YOU BELONG WITH ME , Ben Plunkett

ben vs mandy

Mandy decided to stop at Ms. Chen's office, rather than go to class—so I took my time getting to my class.

"Miss Taylor," someone stopped me, and I turned around to see the school nurse—Miss Blaisdell.

"Oh, hi, Miss B," I smiled.

"How are you?" she asked. I shrugged. "Decided on a school yet?"

There it was. The dreaded question.

"I—no," I admitted.

"That's okay," she waved her hand. "You've got plenty of time,"

"I'm not so sure I do," I told her. "My parents are really on top of me about it. I'm afraid they won't accept that I want to take a year off,"

It was true. My parents were so set on me going to college, and getting a degree in medicine.

I never wanted to become a doctor—but what I really wanted, my parents didn't think I could make a living off of.

"Hey," Miss B said, "This is your life, kid. No one can tell you what to do with it,"

*

"What are you thinking about, Jaz?" Ben asked me at lunch.

"Everything." I mumbled. "Ben, I just don't know what to do,"

"About college?" he asked. I only looked at him, which was answer enough. "Jasmine, we've gone over this so many times. You can't keep being afraid of what your parents think," he said. "If you want to write, you should write,"

"It just feels so wrong—going against them,"

"You've got two brothers who have become doctors, Jaz," Ben grinned, "I think your family could use an author for a change. A great one, at that," he poked my side, and I giggled.

The two of us stopped talking as Mandy and our other two friends joined us at our table. Zenobia and Charles sat down, while having their own conversation.

"Bethany's staging a coup, Charles," Zenobia was saying. I looked up from my book I was reading to smile at her. "She's trying to overthrow me as drum major,"

"I can't hear this again," Charles said. "Can we talk about anything else? Not Harvard," he stopped Mandy before she could start.

"People seemed to like the whole Ghostbusters thing," Ben said.

"Ugh. Promposals are just another example of the patriarchy affirming its dominance over women," Mandy said.

"Okay, but you have to admit the 80's theme makes it kind of fun," Ben said, shrugging.

"The 80's theme makes them even worse," Mandy said. "Can you name one popular 80's movie that isn't totally sexist?"

"Are you being for real? Of course I can," he said, confidently.

"Dollar bet, who you got?" Charles asked Zenobia and I.

"Mandy, duh," Zenobia and I said together.

"Hey!" Ben pouted at me.

"I'm sorry, bub," I looked down at my book again.

"I don't know, I think Ben's got this one." Charles said.

"Okay. Breakfast Club," Ben started.

"The theme is be yourself unless you want a cute boy to like you, then get a make over from Molly Ringwald," Mandy retorted.

"Fine. Fine. Weird Science," Ben tried.

"The perfect woman is scantily clad and here to please."

Ben turned his head to the side, flabbergasted. "Revenge of the Nerds?"

"The hero nerd tricks a girl into believing he's her boyfriend so she'll have sex with him. That's not a comedy, that's an episode of SVU," Mandy finished.

"Boom!" Zenobia said.

"Come on, Ben. Even I knew that one!" Charles cried.

"Pay up, Chuck," I said, with a grin.

"Calm down, I'll Venmo you." he said, as the bell rang. "I don't have Venmo,"

*

Angelina Speaks:

So, yes, I am trying to give Jasmine real life problems. In my opinion this movie was so good. It was different from any of the other Disney+ Originals; to me, at least. It was...relatable.

I remember being so nervous when I was getting ready for college. My high school made sure go be on our tails about it from our Freshman year!

I felt rushed, and I felt like since all of my other classmates were planning on getting fancy degrees, that I needed to as well. But it's not true! You create your own path!

So don't rush yourself into finding what you want to do with your life—you don't need to go to college! There are so many incredible jobs that you can get. 🫶