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
Rebecca Winters
Charlotte Montague
Christine Danse
Dan Danko, Tom Mason, Barry Gott
Evie Knight
Pamela Beason
Raymond Henri
Thomas Gifford
Mandy Rosko
Rachel Hauck