Write Me Letters
I was going through some old files recently and found myself reading this. Write Me Letters was written as a companion piece to my one act play, Pilgrims. The two plays were done together at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in 1987. Though the play is set in the late sixties, I found it very timely and still moving. Thoughts welcome.
WRITE ME LETTERS
(IT IS NOVEMBER, 1969
A HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM. DESKS. BLACKBOARD. A TEACHER'S DESK FRONT AND OFF TO THE SIDE.
IT'S LATE AFTERNOON. FAR DOWN THE HALL, A BELL RINGS.
JILLY O'BRIEN IS SITTING IN ONE OF THE FRONT DESKS, BOOKS IN FRONT OF HER. SHE LOOKS PALE, ALMOST FRIGHTENED. SOMEWHERE DOWN THE HALL A BELL RINGS.
SHE LOOKS UP AS A TEACHER, EDWARD COOK, ENTERS THE ROOM. HE STOPS, ALMOST SURPRISED TO SEE HER. SHE LOOKS AWAY, SEEMINGLY EMBARRASSED. HE STARES AT HER A MOMENT. HE MOVES TO THE DESK. THERE'S A PIECE OF PAPER ON IT. HE PICKS IT UP, LOOKS AT IT, PUTS IT DOWN. HE STARES AT JILLY FOR A MOMENT. SHE'S STARING AT THE DESK TOP.
COOK
Miss O'Brien -
JILLY
Yes!?
COOK
(a beat; amused)
I'm surprised to find you here.
JILLY
I'm... surprised to find myself here, Mr. Cook...
(a murmur)
...actually.
(COOK TAKES SOME BOOKS OUT OF HIS BRIEFCASE. JILLY WANTS TO SAY SOMETHING. ALMOST DOES. SHE THINKS BETTER OF IT. SHE RAISES HER HAND. RAISES IT HIGHER. HIGHER STILL. COOK FINALLY LOOKS UP. HE ALMOST SMILES.)
COOK
Yes?
JILLY
Mr. Cook? Is there anything I'm supposed to do?
COOK
Like what, bang out licence plates?
JILLY
What?
COOK
That's what prisoners do in prison. They make licence plates.
JILLY
Okay.
COOK
That was a joke, Miss O'Brien. I was making a joke. This isn't a prison. By the way, you don't have to raise your hand to speak. Not with me.
JILLY
Okay.
(COOK GLANCES AT HIS WATCH. HE MOVES TO THE DOOR, LOOKS OUT INTO THE HALL.)
JILLY
Mr. Cook?
COOK
Yes?
JILLY
What do I do.
COOK
Study. Read. Pick your nose. Sereptitiously of course.
JILLY
That's my punishment? Reading?
COOK
For a majority of students, Miss O'Brien, it's torture.
(COOK MOVES TO THE DOOR AGAIN, LOOKS OUT IN THE HALL)
COOK
(calling out)
Let's move it, Mr. Hackett. Three o'clock bell should be ringing just about...
(HE LOOKS AT HIS WATCH AS DAN HACKETT HURRIES IN. HACKETT IS ATHLETIC LOOKING, RELATIVELY CLEAN CUT.)
COOK
...now.
(SOMEWHERE DOWN THE HALL A BELL RINGS.)
COOK
Almost late, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
(out of breath)
My locker jammed. Then I had to drop some stuff off in my car.
COOK
Take a seat.
HACKETT
Mr. Cook? I was wondering. I'm missing football practice cause of this. And the homecoming game's a week from Thursday. So I was wondering. Can you let me go early? I think it would mean a lot to everyone involved.
COOK
Everyone?
HACKETT
Everyone on the football team.
COOK
What are you here for, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
I was late for second period. It wasn't my fault. My locker jammed. And I had to get some stuff from my car.
COOK
Take a seat, I'll think about.
HACKETT
I'd really appreciate it, Mr. Cook. As would the rest of the guys.
COOK
Guys?
HACKETT
On the team.
COOK
Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
I can go?
COOK
You can sit.
(HACKETT TAKES A SEAT. HE HARDLY GLANCES AT JILLY. MR. COOK MOVES TO THE DESK, PICKS UP THE SHEET OF PAPER.)
COOK
Well... I don't suppose anyone has seen Frank D'Angelo?
HACKETT
(startled)
D'Angelo's here?
COOK
Excuse me?
HACKETT
D'Angelo has detention today?
COOK
It is my understanding that Mr. D'Angelo has detention every day. Have you seen him?
HACKETT
No!
COOK
Would you both excuse me for a moment, please.
HACKETT
You're gonna leave us?
COOK
I thought I might.
HACKETT
By ourselves?
COOK
Is there a problem, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
No... you're not going far, are you?
COOK
Define far.
HACKETT
Uh... beyond the sound of my voice?
COOK
Do some homework, Mr. Hackett. I'll be right back.
(HE EXITS. SILENCE.)
HACKETT
Shit. I'm dead, I'm dead.
(a moment)
What are you looking at?
JILLY
Nothing.
HACKETT
Mind your own business.
JILLY
Sorry.
HACKETT
My ass.
(pause)
Shit.
(pause)
I gotta get out of here.
(HE STARTS FOR THE DOOR. COOK ENTERS. HE CLOSES THE DOOR BEHIND HIM.)
COOK
Going someplace, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
No! Yes. I... Mr. Cook, I got football practice.
COOK
Should have thought of that before second period.
HACKETT
But the homecoming game's next Thursday.
COOK
It is now five after three, at quarter to four if all goes well, you can go to football practice, until then, sit down.
HACKETT
But it wasn't my fault. I was five minutes late. Not even. Miss Stegerwald's got this weird thing about attendance.
COOK
Mr. Hackett, another word and you'll be sitting here every day this week.
(HACKETT RELUCTANTLY SITS)
HACKETT
If... if I don't start next Thursday you better believe you'll be hearing from my Dad. And he's tight with the president of the school board.
COOK
Are you threatening me, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
If the shoe fits.
COOK
Keep talking Mr. Hackett. Maybe you can insert the shoe a little deeper.
(and then:)
Let's do some work, people.
(COOK SITS. PICKS UP ONE OF SEVERAL COPIES OF THE YALE SHAKESPEARE. HE BEGINS TO READ. SILENCE. AND SUDDENLY THERE'S A LIGHT RAPPING ON THE DOOR. A MOMENT. ANOTHER; SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT - TWO BITS. MR. COOK RISES, OPENS THE DOOR. FRANK D'ANGELO ENTERS. HE'S CARRYING A CAN OF COKE AND A COMIC BOOK.)
D'ANGELO
Hey, Mr. Cook! What, you got detention too?
COOK
In a manner of speaking. You're late, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
You want I should leave and return tomorrow?
COOK
Better late then never. If you please.
(HE HOLDS OUT A HAND FOR THE CAN OF COKE.)
D'ANGELO
Aw, that's nice of you.
(D'ANGELO FINISHES THE LAST GULP AND HANDS THE EMPTY CAN TO COOK.)
D'ANGELO
Keep the deposit.
COOK
Thank you. Take a seat, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
Hey, Mr. Cook, I liked your class today. I really did.
COOK
Really? What did you like about it?
D'ANGELO
Uh, well, uh... that thing you said about plays? That plays were meant to be heard, not read? I thought that was very interesting.
COOK
Really? How so.
D'ANGELO
How so. Uh... cause picking some guys to read it out loud that was - that was better. Not great, but better. I guess that's why you're the teacher and we're the students, huh?
COOK
Had you actually read the assignment, Frank?
D'ANGELO
The what?
COOK
The play? Henry IV?
D'ANGELO
Every word.
COOK
Really?
D'ANGELO
Well, I mean, you know, not every word.
COOK
Every other word.
D'ANGELO
Every... verb.
COOK
Enough to get the jist.
D'ANGELO
Exactly. I whatayacallit...
COOK
Skimmed?
D'ANGELO
And you know, Mr. Cook, even doing that, I had a hard time getting into it? I mean, in my opinion, this guy's plays -
COOK
Shakespeare.
D'ANGELO
Yeah. His plays are kind of boring, you know? I mean, everybody's talking, talking. You ask me, they talk too much. Oh, but that's why hearing it out loud was such a better thing. It killed a lot of class time.
COOK
Take a seat, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
Nice tie, by the way. I like your tie.
COOK
Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
Yeah?
COOK
Don't push it.
D'ANGELO
Right.
(brandishing the comic book)
I brought homework.
COOK
Trade you.
D'ANGELO
Nah, s'okay.
COOK
That wasn't a request.
D'ANGELO
Oh. Sure. Got it.
(HE GIVES COOK THE COMIC BOOK, PICKS UP ONE OF THE SHAKESPEARES)
D'ANGELO
I didn't know you were such a fan of the Silver Surfer, Mr. Cook.
COOK
Start from page one. Perhaps you'll become a fan of Shakespeare's.
D'ANGELO
That's what I like about your class, Mr. Cook, you have this sense of humor.
(COOK BEGINS TO READ. D'ANGELO SITS AT A DESK. PAUSE. HE RAISES HIS HAND. KEEPS IT RAISED A LONG TIME. HE CLEARS HIS THROAT)
COOK
What is it now, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
I don't like this desk. You mind I sit at another desk?
COOK
I want you to be comfortable, Mr. D'Angelo, sit at another desk.
D'ANGELO
Thank you.
(HE RISES. HE SITS AT ANOTHER.)
D'ANGELO
Too soft.
(HE RISES. HE MOVES TO ANOTHER. SITS.)
D'ANGELO
Too hard.
(HE RISES. MOVES TO THE ONE NEXT TO HACKETT. HE SITS.)
COOK
Just right?
D'ANGELO
Perfect.
(ominously at Hackett)
Hey, pukeface. Happy to see me?
(HACKETT RISES)
HACKETT
Mr. Cook, can I go to the bathroom?
COOK
It can't wait till quarter to four?
HACKETT
No.
COOK
Mr. Hackett, I like to think I play straight with the students.
HACKETT
Uh-huh?
(a beat)
What's that mean?
COOK
It means by all means go to the lavatory.
(HACKETT STARTS FOR THE DOOR.)
COOK
But Mr. Hackett. If you're not back in five minutes, you'll be in detention until you graduate.
D'ANGELO
Hey! Is that fair or what?
(HACKETT RACES TO THE DOOR AND OUT.)
COOK
Miss O'Brien?
JILLY
Yes!?
COOK
What are you here for, Miss O'Brien?
JILLY
Me? Oh...
D'ANGELO
Mr. Cook, can I answer that?
COOK
I wasn't aware I was talking to you, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, but what I have to say directly bears on the question at hand.
COOK
Really.
JILLY
No.
D'ANGELO
She's here cause of me.
JILLY
No.
D'ANGELO
Yeah. She is, Mr. Cook. You know Mr. Bishop?
COOK
How long is this going to take, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
Two seconds.
COOK
Go.
D'ANGELO
See, somehow - mistake - I got stuck in Mr. Bishop's -
(to Jilly)
What is it he teaches?
JILLY
Political science.
D'ANGELO
Right. With all the eggheads. Mistake.
COOK
You don't get along with eggheads?
D'ANGELO
I don't get along with Mr. Bishop. See, Mr. Bishop likes to debate? Well, I like to debate. But Mr. Bishop - I dunno, he's a conservative, I'm a liberal - Mr. Bishop doesn't value my opinion. Am I right or wrong?
JILLY
Am I... supposed to answer?
COOK
Please.
JILLY
... Mr. Bishop told him... if he ever opened his mouth in class again he'd have him killed.
D'ANGELO
On the first day! So this morning, Mr. Bishop goes, like, sure, bomb the north, bring the Communists to their knees and - silly me, right? - I couldn't keep my mouth shut. And I go, sure, easy for you to say, sitting in a class room on your fat, John Wayne-Howdy Pilgrim, bell shaped, acne covered butt. Well, I mean! The silence! Except for her.
(JILLY HAS HIDDEN HER FACE)
COOK
Miss O'Brien?
(JILLY IS SHAKING)
COOK
Miss O'Brien, are you all right? Jilly? Look at me.
(SHE RAISES HER HEAD. HER FACE IS TWISTED IN AGONY AS IF HE'S TRYING TO HOLD SOMETHING IN. AND THEN SHE CAN'T ANYMORE. SHE HOWLS. WITH LAUGHTER.
D'ANGELO
He gave her detention for laughing.
(SHE CAN HARDLY BREATH, SHE'S LAUGHING SO HARD. SHE PUTS HER FACE IN ARMS AND LAUGHS SOME MORE. SHE SUDDENLY STOPS HORRIFIED. SHE RAISES HER HAND.)
COOK
Yes?
