The Paper › Ep. 107

Amanda reflects upon what a jerk Alex was at Homecoming --although she's much more focused on her future than the present. Namely, applying early decision to her dream school of New York University.

With deadline done, Mrs. Weiss wants to do a story about teens who get perfect test scores but aren't simply nerds. Immediately, the majority of the class begins to swoon over Cypress Bay "superteen" Michael Jan. Besides getting perfect test scores, Michael Jan is on the tennis team, the track team, the orchestra and about a million other things.

Amanda is quite taken aback by everyone's love for Michael Jan. She finds him rather conceited thinks it's better to remain dedicated to one thing you're passionate about...like newspaper. Amanda is writing an article about what colleges are looking for and hopes an interview with the college advisor will prove that she has just as good a shot of getting into a top school as a "jack of all trades" like Michael Jan.

The "reality check" college advisor tells Amanda that colleges are looking for well-rounded students. When she looks up "well-rounded" in the dictionary, Amanda decides she's more well-rounded than Michael Jan -- if only because one of the definitions refers to a woman's curves. Probably not what the college advisor was talking about...

The superteen himself pays a visit to the newsroom to be interviewed. Although Giana's interviewing him, Alex has such a man-crush on Michael Jan that he insists upon sitting in. Amanda gets even more flustered when she talks with Mrs. Weiss about her college article and Mrs. Weiss responds that colleges seem to be looking for superteens like Michael Jan.

Mrs. Weiss informs the class that she's planned a team-building exercise for that weekend to help unite them. Naturally, most of the class is very opposed to the idea. What is surprising is that Amanda's going to miss it. Not because she thinks it's a bad idea -- but because the deadline for NYU is coming up and she needs to finish her application.

Although they protested the idea, Alex, Dan and Trevor do show up to join some of The Circuit staff in completing a massive ropes course. Trevor actually begins to step up as a leader, but ends up getting into a screaming match with Alex. Once they work through their issues, the staff pulls together to get everyone through the course. Even more surprising, they all have a great time and feel more united than ever.

Back in the newsroom, the difference is noticeable -- and the people who participated make sure that everyone else knows they missed out. Now, instead of a rift between Amanda and everyone else, the class is separated by who did the ropes course and who blew it off. Once again, Amanda finds herself on the outside.

Even Cassia expresses disappointment that Amanda missed out. She feels like it could have helped Amanda's relationship with the other editors. Amanda isn't so convinced and stands by her decision to finish her NYU application.

Once Giana has finished her Michael Jan article, Trevor, Adam and Dan decide they could beat Michael Jan in some things and challenge the superteen to a battle of brains and brawn. In the first challenge, Trevor schools Jan in a rubik's cube face-off. Likewise, Dan mops the floor with the superteen on the basketball court. However when Adam challenges Michael Jan to a sprint-off, Jan lives up to his superteen status. The final score is newspaper kids, two, superteen, one.