Editing Simon Cooper (section)

=== Friendships ===
'''[[Will McKenzie]]:''' He becomes best friends with Will in the first episode after initially avoiding him due to his "actual briefcase", "clumpy shoes" and "gay hair". Simon's first task of the new term is showing Will to his classes – task assigned by the head of sixth form, Mr Gilbert. At first, he sees Will as annoying, something that will bring his reputation down to a lower level. He makes a load of insults about him, including 'Gay Hair', but he eventually warms to him, relaxing, and telling Jay and Neil to lay off him. He gets respect for him when he insults every student in a pub and gets them thrown out.

As time goes by, he becomes best friends with Will, coming to him first for advice, and hanging out with him more often, to the point where Will invites him to his house willingly, and even arranges a camping trip for him when he leaves. He is also the only one to not instantly insult his car, seeing it from another point of view. Simon comes to him first for his opinion. This may be due to the fact that Will and Simon are the most alike, knowing how hard it is to 'pull' girls, having similar accents, both being down-to-earth and intelligent, and genially considerate of each other's opinions and beliefs. Out of Will, Jay and Neil, Will is the one who ultimately becomes Simon's truest friend, and this shows in their constant support of one another throughout the series and films.

'''[[Jay Cartwright]]:''' Simon has a complicated friendship with Jay. Simon claims to have known him for ten years by Series 1, and while they are friends, their conflicting personalities prevented them from becoming 'best' friends. He falls out with Jay the most throughout the series and films, but they still hang around with each other for the sole reason that they are all that they have got. By the second film, they appear to have become close friends as Simon willingly agrees to help Jay find Jane and constantly supports him throughout the film.

Jay's behaviour and personality often leads to Simon's downfalls. Such as his car going into the lake, missing his golf tournament, his car's passenger door being ripped off, falling into the ocean during their school trip, being throttled by the men at the bus stop, failing to attain an erection for Tara, humiliating himself in front of Carli and gaining his nickname "boner". Nearly every humiliating, dramatic or disastrous moment for Simon is caused by Jay.

Jay is very different from Simon. Simon is a romantic, while Jay will go for anything that moves. But despite their differences and rivalry, when push comes to shove, they will both help one and other if they need to. Examples are in series 3 episode 3 when Simon tells Will to apologise to Jay after reminding him about his breakup with Chloe, when he can see Jay is upset and in the series 1 finale, Jay agrees to turn off the music so Simon could have the chance to ask out Carli.

As the series comes to the third, Simon starts to become sceptical towards Jay's tall tales, even telling Jay to 'try them' when he doesn't believe one of Jay's many lies. He also gets pissed off at him to the point of screaming when Jay lets his car roll into the lake in the last episode, but after calming down, he does agree that it was a little shit anyway. He also has Jay to thank for hitching with Carli, Jay writing an embarrassing text that seems to catch Carli's attention, though this was done mainly as a joke.

In the films, Jay and Simon along with Neil and Will, finish A Levels and are about to head on a holiday to Malia, Crete. Whilst there, if Simon had mentioned Carli, he would get slapped in the balls. After Jay causes an incident at the hotel where the girls they met were staying, Simon angrily tells Jay off for his actions and Jay back answering about telling how Carli means nothing to Simon, they brawl out in the street, embarrassingly until both Will and Neil try to break up the fight. Later on that day at night time, the pair meet again in the quiet bar and reconcile. Jay admits how much Simon means to him, when Jay wanted to start his business and Simon was going to university, upsets Jay, wanting Simon to work with him in his business together.

'''[[Neil Sutherland]]:''' He has a strong friendship with Neil. Neil is far more sensitive than Jay, trying to help and support Simon, and telling him 'Bad Luck' when he misses out on Carli time after time. In the first film, Neil comforts him when he is upset about Carli breaking up with him.

Neil and Simon never seem to manage to have a good time or friendship moment when Will or Jay are not present, such as in the series 2 finale, they struggle to even talk to each other when they are left alone together in the pub by the others - presumably because Jay and Will usually set the conversation and events which they all take part in. They are rarely ever seen alone together throughout all the series and the films. Despite this, they remain clearly good friends as they refer to each other as "mate" and "Si".

Simon is the kindest to him, not having too much of a go at him while he tries to grasp something, but he, like everyone else, believes Neil's dad is gay. Neil helps him out at the fashion show, helping him to dress, though he draws a line at putting speedos on him.