JILLY
May I be excused to go to the ladies room?
COOK
Yes.
(JILLY RISES AND RUNS FROM THE ROOM. COOK SMILES TO HIMSELF. AND THEN:)
COOK
I take it you enjoy political debate, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
Huh? Oh... sometimes.
COOK
And what do you use to form the basis of your opinions?
D'ANGELO
Huh?
COOK
Where do you get your information?
D'ANGELO
I glance through the newspaper every now and then.
COOK
You say it's a mistake you're in a class with eggheads. My literature class has quite a few bright students and yet you're in it. Why is that?
D'ANGELO
Mistake.
COOK
You're passing.
D'ANGELO
Luck.
COOK
With even a little work, you'd be doing very well.
D'ANGELO
I got homework to do, Mr. Cook.
COOK
I've seen your Iowa tests, Frank.
D'ANGELO
My what?
COOK
Your aptitude tests. You're a smart young man. I don't know why you pretend not to be.
D'ANGELO
I don't pretend nothing, Mr. Cook. I am what I am. You got a car you want fixed? I'll fix it. You got the parts lying under your bed - I do - I'll build one for you, it'll run, good as from the factory. What I won't do is pretend I give a shit about something - scuse my French - I don't give a shit about.
COOK
And you don't give a - care - about school.
D'ANGELO
No.
COOK
That's a shame.
D'ANGELO
Can I speak frankly here?
COOK
I wish you would.
D'ANGELO
Okay. You know what's the shame, Mr. Cook, now that we're talking, about this place, school I mean? I'm not sure you're aware of this - no, actually I'm sure you are - they break you up, y'know, sometime early on, into categories. All the smart kids - no, excuse me, all the kids that got good grades get lumped together. They're A-1. All the kids that get pretty good grades, they get lumped together, B-2. The kids who get average grades, the C's, they get lumped together and so on down the line to the bottom of the barrel which is, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, the retards. How you think it made us feel, Mr. Cook, me and the other kids in "my lump", that first time we realized we were all one class above the retards? Or did you guys, not you personally, think we were too dumb to notice. We noticed. So do the retards. We knew that the kids in A-1 were supposed to go to college and the kids in D-4 - us - were pretty much a waste of your time. You want to talk about shame? That's the shame, Mr. Cook. The shame we felt.
COOK
You're not a waste of my time, Frank.
D'ANGELO
That's you. You're a okay guy. Maybe the exception. I'm older than a lot of these kids, y'know? I stayed back a lot. But it's not just age. Sometimes I think I was like, born older. You know what I mean?
COOK
Yes.
D'ANGELO
So you can understand it when I tell you I don't look up to teachers just cause they're older. Teachers go home at night and get up in the morning just like everybody else. They get plowed on the weekends and they try and get laid and they have no idea what's going on cause if they did, they wouldn't be wasting their time teaching.
COOK
I don't think I'm wasting my time, Frank.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, but Mr. Cook, like I said, you're the exception. You like books. You like, who's this guy, Shakespeare. What else you gonna do with your life? But most of these guys - Mr. Bishop, for example - if he wasn't a teacher, he'd be flipping burgers. I don't respect guys like that. And they don't like it.
(a moment)
Scuse me for saying so, I was under the impression you and Mr. Bishop were not exactly Cisco and Pancho either.
COOK
We... have differences of opinion.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, I've heard you got an opinion or two.
COOK
Really, what have you heard?
D'ANGELO
I dunno... that you, like, marched. Got arrested. I hear the school board's all hot about it.
COOK
It's funny. As teachers I always thought we tried to teach young people to be individuals, to look at the facts and draw their own conclusions. It has recently been put to my attention that there are right conclusions and wrong conclusions. It'll blow over.
D'ANGELO
How so?
COOK
Well, either I'm going to learn to keep my mouth shut or the school board's going to remember I've got a constitutional right to flap it. Mostly likely it'll be the former.
D'ANGELO
And that's okay with you?
COOK
This is high school, not a democracy.
D'ANGELO
For the keepers as well as the animals, huh, Mr. Cook?
COOK
No comment.
(THEY LOOK UP AS JILLY RETURNS.)
COOK
(gently)
Everything all right?
(JILLY BLUSHES RED. SHE NODS. SHE TAKES HER SEAT. COOK GLANCES AT HIS WATCH)
COOK
It would appear Mr. Hackett is determined to exceed his warrantee. Would you both excuse me for a moment.
D'ANGELO
Hey, you want, you could even go home, Mr. Cook. Believe me, I know the drill.
COOK
I'll be right back.
(HE EXITS. A MOMENT)
D'ANGELO
He's an okay guy. Know what I mean? Huh? Hey. Hello? Anybody home?
JILLY
We're not supposed to talk.
D'ANGELO
Oh, oh. Why?
JILLY
It's detention.
D'ANGELO
What are they gonna do, give it to us again?
(a moment)
Punishment's only punishment if you let it be punishment.
(a moment)
Be that way.
(a moment)
How come you still act like a new kid.
JILLY
I don't.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, you do. You been here now, what, two months, you act like you been here two weeks.
JILLY
What do I do?
D'ANGELO
You walk around, head down, you don't say a word to nobody. You shy? Huh? That it?
JILLY
Be quiet.
D'ANGELO
Oh-oh. She's getting tough on me.
JILLY
I'm not.
D'ANGELO
What are you then, stuck-up?
JILLY
No!
D'ANGLEO
I bet that's it. You think you're better than anyone else, don't you.
JILLY
Do people think that?
D'ANGELO
I don't know what people think. The worst. If it's the worst, that's what people think. Look, don't worry about it, I'm just, y'know... teasing you.
JILLY
Why?
D'ANGELO
Hey. Maybe I think you're a cutie.
(AND HE SITS THERE WATCHING AS:)
D'ANGELO
Oh-oh, she's turning red... purple...
JILLY
Stop!
D'ANGELO
Blue, green, off white!
(JILLY IS SILENT; CHEEKS BURNING. A MOMENT AND THEN, WITH REAL SYMPATHY)
D'ANGELO
It's not easy being a new kid, huh?
JILLY
I'm...
D'ANGLEO
What? Come on, what?
JILLY
Used to it.
D'ANGELO
Yeah? Why?
JILLY
We move a lot. My Dad, you know, he... we move.
D'ANGELO
Military?
JILLY
Sales.
D'ANGELO
Brutal.
JILLY
It is. Just when you sort of get around to finally knowing a few people? You leave. It's made my brother outgoing. He makes friends like that.
D'ANGELO
Who's your brother?
JILLY
He's in the six grade.
D'ANGELO
He's a stupid kid.
JILLY
Yeah, well, my mom says I should try to be more like him.
D'ANGELO
How so.
JILLY
She says I should just walk up to people and introduce myself.
D'ANGELO
She ought to try it.
JILLY
She could. She's, well...
D'ANGELO
What.
JILLY
Outgoing.
D'ANGELO
Who do you take after?
JILLY
My Dad.
D'ANGELO
He's not outgoing?
(JILLY SHAKES HER HEAD)
D'ANGELO
He must be a hell of a salesman.
JILLY
(an man's entire life in this one word)
No.
(a moment)
I tried it once. Being outgoing. At a school in Ohio. I walked up to some people and introduced myself. Hi. I'm... They looked at me like I was some sort of geek.
(A MOMENT)
D'ANGELO
I was a new kid once.
JILLY
You were?
D'ANGELO
Yeah. Second grade. My first day? We get an in-class assignment. They hand out small yellow paper with thin blue lines. I've never seen paper like this before. I'm used to large yellow paper with wide blue lines. What the hell, I say - be a man, ask no questions, dive in. The teacher comes over to check how I'm doing. What is this, she says, for all to hear. See, even though the lines were small, I was using my same old letters, the letters I'd been taught; my letters were big. Everyone elses, though I did not know this yet, were small. Small lines, small letters. One'd think this'd be an easy thing for the teacher to correct but apparently it was not. The teacher was outraged. Whatever did they teach you in the other school in this, your first two years of schooling, that you should write such letters! Tears came to my eyes. Snot to my nose. I was embarrassed that my letters were not right. Kids laughed. And well they should have.
JILLY
What did you do?
D'ANGELO
I popped the one sitting next to me, right in the
fuckin' mouth. I only wish now it had been the teacher.
(JILLY SMILES. SHE LOOKS AWAY, ALMOST EMBARRASSED THAT SHE SHOULD FIND THIS STORY AMUSING.)
JILLY
You can't go hitting people your whole life.
D'ANGELO
Why not?
JILLY
You're not supposed to.
D'ANGELO
Why not?
JILLY
Just... because.
D'ANGELO
See, I don't buy "just because". Now if you were to tell me I shouldn't hit people because sooner or later I'm going to meet somebody who hits back harder, that is something to consider.
JILLY
You will.
D'ANGELO
Maybe so.
(a moment)
Anyway, I've always suspected that the reason I've always had such a hard time in school is because I never made the proper transition period from big to small letters. It was too much for my feeble brain, I've never recovered.
(AND JILLY ALMOSTS SMILES. FRANK RETURNS THE SMILE, PLEASED.)
D'ANGELO
Hey, speaking of transitions, adolescence? Stop me if you've heard this one. You know the difference between girls and boys and adolescence?
JILLY
Is this dirty?
D'ANGELO
Hey, you could tell your mother this joke. Okay. Girls hit adolescence, it makes you crazy for a couple of years or so and then, like, you're women, right? But boys, we hit adolescence, the hormones kick in, we go crazy - you know what happens?
JILLY
What.
D'ANGELO
We never recover.
JILLY
(a smile; and then:)
How do you know? Maybe you haven't given yourself enough time yet.
(SHARP ANSWER. D'ANGELO SMILES.)
D'ANGELO
Good. That's good.
(HACKETT ENTERS. HE FREEZES AS HE REALIZES COOK ISN'T THERE.)
D'ANGELO
Well, well. Danny-boy.
HACKETT
Where's Mr. Cook?
D'ANGELO
Lookin' for you, kid. Just like me.
(HACKETT EXITS.)
D'ANGELO
(calling after him)
You can run but you can't hide, Danny!
(PAUSE. FRANK TURNS. JILLY IS LOOKING AT HIM. A MOMENT.)
D'ANGELO
What?
JILLY
I heard if you get in any more trouble they're going to expel you.
D'ANGELO
Yeah? Where'd you hear that?
JILLY
The cafeteria. Some teachers were talking.
D'ANGELO
About me? What else did they say?
JILLY
Nothing.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, they did. What? Come on, what?
JILLY
Good riddance.
D'ANGELO
(a moment)
I probably am. Going to get expelled. If it's not for fighting, it'll be for something.
JILLY
That doesn't bother you?
D'ANGELO
Big deal, I'll join the Marines.
JILLY
But you can't.
D'ANGELO
Why not?
JILLY
There's a war.
D'ANGELO
Yeah?
JILLY
And you'd go.
D'ANGELO
Kick some ass, why not.
JILLY
But in Mr. Bishop's class...
D'ANGELO
What.
JILLY
You sounded against the war.
D'ANGELO
Mostly I'm against Mr. Bishop.
JILLY
But you said -
D'ANGELO
Forget what I said. I don't even know what I said. Look, the only thing standing between me and the army is my quote-unquote, ha-ha, student status. I'm out of here, I'm as good as drafted. Better the Marines.
JILLY
Why?
D'ANGELO
I like their attitude.
JILLY
Wouldn't you be afraid?
(AN ANSWER IN FRANK'S SILENCE. AND THEN:)
D'ANGELO
So you got any friends yet or what?
(COOK AND HACKETT ENTER.)
HACKETT
I had to get something from my locker, Mr. Cook. Really.
COOK
Just where is your locker, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
Down the hall.
COOK
And so what were you doing on the other side of the school?
HACKETT
...what were you?
COOK
I'm a teacher, I'm everywhere. Sit, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
This isn't fair. I shouldn't even be here.
COOK
Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
What.
COOK
Shut up.
(HACKETT SITS. A MOMENT. AND NOW D'ANGELO RAISES HIS HAND.)
COOK
Don't tell me, Mr. D'Angelo. Now you have to go to the bathroom.
D'ANGELO
You want to know the truth, I thought I'd skip down the hall, have a cigarette.
COOK
Five minutes. Go.
D'ANGELO
The clock is ticking, pukeface.
(D'ANGELO, STARING AT HACKETT AND WHISTLING, EXITS.)
COOK
Mr. Hackett, there seems to be a little animosity between you and Mr. D'Angelo.
HACKETT
He just wants to kill me, that's all.
COOK
Why.
HACKETT
... he was picking on some guys, I told him to stop it.
(and then:)
He sells drugs you know, Mr. Cook. Anybody wants to buy anything, they go to him. Even the cops know about it.
