Untitled currently
Characters:
Roe: A shy girl, her best friend betrays her. She is very kind.
Cal: Roe's best friend since kindergarten. He is very into sports. He is very understanding.
Emma: Roe's best friend, until she posts mean stuff about Roe online. She is very sly and is a good liar.
Nell: One of Roe's new friends. She is kind of awkward
Tara: One of Roe's new friends. She is very warm and almost motherlike
Kailee: One of Roe's new friends. She is the jokester of the three new friends.
Roe's Mom: Mom like. Very strict, also very understanding
Roe's Dad: Father like. Warm and nice, but strict
Ms. Schmidt: Roe's teacher, can double as Roe's Mom too.
The curtain rises on a classroom with class in session. Roe and Emma are paired at a desk. All students are paired; Ms. Schmidt is pantomiming a lecture. Lights on Roe and Emma as they talk.
Emma: C'mon do it! Seriously Calvin will to-tally say yeah!
Roe: I can't do it! Me and Cal have been friends forever! It would be too weird, and I've never asked a guy out! I'm not about to break that streak now!
Emma: Roe (She puts her hands on Roe's shoulders and is about face with her.) Do you like him? Like really, really like him?
Roe: I do, a lot.
Emma: Well if you do, then for god sakes! Just do it!
Roe: Well h-how do I do it then?! I'm so awkward! It'll be awkward and then he'll think I'm awkward! And then everything between us will be...so awk—
Emma (Cutting her off) Awkward, I get it! Just do it!
Roe: Hoooooooow?
Emma: What do you mean?!
Roe: How do I—I mean what if I—how do I—how do I go about the business of asking him to the dance, and such?
Emma: Just say "He Cal, I know we've been, like best friends since kindergarten, but since this year I totally got the hots for you. So let's be totally awesome and go to the dance and suck face!" It works every time Roe!
(Roe bursts out laughing; Ms. Schmidt turns to her and Emma)
Ms. Schmidt: Now ladies, this is the third time this week! If I have to ask you to be quiet again, I am going to separate you two!
(Ms. Schmidt goes back to being silent and pantomiming)
Roe: (Feeling courageous) I think….I'll do it!
Emma: When?! I want to be there!
Roe: No! No no no no! Too embarrassing! I have to be alone!
Emma: No, you weirdo, I'm going to be off in the distance. I'm not just going to stand there like, like some basket case! I'm going to be off in the distance and use my cat-like hearing to listen!
Roe: Ummm, fine. But you can't laugh!
Emma: I'm not going to laugh! So when are you going to do it?!
Roe: Well, I guess I'll do it after class as he's leaving.
(Bell rings and everybody starts packing up and leaving. Roe is fear struck and stands frozen)
Emma: No! No no no! You go now!
Roe: (Pleading) Ok! I know what I said, but I will! I'll do it some other time!
Emma: No you won't. Cal! Come here real fast!
Roe: (still frozen) Emma, don't, please don't!
Calvin: (Making his way over to the pair) Hey Roe! Hey Em! What's up? Whoa, what's up with Roe? She looks like she saw a ghost, or she's struggling to keep down lunch.
Emma: I believe Roe has something to say to you!
Roe: Uh, No I don't! Nope! Nothing at all!
Emma: Yeah you do, now talk! (Emma runs off to her desk, and is obviously listening to their conversation)
Cal: So, what's going on Roe? Is everything ok?
Roe: Yeah, everything's alright! I just—(Trying to change the subject) we haven't talked in a while.
Cal: Yeah, I've been really busy lately. But hey, me and you should hang out this weekend!
Roe: Yeah that would be great. (Sees Emma gesturing for her to do it already) But, that's not what I came to talk about. I, uh, was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance on Saturday with me?
Cal: (Pause) sure, why not? I need someone to go with anyway.
Roe: Okay! Good! Well, I'll see you on Saturday, I need to get to Chem., and I know you and Emma gotta get to lunch. See you!
(Cal walks off, Emma runs up to Roe)
Roe: Oh my god! He said yes! Oh my god, oh my god!
