Cast:

 2 GIRL and 2 BOY—one of each to be narrating at the side of the stage and the other one to be
performing in the ‘flashbacks’. To allow the audience to recognize the main characters, the two
GIRL actresses can wear a red hairband or anything else that is similarly distinctive while the two
BOY actors may wear a jacket or anything else that is similarly distinctive.

Ideally, the two pairs of characters should be similar in build. The pair of characters that will be
performing in the flashbacks should be able to sing and dance.

 GIRL2—she should be able to sing and dance.

 BOY2—he should be able to sing and dance.
 A security guard.
 A teacher

Crews:

 Dancers who may also have to be extras if required. It will be a plus if they can also sing.
 Back-up choir.
 Technical crews: props and lightings.
 A chorographer
 A band: two guitarists comfortable on electric and acoustic, a bassist, a keyboardist, a drummer
and a stand-by percussionist.
 A director
 A musical director

Costumes:

 School uniform for the main characters.

 A security guard uniform.

Logistics:

 Several benches, chairs and tables.

 A screen projector.
 A laptop
SCENE 1
Setting: the curtain is closed and on the edge of the stage, in front of the curtains, there is a bench and a
laptop. Spotlight is on the bench.

GIRL walks into stage and opens the laptop and starts typing. A projection of Microsoft Word is on the
curtain (without the screen) and it shows her typing “Statement on a Key Achievement”.

GIRL types a few words and deletes them. She seems to be in deep thought, flustered, before sighing and
pushing the laptop away.

GIRL: I give up, I can’t do this!

BOY walks into the stage from the opposing corner.

BOY: Six years of knowing you and I’d never thought I’d ever hear those words from your mouth. What
is this twisted problem that has confounded the smartest girl around so? (chuckles) not like I’d be much
of a help. You’re the smartest kid in school. What impossible problem’s bugging you?

GIRL: Have you done your key achievement statement thing?

BOY: Man, it’s due on the 23rd of July. That means I’ll do it on the 23 rd. Do work before it’s due? Yeah
right. I’ll do it on the day its due.

GIRL: Yeah, that’s like only two months left. Typical guy mentality…

BOY: It’s a 300 word paragraph or two on one of the many accomplishments you’ve made in six years of
school. For you it must be like trying to choose just one type of food in a buffet; you’re spoiled for
choice! I don’t know what you’re worrying about. It’s a 300 word paragraph on 1 thing in 6 years! I’ve
posted facebook statuses longer than that. It’s a piece of cake.

GIRL: And you know buffets paralyze me with their paradoxes of choice. I don’t think you appreciate the
gravity of the situation. This affects college applications! My future! What am I supposed to write about?

BOY: (sighs) okay, what about we take a trip down the memory lane?

GIRL: As in from the start? From the first time I stepped into school with this annoying talkative boy…

BOY: Hey, hey, I didn’t mean that early—

GIRL: Sssh, too late, the curtain’s already opening.

Setting: the curtain opens and the spotlight on the bench is turned off—the projector screen is also
turned off. Spotlight is now going to follow the two people. The BOY and the GIRL on the bench remain
frozen.
Scene 1a
Starts with piano (Don't Stop Believing--Journey)

GIRL (sings): 
Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train going anywhere 
Girl comes out onto the stage and wanders around before a "train" dashes across the stage
and she goes backstage with them. Boy enters stage from the other side as the next chord
plays.

BOY (sings):
Just a city boy
Born and raised in Clementi
He took the midnight train going anywhere
The "train" dashes across the stage again but boy stays on stage; girl enters stage with
train and stays beside boy; they're now holding backpacks and clad in school uniform. They
are now looking at the huge NUS High School logo and other students are streaming in as
the instrumental part of the song began to play and the electric guitar kicks in. During all
this, the students make a lot of noise while the two main characters stay rooted, looking
around in a confused manner until the crowd swallows them up. Once the instrumental part
ends, everything pauses--including the music and the main characters step out of the
crowd.

