Writting characters in an U.S. High School

Warmth is a factor??

I live in Southern California and the weather here is quite warm most of the year. We usually have our homecoming in September or October so I don't think warmth affects the date.

In southern states like Florida, the marching band season- which is largely dependent on football -sometimes continues onwards into January simply because it's usually warm enough in December to keep on playing. In Ohio, our marching and football seasons usually end by the first week of November due to the harsh, cold snows that usually start to hit after that period.

Each one of the fifty United States has its own set of standards in place for schools with a few overhead rules from the feds, plus it's a pretty large country. So it's not exactly farfetched for the southern, warmer states to do things differently than the northern, colder states.

Yep, the high school experience will differ drastically depending on region, wealth level, ethnic makeup,what political stuff is going on...and the interests/personality of the main characters.

Homecoming may be a big deal if: It's a small town where the high school football games are pretty much it for entertainment in the fall; the school has a particularly strong football tradition; the main characters are on the football team, cheerleader squad or marching band; the main character has a steady who expects to be taken to dances/games. One of the reasons the date is flexible is that traditionally the homecoming game is played against a particularly rival school for maximum excitement and that has to be carefully arranged.

One thing to keep in mind if your fellow is transferring in—by senior year, most of the social relationships in the peer group are fairly cemented in place. Only outliers like transfer students break things up, so your character may well be approached mostly by people who want to change their social circumstances. If he gets in with an already-connected person, he'll have a quick social circle, but might find that his new friends don't approve of him talking to people from "opposed" groups.