American Teen

August 24th, 8:00 a.m., Warsaw, Indiana.

The first day of senior year.

Warsaw is your typical Midwestern town,

mostly white, mostly Christian, red state all the way,

middle-class, but some very wealthy families

and far-from-wealthy families, like mine.

Good morning, staff and students,

we're going to have a wonderful day here at WCHS.

Our Government teacher, Mr. Grose, taught us that America is a meritocracy.

But here, it's a total caste system.

At the top is the most popular group of girls,

led by queen bee Megan Krizmanich.

And then there are the jocks, who in our school are the basketball players.

Colin Clemens is the star of the team,

which means he's second only to Jesus in Warsaw.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Jake Tusing,

your quintessential marching-band nerd.

Then there's my best friend Clarke and me.

I guess you could say we're the in-betweens.

This is all we've known since we were little kids,

and in nine months, it'll all be over.

In the meantime, all we have to do is,

you know, figure out who we really are and where we're headed in life.

Holy shit!

It's gonna be a good year.

Whatever, dude, it's gonna suck.

It is our senior year, though. No way we won't own the school.

I'll own the school. I've always owned the school.

Megan Krizmanich, probably the biggest drama queen in Warsaw.

Smart, popular, attractive.

The richest family.

- Powerful. - Like a princess.

She's never talked to me, she's never looked at me.

All through high school I've heard she is the biggest bitch.

Maybe I am, but I do what I want to do.

I'm not here to impress, I'm here to be me.

I'm student council vice-president, I ran track. I did volleyball, golf.

I'm in charge of the service committee. I was in charge of prom last year.

I mean, every day, I'm after school, doing something.

Megan's future plans include attending Notre Dame University

and studying medicine.

Let's hear it for our homecoming royalty!

Everybody around me thinks that my life is perfect.

But there is just so much pressure on me this year.

All of my brothers and sisters and my dad all attended Notre Dame,

which is unbelievably hard to get into.

Usually they only accept the valedictorian,

but my dad wants me to get in.

If I don't get in, he'll be heartbroken.

I have to behave. I can't get in trouble this year.

Megan, you're not gonna get in trouble this year.

You always get out of things.

Colin's a great kid. He's one of the funniest people I know.

- Shaun, you look like Magic Johnson. - That's what my mom says.

Like today, not when he was thin and good-Iooking.

He's very friendly.

Walk with me.

And he's really a sweetheart.

A lot of girls think he's just totally hot and they have crushes on him.

His lifestyle is a mystery to me.

This is Colin Clemens with a Tiger sports reminder.

On Friday, the boys' varsity basketball team will be taking on

the Tippe Valley Vikings to kick off the start of the year,

so get out there and support our Tigers.

That's all the news we have for you today, so

- have a great day, Tigers. - Have a great day, Tigers.

- Let's go, Tigers! - Let's go, Tigers!

Around here, high-school basketball is a big deal.

Warsaw's ridiculous about it.

I mean, if we don't do well this season, the community's going to go nuts.

Come on now. One, two, three.

- Break! - Break!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Warsaw Tigers.

A lot more eyes will be on me this year, because I'm the go-to guy,

the first scoring option now.

And the stakes are really high for me, because I'm relying on this season

to get a college scholarship for basketball. I can't pay for it, and...

It's 47 all, and Clemens can still be the hero of this game.

What a moment. You dream about these things in your backyard.

Clemens shoots it. Good.

Yeah, we needed that one. That was big.

Warsaw leads 48-47, 1.4 seconds left.

Clemens with one more.

The second one by Clemens is rolling... Good. He got them both.

They throw it long. Taylor will chuck it at the buzzer.

Brimming, no!

The Warsaw Tigers have done it!

My dream is to play in the NCAA Division I,

like Purdue and IU and all those schools.

And a toast to 6'4" senior, Colin Clemens.

Going to the Final Four.

Hitting a three for the win.

Then after that, to try out with the Pacers, Indiana Pacers.

Making it that far would be incredible.

Good afternoon, sports fans, I'm Brian.

And I'm Phil, and this is the best darn sports show at the Tiger nation.

