Info on Lyla
PERSONALITY
Before the incident with Tim Riggins, most people in Dillon would have told you that Lyla was Jason's girlfriend, and Buddy Garitty's daughter. They'd have said she was captain of the cheer squad and they likely would have sung her praises, but they wouldn't have told you a whole lot about her. She's the all-American girl from Texas. Good without being a goody-two shoes, smart without being brilliant, she goes to church on Sundays cause it's what's done, and believes in God because that's how she was raised. All of Lyla's goals revolve around Jason, and the life they're going to have together.
That isn't to say that Lyla is the simply sweet girl she acts like to her parents and teachers and when the cameras are on. Lyla feels the spot she holds is one she deserves, and loves the life she lives, the spotlight she shares by being Jason's girlfriend. Accidents like the ones that happen to Jason, they don't and shouldn't happen to people like Lyla.
She knows how to hurt people; how to say those cutting things that come along with a smile, designed to upset the person they're directed at most. She can be unforgiving (for all that she wants and expects forgiveness herself), selfish, cold, bitchy, and condescending. You see it in the Pilot when Jason is having his photo taken with Tyra, again with Tim when he tries to talk to her after sex. Lyla is cold in both cases, nearly cruel in the second. She has no issue with feeling that she's better than other people - like Tyra or the rally girls - and looking down her nose at them.
When her life starts falling apart, it becomes painfully obvious how poorly Lyla deals with stress and change. She's not used to dealing with difficulty. She's not used to things not going her way. Lyla has to seem strong, has to keep a smiling face on things. That'swhat's expected of her, and Lyla has always embraced that expectation before. Her parent's expectations, Jason's, the people at school. To be honest, she doesn't like losing control. She desperately wants them to go back to how she's planned them, a desperation that shows underneath her forced optimism and her refusal to accept how Jason's injury has changed her life. Except for the first night, she won't admit anything is wrong or even that things have changed, it's only with Tim that she breaks down, and that wasn't planned. It's what leads her to cheating on Jason with Tim; what makes her lie to Jason about it.
Lyla is an all or nothing sort of girl. She throws herself into things, whether it's Jason's recovery, cheating on Jason, her need for forgiveness, or post her canon entry point, cutting her father out of her life, and finding religion. Good at fooling herself, she honestly believes it will all still work out, that Jason will forgive her and that somehow things will be okay. It's like she believes that her force of will can make Jason better. When she finally accepts the inevitable its extremely difficult for her, and she gives up almost entirely. Defeated and cast out, she starts to act it, doing her best to just get through each day.
Lyla is in a state of flux. She's growing out of who she was and trying to figure out just where and who she is. It surprises her even
when she finds the strength to not hide. It doesn't mean everything is okay for her, far from it. Never having real goals for herself she doesn't know where to even start. Lyla is reaching for straws, for something to hold onto, and not doing very well at it. She's a girl that has always known her place in her world and it's made her feel secure. Now she's without a label to put on herself, a way to define who she is.
BACKGROUND
Some girls grow up knowing exactly what their life is going to be like. They have dreams, and they’re going to come true. Nothing else is even possible. It seems like nothing can stop them, that everything they want will be theirs. The world laid out for her on a silver platter, Lyla Garrity is one of those girls.
Captain of the cheer squad, an A student, quarterback boyfriend, Lyla really is used to getting what she wants. Why shouldn’t she be - she’s a small town princess. Her father is a big man in Dillon, and her family while not rich, is pretty well off, especially by local standards. Her parents dote on her, and she's lived a sheltered life in a small town. Her boyfriend is the star of the football team, a team with a good chance of making it to state, and football's big in Dillon. In a way it makes the spotlight hers as well, something she loves.
There's been drama in her life, but it's all the petty dramas of teenaged girls. She has a plan: Move to wherever Jason does after high school, support him playing College ball while she takes courses at a nearby school, get married, he’ll go pro and they’ll start a family. It’s the dream of a million small town girls around America, and it’s what Lyla is living.
Amazing how quickly things can change. One tackle gone horribly wrong, and suddenly all of Lyla’s plans come crashing to a halt. All she can do is watch and try to be brave. She smiles for Jason, and is endlessly optimistic. She doesn’t give up, never admitting that he won’t some day walk again. Lyla has a hard time accepting it as truth, even when it’s thrown in her face. Even when he pushes her away, frustrated by her eternal and seemingly unflagging optimism. She's a stubborn girl, and you see it then. After living so long with this dream, Lyla can’t let it go. It shouldn’t be about her, and she knows that. She knows that Jason is the one who’ll never walk again, that he’s the one suffering, but in her mind it’s her life that's falling apart, along with his.
In her confusion and grief, Lyla makes a mistake. Likely the biggest one she’ll ever make. Upset and angry she sleeps with Tim Riggins, Jason’s best friend. Not just the once either, it might have been better if it had been. To compound the problem she lies to Jason about it when he asks her. To him she tries to keep up the face of loyal girlfriend, but really, it’s all coming apart for her.
Jason does realize the truth, and soon all of Dillon knows as well. Lyla is ostracized, and finds that she’s lost everything. The website another girl on the cheer squad sets up hits her hard, harder than that bottle of water thrown at her by a jeering girl at the game did. She doesn’t even have hope to hang onto anymore, and Lyla gives up, planning on accepting it and just hiding out. Tim comes by, facing the wrath of her parents, and from him Lyla hears something she needs to. It's enough to make her not give up quite yet. It’s from the end of 1x10 - It’s different for girls, that Lyla appears in the village.