CAST:

NARRATOR: ME
JAY: George
JUNIOR: Omarion
NOAH: Felix
BOY 1: Sean
Police: john
JOEY:
TEACHER: gemma
BOY 2:

THE SYSTEM

SCENE ONE: INT. CAFÉ

SOUND: CAFÉ NOISES

NARRATOR: The system has the lower class of London in a

chokehold, it is an involuntary succession in which the
people find themselves falling slave to. And for most
There’s only one way out.

JAY: What’s that?

NARRATOR: Crime jay

MUSIC: INTRO MUSIC PLAYS MUSIC PLAYS THEN

FADES INTO MUSIC COMING FROM A CAR
AND THE CAR DRIVES UP TO JAY

SOUND: SCHOOL NOISES AND JAY AND HIS FRIEND

NOAH TALKING

NOAH: Who’s that?

BOY 1: Oi jay come here quick

JAY: One sec Noah, what are you doing? I said not to come
to My school man.

BOY 1: You owe us, don’t you? So, I don’t wanna hear
complaints. I’ve got sum for you to drop with my boy
then he’s going to talk you through what to do from
there. Here’s the address, go straight there.

JAY: I told you that last time was it and I was done. I just
wanted some quick money.
 BOY 1: Don’t work like that jay, you want to make it out of
Golborne don’t you?

DON’T YOU?

JAY: Yeah

BOY 1: So you’ll do what I tell you ok?

JAY: ok

SOUND: CAR DRIVES OFF MUSIC GETS FAINT

NOAH: Jay who was that? Jay? Jay tell me that wasn’t the
Kensington lot… why jay? You know I’m from
Fulham, do you know what they’d Do to me if they
found out where I live? What they’d make you do?

JAY: Look you know how much I hate the estate and anyway
You don’t get involved with any of that though

NOAH: It doesn’t matter

JAY: They won’t find out ok? Look I got you ok? You’re my
best mate I wouldn’t let anything happen to you

NOAH: Ok but be careful. You coming for dinner? Mums made

pasta.

JAY: Course but I gotta go drop this first.

NOAH: Mhm okay

SCENE 2: JAYS HOUSE

SOUNDS UNLOCKING DOOR CARS AND POLICE IN

BACK

JUNIOR(FAR AWAY): is that you son?

JAY: yeah, it’s just me

SOUNDS CLOSE DOOR AND KITCHEN NOISES

JUNIOR(CLOSER):your home late boy

JAY: I went for dinner at Noah’s

JUNIOR: phone next time

JAY: I’ve run out of calls

JUNIOR: ah I see, well you could’ve used their landline.

JAY: I didn’t think dad sorry

JUNIOR: next time

JAY: next time

JUNIOR: so, you isn’t hungry then boy?

JAY: don’t worry dad you have the last bit of pasta.

JUNIOR: ah thanks son I’m starving.

SOUND PHONE RINGS

JAY: I’m gonna head to bed

JUNIOR: oh, um ok

JAY: night

JUNIOR: goodnight

SOUND BEDROOM DOOR AND JAY ANSWERS PHONE

JAY: hello?

BOY 1: got another job for you jay

JAY: yeah?

BOY 1: meet me tomorrow on the corner

JAY: ive got school

BOY 1: and? Be there

JAY: ok

SOUND HANGS UP, PUTS HEADPHONES IN MUSIC

PLAYS AND IT TRANSITIONS TO HIM
WALKING DOWN A BUSY ROAD THEN HE
TAKES HIS HEADPHONES OUT

SCENE 3: ON THE CORNER

BOY 1: yo

JAY: you alright

SOUND PLASTIC BAG SOUNDS

BOY 1: right I need this sold by tomorrow

JAY: but-

BOY 1: jay don’t mess me around. Take it

JAY: ok ok

SOUND SCHOOL BELL

TEACHER: your late jay

JAY(MUMBLE): mhm

TEACER: erm jay! Back here now. (sniff) what’s that smell jay?
Right I think you should come with me.

JAY: what? What why?

TEACHER: your being searched jay

SOUND PHONE RINING

SCENE 4: JUNIOR AT HOME

JUNIOR: hello who’s this?

TEACHER: this the deputy head at grove secondary, is this jays’

father?

JUNIOR: yes speaking

TEACHER: well I’m sorry to inform you but there’s been an

incident?

JUNIOR: is my boy ok?

TEACHER: jay is ok however we conducted a search and found

majuawana on him.

JUNIOR: every boy his age has tried weed come on

TEACHER: sir, I don’t think you understand the severity of the

situation, he had enough to classify as supplying.
JUNIOR: my jay? No not my boy. Jays a well behaved, polite
young man. Yeah, he’s been distant recently, but… but
I just thought it was a phase.