The song (Feeling Good) starts with no instrumental backgrounds but the occasional cymbal
tinkles 

BOY (sings):
Birds flying high you know how I feel

GIRL (sings):
Sun in the sky you know how I feel

BOY (sings):
Reeds driftin' on by you know how I feel

GIRL (sings):
It's a new dawn

BOY (sings):
It's a new day

BOY and GIRL together (sing):

It's a new life for me
And I'm feeling good (harmonize)

Instruments kick in--MUSE STYLE (with electric guitars and drums) as the crowd envelopes
them again and everyone exits the stage from both sides)
SCENE 2
Setting: chairs on stage along with a table of books. GIRL walks in and sits on the chair and flips open a
book. She looks engrossed in reading and is taking down notes as she reads/busy highlighting. The
dancers are extras sitting around reading books/chatting. BOY skips in with a bag, looking around
excitedly.

BOY: Isn't this exciting – this is an entirely new slate for me! Ah, the possibilities, the
infinite potential of what I can do and be. To experiment, explore and excel! 

GIRL turns around: Sssshhh! Do you mind?

BOY:  Oh, I'm sorry, I'll think softer. 

BOY hums to himself but walks towards GIRL. He tries to read over her shoulder w/o her
realising it since she's so engrossed in the book. 
What're you doing?

GIRL jumps in shock: What is your problem? Can’t you see I’m studying? GIRL stands up
and moves to another seat
You know what, you can have that seat.

BOY chases after her: Well, I'm curious. I mean, today's the first day of school, so what can
you possibly be revising? It’s the first day of school, what are you revising?

GIRL: Puts hands on hips and looks affronted as if she has been asked a stupid question.
That's the thing--we're the first batch and no one knows what we’re going to face. But I'm
not going to be a sitting duck when class starts; no sir, I'm going to prepare myself right.
It's not like I have anything else to do, anyway. 

BOY: (stifles a laughter) Sorry, but that sounds really sad. 

GIRL: It looks like you're an expert at wasting time, but please just go away and don't
waste mine. Don't you see that I've a lot to read? (gestures at thick books on the table in
front of her)

Instruments start to play and BOY shrugs and looks like he's leaving but approaches GIRL
again and playfully sings around her while she tries to fend him off. Dancers take their
places and do... whatever they're supposed to do. 
Song: The Show--Lenka

BOY (sings--in a carefree and light manner):

I'm just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze and love is a riddle
I don't know where to go, can't do it alone
I've tried and I don't know why

Slow it down, make it stop or else my heart is going to pop

'Cause it's too much, yeah it's a lot to be something I'm not
I'm a fool out of love 'cause I just can't get enough
(this chorus is done in the style of the second chorus)

I'm just a little bit caught in the middle

Life is a maze and love is a riddle
I don't know where to go, can't do it alone
I've tried and I don't know why

I'm just a little boy lost in the moment

I'm so scared but I don't show it
I can't figure it out, it's bringing me down
I know I've got to let it go and just enjoy the show

(keyboard)
Dum-dee-dam-dam-dee-dam
Just enjoy the show
Dum-dee-dam-dam-dee-dam (chorus with dancers)
Just enjoy the show, just enjoy the show (dies off, keyboard holds last chord)

BOY and the dancers sing for a while until GIRL finally gets up and shoves him away and
tells him to:

GIRL: GROW UP!

and leaves the stage. BOY looks perplexed and still on the ground, he looks around the
dancers.

BOY: Is this childish?

They all shrug and exit the stage. 

The GIRL and the BOY on the bench unfreeze and look at each other. The spotlight is back on them and
the projection of the word document is back—she hasn’t added any more words to it.

GIRL: Yeah… I really haven’t changed much.

BOY: (almost immediately) Yeah… (scratches head) Okay, okay, how about you just list down all your
achievements right here, right now? What’s your CAP?

GIRL: 5.0

BOY: Why am I not surprised?So type it down: constant CAP of 5.0.

GIRL types it.

GIRL: How’s that an achievement?

BOY: And we move on. What about those Olympiad golds?

GIRL: Urgh, please don’t remind me of the time I got a silver for the International Chemistry Olympiad.
BOY: But I can’t remind you of the chemistry, physics and math golds?

BOY reaches to type on the laptop: being an overall genius.

GIRL: But you can see all that on my portfolio already. Shouldn’t I write about stuff that people still
wouldn’t know about me after seeing my—

BOY: —very impressive—

GIRL:—transcript?

