Episode 11

This week’s episode begins in the basement of Tandy Hall. NINO has met LARRY there to go over a few steps.

LARRY - Thanks for meeting me bruh.

NINO - No problem. You know I had to make sure the neos had the technique down.

LARRY - True indeed.

NINO - So what do you need for me to show you?

LARRY - Well the thing is, I pick up steps real quick...

NINO - Yeah I noticed.

LARRY -...so I just need to know what order I should start to put things together for the step show at homecoming. Like what should we start off with? Cold and cocky or something?

NINO - Oh hell no!

LARRY - Ok, that is why I am glad that you are here. I wouldn’t know what to start with.

NINO - Let me break it down for you. Steps like cold and cocky are yard steps. Steps like uh...confusion, they are show steps. You really don’t want to mix the two because yard steps look whack as hell in a stepshow and show steps get stolen by other greeks on the yard.

LARRY - Wow, step theft!

NINO - Oh it happens. Ha ha ha!

LARRY - Ok, well that makes sense. So I need to stick to show steps?

NINO - Right. Like remember this one that I was showing you before?

(NINO starts to do a step to show LARRY.)

LARRY - Whoa whoa man! I don’t want you jumping up and down and getting your chest all worked up.

NINO laughing - Man, I am fine. Yall been treating me like I am a little old lady or something.

LARRY - You heard what the doctor said.

NINO - Yeah and I know how I feel too. I feel fine. Watch.

(NINO starts jumping around frantically to prove his point. He even does a flip.)

LARRY - Damn Nino, I am more nervous than you! Ha ha ha ha.

NINO - I told you to calm down. I just did all that and I flipped and I am not even out of breath. I feel great. It is good to work up a sweat every now and then.

LARRY - If you say so.

NINO - Say bruh, follow this step real quick.

LARRY - Ok go ahead.

NINO - Start on your left foot, and move like this.

(NINO begins to step and LARRY follows.)

NINO - Now you spin around but its on the delay.

LARRY - Oh ok. A small pause. Do that again.

(NINO does it again.)

NINO - Now once you come back around, the beat is duh dah, duh dah, dah, clap clap.

Larry - Duh dah, duh dah, dah, clap clap...ok... duh dah, duh dah, dah, clap clap. Got it.

NINO - Ok now do it with me full speed. Ready?

LARRY - Ready.

NINO - A...phi...oh...six!

(NINO and LARRY do the step, the spin and the ending.)

NINO - Say there bruh, you do pick up quick. You are nuttin’ nice.

LARRY - But I aint even on your level bruh.

NINO - Whatever! Ha ha ha ha ha!

(The door leading to the basement opens and JASON and REGGIE come through.)

JASON - What’s up bros.

LARRY - What’s up man.

REGGIE - What’s up sands?

NINO - Aint too much bruh. How you?

(NINO and REGGIE grip each other.)

REGGIE - I am chilling but what are you doing here?

NINO - I came through to help out but now that I am here, I need to talk to you guys so I am glad that we are all here.

LARRY - Cool, what’s up man?

NINO -Yall know how important stepping is as a tradition in this chapter. And I know you all know that I love to step and represent!

JASON - Yeah, we know that. You be gettin’ busy dude.

NINO - Well unless you are inside me, you really don’t understand what it feels like. To me...to me, stepping is much more than just learning a routine and doing it. I perform when I step. I love Alpha and I try my best to choreograph the tightest routines to bring the competition to its knees.

LARRY - I hear it.

NINO - But more important than the competition of stepping, stepping has become a part of my life. I never thought I would understand when an athlete retires and then brings his old ass back on the field to play another year. But now I think I know.

JASON thinks - That’s kind of deep.

NINO - Stepping is an expression for me and I am not a quiet person. In other words, this is my voice and I can’t keep it shut.

REGGIE - What are you saying sands?

(silence.)

NINO - Bros, I am way to young to call it quits. I have to step with yall.

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Our scenes change and we find ALEXIS who is in the Ahpla Univeristy bookstore.

ALEXIS thinks - Damn, I hate the fact that the price of books nowadays is more than the price of education!

(ALEXIS looks down the aisle for the textbook she is looking for.)

