How did Skyler become so close to Cord in the first place? Love. Love at first sight. And �"at sight"� on his part because the object of his desire never so much as glanced in his direction. Alicia Avalon captured Skyler�'s heart on her first day as a transfer student to their school. Unlike Cord, he recognizes Alicia�'s extreme brilliance as well as her beauty and is somewhat intimidated by her on account of his own lackluster intelligence and his complete social ineptitude. (The fact that Alicia is socially awkward as well helps to make her seem unapproachable to him.) Seeing Cord frequently speaking to Alicia -- although he doesn�'t seem to comprehend the fact that Cord is blatantly trying, to no avail, to bag her himself -- he incorrectly assumes that Cord is Alicia�'s only male friend and decides to muster up the courage to speak to him and beg for his advice on wooing the brilliant Ms. Avalon. It's been some time since Skyler really had any friends, so he doesn�'t see the ill-mannered social pariah or the selfish cad that Cord truly is, and is delighted when Cord (after eventually seeing the benefits of the relationship) seems to accept his presence in his precious air space... When he feels like it, anyway. And all Skyler has to sacrifice for the sake of the "friendship" is his parents�' trust, his originally clean criminal record, and the guarantee that if (or when, he believes) Alicia becomes his girlfriend, Cord can bone her whenever he feels like it. Because that�'s what true friends are for.