BOY: Okay, let’s talk about your non-academic achievements.

GIRL: Hmm… I guess the time I applied for the Student Council was a trial by fire for me…

BOY: A trial by fire? It was an inferno!

SETTING: Spotlight and the screen projection are turned off again and on the stage, a ‘stage’ is being set
up and extras flood onto the stage facing the fake ‘stage’. There is somebody on stage already while
GIRL is standing beside the ‘stage’.
SCENE 3
RANDOM TEACHER ON STAGE: School, please put your hands together for our next candidate. (turns to
GIRL) the stage’s yours.

GIRL: Ah… (glance at script) I have a dream!

The ‘audience’ groaned.

GIRL: (in a shaky voice) I have a dream for a school that lives in harmony, for a school that is united in
spirit and mind, for a school that—

RANDOM PERSON: YOU LIE!

GIRL: (looking nervous and starting to sway and bite her nails) So… yeah, if you vote for me I will…

The audience starts to laugh.

RANDOM TEACHER: Students, please show our speaker some respect!

GIRL: (exasperatedly) Listen! (throws away script; as she starts to look around the audience, the piano
starts playing)
Imagine by John Lennon
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... 

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... 

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one 

Audience stands up and cheers loudly.

Everything freezes and the curtain starts to close. Spotlight returns to the GIRL and BOY on the bench.

BOY: I can’t believe they fell for that.

GIRL: Well, Martin Luther King has been cliché since primary 5 but nobody seemed to know who the
Beatles or John Lennon were.
BOY: And it was like 4 years before Glee aired. Aww, don’t feel too bad —you hadn’t gone through all
those HIPs and TIPs yet. (gestures at the laptop) so now you can write about all the leadership
experience you gained from serving as student leaders.

GIRL: Come on, admission officers would be so rich if they get a penny every time they read an account
of the student in question being— (suddenly stands up) I got it! There’s hostel!

BOY: Well, stories of how spoilt daddy girls grow up and become independent after living and growing
up in boarding never fail to bring tears to anyone’s eyes…

GIRL: (waves her hand dismissively) Can’t you remember that night?

BOY: Is this conversation still PG?

GIRL: (whacks BOY and points to the opposite corner) Knock it off, I’m talking about that.

GIRL and BOY turn to the direction.

The spotlight and screen projection are turned off again and the BOY and the GIRL on the bench freeze.
SCENE 4
GIRL and GIRL2 comes out of the side of the stage to sit on the steps (curtain is still
closed). They're pouring over books and homework when those BOY and BOY2 enter the
stage. 

BOY: Hi, what's for supper tonight?

GIRL: I don't know, I think one of the clusters took the entire thing before we got down
here.

From the side of the hall there are a bunch of students running and laughing while carrying
a cardboard labeled supper. A security guard is chasing after them. They enter into the
stage.

BOY: Aw man, I'm so hungry.

GIRL2: Did you have a study marathon too?

BOY: No, I slept through study time. How about you, still busy?

GIRL2: We're just finishing... why are you wet?

BOY2: Oh, he was being really noisy, snoring like the pig he is—

BOY: --he thought it'd be hilarious to try and drown me in a pail of water.

BOY2: You have to understand, it sounds like a jackhammer! 

GIRL2: I didn't know you sing!

BOY2: He doesn't.

BOY: He can't appreciate talent. 

GIRL2: Then show me!

GIRL: Uh, I'm really not an auditory kind of learner.

BOY 2 playfully makes a face and closes his ears.

BOY starts to sing:

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream - I have a dream
Security Guard walks in.

BOY2: What's wrong, sir, did you receive complaints about an inhuman wailing noise? 

GUARD: My spider sense is tingling. You haven’t done your roll call yet! 

The students quickly into the stage to do their rollcall before coming back out.

GIRL2: You know, the song you sang just now got me thinking. We've got a year left in
school and I'm sure we all know what we wanna do in the future. 

BOY2: Hm. A researcher in A*, I guess? Or in MINDEF? Well, I better survive NS first before
thinking too much!

GIRL2: Me, I want to be the secretary-general of the United Nations!

BOY2: Dream on!

GIRL2: I will! *sticks out tongue*

BOY: Well, I want to be a photojournalist. 

