This is something I've thought of a few times and wondered if anyone else had any thoughts on the topic.

 We know from the series that Shelley dropped out of 11th grade to marry Leo, and from what I understand she is around the same age as Bobby, Laura, Donna, Audrey, and James. This is strange to me, because she seems so much more mature - I think that might be due to the fact that she is married and working and has real-world responsibilities like bills to tend to.

What I wonder (and I don't think this is actually addressed anywhere) is where she comes from. Is she from Twin Peaks, who are her parents, what kind of family relationships did she have or NOT have to cause her to get married so young to Leo, and so on.

Any thoughts on this??

I've also often wondered how Shelley and Laura would have behaved in one another's presence. Were there times before Laura's death where they partied together (Laura with Bobby and Shelley with Leo), did they openly dislike one another because of jealousy? I know Laura touches on this briefly in her diary, and it is clear that Shelley shows little sadness over Laura's death in the scene where she makes fun of Leland falling into the burial hole at the funeral - where the group of old men are watching her and laughing at the diner the night of the funeral.

Just wondering what everyone else thought about this topic.

From the Diary (the part I quoted in the Christmas thread), I think Leo wanted to keep Shelley sober. So she could keep house. And, likely, keep the hell out of his stash and hold down a job so he could do his thing and not have to worry about a fiend at home. And stay pretty.

Likewise, I think Bobby and Shelley were sober.(Ok, Bobby would do drugs when pressured, but only to be accepted by his wild girl and tough friend. It was more a money-making enterprise for him and Mike.) He didn't like it because he saw what it did to Laura.

Laura and drugs are Leo's secret life. This is the power Laura believes she has over Shelley.

Its true you never really see them together but you could tell they of course didn’t like one another. I think they were both jealous for different reasons.

I think Shelly was jealous of Laura because she might have known that she was keeping an act at school - that she had a perfect well to do family and maybe even suspected what was going on with Leo. Also - maybe she could see her stringing Bobby along when she secretly wanted him too.

Laura was jealous of Shelly because she was basically a straight arrow and had a normal life in her eyes. She was pretty, confident and appeared to have everything together. Laura just wanted to be normal.

I believe Shelly to come from a home where her father was gone and her mother didn’t give a shit, ya know? She seems to have been forced to maturity and therefore is independent and responsible until meeting Leo that is. He was a tyrannical but stable thing in her life.