COOK
I was under the impression, the only thing illegal Mr. D'Angelo did was drive too fast.
HACKETT
Yeah, right. I know some guys, they bought some - I mean, I don't know them well but... D'Angelo said he'd get them some dope? Y'know, pot? Grass?
COOK
I know what marijuana is, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
Yeah, well, he sold them catnip or banana peels or something. Birdseed, I dunno. All I know is it made these guys really, like, puke their guts out. And then D'Angelo wouldn't give the money back. I mean, so it's like, not only is he a pusher, he's a cheat. You ask me, he shouldn't even be allowed to be here. I mean, he's probably in the john shooting up right now.
(A MOMENT. COOKS SIGHS.)
COOK
You'll both stay in your seats until I return, please.
(COOK EXITS. SILENCE.)
HACKETT
What are you looking at?
JILLY
Nothing. It's just...
HACKETT
Huh?
JILLY
... you didn't tell the truth..
HACKETT
What'd you say?
JILLY
He doesn't sell drugs. Even I know that.
HACKETT
You know shit.
JILLY
I know that marijuana doesn't look like birdseed.
HACKETT
Sure. Laugh. Everybody else has.
(and then:)
You ever tried it? The real stuff.
JILLY
No.
HACKETT
It's not bad. It made me laugh like an idiot. You know Roy Ferguson?
JILLY
I know who he is.
HACKETT
It made him totally paranoid, the big baby. You ask me, I'd rather beer anytime. You drink? Stupid question. You don't do shit, do you.
(SILENCE)
JILLY
Why are you afraid of him?
HACKETT
What?
JILLY
Why are you -
HACKETT
Am I talking to you?
JILLY
No.
HACKETT
This last summer we're at the Farm Shop, hanging out. You know, people come, park there, shoot the shit. D'Angelo's there in that stupid car of his, laying rubber in the parking lot like he's cool or something. He's parked, talking to some of his grease eddy friends, I dunno, they're comparing crankshafts or something. Some college guys come through in their car. They park. One of'm, Johnny Brock, he's a defensive tackle for Penn State, you wouldn't mess with him in your dreams, he's getting out of the car, he dings the door of the car next to him. D'Angelo tells him to watch it. I mean, it's not even his car. Brock tells him to go fuck himself. Next thing you know, they're into it. Brock should have wiped up the parking lot with him - he had D'Angelo by forty pounds. D'Angelo just about killed him. He just kept coming. I tell you, he puts a finger on me, I have friends. We'll get him.
(COOK ENTERS.)
COOK
I take it, Mr. D'Angelo has not returned.
HACKETT
He's probably split for the day, Mr. Cook. Can I go now too?
COOK
What is it about no you don't understand, Mr. Hackett, the "N" or the "O"?
(JILLY RAISES HER HAND)
COOK
Yes, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I don't think he'd leave without his... homework, Mr. Cook.
COOK
One on the board for, Miss O'Brien. The Silver Surfer. My god... now there's a remarkable figment of the imagination. A naked knight, not on horseback but of all things, a surfboard. This was a good issue.
HACKETT
Hah! You read comic books, Mr. Cook?
COOK
Mr. Hackett, after ten years of confiscating them, I qualify as an afficionado.
HACKETT
My parents say comic books are a waste of time.
COOK
They can be. But they can also deal with myth, heroes, sacred quests... even adolesence.
HACKETT
Comic books?
COOK
Yes, comic books. Think about it, Mr. Hackett. Spiderman - the first superhero with acne and sweaty palms. The Human Torch - a young man who bursts into flames everytime he gets excited. Talk about a dangerous date. Inhumans. X-men. Misfits, who's hidden, undetected gifts are both their blessing and their curse. Sounds like a teenager to me. Hidden powers. Secret identities. For of course, none of us are what we appear to be. As this particular hero wanders our planet he sees cruelty, war, hunger violence. He is hated and feared. Why? Because he is different. But always, just as he is about to despair, someone shows him one small act of kindness. Allows him one glimmer of hope for mankind. And for the Silver Surfer, that is enough. And if it's enough for him, than surely it is enough for us as well.
JILLY
That was really nice, Mr. Cook.
COOK
Thank you.
HACKETT
Hey, you're not gonna test us on this, are you?
COOK
What if I did, Mr. Hackett, what would you say?
HACKETT
About a stupid comic book?
COOK
Yes.
HACKETT
I dunno... he looks cool, girls like him... he can total any freak who gets in his face... I mean, you're always saying stuff in class, Mr. Cook. Making impassioned speeches. Life is this, life should be that, blah-blah-blah - life is, Mr. Cook. I mean, you wanna know what life is like, you ask me? Football. You're moving towards the goal line and somebody gets in your way? Knock'm on their ass. You want braggin rights? Win. Lose and nobody wants to know your problems. All you have to do is take one look at the history books to see it's survival of the fittest from the word go. And all this talking - oh, gee, I feel so sorry for all these poor people I don't even know - it's a lot of bull, you ask me. It's what you're supposed to say when you want chicks to think you're like, sensitive or this caring individual. I get totally sick of it, you want to know the truth. And I don't think I'm alone here. I think a lot of people totally agree with me. They're just afraid to be honest about it. You ask me.
COOK
I don't agree.
HACKETT
Oh, yeah? Well, unlike you, maybe I don't have any "secret identity" I need to feel ashamed about.
COOK
What's that supposed to mean, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
It means what it means.
COOK
Are we talking about the shoe fitting again?
HACKETT
I hear things.
COOK
That's right, your father is tight with the president of the school board.
HACKETT
You bet he is.
COOK
Mr. Hackett, go get a drink of water.
HACKETT
Huh?
COOK
You heard me, the drinking fountain's down the hall, go get a drink.
HACKETT
I'm not thirsty.
COOK
Mr. Hackett -
HACKETT
Okay, okay. Jeez. First you want me to stay, then go... make up your mind. I have football practice!
(HE STARTS TO EXIT. D'ANGELO ENTERS. THEY STARE AT ONE ANOTHER. HACKETT EXITS. D'ANGELO SITS. COOK SEEMS TO BE LOST IN SOMBER THOUGHT. HE MOVES TOWARDS THE WINDOW. HE STANDS A MOMENT; SIGHS. A MOMENT. HE TURNS.)
COOK
Mr. D'Angelo. Like a prodigal son, you have returned to us. I was beginning to have my doubts.
D'ANGELO
You're too nice, Mr. Cook. You give an inch, we take a mile.
COOK
And we can't have that, can we.
(HE MOVES TO THE DOOR.)
COOK
From now on, I'm going to be a raging tyrant. You'll hardly recognize me. Students will tremble at my very name.
(stepping out into the hallway)
Mr. Hackett - !?
(with resignation:)
- is once again off in search of his lost locker.
(a sigh)
I'll be right back.
(HE EXITS. PAUSE. JILLY RISES. MOVES UP FRONT TO THROW SOMETHING IN THE WASTEBASKET. HESITATES. AND THEN:)
JILLY
Not yet.
(D'ANGELO JUST LOOKS AT HER.)
JILLY
You asked if I'd made any friends. Not yet.
D'ANGELO
How long's it usually take?
JILLY
Sometimes I hate high school. Everywhere you go people seem to be part of a group. And there's always one group that's made up of all the popular kids. And unless you dress right or act right and are popular too, they don't let you in. So you end up with the other people who don't fit in. Which wouldn't be bad except we all know we don't. And sometimes I think we resent each other for it.
(and then:)
I make friends. Sometimes it takes a while but... usually I make one friend. One good friend. That's all it takes. And we stay in touch too. I write letters all the time. I like writing letters.
D'ANGELO
You want to be friends?
JILLY
What?
D'ANGELO
Friends.
JILLY
You and me?
D'ANGELO
Unless you want to, like, go steady instead.
(JILLY STARTS BACK TO HER SEAT. D'ANGELO PUSHES HIS DESK INTO HER WAY.)
D'ANGELO
What. What'd I say?
JILLY
Why are you making fun of me?
D'ANGELO
I couldn't be more serious. You want to go out sometime?
JILLY
No!
D'ANGELO
Oh, you get so many offers, huh?
JILLY
No.
D'ANGELO
Don't tell me. I'm not your type.
JILLY
I'm... not yours.
D'ANGELO
How do you know that?
JILLY
I just... I do.
D'ANGELO
You seen me with all these girls, you know what my type is, huh?
JILLY
No, but -
D'ANGELO
Again but. But what. What girls you seen me with, you know anything about my type.
JILLY
I assume -
D'ANGELO
(rising)
Oh, you assume, huh?
JILLY
Let me talk!
D'ANGELO
Uh-uh. I'm talkin'. Let me tell you something. Don't assume nothin'. So what's my type? I didn't know I had one.
JILLY
... you know...
D'ANGELO
No.
JILLY
... mature girls.
D'ANGELO
Mature.
JILLY
Girls that... have experience.
D'ANGELO
You're saying I go out with sluts.
JILLY
No!
D'ANGELO
I'm only interested in girls who put out -
JILLY
I didn't mean -
D'ANGELO
- and you, "a nice girl", you'd be scared to death to go out with a guy like me. Terrified of my, uh, expectations.
JILLY
I don't know anything about you.
(AND SHE TURNS AWAY FROM HIM AND SITS IN THE CLOSEST DESK)
D'ANGELO
No, you don't. But you're right. I wouldn't know what do with a nice girl.
(a moment)
The movies maybe. You like the movies?
JILLY
I like the movies.
D'ANGELO
Me too. Buy some popcorn, some juju beads, a coke maybe. Sit down front, laugh at the good parts. Nahh... forget it, we wouldn't laugh at the same things. Who you think's funny?
JILLY
I don't know.
D'ANGELO'
You don't know. You like Laugh-In? Ruth Buzzie, Henry Gibson, Artie what's his face -
(a German accent)
- "very interesting". You laugh at that?
JILLY
Yes.
D'ANGELO
Boy, are you dumb!
(quickly; as her face falls)
I'm kiddin', I'm kiddin'! I laugh at that too. So maybe we would. Laugh together.
(a moment)
After the movies... if we were, like, forced... maybe The Farmshop. Buy you an ice cream sundae. Wouldn't the jocks and their girlfriends - Hackett here - laugh seeing me with you, huh? Whoa, but then it's hit them - she must put out. I wonder what she's doing next Saturday night.
JILLY
That's not funny.
D'ANGELO
Come on, you know you don't put out. You're a nice girl. That's why you'd never go out with me.
(a moment)
But if you did, here's what we'd do. My old man's joint. You ever been there?
JILLY
He makes pizza.
D'ANGELO
No. He doesn't make pizza. He makes great pizza. He makes the whatayacallit, the Cistern Chapel of pizza. He's an artist, my father. A large with the works. Saturday night, he's working. Talk your ear off the whole time. Whoa, Frank, where'd you meet this girl? Jesus, what's she doin' with you. More important, what's she doin' Sunday dinner, Christ, bring her over, make your poor mother's week.
JILLY
He'd like me?
D'ANGELO
You kidding? He would only like, thank Holy Mary Mother a God, I should ever...
(a moment)
Yeah. Yeah, he'd like you.
JILLY
What... what would we do next.
D'ANGELO
Oh, so now you're interested?
JILLY
I've never been out on a real date.
D'ANGELO
Maybe a drive. Listen to some tunes on the radio. Cruisin', y'know? Maybe you sit close, I put my hand on your knee. Just restin' it there. No getting fresh, try and jump your bones in the back seat, none a that. Not a nice girl. Like you.
JILLY
You know, nice girls...
D'ANGELO
What.
JILLY
They do things like that.
D'ANGELO
What things? Come on, what are you saying.
JILLY
... kiss.
D'ANGELO
Oh, is that what they do? You're kidding. No! Nice girls?
JILLY
(giggling now)
Stop.
D'ANGELO
Are you saying I could expect to get to, what... first base here?
JILLY
That's...?
D'ANGELO
Kiss. Maybe with a little tongue action.
JILLY
Well, you did pay for the pizza.
D'ANGELO
Whoa! Be still my heart. Okay, I got to first. How about second?
JILLY
That's...?
D'ANGELO
What do you think it is?
JILLY
...my..?
D'ANGELO
(both amused and enchanted at her modesty)
You are beautiful.
JILLY
Ahem... I would only consider that if we really liked each other.
D'ANGELO
On the first date?
JILLY
Well -
D'ANGELO
You are no longer a nice girl.
JILLY
Maybe I'm tired of being nice. Maybe I want to be... a wild girl.
D'ANGELO
Well, in that case, let's go parking someplace.
JILLY
Where do people go?