On Friday, the boys' basketball team took on Elkhart Memorial and won.

Wow, we rock!

Everyone has their own cliques,

and I just don't really belong to any particular clique.

The only people I hang out with are in band, the other geeks.

I guess that is what I am. I guess my clique is the band.

I spend a lot of my time playing video games.

I love The Legend of Zelda.

I don't have many friends,

so it's always been really important to me to have a girlfriend.

To be honest, I wish life were more like video games,

because then I'd always get the girl.

My idea would be someone I can really connect with,

someone I can talk to.

Somebody who cares about me for who I am.

If I have a girl, I don't feel like I'm such a nobody.

I do love the ladies, but the ladies do not love me.

I don't know what it is about me. Maybe it's the monotone

or the insane collections of video game characters and the band, and

all the stuff that makes me a supergeek.

But I don't know. It might be my face, or the way I carry myself.

I don't know what it is, but they avoid me at all costs.

But I am not going to let anything stop me.

I am motivated.

- Hi. - Hi.

Do you want to do anything anytime soon?

Probably in, like, two weeks.

- Two weeks? - Yeah, I'm grounded till the 23rd.

Well, three weeks from now on Saturday,

- you wanna go see a movie? - We'll talk about it Monday.

- Sounds good. See you. - Bye.

- Cedric, good news. It worked. - No, it didn't.

- Three weeks from Saturday. - Three weeks from Saturday?

She's like, "Yeah, we'll talk more about it on Monday."

So I was like, "Okay."

You're gay!

Yeah.

No horseplay in the hallway, please. Thank you.

- Someone else will get hurt. - Oh, sorry.

I'm escorting her to class. She's a troublemaker.

You can't hit me.

Stop it. Go to class.

Hannah's not in the popular crowd.

Yes! Turn it up, man, turn it up!

She's definitely a rebel.

Not goth or emo or punk. Alternative.

- Artistic. - Really strange.

No, my parents are upstairs. All right.

She's got heart.

Shoot!

- I don't understand what's going on. - No, I don't, either.

It's like they're ants or bees, they're part of a hive.

It's like they hear the signal and they just do it, man.

- Everybody, clap your hands. - Everybody, clap your hands.

I'm a little different from a lot of people around here.

Warsaw is such a conservative town, and I'm so not conservative.

I don't fit in. I hate it.

I like music. I like film and I like photography and art.

Hannah, they have an M&M for energy.

- You might like that. - Yeah.

I live with my grandma.

She's so thin, she reminds me of those models.

She said she's been eating Whoppers.

My mom has manic depression, so it's almost impossible to live with her.

My dad moved to Ohio to work,

so I'm basically just on my own for a while now,

except for Joel, my boyfriend.

Hannah just got here. I'm gonna surprise her.

- Oh, my God! - Put this on. Let's play.

Joel and I have been together two years.

A lot of people in high school, like their boyfriend is like... It's just for fun.

And then, with Joel, it's so different. It's like, I really...

I really love him.

I can never imagine not having him in my life.

Now, Hannah, if you'll just stand right over here,

just inside the door here. We are going to do a mock interview up here,

so that you kind of get a feel for job interviewing techniques.

Okay, here we go.

Now, Hannah, of course, when I schedule people,

I expect for them to be here and be here on time.

Keeping that in mind, could you give me an example

of your dependability or your willingness to work?

I'll be honest with you. I have really bad dependability problems.

- I'm always late, always. - All right.

Do you smoke?

Yeah.

Okay. Do you have any objections to psychological or drug tests?

Yeah.

Okay, let's give her a round of applause.

All right.

After high school, do you want just a job?

Or do you want a real career, making real money?

International Business College in Fort Wayne, Indiana can take you there.

What I want to do when I grow up, I want to work in film.

I want to be a director, so I want to go to college in California.

But most people around here just stay in Indiana for college.

That doesn't sound great to me, because I want to, you know,

I want to just work my heart out on this.

I want to actually...

My goal is, I want to make movies that people remember forever.

I want people to remember me after I die.

I don't want to just live for nothing,

and work some 9-to-5 shit job and just die, you know.

I want to do something that people will remember