TEACHER: im sorry but we have no choice but to call the

authorities.

JUNIOR: please just let me talk to him, don’t call the police

TEACHER: sir I really shouldn’t-

JUNIOR: im begging you

TEACHER: ok this is what im going to do, jay has until Monday to

inform both us and the authorities who supplied him
with the drugs and we will let him off with a warning
and suspension only.

JUNIOR: oh thank you, thank you so much. I’ll pick him up now.

SCENE 5: DRIVING IN CAR

SOUND CAR DRIVING, CAR DOOR OPENS

JUNIOR: what was you thinking boy

SOUND DOOR CLOSING

JAY: I’m sorry da-

JUNIOR: I don’t know you anymore jay, I don’t recognize the

boy sat next to me no more.

SOUND CAR DRIVING OFF

JUNIOR: (sigh) so why jay? Look I’m going to hear you out.
Why? Is it to impress your classmates? Or what?

JAY: I just-

JUNIOR: what son?

JAY: I hate the estate ok? I just thought… I just wanted to get
us out of there.

JUNIOR: there’s other ways

JAY: I’m fifteen with next to no education, no qualifications
dad. I’m going nowhere don’t you understand? don’t
you think I’ve tried?

JUNIOR: I understand son

JAY: no, you don’t

JUNIOR: yeah (slight laugh) I do

JAY: no, da-

JUNIOR: (angrier now) I UNDERSTAND OK?

JAY: what do you mean?

JUNIOR: why do you think we are here jay, it’s a cycle, you and
me we are the same.

JAY: what?

JUNIOR: you was bound to find out some day,

look when I was your age I lived on an estate up in
Enfield, it weren’t pretty let me tell you that ok. My
mum had taken us over from Ghana, my dad had to stay
behind, I never saw him again. It was the only place she
could find with the money she had. We had next to
nothing. My mum worked day in day out in a minimum
wage job just to put food on our plate, afford books and
uniform for school, most days she wouldn’t eat herself.
It was fine when I was young, I was happy, I didn’t
know what poor or rich looked like did i? I had a best
friend too… joey. Joey was with me all through primary
and secondary, like your Noah. It was secondary that
did it though. A lot of the kids were like me, immigrant
kids with no past n no future, living in one-bedroom
flats with there families. There was rich folk mixed in
with us though from the nice end of Enfield. I never
spoke to any of them however.

SCENE 6 FLASHBACK

SOUND SCHOOL BELL RING

MUSIC STARTS PLAYING

SOUND BUSTLE OF CHILDREN

JUNIOR: joey wait up

JOEY: you alright junior, coming to mine tonight?

JUNIOR: course

JOEY: louis invited me to his party in maths he has a new pool

in his garden.

JUNIOR: that sounds sick when is it?

JOEY: ah junior mate I’m sorry but its just the Hadley wood lot
going, he only invited me because are mums are friends.
I can ask for you though?

JUNIOR: nah its cool

SCENE 7 BACK IN THE CAR

JUNIOR: joey wasn’t rich by any means, his mum and dad
worked hard but he didn’t quite grasp what it was like
not knowing whether there would be food in the fridge
when you got home. It wasn’t his fault, in no way did he
think he was above me, hell I don’t think he even
realised we where different in anyway. He’d come to
the flat and play with my brothers and he was never
hesitant about eating whatever my mum could find in
the freezer. He never made any comments. I thought the
mould on the walls or the smell of the house was
obvious, it seemed as though he never even noticed. He
was good to me. It was about that time I begun to see
the clear line between rich and poor and it wasn’t soon
after that that I realised I was well below that line. I
became insecure, ashamed. I stopped inviting joey
round and I would walk the long way home dreading
stepping foot on the estate.

SOUND MUSIC PLAYING FROM A SPEAKER AND A

GROUP OF BOYS CHATTING
JUNIOR: my mum always warned me to stay away from the boys
on our block that would sit on an old sofa under the
stairwell and lean on the bins. I was old enough to
figure out their deal, I could smell what they were
smoking and sometimes If I was out late enough id see
them stuff a bag into a stranger’s hand in exchange for
some cash. Id keep my head down whilst walking past,
they knew I lived on the top floor so they’d never say
anything. On of them was in year eleven at my school
and sometimes he’d even say hello to me. It gave me a
rush of excitement every time, a sense of importance.

BOY 2: yo, junior right? Top floor?

JUNIOR: yeah

BOY 2: just know me and my boys here got you, if you ever
have any trouble you tell us ok? N if you need any
money we can find a job for you.

JUNIOR: the feeling that gave me, I felt unstoppable, protected. I

thought a lot about his offer that night. As I stared down
at my rice that I had re-heated from the night before I
made the lifechanging decision. The wrong decision.

