Daily Dialogue — May 16, 2013
Girl Student #1: I’m telling you, this new guy is supposed to be a total psycho. I heard he broke another kid’s neck at his last school.
Girl Student #2: Then he got kicked off the football team for pulling a knife on a coach.
Girl Student #1: And all the coach did was grab him and the guy goes nuts.
Girl Student #3: And this guy is supposed to be coming to our school?
Girl Student #1: Today.
Preppy Guy #1: After he broke that kid’s neck they tried to throw him in jail. The judge let him off.
Preppy Guy #2: This guy ought to be locked up.
Nerd #1: Did you hear what he did at Lincoln? They were supposed to be dissecting these pregnant sandsharks, but he refused to do it. Said sharks were his favorite animal.
Nerd #2: Great a psychotic shark-lover.
Nerd #1: So the teacher grabs him by the arm and tries to take him down to the office. Thing is the teacher didn’t know the guy was a touch-freak.
Nerd #3: Touch-freak?
Nerd #1: Yeah, he doesn’t like to be touched by anybody. He put the teacher in the hospital for three days.
Nerd #2: Just because he touched him? This guy is definitely on tilt.
Punk #1: That’s not even the whole story. After he duked the science teacher, they send the dude into continuation. And on the first day there he got into a fight with the three baddest dudes. Seriously totaled their asses — at the same time.
Punk #2: Have you heard about his brass knuckles?
Punk #3 : Dude has brass knuckles?
Punk #1: Yeah, always carries them with him and and uses them on special occassions.
Jock #1: Serious?
Jock #2: Totally serious. He’s also got this thing about being touched.
Jock #3: I heard he one time broke a guy’s neck just because he touched him.
Jock #1: Just because he touched him?
Jock #2: He just decided he didn’t like to be touched.
Jock #1: That’s completely weird.
Jock #4: Does this guy play football?
Jock #2: No.
Jock #4: Good.
Jock #1: He used to though. Remember the story about the guy who pulled a knife on his coach?
Jock #2: Yeah.
Jock #1: That’s him.
Jock #2: Jesus.
Brei: He was at continuation and he even took a swing at one of his teachers. And these guys aren’t your average history types. They’re like ex-cops or something. In fact, I heard the carry guns.
Jerry: He came here from continuation?
Brei: Uh-huh. That’s why they call it continuation. So you can continue murdering people and still graduate.
Jerry: What’s this guy’s name anyway?
— Three O’Clock High (1987), written by Richard Christian Matheson and Thomas Szollosi
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is recounting a legend, courtesy of alexmatu. Today’s suggestion by Tavis Sarmento.
Trivia: Steven Spielberg was the executive producer, but he asked to have his name removed from the credits.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Tavis: “If you need to give exposition, do it in an interesting way. All this dialogue is to set up the villain — he’s not just some tough badass high school kid — he’s the BADDEST. Notice what is repeated (being touched) and what is pointed out (brass knuckles). Hmmm…foreshadowing? And notice how the scene ends with a question from the hero about the villain. Already these characters are being “introduced” to each other and we’re not even five minutes in.”