D'ANGELO
Around here? Two places. Town park, away from the lights. Or behind the high school, near the football field. Gotta be careful. Cops cruise both. Nothin' better to do on a Saturday night than roust couples making out.
JILLY
Making out. That always sounds so...
D'ANGELO
Yeah. The words don't do what it is justice. You're in the front seat of a car, holding on for dear life, the windows fogged, the heater going, it's like you're in a cave or a tent or... you're twins is what it's like. There's a world on the other side of the windshield? But there's not. Because the entire world is in the front seat of a 65 Dodge and it's safe and nothing else exists. You're holding your breath. You don't want to ever let it out. Will we... or won't we.
(AND THEN:)
D'ANGELO
So when we gonna do this? Our date.
JILLY
(a moment; looking away)
We were just talking.
D'ANGELO
Ohhh....
(a moment)
That's right. You're a nice girl. And I don't go out with nice girls. No....
(HE SUDDENLY KICKS OVER A DESK.)
D'ANGELO
Nice girls don't go out with me.
(SILENCE. HE PICKS UP THE DESK. AND THEN:)
D'ANGELO
So, look, you need a friend? Cause, like, I'm offering.
JILLY
Why would you want to be my friend.
D'ANGELO
I like it that you laughed.
(COOK ENTERS. HE SAGS AS HE SEES THAT HACKETT HAS NOT RETURNED)
COOK
No Mr. Hackett. Why am I not surprised. Or displeased.
D'ANGELO
Mr. Cook, you want I should go find him for you?
COOK
(a moment; amused at the idea)
Mr. D'Angelo, tell him, if you would, that unless he gets himself back here, he is in very deep you know what.
D'ANGELO
Oh, he is, Mr. Cook, you have no idea.
(FRANK EXITS.)
COOK
Well... Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
Yes.
COOK
As detentions go, I don't seem to be doing much detaining today, do I?
JILLY
No.
(A MOMENT)
COOK
I was intrigued with the way you read today. In class. You were a very Brando-esque Prince Hal.
JILLY
I'm sorry.
COOK
No, it was a compliment, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I don't understand.
COOK
Do you know Marlon Brando?
JILLY
Not personally.
COOK
No, I mean... do you know who he is?
JILLY
An actor.
COOK
A great actor. Honest. Powerful. And with what I think is an undeserved reputation for mumbling.
JILLY
You're saying... I was like him?
COOK
No, I'm saying I couldn't hear you. You don't like it when I call on you to read in class, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I wish you wouldn't.
COOK
Why.
JILLY
I don't like it when... I just don't like it.
COOK
When people look at you?
(SHE NODS.)
COOK
Have you ever been in a play?
JILLY
In one?
COOK
Performed.
JILLY
Are you crazy!?
(SHE GASPS; HORRIFIED AT WHAT'S SHE JUST SAID.)
COOK
That's all right. I think you have to be a little bit crazy to be a teacher. You might enjoy it, you know. Being in a play.
(JILLY LOOKS AWAY.)
COOK
One of the things I do is direct the senior class play. Maybe you'll audition for me.
JILLY
No.
COOK
Why not.
JILLY
I'd be horrible.
COOK
You weren't horrible in class today.
JILLY
But you said ...
COOK
What I said is I couldn't hear you. But what I could hear, made sense. Which in and of itself is rather remarkable.
(a moment)
I once dreamed of being an actor, you know. I think that's why I focus on drama in my English classes. I studied. I moved to New York. Took classes. Auditioned. Even did a role or two. Laertes in Hamlet. Off-off-off-OFF-Broadway. Not a good production. When it came time to stab Hamlet with the poisoned blade someone in the audience shouted - Kill the Whole Court! Still... I loved acting.
JILLY
Why did you stop?
COOK
I wasn't any good. I was all right but... to do it really well, is a gift. I didn't have it. But I did have a Masters in English and I needed a job. So I started substitute teaching. And finally the day came when I had to choose between a day's work teaching and an audition. And I went to school. And so I was a teacher and not an actor. And so now I get up in front of an audience every day of the week. And on the weekends, with the Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times clenched firmly in my hands... I dream. What do you dream of, Miss O'Brien?
JILLY
What?
COOK
(picking up a book)
What do you aspire to, what do you want to be someday.
JILLY
Mr. Cook, why are you asking me all these questions?
COOK
Because I think dreams are important when you're young. Though Mr. Hackett and his friends might disgree, I think they're more important than proms and football games and grades and detention. And I think we are living in a time when dreams are being replaced with disillusions. What are your dreams, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I don't have any.
COOK
Really? There are all kinds of dreams, you know.
(half reading now from a book he's picked up)
"Little quiet ones that come to a woman when she's shining the silverware and putting mothflakes in the closet".
(to Jilly)
Remember what that's from?
JILLY
No.
COOK
(half reading, half reciting)
"Like a man's voice saying: Lizzie is my blue suit pressed? And the same man saying: Scratch between my shoulderblades. And the kids teasing and setting up a racket And how it feels to say the word, Husband."
JILLY
I remember. The Rainmaker.
COOK
Mmm. A play about a man who does nothing but dream. I asked you to read it aloud in class. Your second week here I think it was.
JILLY
Third.
COOK
You wouldn't.
(a moment)
It was wrong of me to ask you, Miss O'Brien. I thought... no, I don't know what I was thinking. It was insensitive of me and I hope you'll forgive me.
(A MOMENT)
JILLY
Mr. Cook... I liked the play. I wanted to read it out loud. I heard it. In my head. The way it should sound. And feel. I just... couldn't.
COOK
I understand.
(placing the play before her)
I hope your dreams, if you have any, come true, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
That's from the play too, isn't it.
COOK
Yes. It's one of my favorites. I did it in college. I was Starbuck. I know it by heart. Starbuck.
(from the play)
"Now there's a name! A name that has the whole sky in it! And the power of a man! And it's mine".
(embarrassed; she's just staring at him)
Instead of Cook. In a way, it's how I like to think of myself as a teacher. Fallow fields, some that I see having the potential to bloom beautifully if only someone could bring rain.
(HE TURNS AWAY. AND JILLY PICKS UP THE PLAY. SHE BEGINS TO READ, ALMOST INAUDIBLY, FREEZING COOK IN HIS TRACKS:)
JILLY
"There are all kinds of dreams, Mr. Starbuck. Mine are small ones. Like my name. Lizzie. But they're real like my name... real".
COOK
"Believe in yourself and they'll come true".
JILLY
"I got nothing to believe in."
COOK
"You're a woman. Believe in that."
JILLY
"How can I - "
COOK
Speak up, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
"How can I when - "
COOK
Stand. Please.
(SHE STANDS)
JILLY
"How can I when nobody else will."
COOK
"You got to believe it first."
(JILLY SOFTLY CLOSES THE BOOK, PUTS IT ASIDE)
JILLY
I think that's enough, Mr. Cook.
(COOK HESITATES. AND THEN:)
COOK
Are you pretty?
(JILLY IS SILENT)
COOK
Don't be you, be someone else, just for a moment. Let it free you. Pretend. "Are you pretty, Lizzie?"
(A MOMENT. JILLY HESITATES. PICKS UP THE PLAY. OPENS IT. AND THEN, TRYING TO KEEP THE HURT FROM HER VOICE:)
JILLY
"No. I'm plain."
COOK
"There. You see? You don't even know you're a woman."
JILLY
"I am a woman..."
COOK
Don't tell the book, tell me.
JILLY
"I am a woman. I'm a plain one."
COOK
"There's no such thing. Every woman is pretty. Pretty in a different way. But they're all pretty."
JILLY
"Not me. When I look in the looking glass -"
COOK
Don't let other people be your looking glass. It's got to be inside of you.
(JILLY IS SILENT.)
COOK
Come on, Miss O'Brien. You've given me center stage, I'm not going to relinquish it now. Close your eyes. Go on, close them. Tell me how lovely you are. You are, you know. You're Cinderella. You're Eliza Doolittle. You're Melisande.
JILLY
I'm not.
COOK
If you believe it, you are. Tell me you're pretty. Say it and believe it, Miss Jilly Lizzie O'Brien.
JILLY
(head down; inaudible)
I'm...
COOK
So I can hear you.
JILLY
(again inaudible; her lips hardly moving)
I'm....
COOK
I still can't hear you.
(JILLY LOOKS UP, OPENING HER EYES. SHE GATHERS HER COURAGE. AND THE CHARACTER AND THE MOMENT TAKE HER. SHE SMILES AND - )
JILLY
I'm -
(WE SUDDENLY HEAR VOICES IN THE HALL.)
HACKETT
Knock it off, man, just knock it off!
D'ANGELO
What's the matter, you don't like it?
HACKETT
I'm not going to fight you!
D'ANGELO
Why not, big man! Come on, you're so good at pushing people!
(HACKETT AND D'ANGELO ENTER. D'ANGELO IS PUSHING HACKETT.)
HACKETT
You tell this animal to stay away from me, Mr. Cook!
COOK
He was retrieving you, Mr. Hackett, at my request.
HACKETT
He's been threatening me all day is what he's been doing. Going out of his way to.
D'ANGELO
You deserve it, Pussy.
HACKETT
Fuck you!
COOK
All right, stop it -
D'ANGELO
Big man. Big jock, huh - ?
COOK
- both of you stop it!
D'ANGELO
- you know what the big jock likes to do, Mr. Cook - ?
COOK
Mr. D'Angelo, I said, that's enough -
D'ANGELO
- he likes to push people around.
HACKETT
I want this guy arrested he even touches me, Mr. Cook.
COOK
No one's touching anyone -
D'ANGELO
I can't believe teachers don't know what goes on around this place -
HACKETT
You weren't even there!
D'ANGELO
I heard!
COOK
Gentlemen, all right, I said that's enough!
(SILENCE)
COOK
What exactly is it that happened, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGLEO
Gym class yesterday, everybody's hit the showers. Mr. Jock here's running late. He goes in the showers, they're all taken.
HACKETT
He wasn't there!
D'ANGELO
Does he wait his turn? Nah! He grabs this freshman kid by the dick -
HACKETT
That's so - no way!
D'ANGELO
- pulls him out of the shower and laughing like an asshole, leads the poor kid across the room like some dog -
HACKETT
This is bull!
D'ANGELO
- on a leash. What is it you were looking for, Danny? A shower or a free feel?
HACKETT
You ask me, you're loosing control of this class, Mr. Cook.
D'ANGELO
Now the freshman, even though he was half this pukeface's size -
HACKETT
Mr. Cook, you're not supposed to let him call me that!
D'ANGELO
- was a man! He pushed Danny boy. Whereupon Mr. Halfback, bounced a fist off the kid's face, bounced the kid's head off the floor and kicked him in the gut while he was lying there.
HACKETT
You weren't even there! He wasn't there!
D'ANGELO
And then, with his buddies watching... all the cool guys... he pissed on him.
HACKETT
This is... it's all bull, Mr. Cook. Really bull. This kid pushed me, I pushed him back, he fell. That's all.
COOK
(to D'Angelo)
Did Coach McNeary do anything about it?
HACKETT
He didn't, Mr. Cook! He came in, he asked what had happened and no one said anything had. And that's your proof right there, that nothing did.
D'ANGELO
No one said anything, pukeface, because they're afraid of you. But I'm not. You and me are gonna rumba, baby.
HACKETT
Mr. Cook, how can you let him just threaten me like this!
COOK
Is it true?
HACKETT
This guy's crazy! He's armed and dangerous!
COOK
Is it true?
HACKETT
Faggot. When my father hears about this, you're history.
COOK
I think I'll step out in the hall for a moment.
HACKETT
No!
COOK
Let you two work it out. Come along, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
Mr. Cook, don't, if he gets in a fight, he's expelled.
(A MOMENT. AND HACKETT SEES IN D'ANGELO'S FACE, THAT IT'S TRUE)
HACKETT
It's a bluff. You can't lay a finger on me.
COOK
Take a seat, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
Come on, hit me, D'Angelo, take a swing.
COOK
I said, take a seat.
HACKETT
I don't pay attention to you anymore. "Pacifist". I'm going to football practice.
(to D'Angelo)
You stay out of my way cause I would love to make you throw a punch.
(and then:)
What a bunch of total losers.
(D'ANGELO HITS HIM. ONE SHOT. KNOCKS HIM OVER SOME DESKS AND DOWN.)
HACKETT
(rising; his nose bleeding)
You saw that. Everybody saw that. I got witnesses.
COOK
Go to football practice, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
I got witnesses. You're out of here, man!
(HE EXITS. SILENCE. COOKS TURNS AND LOOKS SADLY AT FRANK.)
D'ANGELO
(to Jilly)
Write me letters?
