Belief (Part 2)

Jo: I’ve got your tea.

Jo’s mother: That bloody father of yours! Honestly, he thinks me wearing a low-cut top counts as flirting.

Jo’s father: (OOV.) It is when she’s flaunting them in front of my supervisor!

Jo’s mother: At least I wasn’t dipping my hand down some trainee’s shirt!

Jo’s father: Don’t go telling our daughter slander, woman!

Jo’s mother: I’m not the hypocrite here!

Jo: (yells.) Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

Jo: (shouts.) Stop trying to tail me into your petty arguments. Can’t you just let it drop and get over it? The only reason you are getting so frustrated is because you love each other. Can’t you focus on the fact that you love each other?

Jo: Oh and here’s your tea!

Merlin: (OOV.) Hey Jo.

Merlin: Have you read Ode to Autumn?

Jo: I didn’t know you were into poetry!

Merlin: Keats is one of my favourites. His poetry is like . . . like a storybook or a painting.

Jo: (smiles.) His imagery is simply amazing. You get such a wonderful view of different things. It’s almost spectacular in a way.

Merlin: Creative writing is just remarkable. So many different images and messages can be projected in such an intelligent way.

Jo: It’s something that can be taken in any way by anyone.

Leena: (OOV) (squeals) Jo! This is an emergency!

Leena: Look baby cakes, nothing is working. I’ve tried so many different things. In fact, so many, I can’t even remember them all. I’m sure I’ve spent most of what I earn in a month over the past week!

Leena: (very dramatically.) That’s it! I . . . will have to go lesbian at this rate!

Jo: Stop it Leena!

Jo: Don’t you see? Don’t you get it? The reason he doesn’t notice you is because you keep changing your image! You look fickle.

Leena: Fickle?

Jo: Yes: fickle! Don’t you think you’ll look better if you just stay as yourself? It’s so much better to be loved for who you are than for someone that you’re not.

Leena: So I shouldn’t do what I’ve been doing?

Jo: Exactly.

Leena: Thank God. Another bout of this and I would’ve lost my entire wages for the month.

Merlin: (OOV) Now that was good.

Merlin: It takes guts to say something like that.

Jo: I had had enough really. I mean, I had to believe that I could help her in order to (pauses) help her.

Merlin: It’s a quality (hesitates) well (pauses) I like it in a person.

Jo: Yeah?

Merlin: Yeah.

Harriet: (OOV) We need to talk Jo.

Harriet: Well? Come on! We can’t be seen together.

Harriet: I think my Biology homework is more important than you scoring. So (long pause) where’s my homework?

Harriet: I’m waiting!

Jo: (murmur) I didn’t do it.

Harriet: You what?

Jo: I didn’t do it.

Harriet: What?!

Jo: I (pause) didn’t (pause) do (pause) it. Want me to write it down for you?

Harriet: You bitch! We had a deal, remember? You were supposed to do my homework!

Jo: We didn’t have a deal. You forced me to do your homework. You forced me to make it good but not too good, making sure that it was good enough to do really well in. Guess what? I’m not doing it anymore.

Harriet: You can’t . . .

Jo: (interrupts.) Hey, shut up! You’ve got to do your own homework. You can’t rely on other people to do it all of the time. If you were really that fussed about getting into Oxford, you’d do your own bloody work instead of getting other people to do it.

Jo: Why don’t you get started?

Jo: Oh and here’s your textbook to help.

Jo: Make a start. You have a few hours before period 4.

Jo: Ok that’s three problems down: one more to go.

Jo: Would it be rude to go over to him?

Merlin: Would it be rude to go over to her?

Jo: Nah, he wouldn’t want to go on a date with me!

Merlin: Just look at her! She’s just so simple.

Jo: But I have to have belief in myself. I mean, wasn’t that what I was told last night?

Merlin: Self-belief. Self esteem. Self-confidence. It’s not that hard, surely?

Jo: What am I going to do?

Merlin: What is going to happen next?

Jo: Is this going to work?

Merlin: Or will it frail and falter?

Jo: Does he feel the same?

Merlin: Does she understand?

Jo: Do you want to be with me?