Mac

— Mac in "Homework"

* Heitz
* McCauley (v2)
* McCauley (v1)
* Schick
* Brinckloe
* Hockerman

**Mac** (known as **Nancy** prior to "Nancy") is a character in the *Wayside School* books. He does not appear in the cartoon. He is one of the many students in Mrs. Jewls's class. Once an incredibly shy student, after trading his name, he always has something to say, and frequently disrupts the class.

## Appearance

Mac is a boy with big hands and big feet. In "Voices", his voice is described as sounding like a freight train, implying that he speaks very loudly (as freight trains are generally really noisy). He owns at least one pair of socks that is red with gold lightning bolts on it, but since Mac worries about his socks not matching, it is implied he owns other socks. He wears shoes with laces. In "The Closet That Wasn't There," it is revealed that Mac owns a catcher's mask that he wears for every sport, regardless of whether or not it would need one. Like most of the characters in the *Wayside School* books, little about his appearance are described.

## Personality

As Nancy, he was very quiet and shy. He rarely talks in *Sideways Stories from Wayside School*, only having two appearances before his eponymous chapter, which is the twenty-eighth chapter in the book. He hated his name, thinking it was a girl's name, and was embarrassed because of it. At this point, Mac must've been very worrisome, as he fears his best friend Nancy, who was named Mac at the time, would make fun of him if she were to find out his name. However, since both were embarrassed by their names, they were able to trade.

After trading his name, Mac became a very excitable and occasionally interruptive student, and due to being much more active, much more of his personality can be inferred. In "Never Laugh at a Shoelace," it is stated that show-and-tell is his favorite subject, and in other chapters, he has been seen telling long stories only loosely related to the lesson being taught in the class. Mac appears to hold some desire to stand as the center of attention, as when his story is interrupted by Stephen in "Homework," he shifts focus back to himself, and he is shown to feel foolish in "Never Laugh at a Shoelace" when the other students make fun of him for bringing in a shoelace. Aside from being very talkative, he appears to be fairly noisy.

In "The Closet That Wasn't There," Mac is described as a "curious" kid, in both senses of the word. He is shown to be inquisitive, as Mac is shown asking Miss Mush about chicken fingers, and he attempts to investigate Mrs. Jewls's closet before Mrs. Jewls interrupts him. He is also shown to be strange, as Mac is shown to wear a catcher's mask for every sport, regardless of whether or not it is necessary, as well as calling out every single pass he makes in a game of basketball. These personality traits are seen elsewhere in the series, such as in "Never Laugh at a Shoelace," where it is revealed that Mac frequently searches through dumpsters to find things to present for show-and-tell, and in "Pet Day," where he is shown to have a dog named after himself.

Mac is shown to sometimes be oblivious of what's going on, such as in "Homework," where he complains about Mrs. Jewls assigning too much homework, something he is responsible for due to interrupting class. Additionally, he is shown to occasionally make insensitive comments by accident, as is seen in "Something Different about Mrs. Jewls," where he tells Dameon that Mrs. Jewls looks fat after he asks what's different about her, and in "The New Teacher," where he tells Ron that it's especially rude to ask someone as old as Mrs. Drazil how old she is. However, most of the time, Mac is shown to be supportive of his fellow classmates, jokingly giving Terrence "three points" after he kicks the wastepaper basket across the room in "Blame It on the Cloud," and encouraging Joy to get a new record in "Jump Rope Arithmetic."

## Relationships

### Nancy

    While oftentimes talkative and extroverted, Mac's only known close friend is a girl from the twenty-third floor named Nancy, as first seen in "Nancy." In that chapter, Mac, who was known at Nancy at the time, is shown to be very shy with Nancy, known at Mac at the time, being his only friend. The two were too embarrassed by their names to tell each other, and were both worried the other would find their name ridiculous (giving that their names didn't fit their genders). Upon finding out each others' names, they decide to trade, though even then they still don't refer to each other by name, mostly out of habit. In "Homework," it is revealed Nancy is Mac's girlfriend.

### Mrs. Jewls

While Mrs. Jewls likes all the students in her class, she does occasionally show some frustration towards Mac due to his interruptive nature that often causes him to tell long stories in the middle of class. In "Homework," Mrs. Jewls is hesitant to pick Mac when he raises his hand, and in "The Lost Ear," she shows the same hesitation, and tries to get his story over with as soon as possible. However, Mrs. Jewls does still like Mac, as in "Something Different About Mrs. Jewls," she thanks him and considers him "very considerate" for not saying she looks fat.

## Appearances

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

## Trivia

* He is not in the cartoon, alongside Allison, Benjamin, Calvin, D.J., Dameon, Deedee, Jason, Joy, Kathy, Paul, Ron, Terrence, and Sue.
* While he changes his name in "Nancy," he is still referred to as Nancy in "Science, Geography, Etc." However, since the assignments Mrs. Jewls is grading are from all across the semester, it's possible that some of them are from before Mac changed his name.
* Mac, Maurecia, and Jason are the only students who have had different designs from the same illustrator.

### Other designs

Peter Allen design (British edition, 2004)Satoshi Kitamura design (Japanese edition, 2010)Unknown illustrator (Simplified Chinese edition, 2012)Aleksei Bitskoff design (British edition, 2020)
## References

1. ↑ "Nancy"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Homework"
3. ↑ "Never Laugh at a Shoelace"
4. ↑ "The Lost Ear"