Episode 47

This week’s episode begins with NINO who is walking across the Ahpla yard.

NINO thinks - I need to get over to The Plot and order a crossing shirt for my spec Jason. Maybe I should run there real quick.

(NINO looks up at the clock tower to check the time.)

NINO thinks - I got some time. Let me run there now.

(NINO quickly turns around because he hears his name called from across the yard.)

RONNIE laughing - Yo Nino! Tell your boy to watch his back! Ha ha ha ha ha!

NINO - Whatever nigga! Aint nobody trippin’ off you!

RONNIE - Hope he don’t leave his girl laying around! She might get snatched up!

(NINO turns around and continues to walk, not paying attention to RONNIE who is laughing in the background.)

NINO thinks - That nigga Bobby needs to tighten up his game! This shit is ridiculous!

(NINO turns again when he hears his name once more. This time, he hears it much softer.)

TRINA - Hey Nino.

NINO thinks - Good grief!

NINO - Trina, what’s up babe?

TRINA - Nothing. How you been? I haven’t seen you in a while.

NINO - Aint too much. What about you?

TRINA - Maintaining. Has your boy told you the good news.

NINO thinks - Oh brother.

NINO - Well I’m glad that he did because if he hadn’t you would’ve.

TRINA - Ha ha ha ha ha. I know you too are cool so I knew he would tell you.

NINO - Are you happy? Are congratulations in order?

TRINA - Oh very. I just want Bobby and me to be happy together.

NINO thinks - Yeah right!

NINO - Well congratulations then.

TRINA - Thank you sweetie. Seems as if this bug is going around too.

NINO - Huh? What are you talking about?

TRINA - This is between me and you. I know I shouldn’t be telling you this. But if I don’t let this out, I am going to explode.

NINO - What?

TRINA - I’m telling you this because this involves your boy too.

NINO - Bobby again?

TRINA - No Gregg.

NINO - Gregg? What about him?

TRINA - Seems as if a little Alpha won’t be the only addition to Ahpla’s campus.

NINO - What?

TRINA - Gregg is having a baby! With Caryn!

NINO - What! You are bullshitting!

TRINA - No man, it’s true. I heard it from the horse’s mouth.

NINO - Oh shit!

NINO thinks - How is he gonna explain that to Shareesa?

TRINA - Promise you won’t say anything.

(NINO is just staring with a blank look on his face.)

TRINA - Nino! Promise you won’t say anything!

NINO - Huh? Oh yeah, ok.

TRINA - Cool. I am so excited! I’m about to go see Bobby so I will talk to you later ok? Take care.

NINO - Uh...yeah Trina. You too.

(TRINA walks away and NINO is still standing there.)

NINO thinks - I don’t believe this shit! How do these stupid negroes get themselves into these situations?

(NINO continues to walk across the yard.)

NINO thinks - Good, The Plot isn’t crowded at all. Damn, what the hell is Gregg gonna do? I wonder if he knows yet?

(NINO enters.)

EMPLOYEE - One minute sir, I will be right with you.

NINO - Thank you. Take your time.

(NINO casually looks around the store.)

NINO thinks - Oh this AKA jacket is phat! I wonder whose it is. Spring two thousand.

EMPLOYEE - Yes sir, how can I help you?

NINO - Firstly, whose jacket is this? It is very nice.

EMPLOYEE - Yes it is. It belongs to a young lady by the name of Mona Ferguson.

NINO - That’s nice.

NINO thinks - That must be the name of one of the two Ivies on line that I don’t know. I remember PJ. I’ll call Max and ask her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our next scene finds us with BOBBY and ALEXIS. She has come by his room to talk about the status of their relationship.

BOBBY - Look, I know you would not have come over here if you were not at least willing to work this out with me. I want to keep my relationship with you Alexis. Like I said, I love you. Do you want to work this out with me too? Do you want to be my girl again?

BOBBY thinks - There is no way she is going to say no.

ALEXIS - No.

BOBBY - Huh?

ALEXIS - I don’t want to be your girl again Bobby unless some changes are made in this relationship.

