Episode 2: RELATIONSHIPS

Synopsis

This episode centres on two Year 10 students, Sophie and Gary. Sophie is friends with Rose and Sarah but she’s restless and finds herself drawn to the ‘cool group’ in the class – led by Rachel. Gary is fairly new to the school and seems to get along well with his mates Marcus and Steven. He’s also taken an interest in Sophie – but they’ve yet to go out together.

Marcus had been seeing Rachel but last weekend she broke up with him. However Marcus hasn’t got the message. He behaves as if all is well, even telling Gary they had sex together – in turn pressuring Gary to do the same with Sophie.

Sophie starts to change her style of dress (to look more ‘cool’) and after giving some attitude to the teacher finds herself invited to join Rachel and her friends at lunch. In the process, she begins to alienate herself from Rose and Sarah. Gary may be friends with Marcus and Steven but it doesn’t stop them stirring him – which he clearly doesn’t enjoy. Yet the boys go too far when Marcus provocatively steals from Gary’s family supermarket – and implicates Gary. Meanwhile, Sophie is in trouble with her mother for her deteriorating school work and her endless sessions on the mobile phone.

Things reach a head in the wake of a party they all attended on the weekend. Sophie got drunk and has little memory of what happened. Seizing the opportunity, Rachel and the girls tell her that she ‘did something’ with Gary, in front of everyone. Sophie is mortified. The girls are delighted that their lie has hit its mark. Gary’s only crime at the party was that he didn’t drink and Marcus and Steven give him a hard time about it. At the same time, Gary is bullied by some older boys. When the boys confront him, Gary’s mates pressure him to fight but fortunately the boys walk off before things get out of hand.

When Sophie tries to patch things up with Rose and Sarah, they resist, pointing out how badly she has treated them. Then Gary witnesses Rachel confronting Marcus about the lies he is spreading about their having sex together – leaving Gary to ponder whether his new mates are the sort of friends worth pursuing.

In the Segmented Version of the video's concluding interviews we learn that Rose and Sarah forgave Sophie and their friendship continues; and Gary now has a new group of friends, having realised that Marcus and Steven were not true mates.

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