American High School
Genre: Teen/Comedy/Romance
Executive Producer: Richard Linklater
Writer: Chad Taylor
Season 1 Episode 9 - The School Dance
Cast:
Cooper Hoffman .... Buzz Gentrie (Regular)
Judy Greer .... Helen Gentrie (Regular)
Sydney Park .... Gwen Johnson (Regular)
Mitchell Hoog .... Dennis Christy (Regular)
Sung Kang .... Sung-min (Regular)
Morris Chestnut .... Reese Johnson (Recurring)
Maddie Ziegler .... Jane Christy (Recurring)
Odessa Young .... Francine (Recurring)
Minka Kelly .... Cheryl Christy (Recurring)
Brian Geraghty .... Phil Christy (Recurring)
Plot: The day has come for the school dance. In the morning, Jane (Maddie Ziegler) is putting on make-up as she excitedly prepares for the big day. Elsewhere in the house, Cheryl (Minka Kelly) is another argument with Phil (Brian Geraghty), who stands outside of the bedroom door apologizing for a fight the night before. He says he clearly drank too much. In his room, Dennis (Mitchell Hoog) is listening to a record but at just the right volume that he can also hear his parents arguing. Dennis lifts the needle when he hears his dad volunteer to take his wife’s place as a chaperone at the dance tonight. Cheryl says he will be better served by himself hear, considering his actions.
Reese (Morris Chestnut) overhears his daughter singing in the shower and smiles, assuming she is excited for the night (unaware that she’s actually practicing for a surprise performance).
At the Gentrie house, Helen (Judy Greer) is continuously checking if Buzz (Cooper Hoffman) is alright given that he’s going to the dance alone tonight. He insists that he is. She is glad to hear that. She tells him she hopes his dad is doing alright as well, given the upcoming visit from the President of the United States.
Later, Dennis arrives at Gwen’s (Sydney Park) home to escort her to the dance. Francine (Odessa Young) and her date join them and they talk about their first performance tonight. They are still undecided on a name so they debate it with one another. When he arrives at the dance, Buzz meets up with his friends. He sees Jane with Peter McMichael (Milo Manheim) and it naturally disappoints him but he doesn’t let it get him down. He tells them he looks forward to their performance tonight.
Peter takes Jane to a bathroom where they start to kiss. However, that is far as she is willing to go. Peter takes a swig from his flask and says that’s not all he wants to do. He continues to kiss her as he starts to pull up her dress. She has to use all of her force to push him off and rushes out in tears.
Sung-min (Sung King) notices fellow chaperone Cheryl standing by herself. They start a conversation and he asks if she still remembers her high school dances. She jumps at the opportunity to wistfully talk about her younger years, before Phil and the kids and adulthood. He asks if she regrets getting married so young. She says she often wonders how things would have turned out had she not gotten married at 19, but that she doesn’t regret a thing since she loves her kids dearly. They look on happily at the kids dancing. He offers her his hand and asks if she’d like to dance. She takes his hand but then quickly pulls it away, saying she better not.
Gwen is nervous as she realizes she has never performed in front of an audience like this before. She goes outside for a breath of fresh air and finds Jane sitting by herself on a bench. She takes a seat next to her and asks if everything is alright. Jane explains what happened earlier with Peter and that she’d like to go home. Even though they don’t know each other well, Jane puts her on Gwen’s shoulder and starts to softly cry. Gwen tells her not to let a guy ruin her night. She should go back to the gym and own the night for herself. Jane thanks her for the advice and Gwen says anytime. Jane heads back to the dance while Gwen sits by herself to consider the moment that just occurred.
When Gwen heads back inside, she finds Dennis frantically trying to find her as they are set to play soon. She apologizes and says she was helping his sister. He asks why his sister needed help and Gwen declines to say, just that it was boy troubles. He angrily asks if Peter did something to hurt his sister.
Dennis bursts in the gymnasium and looks for Peter. When he finds him, he slings a right-hand punch at him and a fight breaks out. Sung-min and the other chaperones break it up as Cheryl looks on horrified. They are left with no other option than to eject all involved parties, ending the chance of a performance tonight.
This leaves a bit of a dour mood on festivities as the night wraps up. While the final few songs play, Buzz is sticking around to help the chaperones clean up. They are interrupted by Jane, who asks Buzz to a dance. He gladly accepts. As they slow dance, he says that he’s sorry about whatever happened earlier. She recommends they focus on right now. After looking into each other’s eyes for an extended beat, she leans in and they briefly kiss. She smiles and he looks as happy as he’s ever been.
End credits: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucaNUkU0SCk
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