The Boys: Match Point

[Race's Girl]

(SCENE - Hallway at Harrow High School. The Boys - Stan, Barney, Ginger and Billy - are walking down the hall together)

Billy: Can you believe it? I'm a young adult now!

Ginger: And what does that mean?

Stan: It means we still get to treat Billy like our youngest brother!

Barney: (somewhat dubiously) Oh, I don't know about that, Stan.

Stan: Barney, just because Billy's in Year 9 and us two and Ginger are in Year 10 doesn't mean
we're not still friends!

Ginger: You got a point there, Stan.

Stan: And we're going to make sure Billy gets a girlfriend. Last year, me and Barney were dating the leaders of the girls hockey team but this year, it's going to be different.

Billy: Hey, Ginger, weren't you sort of going steady with Jamie Ann White this summer?

Ginger: Uh, not really, just sort of ...

Barney: I thought he was dating Lisa.

Stan: Oh no, they're on the hockey team and they both hate me.

Ginger: Come on, Stan, you're still angry with the team 'cause Jamie Anne hit you in the face with a hockey stick and Lisa stepped on your foot during lunch.

Billy: Bloody hell, Ginger, I think we should have a quick meeting after our last class today.

Barney: Look, Billy, Stan's still the leader so he calls meetings, not you, okay?

Stan: (to Barney and Ginger) Barney, Ginger, don't forget we've got practice, remember?

Barney: Well, OK. I just hope this volleyball thingie isn't going to cause us to leave Billy out of everything we do after school.

Stan: Don't be so silly, Barney.

[Race's Girl]

(SCENE - Locker room at Harrow High. Stan, Barney and Ginger are dressing for gym class. Ginger is pulling on his sweatshirt and then does his hair as the following conversation unfolds. Stan and Barney are speaking to him)

Stan: Wow, Ginger, glad you made the team!

Ginger: Thanks, Stan.

Barney: I didn't see you making varsity when you first showed up at that summer rec league.

Ginger: I was pretty awful, wasn't I? I played intramural volleyball in Years 7 and 8 and I thought I was pretty good but I haven't played since then except in gym class.

Stan: Why not? You coulda gone out for the team last year.

Ginger: Yeah, true.

Barney: Hey, Ginger, you got pretty good by the end of the summer!

Ginger: Yeah, I did okay. I'm still surprised I made varsity though.

Stan and Barney: (together) We're not.

Ginger: (smiling) Thanks, guys.

(They leave the locker room)

(SCENE - Harrow High gym - volleyball practice. The guys are lined up for bump-set-spike practice. We see Barney spike the ball, then Stan right behind her. Both spike it well)

Stan: Good going, Ginger!

(Watching are the head coach Deana "Dee" Greene and assistant coach Janet Barch. Coach Greene is quite tall, about 30, has shortish brown hair and a no-nonsense, low-key manner)

Greene: What do you think of Stanley Coulter's team, Janet?

Barch: Well, Stanley and Bernard are good but I don't think Morgan's ready to start a match.

Greene: Morgan's almost good enough to start. I wish he'd gone out for volleyball the last three years. He might be one of the best players on the team by now. But I think he'll see a lot of playing time this season. (Blows her whistle and the players look at her) OK, serving practice!

(The players quickly shift into formation for serving practice. Stan's the first and hits a few good serves)

Greene: (to Barch) Can Stanley serve a volleyball? The rest of his game is stronger.

(SCENE - back in the locker room. Stan, Barney and Ginger finishing dressing - back into their school uniform)

Stan: Hey, Ginger, you did good!

Ginger: Thanks.

Barney: I'm kinda surprised you're not starting against going into training with Arsenal.

Ginger: Me? Training with Arsenal. I barely made the football team.

Stan: Me and Barney think you did better than that. Anyway, Ginger, you were still great.

Barney: Stan's right, you were a great player.

Ginger: Thanks, Guys.

[Race's Girl]

(Cut to downtown Springfield. We see a large restaurant with a large red neon sign proclaiming it to be "Red October's" Cut to the interior. It's a wood panneled restaurant with various nautical paraphenalia on the walls. The tables are tale, with equally tall chairs to go with them. It's fairly crowded, there's a jukebox in one corner. At one large table sits Scott, Tommy, Sandi, Astin, Nicola, Lennie, Wayne and Kelly. Wayne is sitting next to Kelly, Lennie next to Astin, Scott next to Sandi and Tommy next to Nicola. Nicola is wearing a pink 3/4 length sleeved midriff showing V-neck T-shirt, a lilac gilet, dark green comabt pants with a matching skirt and pink sneakers with a pink Alice band. Sandi is in a yellow midriff showing V-neck T-shirt, a light blue denim jacket, blue jeans and yellow sneakers. Kelly is in a pink midriff showing V-neck T-shirt, a dark green combat jacket, blue jeans and maroon sneakers)

SCOTT: (to Sandi) Okay, you want to explain to me why anyone who looks like Beyonce like you do would bunk in the same cabin as Chesty LaRue's big bosomed twin over here?

