COLD OPEN – ABIGAIL ADAMS HIGH, HALLWAY – MORNING
August/“August” and Ava unveil a shoebox like it’s a crown jewel.
Ava: Behold: Kindness Cords—braided ribbons you clip to your backpack when you do a tiny good thing. Compliment someone? Clip. Hold a door? Clip. Don’t start a hallway stampede? Double clip.
August: We start small. We don’t force it. We model it.
Ava: We also have a rollout plan, sticker sheets, and a theme song.
August: We start… small.
Ava: (already waving a handful) WHO WANTS TO BE TREND PIONEERS?
Dewey appears in a vintage jacket.
Dewey: Do they come in “mysterious”?
August: They come in “be yourself.”
Mikey thumbs a cord, shrugs.
Mikey: If it doesn’t itch.
Bell rings. Ava grins like a general with glitter.
Smash to titles.
ACT ONE
SCENE A – CORY’S CLASSROOM – FIRST PERIOD
Cory draws a big question on the board: “When did the United States become independent?”
Cory: Pop quiz without the quiz: pair up, pick a date, and defend it with evidence. I’ll be your judge, jury, and… Feeny.
Pairs form. Dewey lands with Mikey. They face off like a buddy-cop poster.
Dewey: Easy—July 4, 1776. Declaration. Fireworks. T-shirts.
Mikey: Wrong. 1783. Treaty of Paris. War’s over. That’s the finish line.
Dewey: It’s the starting gun!
Mikey: It’s the buzzer!
Cory: Gentlemen—use sources, not volume.
They glare, then open textbooks with varying degrees of confidence.
SCENE B – HALLWAY / LUNCHROOM – LATE MORNING
Ava sets up a tiny table labeled “Kindness Cords – Pilot Program (No Pressure, Much Cute)”. August holds a clipboard: “What small good thing did you do?”
A freshman returns a pencil → clip. A senior compliments a shy kid’s hair → clip. Momentum… sort of.
Ava: We’re doing it. We’re micro-trending!
August: Nothing micro about that smile.
Ava: (aside) Now we just need… the right wearer to tip it.
Enter Alyssa (cool, unbothered, sets trends by accident). She eyes a cord.
Alyssa: What if I just like the color?
August: That counts.
She clips it, walks off, looking good without trying. Half the cafeteria watches.
Ava (whisper-squeal): It’s happening.
SCENE C – TOPANGA’S (NYC) – MIDDAY
Topanga and Katy huddle over a laptop with cappuccinos and twenty tabs open.
Topanga: If we launch online ordering, we cut the lunch line in half.
Katy: And double the “I accidentally bought five cookies” rate. What’s our domain?
Topanga: topangas.com was… taken. But—good news—topabgas.com was available!
Katy: …What did you type?
Topanga: Topanga’s. But fast. And then the “n” and “g” hugged too close.
They stare at the screen: TOPABGAS.COM – WELCOME TO TOPANGA’S (PROBABLY).
Katy: I love us. We bought a gas-themed café.
Topanga: We can fix it. We’ll buy the right one and… what do the kids say? Redirect.
Katy: Until then, we own Top Ab Gas. Which sounds like a workout program and/or a plumbing emergency.
They cackle; then Topanga gets very lawyer.
Topanga: No panic. We’ll salvage. We’ll 301. We’ll bake.
ACT TWO
SCENE D – LIBRARY – LUNCH
Dewey & Mikey each have a stack: textbook, a printout of the Declaration, a screenshot of the Treaty of Paris article, and a random baseball almanac Mikey swears proves his point.
Dewey: The country said it was independent on July 4, 1776. That matters.
Mikey: Words matter. But so do cannons. You’re not independent until the other guy stops punching.
Dewey: My punch is rhetoric.
Mikey: My punch is… punching.
Dewey: (sighs) Okay… let’s split it. “De jure” and “de facto.”
Mikey: Latin now?
Dewey: Fancy for “on paper” and “in real life.” You make the “in real life” argument; I’ll make the “on paper.” We’ll crush together.
Mikey pauses… nods. They start building a joint case.
