Previously on Chasing Life, Brenna thought Natalie drugged Greer in Florida, April got assigned cancer sob stories at work, Leo struggled to find his purpose, and Greer has been acting up at school, which is so unlike her.
We begin with April at the hospital where a teenage boy introduces himself as Julian. She doesn’t need to return the favor because he knows who she is, he’s read her cancer pieces. He asks her out, but she sweetly just says she’s seeing someone. He tells her he has nut cancer and then teases her because her mom comes to her checkups with her and I like this kid, he can stay.
After the appointment, Hamburg tells April that she’s still cancer free-that’s two whole months! Before she leaves, though, April has a question she doesn’t want her mother to hear. When Sara is safely out of earshot, she asks if it’s OK to have sex now. Hamburg says she should still use protection, but that the only known side effect of chemo that would be an issue is sex drive and that is obviously not the case.
When April and Sara leave, Sara asks what it was about, and April ends up in a big fat lie in which she pretends there are Seattle Grace Mercy West Grey Sloan Memorial-levels of scandal going on in the cancer wing of the hospital.
At school, Brenna and Ford are checking out girls in a game that falls somewhere between leering and judging. Ford picks out a particularly badass looking girl and almost falls to the floor when it turns out to be Greer. When Brenna asks what’s up with the new ‘do, Greer just shrugs and says that if her parents aren’t going to be around, they don’t get to tell her what color her hair is, or anything else for that matter.
Meanwhile, April is having a hard day at work because she wants to cover a sports scoop with the athlete she talked to right before she found out she had cancer, but Bossman and Sports Reporter basically laugh in her face.
April won’t let a bad day at work get her down, though, and tells Leo to come over tonight because they’ll have the house (including all the bedrooms) to themselves. While they’re walking, they run into young Julian, who asks April to write a story about him for her cancer column to help out with the ladies. April is amused and says she’ll run it by her boss.
That night, April shuffles Brenna and Sara out the door so fast, and as soon as they’re gone, she pounces on Leo like a lion on a gazelle. Or I guess a lion on another lion. When they’re sneaking out in the morning, she tells Leo she knows they’re grown-ups, but her mom loves to talk about feelings and such and April is not interested. They do happen to run into Sara, but April scoots right out the door to work while Leo stays behind for coffee and another heart-to-heart with Mama Carver.
He confesses to Sara that he’s still bummed, and still doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life since he failed that bakery job so hard. Sara tells him not to let his lack of job define him; he survived a brain tumor, and he spent the weeks before that granting people’s last wishes. THAT shows character, THAT’S who he is. Leo says he was only able to do that because of his dad’s money, that he’ll always be tied to his dad in that way, so Sara tells him to shake off that definition of himself.
At school, Greer strolls in late to Sex Ed, right in the middle of the lesson (sadly, not as fun as Mean Girls Sex Ed) and gives the teacher so much sass about it. When he gives her detention, she strolls right back out again. Brenna’s face goes from confused to a little impressed back to confused again.
Revived by her success in the bedroom (or just after having thought it over, whatever) April challenges the Sports Reporter to a bet: They’ll race to the scoop, and whoever doesn’t get it has to hand deliver tacos for a week. Sports Reporter knows a good deal when he hears one, so he agrees.
Sara is at work talking to a patient about a stained blouse and the deeper issue it could represent when someone knocks on her office door. It’s the immigration lawyer she shares an office with, and he is a grump and a half. He is rude to sweet Sara and gives her attitude about her wealthy clientele as if rich people’s emotional problems don’t matter. Sara and I both immediately dislike this guy, which means he’ll probably become Sara’s newest love interest.
Speaking of love interests, Teenage Dream calls April and begs her to interview him at homecoming to impress a girl who actually said yes to him. Admittedly, she might have said yes because Julian mentioned the potential article, but still. April agrees to come help the kid out, after the party where she plans to get the scoop on the baseball player.
After school, Greer shows up at the tattoo parlor. A place that provides permanent rebel-stains that is also where the ex-girlfriend you parents banned you from seeing happens to work? It’s like the holy grail of rebellion. When Brenna asks about detention, she scoffs in the face of it, and Ford looks like SHE’S about to kiss Greer on the mouth. Greer invites everyone to Nantucket for the night because why the heck not? She’s got houses to spare. Brenna asks about the whole banned-from-seeing-each-other thing but Greer is finally seeing the wisdom of the age-old adage “what they don’t know can’t hurt them” and tells her to say she’s staying at Ford’s. Greer then gives Brenna the most imploring, mischievous smile and there is literally no way anyone would have been able to say no.
So it’s settled. The ferry’s at seven.
