Nadine is a high school junior, and she is having a tough time dealing with it as she
is an introvert.
It’s really hard for her to communicate with people, leaving her comfort zone, and
she has considered herself really lonely after her dad passed away.
She is still thankful because she has her one and only best friend Krista with her,
but things take a turn for the worse, when Krista starts dating her brother.
The scene opens with Nadine abruptly getting off her car and rushing towards her classroom.
When she reaches her class, she quickly pulls a chair and sits in front of her teacher,
and says or rather blabbers in a haste that she is going to take her life, and she thought
an adult should know it.
She also described some ways, but it was obvious that she was having a nervous breakdown, and
she didn’t know where to go.
After hearing her out, her teacher becomes a bit sarcastic and says, that he is also
drafting such a note for himself, and the reason written there would be his annoyance
with his student, who takes all his lunch time.
Then we go 10 years back.
Nadine is on her way to school.
She is in second grade, and she realizes that there are two types of people in this world.
One is those who are naturally confident and are courageous and, the second type is the
ones who wish that people like type one should not exist.
She has always been jealous of her brother as he was popular, and she hated the fact
that her mom was one of his fans.
She always found it hard to adjust amidst all the people, and her parents had to struggle
to send her to school, until one day.
That day she was taking her rage out, by beating the fence with a stick, when suddenly a girl
appeared in front of her, and she looked cute.
She had a little caterpillar in her hand, and as Nadine was blocking the tap, the girl
asked her to move a bit, so she could make that insect drink some water.
Nadine had finally made her first and only best friend.
The girl’s name was Krista, and they became very close.
They had already started to share secrets, and spent most of the time together.
Everything was going well, until Nadine turned 13.
She went to pick some cheeseburgers with her dad.
She was complaining all the time, that she didn’t have anything good, and her dad was
comforting her saying she has all the love from him.
On their way back to home, they start enjoying a song when suddenly her dad suffered from
a heart attack.
He couldn’t make it past that.
Nadine’s life changed after that night, and she found it really hard to cope with
the loss.
She suffocated herself by suppressing her feelings, and that’s why the next 4 years
were really bad for her.
She kept slipping into stages of depression, but she didn’t show that.
She is always thankful that she has her best friend with her.
Nadine and Krista are sitting together discussing all sorts of things, which includes how Nadine
loves spoilers, and has a massive crush on a guy who works at Petland.
But it remains a fact that she hates her brother, and then they go to their respective classes.
She greets or rather distracts her teacher by listening to music, and gives him a correction
to a study lecture which was given by him the previous day.
The teacher becomes sarcastic as always, and asks if she remembers any point which made
her feel like she could have a life of her own.
She returns to her seat, and gets complimented by the guy sitting next to her about her sweatshirt.
She has been an introvert all through her life, and she found it hard to keep up the
conversation when the guy was trying to initiate it, so she gave some dumb replies and ignored
him.
Later she is discussing it with her best friend on her way to home.
When she gets off, she sees her mom all dressed up.
Her mom says that she is going to Manzanita for her date with a dentist.
She advises her to be good and inform her brother, which she does and she is enjoying
with her best friend at home, alone.
They play music, drink and dance.
After a while she realizes that her brother has some of his friends over, and they are
enjoying in the pool.
Nadine asks her brother to send away all his guests, and creates a scene there.
Krista handles her and takes her to the washroom where she throws up.
She expresses her gratitude to Krista.
She eventually falls asleep in the washroom.
Krista covers her with a towel and comes downstairs.
She sees Nadine’s brother Darian cleaning up the house.
She asks him where the aspirins are, and then helps him with some chores.
Darian tries to stop her but then lets her do it.
They chat a bit while working.
The next morning Nadine wakes up and comes out of the washroom.
As she is crawling towards her room, she hears some sounds, and crawls to her brother’s
room.
As she opens the door, she spots her brother and Krista together in bed, and screams.
She obviously couldn’t handle all of it at once.
Later they meet outside, and her best friend apologizes to her.
But Nadine is again pushed into a dark room full of fears, and she doesn’t have a support
system to rely on.
She lost her comfort zone and her best friend.
She couldn’t believe that it was ever going to happen.
She however, says that it wasn’t Krista’s fault, and she still loves her as her best
friend.
She gets back to her house and screams at her brother asking him to stay away from her
friends.
