Things come to a head in the story when one weekend, Rhiannon asks Olive to come camping with her family. Olive shows us a flashback of her going to Rhiannon's house for dinner and apparently her parents are some sort of hippie with weird taste in clothing (they were at least half-naked) and an interesting taste in food. Olive lies and tells Rhiannon that she has a date that weekend with a friend of her brother's (the one in college).
During the weekend, Olive apparently has a birthday where her grandmother (whom we never meet and there is never another mention of her in this film) has send Olive a card. It is one of those cards that has a song inside whenever you open it, this one just happening to be "Pocket Full of Sunshine". Olive, at first, dubs it the worst song ever, but over the weekend becomes attached to it, listening to it all weekend, and even singing along, as she paints her toenails, plays with her dog, and she even sings it in the shower.
The following Monday,
Olive and her dog
Rhiannon asks Olive about her date, and Olive says that it went great, but that she probably wouldn't see him again and that it probably just was one of those weekends. Rhiannon drags Olive into the girls' bathroom and begs for the details. Rhi also says that Olive lost her V-card (meaning her virginity) to this boy. Olive lies and says that she did, and that it was "really normal", "nothing freaky" and "really nice".
Marianne Bryant[]
Soon after, Marianne Bryant comes out of one of the bathroom stalls. Marianne is a total and
Olive and Marianne
complete Jesus-freak and the meanest girl in school. She also happens to be dating a 22-year-old (although according to Mrs. Griffith, the school guidence counseler, who is having an affair with him, he is acually 20), named Micah. Marianne spreads it around the school that Olive is a whore and must be gotten rid of.
Detention and the Party[]
It soon spreads that Olive has had sex and one day she is in English class when Marianne's best friend, another Jesus-freak named Nina, tells Olive to embroider a red A on her wardrobe. Olive is very upset by this (even though it was related to what they were studying at the time; The Scarlet Letter) and calls Nina a very rude name. She is sent to the principal and is given detention.
While there she talks to her fellow student in
Olive and Brandon in detention
detention, a supposed friend of hers named Brandon, and Brandon tells her that what she's doing is acting stupid by not denying that she lost her virginity to Rhiannon. Brandon also goes on to explain that the reason that he's in detention is that their principal is homophobic and that he's gay. He goes on to say that he's a constant victim of bullying just because he is gay. Olive suggests that he pretend to be straight in order to get the bullying to stop. Later that afternoon, Brandon comes over to Olive's house and asks her out. Olive is shocked and asks why and Brandon convinces her to go to a party with him and to pretend to have sex with him while at the party.
The Real Fake Date and Admitted Feelings[]
Olive is upset with her coupon
Later, almost every guy in school that can't get a girl pretends to have done something sexual with Olive. All are boys that cannot get a date based on their body type, race, etc. and they will give Olive gifts in exchange for her consent of lying about their acts with her. Olive changes her wardrobe to look more slutty and embroiders a red A on everything she owns.
She mentions to us that although all this was happening, she'd never been on a real date and no one had tried to have sex with her for real. Anson, a cute boy in her grade and the maybe-boyfriend/crush of Rhiannon's (who Olive is not speaking to at the moment) asks her out on a date. They go to the Lobster Shack for dinner, where they see Rhiannon having dinner, and Olive hands their waitress a gift card she has for the place, and runs out of there with Anson. In the parking lot, Anson says he has a gift for Olive tries to give her a $200 gift card to Home Depot. Olive panicks, and asks Anson what they did on the date, and Anson says whatever the $200 will get him. He kisses her and Olive pulls back, saying that that's not how the arrangement works. Anson says that it's okay, and moves in to kiss Olive again. When Olive pulls back after saying no and calling him an asshole, Anson gets miffed and says that he already paid her. Olive throws the card back at him and stomps away.
Todd works at the Lobster Shack and finds her in the parking lot crying and tells her that he'll drive
Olive and Todd
her home. On the drive back, Todd confesses his feelings to Olive and she technically does the same. He recalls an experience where they were playing Seven Minutes in Heaven in the eighth grade and Olive wanted to kiss him, but Todd wasn't ready and Olive agreed to lie and say that they did kiss. Todd also confesses that he wishes that Olive was his actual first kiss, and that Rhiannon was his first kiss, whereupon Olive gets mad, thus confessing her feelings to Todd.