Everyone stares at him.

BOY: What!

BOY2: Let me guess, you want people to see how beautiful the world is through your eyes,
etcetera, etcetera? 

BOY: Aha, you took the words right outta my mouth. You know me so well.

BOY2: You are forever the romantic, you. 

BOY: And you are just jealous.

They laugh. 

Everyone turns to the GIRL. 

GIRL: I… Why are you all staring at me? 

GIRL2: You know, you've always studied the hardest, but you've never told me what are
you studying for.

GIRL: Well... You know. To get good marks. 

GIRL2: For what?

GIRL: Medicine, I guess? Yeah. Or research. (appending) I dunno, I haven’t decided.

BOY: hm. Really?

GIRL backs away. The first few chords for whattaya want from me--Adam Lambert plays.

GIRL (sings):
Piano+acoustic guitar+bass+cajon drum
Hey, slow it down whataya want from me
Whataya want from me
Yeah I'm afraid whataya want from me
Whataya want from me

There might have been a time

When I would give myself away
Oooh once upon a time I didn't give a damn
But now, here we are so whataya want from me
Whataya want from me

Just don't give up I'm workin it out

Please don't give in, I won't let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, whataya want from me
Whataya want from me
Whataya want from me

(Basically it's just a dance showing her frustration around her friends, who look concerned)
(She stops singing on the last note and looks around the students as if demanding an answer rather
breathlessly)

GIRL2: (as if answering her question)... for you to find what you wanna do?

SECURITY GUARD walks in.

BOY: Uh-oh.

BOY2: Lights out! (in an 'eeekkk!!' voice)

SECURITY GUARD: You should have been in bed five minutes ago! 

The students scurry backstage and the spotlights die off. 

BOY (just his voice): Aw man, my bed is still wet.

The spotlight on the BOY and the GIRL on the bench return.

BOY: Ah, I see.

GIRL: Sounds good, right?

BOY: Of course! The night when you almost got a demerit point for missing roll call and forever tainting
your perfect record—
GIRL: I meant (glares at BOY) it’s the night when I realized I have no set path in life. You don’t know how
much soul searching I underwent after that. All my life, I had been trying to build something without a
blue print, running without a goal—

BOY: You’re right, it sounds like the perfect Hollywood movie now. Good luck putting that in 300 words!

GIRL: But it does sound whiny. It’s not good to make your transcript whiny, isn’t it?

BOY: At least it’d flesh you out, you know. Breathe some personality into the idea of this perfect genius
girl with a constant cap of 5.0, student council president and all-round genius.

GIRL: (closes laptop) you know what? Enough about me. What about you?

BOY: I told you, I still have two months to sit on it.

GIRL: But you should have at least some idea?

BOY: Stop trying to rush me, girl! Fine, maybe I’d write about the APs.

GIRL: (arrogantly; dismissively) There’s nothing special about the APs.

BOY: Yeah well, they are for me, because I truly believed down to my core that I would never be able to
do it. You see, underneath this cool, charming smile lies a rather uncertain and unconfident boy…They
were an extremely stressful time for me. I may have seemed fine on the outside, but I was nervous to
bits.

GIRL: Maybe you should give being an actor a thought. I remember I was more of a wreck during the APs
than even you were.

BOY: You know me, I have an image to uphold.

The spotlight on them is turned off and the curtain is opened.

SCENE 5
The curtain opens to reveal a stage with tables set in exam style (in rows), lights dim. The
spotlights will light up one by one as the actors walk in later.

BOY stumbles in, looking hysterical, running around, dazed before dropping into his knees
and sing:
Bohemian Rhapsody--Queen
Is this the real life
Is this just fantasy

Then he scampers off backstage while BOY2 rushes in, throwing several AP books to the
side. 
Caught in a landslide
Can't escape from reality

Then he runs off to the back before backupsinger1 and backupsinger2 walk into the stage. 
Open your eyes
Look into the skies and see

Then they drop their heads down and hum and harmonize while BOY slides back into the
stage and jumps onto the center table and sings:
I'm just a poor boy (poor boy), I need no sympathy

Then backupsingers and BOY2 sing in unison

Because I'm easy come, easy go
little high, little low

BOY solo from his table

Anywhere the the wind blows 

BOY jumps off the table

doesn't really matter
to me

Instead of the piano continuance of Bohemian Rhapsody, we go straight to the introduction

of ACDC's Highway to Hell (the electric guitar riff, and then the drums) as extras/dancers
walk into the stage and take their place on the desks. GIRL and GIRL2 run into stage and
walk up to BOY (the RANDOMFRIENDS have sat down on their desks)

GIRL2: You wouldn’t believe how many people were stuck queuing for the turnstiles…
Bloody turnstile…

BOY: Whew, APs, man! You guys nervous?