BOBBY thinks - Whew!

BOBBY - I am willing to do whatever you want. Whatever you need baby.

ALEXIS - First of all, I want you to lose your pager.

BOBBY - What?

ALEXIS - That is the way that bitch gets in contact with you and I don’t want her to have that kind of access to you.

(BOBBY takes his pager off of his belt and tosses it on the bed.)

BOBBY - Consider it done. What else.

ALEXIS thinks - Wow that was easy.

ALEXIS - Secondly, I want to know where you are every minute of every day.

BOBBY - Ok cool. I will even give you a daily itinerary. You will know what classes I have, what buildings I am in, whatever you want.

ALEXIS thinks - Damn!

BOBBY thinks - Damn I’m good.

ALEXIS - You are willing to do all that to get back with me?

BOBBY - Wait just a second.

(BOBBY opens the door of his closet and pulls out a white posterboard.)

BOBBY - I was working on something before you got here. I was going to bring it over but you surprised me.

ALEXIS - What in the world is that?

BOBBY - I designed a bar graph with my intentions to get back with you.

ALEXIS - You did what?

BOBBY - Yeah, look here. See, this first bar represents our relationship.

ALEXIS - Are you serious?

(ALEXIS starts to laugh.)

BOBBY thinks - I’m getting back in!

BOBBY - I’m very serious. It’s good to see you smile again.

(pause)

BOBBY - So, this first bar represents our relationship. It was on the incline until I bottomed out, as you can see here with this drop in production.

ALEXIS - You certainly did.

BOBBY - Uh...yeah. As you can see here, future projections are looking up. I see a definite rise in market value and an increase in stock.

ALEXIS - Oh my goodness.

BOBBY - Experts are forecasting a very good return on emotional investment with low risk of crash or failure.

ALEXIS thinks - He must have gone through a lot of trouble to do this!

BOBBY thinks - She probably thinks I went through a lot of trouble to do this.

BOBBY - If you notice this pie chart...

(BOBBY turns the poster over and there is a pie chart on the back.)

ALEXIS - My gosh.

BOBBY thinks - I know she thinks I worked on this for a week! Thank goodness I had this laying around.

BOBBY - ...it clearly shows the potential for continuous growth in a future stable relationship.

(ALEXIS laughs.)

BOBBY - That concludes today’s presentation. I would like to now entertain questions from the audience.

(ALEXIS raises her hand. BOBBY pretends as if he is looking all over the room amongst the many people raising their hands to ask questions. ALEXIS giggles.)

BOBBY - I recognize the beautiful lady in the front row. Yes maam, state your name clearly and your question.

ALEXIS - Yes, my name is Sexy Lexi and my question is as to whether or not I can kiss the presenter.

(BOBBY smiles.)

BOBBY thinks - Ok, it is a fact! I am the fucking man!

BOBBY - The lady’s question from the front row was whether or not she could kiss the presenter. I normally don’t make those types of provisions, but in this case, I am definitely sure an exception can be made.

(ALEXIS smiles.)

BOBBY - Would the lady from the front row care to stand up?

(ALEXIS stands up. There is a knock on the door. ALEXIS sits back down.)

BOBBY - I will be right back.

(BOBBY puts the poster down and walks to the door. He looks through the peephole and bangs his head on the door because he sees TRINA standing there.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We jump back into OCTAVIA’s room where APRIL has just come in and told IVY PRESJINA that GREGG asked about her.

SHAREESA - What did you say April?

(IVY PRESJINA jumps back into the Ivy stance and looks straight ahead. OCTAVIA looks at APRIL like she is crazy. APRIL smiles.)

IVY PRESJINA thinks - Oh my God!

APRIL - Oh I was just mentioning that Gregg asked about PJ. You know Gregg...the Kappa. Oh Shareesa, you know him, that is your boyfriend right? I had almost forgotten. Are you guys still together?

(SHAREESA and OCTAVIA both look at APRIL stunned. They look over at IVY PRESJINA and then back at APRIL.)

OCTAVIA - Um...Uh...

