The story opens in May of 1976 on the last day of school at Lee High School somewhere in Texas. The junior class is looking forward to the summer season and also eager to become senior students in the Fall. Though the story doesn't have a central plot, it follows one day in the lives of several students and the trials and tribulation they go through making the transition from one grade to the next. Randall "Pink" Floyd is a quarterback for the school football team. Randall is a sort of bridge between the cool kids like his teammates and their girlfriends and the more average students whom he also hangs out with. Arriving for the last day he meets with his friend Don who reminds him they have to take a brief trip over to the junior high school to torment the 8th graders who will move up to their freshman year. A longstanding tradition has the newly-minted seniors chasing and torturing the new freshmen boys with paddles they've made themselves in wood shop. Don also hands Pink a slip of paper from their coach that every player is now required to sign: the document declares that no team player will do any drugs or drink alcohol. Though his teammates have signed with the intention of ignoring the new pledge anyway, Pink refuses, believing it to be another oppressive form of control. Pink is also harassed by his coach because he hangs out with friends who belong to the school's stoner crowd. Pink, Don, Benny and Melvin all pile into Benny's pickup and drive to the junior high. Also joining them is O'Bannion, a senior who flunked out and is returning. Benny announces to the students in the junior high over his CB radio that they'll be gunning for all the new freshmen. If the kids voluntarily give themselves up right after school, they'll only be paddled a single time. If they run, then it's open season all summer. Right before they left, Jodi, older sister to Mitch, had asked the guys to go easy on Mitch, which Benny immediately dismisses. Mitch is directly named by Benny and his friends tell him to take off in a different direction to take the heat off themselves. As school finishes up, Mitch asks his teacher, on behalf of his friends Carl, Tommy and Hirschfelder, if he'll let them go early to avoid the seniors gunning for them. Their teacher gives them a speech telling them to man up because he had to while a soldier in Vietnam. When the boys try to sneak out, they bolt for the car that Hirschfelder has procured for them from his brother and race off with Benny and O'Bannion in hot pursuit. Carl and Mitch are dropped off at Carl's parents' house. O'Bannion grabs them both and is about to paddle them when Carl's mother bursts out the front door pointing a shotgun. O'Bannion retreats, yelling he'll get them later. The freshmen girls also receive their own vicious hazing from the senior women. They're forced to put infant pacifiers in their mouths, conduct air raid drills (they have to fall on the ground quickly or be forced to repeat the action), are covered in ketchup, mustard and flour and ask the senior men present humiliating questions. They're later taken in the back of a pickup to a local car wash and go through the cleaning cycle. After they're dropped off at home, one of their number, Sabrina, is asked by Jodi to come hang out with them that night. Sabrina agrees. At Kevin Pickford's house, his girlfriend Michelle, Pink and their friend Slater hang out and smoke weed. Pickford's parents suddenly inform him that a guy delivering kegs of beer is out in front of the house. Pickford had been planning a large keg party while his parents would be out of town on vacation. He's able to talk the delivery guy into leaving but his parents tell him their vacation is cancelled. The group will have to come up with a new plan to throw a party. That night Mitch has to pitch for his local little-league baseball team, with Benny, Melvin, O'Bannion and Pink watching and taunting him from the stands. Stalling on the mound doesn't work very well and Mitch throws his final strike to give his team the game. As he walks out the gate in right field, the guys are waiting for him. He's given a vicious beating while bent over the hood of a car. Pink happens by and makes like he'll get his licks in but he spares Mitch, even offering him a ride home. He relates his own story from three years ago when he got the same treatment. However, he invites Mitch to hang out with him that night, advising him that if he shows up it'll show the seniors that the beating really doesn't bother him that much. Pink also tells him to sit on some ice for a couple of hours to ease the pain. Pink arrives at Mitch's house later in a 1970 Chevy Chevelle driven by a friend, Wooderson, a former student at the school who dropped out and works for the city. They drive to their local hangout, a pool hall called The Emporium. Though most people at first seem a bit suspicious