ALEXIS - Uh...I guess this is it. Damn this book is big!

(ALEXIS grabs the book and begins to page through it. She notices out of the corner of her eye that a guy has walked into the aisle looking for books also. ALEXIS looks to see who it is.)

ALEXIS thinks - Oh no!

(ALEXIS quickly turns her back so the guy won’t see that it is her. She slowly tries to walk in the other direction.)

RONNIE - Alexis?

(ALEXIS stops and turns around.)

ALEXIS thinks - Damn!

ALEXIS - Hello Ronnie, I didn’t see you standing there.

RONNIE - Hi, how are you doing?

ALEXIS - I am fine.

(silence.)

ALEXIS - How are you Ronnie?

RONNIE - I’m ok.

(silence.)

RONNIE - This seems so awkward Alexis and we used to be cooler than this.

ALEXIS - Yeah.

RONNIE - Alexis, I am sorry for the way things went down. I never meant to hurt you, I started off trying to help. Not even hating.

ALEXIS - Uh huh.

RONNIE - I am serious Alexis. You are a nice girl and you deserve to be treated with respect. That is all I was trying to do. I never meant for things to turn sour between us. If I would have known that that was going to happen, I would have minded my business.

ALEXIS - I appreciate you trying to help me Ronnie. No doubt. But I question your motives. If you are helping me to not see me get dogged out, then fine. But if you are doing it as some sick attempt to beat Bobby at some game...well I aint no chess piece.

RONNIE - Naw, like I said, that’s not it at all. And now that the smoke has cleared and the situation is not as hot, maybe you can see me for who I really am. Now that all the confusion from Bobby is in the past.

(Neither ALEXIS nor RONNIE noticed someone kneeling down listening just one aisle over.)

TRINA thinks - Oh this is perfect! Just perfect! Hee hee.

(TRINA walks crouched over toward the exit.)

TRINA thinks - This is gonna be a beautiful set up! I love it!

(TRINA walks upright and walks out quickly trying not to be noticed. Once she gets outside, she jogs across the street and enters the nearest building on campus. She heads straight for the pay phone and dials.)

QUINTON’s ANSWERING MACHINE - This is Quinton, I am not...

TRINA thinks - Dammit!

QUINTON’s ANSWERING MACHINE - ...but if you leave...Hello? Hello?

TRINA - Quinton?

QUINTON - Hold on.

(QUINTON turns off his answering machine.)

QUINTON - Ok hello.

TRINA - Hi Quinton, this is Trina.

QUINTON - Hi Trina, what’s going on?

TRINA - I’m just hanging out. Listen, I was wondering if you were busy this weekend.

QUINTON - I don’t think so. What’s up?

TRINA - Well I got some tickets to a show but I am not going to be able to go, me and Bobby will be busy. So I was wondering if you wanted them.

QUINTON - Well what kind of show is it?

TRINA - Mary J. Blige.

QUINTON - What? Sure! I would love to see her, she is the bomb!

TRINA - Good. Well I got two tickets. Maybe you can take Alexis as a surprise.

QUINTON - Right! That is a great idea! I will ask Alexis out and not tell her the details.

TRINA - That would be real nice. She should like that and really be surprised.

QUINTON - Hey Trina, thanks a lot! I appreciate it!

TRINA - My pleasure. I will call you later and tell you how you can pick up the tickets from me ok?

QUINTON - Cool, thanks again!

TRINA - Ok honey. Talk to you later.

QUINTON - Bye.

(TRINA hangs up, waits a second and dials again.)

BOBBY - Hello?

TRINA smiling - Hi baby.

BOBBY - Hey.

TRINA smiling - You busy?

BOBBY - No, what’s up with you?

TRINA smiling - Baby, I was just in the bookstore and you will never guess who I saw.

BOBBY - Who?

TRINA smiling - Alexis.

BOBBY thinks - Alexis! My baby!

BOBBY - Oh yeah, what is so unbelievable about that?

TRINA smiling - The unbelievable part is that I overheard a conversation that she was having with Ronnie.

BOBBY thinks - What!

TRINA smiling - Baby, it is a good thing you broke up with her. Seems as if she was cheating on you with Ronnie while you were cheating on her with me.

