Right, though! I loved how slowly it unfolded and you really got to see how much dislike there was and then it’s revealed why.
The whole arc was honestly like one of those fics in which we queer characters with Type A personalities, e.g., Paris Gellar or Quinn Fabray, where it’s like, there’s something underneath driving that perfectionism and unhappiness and adding all these extra layers and tension to the supposed rivalry and it’s canon here! With the added trope of the former childhood best friend who was done wrong by (although I still don’t understand how Sterling remembered it so incorrectly, is that supposed to be another reveal at some point or?) to add that extra history with a Betrayal. Although of course the Sterling we know is a super nice person and, as you said, a huge dork about her crush so you still want her to get the girl.
It’s kind of neat that we would naturally sympathize with those characters, any girl that behaved in a way that was Too Much, and write in these extra reasons and motivations for them and here this show’s done just that. And it’s especially fun to see, because usually we just have to do it in fanworks, but once Sterling started seeing her in a romantic light, she becomes a more romantically rootable figure? Styled different (barring the Dorito moment, lol), behaving differently. Like, this is how it is when the source material itself goes there, huh. Childhood friend to rival to person you have a same-sex crush on and she returns those feelings…amazing.