"Not THAT Rich"

SYNOPSIS

“He had class, he had style, and he certainly was not fresh off the boat. He was fresh off a private jet.”

Hunter and Trisha Wang, like the majority of their classmates, are trying to balance AP classes, Ivy League applications, numerous extracurriculars, and tumultuously juicy social lives, all while living in their affluent, suburban bubble. Will Hunter get into Stanford and still be able to maintain his relationship with the “it girl” Sierra Jones? Will Trisha find love with outsider Ray Martinez and figure out what’s going on with her influencer best friend, Pamela Shah? Will billionaire newcomer Jack Zhou figure out how to fit in? What is the secret that Matt Miller is trying to hide? And who exactly is The Stranger? Welcome to Winchester High, a prestigious college preparatory school where students live seemingly perfect, privileged lives.

In Not THAT Rich, we find that things are not always what they seem and, no matter how much money, power, or influence you think you have, high school will always be complicated.

CHARACTER LIST

The Zhou Family

Jack Zhou—A new junior transfer to Winchester who is the illegitimate son of billionaire Wang Zhou.
Zi Wei Xu/Auntie Xu—Jack’s mom and the mistress of Wang Zhou.
Wang Zhou—Billionaire tycoon who made his wealth in the garment industry. He lives in Shanghai with his wife and oldest son, Sam Zhou.

The Wang Family

Hunter Wang—Senior at Winchester. Dating Sierra. Older brother to Trisha Wang. Dreams of attending Stanford.
Trisha Wang—Sophomore at Winchester. Best friends with Pamela Shah.
Phoebe Wang—Mother of Hunter and Trisha Wang. Real estate agent who has come into a lot of wealth in the past decade due to the immigrant Chinese wealth pouring into the San Gabriel Valley.
Hector Wang—Accountant and father of Hunter and Trisha Wang.
Uncle Mike—Younger brother of Phoebe. Uncle to Trisha and Hunter.

The Jones Family

Paul Jones—Eldest child of the Jones family and senior at Winchester. Dreams of attending USC.
Sierra Jones—Middle child of the Jones family. Sophomore at Winchester. Dating Hunter Wang.
Felix Jones—Youngest child of the Jones family. Eighth grader who is applying to Winchester.
Kelsey Jones—Mother of the Jones kids. Head of the Winchester Parents Committee.
John Jones—Father of the Jones kids. Famous plastic surgeon in the area.

Additional Winchester Students

Ray Martinez—New junior transfer to Winchester.
Pamela Shah—Trisha’s best friend and from a second-generation Pakistani American family. Has three younger siblings—Anika, Rohan, and Nirav. Parents have their own tech firm.
Matt Miller—Hunter’s best friend and quarter Korean, quarter Chinese, and half German. Mom is Susan Lee.
Laura Tan—Freshmen at Winchester and childhood friends with Mat Miller and the Wang siblings.

Additional Moms of SGV

Susan Miller/Auntie Miller—Half Chinese/Korean Wife to Chris Miller and mother of Matt Miller. Phoebe’s confidant. Married to one of the most sought-after producers in Hollywood.
Caroline Tan/Auntie Tan—Single mother of Laura Tan. Has a successful toy manufacturing empire.

Additional Characters

Dean Rand—Dean of School at Winchester.
Fiona and Chris Lu—Twins who graduated from Winchester and are now freshmen at Stanford and Harvard, respectively. Uncle Lu and Auntie Lu are their parents.
Stacy Williams—Sierra’s best friend. Father is a faculty member at Winchester.
Coach Bron—Water polo coach at Winchester.
Mr. Johnson—AP Calc teacher and triathlon and cross-country coach at Winchester.
Sergeant Gomez—Lead sergeant on the stolen AP tests case.
Mrs. Browser—Winchester counselor with a twenty-year career in college counseling.

CHAPTER DESCRIPTIONS

FALL

· Chapter 1: Trisha & Sierra: Trisha, Hunter, Sierra, and Matt are introduced. Everyone at school is gossiping about how the AP tests were stolen last semester and how it has now turned into a police investigation.

· Chapter 2: Trisha & Ray: Trisha and Ray meet for the first time in AP Calculus class

· Chapter 3: Hunter and Jack: Moms of SGV scene. More knowledge about the setup of Winchester in introduced.