(LIGHTS TO BLACK.)
WRITE ME LETTERS
(IT IS NOVEMBER, 1969
A HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM. DESKS. BLACKBOARD. A TEACHER'S DESK FRONT AND OFF TO THE SIDE.
IT'S LATE AFTERNOON. FAR DOWN THE HALL, A BELL RINGS.
JILLY O'BRIEN IS SITTING IN ONE OF THE FRONT DESKS, BOOKS IN FRONT OF HER. SHE LOOKS PALE, ALMOST FRIGHTENED. SOMEWHERE DOWN THE HALL A BELL RINGS.
SHE LOOKS UP AS A TEACHER, EDWARD COOK, ENTERS THE ROOM. HE STOPS, ALMOST SURPRISED TO SEE HER. SHE LOOKS AWAY, SEEMINGLY EMBARRASSED. HE STARES AT HER A MOMENT. HE MOVES TO THE DESK. THERE'S A PIECE OF PAPER ON IT. HE PICKS IT UP, LOOKS AT IT, PUTS IT DOWN. HE STARES AT JILLY FOR A MOMENT. SHE'S STARING AT THE DESK TOP.
COOK
Miss O'Brien -
JILLY
Yes!?
COOK
(a beat; amused)
I'm surprised to find you here.
JILLY
I'm... surprised to find myself here, Mr. Cook...
(a murmur)
...actually.
(COOK TAKES SOME BOOKS OUT OF HIS BRIEFCASE. JILLY WANTS TO SAY SOMETHING. ALMOST DOES. SHE THINKS BETTER OF IT. SHE RAISES HER HAND. RAISES IT HIGHER. HIGHER STILL. COOK FINALLY LOOKS UP. HE ALMOST SMILES.)
COOK
Yes?
JILLY
Mr. Cook? Is there anything I'm supposed to do?
COOK
Like what, bang out licence plates?
JILLY
What?
COOK
That's what prisoners do in prison. They make licence plates.
JILLY
Okay.
COOK
That was a joke, Miss O'Brien. I was making a joke. This isn't a prison. By the way, you don't have to raise your hand to speak. Not with me.
JILLY
Okay.
(COOK GLANCES AT HIS WATCH. HE MOVES TO THE DOOR, LOOKS OUT INTO THE HALL.)
JILLY
Mr. Cook?
COOK
Yes?
JILLY
What do I do.
COOK
Study. Read. Pick your nose. Sereptitiously of course.
JILLY
That's my punishment? Reading?
COOK
For a majority of students, Miss O'Brien, it's torture.
(COOK MOVES TO THE DOOR AGAIN, LOOKS OUT IN THE HALL)
COOK
(calling out)
Let's move it, Mr. Hackett. Three o'clock bell should be ringing just about...
(HE LOOKS AT HIS WATCH AS DAN HACKETT HURRIES IN. HACKETT IS ATHLETIC LOOKING, RELATIVELY CLEAN CUT.)
COOK
...now.
(SOMEWHERE DOWN THE HALL A BELL RINGS.)
COOK
Almost late, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
(out of breath)
My locker jammed. Then I had to drop some stuff off in my car.
COOK
Take a seat.
HACKETT
Mr. Cook? I was wondering. I'm missing football practice cause of this. And the homecoming game's a week from Thursday. So I was wondering. Can you let me go early? I think it would mean a lot to everyone involved.
COOK
Everyone?
HACKETT
Everyone on the football team.
COOK
What are you here for, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
I was late for second period. It wasn't my fault. My locker jammed. And I had to get some stuff from my car.
COOK
Take a seat, I'll think about.
HACKETT
I'd really appreciate it, Mr. Cook. As would the rest of the guys.
COOK
Guys?
HACKETT
On the team.
COOK
Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
I can go?
COOK
You can sit.
(HACKETT TAKES A SEAT. HE HARDLY GLANCES AT JILLY. MR. COOK MOVES TO THE DESK, PICKS UP THE SHEET OF PAPER.)
COOK
Well... I don't suppose anyone has seen Frank D'Angelo?
HACKETT
(startled)
D'Angelo's here?
COOK
Excuse me?
HACKETT
D'Angelo has detention today?
COOK
It is my understanding that Mr. D'Angelo has detention every day. Have you seen him?
HACKETT
No!
COOK
Would you both excuse me for a moment, please.
HACKETT
You're gonna leave us?
COOK
I thought I might.
HACKETT
By ourselves?
COOK
Is there a problem, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
No... you're not going far, are you?
COOK
Define far.
HACKETT
Uh... beyond the sound of my voice?
COOK
Do some homework, Mr. Hackett. I'll be right back.
(HE EXITS. SILENCE.)
HACKETT
Shit. I'm dead, I'm dead.
(a moment)
What are you looking at?
JILLY
Nothing.
HACKETT
Mind your own business.
JILLY
Sorry.
HACKETT
My ass.
(pause)
Shit.
(pause)
I gotta get out of here.
(HE STARTS FOR THE DOOR. COOK ENTERS. HE CLOSES THE DOOR BEHIND HIM.)
COOK
Going someplace, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
No! Yes. I... Mr. Cook, I got football practice.
COOK
Should have thought of that before second period.
HACKETT
But the homecoming game's next Thursday.
COOK
It is now five after three, at quarter to four if all goes well, you can go to football practice, until then, sit down.
HACKETT
But it wasn't my fault. I was five minutes late. Not even. Miss Stegerwald's got this weird thing about attendance.
COOK
Mr. Hackett, another word and you'll be sitting here every day this week.
(HACKETT RELUCTANTLY SITS)
HACKETT
If... if I don't start next Thursday you better believe you'll be hearing from my Dad. And he's tight with the president of the school board.
COOK
Are you threatening me, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
If the shoe fits.
COOK
Keep talking Mr. Hackett. Maybe you can insert the shoe a little deeper.
(and then:)
Let's do some work, people.
(COOK SITS. PICKS UP ONE OF SEVERAL COPIES OF THE YALE SHAKESPEARE. HE BEGINS TO READ. SILENCE. AND SUDDENLY THERE'S A LIGHT RAPPING ON THE DOOR. A MOMENT. ANOTHER; SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT - TWO BITS. MR. COOK RISES, OPENS THE DOOR. FRANK D'ANGELO ENTERS. HE'S CARRYING A CAN OF COKE AND A COMIC BOOK.)
D'ANGELO
Hey, Mr. Cook! What, you got detention too?
COOK
In a manner of speaking. You're late, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
You want I should leave and return tomorrow?
COOK
Better late then never. If you please.
(HE HOLDS OUT A HAND FOR THE CAN OF COKE.)
D'ANGELO
Aw, that's nice of you.
(D'ANGELO FINISHES THE LAST GULP AND HANDS THE EMPTY CAN TO COOK.)
D'ANGELO
Keep the deposit.
COOK
Thank you. Take a seat, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
Hey, Mr. Cook, I liked your class today. I really did.
COOK
Really? What did you like about it?
D'ANGELO
Uh, well, uh... that thing you said about plays? That plays were meant to be heard, not read? I thought that was very interesting.
COOK
Really? How so.
D'ANGELO
How so. Uh... cause picking some guys to read it out loud that was - that was better. Not great, but better. I guess that's why you're the teacher and we're the students, huh?
COOK
Had you actually read the assignment, Frank?
D'ANGELO
The what?
COOK
The play? Henry IV?
D'ANGELO
Every word.
COOK
Really?
D'ANGELO
Well, I mean, you know, not every word.
COOK
Every other word.
D'ANGELO
Every... verb.
COOK
Enough to get the jist.
D'ANGELO
Exactly. I whatayacallit...
COOK
Skimmed?
D'ANGELO
And you know, Mr. Cook, even doing that, I had a hard time getting into it? I mean, in my opinion, this guy's plays -
COOK
Shakespeare.
D'ANGELO
Yeah. His plays are kind of boring, you know? I mean, everybody's talking, talking. You ask me, they talk too much. Oh, but that's why hearing it out loud was such a better thing. It killed a lot of class time.
COOK
Take a seat, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
Nice tie, by the way. I like your tie.
COOK
Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
Yeah?
COOK
Don't push it.
D'ANGELO
Right.
(brandishing the comic book)
I brought homework.
COOK
Trade you.
D'ANGELO
Nah, s'okay.
COOK
That wasn't a request.
D'ANGELO
Oh. Sure. Got it.
(HE GIVES COOK THE COMIC BOOK, PICKS UP ONE OF THE SHAKESPEARES)
D'ANGELO
I didn't know you were such a fan of the Silver Surfer, Mr. Cook.
COOK
Start from page one. Perhaps you'll become a fan of Shakespeare's.
D'ANGELO
That's what I like about your class, Mr. Cook, you have this sense of humor.
(COOK BEGINS TO READ. D'ANGELO SITS AT A DESK. PAUSE. HE RAISES HIS HAND. KEEPS IT RAISED A LONG TIME. HE CLEARS HIS THROAT)
COOK
What is it now, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
I don't like this desk. You mind I sit at another desk?
COOK
I want you to be comfortable, Mr. D'Angelo, sit at another desk.
D'ANGELO
Thank you.
(HE RISES. HE SITS AT ANOTHER.)
D'ANGELO
Too soft.
(HE RISES. HE MOVES TO ANOTHER. SITS.)
D'ANGELO
Too hard.
(HE RISES. MOVES TO THE ONE NEXT TO HACKETT. HE SITS.)
COOK
Just right?
D'ANGELO
Perfect.
(ominously at Hackett)
Hey, pukeface. Happy to see me?
(HACKETT RISES)
HACKETT
Mr. Cook, can I go to the bathroom?
COOK
It can't wait till quarter to four?
HACKETT
No.
COOK
Mr. Hackett, I like to think I play straight with the students.
HACKETT
Uh-huh?
(a beat)
What's that mean?
COOK
It means by all means go to the lavatory.
(HACKETT STARTS FOR THE DOOR.)
COOK
But Mr. Hackett. If you're not back in five minutes, you'll be in detention until you graduate.
D'ANGELO
Hey! Is that fair or what?
(HACKETT RACES TO THE DOOR AND OUT.)
COOK
Miss O'Brien?
JILLY
Yes!?
COOK
What are you here for, Miss O'Brien?
JILLY
Me? Oh...
D'ANGELO
Mr. Cook, can I answer that?
COOK
I wasn't aware I was talking to you, Mr. D'Angelo.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, but what I have to say directly bears on the question at hand.
COOK
Really.
JILLY
No.
D'ANGELO
She's here cause of me.
JILLY
No.
D'ANGELO
Yeah. She is, Mr. Cook. You know Mr. Bishop?
COOK
How long is this going to take, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
Two seconds.
COOK
Go.
D'ANGELO
See, somehow - mistake - I got stuck in Mr. Bishop's -
(to Jilly)
What is it he teaches?
JILLY
Political science.
D'ANGELO
Right. With all the eggheads. Mistake.
COOK
You don't get along with eggheads?
D'ANGELO
I don't get along with Mr. Bishop. See, Mr. Bishop likes to debate? Well, I like to debate. But Mr. Bishop - I dunno, he's a conservative, I'm a liberal - Mr. Bishop doesn't value my opinion. Am I right or wrong?
JILLY
Am I... supposed to answer?
COOK
Please.
JILLY
... Mr. Bishop told him... if he ever opened his mouth in class again he'd have him killed.
D'ANGELO
On the first day! So this morning, Mr. Bishop goes, like, sure, bomb the north, bring the Communists to their knees and - silly me, right? - I couldn't keep my mouth shut. And I go, sure, easy for you to say, sitting in a class room on your fat, John Wayne-Howdy Pilgrim, bell shaped, acne covered butt. Well, I mean! The silence! Except for her.
(JILLY HAS HIDDEN HER FACE)
COOK
Miss O'Brien?
(JILLY IS SHAKING)
COOK
Miss O'Brien, are you all right? Jilly? Look at me.
(SHE RAISES HER HEAD. HER FACE IS TWISTED IN AGONY AS IF HE'S TRYING TO HOLD SOMETHING IN. AND THEN SHE CAN'T ANYMORE. SHE HOWLS. WITH LAUGHTER.
D'ANGELO
He gave her detention for laughing.
(SHE CAN HARDLY BREATH, SHE'S LAUGHING SO HARD. SHE PUTS HER FACE IN ARMS AND LAUGHS SOME MORE. SHE SUDDENLY STOPS HORRIFIED. SHE RAISES HER HAND.)
COOK
Yes?
JILLY
May I be excused to go to the ladies room?
COOK
Yes.
(JILLY RISES AND RUNS FROM THE ROOM. COOK SMILES TO HIMSELF. AND THEN:)
COOK
I take it you enjoy political debate, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGELO
Huh? Oh... sometimes.
