Stu French

Stu French, better known as “Neck Tie”, the friendliest, gentlest and most pure-hearted foodbank of a boy, who also happens to be the root of all problems at Westbrook.

## Backstory

Stu was born in the boring English town of Chipping Campden, where he spent the first 13 years of his life watching sheep graze in the open fields behind his cottage (on Sheep Street). He went to a small Catholic school and received a stern Christian education.

Although Stu lived in a quiet town, his household was anything but quiet. His parents fought round the clock. When they divorced, his mother won custody of his younger twin brothers, while Stu was sent to live with his father, Martin French, in Westbrook, Maine.

## Season 1

### Birth of a Legend

It all begins with a little neck tie. Martin asks Stu to wear his best tie to school on his first day, as a polite gesture to Principal Nona. The boy obliges against his better judgment. Within five seconds of entering the hallway of Westbrook, he is floored by a large bully. After class, Stu anxiously checks on the bump on his forehead in the restroom. He casts away his neck tie in a fit of anger, only to run back to salvage it from the trash can. And hence Neck Tie the Trash Can is born.

Stu goes see Principal Nona, who assigns him a new buddy, the delirious sophomore, Drake Martin. When two other freshmen make fun of his tie in the hallway, the rugged-looking senior boy named Kanen Fiaco approaches them and delivers a prompt and violent justice.

Stu loves football and asks to tag along with his new friends, Drake and Matilda Kwan, to the tryouts. After the team captain, Mason Rivera, makes fun of his scrawny looks (and his Happy Meal nuggets), Stu stupidly challenges him to a one-on-one. When Mason sees that spectators have gathered for the historic showdown, he decides to up the stakes: he would step down as captain if he loses, but Stu would have to be his servant for a month if he wins. The foolhardy freshman learns the hard way that football and soccer are not the same thing. He stands still as the larger boy throws him on the ground and runs away with the victory ‘like a pillock’. Upset, Stu tells Drake, who happens to be Mason's brother, that they are no longer friends. And now, for better or for worse, ‘Neck Tie’ is the talk of the school and the name on everybody’s lips.

### Curious Incident of the Neck Tie Boy in the Night Time

Neck Tie goes to Ash's back-to-school party. He is happily minding his own business (stuffing nachos into his mouth) when the makeshift bartender, Kanen, asks him to join their game of truth-or-dare. Neck Tie asks for a coke, but unbeknownst to him Kanen tops his drink off with some whiskey. June dares him to drink a whole bottle of alcohol. Already not thinking straight, Neck Tie, who has never gotten drunk before, agrees and picks up a bottle of Russian 96% alcohol vodka that was brought to the party by Marilyn Cheng and Xenon J'Lon Everrett, and happily begins drinking from it.

Neck Tie leaves the circle after asking his favourite bartender an honest question, setting off an explosive encounter between Kanen and Mason. Now drunk, Neck Tie goes around searching for more nachos and dips to try and somehow ends up in the garden, peeing on Jace’s beloved petunias. Jace tries to stop him, but the boy turns around and pees on Jace’s yellow slippers instead. Furious, Jace throws him out onto the streets to fend for himself. Neck Tie makes his own fun lying in the gutter and shouting at dogs in Latin. Officer Jim Richards finds him in a bad state, and rushes the boy to the ER with severe alcohol poisoning.

Stu is in a critical condition and the paramedics try to save his life, turning him into a scientific experiment in the process. His bad fortune triggers a cascade of consequences back at the Wests' residence. Kanen is arrested and put on probation, and Jace’s and Ash’s dad eventually loses his job trying to cover up for his children. When Stu finally wakes up, he apologises to Martin and promises to be more responsible. Officer Jim gives him a new watch to help him keep time. Drake pays him a visit at the hospital smelling like a trash can. Later, Kanen also visits him and they binge watch *Star Wars* together and become fast friends.

### The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Neck Tie returns to school without a neck tie and pledges to stay out of trouble. Involuntarily, he becomes involved in the school musical and tries to get away from acting by throwing his lot in with the musicians, Jace and his very lovely girlfriend Nova. When Kanen has a verbal clash with Ash in the auditorium, Neck Tie rushes to the aid of his favourite bartender, offering him the gift of M&Ms.

