A teen stands in the bathroom of a house where a party is in full swing. He is contemplating a difficult decision, one that will impact his life. While doing so, he is in a state of intoxication, the result of drinking too much.

The teen is not, however, deciding whether to go to college or when to study for his finals. He is simply deciding whether or not to get behind the wheel of his car.

One decision will lead him into an accident, one which kills his girlfriend while another will allow him to live his life without guilt, free to reach his potential.

If it sounds like an interesting way to depict the consequences of drinking and driving, that's because it is. It is also the plot of an award winning video made by Mineola High School seniors Manny Coelho and Lauren Scala.

The video was originally made by the two classmates for the annual Mineola High School Creativity Contest. Scala recalled that Coelho wanted to collaborate on the video project since both students are interested in television.

It was Coelho's idea to do a video on drunk driving since, he said, it is a topic that concerns him. Coelho was once involved in a drunk driving accident while he was stopped at a light. A car operated by a drunk driver went out of control and hit the car in front of him and that car hit his. "Drinking and driving is so wrong. I always hated it," he said.

Scala and Coelho came up with an original theme for the video and wrote it together. "There have been many videos on drunk driving. We wanted to do something different," said Scala.

The ten minute video entitled Wasted is about the consequences of making a decision to drink and drive. The film depicts a high school senior, played by Stephen Herrera, who goes to a party with his girlfriend, played by Nicole Coelho, and drinks too much. After being sick in the bathroom, he makes a decision to drive and gets into an accident, one which kills his girlfriend. The party scene was shot in Coelho's house.

There is also a scene of the senior visiting his girlfriend's grave, shot at a cemetary in Port Washington. The scene fades back into the scene where the senior is back in the bathroom. As it turns out, the young man had passed out and dreamed of the accident.

"It's basically about how he has a hand in his own fate," said Scala. "If he chose to drink and drive, he could basically end his life."

After the senior wakes up from the dream, he asks his friend who is sober for a ride. There is then a flash forward of him going to the prom and graduating, a reminder of the benefits of making the decision to not drink and drive. The two creators wanted to give the audience both happy and sad endings, Scala said."We really wanted to draw a lot of emotion out of the people that watched it," she added.

Coelho said he wanted to depict what can happen with both the wrong and right decision. "I had the idea and then she [Scala] basically wrote it and we put ideas together," he said. "I didn't think it was going to come out as good as it did."

The video took about two months to put together, said Scala. "It was a lot fun to make and it was even more fun to see the reaction of people who watched the final product. There were many people who were speachless. We saw people cry. It was unbelievable."

The video wound up winning the creativity contest and was shown in the auditorium to the entire school. "It's really hard to get everyone's attention and they sat there in complete silence for ten minutes," said Scala.

Recently, the video garnered more recognition when Coelho and Scala were awarded second place in the C.W. Post Long Island High School Video Contest.

Scala, who graduated this past Saturday, will be attending Fordham University as a television production major. Coelho, who also graduated on June 24, will be attending C.W. Post. as a film major.

The video can be viewed off the Internet at www.ifilm.com, under student films. Wasted has to be typed in.