COOK
And what do you use to form the basis of your opinions?
D'ANGELO
Huh?
COOK
Where do you get your information?
D'ANGELO
I glance through the newspaper every now and then.
COOK
You say it's a mistake you're in a class with eggheads. My literature class has quite a few bright students and yet you're in it. Why is that?
D'ANGELO
Mistake.
COOK
You're passing.
D'ANGELO
Luck.
COOK
With even a little work, you'd be doing very well.
D'ANGELO
I got homework to do, Mr. Cook.
COOK
I've seen your Iowa tests, Frank.
D'ANGELO
My what?
COOK
Your aptitude tests. You're a smart young man. I don't know why you pretend not to be.
D'ANGELO
I don't pretend nothing, Mr. Cook. I am what I am. You got a car you want fixed? I'll fix it. You got the parts lying under your bed - I do - I'll build one for you, it'll run, good as from the factory. What I won't do is pretend I give a shit about something - scuse my French - I don't give a shit about.
COOK
And you don't give a - care - about school.
D'ANGELO
No.
COOK
That's a shame.
D'ANGELO
Can I speak frankly here?
COOK
I wish you would.
D'ANGELO
Okay. You know what's the shame, Mr. Cook, now that we're talking, about this place, school I mean? I'm not sure you're aware of this - no, actually I'm sure you are - they break you up, y'know, sometime early on, into categories. All the smart kids - no, excuse me, all the kids that got good grades get lumped together. They're A-1. All the kids that get pretty good grades, they get lumped together, B-2. The kids who get average grades, the C's, they get lumped together and so on down the line to the bottom of the barrel which is, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, the retards. How you think it made us feel, Mr. Cook, me and the other kids in "my lump", that first time we realized we were all one class above the retards? Or did you guys, not you personally, think we were too dumb to notice. We noticed. So do the retards. We knew that the kids in A-1 were supposed to go to college and the kids in D-4 - us - were pretty much a waste of your time. You want to talk about shame? That's the shame, Mr. Cook. The shame we felt.
COOK
You're not a waste of my time, Frank.
D'ANGELO
That's you. You're a okay guy. Maybe the exception. I'm older than a lot of these kids, y'know? I stayed back a lot. But it's not just age. Sometimes I think I was like, born older. You know what I mean?
COOK
Yes.
D'ANGELO
So you can understand it when I tell you I don't look up to teachers just cause they're older. Teachers go home at night and get up in the morning just like everybody else. They get plowed on the weekends and they try and get laid and they have no idea what's going on cause if they did, they wouldn't be wasting their time teaching.
COOK
I don't think I'm wasting my time, Frank.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, but Mr. Cook, like I said, you're the exception. You like books. You like, who's this guy, Shakespeare. What else you gonna do with your life? But most of these guys - Mr. Bishop, for example - if he wasn't a teacher, he'd be flipping burgers. I don't respect guys like that. And they don't like it.
(a moment)
Scuse me for saying so, I was under the impression you and Mr. Bishop were not exactly Cisco and Pancho either.
COOK
We... have differences of opinion.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, I've heard you got an opinion or two.
COOK
Really, what have you heard?
D'ANGELO
I dunno... that you, like, marched. Got arrested. I hear the school board's all hot about it.
COOK
It's funny. As teachers I always thought we tried to teach young people to be individuals, to look at the facts and draw their own conclusions. It has recently been put to my attention that there are right conclusions and wrong conclusions. It'll blow over.
D'ANGELO
How so?
COOK
Well, either I'm going to learn to keep my mouth shut or the school board's going to remember I've got a constitutional right to flap it. Mostly likely it'll be the former.
D'ANGELO
And that's okay with you?
COOK
This is high school, not a democracy.
D'ANGELO
For the keepers as well as the animals, huh, Mr. Cook?
COOK
No comment.
(THEY LOOK UP AS JILLY RETURNS.)
COOK
(gently)
Everything all right?
(JILLY BLUSHES RED. SHE NODS. SHE TAKES HER SEAT. COOK GLANCES AT HIS WATCH)
COOK
It would appear Mr. Hackett is determined to exceed his warrantee. Would you both excuse me for a moment.
D'ANGELO
Hey, you want, you could even go home, Mr. Cook. Believe me, I know the drill.
COOK
I'll be right back.
(HE EXITS. A MOMENT)
D'ANGELO
He's an okay guy. Know what I mean? Huh? Hey. Hello? Anybody home?
JILLY
We're not supposed to talk.
D'ANGELO
Oh, oh. Why?
JILLY
It's detention.
D'ANGELO
What are they gonna do, give it to us again?
(a moment)
Punishment's only punishment if you let it be punishment.
(a moment)
Be that way.
(a moment)
How come you still act like a new kid.
JILLY
I don't.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, you do. You been here now, what, two months, you act like you been here two weeks.
JILLY
What do I do?
D'ANGELO
You walk around, head down, you don't say a word to nobody. You shy? Huh? That it?
JILLY
Be quiet.
D'ANGELO
Oh-oh. She's getting tough on me.
JILLY
I'm not.
D'ANGELO
What are you then, stuck-up?
JILLY
No!
D'ANGLEO
I bet that's it. You think you're better than anyone else, don't you.
JILLY
Do people think that?
D'ANGELO
I don't know what people think. The worst. If it's the worst, that's what people think. Look, don't worry about it, I'm just, y'know... teasing you.
JILLY
Why?
D'ANGELO
Hey. Maybe I think you're a cutie.
(AND HE SITS THERE WATCHING AS:)
D'ANGELO
Oh-oh, she's turning red... purple...
JILLY
Stop!
D'ANGELO
Blue, green, off white!
(JILLY IS SILENT; CHEEKS BURNING. A MOMENT AND THEN, WITH REAL SYMPATHY)
D'ANGELO
It's not easy being a new kid, huh?
JILLY
I'm...
D'ANGLEO
What? Come on, what?
JILLY
Used to it.
D'ANGELO
Yeah? Why?
JILLY
We move a lot. My Dad, you know, he... we move.
D'ANGELO
Military?
JILLY
Sales.
D'ANGELO
Brutal.
JILLY
It is. Just when you sort of get around to finally knowing a few people? You leave. It's made my brother outgoing. He makes friends like that.
D'ANGELO
Who's your brother?
JILLY
He's in the six grade.
D'ANGELO
He's a stupid kid.
JILLY
Yeah, well, my mom says I should try to be more like him.
D'ANGELO
How so.
JILLY
She says I should just walk up to people and introduce myself.
D'ANGELO
She ought to try it.
JILLY
She could. She's, well...
D'ANGELO
What.
JILLY
Outgoing.
D'ANGELO
Who do you take after?
JILLY
My Dad.
D'ANGELO
He's not outgoing?
(JILLY SHAKES HER HEAD)
D'ANGELO
He must be a hell of a salesman.
JILLY
(an man's entire life in this one word)
No.
(a moment)
I tried it once. Being outgoing. At a school in Ohio. I walked up to some people and introduced myself. Hi. I'm... They looked at me like I was some sort of geek.
(A MOMENT)
D'ANGELO
I was a new kid once.
JILLY
You were?
D'ANGELO
Yeah. Second grade. My first day? We get an in-class assignment. They hand out small yellow paper with thin blue lines. I've never seen paper like this before. I'm used to large yellow paper with wide blue lines. What the hell, I say - be a man, ask no questions, dive in. The teacher comes over to check how I'm doing. What is this, she says, for all to hear. See, even though the lines were small, I was using my same old letters, the letters I'd been taught; my letters were big. Everyone elses, though I did not know this yet, were small. Small lines, small letters. One'd think this'd be an easy thing for the teacher to correct but apparently it was not. The teacher was outraged. Whatever did they teach you in the other school in this, your first two years of schooling, that you should write such letters! Tears came to my eyes. Snot to my nose. I was embarrassed that my letters were not right. Kids laughed. And well they should have.
JILLY
What did you do?
D'ANGELO
I popped the one sitting next to me, right in the
fuckin' mouth. I only wish now it had been the teacher.
(JILLY SMILES. SHE LOOKS AWAY, ALMOST EMBARRASSED THAT SHE SHOULD FIND THIS STORY AMUSING.)
JILLY
You can't go hitting people your whole life.
D'ANGELO
Why not?
JILLY
You're not supposed to.
D'ANGELO
Why not?
JILLY
Just... because.
D'ANGELO
See, I don't buy "just because". Now if you were to tell me I shouldn't hit people because sooner or later I'm going to meet somebody who hits back harder, that is something to consider.
JILLY
You will.
D'ANGELO
Maybe so.
(a moment)
Anyway, I've always suspected that the reason I've always had such a hard time in school is because I never made the proper transition period from big to small letters. It was too much for my feeble brain, I've never recovered.
(AND JILLY ALMOSTS SMILES. FRANK RETURNS THE SMILE, PLEASED.)
D'ANGELO
Hey, speaking of transitions, adolescence? Stop me if you've heard this one. You know the difference between girls and boys and adolescence?
JILLY
Is this dirty?
D'ANGELO
Hey, you could tell your mother this joke. Okay. Girls hit adolescence, it makes you crazy for a couple of years or so and then, like, you're women, right? But boys, we hit adolescence, the hormones kick in, we go crazy - you know what happens?
JILLY
What.
D'ANGELO
We never recover.
JILLY
(a smile; and then:)
How do you know? Maybe you haven't given yourself enough time yet.
(SHARP ANSWER. D'ANGELO SMILES.)
D'ANGELO
Good. That's good.
(HACKETT ENTERS. HE FREEZES AS HE REALIZES COOK ISN'T THERE.)
D'ANGELO
Well, well. Danny-boy.
HACKETT
Where's Mr. Cook?
D'ANGELO
Lookin' for you, kid. Just like me.
(HACKETT EXITS.)
D'ANGELO
(calling after him)
You can run but you can't hide, Danny!
(PAUSE. FRANK TURNS. JILLY IS LOOKING AT HIM. A MOMENT.)
D'ANGELO
What?
JILLY
I heard if you get in any more trouble they're going to expel you.
D'ANGELO
Yeah? Where'd you hear that?
JILLY
The cafeteria. Some teachers were talking.
D'ANGELO
About me? What else did they say?
JILLY
Nothing.
D'ANGELO
Yeah, they did. What? Come on, what?
JILLY
Good riddance.
D'ANGELO
(a moment)
I probably am. Going to get expelled. If it's not for fighting, it'll be for something.
JILLY
That doesn't bother you?
D'ANGELO
Big deal, I'll join the Marines.
JILLY
But you can't.
D'ANGELO
Why not?
JILLY
There's a war.
D'ANGELO
Yeah?
JILLY
And you'd go.
D'ANGELO
Kick some ass, why not.
JILLY
But in Mr. Bishop's class...
D'ANGELO
What.
JILLY
You sounded against the war.
D'ANGELO
Mostly I'm against Mr. Bishop.
JILLY
But you said -
D'ANGELO
Forget what I said. I don't even know what I said. Look, the only thing standing between me and the army is my quote-unquote, ha-ha, student status. I'm out of here, I'm as good as drafted. Better the Marines.
JILLY
Why?
D'ANGELO
I like their attitude.
JILLY
Wouldn't you be afraid?
(AN ANSWER IN FRANK'S SILENCE. AND THEN:)
D'ANGELO
So you got any friends yet or what?
(COOK AND HACKETT ENTER.)
HACKETT
I had to get something from my locker, Mr. Cook. Really.
COOK
Just where is your locker, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
Down the hall.
COOK
And so what were you doing on the other side of the school?
HACKETT
...what were you?
COOK
I'm a teacher, I'm everywhere. Sit, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
This isn't fair. I shouldn't even be here.
COOK
Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
What.
COOK
Shut up.
(HACKETT SITS. A MOMENT. AND NOW D'ANGELO RAISES HIS HAND.)
COOK
Don't tell me, Mr. D'Angelo. Now you have to go to the bathroom.
D'ANGELO
You want to know the truth, I thought I'd skip down the hall, have a cigarette.
COOK
Five minutes. Go.
D'ANGELO
The clock is ticking, pukeface.
(D'ANGELO, STARING AT HACKETT AND WHISTLING, EXITS.)
COOK
Mr. Hackett, there seems to be a little animosity between you and Mr. D'Angelo.
HACKETT
He just wants to kill me, that's all.
COOK
Why.
HACKETT
... he was picking on some guys, I told him to stop it.
(and then:)
He sells drugs you know, Mr. Cook. Anybody wants to buy anything, they go to him. Even the cops know about it.
COOK
I was under the impression, the only thing illegal Mr. D'Angelo did was drive too fast.
