COLD OPEN – ADVISING FAIR, PENNBROOK QUAD – AFTERNOON
Booths everywhere: “BIO,” “URBAN STUDIES,” “MEDIA,” “UNDECLARED (it’s okay).”
Riley clutches four brochures and a stress penguin.
Riley: I love ideas too much. I want to major in yes.
Zay holds six stickers on his jacket: Theater, Psych, Philosophy, Business, French, “Birds?”
Zay: I major in “stage fright about the future.” Minor in baguettes.
Farkle sweeps by with a box labeled “spare pens—labeled.”
Farkle: Data says decide by spring.
Zay: My heart says decide by never.
Riley: What if I choose wrong and the universe freezes me that way?
Lucas (passing with a backpack of lab stuff): If the universe freezes you, I’ll bring a heat lamp. Also, breathe.
Riley/Zay: Not helpful / Actually helpful.
Smash to sting.
ACT ONE
SCENE A – QUAD, CONTINUOUS
Dean Rachel mans a table: “Exploration Seminar.” A sign: “Choosing a major = choosing a question.”
Rachel: My favorite panic duo. Sit.
Riley: What if my question is “how do I help people” and my major is “all of them.”
Zay: What if my question is “can I be Beyoncé in a lab coat.”
Rachel: Great questions. Try this: Three Post-It Plan. Write three things you’re curious about that don’t require one specific job title.
They scribble:
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Riley: Belonging, stories, kids & community.
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Zay: Performing, people’s brains, making moments.
Rachel: Now go visit any two booths that could answer those, even if the names scare you. Bring back a sticker that isn’t “Birds.”
Zay: (peels off the Birds sticker) Rude but fair.
SCENE B – ART STUDIO – AFTERNOON
Maya sets up an easel. Professor Eliza SANTOS (40s, exacting, kind) circles the room.
Santos: Today—series studies. Three pieces, same subject, different approach. Make a choice and then betray it. Surprise yourself.
She stops by Maya’s canvas.
Santos: Your line tells the truth even when you’re trying to be clever. Don’t sand it down. Let it be… you.
Maya: (half-smile) You see right through me.
Santos: That’s the job. Also yours.
Maya beams, then wilts a tiny bit—Cory bubble burst.
SCENE C – ERIC’S APARTMENT – LATE AFTERNOON
Lucas and Farkle help Eric move a thrift-store dresser.
Eric: Two flights up, one heroic pivot, zero injuries. Good!
They muscled it up the stairs, then out the roof door to a tiny terrace (easier turn).
Eric: I’ll grab the doorstop from the hall—no one move.
He disappears; the heavy roof door swings shut and… click.
Farkle: The sound of narrative irony.
Lucas: He’ll be back in a minute.
A minute passes. Then five.
Lucas: He’ll be back in… a while.
Farkle: We live here now.
They stare at the skyline, the locked door, each other.
SCENE D – QUAD BOOTHS – LATE AFTERNOON
Riley sits at Sociology/Community Engagement. A student shows a flyer: “Neighborhood Partnerships—Reading Buddies & Food Access.”
Student: You like making rooms feel like home? We study why some rooms don’t, and we build ones that do.
Riley glows. Sticker acquired.
Zay tries Psych; a grad says, “Intro research assistantships exist.” He tries Performance Studies; a prof says, “Devise a one-person piece about the worst day you laughed.”
Zay: That’s… scarily specific to me.
Two new stickers. Zay looks… lighter.
SCENE E – ART STUDIO – EVENING
Santos watches Maya rough in a second painting—bolder, messier.
Santos: Yes. Let the gesture get ugly. Pretty is honest’s enemy.
Maya: My other mentor says things like that, but with chalk dust.
Santos: Then you’re bilingual.
Maya: (blurts) Is it… cheating on a mentor if I pick a new one?
Santos: You don’t replace people. You collect them. Like colors. Which, incidentally, you are hoarding—limit your palette to three.
Maya: Rude but fair.
She smiles, wipes half her palette away, goes again.
ACT TWO
SCENE F – ROOFTOP – SUNSET
Farkle inventory-panics: phone at 2%, two granola bars, a tiny Allen wrench, Dean Buffalo (cape still on) sticking out of Lucas’s bag.
Farkle: We will communicate by… semaphore made of IKEA parts.
Lucas: Or by yelling “Eric” at intervals.
They yell. A car honks back. Not helpful.
Lucas: Okay. New plan. We wait. We do nothing dangerous. We… look.
They flop beside the stubborn dresser and watch the sky go orange-to-blue.
Farkle: I hate not having a plan.
Lucas: Sometimes the plan is “you don’t.”
Farkle: (after a beat) If the universe freezes me, will you bring a heat lamp?
Lucas: Already did.
They share a granola bar like castaways. Laugh anyway.
SCENE G – QUAD – EVENING
Riley and Zay return to Rachel with new stickers.
