Adult Dean: My parents had high standards for us. I appreciate it now, and so does my bank account, but at the time, man, it was annoying.
Lillian: Did you practice like I told you to?
Kim: Yes.
Lillian: Yes, what?
Kim: Yes, ma'am.
Lillian: [to Dean] Nu-uh-uh-uh.
Adult Dean: Like how she insisted on giving me an ashy elbows/lips and eye booger check every morning before I left the house.
Lillian: Where are your glasses?
Dean: I told you, I don't need them.
Adult Dean: Wearing glasses in junior high was basically telling your cousin to get a prom dress ready.

Lillian: What'd I tell you about bothering Bruce's things while he's away?
Adult Dean: "Away" was the word my mom used instead of "in Vietnam."
Lillian: Coach Long said I needed a bigger glove.
Bill: Man, I just bought you that glove. Is Coach Long gonna pay me for it?
Lillian: He's just looking out for Dean.
Bill: Right, right. Is that why he made you Team Mom? Looking out for Dean? Or because he's sweet on you?
Lillian: [chuckles] Stop it. He just did it 'cause we work together.
Dean: Why would Coach be sweet on Mama?
Bill & Lillian: Stay out of grown folks' business.
Adult Dean: "Stay out of grown folks' business" was usually code for something about money, sex, or the funny way Dad's studio smelled after a rehearsal.

Adult Dean: Glasses or not, I wasn't the most popular kid in the neighborhood. Thank God I had Cory.
Cory: 'Sup, Dean? Give me some skin.
Adult Dean: My best friend, Coach Long's son. He'd figured out his bag when we hit puberty and he grew six inches of height and six inches of hair where it count. He was macho.
Dean: Hey, you got to tell me about that party at Noddy's last night. Was it really a makeout party?
Cory: Come on now, man. You know it's not cool to kiss and tell.
Dean: Okay, but don't forget, you were supposed to teach me how to French kiss on a pillow.
Cory: Shh! I'll tell you later. [Dean chuckles]

Adult Dean: That's our old school. Shut down because of desegregation. But we still hung out there sometimes, mainly to girls about girls and then girls and... Wow, I really got distracted. You know the girl that you see for the first time and everything slows down? That was Lisa Jones. Everybody had a crush on her, but here comes my crush... Keisa Clemmons. She was perfect.
Keisa: Hi, Dean. Thanks for letting me borrow this. You were right. It was great.
Adult Dean: To this day, I can't smell Vaseline and Tide without being taken right back to that feeling.
Cory: Tell her you want to start going together, man. Don't be scared.
Dean: I'm not scared.
Adult Dean: I was so scared.
Dean: My plan is to stay best friends until she realizes she likes me.
Adult Dean: And I was an idiot.

Brad: You guys have practice today, too?
Dean: Yeah. Who do you think would win if our teams played each other?
Brad: We would. But we only play teams on our side of town.
Dean: Think about how boss it'd be to have our teams meet.
Cory: Yeah.
Dean: Your dad's the coach. He'll go for it, right?
Brad: Uh, maybe. I mean, he watches I Spy.
Cory: Cool. You ask your dad, and we'll ask mine.

Lillian: Why would you want to play with a bunch of White boys?
Coach Long: Exactly.
Dean: Why does that matter?
Coach Long: Oh, it doesn't to us. But trust me, it will to them.
Dean: How do you know if you don't try? Isn't that what you're always telling me?
Lillian: For what it's worth, I met Brad's dad, and he's our kind of people.
Coach Long: That still don't mean I want some whitey pitcher throwing at our boys' heads.
Lillian: Well, let's not get to calling names.
Adult Dean: Never mind that there were teams called the Redskins, Chiefs, and Savages and no one batted an eye.

Adult Dean: Now that I'd figured out that my bag was being "The Great Uniter," I couldn't wait to get started.
Dean: Hey, Mark. Uh, what's happening, Chad? How's it going, Quentin?
Cory: Hey, Black Jesus, mellow out, man. You're trying too hard.
[Dean puts on his glasses while trying not to attract attention]
Keisa: It's okay. My mom's making me wear these. Pantyhose. [sighs] Yuck.
Dean: Yeah. Yuck.
Keisa: Anyway, your glasses are cute.
Adult Dean: She'd just basically said I looked like Billy Dee Williams in my glasses. This was the perfect time to tell her that I've loved her since I sat next to her on the first day of first grade.

Michael: Hey, Four Eyes! Can you look to my house and tell me what's on the TV? [laughter]
Adult Dean: Now, no one in school knew how old Michael Simms was. Some people said he had a son at another school. Others said he'd already done a tour in 'Nam. Bullies back then benefited from us not having Google to fact-check.
Coach Long: Shut up, Free Lunch!
Michael: Yo mama on free lunch.
Students: Ooh.
Mrs. Hodges: What's all the fuss back there?
Girl: Somebody said "yo mama."
Mrs. Hodges: Now, that's something that the Black students do that the white students don't. You ought to be like these three. [points to Dean, Cory and Keisa] Their parents send them here to learn.
Brad: Hey, she's not prejudiced.
Adult Dean: But was she? In my memory, she was. But she also gave some of us Black students extra attention if she thought we had potential, which may still have been racist. I don't know.

Dean: Just wondering if Mama told you we're playing Brad's team from East Montgomery for the first time.
Bill: Why our boys gotta play their team? It's the barnstorming Negro leagues all over again. Figures Long would be okay with this.
Dean: Coach Long was against it, too, but then Mama talked him into it.
Lillian: I think it's a good idea, and I'm proud of Dean for trying.
Bill: Hmm. It doesn't matter. He's not playing.
Dean: But, Dad!
Bill: Nope. Too many good teams to play over here and good parks, too.
Dean: What's so bad...
Bill: Are you talking back?
Dean: No, sir.
Bill: Then you better fix your face.

Lillian: [to Bill] I never say anything about your work friends. That's not fair, and you know it.
Dean: What's not fair?
Bill & Lillian: Stay out of grown folks' business.
Dean: No.
Bill: Did you just tell us no?
Lillian: Have you lost your natural mind?
Bill: Boy, what has gotten into you?
Adult Dean: I wanted to tell them about the kids on the bus and the white kids at school and Michael Simms and Mrs. Hodges and that Kim went in Mama's purse and snuck out last night. But I realized it was actually more than that. What came out surprised me as much as it did them.
Dean: I feel different everywhere I go, no matter who I'm around. And I know I'll always be different. But when I'm with Cory and Brad and we all feel different, I finally get to feel the same as everybody else. That's why I want to play.
Adult Dean: Brad would later tell me that trying to make myself feel better by making everybody feel as uncomfortable as me was the most Jewish thing I'd ever done.
Dean: Fine. You two do whatever you want.
Adult Dean: That was the first time I'd stood up to my dad and the first time I realized just how scary it can be to get what you want.