· Chapter 4: Hunter & Jack: Moms of SGV continued.

· Chapter 5: Pamela: Pamela’s wild ways and drug addiction are introduced

· Chapter 6: Hunter and Paul: Hunter and Paul deal with the beginning of college admissions in a class meeting in the auditorium.

· Chapter 7: The Stranger: Anonymous (Felix) is introduced and his lifetime of bullying at the hands of his brother (Paul)

· Chapter 8: Pamela and Trisha: Pamela and Trisha talk about the Wang family. Pamela and Matt are over as well. Pamela admits she slept with Reddy, her drug dealer.

· Chapter 9: Hunter: Hunter submits his early app for Stanford and heads off to water polo practice where Hunter and Paul get into a fight in the locker room.

· Chapter 10: Matt & The Stranger: After the argument, Matt heads over to the dining hall for a quick PB&J snack. Jack calls Matt “gay” in a derogatory way in the dining hall when Matt accidentally drops some jam onto Matt’s white SUPREME hoodie. Pamela and Matt have a conversation about his sexual identity after Pamela witnesses the incident.

· Chapter 11: Sierra and Hunter: Sierra thinks about her first meeting with Hunter, and they argue and make up about the fight with Paul.

· Chapter 12: Paul: Police have a conversation with Paul voicing their suspicions about how he had such high AP exam scores for the first test but did so poorly on the retake. He becomes a suspect for the stolen AP exams.

· Chapter 13: Trisha, Ray, Hunter & Sierra: Ray and Trisha partner together for a group project and begin developing feelings. Sierra and Hunter go out to get dessert from 85C and bump into Laura. Sierra begins to get jealous about the longtime “diaper babies together” relationship Laura and Hunter have while Hunter is annoyed by how Sierra is at a loss for how to respond to the recent locker room fight between Hunter and Paul. Sierra voices her dislike of Hunter hanging out with Laura because she knows Laura has feelings for Hunter.

· Chapter 14: Jack, Trisha, and Hunter: The family is out celebrating the Mid-Autumn festival. Kelsey Jones, Paul Jones’ mother is introduced.

WINTER

· Chapter 15: Trisha & Pamela: Trisha and Ray, now good friends, find Pamela slumped over in her car and they have difficulty waking her up. She says that she’s just tired but Trisha suspects that Pamela had taken too many drugs. It’s revealed that Pamela discovered that she was pregnant with Reddy’s child the night before.

· Chapter 16: Matt: Matt confesses to Hunter that he is gay and is terrified about coming out to his parents. Hunter tells Matt that he knew all along and supports him.

· Chapter 17: Hunter: Hunter is rejected from Stanford and tells Laura about it when she comes to visit. Sierra comes over and catches Hunter and Laura embracing one another. She storms off hurt and angry.

· Chapter 18: The Stranger: Flashback - The Stranger steals the tests after months of preparation. Felix is revealed as the anonymous person who had planted the AP exams on Paul.

· Chapter 19: Sierra & Jack: Sierra ponders about her broken relationship with Hunter while waiting at the big oak tree for Stacy to get out of class. Jack drives drunk on NYE and kills a hot pot restaurant worker. He is immediately taken to the hospital for his injuries and charged with manslaughter.

· Chapter 20: Pamela & Trisha: Pamela ends up in the hospital after overdosing on New Year’s Eve. She denies that she has a drug addiction issue and finds out she had a miscarriage. Trisha and Ray show up at the hospital to support Pamela while the Shahs express disappointment in Pamela. Meanwhile, Trisha and Ray bump into Jack’s mom at the hospital. She’s crying profusely into the phone with Jack’s dad for being unable to communicate with police (she only speaks Mandarin). She makes Trisha translate for her about how Jack killed someone.

· Chapter 21: Ray & Trisha: Trisha and Ray almost kiss outside of the hospital but at the last moment Ray backs away.

