Inspired by Actual Events
Aryana is a sophomore who goes to Woodrow Wilson, a small-but-intimate charter for grades 6-12 in what U.S. News & World Report deemed “the worst city to live in in the U.S.”
She gets herself up, wakes her 7th grade brother & kindergarten sister, cobbles together breakfast, then gets them on the bus. She doesn’t want to wake her mom, who worked a double and is falling apart since Aryana’s brother died in a club shooting six months ago.
Aryana's greatest conflict at present is that her boyfriend D'AVANTE's strict mother thinks she's a bad influence. Aryana comes around with lots of split lips and black eyes, so D'Avante's mom assumes she's catfighting in the streets.
When the school Principal announces that the state will be closing the school in January, things get intense.
Aryana and her ensemble of four friends reel, struggling to cope with what it means for their future. BEANS, D'Avante's best friend, reacts with anger. He's always hated this fucking school, but now…can't help but feel that "Even the shit we don't want they got to take from us."
Aryana and most of her friends get dumped into the huge neighboring high school - one of the worst in the state (but the only school with space). It turns out, "space" means "a seat on a leaking radiator," and the Wilson alums aren't exactly wanted by the overcrowded student body or the overworked faculty.
