Felix arrives with a box

EXT. STREET.
Felix is walking towards the (ad hoc?) school. He walks towards the camera, smiling broadly, carrying something heavy; it’s wrapped. He has a secret. As he approaches we hear (off-camera) kids singing.

EXT. SCHOOLYARD.
Some girls are playing a skipping game, some hopscotch (we can hear their chants and selection rhymes) and a lone girl sits quietly, far from all; the singing boys are playing football (which should be made of paper and bound with string); the other boys are gathered around Lachlan (the natural leader) who is showing them something. Felix approaches.

FELIX:
What you got there?

ALASTAIR:
Hey, Felix.

LACHLAN:
(Quickly hiding it) Felix, hmm. Not sure we can trust you. (To the others) What do you think? A spy? Hasn't been around much.

ALASTAIR:
It's just Felix, show him.

OTHERS:
Show him.

LACHLAN:
Careless talk costs lives.

FELIX:
(smugly) I guess I won't be showing you what I got.

LACHLAN:
(bested by his curiosity) All right, but it's a secret. Don't be telling anyone. (conspiratorially, he discloses a live .303 shell)

FELIX:
That's great. Where'd you get it?

MAURICE:
From his brother.

LACHLAN:
(proud) Yea, he's infantry. It's a 3-0-3, from his Bren gun.

ALASTAIR:
Stole it, I bet.

LACHLAN:
Did not. He got a pass, brung us chocolate too.

EWAN:
(sarcastically) That's not all he brought.

LACHLAN:
(unsure, but guarded) What do you mean?

EWAN:
Nothing.

MAURICE:
He means he brought the bombers, the Germans.

LACHLAN:
(threatening) Take it back.

(the two regard each other for a tense moment)

FELIX:
Leave it, Lachlan. His Pa was in the sugar factory. (to Ewan) Isn't that right?

ALASTAIR:
That's bad. My Ma's a nurse, she says...

FELIX:
(interrupting because Ewan looks upset) Shut up, idiot.

(Ewan walks off, Lachlan feels bad)

ALASTAIR:
My Ma says the sugar melts into the wounds and they have to scrape it out before they can fix them.

MAURICE:
That’s nothing, tell them, Felix, tell them what happened to you.

FELIX:
(Smiling) I’ll have to show you...
(A scream from the girls’ section disrupts the group. The football has tripped up one of three girls skipping. She’s obviously angry)

CUT TO GIRLS’ CORNER

MARY:
Idiot, McFadden. I was wasties.

WILLIAM (MCFADDEN):
You’d think the Nazis’ got you the way you scream.

MARY:
(conspiratorially, to her companions) Easy mistake.

WILLIAM:
(Hearing, as was intended, he lashes out) At least my father didn’t stay at home and drink the whisky factory dry.

MARY:
Take that back.

WILLIAM:
(addressing the playground) My Ma said she was sure Mary’s Pa was the only one chasing after the burning whisky; that he was one of them on his knees to lick it up before it burned up.

(Cut to Felix and Lachlan)

LACHLAN:
What’s he talking about?

FELIX:
You know, they got the whisky factory. It’s where old man Kinloch worked.

MAURICE:
My sister was late at the picture house, and she saw all the whisky on fire, running down the hill. Said there was so much of it, she thought it was a special kind of bomb.

LACHLAN:
Hey, Felix still has to show us his secret.

WILLIAM:
(off screen) Don’t you dare.

Mrs Macbeth summons the class

(Cut back to Mary poised to boot the football down the hill -or to some inconvenient place. A hush falls over the playground. Mary is relishing the moment, but will she have time: the school doors are being opened by Mrs Macbeth, their teacher coming to blow the whistle. In slo-mo, if possible, cut from William’s face, aware of Mrs Macbeth’s imminent presence, to Mary aware of the same thing, back to the door as Mrs Macbeth’s foot, like a cowboy boot, crosses the threshold; cut back to Mary, grinning like a devil before she charges at the ball; cut to William, desperately trying to get there in time; back to a distorted view of Mrs Macbeth’s face blowing the whistle -if possible, to stretched audio. Mary connects as the whistle comes to an end; William dives, but misses. We are woken from the slo-mo by Mrs Macbeth shouting ‘Statues’; the ball is the sole moving object on the playground. We watch it roll past everyone, finally we catch Mrs Macbeth’s eye: she’s looking askew at William, implying that she knew about the ball, and so blew the whistle with malicious intent. Still, she doesn’t release the inert pupils with a second whistle. She catches William watching her with contempt, bringing it to her lips, she feints and doesn’t blow. William has, none the less, been tricked; he moves to get off the ground.)

MRS MACBETH:
I saw that, McFadden. It’s the strap for you. (Now she blows the whistle)

(Quickly, fearfully, the pupils dart for their gasmasks and line-up in two, gender specific lines. The only one to take her time is the outsider who we saw sitting alone at the beginning: she moves slowly to the back of the girls’ line)

MRS MACBETH:
(looming over the pupils from the steps) Right! I am, as are you all, very aware of... (something catches her eye) Maurice McIntyre?

MAURICE:
Yes, Mam?

MRS MACBETH:
(Booming) Where is your gas mask?

MAURICE:
I, uh...

MRS MACBETH:
No excuses, boy. Turn around and walk directly home. Do not come back without it. And God help you if you do not come back. Has anyone else, like an idiot, left their gas mask at home?

MAURICE:
(raising his hand) Uh, M...

MRS MACBETH:
STILL HERE? What could possibly be keeping you?

MAURICE:
I live in Gourock, M...

MRS MACBETH:
You may live in Gourock, boy, but you will die at school unless the next thing you do is show me a speedy exit.

(Maurice shakes his head in disbelief before jogging unenthusiastically away)