At rehearsal some days later, Kanen barges through the door seeking another fight with Ryder. Neck Tie fearlessly intervenes and attempts to calm his friend down, but Kanen flings him like a ragdoll into in a bunch of metal chairs. Later that day, Neck Tie goes to console his musical buddy, Jace, who had humiliated himself in front of the crowd by cowering behind a girl. Jace agrees to teach him music. They become good friends and eventually, Neck Tie convinces beanie boy to talk and apologise to Nova.

One month later, Neck Tie is roaming the hallways as Westbrook Wolf, collecting donations for a wildlife conservation project. He befriends the shy new girl, Elizabeth Lubkowska, and works up the courage to ask her out to homecoming, as a friend. When she refuses to give him an answer, Neck Tie goes to sulk alone in the music room. Jace discovers him there, and Neck Tie tells Jace how he thinks his mother has abandoned him and doesn’t love him anymore. He cries and the two friends awkwardly embrace.

### Neck Pie and Mason

Neck Tie is back in optimistic mood the next day, but a hallway encounter with his old rival, Mason, soon changes that. Mason threatens him with a violent nugget-related death if he does not honour the deal and become his servant, explaining that he only needed him for a week to help make enough money to buy a car to impress his girlfriend, June. Neck Tie reluctantly agrees, and spends the whole school day worrying about his fate.

The two meet again in the afternoon. Mason offers Neck Tie a choice between selling pies and dancing in a costume, and Neck Tie suggests that he would do both: sell pies in a costume. Mason hatches a plan to maximise their profits. He would have Neck Tie pretending to be his sickly and dying little brother (in return, Neck Tie puts on such a convincing demonstration of this that he has Mason worried). They arrive at the apartment and, evading Mason's drunk mother, Neck Tie gets to work on the costume.

Mason is impressed by the costume, which promises to draw in lots of customers. But Mason's poor salesmanship scares all their customers away. Disappointed with their lack of customers, and feeling sorry for Mason, Neck Tie sneaks in his own pocket money into their profits while Mason is not looking.

### A Happy Meal for Elise

On Friday, Neck Tie and Martin prepare an Italian meal for Elise, and nearly burn the kitchen down. Elise pretends to like the barely edible food. Neck Tie plays 'Fur Elise' on his new keyboard for Elise, but butchers the song. Martin and Elise wants Neck Tie out of the house so they can spend some quality time together, so they drop him off at the homecoming party.

At homecoming, Neck Tie tries to stay out of the party by playing Space Invaders on his phone. He has an awkward encounter with June, who feels guilty about daring him to drink the vodka. She apologises but Neck Tie does not know what for, and also drops his phone. After she leaves, Neck Tie has a minor breakdown when he sees a picture of his brothers on the cracked screen. He runs to the toilet and locks himself in, and calls his mother on the phone. To his surprise, his call is answered by a man who is angry to have been awoken in the night.

The next morning, June asks Neck Tie for help cleaning Alaska's locker, which had been vandalised with the word 'slut'. She also enlists the help of Casper Ollila, a freshman, who becomes fast friends with Neck Tie. While they are scrubbing the locker, June has a confrontation with her boyfriend Mason and Adriane. The two kiss in front of June, prompting Neck Tie to throw his scrubby brush at Mason, although Mason does not get offended. That lunch, Neck Tie introduces Jace to his new friend, Casper and they talk Minecraft.

It is open day at Westbrook University. Neck Tie and Jace go on the humanities tour, led by Martin. Jace spots his mother, Elise, and follows her down a corridor. He sees her kissing Martin and freaks out. Neck Tie is late to the scene and finds the other kids heckling Elise, so he quickly rushes to her aid. Furious, Jace tells Neck Tie and Elise to leave him and Ash alone and enjoy their new family.

### Neck Tie the Science Guy

Neck Tie tries to cope with his fallout with Jace by going trick-or-treating with Casper. They go to McDonald's together and have a great time. At musical practice on the Monday, Jace and Stu play the snubbing game, and their friendship is further strained by Elise's presence. The next day, Neck Tie fails spectacularly at a science experiment, turning himself into a tower of orange foam and soap. He hurries to the washroom to clean up, but on the way runs smack into Grace Jackson, who becomes drawn into his misfortune. As if their encounter wasn't already awkward enough, Grace manages to slip and fall on top of Neck Tie. Sawyer Andrews chances upon the hilarious scene and the three take pictures together.