Her brother mocks her and asks if she just said friends in plural form.
This hurts Nadine even more.
In the classroom Nadine finds it very hard to pay attention, and she gives a very weak
cause about why she didn’t complete her homework.
She then finally goes to her seat, and is greeted by the same guy who had complimented
her for her sweatshirt earlier.
He tries to make a conversation asking about her weekend.
She replies that it was below average.
She also asks him the same thing, and they start to chat, which becomes awkward when
they decide to meet at the park.
Later we see, Krista and Darian having a conversation on how weird the things have become.
Next, we see Krista apologizing to her friend in a restaurant, and there Nadine tries to
explain how difficult it was for her.
She asks her if she did the same thing to Krista, wouldn’t it be hard for her, and
wouldn’t she be angry?
At that moment, Nadine starts pouring her heart out which is filled with sorrow but,
Krista shuts her off and asks her to go to a party with her and Darian.
Nadine is taken aback by her behavior, but still agrees to go.
When they reach the party, Krista thanks her for coming.
They go inside.
There are a lot of people there.
Darian takes Krista with him to introduce her to some new people, and Nadine follows
them.
But she remains unnoticed, and Krista tries her best to communicate, and also makes an
effort to present herself like one of them in the party, but Nadine remains unnoticed.
Nadine tries hard to adjust there and to have a great time.
She runs to the washroom and gives herself a pep-talk to have a great time in there.
She is trying her best to live a little, but it is getting really hard for her.
She cannot process that her best friend is turning into someone completely different.
She finds a place to sit.
A boy sits beside her.
He asks if she is Darian’s sister?
She replies yes, and then they talk about a TV show, when that person makes a comment
that the characters of the show resemble Nadine and Darian, she feels bad.
She cannot bare to stay there another minute, so she calls her mom and asks her to pick
her up.
Her mother comes to pick her.
As she gets in the car, she sees her mother is also not in a good state either.
Later that night Nadine tries texting her crush about the friend request which she sent,
but soon she realizes that it is a bad idea.
So, she deletes the typed message and calls Erwin, her classmate, and says that the park
is still open, and asks if they could go there.
Erwin agrees to come.
He picks Nadine, and when they reach the park Nadine gets a call from Krista.
She decides to ignore it.
First, they try the Ferris Wheel.
They talk about weird things.
Nadine asks him about his hopes and interests, But, then she doesn’t let him speak and
tries to guess it herself.
After she is done guessing she asks if she was racist, and then again becomes silent,
lost in her thoughts.
Erwin tries to kiss her, and he is blocked by Nadine.
Erwin understands it was a bad timing.
But he only wanted to comfort Nadine.
Later they have a great time together.
Nadine gives him a weird compliment by saying she sees an old man in him, and even though
Erwin doesn’t like it, he says thanks.
The next day Krista comes to apologize for ditching her in the party.
Nadine sarcastically mocks her, and says she won’t be there if her brother leaves her
for someone else.
Krista replies that he would never leave her, as he has asked her to become his girlfriend.
Nadine makes a stupid decision by making Krista choose between her and her brother, but Krista
doesn’t wish to choose, so Nadine ends their friendship.
It is not easy on her.
Nadine is suffering a lot as she lost her one and only close person, on whom she could
rely.
But now, she’s gone and she knows she has to fight alone.
Later she falls asleep in her class and is woken up by her teacher.
She realizes class is over, and she has to go home and face her brother.
Years ago, when their dad passed away, she found her brother crying.
That made her so sad that she took the wet and soaked pillow for herself, and she ends
her sentence by saying she wished her brother loved her like the way she did.
They start fighting afterwards, and their mother stops them.
In an angry state Nadine rushes out of the house, and grabs some juice from a shop.
She then makes her way to pet land, where her crush works, and rushes inside to find
him.
After she finds him, she tries to make a conversation but her crush walks away.
The next morning when her mother is about to give her a ride to school, she seems annoyed.
She says that she would ask Krista to give her a ride.
This makes Nadine feel worse about herself.
She feels like she is a burden and her mom can’t even do this much for her.
So, she threatens to disclose her mom’s secret on Facebook, only to get a ride from
her mom.
But she is delicate and she doesn’t understand what her mother says to comfort her.
Later after the class, she tries to find her crush, and she sees him going somewhere.
She doesn’t feel disheartened, instead she goes to find Erwin, but he isn’t anywhere
to be found.
