I used to be obsessed with Sabrina Spitaro, too! She was a real person I went to middle school with. Her name was too good not to use in a comic strip. Just like Maliik, I sat behind her in class, staring at the back of her head! I had a total crush but was too scared to ever talk to her.

The design of the kid in the foreground shooting milk out of his nose and pounding the table is based on my friend Steve Flack.

Since this is a comic and not film, it’s hard to convey that it’s Maliik’s recorded voice that is playing over the school intercom. We know he’s talking about Miyumi San (who get’s her own chapter starting tomorrow), but we don’t know yet who intentionally recorded his private conversation and used it to embarrass him in front of the whole school. If you go back and check the end of Book 1, there are some clues, though!