One Quiet Day

One Quiet Day is the 23rd episode of season one and of 6teen. It aired in Canada on June 19, 2005, and in the United States on February 19, 2009. Everybody is stressed out about midterms–except for Jude, oddly enough. To find out why this is, Jen enlists her friends, and they find out that Jude is on the verge of flunking all his classes and has decided to just goof off instead. By this point, though, everyone has begun to rankle under Jen's bossy leadership, and they make a bet with her that she can't go the rest of the day (from noon) without giving out advice.

Main Plot
It's midterm season, and the stress and pressure to cram has hit all the teenagers in the mall. This includes the gang, who are all frustrated with studying–except for Jude, who seems strangely relaxed. Soon, Caitlin gets distracted by the prospect of her newest crush; she wants to find out if he likes her or just likes her, but doesn't know how to go about doing. Jen suggests that she ask if he wants to be her study partner, and then puts the group back to work. When Jonesy complains about the studying, Jen points out that she has a system that will help all of them pass so long as they follow it. While the group unenthusiastically agrees with Jen's sentiment, Jude soon grows restless and takes off for the library, citing that the food court is too noisy to study in.

The next day, the group meets again to study. While there, Jen offers advice to Jonesy about better study habits, to Nikki about future college choices, and to Wyatt about the health effects of coffee. Jude then takes off, saying that he's working with another study group as well. Jen is left suspicious, however, because Jude appears to her to be far too relaxed with midterms coming up.

The rest of the group is sick of being by the Big Squeeze, so they move to Grind Me and start studying. There, they run into Caitlin, who has a horrible story: the previous night, she planned to ask her to study with her, but couldn't find his phone number. She remembered his address, however, and decided to put a note in his mailbox; she was too nervous to do so, though, and ended up circling the block repeatedly in her car. This led a neighbor to think that Caitlin was a criminal, and the police came by and arrested her, holding her until Jack came down to the station and identified her.

After Caitlin concludes her story, two boys walk by with skateboards under their arms, talking about some skateboard tricks they saw him pull off. This increases Jen's suspicions even more, and Jonesy volunteers to look into it. Soon he and Wyatt head over to Stick It and invite Jude to study with them that night. Jude can't, however, as he already has a prior obligation with his other study group.

When Jonesy reports back to the group, Jen finds the story suspicious, and sends her friends out to investigate the skate park and the arcade. Her friends find out that Jude spent some time playing video games an hour ago and spent the previous day at the skate park. Before they can get completely absorbed in the question of Jude's activities, when they meet again Caitlin's crush Jack walks by, and Jen encourages Caitlin to talk to him. This works out horribly, as it turns out that Jack's mom has suggested to him that he might want to get a restraining order taken out–which Jack is seriously considering.

The group then heads out to the Gigantoplex, where they find Jude going to see a movie. They sneak in, and are right behind him when he turns around after purchasing popcorn. When confronted, Jude tries to claim that he still is in a study group, but when he holds up his history book as proof, a comic falls out. When this happens, Jude comes clean: he's flunking all of his classes, and figures that it would be easier to just fail without stressing. The group convinces him to try so long as they help him, and Jude agrees, whereupon they confiscate his skateboard just to make sure he doesn't goof off. Jude fights them for it, but the group wins the fight, and then tell him that he needs to improve his time management skills–which isn't odd, as they all have things they need to improve. Jonesy spends too much time chasing girls, Wyatt never takes chances, Caitlin goes crazy at sales, Nikki has fun teasing the Clones. Jen is the only one who doesn't think that she has a fault.

Upon hearing this, Caitlin blurts out that Jen is bossy and always giving advice. Jen is shocked by this accusation and denies it, but the rest of the group stands behind Caitlin's statement. Soon, Jonesy suggests a bet if Jen is sure she's not too bossy: from noon until closing, she won't be allowed to give advice. If she succeeds, she gets five dollars, one from each member of the group. If she fails, she pays every member of the group a dollar.