Before they go, though, Greer wants a tattoo. Kieran laughs it off; she’s under 18, and besides she should really think about what she wanted before she commits to something that will last forever. Greer flips out at this, saying she’s sick and tired of people dictating her life for her SHE WANTS A TATTOO GODDAMNIT GET YOUR NEEDLE, PUNK. Kieran panickedly agrees and asks Brenna for help getting supplies in the back. When they’re alone, he asks Brenna what’s up with her girl and Brenna says she doesn’t know, but she’s been acting really weird lately, and it was all fun and games when it was a skipped class here and there, but now she’s starting to get worried. Brenna’s not sure Nantucket is such a good idea anymore, and Kieran asks how they’re going to break that news to Greer without her going all psycho on their asses. Well, Greer had chosen that moment to storm back and find out what was taking so damn long to find a sketch of a unicorn playing tennis and overhears what Kieran said. And no one likes being called a psycho, especially when they’re not feeling particularly in control of their own faculties at the moment, so Greer locks herself in the bathroom.
Brenna knocks on the door but Greer is not particularly interested in talking to people who think she’s psychotic. Ford bails-this is not the fun time she was hoping for-and Kieran goes out front to give them space, so Brenna coaxes Greer out of the bathroom, asking why she hasn’t been herself lately. Greer says maybe this is herself, she wouldn’t really know. When Brenna asks her to clarify, she confesses that she’s been on prescription medication for anxiety and depression pretty much as long as she can remember (some of you totally called that). She had been asking her parents to let her try to stop taking them, to see what she was like without them, but in their style, they threatened to stop paying for things like, say, her education if she didn’t do as they said.
Greer apologizes to Brenna, saying she feels like she lied to her since she didn’t mention any of this while they were together. Brenna assures her there are no hard feelings, she didn’t lie, she just omitted some very private truths. She also confesses that the whole Florida Incident wasn’t about roofies, her pills just don’t mix well with alcohol. Kieran comes back to check on them, and when Greer says she should just go, Brenna says she doesn’t want Greer to go home alone to her big empty house, Kieran suggests a sleepover at the shop. Just the three of them.
Now, I want to talk about this for a second, so if you’re only here for show facts, scoot on down to the next paragraph. Because I want to dissect what’s going on with Greer a little bit, to the best of my ability. This is a big reveal. Greer, the happy, bubbly tennis star, who is more than happy to be open about her sexuality, and is able to have mature and honest conversations about sex and monogamy and relationships, hid this big part of her life from Brenna. From everyone. Not to mention, her parents put her on this medication when she was a child. This means either she had behavioral problems or psychological issues severe enough that a doctor would medicate a seven-year-old for something more than ADHD. That’s serious stuff. OR, another option, and a far less fortunate one, is that her parents couldn’t be bothered with discipline, so they drugged their child to keep her docile.
Either way, it was out of Greer’s hands, and even as she got older and wanted to be in control of her own body, she was threatened and told she wasn’t allowed to; no one giving her any other reason as to why she had to keep taking the pills besides “because we said so.” And Greer got sick of it. If I had to pinpoint the exact moment Greer decided she was done taking the pills, done giving in to her parents’ threats, I would say it was the moment Brenna said she couldn’t even stick up for herself, let alone for Brenna. Because Greer knew she was right. Because now her parents weren’t just controlling her life, but they were controlling other people’s lives too. Suddenly she had something more to fight for than just “I want to know what happens if I stop taking these pills.” Suddenly she had someone to fight for.
And so she stopped taking the pills. (And dyed her hair purple, because it’s the easiest way for someone under 18 to start taking control of her own body.) But the thing is, the subsequent acting out? This could be a few things. If she stopped taking the pills when I think she did, she’s been off them for a month, tops. After ten years of taking medication, your body isn’t going to be rid of them or their effects after only a month. Not to mention, even once those meds are out of your system, whatever chemicals or functions they had been holding back get to run around free and have to figure out where to settle and what their jobs are. On top of that, you have teenage hormones. Which could have been a factor in why she stopped taking the pills, why she’s acting out, or both. So anyway, I guess my point is, just because Greer stopped taking the pills, doesn’t mean Greer actually has any psychological disorders. But just because her parents never gave her a choice on whether or not she could take them doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any psychological disorders. Only time will tell.
Aaaaanyway, while the Secret Sleepover of Secrets is happening, April uses her scheming journalism ways to talk to the athlete she wanted to chat with. They get along pretty well, and they get to the point where April’s almost ready to ask him for the scoop when he gets pulled away to a dance. It’s getting late now, and she has to decide if she stays and chases the story, or goes and helps out Julian at the homecoming dance.
In way more exciting news, Greer, Brenna, and Kieran are bonding over pizza. Greer says she doesn’t think people at school would understand, since she barely understands, and Brenna and Kieran both promises that what happens at the Secret Sleepover of Secrets stays at the Secret Sleepover of Secrets. To prove that three can keep a secret, Brenna shares one of her own. When she was a freshman, still reeling from the death of her father, she found herself in a relationship with a senior boy. They slept together, the only guy she ever slept with, and when she realized one month that her period was late, the senior boy freaked out and wrote her a check to get it taken care of. The only person who knew was her lab partner, who took her to Connecticut to get the procedure, and they’ve been friends ever since. And suddenly the Mystery of Ford is solved.