Emma: I knew he would!
Roe: (Laughs) how'd you know?!
Emma: Me and him sit together every day at lunch! He's been gabbing on since September about how much he likes you!
Roe: Really?! He likes me, like for sure?!
Emma: For sure, sister! Let me just say, Saturday will be the night of your lives! Well I gotta go talk to Cal, have fun in Chem.!
(Emma and Roe rush off in different directions, Lights go down. When they come back up they are on Cal and Emma eating lunch)
Emma: It was so nice of you to say you'll go to the dance with Roe.
Cal: It sounds like fun, me and Roe having a dance battle, eating awesome food with you before, all of us making fun of the cheesy formal ware. Sounds like a blast! I think we definitely should have Mexican, mmmm; I could go for a burrito right about now.
Emma: You don't get it do you?
Cal: Get what?
Emma: Why do you think Roe asked you?
Cal: Cause she wanted to go and she thought she would look stupid without a date. And I am definitely the coolest, most handsome, most awesome, most beautiful off all of her dude friends.
Emma: (Sighs) No! She likes you, a lot. She told me she wanted to, and I quote, "Suck face with Cal".
Cal: No, Me and Roe…There is nothing…I hope she doesn't think that we are—
Emma: She said Saturday was going to be the night of your lives. She has been creepily obsessed with you this year.
Cal: I just thought she was upset or something. She has been really clingy since last May. I never thought it was because she liked me!
Emma: She said, again I quote "I don't like him! I LOVE HIM!"
Cal: I need to tell her that I can't go with her. I don't want it to be awkward between us. I don't want her to be hurt though, and I don't want it to be awkward around us.
(Pause)
Emma: I know, why don't you message me what you want to say to Roe, say it as you were saying it to me, and I'll give it to her!
Cal: I don't know, it seems a little rude. I can just do it myself.
Emma: No! She will be utterly embarrassed! Please, trust me; it's easier for her this way.
Ben: Fine, I'll message you. Tell her I said sorry and that I don't feel the same.
Emma: Okay ,tomorrow I promise she will be off of your back.
(Lights down, come back on Emma and Cal on stage right and left in the center. Pantomiming computer use, "Messaging back and forth)
Emma: So what do you want to say to her?
Cal: Emma I don't know if this is right. I should just tell her.
Emma: No! This is much better for her, she will be less embarrassed. That's what you wanted right?
Cal: Fine. Hey Em, I don't think this going to the dance with Roe is going to work out. We're just friends; I think it would be weird if we were anything more. Tell her: I think she's awesome, and that I am sorry I don't feel the same.
Emma: Ok I'll send it to her.
Cal: Thanks Emma, you're a life saver! (Cal exits.)
Emma: But, not before some editing.
(Lights go down; they come back on the class room. Again Ms. Schmidt is pantomiming)
Roe: Hey Emma, do you want to see a picture of the dress I bought for the dance? I still can't believe Cal said yes! I think Saturday I'm going to—
Emma: Roe, about you going to the dance with Cal…Well he sent me this. (Emma hands Roe a paper with Cal's "Message" on it. Roe reads it aloud)
Roe: "Em, I think it's too weird to go with Roe. I thought I liked her, but I was wrong. I like you. I think I love you. Roe is so weird, I could never like her, and I don't even want to be her friend. See you Saturday." What? He sent you this?
Emma: Yeah, I thought it was pretty cold.
Roe: Emma, you're not—you aren't going with him on Saturday are you?
Emma: I am. I really liked him to Roe, I let you have him, I cried the whole time at lunch. He comforted me, I told him, and he said he felt the same. He didn't know how to tell you, so he asked me to.
Roe: (Tears in her eyes) it's okay, I was stupid to think it could work, me and Him…
(Cal sets his stuff down on the table and sits by Emma)
Cal: Hey Em! Hey Roe. Em did you give her the—
Roe: Yeah, she did. You're right it would be awkward (She picks up her stuff, wiping tears from her eyes. She starts to storm off.)
