High-School Daze

High-School Daze is a 2007 theatrical short based off of the graphic novel by Robert Nadal.

Prologue
We open up to a dark room. No light, only snoring. An alarm clock goes off and says

"“Good Morning, Autumn Bay. It is now 7:00 am in the beautiful city. Temperature is around 40° and it looks like we’re expecting a little mist, so we recommend you pack your coat and umbrella in case it starts flowing."

After the announcement, we hear a yawn noise. It was a 17 year old high school senior. She gets out of bed, stretches, takes a quick shower, brushes her teeth, puts on her clothes, brushes her hair, applies mascara, grabs the car keys, and drives to her school.

First Day at the New School
As we enter the entrance to the school, we meet Kirby. A high school junior who was transferred to a new school. Around her sophomore years, Kirby and her family had to move to Autumn Bay after her mother has been promoted to a much bigger office. And of course, Kirby had to prepare for her first day at the new school and make a good first impression.

As she enters and walks around the hall, it sounds quiet. She asks if anyone is here and believes she’s the first student here. But then the bell goes off as she missed homeroom. Luckily it’s nothing serious, she still has the first few periods. She tries to get through the crowd in the hall and tries to find her classroom. She pulls out her schedule from here backpack and looks for the room number. On the way, she trips on someone’s foot. Getting up, she sees a group of bullies laughing at her. One of those is Jennette, who put her leg up to trip Kirby. Embarrassed, she gets back up, grabs her schedule, and tries to not let that interfere with her first day. Jennette wonders if she even knows the school by heart. One of Jennette’s “friends” tells her she’s a new student who recently moved. Jennette takes the idea that this can be an advantage to them.

Meet Kirby
We now see Kirby as she enters her classroom and finds her desk. She’s then greeted by nearby classmates and she greets them back. One asks her how she feels about her first day of school. She says she’s trying her hardest to make a good first impression since she’s new to the school. They tells her that she’ll love this class as the teacher is something. As the bell goes off again to ensure everyone’s in class, Kirby’s teacher, Mrs Olive, walks in and apologizes for being off the clock again. With everyone‘s attention, she welcomes everyone back to school and introduces herself to whoever hasn’t had here the last few years. She then says that a new student is now attending this class, Kirby, and she calls her up and tells her to introduce and talk about herself. Kirby comes up and introduces herself. Kirby is a 16 year old girl who has recently moved in Autumn Bay. She then says her mother is one of the new heads of the Autumn Bay Tech Industry and her father is a retired football player. She also has a little sister named Carla who is more of a tomboy. As for Kirby, she’s has an interest in fashion and nature and wants to become a fashion designer when she‘s older. Her classmates are intrigued and one asks what it was like when she first moved here. Kirby responds that it was difficult at first since she lived back in her old town since she was born until she moved. But she gotten used to it especially since Autumn Bay has some pretty good stuff like the park and rivers as well as the restaurants and salons. But school was probably gonna be her achilles heel. Some agree that it might be true. They were referring to Jennette, who’s not only the school bully, but one of the most nastiest bullies. Kirby thought she came across her, but she didn’t show any guff. They tell her never to cross or get back at her. Mrs Olive ends the conversation and tells Kirby she can go back to her seat

Day in the Life of an Autumn Bay Student
We cut to the afternoon in the cafeteria as Kirby is getting her school lunch. On her way to her seat, she hears everyone talking about her. Some say she may be in for a few surprises and others believed she can make it. She felt a bit insecure about it and tried to pay no attention to everyone. But she also didn’t pay attention to her surroundings as she then trips and nearly drops her food onto the ground. Luckily, it didn’t hit the floor and landed on her tray, but that was still embarrassing. She looked behind her to see Jennette with her leg out again, laughing at Kirby’s clumsiness. The conversation went on with more people starting to feel it’s gonna be a long day. Some even said that Jennette might be her biggest obstacle. Kirby was curious and asked them what was her deal. She overheard her and told her it’s nothing for her to know about. Insecure, Kirby backed up, told her okay, and sat in her seat. As she was about to eat, Jennette flicked her head and went back to her seat. One student told Kirby that no one really knows why she’s like this. Ever since she was a sophomore, she’s been treating her classmates like dunces. She, in fact, frightens everyone that whenever there is a school president ballot, everyone is to scared to not vote for her. One time, her opponents got some votes and she rushed those who didn’t vote for her. Kirby felt afraid and insulted that the students always follow her every whim. They needed a good leader. Someone who would make sure everything is in order. Assure the students would live their days without persecution. The problem is Jennette is far more tougher than any other student in the school. Not even jocks or wrestlers could physically strike her down. Kirby thought she couldn’t be worse than the bullies she had at her old school. Suddenly, Jennette put their hand on her head and said “Anything a bully from your old school can, I can do better and worse”. And then she slammed Kirby’s head right on her lunch. That has to be embarrassing.

