"Bestie" Trivia Quiz

Answer: The passing of Shelby's mother

A high school prepares for a stage production, and while they do, no one notices a cloaked figure crushing detergent pods, dropping their contents into a roiling cauldron. As the students perform around the stage and try to hit their cues, they drink from the contents, almost immediately becoming ill and vomiting violently before the audience.

The explanation would start three months earlier when Shelby and her father had to move out of Shelby's childhood home. Both of them, still in mourning over the loss of Shelby's mother, hoped for a clean slate.

Answer: Music

As Shelby and her father unpack their belongings, they discuss the fresh start they'll have. In light of her mother's passing and her battle with cancer, it's up to the both of them to avoid letting that tragedy define them. The sentiment doesn't help all too much.

Shelby ends up back at school in a short amount time and finds that she's not necessarily ready to deal with things getting back to normal. During a music class, she overhears the other kids making fun of her across the room and she throws a book at one of them. After the lesson, her teacher sits her down for a chat, apologizing for his overreaction and letting her know that he knew her mother. He expresses his condolences, perhaps a bit wrongly in relating his own traumas.

As Shelby leaves school for the day, her classmates can't help but let loose a few more insults.

Answer: BFF4EVA

At home, over dinner, Shelby is despondent. Her father tries to convince her to try out for a play to get her back in a good mood, but it leads to an argument and Shelby storms off to her room to watch drag queen makeup tutorials by Anna Rexhia.

It's there, laying in bed and watching a livestream, that Shelby receives a message. As the stream shuts down she finds that it's only herself and one other user-- BFF4EVA-- still on the page. She receives a message on the chat...and then another...and then she decides to write back. It only takes a few minutes before Shelby agrees to a video chat.

Answer: Awesome things

What Shelby finds when the video call turns on is that the girl on the other end, this BFF4EVA, has a severe facial deformity. Despite this, the two hit it off quickly, even giving each other nicknames (ShellyBelly and Bestie). Within only a few minutes, the pair are talking about their shared interests, and there are a lot of them. It's exactly what Shelby needs.

And the difference in Shelby's personality starts to show. She rushes home after school in the days to follow, eager to hop on her computer and chat with Bestie. One day Shelby follows one of Anna Rexhia's makeup tutorials and Bestie suggests wearing it to school-- even if just the eye makeup. After all, like Anna Rexhia says, you should do the things you're afraid to do. If you face your fears, awesome things will happen.

Answer: Macbeth

Shelby does end up wearing makeup to school in the coming days (though more subdued than the drag makeup she'd initially tried) and when she does she finds that it brings her at least a bit of unexpected confidence. It doesn't, however, stop the bullies from laughing at her in class.

Soon, the high school performance of "Macbeth" is announced. Shelby's teacher encourages her to audition.

That night, Bestie tells her that the makeup is the first step to confidence; she faced her fears, and that's what helped her be better. Bestie lets her know that, earlier, she hid her dad's wallet, and Shelby should do the same, just to teach her dad a lesson for being so cringe. It's why Shelby hides her mother's old favourite mug, an item her dad treasures. Bestie tells her to break it...so Shelby does.

Answer: True

After Shelby breaks her mother's old mug, Bestie continues to tell her that she's glad they're both friends and that they can face their fears together. Bestie confides that she's never told anyone the truth: that she's adopted and her mother was an addict. It's why she ended up deformed. She has to do school at home; she has no other friends. Shelby says that whatever Bestie wants, she'll do, just so Bestie can live vicariously.

Bestie lets her know that because she told her deepest, darkest secret, there's something Shelby can do for her. It starts with egging houses. And then it escalates to shoplifting. And then before she knows it, she's crushing detergent pods and placing them into the cauldron during the school play. As the girls are taken from the school in the back of a hospital, Shelby runs home, livestreaming the event for Bestie on her phone. Shelby tells Bestie it makes her feel alive. She'd do anything for her.

Answer: A baby

After the incident at the fall play, Bestie remarks that Halloween is coming up, and she's always wanted to take part. Shelby says that she'll dress up in her stead, since Bestie can't leave home, and that's when Bestie gets the idea to send Shelby to school dressed as her music teacher's dead child. She brings the tasteless costume straight to her music class to the shocked silence of her fellow classmates.

Shelby's taken straight home by her father who, noting the change in her daughter's attitude over the months, demands an explanation and locks her into the basement in confused concern.

It's during this basement time that Shelby has little else to do but pore through her mother's belongings, and amongst them she finds an old laptop, booting it up and calling Bestie. The two agree that Shelby needs to get out of the basement, but to do that, she'd probably need to give her father a reason to let her out. Bestie tells her to break a bone; if she's afraid, she just needs to face her fear.

And so, to avoid being a bad friend and a coward, Shelby places her wrist in a vice, grabs a hammer, and breaks her arm.

Answer: River

Shelby's dad manages to get into the basement too late and, with her arm broken, he takes her to the hospital. It's a pivotal moment; Shelby is put in a cast, she's put on medication, and she's sent to therapy to address the traumas she's been encountering in her life. Shelby tries to make amends with her father by giving back her mother's mug, glued back together. He says it's a good start.

Shelby brings a bouquet of flowers to school for her music teacher, but she's disappointed to learn that he's left class for the semester, having been replaced by a substitute. As she leaves, she hears the messages sent to her phone; it seems that Bestie has found her offline.

Before Shelby can leave the school, one of her classmates, River, asks to sign her cast. As he fishes around for a marker, she realizes that he's an Anna Rexhia fan. He signs the cast and she leaves to find that there are more messages on her phone-- this time suggesting that they know what Shelby did at the play. There's an ultimatum: Shelby has to meet the unknown number at the theatre the next day.

Answer: Heart defect

When Shelby visits the theatre the next day she finds that the person waiting for her there is River, not Bestie as she believed. He admits that he saw her drop the detergent pods, but he won't tell anyone; he's been bullied by the same people since elementary school on account of his disability. River was born with his heart on the outside of his body.

River admits he's been watching Shelby over the year, not to be a stalker, but because he wants to be her friend. The two decide to hang out, but before they leave, Shelby gets new messages, suggesting that if she keeps ghosting Bestie, she'll regret it.

Shelby and River hit it off, spending time together outside of school. Together, they bring the choir to their music teacher's home, convincing him to return to work and head the next school play. Together they bond over Anna Rexhia makeup tutorials. Shelby has even taken to deleting Bestie's messages when they pop up. At school, Shelby is considered a solid student. Her father couldn't be more proud at the turn-around in her life.

Answer: Shelby

Toward the end of the school year, Shelby finds River in the library and reveals that she told her dad about their relationship; he even agreed they can live together at Oberlin College if she gets good financial aid. As she opens her computer, she receives messages from Bestie that River sees for the first time, and the two muse on the toxicity in the instant messenger. River blocks BFF4EVA from Shelby's devices altogether.

That night, River tells Shelby he has a plan for the two of them, and with that, they drive out into the country for a surprise visit to a lakeside neighbourhood. Shelby has a bad feeling as they unlock the gate to the houses beyond, but the two of them take the path to one of the buildings and walk inside just as the sun sets.

Shelby catches on fast-- someone lives in the dilapidated house. As the pieces come together, it's clear that she's been brought to Bestie's. The deformed girl descends the stairs and says hello to her friend. It terrifies Shelby enough for her to run to River's arms, but he stabs her in the heart with a knife when he takes her in an embrace.

River, having done everything that Bestie asked him to do, says that they can finally be together forever. The pair walk out to the water as night falls.