The Breakfast Club: Reunion

Twenty-five years after serving time in the sprawling library of Shermer High School, our friends – The Brain, The Basket Case, The Athlete, The Criminal and The Princess – return to Shermer for their 25^th High School Reunion.

When we meet them, they seem terribly familiar, but are so different than the kids we knew in 1985.

• Brian Johnson works as a sports agent at a high-powered firm in downtown Chicago. He represents some of the top athletes in the world – and is in incredible shape himself. No longer The Brain, he has turned 180 degrees, having fought against everyone’s perception of him. In fact, he’s become The A—hole.
• Andrew Clark is out-of-shape and single again, after a lengthy divorce. A financial consultant at a mid-sized bank in Philadelphia, Andrew has learned to drown his sorrows in Scotch and soda. He’s no longer The Athlete. He’s the Sad Drunk.
• Allison Reynolds is drop-dead gorgeous. A soccer mom and marathoner, Allison got her act together in college – and got herself a fine arts degree – and now owns a hip gallery downtown. She’s two kids, a successful husband, and a figure to die for. She’s no longer the Basket Case, she’s the Who Is That Girl?
• John Bender calls Shermer High School home. He’s the popular shop teacher, in line to get his masters and maybe move in to administration. He feels good about himself, but his past – and his relationship with his father – have made his ego fragile. Andrew and Brian will challenge that ego, as they determine that he’s a sell-out and fraud. He’s no longer The Criminal, he’s The Man.
• Claire Standish hasn’t changed. She works for her mother’s business and still has the world handed to her on a silver platter. But she’s bored. Dreadfully bored. And fills the nooks and crannies of her life with risks and instant gratification. She’s still The Princess – but you’d best add Dangerous to that name. She works hard to fulfill a long-time fantasy: seeing what John Bender’s got under his hood.

While The Breakfast Club followed our friends throughout the course of a Saturday morning and mid-day, The Breakfast Club Reunion traipses through a Saturday night and dawn. Our friends are bubbling about in mid-life crisis – save for the two who we thought would crash and burn the worst.

The tables are turned as Bender schools his old Club mates on the finer points of the simple life, and Allison teaches us how to save the memories, but leave high school far behind.