Riley: I felt… like me at two different tables.
Zay: Me too. I like being multiple choice.
Rachel: Good. Because you will be. Here’s the truth: a “major” is a guess you get to revise.
Riley: Can I be “Sociology with something in Education later maybe and a Window Collective minor that doesn’t exist”?
Rachel: You can be “Sociology + Education elective cluster + the club that changes people’s Tuesdays.”
Zay: Can I be “Psych-ish + Performance-ish with a dash of French for flirting”?
Rachel: You can be “Psych major, Performance Studies minor, French for joy.”
Zay: I love joy-credit.
Rachel: You both get one semester of “Exploration Seminar” with me. Homework: tell me a story about a room that felt like home—and why.
They nod like someone turned a dimmer switch up inside them.
SCENE H – ART STUDIO → HALL – NIGHT
Maya scrubs a bold stroke across her third piece—then stops, phone halfway up, guilt on her face. She ducks into the hall, calls Cory.
Cory (on video, in his classroom): Maya Penelope Hart. How’s college?
Maya: I think I’m cheating on you with Professor Santos.
Cory: (grins) Excellent choice. Is she kind and terrifying?
Maya: Yes.
Cory: Perfect. You’re allowed more than one grown-up who sees you.
Maya: You won’t… be less my Mr. Matthews?
Cory: Maya, I’m your Mr. Matthews no matter how many tiaras Rachel wears and how many painters teach you to scare yourself. People don’t get replaced. They get added.
Maya: (teary) I hate when the lesson is soft.
Cory: Soft isn’t weak. It’s how the paint sticks. Now go be messy on purpose. And call me when you hate your midterm.
Maya: Deal.
She ends the call, exhales, reenters the studio, and attacks the canvas like she trusts it.
Santos watches from across the room, smiling: she knows that look.
ACT THREE
SCENE I – ROOFTOP – LATE NIGHT
Crickets. City hum. Lucas points out constellations inaccurately; Farkle corrects gently.
Lucas: So that’s Orion’s refrigerator—
Farkle: Belt.
Lucas: Right. The pantry is over there.
They laugh. The roof door finally clanks. Eric bursts out with a grocery bag and a stack of printed signs.
Eric: I left for doorstops and then accidentally single-handedly revived a community board and also City Council called me about a goose. Why are you on the roof?
Farkle/Lucas: You locked us on the roof.
Eric: That does sound like me. Good! I mean—sorry. You okay?
Lucas: Bonded with the skyline. Ate a granola bar like it was a holiday meal.
Eric: Proud of you. Also—I brought pie?
He did. Rooftop pie happens. All is forgiven.
SCENE J – ERIC’S APARTMENT – SAME NIGHT
Riley and Zay arrive with takeout and glow; Maya arrives with three drying canvases balanced in her arms; Eric, Lucas, Farkle clatter in from the roof with wind hair and pie.
Eric: Family meeting. Major decisions, minor desserts.
They sprawl around the coffee table.
Riley: I think I’m “Sociology + Education cluster + more Window.” Not forever, just… for now.
Zay: I think I’m “Psych major, Performance minor, French for flirting and cinema.”
Farkle: I support your hypotheses.
Lucas: I support your snacks.
Maya: And I support my terrifying professor who told me pretty is the enemy of honest. (beat) Also I panicked I was replacing Mr. Matthews and he said people add, they don’t replace.
Everyone yep-yep’s that.
Eric: New magnet for the fridge: “You don’t have to know. You have to notice.” If a class wakes you up, take more. If a class tucks you in, take fewer. And never move a dresser onto a roof without a buddy system and a doorstop.
Farkle: Addendum: carry granola.
Zay: Addendum: joy-credit.
Rachel pops her head in the open door like she owns every hallway.
Rachel: I smelled pie. Also—Exploration Seminar: Mondays at 4:13. Don’t be late.
Farkle: Of course it’s 4:13.
Rachel: It’s when the brain is most chaotic. Perfect time to practice brave thinking.
They all groan; they all smile.
TAG – ADVISING FAIR, NEXT DAY
A tiny “UNDECLARED (it’s okay)” table now has a sub-sign: “Exploration Seminar w/ Rachel – 4:13.” Riley pins “Sociology” to her lanyard with a tiny clothespin; Zay pins “Psych/Performance.” Maya tapes a Polaroid of her three pieces on the Art board, captioned “Messy On Purpose.”
Sadie (our teal-winged rival/friend) strolls by, gives Riley a thumbs-up over the “Pantry Partnerships” flyer.
Riley: See you Saturday—rivals at noon, allies at two.
Sadie: Major: Kindness. Minor: Cans.
Across the quad, Lucas secures a very large doorstop under the roof access sign as Farkle nods solemnly. Eric posts a printed flier: “Take a Doorstop, Leave a Doorstop.”
They all breathe. Not decided forever. Decided enough for now.
END.