Maurecia is a student in Mrs. Jewls’s class at Wayside School. In Louis Sachar’s Wayside School books she is described as a sweet and pretty girl who enjoys eating ice cream and “could beat up any boy in Mrs. Jewls’s class.” However she is perhaps more well known from the cartoon Wayside as being a tough roller skating tomboy who is in love with Todd.
She is voiced by Denise Oliver.
The remaining sections on this page focus on Maurecia from the cartoon Wayside.
Biography[]
She first met Todd after she pushed him away from a falling computer monitor on science day. She instantly fell in love with him when she helped him to his feet. She has a pet Porcupine named Fluffy, she is a student in Mrs. Jewls's class on the 30th floor of Wayside, and she claims to have a very large family.
Maurecia’s Love for Todd[]
Maurecia’s love for Todd is one of the first details revealed about her character in Wayside: The Movie. Upon helping Todd to his feet (after pushing him away from a falling computer monitor) she instantly falls in love with him and proceeds to punch him in his shoulder. Evidence of Maurecia’s love for Todd are revealed later in the movie when she writes him a love note (then throws it away in fear that others would see it), says “you’re hot” to him, loudly asks him “hey you got a girlfriend,” and breaks up with him (even though they were never dating at this time) then immediately forgives him.
Later in the movie Maurecia gains all the confidence she needed to tell Todd about her feelings after mishearing Todd’s words through Mrs. Jewls’s classroom door as “you’re hot.” Maurecia, exploding with love, expresses her true feelings to Todd however this time without the fear of others knowing.
Although Todd did not hear Maurecia through Mrs. Jewls’s classroom door, it’s no mystery that Todd discovered Maurecia’s love for him when she bluntly ended their relationship then forgave him. As Todd being the true character of common sense at Wayside, this becomes evident when Todd questions his and Maurecia’s relationship after Maurecia explains how their relationship was too imbalanced. Also it’s clear that Maurecia only hits Todd because she loves him. When Todd nervously asked if she was going to hit him during the same scene her response was “hit you? Why would I do that?” even though she hit him soon after. She gave a similar response in Pull My Pigtail when Todd asked her not to hit him, and she admitted that she hits Todd “all the time” to show him that she loves him in Dr. Dana. In Rat In Shining Armor she was seen punching a picture of someone in a medieval knight costume on the gymnasium wall (that was ultimately revealed to be Todd in the end) which identifies this as a character trait Maurecia has toward lovers as opposed to something specific between her and Todd.
Maurecia’s love for Todd is visible in just about every episode of Wayside that includes her appearance.
Todd’s Love for Maurecia[]
For the most part, Todd puts up with the attention he gets from Maurecia. However, very rarely does he express feelings back. In Rat in Shining Armor Todd claims that Maurecia is his girlfriend when he thinks that the new kid in a medieval knight costume, which was later revealed to be Sammy, may have stolen her from his side. Todd also took action to protect Maurecia’s feelings by switching costumes with Sammy so Maurecia wouldn’t have to find her “new love was a dead rat.” It’s also worth noting that, even though Todd had told off Maurecia by saying they weren’t dating, he immediately followed her to comfort her while she was crying and said that he never meant to hurt her feelings.
From the viewer’s perspective it’s easy to accept the fact that Todd does not share the same feelings as Maurecia, especially since most of Wayside’s episodes do not state otherwise. But looking deeper into the dialog in Rat in Shining Armor there is evidence that proves the opposite. For example, when explaining his car dashboard costume to Dana, Todd says that it has driver side airbags to protect him for “any sudden impacts.” It’s clear that Todd has chosen this costume with Maurecia in mind, perhaps to prevent himself from getting hurt so that he could be with Maurecia during the school’s Spring dance and possibly share a dance with her.
In addition, after breaking Maurecia’s heart unintentionally and taking his break from getting “bounced halfway around the school,” Todd warms up to Maurecia and approaches her with his thoughts. Todd began explaining to Maurecia that he likes her but Maurecia, who was not yet ready to have this conversation, quickly stopped Todd and moved on for a new lover since she didn’t think a relationship with Todd was even possible anymore.
Also, Todd’s costume exchange with Sammy not only allowed him to prevent Maurecia from further getting her feelings hurt, but it also showed how much he cares for her; he could have just removed Sammy from the costume and left it empty, but he didn’t. This gave him his final opportunity to dance with Maurecia at the school’s Spring dance.
The episode Daring Love also provides evidence of Todd’s feelings toward Maurecia. After assuming that Jenny has a love interest in him, Todd has a conversation with her to tell her that Maurecia is his girlfriend and he’s sorry that it’s “not going to work out.” Later at the end of the episode, Todd claims that he only made the jump across principal Kidswatter’s ice rink so he could get through to Maurecia about their relationship. This was true even though Myron’s reasoning for the jump was completely different which showed that Todd had made his own decision regarding the jump in the hope to get back to Maurecia.
Despite Todd’s interactions with Jenny and Maurecia, Todd told Dana and Myron that he does not want to date Jenny nor Maurecia. It’s interesting to note that Todd shows an interest in Maurecia mostly when he’s in the absence of Dana and Myron. This could potentially be the case to avoid the news of his feelings being spread all around Wayside in the same way Dana and Myron had spread the news of Jenny and Todd as a couple. Another reason may be because of Todd’s shy character. Evidence of Todd being shy are shown in Mascot Madness when Todd was unwilling to stand up in front of a crowd to provide support.
Nonetheless, Daring Love ends in a rare conversation with Todd and Maurecia where Maurecia asks to take their relationship slower. It’s important to understand that Maurecia acknowledged their relationship after Jenny walked away. She said that she likes Todd in a “punch you in the shoulder kind of way” and not a “jump over the ice in a little red wagon kind of way” which Todd takes by surprise. This along with Todd’s jumping the ice rink is the only source that could confirm that Todd has more feelings for Maurecia then previously thought in Rat in Shining Armor. Yet, once Maurecia skates away, Todd tells Myron that he feels like he “just got dumped by two girls he didn’t want to go out with in the first place.”