More Like Alicia

In chemistry class, Heather is thrilled and intimidated to be Alicia’s lab partner. Alicia is beautiful, talented, intelligent, athletic, and the most popular girl in school. Heather worries so much about impressing her that she nervously pours an entire bottle of hydrochloric acid into their experiment instead of using the dropper. The mistake fills the room with a dangerous gas and forces the class to evacuate.

Heather tells Whit that she becomes clumsy whenever Alicia is near. A school poll has named Alicia the prettiest, smartest, and most athletic student, and everyone wants her attention. Heather hopes that becoming Alicia’s friend will somehow make her more like Alicia. Whit sees nothing wrong with wanting friendship, but he questions a relationship that requires Heather to struggle constantly for notice. If they have nothing in common, he wonders why Heather wants this friendship so badly.

Heather decides that Alicia’s self-confidence is the secret of her popularity. She borrows a video of Alicia walking and talking at school and studies it closely, taking notes on everything from a twitch of the nose to an unusual pronunciation. Julie sees something very different. Alicia is not confidently independent; she ignores people, gossips, speaks cruelly, and acts bored with everyone. Heather nevertheless copies Alicia’s hairstyle, buys trendy clothes like hers, and practices her mannerisms. Julie warns that imitating Alicia will not make Heather a better person, but Heather expects everyone to gather around her at the coming costume party.

The imitation fails immediately. Alicia tells Heather that her new haircut looks awful, repeatedly calls her Esther, and joins an older boy named Mark in mocking her as a loser. Heather abandons her copied pronunciation and pretends she shares their joke, but she leaves humiliated.

On the evening of the costume party, Heather meets Julie at Whit’s End wearing her mother’s pink homecoming dress as a princess costume. Julie is dressed as the sun, although her collapsing outfit looks like a banana. Heather dreads another cruel remark from Alicia, but Julie has seen Alicia leave school sick and knows she will not attend. When Heather remembers that Alicia had planned to rent a bear costume, she forms a daring plan: she will wear the same costume, hide her face, and spend one night pretending to be Alicia.

The disguise works. Paige and Mark accept Heather as their recovered friend, though they notice that her voice and manners seem odd. Heather quickly learns that playing Alicia means being unkind. Whenever a polite response slips out, she covers it with an insult. She ridicules other students, boasts about shopping, and repeats Alicia’s contemptuous attitude. She even pushes Julie away when her real friend asks to speak privately, declaring that Alicia would never associate with someone like her. Hurt and disgusted, Julie leaves and says their friendship is over.

Then Heather learns that Mark has stolen chemicals from the school laboratory. Inspired by the chemistry accident, he plans to combine them outside at eight o’clock and fill the party with foul, potentially harmful fumes. Paige treats it as a harmless prank, but Heather knows how sick the earlier gas made people. Still disguised as Alicia, she orders Mark to stop. When he refuses, she threatens to tell a teacher. Mark cannot understand why the girl who liked his plan before has suddenly become responsible. He decides he no longer has to like her, and Heather loses the approval she has worked so hard to imitate Alicia for - but prevents anyone from being hurt.

Back at Whit’s End, Heather admits that much more than her costume has changed. She has spent the evening impressing people she does not even like while mistreating Julie, the person she truly cares about. Whit asks what actually makes Alicia desirable as a friend. Heather has to admit that Alicia is not kind to her, is difficult to talk with, uses humor cruelly, and shares none of her interests. Alicia may have many followers, but she may not have anyone she can trust with her real feelings. Whit explains that even a few genuine friends are a great blessing and reminds Heather that genuine friends can forgive.

Heather goes to Julie’s house and awkwardly admits that she has driven away both her false friends and her real one. She does not care about losing the crowd, but she deeply regrets losing Julie. Julie guides her toward a simple apology, then welcomes her in for ice cream. Their friendship survives, though Julie insists that the bear costume remain outside because it never fit Heather very well.

At the next chemistry class, Alicia is baffled by all the admiring looks she receives. Students have heard that she courageously stood up to Mark at the party, and even Paige now calls her a hero. Alicia wonders whether her medicine has made her do something she cannot remember. Heather admits that a bear everyone mistook for Alicia attended the party, then offers to tell her who was inside - if Alicia will let Heather hold the acid this time.