Kirby caught onto the idea that Jennette is more like a bully not even her old school experienced. She needed to formulate a plan, but she struggled as there were some students looking directly at her. And that’s when she realized her face was covered in spaghetti and sauce. Embarrassed, she grabbed her napkin to wipe it off, but then someone helped her. Thanking that person, she looked up to see it was a man, not just an ordinary one, but one who caught her eyes. She began to blush and even almost swooned. As the man walked away to his seat, Kirby started to gush over him. Asking the other students who he was, they say his name is Zeke and is Jennette’s ex-boyfriend. People thought those two seemed like an item until Jennette became more of a bully and the two broke up because of that. Kirby felt so sorry he had to go through that. She thought he seemed so dreamy. If only he could take her hand and kiss her on said hand, she thought. Meeting him might have made her forget what she was just doing, but she still remembers.

After School
We cut to after school when we see Kirby writing in her diary."“Dear Diary, Today was my first day of Autumn Bay school. It was an interesting start so far. While I had to deal with one bully, everything else was perfectly fine. In fact, I have made some friends and even met the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. If only he would notice me as much as I notice him...”"Kirby stops before she could finish as she’s called down for dinner by her mother. As she comes down and gets ready, her mother asked how her first day was. She tells her it was a good start, but she did experience one bully. Her father then asked who would bully his own daughter. She told him it was someone who told her and I quote “Anything a bully from your old school can, I can do better and worse”. Her parents were confused by that statement and she explained that she’s worse than the bullies she had at her old school and more. Her father told her that if she had any trouble with whoever tried to humiliate her, tell them that...but Kirby cuts him off and says it’s no need. She can come up with an idea. She just need to find the right moment. Her father then patted her on the back. “That’s my girl. Always thinking ahead.”, he said. You can tell that made Kirby feel more confident with her goal to help the school.

Make Autumn Bay High Great Again
For the past week, Jennette has constantly been bullying, ridiculing, and belittling Kirby and her actions. At one point, Kirby has had enough and had to come up with a plan quicker. Suddenly, everyone is called into the auditorium for an announcement. Everyone were to believe it was for the announcement of the Student Body President Openings. She suddenly became worried that it would be a problem especially with Jennette winning the previous polls. At the auditorium, Vice Principle Deans made the announcement of the candidates for Student Body President. Usually, there would be some people attempting to battle it out. However, Jennette was the only candidate this year mainly for the fact she takes it seriously to a point she physically attack those who didn’t take her side or went against her. Everyone was pretty shocked that because of this, Jennette would become student body president by default. That was until Kirby found out how she’s get back at Jennette. She yelled out, “WAIT!”. Suddenly everyone looked towards her as she ran up to the stage. Jennette asked her what she think she’s doing. Kirby gather her courage and told her she won’t accept this anymore. The students have had enough. Jennette then gave Kirby a smug look saying who exactly would even have the gaul to go against her. 3 years of winning and now everyone finally learned. She then shoved Kirby and she almost fell off the stage. Having enough of her constant insults, Kirby lunged at Jennette and they began to fight. That’s when Principle Theodoric came in and tried to break up the fight. Jennette tries to play the victim card and say Kirby tried to attack her. Kirby explained that Jennette started this mess. Jennette then said that fighting won’t stop her from being school president. Kirby then said that she’ll have to end it one way or another. And then she told Principle Theodoric that she would like to run against her for Student Body President. Everyone was shocked and they began saying to each other stuff like “She’s crazy” or “This will not end well”. Principle Theodoric, being the good cop, then tells her as long as there is no more disruption both outside and inside the election, then she can be accepted as candidate. Kirby then thanked him saying he’ll won’t regret it

After everyone left the auditorium, Jennette pulled Kirby by her backpack and gave her a warning. “When I become Student President again, you’ll be sorry you ever messed with her.” Kirby then told Jennette, “Don’t worry. As far as brains go, I’m the better thinker.”. Insulted, Jennette stood silent as Kirby walked away. Her friends came in and asked if she’s alright. Jennette turned around and told them that Kirby cannot win. Her friends thought of sabotaging her chances of winning. But then she started laughing as if she had nothing to worry about. Kirby has no advantage and might not stand a chance against her. She’s not even all that worried she might lose. Her friends asked if maybe they can still help her. She then told them they could try, but it might just be a cakewalk. And she went back to class.

