Read Online An Education by Nick Hornby - Free Book Online

worry!

40 INTERIOR: DANNY’S FLAT - DAY
    DAVID and DANNY still waiting.
    DAVID
    Come on!

41 INTERIOR: HELEN’S BEDROOM - DAY
    HELEN
    We’re nearly ready! Be there in two ticks.

42 INTERIOR: DANNY’S FLAT - DAY
    DAVID
    How can they only be nearly ready?
     
    DANNY
    I wouldn’t be surprised if three of them came out of there. That’s the only explantion. They’re making themselves a friend. LADIES! Come on, let’s go.

43 INTERIOR: HELEN’S BEDROOM - DAY
    JENNY is wearing a floaty print dress that she has borrowed from HELEN , and there are lots of other beautiful clothes strewn about the place. JENNY is sitting at the dressing table, being made up by HELEN. JENNY looks three or four years older, more sophisticated . . . more like HELEN . She can’t believe it. She looks in the mirror, and for a moment, she forgets to breathe.
    HELEN
    There.You should keep that one if you want it. One can only wear so many every day.
    JENNY emerges from her reverie.
    JENNY
    ( thrilled )
    Thank you.
     
    HELEN
    What about tonight? Have you got a pretty enough nightie?
     
    JENNY
    Won’t I be sharing a room with you?
    HELEN looks momentarily mystified.
    HELEN
    Oh, you haven’t slept with him yet?
     
    JENNY
    No.
     
    HELEN
    Good for you.
     
    JENNY
    Really? Do you think so?
    HELEN
    You’re only sixteen. And you don’t want to get preggers, do you?
     
    JENNY
    No. I wouldn’t let that happen. I want to wait until I’m seventeen. On my seventeenth birthday, hopefully.
     
    HELEN
    With David?
    JENNY pauses.
    JENNY
    Well . . . Golly. It will be with David, won’t it?
     
    HELEN
    If that’s what you want. Anyway. I’ll find you a nightie.
    JENNY stares at herself in the mirror again.

44 INTERIOR: DANNY’S FLAT - DAY
    The girls emerge. Both men are entranced by JENNY’S transformation. DAVID can’t take his eyes off her.
    DANNY
    ( thoughtful )
    Shall, we, ah . . . Make a move?
    He gets to his feet.

45 INTERIOR/EXTERIOR: DAVID’S CAR/ COUNTRY ROAD - DAY
    The Bristol on the country road to Oxford.We can hear voices in the car singing a reprise of ‘Wrapped around Your Little Finger’.

46 INTERIOR/EXTERIOR: DAVID’S CAR , OXFORD - DAY
    The Bristol drives through Oxford. JENNY catches a quick glimpse of a dreaming spire.
    JENNY
    Can we get out and have a look around?
     
    DAVID
    Maybe later. There are a couple of things we have to do.
     
    DANNY
    Imagine spending three years here.
     
    HELEN
    I know.
    She shudders, as if someone has walked over her grave.

47 INTERIOR: PUB - EVENING
    HELEN and DANNY, JENNY and DAVID are standing in a quiet, old-fashioned pub. A group of students enter, all carrying musical instruments.They stand at the bar, waiting to be served. JENNY stares at them with longing - she wants to be one of them. HELEN, meanwhile, stares at them as if they were aliens.
    HELEN
    ( sotto voce )
    Why are university girls so strange-looking?
    HELEN’S right.The girls in the group are all bespectacled and frumpy.The others laugh.
    They can’t all have started off that way, can they? I mean most girls aren’t ugly, but most girl students seem to be. So there must be something about these places that makes you fat, or spotty, or short-sighted.
     
    DAVID
    Well, if you look at it like that . . . I mean, that’s proper scientific analysis. And you can’t argue with science.
    HELEN looks pleased.
    HELEN
    I still don’t quite understand what you want to do when you get here.
    JENNY
    I want to read English.
     
    HELEN
    Books?
     
    JENNY
    Sorry?
     
    HELEN
    You want to read English books ?
     
    JENNY
    Reading English is just another way of saying . . .
     
    DANNY
    Don’t worry, Jenny.You’re wasting your breath.
     
    DAVID
    Tomorrow we’ll get more of a feel for the place.
     
    DANNY
    Absolutely. This would be a good place to do a little business.
    DAVID catches JENNY’S eye.This isn’t what he meant by ‘getting a feel for the place’.
    All those little old ladies wandering around . . . This place is rife with