SANDI: Hey, my name's Sandi McKenzie not Beyonce.

SCOTT: I'm Scott Tracy, I'm sure Tommy's told you a lot about me.

SANDI: Yeah, he did. He said his roommate was gonna be some Ivy Leaguer who's dad was an astronaut.

SCOTT: That's me. My dad's Jeff Tracy. So obviously, I guess you're kinda hot.

ASTIN: My old man told me that some General dude didn't wnat any boys and girls sleeping together, huh?

NICOLA: Can it, Astin.

(Mild laughter. Scott looks around the restaurant with interest)

SCOTT: Interesting place.

ASTIN: Yeah, it's the ultimate college hangout. The guy that runs it started it out as a seafood place then added pizza and finally after somebody pointed out the name he added sandwiches.

SCOTT: What do you mean?

ASTIN: Red October's...submarine sandwiches.

SCOTT: That's...really bad.

ASTIN: Nah, I ordered my steak sandwich well done. (pause as Kelly looks at him) What?

(The waitress arrives and passes out the plates. Wayne and Kelly have salad, Astin has a steak sandwich, Tommy and Nicola are splitting a platter of shrimp, Lennie has a chicken sandwich and Scott and Nicola are sharing a plate of fries)

TOMMY: Is that all you're having?

SCOTT: It's a travel thing. I don't like to eat heavy after moving.

LENNIE: (to Tommy) But what about all that stuff we always ate after walking to Krusty Burger after school back in Springfield? You were moving then.

KELLY: (to Lennie) A chicken sandwich?

LENNIE: I like chicken. (smiling happliy) And I know what I like, Kelly.

(Cut to underneath the table. Scott's foot oozes across and begins to caress Sandi's leg. Cut to Sandi who stiffens for a split second with a mouthful of fires. She chews, swallows then turns to Kelly and Nicola)

KELLY: Sandi?

SANDI: What's the prob, Sis?

KELLY: I know you only met Scott a few hours ago but do you like him?

(Scott looks at Sandi and puts his left arm around her and she snuggles close to him)

SCOTT: What's that for?

(Sandi just smiles at him and whispers something about having a crush on him in his ear and then kisses him passionatly)

(Cut to Cabin 1A in the men's section. Scott is sitting at his desk in his blue pyjamas. He's writing in his journal)

SCOTT: (to the audience) So that was the first day at Air Force Base. I met some new people who seem to be my kind of people, hooked up with the General's oldest son, the colonel's older duaghter and my new roommate who seem like they could become friends...and then there's Sandi McKenzie.

(Tommy comes into the room in a robe drying his hair with a towel)

TOMMY: Yo, Scott, you going to be up long?

SCOTT: No, just finishing up my journal entry. I'll be going to bed soon.

TOMMY: Awesome. (plugs in a hair dryer and begins drying his hair. Scott goes back to writing)

SCOTT: (to the audience again) So what do I think? I think it's too early to say yet how Air Force life will treat me. But...it may not suck as much as I thought it would in my Dad's day.

(At that point, there's a some rap music coming from the radio and Tommy raps along with it. Scott smiles at his roommate as he then sings along with the music and goes back to his journal. Tommy shrugs and goes back to his hair drying)

SCOTT: (to the audience yet again) ...Then again.

(Cut to the credits. Similar to the Static Shock closing credits)

(Fade out)

[Race's Girl]

Theme:

These are the golden days
In this golden age that we're livin',
I show you a thousand ways,
I show you how we take what we're given

Alright,
Yeah

You can say what you want,
We don't need your permission
Cause you're so busy talkin'
That you don't even listen,
You can do what you want,
You know that we don't mind,
You got the years
But we got the time

(Opening sequence: We see Scott walking across the quad of Air Force Base. We see him working on the Bluebird, looking at the wall then reaching behind him for a wrench and slamming it against the wall a few times then putting down the wrench looking satisfied. We see him in the Base library, writing when a huge stack of books is placed on the desk, delivered by Sandi who is smiling at him. Scott smiles back and they both start talking. We then see Scott inside Hangar 1 with Tommy. There sits the Bluebird with Tommy's plane, the Skywriter and Scott is putting the finishing touches on the Bluebird. Finally, we see Scott at his desk in his cabin in his pyjamas writing in his journal. He closes the journal and gets up from the desk. Close up on the journal. The label on the front of it reads "The Air Force Chronicles" with the title of the current episode underneath it in this case)