Cal: Roe wait! Come back!
Roe: No! Leave me alone!
Cal: What's wrong?!
Emma: I showed her the message, she flipped out.
Cal: Let me see it, the message.
Emma: She has it.
Cal: What did she say when you showed her?
Emma: She said something about how I was betraying her, and how you obviously are secretly in love with me.
Cal: Do you think I should talk to her?
Emma: No, it'll be fine. I'll talk to her.
(Lights go down and come up on Roe sitting and crying; Emma walks in.)
Roe: Go away! I don't want to see you or Cal.
Emma: Roe, I haven't done anything wrong!
Roe: You haven't done anything wrong?! I told you I liked him, so you went after him! I don't believe that he said all that! He's too nice.
Emma: How dare you say that! I didn't go after him! A true lady wouldn't go after her best friend's crush. If anyone should be mad it's me! You went after him! You should have payed more attention to me and you would know!
Roe: Oh no, no, no don't you DARE turn this on me! You knew I liked him, and I pay more attention to you than anyone else! I know you, and you do this just to spite me! You know what? You did the same thing to Alice!
Emma: Why would you bring up Alice?! What she did was her own fault!
Roe: Oh, her fault? I'm so sure. You practically added fuel to the fire! Oh and if you're a true lady, well then God Save the Queen!
(Roe storms off)
Emma: Roe! Roe! Don't you dare storm off! (To herself) Fine, if a battle is what she wants, then a battle she will have. I will make her life a living hell.
(Lights go down; they come back to a classroom, a study hall. Kailee, Nell, and Tara are sitting at a table together. Calvin and Emma are sitting together and Emma is crying. Roe walks in; she doesn't know where to sit. She decides on an empty table where she can sit alone.)
Roe: I don't need them, I can make new friends. Maybe this time I'll choose right.
(Emma "cries" loudly into Calvin's shoulder, and Roe rolls her eyes and mutters something along the lines of "overly dramatic".)
Emma: Go talk to her! Yell at her!
Calvin: I'm not going to yell at her, she's my friend too.
Emma: Cal, she hates us now! She hates us both! And she blames me for everything!
Calvin: She just needs time, you'll see.
Emma: You didn't even hear what she said to me!
Calvin: What did she say? (Emma whispers into his ear, and his eyes widened.) Why would she say that?! That's so unlike her, what's the matter with her.
Emma: I don't know, she seems so sweet and innocent, but you get her angry and she just doesn't handle it the way normal people do!
Calvin: I'm going to go talk to her. (Calvin crosses to Roe) Emma told me what you said to her earlier, and I am surprised at you. Why would you even say that? It's not like you! You, you're sweet and kind. But now you're full of hatred and petty vengeance!
Roe: Petty vengeance?! What on earth did she tell you?
Calvin: She told me about how you blamed something your friend Alice did on her! Oh and how you tried turning everything on her!
Roe: I knew it! She was lying about everything! And you believed her!
Calvin: Yeah, sure, whatever you need to tell yourself.
Roe: Do you even know what happened to Alice?!
Calvin: Didn't she move away?
Roe: No, Emma bu—
Calvin: There you go again! You know what?! I'm done! I'm not going to even try to level with you. Anything I say won't get through you thick skull.
Roe: Cal, Alice—
Calvin: I'm done! (Calvin storms back to Emma, and Roe starts to cry again. On Emma's face there is satisfaction. Calvin and Emma leave along with a few other students)
Nell: Hey, uh Roe?
Roe: Yeah?
Kailee: We didn't mean to overhear, but we overheard.
Roe: Everybody did.
Nell: Well, um do you want to sit with us?
Roe: Uh.
Tara: Well, we knew you and Emma and Calvin were really good friends. And we all figured why not be a friend to one who needs it now?
Roe: Thanks (She sits with them)
Kailee: We all know that Emma's horrible.
Nell: Yeah, she's cocky and arrogant.
Tara: Oh don't forget she's crazy.
(They all laugh)
Kailee: Hey Roe, I know this is a bad time, but you really need to see this.
