Two high school students from opposite ends of the social spectrum fall for each other in this teen drama. Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), the troubled daughter of a wealthy congressman, attends a public school in the upscale community of Pacific Palisades. As an act of defiance, she makes a play for the attentions of Carlos Nuñez (Jay Hernandez), a straight-A student who takes a two-hour bus ride to attend Nicole's school. Her self-destructive tendencies threaten his ambitions.