(There is another knock on the door and the door opens. In comes SYLVIA and MAX who are followed by IVY JUNE and IVY KATRICE. The Ivies quickly join IVY PRESJINA and get ready to greet the Sorors.)

IVIES - A...K...A...Greetings Big Sist...

MAX - Stop. Pledge faces off. Sit down. We have a situation here and we need everyone’s attention.

(Everyone begins to look for places to sit. SHAREESA just stands there.)

MAX - Shareesa are you joining us?

SHAREESA - No I gotta go. I am sure you guys are capable to handle whatever is going on. I will catch up with yall later on.

SYLVIA - All right. Bye Soror.

SHAREESA - Bye Sorors, bye Ivies.

(SHAREESA turns to leave. She turns back around and gives a very harsh look at IVY PRESJINA. SHAREESA walks out and closes the door behind her.)

MAX - Ok everyone. We have a serious situation that has arisen that we need to discuss. I am sure you are all aware of who Mona Ferguson is.

APRIL - Oh God no!

MAX - She has come back and has been forcefully added to the intake process for this year. We have no choice but to cross her with the three of you.

PJ - What!

OCTAVIA - What the hell happened at the meeting?

APRIL - Yeah how can this be?

SYLVIA - Let me break down the story because I am sure the Ivies don’t know what is going on right now.

APRIL - I don’t believe this shit!

SYLVIA - We as a chapter voted down Mona because of her attitude toward the organization. She has extreme disrespect for Alpha Kappa Alpha and for all of us.

JUNE thinks - She does? What did she do?

SYLVIA - But as you all know, Mona’s mother is a Soror and a founder of this chapter. So mommy Ferguson wasn’t hearing that.

MAX - She made sure she used all the influence she had at her disposal to allow Mona entrance into our chapter this year.

PJ - Madame Dean, can they do that kind of stuff?

MAX - People with power can do whatever they want PJ. I am trying to teach you all that line is a synopsis of life. Works the same way in the real world. After this pledge process, you will be prepared to deal with whatever life throws your way.

SYLVIA - So Mona has to cross into Alpha Kappa Alpha with you three.

JUNE thinks - I still don’t see what she did wrong but I aint saying nothing.

KATRICE - Madame Dean, does that mean Mona will have to pledge with us now?

MAX - Hell no.

SYLVIA - If we put her through what yall are going through, she would probably run home and tell her mommy.

MAX - Besides, I am not going to disrespect your precious process with the likes of her.

PJ thinks - What the hell else can happen to me?

APRIL - There is no way we can legally rebuke this?

SYLVIA - Soror Ferguson has Soror Bergen in her back pocket. She really makes the decisions here and I could tell just by the tone of the meeting that Soror Ferguson was really the one who was in charge. Bergen was doing everything that Soror Ferguson told her to do. I was pissed.

(PJ drops her head.)

MAX - So there’s nothing more we can do.

PJ screams - Aaaaaaaaaahh!

(Everyone is startled by PJ’s scream and they jump back. PJ jumps up and grabs the phone and throws it against the wall. The phone crashes and falls to the floor.)

OCTAVIA - My phone!

(PJ runs to the door and opens it.)

MAX - PJ wait!

(PJ runs out and slams the door behind her. Everyone is shocked. KATRICE jumps up to follow PJ but by the time she makes it to the door, PJ is gone.)

PJ thinks - God! I gotta put a stop to this right now!

(PJ has run to the stairs and run down five flights. She enters the floor and runs directly to her friend JAHANNA’s room. She bangs on the door.)

JAHANNA - PJ? What’s wrong? What’s up?

PJ - Jahanna, you want to be an AKA next year right?

JAHANNA - Well...uh...yeah.

PJ - Ok, I need to use your phone right now and I need you to leave. Now!

JAHANNA - Oh ok...um...sure. Whatever you want.

(JAHANNA steps into the hall and PJ goes into the room.)

JAHANNA - PJ if you need anyting else just...

(slam)

PJ - Where the hell is the phone!

(PJ sees the phone, grabs it and quickly dials.)

SOROR FERGUSON - Hello?