Lady Bird

Christine McPherson's senior year of high school in 2002/03 is presented, she the second of two offspring of Larry and Marion McPherson. Outwardly, she hates most aspects of her life. She hates that they have long lived a life of barely scraping by, their situation all the worse now as they as a collective are a victim of the poor economy. That economic reality has led to Larry recently being laid off, Marion needing to work double shifts as a counselor at a psychiatric hospital just to keep their head above water, and Christine's brother Miguel and his girlfriend Shelly moving back home in the McPhersons' small and already overcrowded house with one bathroom now for five people. She hates that what her parents have decided to spend on her within their already tight budget is an expensive Catholic private school education at Immaculate Heart, solely because Miguel witnessed long ago some violence outside Sacramento High, where she would have gone otherwise. At Immaculate Heart, she has only two friends, equally poor Julie Steffans, they playing upon their outsider status. She hates living in Sacramento, she who is determined to go to a liberal arts college back east, preferably New York City, using financial aid rather than go to a California college such as nearby UC-Davis for which she would eligible for an in-state reduction in tuition, that option already barely affordable. Whether she will even get into college is questionable as she has placed little effort into her school work despite being bright, except perhaps in math. But arguably what she hates the most is her strained relationship with her mother, Marion who is always bad cop to Larry's good cop in the parenting role. Marion and Christine's strained relationship is exacerbated by both being strong willed people. Christine believes that her mother may love her because she has to, but truly doesn't like her. In not wanting to take things from her mother out of a natural course of family, Christine has decided to rename herself Lady Bird, something she wants everyone to call her from now on. As Lady Bird goes through some major events her senior year - from discovering a new school extracurricular activity which includes boys from neighboring St. Francis Xavier, to testing the waters of dating, possible first love and the prospect of sex, to wanting to be part of the in-crowd, to truly placing some effort into her short term post-secondary dreams - she and Marion may only have a short period of time to express their true love for each other, family or not, before it's too late.