Brenna never told her mom or sister because they were still hurting from her father’s death. When we met Brenna, she seemed like an impetuous teenager, and we thought she’d grown, but maybe she just got better at expressing herself. Because not sharing your own pain to spare others isn’t selfish at all. In fact, it’s selfless to a fault.
Brenna says that Greer can use this as proof, her secret’s safe with her. Kieran thanks her for trusting them with that, but Brenna says she wasn’t talking to him. He can’t be part of the circle of trust until he shares a deep dark secret, too.
Kieran does have a dark secret, but his is better seen than heard, so he lifts his shirt and reveals a really shoddy tramp stamp that says, “Rosie,” the name of this high school English teacher. The girls laugh and suddenly they’re just teenagers again. Greer even has her old gleam in her eye when she tells Kieran his dark secret is adorable.
At the less-fun party, April and Sports Reporter are about to call it a draw when April finds the athlete doing a line of coke…with her boyfriend. She is none too pleased with this turn of events and drags Leo away to scold him. She’s not one to judge, but brain cancer and coke don’t seem like the best combination. She’s supposed to write an article about this party, and could very well out him publicly as a druggie. Leo doesn’t care; people will think what they want to think about him. He’ll always just be his father’s son. They yell and fight and all of a sudden April finds herself scream-wondering if cancer is the only thing they have in common. She tells him that he’s romanticizing his own downward spiral and reminds him that he also crushed a young boy’s dream of having a real reporter interview him at homecoming tonight, so you just try to sleep well tonight, sir.
The next morning, Greer, Brenna and Kieran wake up, and they can’t help but smile at each other. They found each other in the dark, and the new day is a bright one, as long as they’re together.
April does not share this shiny outlook and actually doesn’t look like she slept much at all. She texts Julian an apology and heads out to tackle the day. While getting coffee, April spots Dom on a bench by the river and stops to chat. She asks his advice on whether she should break the story about the athlete doing drugs, because she was actually starting to feel a connection to the guy. The human with a heart and the soulless journalist inside of her are battling it out over this one. Dom doesn’t know what he would do and is glad his job is to just give musicians thumbs up or down.
Sara’s job is far less complicated than her eldest daughter’s, and she helps a woman who wandered into her office by accident decide whether or not she should marry a man she just started dating because it would be a convenient shortcut on her road to citizenship. Her grumpy office neighbor de-grumps a little and tells Sara that she helped that woman and could do a lot more good if she wanted to. Sara tells him that just because you have money doesn’t mean your life is dandy. Mo’ money, mo’ problems and all that. And also each human individual is susceptible to feelings and anxieties and life events and traumas and he is a holier-than-thou jerkface who thinks his way of helping people is the only way. Lives can look bright and shiny from the outside but be dark and broken on the inside. Just look at Greer and her family.
Later, on the news, it becomes clear that April decided to write the story about the athlete doing drugs and it’s announced that he’ll be drug tested. Bossman is proud and Sports Reporter brings her the tacos he promised her. April looks a little conflicted, but also a little proud of herself.
What did you think of “The Big Leagues”?
Here are some of our favorite #ChasingLesbians tweets from this week:
Greer’s parents are out of town more often than Paige’s parents. Are we sure this family isn’t related? #ChasingLesbians #BooRadleyVanCullen
– Ange (@AngeloYellow) February 17, 2015
A little bit of purple hair dye and Greer’s ready to flip over some tables. #ChasingLesbians
– Lady Liberty (@CindyLMarshall) February 17, 2015
Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy, and happy people don’t kill their husbands! #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians
– Kitty (@SmartLittleLiar) February 17, 2015
JEEZ MAKE OUT ALREADY #Grenna #ChasingLesbians #ChasingLife
– Karly (@karlyko) February 17, 2015
“I won’t say anything” HE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE! #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians #MeanGirls
– Syd (@SydB29) February 17, 2015
Im cool with Kieran being friends with both Greer and Brenna but Grenna needs to get back together #ChasingLife #chasinglesbians
– Marquee (@Marquee_ITG) February 17, 2015
I love the three of them. In this case, I am actually thinking polyamory could work #ChasingLife #ChasingLesbians #Chasingeveryone
– Jenny Rackham (@jenny_rackham) February 17, 2015
Just having a sleepover, with my ex girlfriend, and ex boyfriend. Sharing our deepest secrets. Over some pizza. And laughs. #ChasingLesbians
– Ange (@AngeloYellow) February 17, 2015
this is not how I imagined Greer and Brenna waking up next to each other #grenna #chasinglesbians hah #chasinglife
– K. Lewis (@TechLewis) February 17, 2015
