This Gang of Mine

This Gang of Mine Written by Reef Cole

reefcole.95@gmail.com

7

INT. LEWIS DINING ROOM - AFTERNOON LOUIS Let's start a gang!

Louis stands behind a table in a very clean dining room. A table stands against a wall with no table cloth and chairs on both sides. A window brings natural light above the table.

DAVID SHUE (17), casually dressed, sits at the table with a can of soda while Louis stands across from him. David frowns, reluctantly looking at him.

DAVID What? No. LOUIS David, come on! This is a great money-making idea.

DAVID Louis, this is probably the worst bad idea that you have ever come up with.

LOUIS When have I ever had a bad idea?

DAVID You got fired because you tried to steal your boss's car.

LOUIS Okay, yeah. I'll admit that was pretty bad, but I've had great ideas.

DAVID Like the time you tried to steal money from a fundraiser taking place at the police station?

LOUIS Hey! I would have gotten away with it if my mother wasn't there.

DAVID And there was that one time when you stole an old man's glass eye.

LOUIS That one shouldn't even count. Even (MORE)

8 LOUIS (CONT'D) he was impressed with that.

David nods and reluctantly agrees with him.

LOUIS (CONT'D) Look, I know I've made some bad calls before, but I'm telling you this one is going to work.

Louis takes out a duffel bag and puts it on the table, which knocks off David's soda.

David stares at it for a few seconds in discomfort.

DAVID Louis. What is that?

LOUIS This is our ticket to big money.

Louis opens the duffel bag and reveals piles of money, smaller bags of marijuana, and some narcotics that take up space within.

David looks at them for a few seconds and then stumbles out of his chair.

DAVID Louis! Your mother is a cop! Why the fuck do you have this in you're house?

LOUIS David. Language. And this is how we're going to make the big bucks.

David looks at him in disbelief.

DAVID So selling illegal drugs is how you're going to make money?

LOUIS No, no, no. That's too easy. We're going to start a gang. Which includes selling illegal drugs to make money.

DAVID Unbelievable. What do you mean "we're" going to start a gang?

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LOUIS Us. Every gang has to start somewhere.

DAVID So just me and you? Selling drugs on the street? That's your plan?

LOUIS No, at school. And it's not just you and me. We have others who are going to help, too.

DAVID Who? Louis looks MOSES and a Louis

looks over in a direction away from the table. David in the same direction and sees Louis's little brother LEWIS (7) and his friend TED (7) playing with toy cars toy police car. David looks back and forth between and the children in doubt.

DAVID (CONT'D) There's no way that you're little brother and his friend can be a part of this.

LOUIS What do you mean? Of course they can. Hey Moses!

Moses stops what he's doing and looks at Louis.

MOSES Yeah?

LOUIS Do you and your friend want to play cops and robbers and help your big brother start a gang?

MOSES Yeah!

TED Yeah!

LOUIS Awesome! So what I want you two to do is to take this and sell it to your friends' parents at school.

Louis takes a bag of marijuana and tosses it to Moses, who

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catches it.

MOSES Okay, Dookie!

Louis winces at the nickname, but deals with it.

LOUIS Alright, Moses!

TED It smells like my parents room!

Moses and Ted leave the room with the bag of marijuana.

Louis brings his attention back to David with a smug look on his face.

LOUIS See. They can totally work with us.

David looks at him in disbelief.

LOUIS (CONT'D) Hey, they'll be fine. Marijuana is actually legal in some states.

Yeah, for activity. to happen with this

DAVID medical uses. Not gang You do know what's going if the school catches you right, right?

Louis thinks.

LOUIS Yes? David shakes his head.

DAVID Look, even with your little brother and his friend, you can't have a gang with just four people.

LOUIS Hey, don't worry about it. Once we get going we'll recruit more people and it'll turn into a full blown crime network. That's where all the money will be at! I was thinking about making it like some sort of African-American Jewish mafia-gang-thing.

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DAVID Louis, you are a white Christian male. That is not going turn out well for you.

LOUIS Little details. Little details.

