Read An Education for Free Online Page A

and noisily. JENNY tuts her disapproval. TINA sighs and puts her spoon down.
     
    JENNY
    Camus doesn’t want you to like him. Feeling is bourgeois. Being engagé is bourgeois. He kills someone and he doesn’t feel anything. His mother dies and he doesn’t feel anything.
     
    TINA
    I wouldn’t feel anything if my mother died. Does that make me an existentialist?
     
    JENNY
    No. That makes you a cow.
     
    HATTIE
    Une vache .
    Laughter.

15 EXTERIOR: STREET/COFFEE BAR - DAY
    JENNY, HATTIE and TINA emerge from the café, talking.
     
    JENNY
    After I’ve been to university I’m going to be French. I’m going to Paris and I’m going to smoke and listen to Jacques Brel. And I won’t speak. Ever. C’est plus chic, comme ça . . .
    She breaks off. Parked outside a tobacconist’s booth on the other side of the road is the red Bristol. She looks towards the booth, and DAVID emerges with a copy of the Times and a packet of cigars.
    Oh, crikey!
    ( to Hattie and Tina )
    Wait here.
    JENNY crosses the road to talk to him while the others watch.
    DAVID
    Hello.
     
    JENNY
    Hello. Thank you.
     
    DAVID
    How did it go?
     
    JENNY
    Oh, fine. I think. I mean, I didn’t mess my bit up. And no one got thrown out of the orchestra afterwards.

    DAVID
    Always the mark of a cultural triumph. Listen. I’m glad I ran into you. What are you doing on Friday?
     
    JENNY
    Going to school.
     
    DAVID
    I meant the evening.
     
    JENNY
    ( embarrassed )
    Oh.Yes. Of course. Nothing.
     
    DAVID
    Because I’m going to listen to some Ravel in St John’s, Smith Square. My friends Danny and Helen will be going, too, so it wouldn’t be . . . I’ll tell you what. I’ll come and pick you up, and if your mother and father disapprove, then you can have the tickets and go with one of them. How does that sound?
    JENNY doesn’t know what to say. She looks at
    DAVID, and his eagerness to please seems to convince her.
     
    JENNY
    Thank you. And I’d like to go with you.
    DAVID
    Seven? And we’ll probably go for a spot of supper afterwards.
     
    JENNY
    ( flat disbelief )
    Supper.
     
    DAVID
    If you want to.
     
    JENNY
    The trouble is, we’ll probably have eaten.
     
    DAVID
    Well, if you’d like supper, then, perhaps on Friday you could . . . not eat?
     
    JENNY
    ( embarrassed again )
    Oh.Yes. Of course.
    JENNY smiles and rejoins her friends on the other side of the road. TINA and HATTIE are standing there almost with their mouths open, amazed. She doesn’t say anything and starts to walk on. TINA and HATTIE run to catch up.
     
    TINA
    ( shrieking )
    A spot of supper?
    JENNY
    You’ve heard of supper?
     
    HAT TIE
    We’ve heard of it. But we’ve never eaten it.
    They walk off, giggling.
    You’re going to have to tell us everything. Otherwise it’s not fair . . .

16 INTERIOR: JENNY’S HOUSE - EVENING
    JENNY is dressed up for her evening out. She looks good, but also stiff, uncomfortable - she’s not herself in her dress, which looks too old for her. Her father is sitting at the dining table, shouting.
    JACK
    I won’t allow it!
     
    JENNY
    ( coolly )
    Fine. He’s more than happy for you to take me.
     
    JACK
    ( uncertainly )
    Fine. I will.
    JENNY
    Good.
    MARJORIE comes into the room.
    JACK
    Where is it?
     
    JENNY
    St John’s, Smith Square.
     
    JACK
    Where’s that?
     
    JENNY
    I don’t know. I’m sure we could find out.
     
    MARJORIE
    It’s in Westminster. Just around the corner from the Abbey.
    JACK looks at her as if she’d just given directions to the nearest opium den.
     
    JACK
    How d’you know that?
     
    MARJORIE
    I had a life before we were married, you know.
     
    JENNY
    He soon put a stop to that.
    JACK
    Well, there we are.
     
    JENNY
    Where are we?
     
    JACK
    Near Westminster Abbey. I’m not going all the way over there.
     
    JENNY
    The trouble is, that’s where St John’s, Smith Square is.
     
    JACK
    There must be something on locally. Where’s the paper?
     
    MARJORIE
    Jack, she wants to see someone who can play. She doesn’t