Helen's at work, asking students who are late for their excuses as she writes them passes for class. Some kid with an apparently severe narcolepsy problem, wearing cowboy pyjamas, is next in line. Helen asks why he's late. The butch-looking woman behind him (who appears to be about thirty-four), carrying a skateboard and wearing a surly expression, snarks, "Take a guess...he's still in his jammies." He says he slept in and missed the bus. Like any kid in his right mind would come to school in those pyjamas with that bedhead going on. Kid will never live it down. Drop out now, kid. Your life is over. Helen gives him his note, and he leaves as Joan arrives. Helen complains to Butch, whose name is Grace, that she's late every single day. I had actually thought she was the angry mother of Pyjama Kid until I made out the skateboard. There's no way in hell she's a teenager. But I like her anyway. Helen starts writing a note as Grace insists that Helen ask her the reason for her tardiness. Helen warns her that since she's late for every class and for school every day, she's in danger of being suspended. Joan sits and plays with her hair while all this is going on. Grace finally gets Helen to ask the reason, and Grace replies, "The reason for my tardiness is I am late." Helen just smiles indulgently, which isn't really doing a lot to underscore the validity of her threats. She leaves, and Helen wants to know why Joan's there. Joan replies, "Mrs. Girardi, here's the deal. At school, you and I don't know each other. Okay?" The vice-principal comes out of his office with Adam Rove, the reject from under the street sweeper, haranguing him about reporting to him every morning before school: "I may not be able to stop you from getting high away from school, but you're mine between eight in the morning and three in the afternoon." Adam agrees indifferently as he plays with a paper punch on the counter: "Okay, Mr. Price..." VP Price reminds Adam that he'll be urine-tested if there's any suspicion of drug use. Price: "Mm-hmm. For your own good." Adam: "And call the cops...and ruin my life." Price: "All for your own good." Adam's facial features remind me a little of a young John Cusack -- on whom I used to have a crush -- so I'm pretty predisposed to him. He's got the same nasal quality to his voice that Cusack does, too. ["I was kind of getting a Brian Krakow vibe from him, but less tense." -- Sars]