She asks Erwin’s friends about him.
They tell her he is busy with the film festival.
She sees the entire lunch hall packed up in groups.
Everyone is having lunch together and also having fun.
Nothing is more depressing than standing alone in a place, where everyone is in groups.
So, she rushes to her classroom, and enters the class by saying she has to talk about
homework, but she actually sits in front of her teacher, and has her lunch.
While having lunch she makes some weird conversations.
Finally, she confesses that she came to the classroom, because she doesn’t have any
friends and she is not interested.
She thinks that she is different from everyone here, and they have nothing in common with
her.
Then her teacher says that maybe they don’t like her.
Which is true but Nadine doesn’t want to hear it.
Hearing it made her feel terrible about herself, and in retaliation, she passes a snide remark
on her teacher about his looks and career choice, and also his salary.
The teacher is amazed.
He knows she is hurt.
So, to comfort her, he shares his cookie with her, and says that she is his favorite student.
In the next scene, Nadine is resting and watching TV.
Krista and Darian come home together, and they proceed to go to Darian’s room.
Seeing this Nadine feels lonely.
She takes an anti-depressant pill and lies down.
Erwin calls her.
She picks up and says she can’t talk now.
But she calls him back 2 minutes later, and asks if he has a pool and if she could come
over.
Because she doesn’t feel comfortable swimming in her own pool.
Erwin tells her to come right away, and he is going to make arrangements.
He provides her the address.
When Nadine reaches Erwin’s place, she finds out he is extremely rich.
Later they are in the pool, swimming.
Nadine feels happy and safe with him, and they talk a lot.
Suddenly Nadine asks if he wants to get intimate.
Erwin agrees but Nadine says that she was just kidding.
Erwin’s emotions get hurt and but he doesn’t express.
Rather he tries poking fun at her in a friendly manner by playing a song.
After swimming for a long time, Nadine asks him about his film.
He replies that he is still figuring out the topic, but his teacher asked him to draw animations.
Erwin then shows Nadine his drawings, and Nadine loves them.
Erwin invites her to come on the weekend to watch his film.
It is scheduled for early morning.
Nadine promises to come.
The next morning her mom drives her to school.
She sees Krista coming with a bunch of friends, and she looks happy.
Nadine didn’t want Krista to see her in her current state so, she asks her mom to
drive around the block once again.
But her mom refuses to do so, and Nadine refuses to get down.
Not giving into her shenanigans, her mom drives to her office.
Her mom asks her if she has any school work to do.
She didn’t have any so, she asks Nadine to sit quietly for a few hours.
Her mom tells her that her husband wouldn’t have liked to see Nadine in such way.
Nadine gets upset hearing this, and says that anyone can become her Mom’s husband but
it is Nadine’s dad that they are talking about.
Later she rushes out of the office with car keys and takes the car.
Her mom screams from behind that she will call the cops if Nadine takes the car.
Nadine doesn’t listen to her mom, and takes the car much to her mom’s displeasure.
She goes to a park and takes her phone out to text her crush.
She types an explicit message.
But after reading it, she thinks she sounds like a psychopath and decides to erase it.
As she is about to do so, she accidentally presses the send button.
And now we come back to the present day from where this story started.
Nadine rushes out of her car, and goes to her teacher saying that she is about to take
her life now.
Her teacher understands she is having a nervous breakdown and she needs help, so he suggests
she skip her next class and go outside.
He also suggests she should drink water and have some yogurt.
He says that if she faces any complications, she should inform him immediately.
She asks for some money to buy yogurt, and her teacher gives her.
While having yogurt she overthinks a lot.
She is still shivering when she gets a call from her mom.
She doesn’t pick, and doesn’t respond to her mom’s voicemail either.
She goes to the restroom instead and prays to God for having her back at least this one
time, because according to her, God has never supported her.
She doesn’t feel well.
She is mentally shaken and going through something really painful.
When she comes out, she sees a text on her phone from an unknown number.
The text says “Wow.”
She replies asking who it was, and soon gets to know it is from Nick, her crush.
She is elated, and her mood changes in an instant.
Nick asks her to hangout that night, and she says yes in an instant.
She rushes back to her home.
Once home, she raids her mom’s wardrobe to find something decent or beautiful to wear.
She keeps thanking God for fulfilling her wish.
She then takes a shower, washes her hair, and also shaves.
