Rafe Khatchadorian

"My name is Rafe Khatchadorian, and welcome to my crazy life."

- Rafe Khatchadorian's introduction.

Rafe Khatchadorian is the main protagonist of the 2016 Lionsgate movie Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life. He is a well experienced artist who lives with his single-mother Jules and his younger sister Georgia. He had a brother named Leo who died of cancer so he often imagines he is still alive and around.

He is played by Griffin Gluck.

Role in the film
Rafe Khatchadorian is a new student at Hills Village Middle School, (after being transfered to other different schools but got kicked out) his mother Jules reminds Rafe that there is a bigger world out there than in his notebook, his sister Georgia (who is very smart mouthed for her age and can drive without being taught) tells Rafe if he gets kicked out he could end up in a new school called Prison Elementary school. When Rafe arrives at his new school he meets the Principal of the school, who is criticizing Rafe who breaking the dress code and he is surprised Rafe does not know the rules which are known as the Code of Conduct, he hands Rafe a copy and introduces himself as Principal Dwight.Rafe enters the school where he meets up with his friend Leo, of which they both agree the school is like a prison. Rafe runs into Vice Principal Ida Stricker, who is Dwight's accomplice who makes sure all the students are obeying the code of conduct and not loitering in the halls and ruthlessly tells Rafe to get to class. Rafe meets Mr. Teller a nice and comedic teacher who befriends Rafe and let's him know Dwight's rules do not exist in his classroom.

Rafe meets Miller the school bully who makes fun of his last name and threatens to beat him up, as a assembly comes about a upcoming test called the B.L.A.A.R, a student named Jeanne gives a speech about the rules of this school and then Dwight shuts her speech down and Rafe is the only person who applause her, (he falls in love with her during her speech) Rafe then starts drawing an insulting picture of Dwight as a zombie in his notebook and one of the students grabs Rafe's notebook and then the other students are laughing at the drawing and then Stricker makes one of them hand over the notebook and she shows Dwight the drawing who then says the assembly is concluded. Back in his office Dwight shows Rafe rule #26, where any written material that is appropriate will be confiscated and destroyed, then Dwight calls in Janitor Gus with a yellow bucket full of acid which Dwight is going to destroy Rafe's notebook with, Rafe begs Dwight not to destroy his notebook because everything in it means everything to him, then Dwight tells Rafe that art and creativity does not belong in his school so he tosses his notebook in the bucket full of acid and ruthlessly tells Rafe that rules are rules. After school Rafe is heartbroken from the loss of his notebook and then his mom's selfish boyfriend Carl (who he nicknames him the bear) comes to pick him up. As Rafe get's home Leo gives him a new notebook and a card which he says Rafe should not read, Leo tells Rafe that since Dwight trashed his book he should trash his by breaking every rule in the code of conduct, at first Rafe thought that would be a bad idea but Leo says they are going to break them stealthily with out anyone finding out, so then Rafe and Leo calls the plan R.A.F.E (Rules Aren't For Everyone).

The next morning with eight weeks until the B.L.A.A.R, Rafe sneaks back into his house after covering the inside of the school's halls in sticky notes and it made the students loiter in the halls which was rule #11. Back at home Rafe is angry about having so many jerks ruining his life until Leo notices that earlier Carl accidentally put his credit card number on a napkin, which means they can buy equipment for R.A.F.E. Jeanne is thrilled that someone is standing up to the establishment and Leo tells Rafe they should not reveal himself just yet. Meanwhile, ever since Rafe started breaking the rules the students started slacking off and the test scores started going down, leaving Dwight worried since the B.L.A.A.R. was around the corner and he could not have low test scores so he tries to find the culprit to stop the slacking off. With nothing working Dwight gets another idea, he noticed that the slackers are from Mr Teller's room, and that if he cut that class from taking the B.L.A.A.R then the test scores would be high enough fo the B.L.A.A.R. So he orders Janitor Gus to fill the students lockers with the stuff Rafe was using to break the rules and then frames the students and punishes them with suspension. Mr Teller tells Dwight that the students in his class are not responsable and that it seemed like a set up. But Dwight then accuses Mr Teller of being involved with the pranks, and then fires him. Rafe then decides to come clean, he tells Dwight that he was the one breaking the rules, but Dwight did not care about Rafe's confession and he propositions Rafe that he could be the only kid not suspened if he keeps quiet about it. Rafe then refuses the offer and breaks another rule by setting off a false fire which activates the sprinklers, Dwight then yells that Rafe is expelled. Back at home Rafe tells Jules about Dwight, but she could not do anything about it since it was too late. Jules then tells him that Carl found a military school that she was relucantly going to ship him to since there was nothing left to do, and it is revealed that Leo was Rafe's brother who died two years prior to the film.

