After a plain-­Jane fifteen-­year-­old expects yet another ordinary summer of trivial teen angst at camp, her world is turned upside down as she is thrust into a world of bullies, drugs, hate crime and teen pregnancy.

SYNOPSIS:

Camp in the Summer of 1995 has an air of “same-ness” with its’ swim classes and Native American History lessons — but this Summer has something different in store. Claire O’Donnell is fifteen. She’s super plain, tomboy—ish, and almost unnoticeable. She’s spent every summer at the same summer camp, with her same friends, doing the exact same things. This summer, she had a deep yearning for change — even adventure -— for just once in her life: like, maybe just, get kissed. But just as she’s going about her usual “same ness” — pretending to “fit in” with her social queen best-friend-­since­‐birth Amanda, Claire begins to choose her own adventures, with everyone except Amanda. Claire does a complete one-eighty beginning by befriending the eyeliner-­wearing Xavier, an eccentric closeted gay kid who completely identifies with being an outcast – whose first order of business is dying her hair black.

Claire also meets the intriguing, and socially repellent, Ben Hargreaves, the leather jacket wearing, “smokes-­a­‐pack­‐a­‐day” resident bad-boy who was sent to camp as punishment to keep him out of trouble. After an unplanned, unofficial “date” with Ben – Claire begins to see herself in a whole new way, maybe even as attractive. But just as things finally seem to be getting exciting for her, everything starts to fall apart. A nasty rumor is spread about her leading the entire camp to ruthlessly bully her and spray paint “slut” across her belongings; Ben starts spending all his time with the new “in-crowd” rumored to be led by a drug-­dealer; and her once-­best­‐friend Amanda finds out she’s pregnant by none other than one of the popular camp counselors.

Claire then finds out that the horrible rumors were accidentally spread by her new best friend Xavier and runs to find comfort in the partying ways of Ben and his druggie friends. When Xavier follows her there, he is ruthlessly beaten for being gay and only Ben knows who the culprit is. Xavier is hospitalized and Claire is filled with guilt, and vows to find out who is responsible. Meanwhile, though her friendship with Amanda is on the rocks, Claire decides to support her friend and accompanies her to a women’s clinic. When Claire runs into Ben, she begs him to tell the cops who hurt Xavier – but unfortunately, Ben is only interested in protecting his drug-­dealing friends.

Though Claire has ultimately gotten what she wanted: a summer full of adventure, first loves and new friends – suddenly these things don’t matter so much. Claire learns that sometimes being with the “in crowd” can come at a cost too great. After the “End of Summer Romance Dance,” Claire, Amanda and Xavier have reconciled and even accepted each other including all their so-called “baggage,” as just being part of growing up.

When Claire sees Ben on the bus ride home, perhaps for the very last time, he never reveals that he’s done right by her and turned in his drug dealer friend to the cops for the beating of Xavier… proving he actually does have a heart.

As the Summer comes to a close, Claire recognizes herself as a different person altogether – and that the science of fitting in, is to simply not.