Ace Dienf

Ace Dienf is the main antagonist of ''How to Survive High School. ''He is the star quarterback of the football team and something of a jerk to Leo and his friends. He dislikes Leo and Kendall, each for different reasons, and Valentine for associating with them, as well as Jeff. Natalie is his ex-girlfriend, who dumped him after publicly humiliating him. He hasn't gotten over her and is constantly trying to win her back, and his crush on her slowly builds up to an obsession. He is starting his sophomore year of high school in Book 1.

Personality
Ace is

Appearance
Ace is a tall, broad-shouldered, muscular jock. He has slightly tanned skin, blue eyes, and a straight nose. His hair is blond and usually spiked. He is usually seen wearing a plain white t-shirt and sweatpants, although he is also occasionally seen wearing a Letterman jacket and his football uniform.

Book 1: The New Kid
Ace is the first person Leo meets at Mangrove Cove High School. While Leo looks for someone to talk to in the morning, he makes the mistake of approaching the football players. From the get-go, Ace is clearly established as their leader, and he is also shown to be an arrogant person as he speaks excessively and won't let any of the other guys talk. Ace accidentally hits Leo in the face while gesticulating, and although he apologizes for it, he doesn't seem to care much for Leo's interjection. When Leo tries to get into their conversation, the other jocks laugh, but ACe mistakes it for an insult, and begins to get angry. When they see him getting angry, Martin and Wyatt stop laughing and back him up. Before they can beat him up, Leo finds an excuse in saying he just wanted to play football with them, and Ace decides to take up the chance to embarrass Leo rather than beat him up outright.

Ace takes Leo out to the football field to see his football skills before school starts. To everyone's surprise, Leo manages to throw the ball high and far, and it plummets into the school parking lot, causing a car alarm to go off. The other jocks go to the parking lot and see that the football landed on Ace's car, breaking a window and denting the door. Leo, in his panic, accidentally breaks off one of the car's side mirrors, increasing Ace's fury. He freaks out and threatens to kill Leo, held back by Wyatt and Jeff while Martin urges Leo to flee. Later, while Leo is sitting in Ms. Periwinkle's class, Ace enters late, and Leo quickly looks down to avoid being seen by him.

During lunch, Ace walks in on Leo flirting with Natalie Bestick, his gorgeous trophy girlfriend, and gets upset, approaching Leo and threatening him for the second time again. Even though both Leo and Natalie urge Ace to calm down, he prepares to beat Leo up. Kendall steps between Ace and Leo, urging him to rethink the whole situation--Leo was just new. Ace seems to calm down somewhat, although he takes offense to the idea that he wouldn't beat up Kendall. Natalie is horrified by the whole scene he made, and dumps him on the spot. Ace is heartbroken, and vows to fight Leo after school in the football field, challenging him in front of the whole school. He then storms away, and the image shows he's crying.

During the fight, Ace rages that Leo isn't showing up, and Martin and Wyatt try calming him. when Leo does show up, Ace starts beating him up, and the fight is extremely one-sided. Kendall and Valentine get Santiago's help in stopping the fight by shining a light in Ace's eyes, and distracting him long enough for Kendall to step in and tell him that he's gotten his revenge. Ace vows that it's not over and storms away, evidently satisfied with the beating he gave Leo. Everyone else leaves with him, including Natalie and Santiago, sot hat only Kendall, Leo, and Valentine are left on the football field.

Later, when Venice's Louis Antoinette necklace is stolen, Ace is used by Natalie as the prime example of a popular male, and how he gets to be popular. During the investigation, ACe is not treated as a suspect, but he is there when the true thief is exposed. Later, when Leo decides he is going to join the football team, he has to talk to Ace (the quarterback) and the other members of the team. Ace and his cronies mock Leo and threaten to beat him up if he doesn't leave, but Coach Camo arrives and insists they at least give Leo a chance, although Ace will be able to orchestrate the tryouts. Ace smiles evilly at this; Leo is nervous. Ace appears again during Meet-Up With Matthew, during which he and Leo are interviewed at the same time, even though Matthew demonstrates an obvious bias toward Ace. The two of them express eagerness to see Leo humiliate himself while cutting off everything Leo tries to say.

Ace's plan for Leo's football tryouts include a two-on-two scrimmage, but he gets his lackey, Wyatt, to be on Leo's team since Wyatt will sabotage Leo's attempts at getting on the team. Ace also mocks Leo's feminine shirt. Despite the tryouts, Leo makes the team anyway, much to Ace's frustration. Nonetheless, Ace continues to torment Leo by forcing him to do a bunch of dirty laundry and treating him like a slave. He beats Leo up twice over the course of the next few days: once for talking to him, and the second time for defending Natalie while Ace tried sexually harassing her. Leo's mental popularity ladder later in the book shows Ace as being quite popular, and the second most popular guy after Brian Narcissus.

Interestingly, Ace does not appear again until the homecoming game; he does not appear the night of Leo's locker room incident, nor does he comment on it in the wake of Leo's new reputation. During the homecoming game itself, Ace plays a small role. While the football field collapses, he wanders under one of the bleachers and stares up Natalie Bestick's skirt, inspiring Leo to drop Natalie into Ace's arms to save her. It all goes according to plan, and Natalie seems to forgive Ace, although she still refuses to be his girlfriend again. Ace is last seen threatening Leo at the end of the book, promising that no matter what Leo thinks, he will never be a part of the football team, much to the chagrin of both Ace and Jeff.

Trivia

 * Like most characters, Ace's personality is derived from his name. Ace means #1, which he is in football (and what he considers himself to be in most aspects of life). Dienf is a Danish surname and an anagram of fiend, since he is the series antagonist. Interestingly, he and Natalie Bestick are the only characters in the series to have Scandinavian surnames.
 * Ace was the very first person Leo met at Mangrove Cove High School, and it wasn't a very pleasant encounter.
 * He is, therefore, the third character to be named in the series, after Leo and Christina.
 * Ace's number in football is 66, which is only one number off from 666, the number of the devil.
 * His ex-girlfriends before Natalie include Charlene Charleston and Kendall Lawson, both of whom he cheated on.
 * He doesn't seem to like Natalie's friends
 * The reasons why he dislikes Charlene are obvious, but it is unknown why he dislikes Venice. It could be because she appears to have a crush on him.