Episode 2: Book Learnin'

(We open on the Air Force Base, focusing on the clock tower, which reads 11:45. The bells ring and suddenly a horde of people begin to appear from the various buildings. We focus on one particular clot and we see Scott, a sheet of paper in hand and looking around bewilderedly. He stops to look down at the paper and another young lieutenant plows into him knocking him down. He looks up and glares at the retreating form)

SCOTT: (to the audience) My Rule Of Air Force #1: Air Force Academy Class Schedules do not adhere to any known form of logic in existence. Where else are you going to find that you've signed up for an elective courses only to find that either the class or the classroom doesn't exist?

(Scott gets up from the walk and makes his way to a nearby building. A sign on the side reveals it to be the "Simpson Air Force Union" Cut to a large room with tables and chairs set up around it. A large archway leads to what appears to be a small cafeteria. We see Tommy sitting at one table a stack of books next to him. He is jotting notes down on a pad in front of him while idly munching from a plate of french fries. Scott comes up to the table, puts his backpack on one of the chairs and sits down opening a bottle of orange juice)

TOMMY: (looking up) Yo, Scott. How are classes going?

SCOTT: Over for the day, thank God. How is it that having less classes on a daily basis exhausts me more than having seven or eight classes one right after the other?

TOMMY: Dumb luck? (smirks) Seriously, it's probably because you have to dash back and forth across a campus that's crammed up against the foothills of a mountain range all day.

SCOTT: Damn near vertical Air Force Bases. (looks at the pile of books) Please tell me that these aren't all for one class.

TOMMY: You're partially right. Six of them are for my Engieneering bit while the others are for Aeronautic Design.

SCOTT: Oh huzzah.

TOMMY: Hey, at least you got to take Aeronautic Design too.

SCOTT: Can I help it if Stephen King is a bigger draw than P.G Wodehouse? Anyways, it's not like I don't have my own schedule problems.

TOMMY: What do you mean?

SCOTT: My Mechanics class apparently doesn't exist. I waited in the classroom for twenty minutes and no one showed up. No professor, no other students, nothing.

TOMMY: Are you sure you were in the right room?

SCOTT: I checked a couple of other classrooms and none of them were the right class. I even checked other permutations of the room number just in case it was a typo. No luck.

TOMMY: That's so whack.

SCOTT: Yeah. If the class has been cancelled, I'm out three credit hours and that's going to violate my scholarship agreement.

TOMMY: You said you don't have anymore classes today, right?

SCOTT: Yeah. Why?

TOMMY: You should go talk to Colonel Carter. She'll probably be able to tell you what happened and get you into a class to replace the credit hours.

SCOTT: (sighs) I guess I gotta. There's nothing else for it.

TOMMY: Come on, what's the worst that could happen?

(Cut to Scott sitting outside an office. The name on the door reads "Colonel's Headquarters." From inside the office, we can hear what sounds like the colonel herself yelling at someone)

SCOTT: (to the audience) My Rule of Air Force Life #2: No other member of the faculty is more terrifying than your colonel when angry. Not the general, not the lieutenant general, not even the lieutenant colonel. The main reason being that your colonel has the authority to yell at you if they don't agree with your class choices for the semester, and if you want to change classes for any reason, they automatically assume that it's because you're either a) a slacker or b) an idiot.

COLNEL CARTER: (OS) ...I don't care if you're the General's oldest son! Aeroanutic Design is required...do you hear me? RE-QUI-RED!

(We now hear a very familiar voice answering her--)

WAYNE: (OS) I knew that, Colonel C.

COLONEL CARTER: That's colonel CARTER to you, Wayne. If you can't get that right, then get the hell out of my office!

WAYNE: Oh my God!

COLONEL CARTER: Sit down, Wayne. You're not going anywhere until we get your schedule organized!

WAYNE: But you just said I could go...

(Scott groans and rubs his temples)

SCOTT: (to the audience again) Case in point. Colonel Ann Carter. She's only in her early 40s and divorced with 2 daughters, according to her offical bio in the Air Force Base Who's Who, but she has already managed to cultivate a personality that combines the rampant feminism of my High School Art teacher with the near psychosis and low tolerance for intellectual midgets of my High School History teacher.

