D.J.

— D.J. in "D.J."

* Heitz
* McCauley
* Schick
* Brinckloe
* Hockerman

**D.J.** is a character in the *Wayside School* books. He does not appear in the cartoon, but is briefly mentioned in *Wayside: The Movie*. He is one of the many students in Mrs. Jewls's class. He is a student with a large, bright smile and an optimistic personality.

## Appearance

D.J.'s appearance is rarely described, aside from the fact he has a large smile that stretches across his entire face. In "A Story That Isn't About Socks," D.J.'s "best clothes" is a toga made from his bedsheet. Aside from this, it is not known what D.J. looks like.

## Personality

D.J. is an incredibly optimistic student, as shown in most of his appearances. He often has a large smile across his face, but often it's questioned why he's smiling. The truth is that D.J. believes he doesn't need a reason to smile, and that being happy is oftentimes the better choice. Many students often depend on D.J., and are happy whenever he feels happy. D.J. is glad to cheer up the students in Mrs. Jewls's class, and often tries to spread positivity whenever he can. Only once has he been seen doing anything that could hurt another student, which is giving Louis permission to kick Terrence over the fence as revenge for Terrence kicking all the balls over the fence, and even then, it was mostly to defend his other friends.

While D.J. usually strives for the positive, occasionally he can be brought down by a few things. In "Kathy and D.J.," D.J. loses a watch from his great-grandfather, and spends the chapter upset because he's worried that a bird could choke on it. This chapter reveals that his sadness is as infectuous as his happiness, as many of the other students in class feel upset when they notice D.J. is upset as well. However, when he realizes the positives to these things, he can get back into his usual upbeat mood.

D.J. appears to be wise, keeping a positive attitude, even when there's no reason for him to, and rarely valuing material possessions, and understanding that people are much more valuable. D.J. is not judgemental towards others, considering Kathy a valuable friend in "Kathy and D.J.," even though she spent the whole chapter trying to make him feel worse. In fact, he appears to appreciate people just the way they are, as in "Up and Down," he is briefly disturbed when he notices Kathy is acting much nicer than usual. In the end, however, D.J. always manages to come around, as by "The Mirror," it is shown that he has grown to accept Kathy's new positive attitude.

## Relationships

### Dameon

Dameon is one of D.J.'s best friends, as stated a number of times throughout the books, as first seen in "Kathy and D.J.," when Dameon tries to comfort him when he notices he's feeling upset. In "Love and a Dead Rat," the two eat lunch with Myron, and D.J. tries to assure Dameon he doesn't need to put a dead rat in Mrs. Jewls's desk, but Dameon thinks D.J. might be making fun of him for being in love with Mrs. Jewls. The two don't interact frequently, but D.J. also doesn't appear frequently in the books.

### Myron

Myron is one of D.J.'s best friends, as stated a number of times throughout the books, as first seen in "Kathy and D.J.," when Myron tries to comfort him when he notices he's feeling upset. In "Love and a Dead Rat," the two eat lunch with Dameon. The two try to assure Dameon that they don't mind that he's in love with Mrs. Jewls, but Dameon worries they're making fun of him. D.J. isn't seen interacting with Myron elsewhere, but D.J. doesn't appear frequently in the books.

### Kathy

    D.J. considers Kathy to be an excellent friend, though for a long time, this relationship was entirely one-sided. Kathy used to hate everyone, and that includes D.J., as it's remarked that she thinks he smiles too much in "Kathy ," and spends the whole chapter trying to bring him down in "Kathy and D.J." D.J., however, does not seem to mind Kathy's grumpiness, and after a conversation with her, remarks that she's a good friend, and he gives her the golden watch his grandfather gave to him when Oddly finds it. In "Valooosh," Kathy and D.J. dance together, though Kathy takes great joy in kicking D.J. in the rear end. However, not all of Kathy's interactions with D.J. were negative at this point, as in "D.J.," she is shown to join the class in laughing with D.J. thanks to his impressive smile. In "Up and Down," it's shown that D.J. actually feels disturbed when he realizes Kathy isn't acting like herself after an appointment with Dr. Pickell, but eventually he grows to accept her newly positive outlook, as in "The Mirror," he remarks that her backwards handwriting is cool. After her change in personality, Kathy returns the appreciation towards D.J., considering him a friend in "Oppositosis," and taking note of his impressive sense of smell in "Rainbow."

## Appearances

For a list of every chapter D.J. is seen in, see here.

## Trivia

* He is not in the cartoon, alongside Allison, Benjamin, Calvin, Dameon, Deedee, Jason, Joy, Kathy, Mac, Paul, Ron, Terrence, and Sue.
	+ However, his name is briefly mentioned in *Wayside: The Movie* when Mrs. Jewls is counting up the votes.
* D.J. appears to have an impressive sense of smell, being able to remark that Miss Mush and Mr. Pepperadder included black shoes with no laces in the rainbow stew. It's possible that because of this, D.J. excelled on the blindfolded smelling portion of the Ultimate Test.
* D.J. is additionally skilled at jumping rope, getting third place in "Jump Rope Arithmetic," with eighty-four points, behind Joy and Maurecia.
* It is currently unknown if D.J. stands for anything, or if his first name is literally just "D.J.".

### Other designs

Peter Allen design (British edition, 2004)Kim Jungseok design (Korean edition, 2006)Satoshi Kitamura design (Japanese edition, 2010)
## References

1. ↑ "D.J."
2. ↑ "Terrence"
3. ↑ "Rainbow"