leading by example is a Star Wars Crack Fic written by serenfire which asks the question "What if The Force Awakens took place at an ordinary high school?". It can be read here.
The basic plot is as follows: Rey, Finn, and Poe are seniors and members of the school's student council, who regularly oppose Rey's cousin Kylo Ren and his band of wannabe emo teens (who are members of the same student council). They decide to enter the school's annual talent show in order to prove to Kylo's clique that they are not, in fact, talentless hacks. Hilarity Ensues.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: In the fourth chapter, it's revealed that people like to make Inside Llewyn Davis references around Poe because he inexplicably looks like a younger version of the titular character, much to his annoyance.
- Adaptational Heroism: The First Order kids, by virtue of being ordinary high schoolers instead of high-ranking members of an Evil Empire.
- Adaptational Villainy: Someone had to be the stereotypical evil homophobic relative who shows up to ruin Thanksgiving, and Mara Jade ended up being the author's only choice.
- Adaptational Species Change: BB-8 goes from a robot to a dog.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Finn had a crush on Rey to this effect at one point. It led to her kicking him in the face with her steel-toed boots.
- Atrocious Alias: Rey, Finn, and Poe enter the talent show under the name "The Gay Chickens".
- The Bet:
- Finn and Poe had one on when Kylo and Hux would hook up, which Poe wins.
- It's later revealed that they had another one centered around whether Phasma would come out as gay. Finn wins this one.
- Big Fancy House: Rey lives in one, as her dad is a big deal in the physics world and thus able to afford it.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Kylo fits all the requirements except for the gender.
- Bridal Carry: Finn does this to take Poe upstairs so he can fix his pants before the rest of the First Order enters the house...only to drop him down the stairs accidentally.
- Butt-Monkey: Snoke.
- Cast Full of Gay: Literally the only characters who express interest in someone of the opposite gender are the parents and Finn (who had a crush on Rey in middle school).
- Crack Fic
- Chekhov's Gun: In the first chapter, Hux mentions that Kylo Ren will get detention if he uses his phone during school hours again. Rey, Finn, and Poe use this to their advantage during the climax by planting a phone on him and making it go off during the talent show.
- Darkness Von Gothick Name: What the names of the First Order kids are meant to be. They're mostly seen as completely ridiculous.
- Deadpan Snarker: Everyone.
- Doing In the Wizard: Quantum physics stands in for the Force.
- Emo Teen: Kylo Ren and his posse are all this, though Kylo is the most obvious example.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Hux's parents want him to apply to military school, and he says that they'll probably disown him if he applies to SCAD.
- Flipping the Bird: Happens often.
- Friendly Rivalry: The Gay Chickens and the First Order are rivals, but they're still able to be friendly with each other.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Not even the First Order seems to like Snoke very much.
- Hated by All: Snoke seems to have this status amongst the student body, to the point that, when he ran against Rey for StuCo president, he lost near-unanimously.
- Hate Sink: Mara Jade, not the least because she's the token homophobe in a Cast Full of Gay.
- High School AU
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Rey used one in her campaign posters for StuCo president. She still wins near-unanimously because the only other person running is Snoke.
- Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: One idea Finn has for The Gay Chickens' act is imitating the First Order. It's shot down because it will only appeal to a niche group of audience members.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Mara Jade is the only person who lampshades the fact that every main character (except Snoke) has a position on the student council, even if she's only surprised that "their queer asses" got elected in the first place.
- Large Ham: All the teens indulge in this at one point or another.
- Missing Mom: Mara Jade has been out of her daughter's life for about 10 years.
- Mooning: Poe does this semi-accidentally to everyone in the vicinity after his pants split open to display bright orange underwear.
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently, Luke went through a High School AU equivalent to Episode IV when he was Rey's age.
- The Bathroom Incident that happened with Jessika Pava.
- Prodigal Family: Rey's already disastrous Thanksgiving dinner is made even more soap opera dramatic by the sudden appearance of her long-disappeared mother.
- Real After All: The Lesbian Roosters, initially thought to be a jab at Rey, Finn, and Poe's group name, turns out to be a real act.
- Refuge in Audacity: A lot of the things the kids do, especially Kylo. Examples include:
- Kylo, on the first day of senior year, locked himself in the P.A. system, sang "Welcome to the Black Parade", and declared that his new name is "Kylo fucking Ren" and that he will sic Phasma on whoever doesn't call him that.
- In freshman year, he tried to take Rey's spot as Dorothy in a production of The Wizard Of Oz during the first live performance. He claims he did it because he could.
- During Thanksgiving dinner, Kylo and Hux start making out to scare Rey's homophobic mother. Rey immediately stands on her chair and films it with her phone, putting a foot in the mashed potatoes in the process.
- Related in the Adaptation: Rey is Luke's and Mara Jade's daughter and Kylo's cousin. Partly justified, as this was written long before the two sequels came out.
- Sex Dressed: How Rey realizes that Kylo and Hux were having sex in the guest bedroom.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Instead of killing him, Kylo broke his father's arm.
- Spiders Are Scary: Poe suggests hiring a spider trainer to kill Kylo and the rest of the First Order. Rey quickly shoots this plan down.
- Social Media Before Reason: Hux exemplifies this the most out of the characters, bringing his phone out and taking photos for Snapchat at inopportune times.
- Student Council President: Rey is this. She ran against Snoke; the vote was near-unanimous.
- Talent Contest: The main plot is centered around one of these.
- Thanksgiving Episode: The second half of chapter 2 and chapter 3 take place on Thanksgiving day. The author describes it as "all the Thanksgiving drama people post on Tumblr, but like, 500% that".
