The “Elite Way School” is an exclusive, internationally recognized prep school where teenagers of the upper crust of society receive excellent schooling and can establish social connections that will ensure them a successful future. This school also offers a scholarship program for the underprivileged who show academic or athletic excellence; sadly, however, few of these ever manage to graduate. A secret society called “The Lodge” has made it their mission to maintain the “purity” of their breed by harassing the scholarship students and forcing them out.

Among the fresh crop of students who arrive at the summer club that preps them for the new school term, we find Mia, Miguel, Diego and Roberta, four eager teenagers who, in spite of their marked differences, will discover something that will bring them together in the face of all prejudice: their overwhelming love for music.

Roberta, the daughter of a popular singer, rebels against rules and social conventions. Having grown up in the shadow of her famous mother has made her feel insecure of her own beauty and her considerable musical talent.

Miguel was born and raised in Monterrey city, and is studying on a scholarship. His true reason for being here, however, is not to make friends and climb the sicoal ladder, but to find and destroy the man he blames for having caused the ruin and death of his father. His whole life comes crashing down on him when he realizes that his hated enemy is the father of the girl he loves, Mia.

For Diego, the son of a prominent politician, music is only a hobby. He has always known that his future was in politics, and he has adopted the domineering attitude and high handed manner of his father, whom he idolizes but can never seem to please.

Mia is the daughter of a well known fashion entretreneur, and as such, she abhors bad taste. She is popular, cheerful and outgoing, but her fragile soap-bubble world will burst when her father falls in love with a woman she considers insufferably vulgar: Alma Rey, Roberta’s mother.

These four adolescents, and their classmates, will taste new experiences that will help them mold their intellectual and moral development, and, under the influence of Enrique Madariaga, will lead them to question the values of their parents. Madariaga, a famous writer and a former scholarship graduate of the school, as their ethics professor, will lead them along the path of right action and dignity, and will declare war against the infamous Lodge.

“Rebel” is the rivetting story of teenagers who awaken to the harsh realities of life in a privileged school environment where power, tradition and material gain are everything, and where only the strongest in spirit will find the wellspring of courage to fight for their right to feel, to love, to break down social barriers, and to be themselves.

Rebel II

Headmaster Gandia will install cameras in the school to keep a closer watch on the students. The school board wants more emphasis on sports, and Gandia will implement new athletic programs in the hope that the students will find a healthier and more acceptable venue for “letting off their steam.” Also, in an effort to “break up” the “disruptive cliques” he will make it mandatory for students to switch roommates on a regular basis and will assign them extracurricular activities as well, such as taking students of the lower grades under their tutelage. The fourh-graders are back from the holidays, brimming with new dreams and expectations, ready to begin their fifth year. The previous year, in spite of their many individual and social differences, they succeeded in melding into a tight group of friends, which will soon be put the the test with the arrival of the new fourth-graders to the Elite Way.

First on the list of new arrivals is Tomas’ cousin, Leonardo, a young fellow from a small town who, despite his academic limitations, is offered a scholarship for his athletic skills. His extaordinary good looks and natural sex appeal earn him a place in Miguel’s circle of friends, and he soon becomes a coveted trophy for most of the girls on campus.

Another new arrival is Rocco, an alternative life-styler who feels detached from the common and ordinary, and looks down on everyone. He will become the prime troublemaker among the boys.

Next on the list is Iñaki—snobbish and unbearably elitist—who tries to join Diego’s circle. He fancies himself as utterly irresistible to the opposite sex and he will “hit on” Mia and Sol, but will settle in the end for Bianca who, in her youth and inexperiece, sees him as the paragon of charm and sophistication.

When Mia returns from the holidays she is greeted by an unpleasant surprise in her dorm; in addition to her regular roommates, Celi and Vico, she finds Pilar and a new girl, Sol, who immediately sets off all her alarms. A lovely model and seductess, Sol is a serious threat to Mia’s hard-earned status as school beauty and “prom queen.” There are clashes between the two rivals, but Sol crosses the line when she succeeds in doing something that Mia thought impossible: to break up her friendship with Celina.

Our cast of young characters has gone through changes during their time away from school. Mia and Miguel saw their dream of love come true; a dream that threatens to turn into a nightmare whan they are faced once more with the “real world.” The differences between them set in and, even though they are truly in love with each other, their lack of maturity works against them and, at one point in the story, they break off their relationship.

Mia is afraid to emerge from her carefully fashioned dream world, where she feels safe, whereas Miguel will begin to claim more independence for himself. In time, Mia’s dream world will come tumbling down, and she will experience dramatic changes in her life.

Roberta and Diego will once more become sworn enemies, the friendship they had found the previous year having vanished into thin air. Upon Diego’s return from a trip with his friends, he receives a blow that shatters him utterly when his father breaks some terrible news to him: his mother has left them for another man. Diego has no way of knowing that his father is lying; he feels betrayed, and that the two women he most loves in his life—his mother and Roberta—have turned their backs on him. His first impulse is to blame himself for believing in them, and unconsciously begins to behave more and more like his father, convinced that the concept his father has of women has proven to be accurate.

For her part, Roberta does her best to forget Diego. She now sees him as a passing fancy of her immature self, and becomes involved with a 6th grader called Roger. Her former rebellious persona will undergo a makeover as she channels her energy into a new altruistic enterprise. Instead of just complaining, she now wants to become a proactive advocate of world change. Her life takes a new turn when professor Martin Solis appears on the scene. This bohemian free spirit will sound deep chords in Roberta’s being.

Another new arrival is Lupita’s half-sister Dolores, the black sheep of the family. Dolores is quick to notice that everyone loves her “darling” half-sister, and wastes no time in trying to make her life impossible. Bianca, another new face in school, is rather shy and makes friends with Lola. She will fall head-over-heels in love with Iñaki.

This year we have additions to the staff as well. Two professors in particular will have a lasting impact on the students: Julia Lozano and Martin Solis.

Julia Lozano teaches literature. She is an Elite Way graduate who always felt shunned for her plain looks. She is a woman with a mission, namely to get back at all the Elite young men and women who feel the world is their oyster because they are beautiful and rich. She will teach them that there is more to life than looks and money.

A new group spirit emerges that will grow in the face of adversity. In time, the students will realize that the real “enemy” is not the world at large. Each day will bring new challenges that will test the fiber of the Elite Way rebels, and bring them a step closer to their true longing: to discover who they really are and what they want to achieve in life. This is their time to be young, to be young in a world that appears bent on destroying them.

In the midst of a world run by grownups who have become desensitized by compromise, these young women and men must wage—and survive—the harshest battle of all: to dare to be themselves.

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