Plot introduction

When a new girl moves to Highland Park High School

Highland Park High School (University Park, Texas)

Highland Park High School is located in University Park, Texas.Highland Park is a part of the Highland Park Independent School District. It serves all of the city of University Park, most of the town of Highland Park, and portions of Dallas.-History:...

, she encounters a difficult clique and dramatic situations.

Plot summary

The book centers around a 16-year old girl, Twyla Gay Stark, from the poor side of town. She soon transfers to a new town and a new school in a wealthy neighborhood, Highland Park High, where the rich and nasty strut around in designer labels. The worst happens when Twyla Gay runs afoul of the resident bitch clique, led by the beautiful, intimidating and rich Jeanette Sue and bringing in the rear of the vicious pack is Myrna Fry, a "hanger-on" who is shallow, ignorant, racist and no backbone, the kind of girl you just love to hate. Jeanette Sue and her cohorts at first pretend to be friends with Twyla Gay, until a wicked prank almost has Twyla Gay raped and killed at the local mall at night.

Encouraged by the fact that Twyla Gay likes Jeanette Sue's boyfriend Ryder, the bullying becomes even worse, with Jeanette Sue marginalizing the fact that Twyla Gay is poor. She also turns everyone against the helpless Twyla Gay, make online websites to bash on her and practically chasing her out of school. Twyla Gay considers dropping out, until she runs into the school outcast, Deena, another victim of the in crowd, who has been labeled slut. Together the two girls vow to exact revenge on Jeanette Sue and her entourage, by gathering other social rejects of the school and silently retaliating.

Pessimistic at first, Twyla Gay and Deena's team eventually learn respect, trust and to stand up for themselves, and realize that Jeanette Sue is controlling the school with her mentality and peer pressure. They break out of their fear and intimidated state and it all leads to a showdown in the school between the all the students (everyone who isn't with The Ruling Class) and Jeanette Sue's clique itself.

The movie's focus is mainly about the social aggression, jealousy, cliques and non-physical bullying going on in most schools today. True to life, and filled with uncomfortable depictions of non-physical violence,the book has much to say. You can trace this book's roots all the way back to classic movies such as Heathers

Heathers

Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty. The film portrays four girls in a trend-setting clique at a fictional Ohio high school...

, Revenge of the Nerds

Revenge of the Nerds

Revenge of the Nerds is a 1984 comedy film satirizing social life on a college campus. The film stars Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards, with Curtis Armstrong, Ted McGinley, Julia Montgomery, Brian Tochi, Larry B. Scott, John Goodman, and Donald Gibb...

and Carrie.