We're looking at the big picture here, David. Look, selling drugs is just one way to get rich. I've also picked up a lot of incriminating information we could use to our advantage. I'm thinking extortion, bribery, maybe prostitution, the whole nine yards of illegal activity all done in our school without anyone suspecting a thing.

David breaths a heavy SIGH and sits down. He reaches for where he placed his soda, but looks and sees it spilled all over the floor under the table. He puts his attention back towards the bag of drugs.

DAVID Where did you even get this shit, man?

LOUIS Language.

DAVID Where?

LOUIS That's not important right nowDAVID You stole it. Didn't you?

LOUIS Yes, butDAVID Why? Why would youyou stole this from Please tell me that steal all this from

Please tell me a homeless man! you didn't an actual fu-

David pauses and looks around for the children, vaguely hearing them in another room.

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DAVID (CONT'D) From an actual gang.

LOUIS I stole these drugs from a homeless man and not from an actual gang.

DAVID Really?

LOUIS No, I actually did steal this from a gang. It's rather insensitive of you to assume all homeless people do drugs.

DAVID Holy shit, Louis! We're going to fucking die!

LOUIS Hey, my little brother's in the other fucking room.

DAVID Why- How do you even put yourself in these situations?

LOUIS (Proud.)

Oh it wasn't easy. The Bratva has a hell of a security system on their servers.

DAVID Bratva?

LOUIS Doesn't matter. Look, this is all part of the experience. We're not a gang unless we have a rival gang to compete with. In which caseLouis takes out and holds up a Glock pistol.

LOUIS (CONT'D) We use my mom's guns to clear out every single one of them.

David looks at the gun and then at Louis with disbelief.

LOUIS (CONT'D) Yes, the guns are also stolen, but (MORE)

13 LOUIS (CONT'D) in my defense she does leave them out where I could easily get them.

DAVID Really? A cop leaves her gun where her kids can get them?

LOUIS In a locked safe behind a picture frame in her room, yeah.

DAVID I'm not doing this, Louis.

LOUIS C'mon David. I need you to be the point man. The face in the crowd.

DAVID No, I'm- we're going to die Louis!

There's no way we can possibly, or even feasiblyLOUIS It would help with college tuition, David.

DAVID No. Don't youLOUIS Hey! It's all well and good if you want to go to a high-end, private University, but it's not going to be cheap and your parents aren't military brats with a get-out-of-debt-free card. With this gang, we could easily make enough money to get a Master's and then some. Tuition covered. Boom.

Debt free.

David lets out another SIGH and brings both of his hands over his head in frustration. After a few seconds he puts his hands down and looks back up at Louis.

DAVID So what are we calling ourselves?

LOUIS Louis Lewis Corporation.

Abbreviated to LLC! Has a good ring (MORE)

14 LOUIS (CONT'D) to it and is named after yours truly.

DAVID (sarcastic) Yeah, great idea. Name the group after the person who runs it.

That's not obvious. Why don't we call ourselves LuLu Corp.?

LOUIS No. I hate that nickname. I don't need that stapled to my work. Louis Lewis Corp. will work just fine.

DAVID (sarcastic) Yeah, look out for LLC. A gang is totally what people will think of when they hear that.

David lets out a sigh in disbelief simultaneously with Louis sighing in pride.

DAVID (unenthusiastically) When do we start?

LOUIS Monday morning at dawn! Get your suit and fedora ready, because the entire school is going to bow!

Louis laughs as David puts his head down on the table. Louis laughs for a few seconds, attempting to sound big, but doesn't sound the least bit threatening and actually coughs a little bit. Louis hacks into his arm, but is alright.

LOUIS (CONT'D) Eh. Got a little spit in my wind pipe there.

EXT. NORTH HIGH COURTYARD - DAWN A police car drives up and stops at the curb of the school's courtyard. It is empty and there is a large analog clock in the center showing 6:00.

The intro to Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" plays as Louis exits the vehicle. He looks like a 1950s gangster, wearing a black slimmer suit with a skinny necktie, a fedora, and a backpack with a panda on it.