This high school teenage romance is every definition of cliche you can imagine, but that would not stop you from enjoying it. The story follows the “enemies” to lovers trope between high school seniors Mandy Yang and Graham Lansing. Mandy was a straight A student who believed prom and other high school frivolities were beneath her while Graham was the popular Athlete that everyone wanted to be with.
Their paths finally crossed when Mandy got waitlisted for her dream school, Harvard and she somehow convinced herself that the only path to her dream was via Graham’s dad, a Harvard alum. And thus began the scheming and planning to become Graham’s tutor (of course, the pretty popular athlete has to be an academic failure) which led to an unlikely friendship and the rest they say, is history.
Other notable characters were Ben Plunkett, Mandy’s best friend whom she had a “prom pact” with and Latoya Reynolds, Ben’s crush. Their story rolls out as Graham’s and Mandy’s does, thanks to Mandy randomly canceling plans with Ben to be with the “ticket to her dreams” and Latoya being the super adorable popular girl that thought Ben was cute. Ben was a truly dedicated and forgiving best friend- it bordered on unbelievable. I mean, how do you run out of your birthday date with the girl of your dreams to deal with a weepy best friend that let you down to begin with? And though there were a series of misunderstandings that could have been avoided if the characters were honest, it all still played out nicely.
My favorite scene was Mandy’s speech as the salutatorian where she made use of an acronym Graham taught her when he decided to repay her tutoring with basketball lessons. It was a beautiful speech and it brought some tears to my eyes. I totally recommend it if you’ve been searching for a feel good romcom to watch. I must warn you though, the plot is painfully predictable.