SCENE E – HALLWAY – AFTERNOON
Kindness Cords… multiply. Some kids wear five like sash medals; others mock with bootleg yarn. A tiny scuffle erupts when a seventh-grader sneers, “You only did that for the ribbon.”
Ava: No gatekeeping! Cords are for joy.
August (gentle): If it feels like homework, skip it. We’re not grading kindness.
Alyssa passes, now with zero cords.
Alyssa: Everyone started wearing them. It felt… try-hard. I’ll pick it up later when it’s quiet.
Ava’s smile flickers.
Ava: (to August) Did we over-cord?
August: We may have… influencered too close to the sun.
Ava: We course-correct. Less table. More us. No PR face. Real small good things.
They fist-bump. Reset plan.
SCENE F – TOPANGA’S – AFTERNOON
A UPS guy brings a box of Topabgas stickers (Katy’s typo auto-reordered). A confused plumber calls.
Plumber (on phone): We got a service request for “Top Ab Gas.” You smell anything?
Katy: Only cinnamon. Wrong gas. Sorry.
Topanga: I secured topangasnyc.com. Now we redirect topabgas to the correct site. Also—new marketing: “Our cookies are so good you’ll typo our name.”
Katy: And a limited-run TOPABGAS donut with an edible disclaimer: “We are not a gas station.”
They high-five, chaotic queens.
ACT THREE
SCENE G – CORY’S CLASSROOM – LAST PERIOD
Pairs present. Dewey & Mikey take the front like a mismatched TED Talk.
Dewey: We argue 1776 for independence on paper—a nation declaring itself, a promise to the world.
Mikey: We argue 1783 for independence in practice—war ends, treaty signed, other countries say “fine, you’re a thing.”
Dewey: Thesis: history has birthdays and birth certificates.
Mikey: Baby’s born and the paperwork gets filed.
Cory: (grinning) Gentlemen, that’s… very good. Sources?
Dewey: Declaration, Congress records.
Mikey: Treaty of Paris, an almanac, and my grandma who says “you ain’t done until the dishes are.”
Cory: Acceptable. (to class) Lesson: dates are answers to which question? “When did we say?” vs “When did they agree?” Use the right calendar for the right claim.
Mikey (to Dewey, low): We crushed together.
Dewey (low): De facto crushed.
They fist-bump, quietly proud.
SCENE H – HALLWAY / STAIRS – AFTER SCHOOL
Ava quietly ties a cord to the Lost & Found bin with a note: “Take what you need. Leave what you can.” August helps a sixth-grader pick up spilled markers without making a big deal. No table. No pitch. Just… doing.
Alyssa reappears, watches, smiles. She clips a single cord back on, just for her.
Ava: (soft) That’s the trend I want.
August: The one no one has to prove.
Ava: We keep it small. We let it spread by accident.
August: Like joy.
They loop one cord on each other’s backpacks. Done.
SCENE I – TOPANGA’S – EARLY EVENING
The site is live: topangasnyc.com at the top, confetti banner: “If you typed ‘Topabgas,’ you’re still home. We fixed it. Have a cookie.” Customers laugh as they scan a QR code.
Shawn strolls in, reads the sticker.
Shawn: Top Ab Gas. Sounds like a workout you’d pay me to not attend.
Topanga: It’s also a donut now.
Katy: And we redirected the internet like attorneys of carbs.
Shawn: Proud of you, chaos webmasters.
They clink coffee cups and plate cookies.
SCENE J – CORY’S ROOM – DISMISSAL
Cory pins a small poster: “CLAIM • EVIDENCE • REASONING • KINDNESS.”
Cory: Before you run off to trend or untrend, remember: history isn’t a single date, and being a person isn’t a single outfit. Ask good questions. Wear what feels like you.
Ava: Even if “you” is ribbons.
Mikey: Even if “you” is no ribbons.
Dewey: Even if “you” is Latin.
August: Even if “you” is… August Matthews.
Bell rings. They spill into the hall.
A little seventh-grader we saw earlier clips a cord onto his backpack, shy but proud. No one sees—except August, who smiles and keeps walking.
END.
No comments:
Post a Comment