BOY 2: we will start you of small, you can drop this over in
Edmonton for me ok?

JUNIOR: got it

JUNIOR: it didn’t take long for me to work my way up. The boys
seemed to take to me and as my jobs begun to get
bigger it wasn’t long before they respected me too. I
had found boys just like me, all trying to make it up and
out. I stopped talking to joey so much. He knew what
was going on but he didn’t know how far it had got. He
didn’t like what was going on nevertheless, he tried to
warn me. My new so-called brothers started to turn me
against everyone, joey especially, saying how he’s been
talking about me and boys from his area are no good. It
wasn’t long before I got taken along to the run ins. I
knew the gang killed but I hadn’t seen it and so it hadn’t
become real yet. The first time I will never forget. It
was a boy who had left. It was dark, we ran up behind
him and one of the boys shot him there and then in the
back of the head. I still remember that piercing scream
and the echo of the gun, it rings in my ears every day.
From there on I wanted out, alas I had dug my hole to
deep, I couldn’t climb out. It was too late. I had just
seen what happens when you try leave. I hated myself
for it but I became de-sensitised to death, I had too. But
jay what you don’t understand, all it takes is one day.
One night and your life’s over.

BOY 2: your doing well junior, youv brought in more money

than anyone on the block this month. Your on your way
to standing up here alongside me. Theres one thing
though.

JUNIOR: yeah?

BOY 2: your friend. You know joey. He aint your friend

JUNIOR: what? What do you mean

BOY 2: look hes not from round here. And ive had word that
hes started doing jobs for people round his way. He aint
your friend. He never has a nice word to say about you
junior. Look hes got to go

JUNIOR: what? What are you saying.

BOY 2: you know what im saying. This wont end well. Its him
or you, im just trying to protect you. He will come for
you.

JUNIOR: of course, he was lying. My joey wouldnt hurt a fly but

the new life i was leading had screwed with my sanity,
it was to late, those words had dug there way into my
brain and laid there bed. I hated the idea of loosing all i
had earnt and in the moment it seemed scarier than
losing those i loved. And so after school the next day i
followed joey home. His house was a long way from
school so It was getting dark, one of the boys had given
me a gun and strict instructions. And son i beg of you
dont think of me as heartless because trust me i felt the
pain of what i was about to do in not only my heart but
deep down in my soul. However i truely believed it was
my life or his, and everyday i hate my cowardly self for
picking mine.
SOUND SOUND OF CARS IN THE BACK AND OMINOUS
MUSIC STARTS PLAYING, SOUND OF JUNIOR
WALKING

JUNIOR: we got to the bottom of the concrete stairwell.

Joey paused. As did i. Then he turned around and i saw
both are lived there infront of me, our lives we lived
together, our lives we grew up in together.

JOEY: junior? (slight laugh) what are you doing here? I aint
seen you in forever how you been? You coming up for
dinner?

JUNIOR: i begun to cry

JUNIOR: i- im so so sorry, you know your my best mate yeah?

and , and i love you ok

JOEY: what (nervous laugh) what are you on about junior? Just
come upstairs man.

JUNIOR: i cant joey im sorry, i have to

JOEY: you have to what?

JUNIOR: they said…

JOEY: who said what junior?

JUNIOR: im sorry

SOUND GUNSHOT

JUNIOR: i had shot my best freind, the one peron who understood
me, never judged me. I ran and i didnt stop. I ran all
night, i had no idea where i was going. I couldn't go
home, i just left. And when the sun came up the next
morning i couldnt go to school, not without him. Thats
when i realised, by ending his life i had ended mine too.
I couldnt live with this intense guilt living inside of me.
I knew i couldnt. I considered taking my own life. I
deserved it. But i knew thats not what joey would have
wanted and so that morning i found my nearest police
station and i confessed. They told me joey had infact
died and i was sent to prison for manslaughter. Prison
however was the first right step i had made in my whole
life however. I joined a program which meant i had a
chance of life when i got out, they helped me separate
myself from the gang and gave me somewhat of an
education. When i did get out i made a living for myself
the right way. I know its not much jay, but im proud of
what ive earnt for myself, what ive earnt the right way.
This system jay its a cycle ok? This system. Its trapped
me and now its got you too but please, your trying to
break out the wrong way, the cycle will catch up, it
always does. You have to get out in an honest way.
Everyday i live with the guilt of what ive done. I cant
loose you jay. Hear what im saying boy.

JAY: dad i didnt know, im so sorry.

JUNIOR: i beg of you don’t make the mistakes i did.

JAY: i-

SOUND PHONE RINGS

JAY: hello?

BOY 1: your friend Noah. You didn’t tell me he was fro-

Hangs up
JAY: dad I need your help, I’ve got to get out

The end