Mara

Quick Facts

• Role: Best friend of Eden McCrorey; a foil and mirror who navigates high school cruelty through visible reinvention
• First Appearance: Early in the Freshman-year section, as part of the “band-type nerd” duo with Eden
• Key Relationships: Eden; Cameron (long-time crush turned boyfriend)

Who They Are

Bold and aching for change, Mara is the friend who refuses to be defined by the worst things that happen to her. Where Eden implodes in silence after her trauma, Mara fights humiliation and powerlessness by reshaping her image, her social world, and her future. Her story is about claiming agency—sometimes clumsily, sometimes selfishly—but always with a fierce will to stop getting “pushed around.” The braces coming off, the switch to contacts, and the drastic cranberry-red haircut aren’t just cosmetic; they’re a strategy for survival, a way to be seen on her own terms rather than as a target.

Personality & Traits

Mara’s personality is a blend of loyalty, blunt honesty, and a restless need to transform her circumstances. She is the friend who shows up, the girl who won’t keep taking abuse, and the teenager who chases big feelings even when they complicate everything.

• Loyal and supportive: She saves Eden a seat, defends her in the cafeteria, and keeps trying to pull her into new experiences—offering ordinary teenage rituals as a lifeline back to normalcy.
• Resilient and proactive: After the public bullying with corn thrown in her hair, she refuses to remain a victim. Cutting and dyeing her hair, quitting band, and refocusing on art are concrete steps to reclaim control.
• Boy-crazy and idealistic: Her fixation on Cameron (from elaborate daydreams to a real relationship) reveals a hopeful romantic streak that feels “typical teen” but also functions as a blueprint for the life she wants.
• Self-absorbed at times: Her absorption in Cameron leads to forgetting Eden’s seventeenth birthday, a devastating breach that exposes how her reinvention can blind her to others’ pain.
• Blunt, even cutting: In their fight, Mara’s “take a shower” jab is cruel—but it’s also the frustrated honesty of a friend who sees self-destruction and has no idea what monster she’s actually fighting.

Character Journey

Mara begins as a bullied freshman defined by sameness—long brown hair, braces, band, and a shared “nerd” identity with Eden. The cafeteria humiliation crystallizes how others see her, and she rejects it outright: “I’m reinventing myself. Everyone else gets to change.” From there, she trims away the old life—literally and socially—trading band for cigarettes and art, tentative crushes for a relationship with Cameron, and invisibility for a louder, riskier presence. The cost is real: her new world strains and nearly breaks her bond with Eden. Yet she never stops caring. Even at her most self-involved, she tries to tether Eden to safety (setting her up with “a nice, decent guy,” calling after their fight, apologizing for the birthday). By the end, Mara’s reinvention is imperfect but earned: she doesn’t abandon her past so much as insist on steering her future.

Key Relationships

• Eden McCrorey: With Eden, Mara is both anchor and unintended antagonist. Before the assault, their friendship feels like home; afterward, Mara keeps offering ordinary solutions to extraordinary pain she can’t see. Misreading Eden’s withdrawal as typical teen angst, she pushes harder—then lashes out—before circling back in remorse. Their reconciliation underscores the durability of a friendship tested by secrets neither words nor makeovers can fix.

• Cameron: Cameron represents Mara’s imagined “after”—confidence, desirability, and entry into a cooler orbit. Pursuing him propels her reinvention and validates her new identity, but it also narrows her empathy; romance becomes a tunnel vision that sidelines Eden. Even so, the relationship isn’t shallow posturing—it’s Mara building a life where she isn’t the punchline.

• Steve Reinheiser: First a lunch-table acquaintance, later a bridge between circles (book club, Cameron’s friend group). Mara sees him as a safe match for Eden and tries to engineer normalcy through a “nice, decent guy.” Her matchmaking reveals both care and naiveté: she’s trying to solve a wound she doesn’t realize is invisible.

Defining Moments

Mara’s turning points are physical acts that carry psychological weight—each one a statement about who gets to define her.

• The cafeteria bullying: JV athletes throw corn in her hair. Why it matters: Public humiliation becomes the catalyst for agency; she refuses to be the person people target for sport.
• The haircut and dye: She has Eden chop her hair and dyes it “cranberry” red, announcing, “I’m just trying to be like me. Like the real me.” Why it matters: Reinvention as resistance—the body becomes a billboard for self-determination.
• Quitting band and shifting interests: She leaves the shared “nerd” identity, starts smoking, and pursues art (and Cameron). Why it matters: She curates her world, even if some choices are performative; it’s control reclaimed in the only ways she can access.
• Forgetting Eden’s birthday: She misses a sacred ritual amid her new romance. Why it matters: The fracture exposes how self-protection can turn into self-absorption—and how reinvention can cost the person who needs you most.
• The confrontation: “All you have to do to get over a guy is take a shower—that’s pathetic!” Why it matters: It’s a cruel misread born of fear and frustration; the fight surfaces the chasm between them and how little Mara understands the source of Eden’s pain.
• The apology: “I am the biggest effing idiot…for forgetting your birthday.” Why it matters: Contrition restores the core of their friendship, proving Mara’s capacity for humility and repair.

Themes & Symbolism

Mara embodies an alternative path through Control and Powerlessness. Where Eden retreats into Trauma, Silence, and Secrecy, Mara stages visible resistance—changing her hair, her hobbies, her crowd—to assert authorship over her story. She symbolizes the friend at the threshold of a secret she can’t enter: desperate to help, misdiagnosing the wound, and learning that love sometimes looks like apology, not advice.

Essential Quotes

“Yes—it’s going to change me.”

• Said around her decision to alter her appearance, this line is a declaration of intent. Mara isn’t pretending change is cosmetic; she wants transformation to be real, even if it unsettles others.

“I’m just trying to be like me. Like the real me. If that makes any sense at all.”

• Reinvention here is framed not as becoming someone else but as returning to a truer self. The uncertainty (“if that makes any sense”) captures a teenager testing identities to find authenticity.

“I really don’t care what anyone thinks about me, as long as they don’t think I’m just going to sit back and take it anymore! I’m just sick of getting pushed around, treated like shit. I mean, aren’t you?”

• This is Mara’s manifesto against victimhood. The final question is a plea to Eden to join her—both a rallying cry and an anxious need for solidarity.

“Face it, all you have to do to get over a guy is take a shower—that’s pathetic!”

• Brutal and wrong, the line exposes the limits of Mara’s understanding. It’s defensive anger masquerading as tough love, revealing how helpless she feels watching Eden unravel.

“You just can’t stand to see me happy, can you? Well, I’m not going to stay miserable just because you are, and if you were really my friend, you wouldn’t want me to—you would be happy for me!”

• Mara conflates Eden’s withdrawal with jealousy, which lets her justify choosing happiness even at the cost of empathy. The moment lays bare the friction between self-preservation and friendship—and why their bond must be rebuilt with honesty on both sides.