Adult Chris: [v.o.] One of the biggest problems I had in school was I got no respect. People disrespected me at lunch.
Chris: Hey! That's my roll.
Girl: Shut up.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] They disrespected me in the halls.
Chris: Hey, man, that's my coat.
Boy: Shut up!
Adult Chris: [v.o.] They even disrespected me during fire drills.
Ms. Morello: Oh, Chris, you go back inside and make sure nothing valuable burns.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] I tried to make friends. I even ran for office. I just couldn't get any respect.

Chris: [Caruso knocks Chris's books out of his hand] Hey!
Joey Caruso: Shut up.
Hall Monitor: You. Pick those up.
Joey Caruso: What if I don't?
Adult Chris: [v.o.] The only kids in school that got respect from everyone were the hall monitors.
Hall Monitor: I'll put you in detention so long, your kids will get out of school before you.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] Hall monitors were the closest thing we had to the police. They couldn't arrest you, but they could write you up.
Chris: Thanks.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] Oh, and if you're Black, they could shoot you.
Hall Monitor: You need to be in class.
Chris: All right.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] Being on the wrong side of a hall monitor was like being on the wrong side of the law. Nobody messed with those guys. [Caruso knocks Chris's books out of his hands again]
Joey Caruso: What you going to do now Coco Puff?
Adult Chris: [v.o.] The only thing I could do. Join the few, the proud, the hall monitors.

Chris: Oh, I asked Mrs. Milone. She said as long as I kept my grades up, there'll be no problem.
Greg: Man, I always wanted to be a hall monitor.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] What Greg imagined hall monitors did and what they actually did were two different things.
[fantasy: Greg and another boy are in army fatigues as they monitor a group of students in the hallway:]
Greg: [over radio] Hall Dog One to Hall Dog Two. I have a group of violators. Sector one. On my signal Hall monitors! Down! Get on the ground! Go! That's what happens to punks who linger after the second bell. Book 'em, guys. We got a runner!

Adult Chris: [v.o.] It was exciting knowing for the first time, I wasn't going to get walked on, stepped over or pushed around. I was finally going to get some respect.
Chris: Hey, you! Stop running.
Boy: Shut up.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] He must not have seen my armband.
[later:]
Chris: Hey, no gum-chewing in school.
Girls: Shut up!
[later:]
Chris: Hey, no rough housing in the halls.
Boys: Shut up.
Chris: You'd better listen or else I'm gonna have to give you a citation. A'ight. Well, that's better. [the boys beat him with his citation book] No, not the locker, not the locker! No! [o.s.] No! You can't do this to me! I'm a hall monitor!
[v.o.] Now I'm a locker monitor.

Adult Chris: [v.o.] If I was going to get any respect, I had to act like I deserved it.
[montage:]
Chris: Tuck in your shirt.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] That felt good.
Chris: [slams two bullies against a locker] Hey! You want to fight so bad, fight the power.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] That felt even better.
Chris: [trips a boy] Run by here again, you're going to get more than a citation.
Chris: No shades.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] He's blind.
Chris: No snacks.

Chris: Hey, didn't you see me come down just now?
Joey Caruso: Yeah.
Chris: So what, you're not going to slap my books out of my hand call me Chim-Chim, Yafat and Roscoe?
Joey Caruso: Oh, uh, I got to go to class.
Chris: Well, take this with you.
Joey Caruso: What's this for?
Chris: I don't know, Bing, you tell me.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] I wonder if this is how the first Black cop felt.

Ms. Morello: I'm not part of the hall monitor program. But, as a friend, I think you should slow down a bit.
Chris: Why? You just said I was impressive.
Ms. Morello: To me, yes. But to the rest of the students... Well, they hate you.
Chris: They've always hated me.
Ms. Morello: True, but they used to hate you because you were Black. Now they hate you because you're acting like a jerk.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] And because I'm Black.
Chris: So what do you mean?
Ms. Morello: You judo-flipped Rodney for wearing a hat.
Chris: And I'm just doing my job.
Ms. Morello: I know how aggressive the down trodden can get when they get a little taste of power. But, Chris, you're just a hall monitor. Calm down.

Greg: What about your hall monitor post?
Chris: I quit.
Greg: Why?
Chris: Either people are going to respect me because I'm Chris or they're not. Either way, I'm still me.
Greg: That's cool. So who's going to replace you?
Chris: Don't know, don't care.
Joey Caruso: Here you go. [hands Chris a citation]
Chris: What's this?
Joey Caruso: WWB: Walking while Black.

Girl #1: Hey, Drew.
Drew: Hi.
Girl #1: What are you watching?
Drew: Duel of the Iron Fist.
Girl #2: Ooh, I like Duel of the Iron Fist.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] Liar.
Girl #3: Want to watch?
Tonya: No, that's all right.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] That day, my sister learned something I already knew. When it came to Drew, you could kiss your girlfriends good-bye.

Chris: Hey, pick that up! Pick up the citation, too! She must think she lost her mind.