Anti-Jennette Group
We enter the library as Kirby relaxes and is secretly writing down her feelings"“Dear diary, becoming a candidate for Student Body President is gonna be hard for me. If I win, the maybe the school can finally live without bullying or harm. But what if I lose the poll to Jennette. Not only would I have let my classmates down, but Jennette could do worse to both the school and even me. I cannot let Jennette win, though I’m not sure I have what it takes to beat her. I hope that if I don’t win, it won’t affect my school life here...”"Before she could finish writing, someone told her she was courageous to take on Jennette. Not knowing who said that, she screamed and immediately closed her diary. After the students tell her Shh and she apologizes for that, she turns to see the student who said that. He tells her that she could follow him for a moment. She asks him what for and he answers that she’s see when they get there. She takes his word for it and follows him out the library, down the basement level, into a dark hallway. On the way, she hears a chant like there’s a ritual. As they reach a door, two students ask them to state their name and business. He calls himself Rob and introduces them to Kirby. He then tells them he would like to include her to their secret society. Kirby is a bit concerned as Rob said nothing about a society. He tells her it’s because it is a secret. As the two enter the room, Kirby is greeted by everyone in the society. She thanks them for the introduction and asked what this was all about. They tell her they should wait for the head of the group to come in. Suddenly, the lights went out as the artificial torches turned on. Kirby was a bit concerned about what was happening. And that’s when he stepped into the room. He was wearing a cloak and hood and welcomed everyone. He then sat in his seat and began to read the minutes from the last meeting. But he stops as he notices Kirby. He asks her what she’s doing here unannounced. Rob explains that he brought her in to join the society. Caught on, she asked what this society was even for. The cloaked man, getting out of his seat, told her that this wasn’t some society, it was a rebel. Suddenly a voice came in saying “A rebel team, ey?” They all looked to see a shadow of what looked like Jennette. Everyone backed down into the wall, including Kirby. But the cloaked man pushed Kirby and told her to take her down. Kirby was nervous as they all chanted and set the mood. It looked like she was gonna choke, but the cloaked man gave her the look, implying to show her courage. At that moment, she jumped towards the shadow and began to attack what was actually a dummy controlled by one of the members. It didn’t take until she noticed that and questioned what that was all about. The members started to laugh as the cloaked man told her it was all a test to see if she was worthy of joining what was the Anti-Jennette Group. A society made to relieve themselves of what Jennette did and how they get back at her. Kirby was confused and said she knew Jennette was a little devil, but why did that man create this society in the first place. He told them it’s because Jennette pushed him over the limit. And then he removed his hood to reveal it was Zeke. Kirby, shocked, suddenly grew big pupils and blushed. Zeke then told her that she has proven herself worthy of being in the group. But Kirby was still confused as to why they wanted her in the group. Zeke said he and his friends saw her stand up against Jennette and join the ballet. They then thought of helping her win. They just needed to show everyone what Kirby can do for the school. Intrigued, she asked how they were gonna do that. They all huddle up and discuss what she needs to do.

But as it turns out, they weren’t alone. Jennette’s friends were recording all of the action on a camera. Worried that Jennette might eat her own words, they had to warn her. They ran upstairs and to the center area where Jennette is sitting and watching Invader Zim on her IPod and drinking her soda. She saw her friends running up to her, telling her that they found something that’s bad. Jennette told them if it’s about the ballot, she didn’t wanna hear about it cause as she said, she’s not worried. Her friend then explained that Kirby joined a rebel. She rolled her eyes, but her friend then finished “...against you”. She was shocked and spat out her soda. Running up towards them, she yelled “WHAT?!”. They showed her the video recording and she got furious.

Major

 * Cristina Pucelli as Kirby, a 16 year old high school senior who has recently transferred to a new school
 * Jessica DiCicco as Jennette, a 17 year old high school senior who makes fun of Kirby for being a transfer
 * Andrew Francis as Zeke, a 17 year old high school senior and Jennette’s ex-boyfriend

Minor

 * Nika Futterman as Mrs “Penelope” Olive
 * Robert Nadal as Rob & Principle “Oscar” Theodoric
 * Mary Jo Catlett as Vice Principle “Maggie” Deans
 * Nicole Oliver as Adeline, Kirby’s mother
 * Tim Curry as Vincent, Kirby’s father
 * Grey Griffin as Carla, Kirby’s younger sister

Additional Voices

 * Tara Strong
 * Tom Kenny
 * Kath Soucie
 * Eddie Deezen
 * Charlie Adler
 * Catherine Taber

Release
High School Daze was released in theaters, preceding Robert’s other big project, Arlene 3, on September 1, 2007

Trivia

 * This is the third Nickelodeon project based off of one of Robert’s Graphic Novels
 * The first two being Arlene & The Curse of the Dark Sheet
 * An original explanation on why Kirby moved to a new school has been scrapped and changed as Viacom claimed it being too violent for a slice of life film