Jen accepts, and the group heads back to the Big Squeeze. There, Jen uses her last ten seconds before noon to instruct Jude on how to study better. When noon strikes, Jen heads off to work. As soon as she's gone, Jonesy instructs his friends to do their best to make Jen crack, with the winner taking the entire bet. He, Caitlin, and Nikki then leave Jude and Wyatt behind to study math.

Caitlin is the first one up to try and break Jen. She does this by going to the Penalty Box and telling Jen what she plans to do to get Jack to love her: she's going to his workplace and read a love poem she wrote in front of him and all of his coworkers. Upon hearing this, Jen visibly cuts herself off to avoid giving advice to Caitlin. Caitlin then exits the dressing room at the Penalty Box with her skirt tucked into her panties, and Jen realizes that Jonesy has put Caitlin up to this act.

The next ones up are Wyatt and Nikki, who inform Jen that they plan to get tattoos. Jen doesn't react, though, merely stating that they're bluffing. She continues with her noncommital act when Wyatt starts wearing a shirt with Jason from DawgToy on it, and actively encourages Jonesy when he threatens to skateboard down the escalator. Even Caitlin's meeting with a psychic and Jude suggesting that he'll go naked skydiving if he passes all his midterms don't make her crack.

At five o'clock, Jen heads over with her friends to see Nikki and Wyatt get tattooed. With them comes Ax, Caitlin's new tattooed metalhead boyfriend that her psychic recommended. There, Nikki and Wyatt get ready to be tattooed, both sure that Jen will never let them go through with it. However, Jen has a similar belief: because it's permanent, her friends will never go through with getting tattoos.

When the needle is about to pierce Wyatt's skin, Jen leaps up and stops him. At that point, she lets out everything she's been bottling up inside: Wyatt's shirt is stupid, Nikki made a bad decision with her tattoo design, Ax is definitely not the one for Caitlin, naked skydiving is insane–and when Jonesy walks in, she yells at him that he'll get fired. Upon hearing this, Jonesy grins, as Jen lost the bet, and that's enough for him to put up with her being right, as he gets fired. With Jen's advice-giving complete, the tattoo artist asks the one important question left: will anybody be getting a tattoo?

Wyatt will be doing so. This is because he likes his design and he figures that getting a tattoo is the universe's way of telling him to take a chance. Nikki accepts this, but tells Wyatt not to get anything too big–advice which Jen seconds.

After midterms, Wyatt shows off his tattoo to his friends: a sixteenth note. Before they can admire it too much, though, Ron arrives with Caitlin in tow. It seems that Caitlin took advice from Jen again and showed up at Jack's workplace to apologize, whereupon Jack called Mall Security on her. At this moment, Jude skates up, still feeling the adrenaline rush from naked skydiving; when his friends don't believe him, he slaps down a photograph, showing that not only did he follow through with his promise, to their surprise as he passed his midterms to do so.

Sub-Plot: Jude's Study Group
Wyatt is the first one to tutor Jude, and studies him about algebra. However, Jude is unable to focus without his skateboard, and when Wyatt continues to refuse to hand it over, Jude steals his skateboard back. After this, he gets tutored at the Stick It by Jonesy in anatomy, with a little assistance from the Glutes Girl. The next subject is economics, with Nikki. And after that, Shakespeare, with Caitlin. However, Caitlin gets distracted by the siren song of a sale at her favorite store, and she leaves Jude with the notes on Act II while she visits the store.

When she comes back, she finds Jude trying to give himself a cold by sticking his head into the freezer at Stick It with his hair wet. Upon seeing this, Caitlin talks him out of it, convincing him to try with the caveat that if he failed, she'd be willing to fail a class as well for him. When Jude hears this, he applies himself much harder, and ends up passing all of his midterms.