Fixing Everything[]
Olive does a musical number in school and tells everyone that she'll do a webcast that evening having
Olive and Todd
sex with Todd online. What she does instead is tell everyone the truth about what she did. It turns out that Mrs. Griffith (her English teacher's wife) was seeing Marianne's boyfriend Micah. She tells Olive that it was completely legal and the only thing wrong with it was the fact that they were both involved with different people. She also said that she didn't like being married to Mr. Griffith and that her marriage was "not great" and that they "hadn't slept together in months".
Marianne and Olive had a friendship for a few hours one day and during that time Micah went to the hospital and we find out his parents are going through a divorce. His doctor tells Micah's mom that Micah has chlamydia and his mother (who is also a Jesus freak) demands to know who Micah has been sleeping with. Micah, tormented by the fact that his mother is hitting him with her handbag in front of his doctor, says, "Olive! Olive Penderghast!" and soon after, his mom calls Marianne's mom and Marianne's mom calls Marianne and then Marianne hits Olive across the face.
Later, Olive gets mad at Mrs. Griffith for not coming clean about giving Micah chlamydia. They'd arranged it that Olive would confess to giving Micah chlamydia and that Mrs. Griffith's job and marriage would be saved in the process. After Olive confesses to having chlamydia, she is pursued by the group of hardcore Christians, holding signs up protesting against her slutiness. She tells us that all she could think about when she saw the signs was how she could've made better ones, though it is clear it wasn't all she thought about. She sees Rhiannon in the crowd, and when she pushed her to the side and asks her if this is just because she's more popular than her (Rhiannon), Rhiannon tells her not to mistake infamy for popularity. As she walks away, she bumps into Todd who says, "Screw all these people," to which she responds, "Haven't you heard? I already have."
After this event, Olive wants to know what they're all blubbering about. First, she visits the library and reads a few pages of the bible. Then, she goes to a church and confesses to the Father, asking him if it's wrong to lie about being an adultress. She goes on to talk about how she thought it was okay because it wasn't real, how she helped a lot of people, but a lot of people hate her now, and how she kind of hates herself, too. After a minute of silence, she asks if he's supposed to say something back. Getting no response, she slides the panel open and learns he was never there to begin.
Olive visits another church after and talks with the Pastor after getting into a brief debate about Hell. She asks if adultery or lying would be worse, and, as she does so, she knocks over a picture of the Pastor's family. When she turns it around, she learns that the Pastor's daughter is Marianne and quickly leaves, giving up on the scavenge.
When Olive asks Mrs. Griffith to break their deal, Mrs. Griffith meanly refuses, and that sends Olive running to Mr. Griffith and telling him everything. She confesses to Mr. Griffith at the end of the webcast that she shouldn't have told him his marriage was bad at all.
At the very end of her webcast, Todd is outside her house and Olive says to the camera that she
Olive and Todd
really likes Todd and that she may lose her virginity to him tonight, tomorrow, or sometime in the future, but that was nobody's business. Then she runs outside and kisses him and they drive off together on his neighbor's lawn mower.
Physical appearence[]
Olive has shoulder length hair, which is usually curled at the ends, she also has side bangs. She has pale skin and a clear complexion, she is also very slim but is of a healthy weight. Throughout the film her appearence becomes more drastic as she is becomming the school slut.
Character personality'[]
Olive remains to be the nice, witty and positive character we love throughout the film. As we get to see her real side, she is an open and opinionated character that is relatable on many fronts. She has a witty style and uses very well spoken and descriptive language to create a humorous side to her character. This especially comes across when arguing/discussing with people.
As the film progresses Olives character becomes more confident, as in the first scene of the movie we are shown her being shoved by a popular girl who knocks her books out of her hands, to walking around school in a corset and skinny jeans and letting guys tell everyone they had sex with her.
She is quite intelligent, as her wide variety of vocabulary suggests, she is also mentioned to be one of the only students who read the book (The Scarlet Letter).
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