Joy

— Joy in "Joy"

* Heitz
* McCauley
* Schick
* Brinckloe
* Hockerman

**Joy** is a character in the *Wayside School* books. She is one of the many students in Mrs. Jewls's class. She is a mischievous kleptomaniac that frequently bothers her classmates, particularly Todd. She is one of the Unbreakables, alongside Maurecia, Deedee, and Ron.

## Appearance

In "Jason," Joy is described as having the biggest mouth in class. Aside from this, her appearance has never been described.

## Personality

Joy is usually depicted as being a very devious student, as seen over the course of the *Wayside School* books. She frequently engages in mischievous or otherwise rude behavior, seen as early as her debut in "Joe" where she laughs when Joe explains that Mrs. Jewls was teaching him how to count. In her first major role in "Todd," she spends the whole chapter bothering Todd, bugging him so he'll speak out loud in class and be sent home early on the kindergarten bus. When bugging Todd, she appears to be very persistent, as she is willing to get out of her seat and sharpen her pencil just to effectively poke him in the back. Later in "Jason," she is seen chewing gum in class, which presumably is against the rules, but rather than throwing it away, puts it on Jason's seat, causing him to get stuck until she kisses him, which seems to bother him more than the thought of being stuck. In "The Best Part," knowing how troublesome she is, she makes an attempt to steal Todd's toy dog so she won't get in trouble anymore in class, but it ends up biting her pinky instead. In "The Ultimate Test, Day One," it is shown that Joy cheats on spelling tests by writing with "fudge-squiggles," to make any possible inaccuracies in her spelling ambiguous. Mrs. Jewls always gives her the benefit of the doubt.

Joy is a kleptomaniac, which is first established in the chapter "Joy." In this chapter, she forgets her lunch, so she decides to take Dameon's instead. Rather than taking the blame for her actions, however, she simply leaves the remains on everyone else's desks, and is rewarded by Mrs. Jewls for being a good detective when she can figure out who stole Dameon's lunch. This chapter reveals she shows some level of regret, however, as when she tries eating any item that was part of Dameon's lunch for the rest of the year, or one of the two Tootsie Roll Pops she filched, it ends up tasting like Miss Mush's porridge instead. She is later seen stealing things in "The Best Part" and "Lost and Found." In "The Best Part," she attempts stealing Todd's toy dog. However, she fails and it ends up biting her finger instead. In "Lost and Found," she steals Maurecia's lunch, which is especially strange considering Maurecia is Joy's best friend. It is possible, however, that Joy believes that she has permission to Maurecia's lunch because they are friends. In a brief gag in "Poetry," she ends up stealing Mrs. Jewls's example of a poem at the start of the chapter.

Joy enjoys getting the attention of her peers, something established in "Todd," when she regularly bothers Todd just to brag to him about what page she's on. In "The Best Part," after seeing Todd's toy dog get the attention of her classmates and get him out of trouble, she wants to take it for herself, and in "Lost and Found," she only confesses to stealing Maurecia's lunch after she believes she has something to gain from it. In "Science," and later "The Best Principal Ever!!!," Joy is seen raising both of her hands at once to increase her chances of being chosen, and in the former, she brags to her classmates when Mrs. Jewls does end up choosing her. In "Jump Rope Arithmetic," when Kathy refers to her as the best ever after she breaks the former record, she simply says that is "true," and she subsequently imagines herself being interviewed by famous celebrities, and possibly getting into a movie. When her moment in the spotlight is interrupted, she does get jealous, as she feels heavily upset when Maurecia subsequently breaks her record, an attitude that appears to carry over to "The Ultimate, Ultimate Test."

