In Gary D. Scmidt's novel The Wednesday Wars, what is the main charracter trait of Meryl Lee?

In Gary D. Schmidt’s novel for young readers titled
The Wednesday Wars, Meryl Lee Kowalski is a seventh-grade girl who
has long had a crush on Hollis Hoodhood, the novel’s protagonist, also a member of the
seventh grade.  References to this relationship appear throughout the 2007 Sandpiper
Books edition.  Thus, at one point Hollis, the narrator, suspects that a teacher, Mrs.
Baker, whom he perceives as antagonistic, may have booby-trapped his desk, hiding
something dangerous or disgusting in it.  He then
reports,

So I
asked Meryl Lee Kowalski, who has been in love with me since she first laid eyes on me
in the third grade – I’m just saying what she told me – I asked her to open my desk
first. (p. 11)

This is a
splendid sentence in several ways, including the
following:

• Meryl Lee’s last name is already a
  bit comic (certainly more comic than if she had been named “Meryl Lee Smith” or “Meryl
  Lee Jones”).


• The claim that Meryl Lee has long been “in
  love” with Hollis might seem egotistical, but he is very quick to assert that this is
  her claim, not his. The use of the word “love” to describe a
  childhood crush is itself comical because it is
  exaggerated.


• The phrase “since she first laid eyes on me”
  is comically overblown, like something from a bad romance
  novel.


• The phrase placed between dashes catches the
  rhythm of real speech, and indeed one of the most appealing aspects of Schmidt’s novel
  is the way he creates a highly credible voice for
  Hollis.


• The phrase within dashes also suggests that
  Hollis is modest, embarrassed, and eager to make sure that the reader knows that Meryl
  Lee’s attraction to him was her
  idea.


• Finally, it is only after revealing
  Meryl Lee’s love for him that he reveals that he asked her to open
  the potentially booby-trapped desk!

In one
brief sentence, then, Schmidt manages, effectively and efficiently, to characterize two
of his book’s main personalities, and he does so in language that is simultaneously
funny, believable, and subtle.

Later indications of Meryl
Lee’s interest in Hollis occur later when

• she
  comes over to be his study partner (p. 27)


• Meryl Lee
  makes room for Hollis, who is sitting next to her in music class, on her music stand (p.
  57)


• Meryl Lee grabs and holds Hollis’s arm (p.
  57)


• Meryl Lee is accused by Miss Violet (a teacher) of
  flirting with Hollis (p. 58)


• Meryl Lee puts her foot on
  top of Hollis’s foot (p. 58)


• And so
  on.

Clearly Meryl Lee is interested
in Hollis and feels comfortable enough to manhandle (or maybe girl-handle) him.  Hollis,
meanwhile, does not resist her attentions.