Kim: So, do you have any brothers and sisters?
Keisa: Yeah, I do. I have a older brother. This is actually his jacket.
Kim: Oh. Well, how are you liking school this year?
Keisa: It's been fun. I have a lot of fun classes.
Dean: [strains] Don't mind me. Just... phew... gettin' in my daily pump. [grunts] Yeah.

Lillian: Keisa, you look lovely.
Dean: Yes, very... lovely. Very in-indeed.
Bill: He ain't right.
Adult Dean: Then the worst thing in the world happened. Mama and Daddy's parental intuition kicked in, and they figured out I had feelings for Keisa.
Lillian: Dean, doesn't Keisa look pretty?
Dean: Uh... Uh... Uh... Uh...
Bill: Say something.
Dean: I-I-I... What I was going to say is, I like dresses. O... I mean, I-I like that dress. O-On you. Pretty.
Bill: Stop saying something.

Dean: Don't laugh. This is all your fault for giving Keisa a makeover. Now all the other guys like her.
Kim: Do you have a problem with a girl feeling good about herself and not being dependent on you for her self-esteem?
Dean: No.
Kim: Well, all I did was give Keisa a dress and a bit of makeup. As her friend, you should be happy for her.
Dean: Okay. I don't have time for this, all right? Hampton asked me to go to the drug store and get him some last-minute decorations. Apparently, our ocean backdrop isn't turquoise enough to match the Atlantic.

Keisa: [sighs] I'm sorry.
Dean: I don't get it. W-Why were you stealing? [Keisa shrugs] Was it 'cause of the money? [Keisa is silent]
Adult Dean: All of the years I'd known Keisa, I didn't notice that she never wore new clothes or always had to borrow my comic books instead of buying her own.
Keisa: People kept saying the new things made me look pretty.
Dean: Well... I-I always thought you were pretty the way you were.

Lillian: Your Grandpa called and said he needed my help with something. And as you know, family always comes first.
Dean: But I-I planned out my whole week. There's a good episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. Jethro gets a pet kangaroo. Grandma and Grandpa don't even have a TV. It's so boring there.
Lillian: Don't you dare call my parents "boring." It's been a minute since we visited, and it'd be good for you to spend some time with them.
Adult Dean: Don't get me wrong... I loved Grandma Bessie and Big Jim, especially when they visited us. But going to the country was a pain.
Bill: And the fresh air will do you good.
Dean: [sighs] I hate the fresh air.
Lillian: Oh, please don't say that in front of my mother. She doesn't need any more ammunition to judge my parenting.

Dean: Um... baseball, I guess. If we make the finals, we get to play in Paterson Field, where the Montgomery Rebels play.
Buster: Oh. Hmm.
Dean: Yeah, my team's really counting on me. I bat around .800. I just made my third All-Star team.
Buster: Whoa, cool!
Adult Dean: All right, all right, I was basically describing my brother Bruce, but these kids would never know that.
Dean: Yep, I got some high school coaches interested in me. [time lapse] Of course I have a girlfriend! Her name's Keisa. She's the prettiest girl in school. Crazy about me. [time lapse] Sure, I go to concerts all the time. I even get a chance to play with my dad's band whenever he needs a soloist.

Adult Dean: As we got comfortable with each other, my cousins shared details of their "embellished" lives.
Buster: Well, that's cool. We mostly do stuff outdoors. Like jumping our dirt-bikes off that 20-foot hill.
Pearl: The mounts aren't back yet, but the taxidermist says it's the biggest buck he's ever seen.
Buster: When I turn 14 next month, I'm gonna get my driver's license.
Dean: No way.
Buster: They call it an agricultural license. So we can drive tractors on the road and stuff. Motorcycles, too.
Adult Dean: Okay, that actually sounded legit. And pretty cool. I had to keep up!
Dean: [laughs] Uh, yeah, my dad's teaching me to drive right now. So he can send me out for a pack of smokes whenever he needs to.
Big Jim: Your dad, Bill Williams, teaching you to drive now?
Dean: Granddad. [looks pleadingly at Big Jim]
Big Jim: Right, right. Of course he is. [chuckles]

Dean: You guys make your bikes yourselves?
Buster: Yeah, there's always parts lying around.
Dean: Oh. I just get a new bike whenever I outgrow my old one.
Big Jim: You mean whenever you outgrow Bruce's old one? [Dean chuckles nervously]

Pearl: You're gonna love this, DJ. We jump into there... from up there.
Dean: There's no way you guys actually do that.
Pearl: I know you're not scared, DJ.
Buster: Yeah, this is nothing compared to the gunfire you said you fall asleep to in Montgomery.
Pearl: And the interstate highway you said you walk across to get to school.

Mr. Brady: Dean. Do you know why I made you captain?
Dean: Because you were treating us Black kids special?
Mr. Brady: Is that what you thought I was doing? I made you captain because you're the smartest student on the team.
Dean: Then why'd you take me out and put Brad in?
Mr. Brady: Well, when I first met Brad, I could tell he had potential, but he didn't take anything seriously, so I challenged him to work harder, and he rose to the occasion. [laughter] For the most part. As for you... I could tell from the first day of class that you were uncomfortable getting attention from me because I'm Black.
Dean: It's because I wanted people to like you.
Mr. Brady: No, actually, it's because you wanted people to like you. You see, wanting to be liked is a dangerous thing. It can mask itself as wanting all the White students to like the Black teacher, or wanting to make everyone on the quiz team happy.
Dean: Because I was really scared that if the White kids thought you were giving me special attention, they wouldn't like me. Or if I didn't listen to everyone's answers on the Knowledge Bowl, they wouldn't like me.
Mr. Brady: But at the end of the day, all that really happened was that you put your light under a bushel. Every future leader needs to learn how to make their own decisions, even if it means people won't like them. I hope what happened today makes you realize what you're really capable of.