Jade believes that getting a good education is the best way to get out of her poor neighborhood, and her mom thinks that she needs to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. So, Jade rides the bus across the city to the private school she attends on scholarship. Even though Jade feels like an outsider in her school of mostly white and wealthy students, she doesn't feel like she is singled out as someone who needs help and needs to be fixed, until she is chosen to participate in a mentorship program for at-risk girls but is passed over for a community service study abroad program. When it becomes obvious that Jade's mentor is more of a mess than Jade, Jade starts to realize that she is going to have to speak up for what she wants and fight back against a world that seems to be trying to break her.