Joy seems to enjoy gossip with the rest of her class, as seen in a few chapters, such as "The New Teacher," "Time Out," and "Way-High-Up Ball." In "The New Teacher," she asks Mrs. Drazil how many men she's kissed in her life when she says the students can ask her anything they want. In "Time Out," she is seen talking with Maurecia about whether Todd is more stupid or ugly, while in "Way-High-Up Ball" she joins the conversation about Louis having a crush on Miss Nogard. As shown in "Mr. Poop," she gets extremely angry when her fun is interrupted, and actively retaliates when Louis becomes "Mr. Louis" after shaving his mustache. She starts feeling spiteful towards Mrs. Drazil, and at recess that day, retaliates by throwing the POOPS handbook in his bucket of black paint.

## Relationships

### Maurecia

    Joy's best friend in the *Wayside School* books is Maurecia. The two first interact in "Joe," when the two of them both laugh when they learn Joe can't count. However, a full friendship may have not been established until "Maurecia," as prior to that, Maurecia only liked ice cream. In "Love and a Dead Rat," the two both mock Dameon for his crush on Mrs. Jewls, which causes him to feel flustered. By "Lost and Found," it is officially confirmed they are friends. In this chapter, the two eat lunch together, and wonder what to do with the money they find in the bush. In this chapter, it's revealed Joy may be using her friendship with Maurecia as an excuse to occasionally steal her lunch. Later on, in "Mr. Poop," the two enjoy jumping rope with Jenny, and in "Time Out," Joy and Maurecia talk about Todd on the stairs, arguing whether or not he is more stupid or ugly.

As of "The Unbreakables," the two are revealed to be part of a friend group alongside Ron and Deedee known as the Unbreakables, on account of their unbreakable friendship. In that chapter, Maurecia is seen laughing at some of Joy's teasing of Deedee, and after lunch, the two are seen playing three-square alongside Ron. Maurecia and Joy, alongside Ron, work together to help Deedee find her missing homework at the end of the chapter. Despite being close friends, however, the Ultimate Test shows that Joy appears to think of herself as being above Maurecia, as in "The Ultimate Test, Day One," she appears to believe that Maurecia will fail the test and get sent back to kindergarten, while in "Jump Rope Arithmetic," she doesn't have much confidence that Maurecia will last long. When Maurecia turns out to actually get over double Joy's record, Joy appears to be jealous, and quits watching her long before she can finish. In "The Ultimate, Ultimate Test," her relationship with Maurecia still appears to be strained, but upon Maurecia complimenting their friendship, the two appear to make up, and perform their four-handed handshake with the rest of the Unbreakables.

### Todd

Barring her close friends, the character Joy is most frequently seen interacting with is Todd, who sits immediately in front of her, or behind her, whichever makes it more convenient for her to torment him. Joy often partakes in playing mean tricks on Todd, much to his annoyance, as first seen in "Todd," where she repeatedly bugs him in an attempt to get him in trouble. At the end of the chapter, Todd steals Joy's notebook and hands it to a pair of robbers, so they can have the gift of knowledge and avoid hurting anybody. Todd jokingly bugs Joy when she has to start over in her notebook, but this causes him to get sent home early on the kindergarten bus. Later on, in "The Best Part," Joy at first isn't impressed by Todd's dog toy, but decides to steal it after he is able to erase his name from the discipline list. When she eventually gets her pinky finger bitten when the toy was turned into a man-eating wolf, Todd claims it's "the best part." In "Valooosh," Todd and Joy dance with one another, but it's likely that this isn't out of respect, as the dance class primarily consists of tripping each other over and throwing balls at one another. In "Time Out," Joy is seen talking with Maurecia about Todd, and claims that he is "stupider than ugly." In "The Bells of Wayside," she is seen closing the door despite Todd's request, and in "Jump Rope Arithmetic," she pokes him in the back of his neck to see how well Maurecia is doing. She occasionally even bothers Todd seemingly unintentionally, as in "Science," Mrs. Jewls isn't able to see him with Joy holding up both her arms and waving them in circles. In spite of all the negative interactions, Todd may not completely mind Joy, as in "Jason," he is glad that Joy is going to ride the kindergarten bus, not because she's being punished, but because he's looking for company.