COLONEL CARTER: NO! HOW MANY DAMN TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU?! "WEIGHT TRAINING" IS NOT THE SAME AS "LITERARY GIANTS!"

SCOTT: (to the audience yet again) I'm doomed.

(The door opens and Wayne comes out with his usual dumb grin)

WAYNE: Thanks, Colonel Carter! Hope that headache goes away soon!

COLONEL CARTER: OUT! JUST GET OUT!

(Wayne turns to go and spots Scott waiting outside the office)

WAYNE: Yo, Scott! You going in next?

COLONEL CARTER: (OS) I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT, WAYNE! AND TAKE YOUR FRIEND OUT THERE WITH YOU!

SCOTT: (to the audience once again) Forget doomed. I'm dead.

WAYNE: I think Lieutenant Scott Tracy might wanna speak to you, Colonel Carter.

SCOTT: Yo, Wayne, I talked to your bro Stuart on my way up here, he said that your dad wanted to speak to you. It started ten minutes ago.

WAYNE: Holy crap! I gotta go! Dad's gonna kill me! Thanks, Scott! (rushes out)

SCOTT: And so the lemming rushes to the sea.

COLONEL CARTER: (from behind Scott) No, that would be insulting lemmings everywhere.

(Scott turns to see Colonel Ann Carter standing behind him. She is actually quite short, about 5'6" tall. She is in her early 40s with shoulder length red hair and blue eyes and dressed in a female version of an Air Force colonel's uniform. She seems much calmer than before)

COLONEL CARTER: I thought I told him to take you with him.

SCOTT: Um...I'm not his friend. My dad is--

COLONEL CARTER: --His father's best friend. My condolences. (holds out a hand) Colonel Ann Carter.

SCOTT: (shaking her hand) Scott Tracy.

COLONEL CARTER: Come on in.

(They enter the office. It looks like your standard colonel's headquarters. Overflowing bookshelves, binders, stacks of papers. Scott sits in front of the desk while Colonel Carter takes her seat behind the desk)

COLONEL CARTER: So, what can I do for you, Lieutenant Tracy?

SCOTT: I showed up for my Stunt Flying class and no one else did including the instructor.

COLONEL CARTER: Holy crap (punches up some information on the computer) What's the class number?

SCOTT: (reaching into her pocket for the class schedule) CW002-3817.

COLONEL CARTER: (entering the information) Ah..ha. I see...

SCOTT: What?

COLONEL CARTER: Instructor Campbell decided it wasn't worth his time. The class was canceled this morning.

SCOTT: This morning?

COLONEL CARTER: It doesn't happen often but it does happen...especially when Campbell thinks he's got something better to do. I'm just surprised there wasn't a notice on the door.

SCOTT: Notice?

COLONEL CARTER: It what usually happens when a class gets canceled at the last minute.

SCOTT: (slumping down in embarassment) I guess I didn't see it.

COLONEL CARTER: (looking up) Something wrong?

SCOTT: Yeah...just feeling a little--

COLONEL CARTER: (smirking) Stupid?

SCOTT: Yeah.

COLONEL CARTER: Don't. I've been here for nearly 11 years and I see about 50 lieutenants every year who get caught out by that.

SCOTT: Oh.

COLONEL CARTER: Let's bring up your records here...(clickety click) Here we go. (beat) Hmmm.

SCOTT: What?

COLONEL CARTER: You've got a really impressive academic record, Lieutenant Tracy, considering you graduated from Oxford University in England.

SCOTT: (frowning slightly) Right.

COLONL CARTER: Don't take that the wrong way. I've got a cousin who went there and I'm amazed whenever anyone gets out of there with even a modicum of sanity and intellect intact. (looks again) And with a scholarship to boot.

SCOTT: Yeah, that's the problem, Colonel Carter. If my Stunt Flying class is cancelled, I'm three credit hours short for my scholarship requirements this semester.

COLONEL CARTER: Well, we don't want that. Let's see... (clickety click) Nothing really available in the Engineering Department that wouldn't be a waste of your time...Have you ever taken an Aeronautic Design course?

SCOTT: Okally dokally.

COLONEL CARTER: You won't have to. There's an Intro to Aeronautic Design that has some openings. Mostly the history of aeronautic designing, some jet design analysis. In fact, you can get in on it today. It starts at 2:00pm. I'll give you an Add/Drop card for Instructor Ferguson to sign and you'll be set.

SCOTT: Well, that sounds...okay.

COLONEL CARTER: (smirking again) Trust me, I have a feeling it'll grow on you.

SCOTT: Like a fungus?

COLONEL CARTER: Exactly.

(Both give small subdued laughs)