The Average Achievers is a comedy that satirizes the culture of overwork which pervades many American high schools—and celebrates the authentic energy and passion that that culture inhibits.

It’s junior year, people, and Lenny Lansing is the newest member of the junior class at the astonishingly prestigious Akron Heights High (“Where Everyone Overachieves”).  Lenny has appropriately high hopes for AHH, but his first day is a whirlwind of heart-stoppingly difficult classes. Just when he thinks the worst is behind him, Principal Doe announces that all juniors at AHH now have the opportunity to take a mandatory afterschool course on Standardized Test Prep, taught by the feared principal emerita Brunhilda Blankenbottom.

After a couple months of slaving away in Mrs. Blankenbottom’s class—and being derided almost every time he makes a mistake—Lenny can’t take it anymore. That’s when misanthropic computer genius Gregor Adams, Lenny’s only friend, shares his latest project with Lenny: he’s discovered a way to hack into AHH’s database of grades. In a few keystrokes, Gregor gives Lenny a perfect score on the exam Mrs. Blankenbottom plans to give tomorrow.  Thrilled by the free time they’ve just scored for themselves, Lenny and Gregor plan to skip Mrs. Blankenbottom’s class for the rest of the year.

But Lenny sees other students collapsing under the weight of school and jobs and more.  He shares Gregor’s program with some classmates, and a few of them jump on board: Carrie Fleming, an overextended barista who has had to grow up too fast; Christine Jackson, whose parents have pressured her into perfection since kindergarten; and Brad Humboldt, a guy who knows how to have fun, even though it’s thoroughly undervalued at AHH.  Five strong now, the Average Achievers are born.

Lenny starts hitting his stride as the group’s leader, when Principal Doe informs him that his (fake) scores in Mrs. B’s class have made him eligible for the Overachievement Award, a more-than-full ride to the more-than-prestigious University of Akron Heights.  If he can earn a perfect score on the SAT, he is guaranteed the OA.  Lenny worries about being discovered, but Gregor convinces him not to back down.  Gregor’s plan: give Lenny a perfect score on the SAT so that he can win the OA…so that at the end of the year, he can denounce the award and the school, while Gregor wreaks cyber-havoc on AHH.

As Act 2 unfolds, Lenny and the Average Achievers begin to understand more fully the consequences of their actions.  As he learns about the award and what it entails, Lenny begins to question the club’s rebellion—and wonders what life might be like if, say, he got the OA. Ultimately, Lenny tries to take the SAT himself in the hopes of actually winning the Overachievement Award. But after he is stymied by a challenging word problem about a group of ethnically diverse lifeguards, he has to confess his betrayal—first to his friends, then to Principal Doe and his parents, and, finally, to himself.