intended to kill her, Veronica fakes her own suicide by tying a rope around her waist to support her weight and again around her neck to look like she hanged herself. It is extremely convincing, and a devastated J.D. tells her seemingly lifeless body about his entire plan to blow up Westerburg High the following day.

VERONICA SAWYER: If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be a human being. ... For her smart and compassionate aura, her growing trust in listening to her conscience, and her desire to become comfortable in her own skin, Veronica Sawyer is a GREAT CHARACTER in the fraternity of high school protagonists.

Veronica may save the school, but she's also a self-loathing masochist–at one point, she burns herself with a cigarette later as a means of contrition. More importantly, she's complicit in the suicide of her ex-boyfriend, and she rejects the social ladder altogether.