### Deedee

As is revealed in "The Unbreakables," Joy and Deedee are members of a friend group called the Unbreakables, alongside Ron and Maurecia. Before this point, they are only seen interacting in "Deedee," where Deedee joins her and Maurecia for jumping rope, though Deedee does not like it, and in "Joy," where Joy blames Deedee for stealing Dameon's apple. In "The Unbreakables," Joy joins Maurecia and Ron in teasing Deedee, and additionally remarks that Deedee brought it upon herself when she gets sauce on her homework after shaking her fork. However, by the end of the chapter, Joy still joins the other Unbreakables in helping to find Deedee's homework, and feels relieved when Ron does. Although the two are not seen interacting much beyond this, it is implied that their dynamic is usually positive, as the Cloud of Doom is shown to put pressure on friendships, and Joy still sits near Deedee during lunch and engages with her in a four-handed handshake with the other Unbreakables throughout the book.

### Ron

Among the Unbreakables, Joy and Ron's dynamic has currently been explored the least, though the two are still seen to be friends throughout the course of *Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom*. They are first seen interacting in "The Unbreakables," where she joins him in teasing Deedee, and he subsequently giggles at some of the remarks she makes. Later in the chapter, the two are seen playing three-square with Maurecia, and she joins him to help Deedee find her homework at the end of the chapter, feeling relieved when he finds it. Additionally, in "The Ultimate Test, Day One," Ron remarks that Joy is a good speller, which she agrees with.

### Sue

In the chapter "After School," Sue befriends Joy after the two of them struggle in class, Sue struggling with adding apples and oranges and Joy struggling with an impossible true or false quiz. They go home together to enjoy a number of activities like eating ice cream, drawing pictures, and watching movies about turtles. In "Game Day," they are on the same team during the relay race.

### Dameon

Joy seems to possibly think little of Dameon, as she is usually seen mistreating him in the books. In "Dameon," she steals his lunch, and blames the other members of Mrs. Jewls's class for her actions. In "Love and a Dead Rat," she mocks him for his crush on Mrs. Jewls, and has him put a dead rat in her desk to prove he isn't in love. Joy, however, likely doesn't explicitly dislike Dameon, as she does still feel regret upon stealing his lunch later on. Dameon's opinion of Joy in return seems to be mixed as well. She thanks Joy and considers her "the greatest" when she figures out what happened to his missing lunch, but he states he doesn't like Joy in "Love and a Dead Rat," though it may just be that he doesn't like her in comparison to Mrs. Jewls.

### Jason

Joy likely also doesn't think much of Jason, as seen in "Jason." In this chapter, Jason calls her out for chewing gum in class and writes her name on the discipline list, which causes her to put gum on his seat. When Jason returns, he feels upset about getting stuck, though when Joy apologizes, Jason states he doesn't mind. At the end of the chapter, when Joy offers to kiss Jason, Jason seems extremely upset, suggesting Jason doesn't like Joy very much. In "Joy," Jason is one of the students she blames for stealing Dameon's lunch.

### Jenny

Joy may be friends with Jenny, as the two are seen jumping rope with Maurecia in "Mr. Poop." However, the two are not seen interacting elsewhere, so it is unknown how close this friendship could be.

## Appearances

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

## Trivia

* She is not in the cartoon, alongside Allison, Benjamin, Calvin, D.J., Dameon, Deedee, Jason, Kathy, Mac, Paul, Ron, Terrence, and Sue. However, some of Maurecia's personality, like her affection towards Todd, originated from Joy.
* During recess, Joy does whatever Maurecia does.
* Joy's favorite color might be brown, but it's possible she just claims that it is since it's the example Mrs. Jewls uses in her poem, which she steals.

### Other designs

Peter Allen design (British edition, 2004)Satoshi Kitamura design (Japanese edition, 2010)Aleksei Bitskoff design (British edition, 2021)Ramona Bruno design (Italian edition, 2021)
## References

1. ↑ "Recess"
2. ↑ "Poetry"