Tim and Nicola/Lawrie

[tosomja.livejournal.com]

Have just been reading End of Term and was struck by how vicious  Tim is to Nicola and how much it is not really ever explained why.  What has gone wrong since Autumn Term when Tim and Nicola seemed as good if not better friends to Tim and Lawrie?  I can see what Lawrie gets out of the relationship but what's in it for Tim? And what is going on in those conversations when Lawrie says she must talk to Tim - is Tim just nodding and sympathising and agreeing how awful Nicola is? if so, it doesn't sound much like the Tim we see the rest of the time...I am confused.

Comments

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

Also in the remove class, they weren't allowed to play games so Nicola's enthusiasm for sports didn't threaten the amount of time or attention she was able to spend on Tim. Whereas by End of Term, although Nicola didn't get on the team, she was becoming the sort of keen sporty type that Tim instinctively didn't like.
The way girls' friendships in the AF books can fluctuate, and even completely reverse on occasion is only too realistic.Ginty swinging from Unity back to Monica is another example.
Realising Tim had gone off her is such a painful but well written stage in Nicola's character development, along with some of Rowan's comments, and patrick's defection to Ginty. I think we, the reader like her more for going through these moments of realisation, rather than being the archetypal popular heroine of school stories.

[(Anonymous)]

"I think we, the reader like her more for going through these moments of realisation"

Yes - she's really upset with herself that she didn't realise Tim and Lawrie were now best friends, and it's not jealousy, or pique, it's shame that she has been insensitive and butting in.