Jeanne arives at Rafe's house with evidence that proves Dwight's actions and with Georgia and Mr Teller's class along with Gus and Miller agree to help Rafe take down Dwight. With the kids gone Jules is outraged at Carl for caring more about his lost car than Rafe and Georgia being lost so she leaves to go find them. Back at the school Rafe then tells the other students about Dwight's tactics and then Gus shows up in a cart and Rafe drives off with him with the evidence, Dwight then confiscates a bike and chaces after them, Gus then dumps a pile of manure on Dwight. Mr Teller shows up with Superintendent Hwang in which they all reveal to her Dwight's actions, leaving her to fire and prosocute Dwight and Stricker for rigging the B.L.A.A.R and unlawfully firing Mr Teller. Rafe is then Re-enrolled into Hills Village Middle School and is praised as a hero while Mr Teller gets his job back.

Rafe is later seen that night outside the school conversing with Leo; the latter tells him that, since Rafe has now made friends with some of his classmates, he is no longer needed to fill that void. As Leo departs on a spaceship with extraterrestrials Rafe has created in his earlier sketchbook, Rafe and Jeanne share a kiss, breaking rule number 86, which is the final rule Rafe needed to break for an ends justify the means deed.

Quotes
"Hey Georgia thought i was gonna end up in prison, but i think i'm already here."

- Rafe telling Leo of what he thinks of the school "Hey man, i don't wanna talk about."

- Rafe when Leo appears after Dwight destroyed his notebook "Bear, why'd you get a stick if you don't know have to drive it?!"

- Rafe when Carl picks up him up after school "It's awesome man thank you, but all my best stuff was in my last sketh book. There were comics, inventions, (Leo: expertly drawn boobs.) Those were realistic. I think. (Leo: I hope. But the vinlothians, you made their star cruiser, you made their planet. You ever came up with their battle cry. What was it?) Rafe: Grak a tung. (Leo: Grak freakin tung!) Rafe: All right. (Leo: And their language, the star cruiser night club.) (Rafe exit's his room and heads to the basement with Leo) Rafe: would you lower your voice please? (Leo: What for?) Rafe: I said shhh. (Leo: What? Oh okay you don't want them to know i'm here. Rafe: Yeah. No offense, but Mom doesn't think your the best influence. (Leo: Oh, okay. Well she's not wrong about that.)"

- Rafe after he finds a new notebook Leo gave him while talking about the other notebook.

"(Leo: Okay, Rafe. Back to the book thing. Are you ready for the greatest idea in the history of ideas? Dwight trashed your book, right? So, you trash his. Rafe: Yeah, i guess that could be kind of fun. We'd take the shredder from the back.. (Leo: No, no, no. We don't wanna shred the rule book. We wanna shred the actual rules. Every stupid rule in this dumb code of conduct!) Rafe: Leo, are you kidding me? And get kicked out of another school? I would be disowned! (Leo: No you won't! You wanna know why? Because were gonna be careful, and nobody's gonna know it's us!) Rafe: So your saying we do it anonymously? (Leo: Exatcly! It is up to us to speak for the voiceless, to vigilantes for freedom! We got eight weeks before Dwight tries to measure our worth on a buch of bubbles on a scantron! I'm sick of people trying to suck the fun out of childhood! Lets stop the suck! Lets show them that we don't give a... What rymes with suck?) Rafe: Nothing good. (Leo: So?) Rafe: Lets Stick it to the man! (Leo: Yeah!)"

- Rafe and Leo announcing operation R.A.F.E. (Rules Aren't For Everyone)

"This gets me so mad! (Leo: I have an idea. Lets pee in his Cologne.) No, we can't do that. That would be way too much of an improvement. Why are their so many jerks in my life right now?! (Leo: I don't know.)"

- Rafe talking about Dwight, Carl, Stricker, and Miller with Leo.

Trivia

 * In the book, Rafe broke the rules in the code of conduct to make Middle School more entertaining, in the movie however he broke them to get back at Principal Dwight for destroying his notebook.

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 * Matilda Wormwood (Matilda)
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 * Jason Shepherd (Big fat liar)