Roe: What is it?
Tara: Somebody made a page about you on an anonymous blog. (Pause) It's not good.
Roe: What?!
Nell: We reported it. But it's still not off.
Roe: Let me see!
(Lights go down and come up on people standing in center stage. They are the "messages" on the blog)
Emma: You should hear all the mean things she said to me! She is not who she seems.
Student 1: I always thought there was something weird about her!
Student 2: Yeah! But I never expected she would say all of that!
Student 3: Who knew she could be so vulgar?!
Student 1: I don't see why she doesn't move away!
Student 2: Yeah, nobody here likes her!
Emma: Me and Calvin were her only friends. But she blew that!
Student 3: She should just kill herself; rid the world of one less stupid person.
Student 1: Agreed
Student 2: Same here. Roe, if you're reading I triple dog dare you to do it!
Emma: I agree, one less person to create drama.
(Lights back on Nell, Tara, Kailee and Roe.)
Kailee: Roe? Are you ok?
Tara: I know it's horrible, you should report this to the principle.
Nell: But we don't know who created it!
Roe: It's pretty obvious.
(Lights down and back on to Calvin who is studying in a different room, Roe walks in)
Roe: This is what happened to Alice. (She throws a piece of paper onto the table in front of Calvin)
Calvin: This is an obituary.
Roe: Exactly. Last May, me and Emma's good friend Alice killed herself. Emma was bullying her. She did the same thing to her as she is doing to me. I liked you and to make me angry and miserable. She did the same to a guy. Remember how she dated Shane last year? The night before she called me and said Emma was ruining her life. Emma posted something horrible online, everyone made fun of her. She killed herself the next morning. Emma killed her, and she is doing the same to me. Does this get everything I said through your thick skull?
Calvin: Roe, I'm sorry. This all started because I thought you might like me, and Emma took it too far. I never knew about Alice. I'm sorry I wouldn't listen.
Roe: Correction: LIKED. Not anymore. You know, she posted stuff about me online too.
Calvin: What did she say?
Roe: All the lies she fed you. You know what else other people are saying? They are telling me to kill myself.
Cal: I had no idea.
Roe: I'm so sure. (Roe storms off)
(Lights go down on the stage, they come back up on with Roe in bed, she doesn't look well, and she is jumpy and paranoid and all around scared. Her Parents are in her room with her. She is in bed, crying.)
Mom: C'mon Roe, you need to go to school, it'll be fine. Nobody's going to make fun of you unless you give them a reason.
Dad: Roe get up, now!
Roe: No.
Mom: Roe, if you're not sick you need to go! Are you sick? I can make an appointment with your doctor!
Roe: No.
Dad: Roe, you need to go. I'm not calling you in, and you'll be truant!
Roe: No.
Mom: Rosemarie Lynn! Get your butt out of bed, and get ready for school! I'm not joking! Get up right now!
Roe: Mom! You don't understand! I can't!
Dad: Why not?
Roe: Everyone's making fun of me!
Mom: Because you getting upset like this gives them a reason to! They see they're getting a rise out of you, so they keep doing it! If you just ignore them they'll stop!
Roe: No they won't!
Mom: You know, I was a teenager too, once. I know how they act, and I know that if you ignore them, they'll go away!
Roe: You don't understand!
Mom: Yes I do!
Dad: Get up, Roe; I'm not messing around anymore.
Mom: Roe! Now!
Dad: Roe, right now!
(Chaos breaks out, Roe's mom and Dad are screaming relentlessly at her. When Roe finally screams)
Roe: Emma posted horrible stuff about me online! They're all lies too! She made up everything! Now tons of people hate me and they tell me to kill myself! Now I exactly how Alice feels!
(Roe's Mom whispers into her Dad's ear. They have a "silent" conversation and come to a consensus. )
Mom: I think we should talk about this.
Roe: No, I'm humiliated. Everybody believes Emma. I can never show my face at school again.
Mom: You have to go back sometime, Honey.
Dad: You can't hide forever, your fears will control your life, and you'll live in constant fear.