BOBBY - What!

(BOBBY’s heart drops.)

TRINA smiling - I guess it was just karma. It was best for you two to break up.

BOBBY - Are you sure about that?

TRINA smiling - Positive. I heard them talking with my own ears.

BOBBY - Well I’ll be dammed. I guess what goes around comes around huh?

BOBBY thinks - Oh shit!

TRINA smiling - I guess. So things happened the way that they did for a reason.

BOBBY - Yeah I guess.

TRINA smiling - Well I just wanted to tell you that. I will call you later or I might just come over.

BOBBY - Ok.

(BOBBY feels tears coming.)

TRINA smiling - I love you baby.

BOBBY - I love you too.

(TRINA hangs up, waits a second and dials again.)

AGENT - Ticketmaster, how may I help you?

TRINA - Hi, I am calling to see if you have any more tickets to the Mary J. Blige concert.

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We rejoin JUNE and DERRICK on the yard who were just joined by CARYN.

CARYN - Well if you never slept with anyone but June, how the hell did I get pregnant with your baby?

(DERRICK drops his head back and laughs loud and slow. Very cocky and sarcastically.)

DERRICK laughing - I don’t believe this bullshit.

(DERRICK turns to face CARYN.)

DERRICK - Look Apri...uh...I mean Caryn...

(JUNE hears DERRICK and turns her attention from CARYN’s stomach to him.)

JUNE - Nigga what? What did you say? Oh I see how you rolling! I’m out!

(JUNE quickly gets up and begins to walk away.)

DERRICK - June wait! Wait!

CARYN - Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

(JUNE walks away and doesn’t turn back.)

JUNE thinks - He had April on the brain while he was just talking to me about fixing things with us! Now he screwed around with Caryn? What the hell? I knew it! Why was I so stupid all along! I should’ve followed my own istinct from the beginning! I knew that nigga was cheating!

(JUNE continues to walk quickly as she approaches the dorm.)

JUNE thinks - Damn, I have been a fool! He got some chick pregnant!

(JUNE knocks on the door and OCTAVIA opens it.)

OCTAVIA - Hey spec!

JUNE - Hi!

(JUNE walks in.)

OCTAVIA - What’s the matter?

JUNE - I just found out that it is true, Derrick has been cheating on me. All this time.

OCTAVIA - What! Are you ok?

JUNE - Yeah, I’m cool. But this answers a lot of questions for me. Things that I have wondered about regarding Derrick now make much more sense.

OCTAVIA - Wow!

JUNE - But there is one thing that I am not sure about and I am not sure how to handle this situation.

OCTAVIA - What’s that?

JUNE - I need to find out exactly what happened between April and Derrick. I never asked and I have been skating around the issue. Every time I see April, I want to ask her. On line I wanted to kick her ass.

(OCTAVIA laughs.)

JUNE - But now I need to know for my own sanity.

OCTAVIA - Ok.

JUNE - But being that I am a neophyte and April is my prophyte, I don’t know how to approach her on something like that. You know what I mean?

OCTAVIA - I know exactly what you are saying. But you can’t let that deter you. Yes she is older in AKA then you are. But you need to talk to her on some ol’ woman to woman stuff. Leave AKA at the door for a minute and get down to business. The business of finding out what happened with your man.

JUNE - You think it will go over well?

OCTAVIA - I don’t know. It may go over bad. But the point is, it can’t go over until you mke the first step and step to her like a woman.

JUNE - You’re right spec. Thank you!

(JUNE and OCTAVIA hug and JUNE is on her way again.)

JUNE thinks - I am going to get to the bottom of this shit right now!

(JUNE quickly gets to the Ivy Tower and gets up to PJ and APRIL’s room.)

PJ - Hey line sister.

JUNE - Hi Peej. What’s going on?

PJ - Nothing how are you?

JUNE - I’m ok. I am looking for April. Is she here?

PJ - No, she isn’t. I thinks she is over in Katrice’s room.

JUNE - Ok, I will call you later and fill you in on what’s going on. I have to get to Katrice’s room fast!

PJ - Huh? Wait!

(Before PJ can protest, JUNE has disappeared down the hall.)