Quotes
Nikki: Nice. Jonesy: And midterm exams claim another victim. Nikki: I hope they have a small pick. Caitlin: I know. It's too horrible to talk about. Jen: What happened? Caitlin: Okay. You know how you said I should ask that guy if he wanted to study with me? Jen: Yeah? Caitlin: Well, last night I couldn't find his number, so I thought I'd just leave a note in his mailbox. Wyatt: Uh-huh... Caitlin: But I chickened out like, ten times and kept circling the block in my mom's car. Jonesy: That's not so bad. Kind of lame, but I've heard worse. Caitlin: It gets worse. This neighbor saw me and thought I was like, a robber or something, so they called the police and (crying) I have a mug shot! Jude: I don't know, like four hours. Nikki: A week? That's not too bad. Jude: Actually, I meant all together. Nikki: You realize if you fail this year you don't get to graduate with the rest of us, right? Jen: If we help you get back on track, do you promise to study? Jude: You guys'd do that for me? Caitlin: Of course! We all have to graduate together, or it won't be the same. Jude: Well, my imaginary study group already dumped me...okay, I'll do it. Jen: Okay, I'm not being conceited, but I can't really think of anything. Caitlin: Oh yeah? How about butting into everyone else's business and telling us what to do all the time? (she realizes what she said) Did I just say that out loud? Jen: (insulted) Yes! Caitlin: (trying to be gentle) Well, you're always giving everyone advice, and it's not always good. Jen: Uh, news flash! No I don't! Nikki: Um, this just in: you totally do. Jen: Here's the weather! Nuh uh! Nikki: Hot off the press! Yeah huh! Oh, and breaking news, you're bossy, too! Jen: Pictures at eleven! Of you being wrong! Usher: Live from the Gigantoplex! You're not the only people in line here! Jen: Oh yeah? Well stay tuned because YOU ALL SUCK! Jen: The side that gets arrested? Caitlin: I know, right? So humiliating. So I wrote him a love poem. I'm gonna read it to him in front of all the guys he works with! Wouldn't that be sweet? Jen? Jen: (stopping herself from giving advice) Sure. You should do whatever you wanna do. Caitlin: That's what I thought too. Ax: Cool. (A bunch of kids go past carrying toys.) Jonesy: I know, I'm fired. Jen: I told you so. Tattoo Muscle Guy: Is anyone getting a tattoo today? Wyatt: I am. Caitlin: (whimpering) Yes. Ron: I mean it. I don't want any more trouble out of you, lemon girl.
 * Football Player: AAH! I THINK MY HEAD'S GOING TO EXPLODE! HELP ME! AAAAAHHHH!!!
 * Jude: Sorry. I kinda promised this other study group they could pick my brain. Later. (He skates off.)
 * Jonesy: Whoa! You look terrible!
 * Jude: I figured, if I'm gonna fail anyway, might as well have fun doing it.
 * Wyatt: How much time have you spent studying this semester?
 * (The gang are naming their faults.)
 * Caitlin: I have a new plan to get Jack to like me. So, so far he's only seen one side of me.
 * Jude: Oh, I almost forgot. If I pass my exams, I've decided to go skydiving. Naked!
 * Jude: Sup, dude. Wanna go see our friends get tattooed?
 * Store Owner: Jonesy, if you're here, who's watching the toy store?
 * Ron: (bringing Caitlin to the Big Squeeze) I trust you'll leave that young man alone.

Episode connections

 * Caitlin's mugshot reappears in the episode "A Crime of Fashion".
 * When Jude says he's gonna go skydiving naked, Jonesy asks why he didn't think of this as something to say to Jen. In reality, there are many reasons why this wouldn't have worked. First and foremost, Jen wouldn't have believed him (as his escalator stunt proved); secondly, he is afraid of skydiving and did his best to get out of going in "The Five Finger Discount;" and finally, his escalator stunt was accidental, as he gave up on it, so Jen would have obviously seen through his bluff.

Cultural references

 * The line Caitlin read is from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: "When in that moment so it came to pass/Titania waked and straightway loved an ass." 'Ass' was formerly the common term for the domesticated donkey, Equus africanus asinus.

Errors

 * On the Teletoon DVD cover for "One Quiet Day", Jen's skirt is green instead of white.
 * Jen says that they go in on "three" but she never counts; instead, she says "go" to signal they're going in.