· Chapter 22: Matt: Matt comes out to his parents after a party where he almost kisses Hunter. Matt’s parents are unsupportive of his identity. Matt also finds out the Wangs are getting a divorce but has to keep it from Hunter

· Chapter 23: Jack: Jack’s dad shows up at the hospital (after flying overnight from China) and tries to pay for the exorbitant bail to let his son out. However, because Jack is an international student, he will not be released until he has been trialed, which won't be for another year. Jack tries to push off the blame onto the worker who was killed and says that his dad can just pay off the worker’s family. His dad realizes how spoiled his son has become to the point of not ever understanding there will be consequences.

· Chapter 24: Paul & Felix: Flashback - Felix plants evidence on Paul for having used the AP test. Paul beats Felix in present day.

· Chapter 25: Trisha & Hunter: Chinese New Year’s at the Wang home. Chris and Fiona Lu who are twins that attend Harvard and Stanford respectively are home for the new year. Trisha mentions how annoyed she is with Ray and how she’s still concerned about Pamela when Hunter asks. Trisha and Hunter’s parents are there but in separate rooms the whole time. The Wang aunts are there along with Matt’s mom, Caroline Tan, her daughter, and the Lu Twins and parents. It’s revealed that Fiona has dropped out of school, but her parents are in denial.

Chapter 26: Trisha: Dinner begins, and the Lu’s college consulting business is announced along with Laura’s weight issues. Jack is briefly mentioned.

SPRING

Chapter 27: Pamela: After Pamela’s little sister almost overdoses on Adderall, Pamela confesses to her parents that she has a drug problem, and her parents show her their vulnerabilities for the first time.

· Chapter 28: Matt: Matt’s mom has a conversation with him about how his dad will need time to accept his sexual identity, but she is in full support of him.

Chapter 29: Jack: Jack realizes that money might not be able to buy him out of his problem for once and his lawyer Mr. Jenkins say they will argue that Jack has “affluenza.”
Chapter 30: Felix, Paul & Sierra: Paul is arrested by the police and accused of stealing the AP tests on misdemeanor charges after he gets his acceptance letter from USC. Sierra begins to suspect that Felix might have been the one who had planted the AP tests on Paul. Sierra confronts Felix about the tests that had been stolen and Felix confesses to her.
Chapter 31: Hunter: Hunter continues to get rejections from various colleges. He begins to rethink what it means for attending college and starts to accept that he already tried his best. Sierra and he have been texting back and forth ever since Paul was arrested for the AP tests. Sierra reveals to Hunter that Felix was the mastermind behind the stolen AP tests. Hunter contemplates how to win Sierra back.
Chapter 32: Ray & Trisha: Ray tells Trisha that he has feelings for her as well but didn’t know if they were the right fit for each other given their backgrounds.
Chapter 33: Felix: Felix comes out as having been the one to steal the AP tests. The police decide he is too young and sends him off with a misdemeanor felony burglary charge that amounts to a $5000 fine while Winchester punishes him by revoking Felix’s acceptance into Winchester for the upcoming school year. Paul having still studied the stolen exams, has all his college offers revoked.

Chapter 34: Trisha & Pamela - Ray and Trisha become official and they have a cute moment before heading to Pamela’s to say goodbye to her. Pamela gets help for her drug addiction and enters an in-treatment program for the summer.
Chapter 35: Jack, Paul & Felix - Jack languishes in jail wondering what will happen with his trial and attempts to adjust to a new normal without luxuries. Bail was not given because he is an international student. The entire Jones family is in therapy and attempting to heal their relationship. Paul decides to get his GED and go to community college since no other colleges will accept him after the AP fiasco.
Chapter 36: Hunter, Matt, & Laura - Hunter and Sierra wonder out loud what it will be like when Hunter goes off to college Hunter gets off the waitlist for Yale right before the school year ends. He is surprised to find out that he gets an acceptance call from Yale and is ecstatic. Sierra becomes upset because she was looking forward to Hunter being around. They share a kiss and their relationship status is left open ended.
Epilogue – Matt watches Hunter and Sierra from a distance with sadness knowing that his long-time crush is impossible for him to have. Laura (first person POV for the first time) muses about how to break up the relationship between Sierra and Hunter permanently.

Awards Won

WRPN Women's International Film Festival-SILVER Novel Manuscripts

Venice Art & Film Festival | VIFF-BEST BOOK AND BEST AUTHOR

Amazon Best Asian American Young Adult Fiction