MTV's Awkward, revolving around life's greatest and most inescapable challenges, is about to delve into be a new world with a big time jump and plenty of surprises. With Season 5B about to premiere, Jenna is off to a more accepting environment while the people close to her are about to take on their own tasks.

Enstars caught up with most of the cast ahead of the season premiere to talk about their characters finding new parts of themselves they didn't realize they had. Not only has time gone by on the series, but there's a new child and unexpected relationships.

Enstars: How did you feel about the time jump? Did you expect your characters to be where they are?
Ashley Rickards (Jenna): Jenna has found herself in college and met people who praise her for who she is. They don't think it's a bad thing to read all the time, they don't judge her copious amounts of hoodies. She comes back and she finds she's not the only one who's changed. And that's where things get a little sticky.
Nikki Deloach (Lacey): I love where they go with Lacey because when she had Jenna, she was so young, she didn't get the opportunity to pursue what her life would look like outside of just being a mother. So she starts to travel down that road a little bit and see, "What's for me?" Jenna's gonna go to college and she also has her baby and this time around, she's gonna do both, which is an interesting route.
Beau Mirchoff (Matty): I was pleasantly surprised. Matty got into Berkeley and he's playing soccer. He finds that he's no longer the big man on campus. He doesn't fit in, all these insecurities arise so he tries to formulate his own existence, which is kind of a disappointment to a lot of people so he kind of goes on a crazy path.

Is Lacey going to learn from past mistakes now that she has a new baby?
ND: Absolutely. She doesn't want to make the same mistakes that she did with her daughter and it kind of goes with our relationship. She starts getting into the bad habits wanting to do better and she gets in her own way, but her daughter is always there to be the rock.

Is there a way for Matty and Jenna to reconnect in any way?
BM: I think there's definitely a chance. I think they both care for each other and love each other. However, they're both in different places in their lives intellectually...at the moment they're kind of in a contentious relationship, but who knows?

MTV has been known to push a lot of boundaries. Do you see Awkward as being part of that tradition?
AR: We were the first critically acclaimed show in a long time because the show was so different. What it means is that women can be a hero. They don't always have to be the underdog or the victim to be the hero. And there are mistakes made and there are lessons learned and there's always a victory and it's up to you to define that.

Does Jake regret not going to college? And is there love in his life this season?
Brett Davern (Jake): Jake is in a relationship and it's with someone we know from the past. It's kind of fun to see that and throughout the season [we'll see] how they got to that place. When we first see Jake, he's in a good place in his job. And when we get to see how he got to that place, there's definitely peaks and valleys. I think at times he regrets not going to college. He sees Matty and other characters going to college and how much fun they had, so I think he kind of gets jealous, but overall, I think it works out for him.

Is this going to be the final season?
BD: Well, pretty much every season we've done we didn't know there was going to be a next one. We hope it's not. Awkward just feels like home, no matter what you do, if it's movies, guest spots, whatever, you get to come back, your family's there and it fills your soul and I would do the show as long as they want us to. The fans out there, they really love it and [if] they want it to keep going, then watch it, tweet it, tell everybody. If they see it's doing great, then I think we'll keep going, and that's what I hope.

Awkward returns tonight at 10 p.m. ET/CT on MTV.

Tags
Awkward, Television, MTV