HACKETT
Yeah, right. I know some guys, they bought some - I mean, I don't know them well but... D'Angelo said he'd get them some dope? Y'know, pot? Grass?
COOK
I know what marijuana is, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
Yeah, well, he sold them catnip or banana peels or something. Birdseed, I dunno. All I know is it made these guys really, like, puke their guts out. And then D'Angelo wouldn't give the money back. I mean, so it's like, not only is he a pusher, he's a cheat. You ask me, he shouldn't even be allowed to be here. I mean, he's probably in the john shooting up right now.
(A MOMENT. COOKS SIGHS.)
COOK
You'll both stay in your seats until I return, please.
(COOK EXITS. SILENCE.)
HACKETT
What are you looking at?
JILLY
Nothing. It's just...
HACKETT
Huh?
JILLY
... you didn't tell the truth..
HACKETT
What'd you say?
JILLY
He doesn't sell drugs. Even I know that.
HACKETT
You know shit.
JILLY
I know that marijuana doesn't look like birdseed.
HACKETT
Sure. Laugh. Everybody else has.
(and then:)
You ever tried it? The real stuff.
JILLY
No.
HACKETT
It's not bad. It made me laugh like an idiot. You know Roy Ferguson?
JILLY
I know who he is.
HACKETT
It made him totally paranoid, the big baby. You ask me, I'd rather beer anytime. You drink? Stupid question. You don't do shit, do you.
(SILENCE)
JILLY
Why are you afraid of him?
HACKETT
What?
JILLY
Why are you -
HACKETT
Am I talking to you?
JILLY
No.
HACKETT
This last summer we're at the Farm Shop, hanging out. You know, people come, park there, shoot the shit. D'Angelo's there in that stupid car of his, laying rubber in the parking lot like he's cool or something. He's parked, talking to some of his grease eddy friends, I dunno, they're comparing crankshafts or something. Some college guys come through in their car. They park. One of'm, Johnny Brock, he's a defensive tackle for Penn State, you wouldn't mess with him in your dreams, he's getting out of the car, he dings the door of the car next to him. D'Angelo tells him to watch it. I mean, it's not even his car. Brock tells him to go fuck himself. Next thing you know, they're into it. Brock should have wiped up the parking lot with him - he had D'Angelo by forty pounds. D'Angelo just about killed him. He just kept coming. I tell you, he puts a finger on me, I have friends. We'll get him.
(COOK ENTERS.)
COOK
I take it, Mr. D'Angelo has not returned.
HACKETT
He's probably split for the day, Mr. Cook. Can I go now too?
COOK
What is it about no you don't understand, Mr. Hackett, the "N" or the "O"?
(JILLY RAISES HER HAND)
COOK
Yes, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I don't think he'd leave without his... homework, Mr. Cook.
COOK
One on the board for, Miss O'Brien. The Silver Surfer. My god... now there's a remarkable figment of the imagination. A naked knight, not on horseback but of all things, a surfboard. This was a good issue.
HACKETT
Hah! You read comic books, Mr. Cook?
COOK
Mr. Hackett, after ten years of confiscating them, I qualify as an afficionado.
HACKETT
My parents say comic books are a waste of time.
COOK
They can be. But they can also deal with myth, heroes, sacred quests... even adolesence.
HACKETT
Comic books?
COOK
Yes, comic books. Think about it, Mr. Hackett. Spiderman - the first superhero with acne and sweaty palms. The Human Torch - a young man who bursts into flames everytime he gets excited. Talk about a dangerous date. Inhumans. X-men. Misfits, who's hidden, undetected gifts are both their blessing and their curse. Sounds like a teenager to me. Hidden powers. Secret identities. For of course, none of us are what we appear to be. As this particular hero wanders our planet he sees cruelty, war, hunger violence. He is hated and feared. Why? Because he is different. But always, just as he is about to despair, someone shows him one small act of kindness. Allows him one glimmer of hope for mankind. And for the Silver Surfer, that is enough. And if it's enough for him, than surely it is enough for us as well.
JILLY
That was really nice, Mr. Cook.
COOK
Thank you.
HACKETT
Hey, you're not gonna test us on this, are you?
COOK
What if I did, Mr. Hackett, what would you say?
HACKETT
About a stupid comic book?
COOK
Yes.
HACKETT
I dunno... he looks cool, girls like him... he can total any freak who gets in his face... I mean, you're always saying stuff in class, Mr. Cook. Making impassioned speeches. Life is this, life should be that, blah-blah-blah - life is, Mr. Cook. I mean, you wanna know what life is like, you ask me? Football. You're moving towards the goal line and somebody gets in your way? Knock'm on their ass. You want braggin rights? Win. Lose and nobody wants to know your problems. All you have to do is take one look at the history books to see it's survival of the fittest from the word go. And all this talking - oh, gee, I feel so sorry for all these poor people I don't even know - it's a lot of bull, you ask me. It's what you're supposed to say when you want chicks to think you're like, sensitive or this caring individual. I get totally sick of it, you want to know the truth. And I don't think I'm alone here. I think a lot of people totally agree with me. They're just afraid to be honest about it. You ask me.
COOK
I don't agree.
HACKETT
Oh, yeah? Well, unlike you, maybe I don't have any "secret identity" I need to feel ashamed about.
COOK
What's that supposed to mean, Mr. Hackett?
HACKETT
It means what it means.
COOK
Are we talking about the shoe fitting again?
HACKETT
I hear things.
COOK
That's right, your father is tight with the president of the school board.
HACKETT
You bet he is.
COOK
Mr. Hackett, go get a drink of water.
HACKETT
Huh?
COOK
You heard me, the drinking fountain's down the hall, go get a drink.
HACKETT
I'm not thirsty.
COOK
Mr. Hackett -
HACKETT
Okay, okay. Jeez. First you want me to stay, then go... make up your mind. I have football practice!
(HE STARTS TO EXIT. D'ANGELO ENTERS. THEY STARE AT ONE ANOTHER. HACKETT EXITS. D'ANGELO SITS. COOK SEEMS TO BE LOST IN SOMBER THOUGHT. HE MOVES TOWARDS THE WINDOW. HE STANDS A MOMENT; SIGHS. A MOMENT. HE TURNS.)
COOK
Mr. D'Angelo. Like a prodigal son, you have returned to us. I was beginning to have my doubts.
D'ANGELO
You're too nice, Mr. Cook. You give an inch, we take a mile.
COOK
And we can't have that, can we.
(HE MOVES TO THE DOOR.)
COOK
From now on, I'm going to be a raging tyrant. You'll hardly recognize me. Students will tremble at my very name.
(stepping out into the hallway)
Mr. Hackett - !?
(with resignation:)
- is once again off in search of his lost locker.
(a sigh)
I'll be right back.
(HE EXITS. PAUSE. JILLY RISES. MOVES UP FRONT TO THROW SOMETHING IN THE WASTEBASKET. HESITATES. AND THEN:)
JILLY
Not yet.
(D'ANGELO JUST LOOKS AT HER.)
JILLY
You asked if I'd made any friends. Not yet.
D'ANGELO
How long's it usually take?
JILLY
Sometimes I hate high school. Everywhere you go people seem to be part of a group. And there's always one group that's made up of all the popular kids. And unless you dress right or act right and are popular too, they don't let you in. So you end up with the other people who don't fit in. Which wouldn't be bad except we all know we don't. And sometimes I think we resent each other for it.
(and then:)
I make friends. Sometimes it takes a while but... usually I make one friend. One good friend. That's all it takes. And we stay in touch too. I write letters all the time. I like writing letters.
D'ANGELO
You want to be friends?
JILLY
What?
D'ANGELO
Friends.
JILLY
You and me?
D'ANGELO
Unless you want to, like, go steady instead.
(JILLY STARTS BACK TO HER SEAT. D'ANGELO PUSHES HIS DESK INTO HER WAY.)
D'ANGELO
What. What'd I say?
JILLY
Why are you making fun of me?
D'ANGELO
I couldn't be more serious. You want to go out sometime?
JILLY
No!
D'ANGELO
Oh, you get so many offers, huh?
JILLY
No.
D'ANGELO
Don't tell me. I'm not your type.
JILLY
I'm... not yours.
D'ANGELO
How do you know that?
JILLY
I just... I do.
D'ANGELO
You seen me with all these girls, you know what my type is, huh?
JILLY
No, but -
D'ANGELO
Again but. But what. What girls you seen me with, you know anything about my type.
JILLY
I assume -
D'ANGELO
(rising)
Oh, you assume, huh?
JILLY
Let me talk!
D'ANGELO
Uh-uh. I'm talkin'. Let me tell you something. Don't assume nothin'. So what's my type? I didn't know I had one.
JILLY
... you know...
D'ANGELO
No.
JILLY
... mature girls.
D'ANGELO
Mature.
JILLY
Girls that... have experience.
D'ANGELO
You're saying I go out with sluts.
JILLY
No!
D'ANGELO
I'm only interested in girls who put out -
JILLY
I didn't mean -
D'ANGELO
- and you, "a nice girl", you'd be scared to death to go out with a guy like me. Terrified of my, uh, expectations.
JILLY
I don't know anything about you.
(AND SHE TURNS AWAY FROM HIM AND SITS IN THE CLOSEST DESK)
D'ANGELO
No, you don't. But you're right. I wouldn't know what do with a nice girl.
(a moment)
The movies maybe. You like the movies?
JILLY
I like the movies.
D'ANGELO
Me too. Buy some popcorn, some juju beads, a coke maybe. Sit down front, laugh at the good parts. Nahh... forget it, we wouldn't laugh at the same things. Who you think's funny?
JILLY
I don't know.
D'ANGELO'
You don't know. You like Laugh-In? Ruth Buzzie, Henry Gibson, Artie what's his face -
(a German accent)
- "very interesting". You laugh at that?
JILLY
Yes.
D'ANGELO
Boy, are you dumb!
(quickly; as her face falls)
I'm kiddin', I'm kiddin'! I laugh at that too. So maybe we would. Laugh together.
(a moment)
After the movies... if we were, like, forced... maybe The Farmshop. Buy you an ice cream sundae. Wouldn't the jocks and their girlfriends - Hackett here - laugh seeing me with you, huh? Whoa, but then it's hit them - she must put out. I wonder what she's doing next Saturday night.
JILLY
That's not funny.
D'ANGELO
Come on, you know you don't put out. You're a nice girl. That's why you'd never go out with me.
(a moment)
But if you did, here's what we'd do. My old man's joint. You ever been there?
JILLY
He makes pizza.
D'ANGELO
No. He doesn't make pizza. He makes great pizza. He makes the whatayacallit, the Cistern Chapel of pizza. He's an artist, my father. A large with the works. Saturday night, he's working. Talk your ear off the whole time. Whoa, Frank, where'd you meet this girl? Jesus, what's she doin' with you. More important, what's she doin' Sunday dinner, Christ, bring her over, make your poor mother's week.
JILLY
He'd like me?
D'ANGELO
You kidding? He would only like, thank Holy Mary Mother a God, I should ever...
(a moment)
Yeah. Yeah, he'd like you.
JILLY
What... what would we do next.
D'ANGELO
Oh, so now you're interested?
JILLY
I've never been out on a real date.
D'ANGELO
Maybe a drive. Listen to some tunes on the radio. Cruisin', y'know? Maybe you sit close, I put my hand on your knee. Just restin' it there. No getting fresh, try and jump your bones in the back seat, none a that. Not a nice girl. Like you.
JILLY
You know, nice girls...
D'ANGELO
What.
JILLY
They do things like that.
D'ANGELO
What things? Come on, what are you saying.
JILLY
... kiss.
D'ANGELO
Oh, is that what they do? You're kidding. No! Nice girls?
JILLY
(giggling now)
Stop.
D'ANGELO
Are you saying I could expect to get to, what... first base here?
JILLY
That's...?
D'ANGELO
Kiss. Maybe with a little tongue action.
JILLY
Well, you did pay for the pizza.
D'ANGELO
Whoa! Be still my heart. Okay, I got to first. How about second?
JILLY
That's...?
D'ANGELO
What do you think it is?
JILLY
...my..?
D'ANGELO
(both amused and enchanted at her modesty)
You are beautiful.
JILLY
Ahem... I would only consider that if we really liked each other.
D'ANGELO
On the first date?
JILLY
Well -
D'ANGELO
You are no longer a nice girl.
JILLY
Maybe I'm tired of being nice. Maybe I want to be... a wild girl.
D'ANGELO
Well, in that case, let's go parking someplace.
JILLY
Where do people go?
D'ANGELO
Around here? Two places. Town park, away from the lights. Or behind the high school, near the football field. Gotta be careful. Cops cruise both. Nothin' better to do on a Saturday night than roust couples making out.
