It's only in this position because of Patrick. Remove that problem and things would improve.
Also, remove that problem and he can just pull his money for both kids, regardless. Those contracts are the only thing guarantying him paying their tuition at all. This was my biggest problem with that whole storyline.
You realise that pretty much everyone, including Josy, the MC, and even the dimbat slut Arieth, are all getting their tuition paid for them, right? So it's not like she's looking for much to have what they have, especially when she was going to get it anyway before her Dad found out about her relationship.
Our MC's father is not capable of affording to pay his tuition. What his dad would be paying for is things student aid won't stretch far enough to cover, which is still a LOT. What you're ignoring is that there's really no need to inject how college is paid for by most students bc it's common knowledge to most people by the time they hit their sophomore year in HS. You're typical HS will have someone that helps you apply for loans, grants, scholarships, etc before you graduate and will tell you to apply even if you don't believe you qualify at that time.
Yeah, because part-time work in college
totally pays towards the thousands of dollars it costs for a college education
You know, you sure are smart. It's not like even Taco Bell will pay for your tuition these days. In 2021 I had an employee a couple years younger than me who worked doing seasonal fire fighting and less than 6 months after graduating was completely debt free w/o any outside aid beyond scholarships and grants. And, at this point, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars just for tuition. A school like Columbia costs a bit over $94,000 per semester.
Maybe not, but she got burned badly by her Dad's reaction and is understandably scared to let other people know, especially with the fear that it may somehow get back to her Dad that she and Josy are still together.
Oh, poor Maya. Her father being disapproving justifies all of her behavior. It totally justifies her committing crimes directed at him and no court would ever convict her for something like that. Clear premeditation be damned.
Even if Maya were a real person, I wouldn't consider her a bad person. I've known a lot of women specifically with this problem. You can't fix her, though.
She's a well written character who belongs to a common trope within the genre. I recently started rewatching Greek and you see several characters going through similar arcs themselves. Her being gay creates the problem in this case, but she could be a senators daughter dating the hippy president of a party frat. Her sexuality is irrelevant in the grand scheme, it's just an emotional hook that we can all see as a problematic parental behavior. The underlying problem is the lying. That doesn't go away bc her daddy issues are resolved.
The way this trope typically plays out is you escalate the characters justification for lying, as we've seen, and then you pull the rug. You built an emotional connection with that character while you can justify the lies, but then feel even more betrayed when those lies are no longer justified in any manner. That character then either goes through a redemption arc or goes full dark side. When you take a step back and look at the characters arc objectively, at any point that character could have broken off that path by stopping the lies and holding themselves accountable. Had Maya not sought to just lie and please her family w/o any intent to follow through she could have resolved her conflict with her father loooong before college started. She might be strapped with student loans, but she'd still be in the same place. Just without dragging all of her friends into her personal conflicts she is, at least in part, responsible for creating.
The relationship though? That never survives. This trope exists to reinforce the countless sayings we have about relationships built on lies and to show the damage it can cause.