of Mitch, he's eventually accepted. He goes out on a run with Pink, Don in their friend Pickford's 1970 Pontiac GTO. Cruising at high speed, they destroy a few mailboxes with stolen trash cans and encourage Mitch to throw a bowling ball through the back window of a parked car. The brazen act seems to up Mitch's points with the guys. They stop at a local convenience store where Don, claiming he's out of money, will boost some beer while Mitch stands watch outside. Don actually tells Mitch he's going to pay for it but he wants to play a prank on their friends. Don rushes out and they both jump in Pickford's car. Before they can scream off, they're stopped by an angry man with a pistol. Thinking that it's the clerk from the store, Pickford tells Don to pay for the beer, but the man is furious about his mailbox being destroyed. They're able to escape and roar off with the man firing at them. When they return to the Emporium, Melvin gives Mitch some money to go out and buy him a six-pack. Mitch is able to bluff the clerk at the store and returns triumphantly with the beer. Wooderson spreads the word that there'll be a keg party at a place called the Moon Tower in a few hours. Meanwhile, Sabrina drives around with some the senior girls. They eventually bring her to the Emporium where Mitch catches up with her. She tells him that his friend Hirschfelder got caught by Don, Benny & O'Bannion and was mercilessly paddled. Mitch comes up with a plan: he gathers his friends and has them help him lure O'Bannion outside when the word is spread that Carl has been captured and awaits a paddling. O'Bannion stakes is claim and is ready to beat Carl mainly for the shotgun the boy's mother pulled on him when he's hit by paint thrown on him by Carl's friends. Humiliated, O'Bannion leaves the scene while his friends smirk, roaring out in his Duster. Some of Pink's other friends, Mike, Tony and Cynthia ride around in Cynthia's car, discussing what their futures might hold for them. Mike had wanted to be a lawyer and work for the ACLU but has second thoughts and nervously admits he'd like to be a dancer. Mike is nervous about going to Pickford's party but they all retreat when they get to the house and his father answers the door. At the Moon Tower, the party goes into full swing and everyone becomes pleasantly drunk. Benny confronts Pink about his refusal to sign the coach's loyalty agreement. Benny thinks Pink is only thinking of himself and doesn't care about the team. Pink explains that he'll play for the team but not under oppressive rules. One of the drunken senior women, Darla, tries to get Sabrina, who has been hanging out with Tony, to perform an air raid. Sabrina, having already gone through the afternoon's humiliation, is told by Tony she doesn't have to do anything Darla says. Mitch climbs the tower with some of the guys, who tell him that other freshmen have gotten drunk and fallen off the tower. Slater, an eternal stoner, pontificates on the possibility that George Washington may have grown massive fields of marijuana as a cash crop for the Southern states - in truth, Washington grew fields of hemp both for rope-making and the oil. Mike walks past a group of guys led by Clint, while he works on his Pontiac Firebird. Mike remarks that he can smell the weed their smoking and Clint takes offense. Mike is shaken by the threat and later, while he's semi-drunk, takes a cheap shot at Clint, knocking him down. Clint retaliates and pins Mike to the ground, hitting him a few times until Pink and Wooderson break it up. Mike runs off with Cynthia, who drives them to a remote spot and takes care of him. The two of them make out. Mitch leaves the party with a sophomore girl and ends up lying out on a blanket under the stars making out. When he arrives home at dawn, his mother catches him. She tells him he gets one "get out of jail free card" but will be in trouble the next time he comes home at dawn. Pink, Wooderson, Slater and Don join Simone and Shavonne at the 50 yard line of the school's football field to smoke a joint and wait out the rest of the night. While there, Don talks about how it's important to have a reputation and enjoy life before graduating. Wooderson come back from retrieving some rolling papers from Pink's car with the coach's document. Pink finalizes his refusal to sign it. Just then, a police car shines its spotlight on them and they're ordered to get off the field. Pinks coach shows up at dawn and admonishes Pink for not signing the document and for hanging out with the stoner crowd. Pink stands up to his coach and tells him he'll play for the team but won't sign the paper. The coach leaves in a huff. The gang go with Wooderson to Houston to buy tickets for the big Aerosmith concert that's coming up. They drive down the highway while "Slow Ride" by Foghat plays.
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