JILLY
Making out. That always sounds so...
D'ANGELO
Yeah. The words don't do what it is justice. You're in the front seat of a car, holding on for dear life, the windows fogged, the heater going, it's like you're in a cave or a tent or... you're twins is what it's like. There's a world on the other side of the windshield? But there's not. Because the entire world is in the front seat of a 65 Dodge and it's safe and nothing else exists. You're holding your breath. You don't want to ever let it out. Will we... or won't we.
(AND THEN:)
D'ANGELO
So when we gonna do this? Our date.
JILLY
(a moment; looking away)
We were just talking.
D'ANGELO
Ohhh....
(a moment)
That's right. You're a nice girl. And I don't go out with nice girls. No....
(HE SUDDENLY KICKS OVER A DESK.)
D'ANGELO
Nice girls don't go out with me.
(SILENCE. HE PICKS UP THE DESK. AND THEN:)
D'ANGELO
So, look, you need a friend? Cause, like, I'm offering.
JILLY
Why would you want to be my friend.
D'ANGELO
I like it that you laughed.
(COOK ENTERS. HE SAGS AS HE SEES THAT HACKETT HAS NOT RETURNED)
COOK
No Mr. Hackett. Why am I not surprised. Or displeased.
D'ANGELO
Mr. Cook, you want I should go find him for you?
COOK
(a moment; amused at the idea)
Mr. D'Angelo, tell him, if you would, that unless he gets himself back here, he is in very deep you know what.
D'ANGELO
Oh, he is, Mr. Cook, you have no idea.
(FRANK EXITS.)
COOK
Well... Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
Yes.
COOK
As detentions go, I don't seem to be doing much detaining today, do I?
JILLY
No.
(A MOMENT)
COOK
I was intrigued with the way you read today. In class. You were a very Brando-esque Prince Hal.
JILLY
I'm sorry.
COOK
No, it was a compliment, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I don't understand.
COOK
Do you know Marlon Brando?
JILLY
Not personally.
COOK
No, I mean... do you know who he is?
JILLY
An actor.
COOK
A great actor. Honest. Powerful. And with what I think is an undeserved reputation for mumbling.
JILLY
You're saying... I was like him?
COOK
No, I'm saying I couldn't hear you. You don't like it when I call on you to read in class, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I wish you wouldn't.
COOK
Why.
JILLY
I don't like it when... I just don't like it.
COOK
When people look at you?
(SHE NODS.)
COOK
Have you ever been in a play?
JILLY
In one?
COOK
Performed.
JILLY
Are you crazy!?
(SHE GASPS; HORRIFIED AT WHAT'S SHE JUST SAID.)
COOK
That's all right. I think you have to be a little bit crazy to be a teacher. You might enjoy it, you know. Being in a play.
(JILLY LOOKS AWAY.)
COOK
One of the things I do is direct the senior class play. Maybe you'll audition for me.
JILLY
No.
COOK
Why not.
JILLY
I'd be horrible.
COOK
You weren't horrible in class today.
JILLY
But you said ...
COOK
What I said is I couldn't hear you. But what I could hear, made sense. Which in and of itself is rather remarkable.
(a moment)
I once dreamed of being an actor, you know. I think that's why I focus on drama in my English classes. I studied. I moved to New York. Took classes. Auditioned. Even did a role or two. Laertes in Hamlet. Off-off-off-OFF-Broadway. Not a good production. When it came time to stab Hamlet with the poisoned blade someone in the audience shouted - Kill the Whole Court! Still... I loved acting.
JILLY
Why did you stop?
COOK
I wasn't any good. I was all right but... to do it really well, is a gift. I didn't have it. But I did have a Masters in English and I needed a job. So I started substitute teaching. And finally the day came when I had to choose between a day's work teaching and an audition. And I went to school. And so I was a teacher and not an actor. And so now I get up in front of an audience every day of the week. And on the weekends, with the Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times clenched firmly in my hands... I dream. What do you dream of, Miss O'Brien?
JILLY
What?
COOK
(picking up a book)
What do you aspire to, what do you want to be someday.
JILLY
Mr. Cook, why are you asking me all these questions?
COOK
Because I think dreams are important when you're young. Though Mr. Hackett and his friends might disgree, I think they're more important than proms and football games and grades and detention. And I think we are living in a time when dreams are being replaced with disillusions. What are your dreams, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
I don't have any.
COOK
Really? There are all kinds of dreams, you know.
(half reading now from a book he's picked up)
"Little quiet ones that come to a woman when she's shining the silverware and putting mothflakes in the closet".
(to Jilly)
Remember what that's from?
JILLY
No.
COOK
(half reading, half reciting)
"Like a man's voice saying: Lizzie is my blue suit pressed? And the same man saying: Scratch between my shoulderblades. And the kids teasing and setting up a racket And how it feels to say the word, Husband."
JILLY
I remember. The Rainmaker.
COOK
Mmm. A play about a man who does nothing but dream. I asked you to read it aloud in class. Your second week here I think it was.
JILLY
Third.
COOK
You wouldn't.
(a moment)
It was wrong of me to ask you, Miss O'Brien. I thought... no, I don't know what I was thinking. It was insensitive of me and I hope you'll forgive me.
(A MOMENT)
JILLY
Mr. Cook... I liked the play. I wanted to read it out loud. I heard it. In my head. The way it should sound. And feel. I just... couldn't.
COOK
I understand.
(placing the play before her)
I hope your dreams, if you have any, come true, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
That's from the play too, isn't it.
COOK
Yes. It's one of my favorites. I did it in college. I was Starbuck. I know it by heart. Starbuck.
(from the play)
"Now there's a name! A name that has the whole sky in it! And the power of a man! And it's mine".
(embarrassed; she's just staring at him)
Instead of Cook. In a way, it's how I like to think of myself as a teacher. Fallow fields, some that I see having the potential to bloom beautifully if only someone could bring rain.
(HE TURNS AWAY. AND JILLY PICKS UP THE PLAY. SHE BEGINS TO READ, ALMOST INAUDIBLY, FREEZING COOK IN HIS TRACKS:)
JILLY
"There are all kinds of dreams, Mr. Starbuck. Mine are small ones. Like my name. Lizzie. But they're real like my name... real".
COOK
"Believe in yourself and they'll come true".
JILLY
"I got nothing to believe in."
COOK
"You're a woman. Believe in that."
JILLY
"How can I - "
COOK
Speak up, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
"How can I when - "
COOK
Stand. Please.
(SHE STANDS)
JILLY
"How can I when nobody else will."
COOK
"You got to believe it first."
(JILLY SOFTLY CLOSES THE BOOK, PUTS IT ASIDE)
JILLY
I think that's enough, Mr. Cook.
(COOK HESITATES. AND THEN:)
COOK
Are you pretty?
(JILLY IS SILENT)
COOK
Don't be you, be someone else, just for a moment. Let it free you. Pretend. "Are you pretty, Lizzie?"
(A MOMENT. JILLY HESITATES. PICKS UP THE PLAY. OPENS IT. AND THEN, TRYING TO KEEP THE HURT FROM HER VOICE:)
JILLY
"No. I'm plain."
COOK
"There. You see? You don't even know you're a woman."
JILLY
"I am a woman..."
COOK
Don't tell the book, tell me.
JILLY
"I am a woman. I'm a plain one."
COOK
"There's no such thing. Every woman is pretty. Pretty in a different way. But they're all pretty."
JILLY
"Not me. When I look in the looking glass -"
COOK
Don't let other people be your looking glass. It's got to be inside of you.
(JILLY IS SILENT.)
COOK
Come on, Miss O'Brien. You've given me center stage, I'm not going to relinquish it now. Close your eyes. Go on, close them. Tell me how lovely you are. You are, you know. You're Cinderella. You're Eliza Doolittle. You're Melisande.
JILLY
I'm not.
COOK
If you believe it, you are. Tell me you're pretty. Say it and believe it, Miss Jilly Lizzie O'Brien.
JILLY
(head down; inaudible)
I'm...
COOK
So I can hear you.
JILLY
(again inaudible; her lips hardly moving)
I'm....
COOK
I still can't hear you.
(JILLY LOOKS UP, OPENING HER EYES. SHE GATHERS HER COURAGE. AND THE CHARACTER AND THE MOMENT TAKE HER. SHE SMILES AND - )
JILLY
I'm -
(WE SUDDENLY HEAR VOICES IN THE HALL.)
HACKETT
Knock it off, man, just knock it off!
D'ANGELO
What's the matter, you don't like it?
HACKETT
I'm not going to fight you!
D'ANGELO
Why not, big man! Come on, you're so good at pushing people!
(HACKETT AND D'ANGELO ENTER. D'ANGELO IS PUSHING HACKETT.)
HACKETT
You tell this animal to stay away from me, Mr. Cook!
COOK
He was retrieving you, Mr. Hackett, at my request.
HACKETT
He's been threatening me all day is what he's been doing. Going out of his way to.
D'ANGELO
You deserve it, Pussy.
HACKETT
Fuck you!
COOK
All right, stop it -
D'ANGELO
Big man. Big jock, huh - ?
COOK
- both of you stop it!
D'ANGELO
- you know what the big jock likes to do, Mr. Cook - ?
COOK
Mr. D'Angelo, I said, that's enough -
D'ANGELO
- he likes to push people around.
HACKETT
I want this guy arrested he even touches me, Mr. Cook.
COOK
No one's touching anyone -
D'ANGELO
I can't believe teachers don't know what goes on around this place -
HACKETT
You weren't even there!
D'ANGELO
I heard!
COOK
Gentlemen, all right, I said that's enough!
(SILENCE)
COOK
What exactly is it that happened, Mr. D'Angelo?
D'ANGLEO
Gym class yesterday, everybody's hit the showers. Mr. Jock here's running late. He goes in the showers, they're all taken.
HACKETT
He wasn't there!
D'ANGELO
Does he wait his turn? Nah! He grabs this freshman kid by the dick -
HACKETT
That's so - no way!
D'ANGELO
- pulls him out of the shower and laughing like an asshole, leads the poor kid across the room like some dog -
HACKETT
This is bull!
D'ANGELO
- on a leash. What is it you were looking for, Danny? A shower or a free feel?
HACKETT
You ask me, you're loosing control of this class, Mr. Cook.
D'ANGELO
Now the freshman, even though he was half this pukeface's size -
HACKETT
Mr. Cook, you're not supposed to let him call me that!
D'ANGELO
- was a man! He pushed Danny boy. Whereupon Mr. Halfback, bounced a fist off the kid's face, bounced the kid's head off the floor and kicked him in the gut while he was lying there.
HACKETT
You weren't even there! He wasn't there!
D'ANGELO
And then, with his buddies watching... all the cool guys... he pissed on him.
HACKETT
This is... it's all bull, Mr. Cook. Really bull. This kid pushed me, I pushed him back, he fell. That's all.
COOK
(to D'Angelo)
Did Coach McNeary do anything about it?
HACKETT
He didn't, Mr. Cook! He came in, he asked what had happened and no one said anything had. And that's your proof right there, that nothing did.
D'ANGELO
No one said anything, pukeface, because they're afraid of you. But I'm not. You and me are gonna rumba, baby.
HACKETT
Mr. Cook, how can you let him just threaten me like this!
COOK
Is it true?
HACKETT
This guy's crazy! He's armed and dangerous!
COOK
Is it true?
HACKETT
Faggot. When my father hears about this, you're history.
COOK
I think I'll step out in the hall for a moment.
HACKETT
No!
COOK
Let you two work it out. Come along, Miss O'Brien.
JILLY
Mr. Cook, don't, if he gets in a fight, he's expelled.
(A MOMENT. AND HACKETT SEES IN D'ANGELO'S FACE, THAT IT'S TRUE)
HACKETT
It's a bluff. You can't lay a finger on me.
COOK
Take a seat, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
Come on, hit me, D'Angelo, take a swing.
COOK
I said, take a seat.
HACKETT
I don't pay attention to you anymore. "Pacifist". I'm going to football practice.
(to D'Angelo)
You stay out of my way cause I would love to make you throw a punch.
(and then:)
What a bunch of total losers.
(D'ANGELO HITS HIM. ONE SHOT. KNOCKS HIM OVER SOME DESKS AND DOWN.)
HACKETT
(rising; his nose bleeding)
You saw that. Everybody saw that. I got witnesses.
COOK
Go to football practice, Mr. Hackett.
HACKETT
I got witnesses. You're out of here, man!
(HE EXITS. SILENCE. COOKS TURNS AND LOOKS SADLY AT FRANK.)
D'ANGELO
(to Jilly)
Write me letters?
(LIGHTS TO BLACK.)
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