She is very excited for tonight.
Then she blow-dries her hair and wears a beautiful dress.
She also applies some makeup.
After a really long time, she has made an effort to look good and feel good about herself.
She is also nervous, but all her nervousness and fear are covered by her happiness.
She applies a little too much perfume, and finally she is all set to leave.
Meanwhile her mom reaches home, and sees that her whole house is a mess.
Nadine had scattered everything while picking clothes for her big night.
But in the process, she had turned her house upside down.
Her mom calls Darian.
He is in a party but hearing his mom isn’t fine, he rushes out of the party to see her.
Krista accompanies him.
Nadine gets picked up by Nick, and they are on their way.
Nick compliments Nadine saying she looks cute.
Nadine blushes and thanks him.
Back home, Nadine’s mom is packing all the scattered things.
When Darian asks what she is doing, she replies that she will donate all of this.
Then she points to the open hair straightener and says in anger that maybe Nadine wanted
to burn the house.
When Darian tries to calm her down.
He also tries to take the bag from her, but his mom says that she is the adult here.
Darian asks her then why she always calls him.
After hearing this, his mom feels very helpless.
She realizes she is interfering in Darian’s life too much.
But she still replies that she calls him because she doesn’t have anybody else.
Darian says that she should let him handle the things as always.
Darian calls Nadine but Nadine doesn’t answer.
Nadine and Nick are excited and are about to take their date onto the next level.
But at that moment, Nadine doesn’t feel good about it.
She is trying hard to get comfortable but she didn’t like it.
She thought that getting intimate with someone will help her to move on from all the stress
of life and she will find the peace she is looking for.
Suddenly, she screams asking Nick to get off her.
He complies.
She tries to make things normal by making a conversation, but Nick gets offended when
she takes talks about his car.
She didn’t say anything bad about it, but Nick took it seriously and he starts shouting.
Nadine tries to kiss him in order to calm him down.
And soon they get cozy again.
Nadine still doesn’t like it.
So, she removes his hand, and Nick asks what was wrong with her.
Nadine finally tells him that she wants to get intimate, but not after just a five minutes
meeting.
She wants to know him before and do other things too.
But Nick makes it clear that he isn’t interested in all that.
So, Nadine leaves.
She runs and then finally breaks down, as she cries uncontrollably.
She goes to a doughnut shop nearby, and her teacher comes to pick her up.
He brings her to his place.
Nadine is surprised to see her teacher has a nice, sweet family.
She had thought her teacher was unmarried.
But he has a beautiful wife and a little boy.
Her teacher asks her for her mom’s number, and calls her up.
When Nadine sees the bond his family shares, she craves for it.
She also wants to be in an environment like that.
As her brother comes to pick her up.
But when she sees Krista is with him, she changes her mind to go.
When her brother forces her to come with them, she says he doesn’t have to pretend that
he cares, only because people are watching.
She also adds that she knows he wants to take her home only to become mom’s little hero.
Finally, Darian tells her, with sarcasm in his tone, that maybe Nadine is right, maybe
he loves pretending and loves spending all nights calming her mom.
He is only applying to nearby schools so he can be there whenever anything happens.
Because there is no one else to fix things.
He also mentions that he loves Krista, because she is the only person who makes him feel
like he could take a breath juggling between school and responsibilities.
Darian then requests her teacher to drop his sister home.
Later when the teacher takes her home, he wants to make sure she is feeling better.
When Nadine reaches home, she meets her brother and apologizes for being very difficult for
the last couple of weeks, and also for the last 17 years.
She also says that she always felt insecure about herself, and she was always suffering.
Later the brother sister duo broke embrace, keeping their differences in the past.
The next morning, Nadine is up early.
She gets ready and comes downstairs.
Krista and Darian both are surprised to see her up this early.
She explains she has something important to visit.
Her brother wishes her a great day, and she wishes them the same.
Krista asks if she can text Nadine, she replies in the affirmative.
She knows she has changed.
She reaches the movie hall, and her phone rings.
It is her mom.
She ignores it and texts her she is safe.
After watching Erwin’s movie, she goes to congratulate him and tell him how much she
loved the movie.
She says she understood that she was the character in the film.
Which was true, but Erwin tries to deny it at first, but then accepts.
He takes Nadine to meet some new people.
Nadine feels comfortable and perhaps truly happy in a crowd for the first time.