Mom: I'm going to call your principle and make sure this page is taken down, and that Emma gets some form of punishment.
Dad: If you want to talk, you can talk to us anytime, you know that.
Mom: We'll be down stairs.
(Lights go down and Come back on Roe lying down and her mom comes in)
Mom: Roe it's been a whole week. I think you should go back.
Roe: I-I can't
(Lights go down and Come back, same as before, with Roe and her Mom)
Mom: C'mon Roe, you're falling behind, it's been nearly three weeks. This is the last day you're staying home! Monday, you're going back. If anyone is harassing you go straight to the guidance counselor.
Roe: Mom, please, I—
Mom: No, I, your Father, your Therapist, and the counselor said it's best for you to go back on Monday. But I know what'll cheer you up!
Roe: What?
Mom: Calvin came to see you. He's down stairs!
Roe: I don't want to see him!
Mom: I know what happened between you two, and you should talk it out.
Roe: No, I hate him!
Mom: You don't hate him, you're mad; you guys have been best friends since kindergarten. Work it out.
Roe: I don't want to see him!
(Roe's Mom exits and then a pause before Calvin comes and sits on the side of Roe's bed. Roe doesn't seem so angry or scared anymore)
Calvin: Roe, I know you're really mad at me but—
Roe: I really to talk to you though.
Calvin: Really?
Roe: I miss having someone to talk to. You're the only one who doesn't hate me anymore.
Calvin: Nobody hates you.
Roe: Did you see the page?
Calvin: Everyone who posted on that page got in serious trouble, not just with school, with the police too.
Roe: Really?
Calvin: Emma got suspended for a while, but she's back now.
Roe: I'm going back on Monday.
Calvin: Aren't you scared?
Roe: Not really, multiple therapy sessions and talks with my parents got me ready for this. I learned not to care what people think of me, and I don't anymore. I know I'm not a bad person, and everybody else does, who cares? What they think is a lie. I know me the best, and nobody is going to change me.
Calvin: That's the spirit! Who cares? Not me!
(They laugh, and then pause.)
Roe: I'm actually kind of excited to go back now.
Calvin: Why's that?
Roe: Because I got lonely. It's like when you go on winter vacation and by the end you want to just get to school.
Cal: Ha, I guess it's kinda like that. I'm just excited you're coming back!
Roe: Yeah
Cal: I really missed you Roe.
Roe: I really missed you too.
Calvin: You have no idea. I thought I was never going to see you again, I thought you were going to—(He begins to start to cry a little) I thought what happened to Alice, I thought you we're going to—
Roe: I know what you're trying to say, and honestly, I did think about it. But then I realized, I'm not going to throw away my life because of one girl's ignorance.
Calvin: Thank god, I thought about you every day, there isn't a moment you didn't cross my mind.
Roe: Wow, I didn't think you cared that much.
Calvin: I was miserable without you.
Roe: Really?
Calvin: Really. (They kiss) I'm glad you're coming back.
(Lights go down and come back, Roe is hand in hand with Calvin, and they are walking down the hallway.)
Kailee: Hey, you're back!
Tara: Welcome back!
Nell: We thought you transferred schools!
Roe: Nope, just took a little break, that's it.
Tara: Well, we're glad your back.
Roe: Hey guys, I was thinking, we should all hang out after school or something!
Tara: Yeah!
Nell: Sounds fun!
Kailee: I'm free whenever!
Roe: Well, I gotta go talk to Ms. Schmidt and see what I missed.
(They all say goodbye, Roe and Calvin walk and they bump into Emma)
Emma: Roe! Hi…
Roe: Hi.
Emma: I just want to say, I am so sorry for everything I did, I am a terrible friend. I know what I did was wrong. Can you ever forgive me?
Roe: I forgive you.
Emma: Friends?
Roe: No, I forgive you, I can't forget this. You ruined my life, and a good friend doesn't do that. I lost one bad friend, but in doing that I gained 3 new ones. I know they're good ones to, because in the worst of it, they stuck by me.
(Curtain falls.)