Cooley High - Plot

Plot

The story explores the adventures and relationships of Leroy "Preach" Jackson (Turman) and Richard "Cochise" Morris (Hilton-Jacobs), two black high school students at Edwin G. Cooley High School, in Chicago, during the 1960s whose carefree lives take a turn for the worse through several twists of fate, including violent carjacking friends, drugs, failing grades, and girls.

Preach and Cochise, two best friends, decide to cut class and go to the zoo, despite the fact that Preach has missed an entire week of school, much to the chagrin of his history teacher, Mr. Mason (Garrett Morris). Nevertheless, they gather their other friends, Pooter and Tyrone, and play hookey. On their way back, Pooter is hit with gorilla feces, Cochise teaches some young new "turkeys" how to shoot a basketball, and they meet their friend Dorothy at a diner called Martha's, where she invites them to a quarter party, while Preach slips inside to gamble with his other friends, Stone and Robert. Cochise, knowing that Martha will throw him out for gambling, warns him, just as cute girl Brenda (Cynthia Davis) tries to get past them to get to the washroom. After she leaves to get Martha, Leroy makes a dollar bet with Richard that he will sleep with Brenda before they break up. Martha then comes with a large butcher knife, threatening Jackson and throwing him out of her shop.

At Dorothy's quarter party, Tyrone flirts with Dorothy to grant the guys access to the quarter party without paying her. At the party, Pooter tries to flirt with some other girls, but they all flock to Richard instead, leaving him alone. Leroy finds and tries to serenade Brenda with poetry. Outside, Cochise flirts with and kisses a girl during a slow dance in the dark. However, hotheaded Damon, a classmate, sees him kissing the girl, who turns out to be Loretta Brown, Damon's girlfriend.

Later, Preach, Pooter, Tyrone, and Morris are singing and drinking wine on a street corner.

Stone and Robert pull up in a Cadillac, and Preach and Cochise go along with them for a ride as they are eager to smoke with them. Preach claims to have excellent driving experience, and the others allow him to take the wheel. At an intersection, the group gets scared next to a police car, and they pull away, causing the squad car to give chase. The chase ends when they evade the police in a mostly empty warehouse, and then gently crash into the back of another vehicle. Everyone runs away from the car.

At school the next day, before their important history test, Preach and Cochise are taken out of Mr. Mason's class on a warrant for their arrest relating to grand theft, auto.

Mr. Mason talks to the police, convincing them to go easier on his students, while Stone and Robert who have worse criminal records are not spared. When they eventually get out of jail, they seek vengeance on Preach and Cochise, perceiving them to be snitches.