At lunch break on the big day, Grace and Sawyer invite Neck Tie along to fetch some props for the play. They stop for lunch at Westbrook's favourite fast food restaurant, McDonald's. While feasting on his nuggets, Neck Tie sees Grace and Sawyer acting in an intimate way, which causes him to become overwhelmed by memories of a past, childhood guilt involving his gay friend, Tom. Sawyer however thinks Neck Tie is being homophobic and makes known her disapproval.

### Musician of the Year

Neck Tie, already reeling from his disastrous lunch with Grace and Sawyer, goes on stage and makes a complete and utter mess of his piano part at the play's climactic moment. Jace comes over and yells at him for screwing up and pushes him. Neck Tie retaliates and the two wrestle pathetically, tumbling into Jace's beloved guitar and flattening it. To Principal Nona's horror, as well as that of everyone else watching, they end up fighting smack in the middle of the stage under the limelight. The curtain falls and Principal Nona tries to rescue the situation by giving a speech, but the two roll into her and sweeps her off her legs, sending the poor woman flying unceremoniously off the stage.

Casper comes over to Neck Tie's place on the Saturday, and the two play Fifa while waiting for their spinach pizza (Casper's preference) to be delivered. Their fun is cut short when Casper receives a text which compels him to leave without an explanation. Martin offers to drive Casper to the park, and once they et there, Neck Tie follows his friend out sensing that he is in some sort of trouble. They meet Aaron in the park, and when Aaron turns his frustrations on his tardy brother, Neck Tie attempts to intervene.

On the Monday, Neck Tie is summoned to Principal Nona's office with Martin, who is outraged by the headmistress's decision to suspend his son. To spite Martin even further, Principal Nona changes the suspension to three weeks instead of just two. While the adults are arguing, Neck Tie slips out of the room and finds himself seated next to Alaska, who claims to know Kanen's whereabouts and also proposes that they go look for him in Boston.

### Finding Kanen and Thanksgiving

Neck Tie and Alaska embark on their road trip, but on the way they discover on Twitter that Kanen has returned to Westbrook. So instead they went to the aquarium, where Neck Tie is awed by sharks, and then to a fair, where he wins a Kermit plush and gives it to Alaska. But their car breaks down on the way back, and Martin and Elise has to abandon the Shakespeare conference to come to their rescue.

As a result, Neck Tie is grounded and disallowed from seeing Kanen ever again, whom Elise reprimands as a dirty criminal. He is also made to attend Thanksgiving at the Wests, an awkward affair which came to a head when Neck Tie accidentally spills wine on Jace. Elise makes him apologise, but following Beanie Boy to his room he accidentally catches Jace and nearly-shirtless Theo locked in an intimate embrace. Jace begins panicking. Theo rushes to block the exit, trapping Neck Tie in the room. In return, Neck Tie threatens to tell everyone about what he saw. Theo answers by threatening to hurt his best friend, Casper.

### Ski Trip

Neck Tie endures an awkward ride up to Saddleback Mountain with the Wests and Theo. Arriving at the lodge, he and Casper pick a room with a bunk bed. Neck Tie has a brief encounter with Nova while retrieving his bag from the porch. Back in his room, he catches Casper nervously biting his nails but mistakes the injury for frostbite. While he was trying to fix Casper's hands, that boy suddenly kisses him on the cheek, but Neck Tie doesn't make a fuss about it.

On the second day of the trip, Neck Tie is put in charge of the BBQ and burns all the steaks. On Christmas Eve, he puts up the tree and decorates it with the help of Alice Ester and Mads Daniels. Neck Tie goes into the party and, to his horror, discovers Casper, Aaron and Drake sitting around casually drinking. He has a go at Aaron and Drake for allowing Casper to drink and hten drags hsi friend outside, where he builds a snowman.

On the day of the bonfire, he goes skiing and crashes dramatically into Grace. Grace questions him about his alleged homophobia and she ends up kissing him on the cheek under a mistletoe.

### The Sink

Back at school, Neck Tie discovers that a video of him peeing on Jace's petunias had leaked and gone viral. Aaron confronts him in the bathroom about Casper kissing him and tells him not to be friends with his brother anymore. Aaron slams Neck Tie's head into the sink and proceeds to kick him around on the floor while Casper watches.