Me Three

I don't like standing here in the courtyard

any more than you do.

I know. You're only after my best interests.

What makes you think I don't like it? It's great.

The problem is you're just not reaching your potential.

Okay.

- Hi, Jeannie. - What's up, Patterson?

In fact, I see someone

not even sliding sideways, but backwards.

Yeah, just dealing with a lot of stuff.

- Such as? - Depression, for starters.

Oh, do you have support at home?

- Hey. - Hey.

I have support and a couple of super intense parents.

Hey, Steffi, meet after school?

- You bet. - Just a minute, young man.

Very funny.

Care to share why you felt the need to mock Mr. Vienemy today?

I wasn't mocking him.

We were having a perfectly respectable conversation

while he was informing me of my shortcomings

in front of the entire school.

Hmm.

So, do you want me to punish the others

involved in this endeavor

or are you willing to take the heat for it?

Not the first time we've been here, Jeannie.

Secretly putting a vaping alarm in the girl's bathroom.

The sound nearly scared Ms. Firestone to death.

Trying out for the cheer squad in construction clothes

and performing a cheer about patriarchal power

and the exploitation of the female body.

And videoing the homecoming king and queen

having sex in the parking lot and posting it

on YouTube entitled, "Love in a Lamborghini."

There is no proof that I had anything to do

with those inspired acts.

So, you're dark

with a tendency towards self-sabotage.

Are you okay?

I'm great.

I admire your creativity.

But as your faculty mentor, I have to say,

the administration's at their limit.

I don't know what's going on here,

but I'm concerned.

You're not gonna be punished for this

but I want you to do something for me.

I want you to think about what you want

out of life, seriously.

And you can't mess up again. Do that and you're out.

Hey.

Hey.

We're in the same dance class, right?

Dude, I think I sprained my ankle.

You dealt with that earlier this year, right?

- Last fall. - Can you help me?

Uh, like, totally, don't worry if it's too much of a bother.

It's okay. What happened?

Oh, I just turned it and then woke up really, really sore.

Have you iced it?

No, but of course that would make sense.

Yeah, that's all you gotta do.

Just ice it for 20 minutes and wrap it before class.

Can you show me how to wrap it?

I saw that Vienemy thing yesterday.

That was pretty funny.

- Thanks. - Not that funny.

Clever.

Gee, you don't seem to be limping at all.

Oh, wow.

Um, I guess your wrap did the trick.

You didn't sprain your ankle, did you?

Would you hold it against me if I didn't?

Why? Why would you fake it?

You did this to meet me.

After that whole Vienemy thing yesterday.

I saw something...

something special.

Why wouldn't you just say hi?

Hi.

Would you hold it against me if I told you I staged

the whole Vienemy thing to meet you?

This is a long-term relationship.

We wanted to make a deal with the company

and not just on a property by property basis.

It provides stability and cost savings for both of us.

So, we're pretty excited.

Something's come up.

- Shit. - By delay, you think he means?

Did you see that guy's watch?

Listen man, times are tight.

It'd be a really good time

to get in on that IPO I mentioned.

It's a great investment opportunity.

- What's it called again? - Rydes with a Y.

It's like Bird and Lime, but for cars.

So, what? There's just some car lying around

- and anyone can just use it? - For a fee?

And you have an in?

As long as we secure a certain level of investment,

we can't lose.

It's not a bad idea. The problem is I just don't wanna risk

the little money we do have.

I gotcha.

I'm not gonna say anything.

I mean, heck, if it weren't for you,

we probably wouldn't be in business.

This is Bill.

Mr. Steffi, this is Janice Riley

from ONS Financial.

I'm calling about a loan on 337 Via Pacifica.

We haven't received the papers yet.

Via Pacifica?

We passed on that property like two months ago.

According to my records,

we are just waiting for the closing paperwork.

Um, that's odd.

I'm glad we could do this. So, I think it's time

that we talk about me getting a car.

Right? Right?

Uh, you sure about that?

'Cause maybe we need to have a conversation about

whether or not it's time. We can talk about it.

Right? Right?

We wanted to talk about something different.

Okay.

Do you know the Barron family?

They're kind of big donors at the school.

They have a lot of influence.

They're doing two things.

One is they're pushing to have transgenders

use only the bathroom of their birth sex.

Okay.

Then we received an email saying they want

all the Latino workers at the school

to submit documentation. I mean, what is this, China?

The thing is the Barrons are trying to make the school,

you know, less open, inclusive, and less tolerant.

And we don't want to cause any problems for you

but we definitely feel like we need to do something.

Like what?

Petition the board to reject their proposals,

reconsider having them as trustees.

That sounds like a really bad idea.

- Why? - I am a scholarship student.

Wouldn't that put me at risk?

Absolutely not. We'd do it discreetly,

but that's exactly why we have to do it

because they're elitist and exclusionary.

If they do this and the transgender thing

and get away with it,

they may eventually work their way down

to scholarship students and that's you.

Whoa. Okay.

We can't be more against them. You do agree it's wrong, right?

Well, yeah.

Do you know their daughter, Maya?

- Yeah. - What's she like?

Seems okay.

Just, if we were to do something like this

with some other parents,

how do you think it would affect you?

How would I know?

And Maya's like not a princess.

She's fine.

That's great that she's not like that.

It's surprising.

The apple usually falls pretty close to the tree.

It happens, but it's rare.

In fact, she's really cool, smart, impressive.

- You guys should chill out. - Is she a friend?

Sort of.

We have dance together.

Yeah, sure. Okay, well there's nothing wrong with that.

Well, I think that you guys

should just leave her out of it. Okay?

She's not her parent, I'm not you.

We're just trying to go to school and live our lives.

Whoa. Excuse me, lady. This is difficult for everybody.

Sorry, it's just...

I'm under a lot of pressure, a lot of stress right now.

- Can we just give it a rest? - Don't tell me what to do.

I'm not telling you what to do.

It was just a suggestion. Something wrong?

Yeah. I had to spend my day holding someone's hand,

metaphorically speaking, wasting my time.

I said we could manage

about a million dollars of his wealth.

So, yeah, I'm a little touchy.

- Sorry to hear that. - You could help.

- Tell me. - You could get a better job.

What?

Did you ever think that if you got responsible

maybe I wouldn't have to eat so much shit?

Well, excuse me for trying

to set an example for our daughter.

How to be a failed small business owner?

You know what? You're right.

I think I'll be a corporate robot.