Rochelle: What the hell is that smell? [Chris points to Greg] Greg, is that you, boy?
Greg: I'm studying to be an astronaut.
Rochelle: Well, even astronauts wash their-
Chris: Come on, Ma.
Rochelle: My God!
Mr. Abbott: [to Greg] Nope, nope, nope. Get out of here, Funky Brewster.

Adult Chris: [v.o.] Every day of my life, my mother threatened to knock the lobes off my ears or slap the pores off my face, but if anybody else ever put me down, she was always there to pick me back up.
Rochelle: Look, Chris, I don't know what you're going to do with your life. You may go to college, you may not. But I know whatever you do, you're going to be good at it. 'Cause I ain't having no grown man sleeping in my house.
Chris: Yes, ma'am.

Ms. Morello: Chris, after looking at your test results, I'm very concerned.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] I'd been getting my ass whooped for two years and now she's concerned?
Chris: What are you concerned about?
Ms. Morello: You did horribly on your test. With that on your record, it could seriously harm your chances of going to college, even if you get a basketball scholarship.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] Is she crazy? There's no grades they won't take if you can play basketball.

Mr. Abbott: Chris, what do you want to do when you get out of school?
Chris: I don't know.
Mr. Abbott: You know, you got about as much direction as a broken compass. I'm surprised you were even able to find your way to this office. According to this test, you put the "upid" in "stupid." The way I see it, you're about... two bad decisions away from a life of crime.
Chris: I don't know anything about crime.
Mr. Abbott: Make that one bad decision.
Chris: Can you help me?
Mr. Abbott: Well, unless they hire Big Bird, I'm going to have to.

Adult Chris: [v.o.] I tanked the test because I thought it didn't count. Looking at my grades, you'd think I couldn't count.
Mr. Abbott: How did you even make it into ninth grade? I mean, they should have picked up on this years ago.
Chris: How many did I get wrong?
Mr. Abbott: It's a skills assessment test, Chris, and basically what it says is that you don't have the propensity for any skill.
Chris: Propensity? I got propensity.
Mr. Abbott: Do you even know what "propensity" means?
Chris: No.

Chris: Well, I talked to a few people and I still don't know what I want to do for a living, but I do know that my mom wants me to go to college.
Mr. Abbott: College? W-W-Why?
Chris: To learn?
Mr. Abbott: Learn? You can learn anywhere, Chris. You can learn by reading a fortune cookie. If you get hit by a truck, you learn not to walk out into traffic. If you smack Mike Tyson, you learn that you are going to get your ass whooped. But your parents are way too broke for you to go to college to just learn. They need you to go to college and learn how to get a job. Besides, I think it's a little too early for you to be thinking about college right now.

Tonya: Daddy let us pick out our own clothes.
Rochelle: Well, hopefully you picked out something you liked. I mean, heaven forbid you wake up one day and realize you can't stand it.
Julius: Rochelle, stop it. Okay, just stop it.
Rochelle: What? What are you talking about?
Julius: Rochelle, the reason I said those things to Chris is because nobody said those things to me. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. And, yeah, I mean, I don't get a lot of sleep, and I don't make a lot of money, but I've got you. I've got my kids, and that's all I need.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] At that moment, I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do, but what I wanted to be was just like my father.
Rochelle: Where the hell you get that, from the inside of a card?
Adult Chris: [v.o.] Peabo Bryson song.
Julius: That's how I feel.
Rochelle: Then why didn't you just say that?
Julius: I just said it.
Rochelle: Why didn't you say it in the first place?

Chris: [sniffs] Still wearing that diaper, huh?
Greg: After a while, you don't notice.
Chris: Right.
Greg: So what are you doing out here?
[Chris shifts down the bench away from the Greg and covers his nose]
Chris: My mom wasn't happy with the guidance counselor's guidance.
Greg: I know how she feels. The guy basically told me I can do anything I want. That's pressure. It's like, even if I wanted to fail, I couldn't.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] That was the moment I realized what it truly meant to be White.
Chris: Must be tough.

Adult Chris: [v.o.] While the guidance counselor worked on a plan for my future, my father had a plan for my present.
Rochelle: Hey, baby, what you doing?
Julius: You want me to go get the kids' new school clothes, right?
Rochelle: Well, not unless you want me to take off of work to do it.
Julius: No, that's okay, but before I go buying new stuff, I want to get rid of the old stuff first. So I've got two piles: Chris' stuff that I'm getting rid of and Drew's stuff that I'm giving to Chris. That's right there.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] I'm sure glad Drew wasn't a girl.
Rochelle: So you're buying something for Drew and Tonya and not Chris? You want him working on his Ph.D. in hand-me-downs?
Julius: Drew barely wears something before he grows out of it. I mean, his stuff is almost new. Chris will be fine.

Adult Chris: [v.o.] After going to the guidance counselor, I really started to think about what I was going to do with my life.
Chris: Hey, Dad, how'd you decide what you were gonna do for a living?
Julius: I applied for a bunch of jobs and I took every one that hired me.
Adult Chris: [v.o.] And he would have kept them all if he could have.