kits are cheaper? um no. You have to look at the entire product cost, not just the cost of the kit. I'm not trying to bash kits, I love to build, but they are not cheaper. Rc plane are the worst for the Batteries not included situation. and for good reason. Everyone that has been in this hobby awhile and builds know what they want in their model and would rather pay less for a kit without hardware then pay a little more for a kit that come with hardware they don't really want to use and end up replacing the harware with what they like
The cheapest route is getting this
[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMU53**&P=0]avistar[/link]
I started when I was your age. 13 yrs ago working a Mc'd for 4.25. I happen to of gotten a tower trainer to learn on and got a GP cub kit
[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJ568&P=ML]cub 40[/link]
I'm not recommending the cub as a first plane. don't do it. It's an Excellency second plane and an even better first kit. You learn so much about how the model functions when you build. If you can swing it with the parents get the trainer to learn to fly on and at the same time build the cub, it's going to take a couple months, especially on a high schoolers schedule