Friends in High School: Job Opportunities

***Friends in High School: Job Opportunities*** is a sports action comedy-horror psychological thriller film written and directed by Bryan Martinez Rodarte. Serving as a stand-alone sequel to Friends in High School (film), the film features the return of James, with small cameos from Tyson and Tania, the ensemble cast features completely new characters, inspired by real-life friends of Bryan.

## Synopsis

Friends in High School 2 takes us out of school, and onto the streets of Georgia. With a little psychological thriller and action scenes, this film is completely different from the rest.

## Plot

The movie begins with a shot of the city at night, with a simple text box saying, “September 8, 2024.” Three sports cars, an orange Mazda, a red Mitsubishi, and a black Nissan, drift through the city, seemingly in a street race.

As they drift and race on, someone in a stolen police car waits, while listening to the police scanner, which simply says, “Officers, be warned of a possible street race happening. Be advised, and be ready to apprehend the suspects if possible.” The driver then begins driving down an alleyway.

As the sports cars turn onto Main Street, they maneuver their way through traffic. The police car finally nears an intersection, and hears the Mazda getting closer. The driver steps on the gas, and T-Bones the Mazda, eventually flipping it upside down and crashing it into the side of a building. The driver, revealed to be Tania, gets out of the car and looks at the wrecked Mazda, which is revealed to have been driven by Tyson. The Mitsubishi and the Nissan drive away in shock. Tania then walks away from the wreck, leaving Tyson for dead.

A week later, Tyson gets out of the hospital, and returns to school. James comforts him (“Gone Away”) and tells him that he found a new job. Tyson congratulates him, and wishes him luck.

James arrives at his new job, working as a pizza maker, and is introduced to his coworkers and the hierarchy of job positions. The job positions go as follows; CSR, or customer service representative. Shift Lead, basically a manager in training. Assistant Managers Levels 1 through 3. AGM, assistant general manager, and finally, GM, or general manager. James starts as a CSR. His coworkers introduce themselves; Natalia, a shift lead. Ronan, a level 1 assistant manager. John, Natalia’s older brother and a level 3 assistant manager. Mitchel, the GM, and his AGM, Michelle. There also are a few drivers, which include Jeff, a 66 year old driver. Jeff’s adopted son, Kodaius, who is best friends with Ronan. Brandon, a driver who enjoys hanging out with everyone. Finally, there’s Zackary, a driver who very quickly evolved himself into the group.

After a few weeks, most insiders have gotten up a level. This includes James, who got promoted to Shift Lead. Natalia became a level 1 assistant manager. Ronan became a level 2 assistant manager, and Mitchel was moved to a different store, and Michelle became the GM. All managers hang out more and more, which also includes Kodaius, but excludes Michelle (“Speed Me Up”), which she is annoyed at. She decides to hire two of her friends, Kyle and Atsalia, both of which become level 1 assistant managers. Kyle eventually makes his way to level 2 assistant manager really quickly, which the rest of the managers find confusing and concerning.

A friend outside of the manager group, Lance, shows up at work multiple times to goof around. Michelle believes that Lance’s presence is disturbing everyone, and sometimes even kicks him out. James finds this confusing, since everyone still gets work done even with Lance around.

Atsalia complains to Michelle that John is hitting on her, and Michelle threatens to fire John if he continues. All the managers side with John, and even the drivers do as well. Atsalia quits, with her reason being, “I got a new job. This place is too toxic.” Michelle then fights by promoting Kyle to level 3, and finally decides to separate the group. She knows Kyle is a veteran, so she hires him to track down Lance, and murder him, with Michelle watching, and laughing (“Nightmare”).

James arrives at work, and Ronan tells him the news of Lance’s death. James immediately suspectes Michelle and Kyle, but Ronan stops him, saying, “You’re right, but we can’t immediately accuse them without any clues.” Michelle begins scheduling the group for shifts farther and farther from each other, which everyone is mad at, but still sticks together to expose Michelle and Kyle.

Kyle tries to manipulate James into joining him by talking about the rest of the managers, calling them “lazy, unproductive, unprofessional, etc.” Kyle then tries to manipulate Ronan by telling him, “I can help you get up to level 3 if you’d like.” Ronan falls into Kyle’s trap, and begins avoiding the rest of the group. John and Natalia try to snap him back to reality, but Kyle intervenes, and stops Ronan from escaping his grasp.

James develops an idea to pretend to fall under Kyle’s trap, and infiltrate Ronan’s mind to get him out. One day, Kyle invites Ronan and James to a BBQ at the former’s house. Both accept, and James informs the manager group about the event. Everyone tries to figure out how to break Kyle and free Ronan, and no one has an idea, but James comes up with an idea. He whispers the idea, and the group agrees.

The BBQ is hosted by Kyle, and attended by Michelle, Atsalia, Ronan and James. James slowly sneaks in the manager group, first Natalia, followed by John, then Kodaius, and finally Zackary. James interrupts the conversation, and announces that he wants to sing a song. Kyle agrees, and gives him the microphone. Kyle tells James to sing the assigned song, but while singing it, he suddenly yells, “Britney Spears in the house!” right as the manager group and restrain everyone. James then begins singing (“Toxic”), which slowly brings Ronan to his senses. He jumps on stage with James, finishes the song, and they both stare at Kyle. Kyle tries to get away, and jumps in his car and speeds off. James and Ronan get in the latter’s car, and chase after Kyle.

Kyle avoids traffic in a similar manner to Tyson avoiding traffic in the street race. James reveals, “God, this is like that race 3 months ago,” revealing that James was in the Mitsubishi and witnessed Tyson’s accident. Michelle breaks free, and gets in her Mustang with Atsalia, and they chase after the three. John and Kodaius get in John’s Dodge and chase them as well.

As all four cars maneuver their way through the streets, they enter downtown Georgia, and are hit with even more traffic. Atsalia yells at Michelle to slow down and concentrate, but Michelle barks back at her. Suddenly, a small Sudan collides with Michelle and Atsalia, killing the latter and severely injuring the former. John and Kodaius pass by, and speed off.

The three continue down the streets, and finally, James and Ronan speed up next to Kyle. Kyle yells at the two to let him go, and pushes them into traffic. Ronan narrowly avoids them, but is side-swiped by another car, which throws the car into a parking space, leaving the two with minor injuries. Kyle then pulls out a weapon, and starts shooting at John and Kodaius. Without him noticing, Tania appears, and T-Bones Kyle, similar to how she T-Boned Tyson. Kyle is left injured, and is trapped in his car.

Tania gets out, with James behind her. He asks her, “Again?” Tania responds, “I’ll explain later.” James sees Kyle’s gun on the ground, and without hesitation, he grabs it and gives it to Ronan. Ronan shoots one bullet at Kyle’s car, which ignites it and explodes. John and Kodaius arrive, see the fire, and tell them that they need to get out now. Tania tells them, “I’ll stay. I’ll explain what happened. Without the ‘Ronan killed Kyle’ part.” The gang leave, and Tania stands as police sirens are heard. The movie ends with Tania saying, “So that job was successful, huh?” (“How We Roll”)

## Trivia

* This film takes inspiration from two separate media sources.
	+ The racing portion takes inspiration from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
	+ The psychological betrayal takes small inspiration from the Genesis Arc from the machinima web series, SMG4.