her return the dress.

At school the next day, Jules complains to Buck Meltsner, saying Connie treats her like she is on parole. Buck, who actually is on parole, gently takes Connie's side, suggesting she is only protecting Jules from things that could hurt her. Their conversation is interrupted by Valerie Swanson, who drops her books, showers Buck with flattery, and gushes over Jules's taste in music and her glamorous Los Angeles past. When Valerie laments that concert tickets are too expensive, Jules hands over her own non-refundable ticket, and Valerie insists they hang out after school so she can thank her. Buck warns Jules about spending time with Valerie, but Jules snaps that she gets enough of people telling her what to do.

At the mall, Valerie keeps the compliments flowing while steering Jules from purchase to purchase on her dad's credit card: a dress for Valerie, matching shoes, and eventually the very dress Connie made Jules return. When Jules hesitates because she lives in Connie's house, Valerie smoothly offers to keep the dress at her own house, adding, "I fully support whatever decision you make." Soon Jules is lying to Connie - claiming she is tutoring Valerie in geometry - while the two of them sneak into a horror movie instead of the film they bought tickets for, eat food Connie disapproves of, and shop some more. When Valerie mentions her stereo is broken, Jules buys her a new one.

Buck confronts Jules with troubling news: Valerie invited him along by promising that Jules would buy him whatever he wanted. Speaking from his own con-artist past, he explains the pattern - Valerie's cheap return-gifts are just part of the scheme - and challenges Jules to test it by asking Valerie to pay for something herself. Offended, Jules storms off to help plan Valerie's birthday party.

The test comes anyway. As Valerie plans a party featuring a private restaurant room, a DJ, her older cousin's friends, and a rented limo - all on Jules's dad's card - Jules suggests that Valerie cover the limo herself. Valerie's sweetness instantly curdles. She reveals she has kept every receipt, all signed by Jules, and threatens to tell Connie about the forbidden movies, music, and shopping sprees unless Jules keeps paying. She even rehearses the innocent act she will perform for her parents, casting Jules as the wild girl from L.A. who corrupted her. Trapped, Jules asks what she wants. "The limo. A really big one."

Desperate, Jules turns to Buck and asks him to use his old skills to con or blackmail Valerie right back. Buck refuses, warning that "conning another con will only escalate the problem." Speaking as her friend, he tells her the only real way out is to come clean to Connie, because Connie is not one of the mean ones - she genuinely cares. Jules leaves feeling betrayed all over again.

At the birthday party, disaster strikes: the credit card is declined. Valerie promises to have everyone chip in while Jules stalls the waiter - then she and all her guests slip out, leaving Jules alone with an enormous bill. Summoned to the manager's office, Connie pays the bill, then delivers the hard truth: their dad saw the flood of charges, wondered whether Jules was even living with Connie, and canceled the card. Jules, still wearing the twice-bought dress, protests that Connie judges her and doesn't understand her, but Connie insists the opposite - she sets limits precisely because she does understand, having made the same mistakes at Jules's age, and because she loves her. Jules isn't ready to believe it. Connie announces that Jules will pay back every cent of the bill, which means getting a job.

Soon Jules is busing tables and mopping up spilled banana splits at Whit's End. After she hurries off to grab the big mop, Connie shares a curious piece of news with Buck: nearly everything Jules bought has been quietly returned and refunded, because some unnamed young man went to Valerie's house, told her mother about the whole scheme, and made things right. Buck admits nothing, saying only that Jules has a lot of people who care about her. Connie agrees - and hopes that someday Jules will see it too.