High School Confidential : Secrets of an Undercover Student

Trading in his suit and tie for jeans and Nikes, last year Jeremy Iversen posed as a senior transfer student at an average size, middle class, ethnically diverse, suburban Southern California state high school. Now he tells us everything he found out about the real lives of senior school students - it's not "confidential" any more.

At age 25, Jeremy Iversen went undercover as a high school senior. He took six classes five days a week, from 7:45 AM to 3:00 PM: Government, French, English, Video Production, Biology, and Ceramics. He spent a semester immersed in the cliques, classes, drugs, sex, and social anxieties that define high school life today. His classmates included Goths, punks, drug dealers, rich kids, preppies, surfers, Christians, skinheads - just about every type of kid you can imagine. During his time as an undercover student, he recalls: "I''ve been to assembly, voted in student council elections , dissected cats in biology, gone to parties and school plays, gotten sent to detention, had meetings with my counsellor, been invited to people''s houses, met their parents, hid from the cops, attended youth group, hung out at the mall, been to rallies, gone to the beach, Disneyland, the prom, played Lazer Tag, seen fights, seen pranks, seen endless drama, signed yearbooks, went to Grad Night, and graduated."

High School Confidentialis irresistibly narrated in 3-4 page sections, each chronicling the experiences of one of a revolving cast of main characters, interspersed with Jeremy''s own insightful commentary and personal crises as he attempts to maintain his undercover status. It''s as readable as the best commercial fiction, but has the added benefit of being absolutely, astoundingly true.