GIRL: (stammering) APs... future... at hand... *hands trembling* 

(the Highway to Hell riff is still going on in the background)

BOY: Nobody is more prepared than you, girl, what are you worried for? 
GIRL2: I know, right! I've told her so many times that...

(sings) Highway to YALE--AC/DC

No stop signs
Speed limit
Nobody's gonna slow you down
Like a wheel
You gonna spin it
No AP's gonna mess you 'round

BOY: (sings)

Hey there, girl!

paid your dues
studyin' through sleepless nights

GIRL 2 and BOY (one of them harmonizes the other):

Hey there, girl!
look at us
we're on our way to the Promised land!

GIRL pushes past through them and sings exasperatedly:

(Exclaimed: Can't you see!)
(The dancers can get up and start dancing here)
I'm on the highway to Yale
Highway to Yale
I'm on the highway to Yale
Highway to Yale

(After they finish dancing they all go to their seats)

(Instead of "mhmmm don't stop me now" RANDOM TEACHER steps in and sings: "students,
turn your paper now!")

As the guitar solo goes on, the students on stage can dance (related to being frustrated
over the tests while others are overjoyed at being able to do the exams, etc. reflects the
feelings going on in an exam) while they sing the chorus ("Highway to YALE...").

And then the exams end: they all stand up and look down and pause while GIRL finishes the
song: 
(sings) 
And I'm goin' down,all the waa-ay-aay, wohh

Then as the guitar shreds and the song comes to its end, everyone throws their paper up
and the curtain closes at the final beat. 

The spotlight is back on the GIRL and the BOY on the bench.

BOY: That’s one period of my life I’m happy to be over with. But I can’t say the same about graduating,
though.
GIRL: It’s kinda too early to be nostalgic.

BOY: But oh man, oh man! I’ve been here for six years! That’s like a third of my life. I spent my teenage
years here, growing up, getting to know the world, becoming a man, and I’ve just…

GIRL: … I’ve learnt so much.

BOY: (laughing; amused) What did you learn exactly?

GIRL: (stares at him, before sighing) it’s not just the complex numbers and algorithms or Lorentz
transformations—our six years here are not defined just by our grades and our accomplishments.

BOY has taken out his phone.

GIRL: It’s the laughter we shared and the tears we cried—it’s the hours of burning the midnight oil
rushing projects and the sometimes haunting guilt when we slack. It’s the painful but delicious ache of
completing that 2.4k run every year; it’s the overwhelming weight of stress and expectations during
exam periods. It’s the bonds we’ve formed and the friends we’ve lost. It’s the brief taste of freedom and
the heavy reluctance in June and December. We’re like metals forged in an oven; diamonds formed
under the weight of the earth.

BOY: (he’s still holding his phone) This has to be the most challenging riddle I’ve ever heard. I give up!

GIRL: We survive six years and come out for the better. If there’s anything we can be proud of, that’s it.
(huffs) I can’t believe I just said that.

BOY: I couldn’t believe it either.

GIRL: I can’t believe I just said that. I sound like a narrator in a Mel Gibson movie. I just need the
Braveheart soundtrack to play in the background and… were you recording all this?

BOY: Yeap, and I disagree—I’m going to put one of the songs in the 300 soundtrack in the background.
It’ll sound epic in Youtube.

GIRL: You GIT! (tries to reach for the phone but BOY dodges) GIVE IT TO ME, YOU LITTLE—

BOY: (wags finger) nuh-uh-uh! Not in front of the camera, little Miss Sunshine! (pats her shoulder) I’m
doing all that for your benefit, really, so you can remember that flash of poetic brilliance just now when
you’re going to try and write your key achievement statement again.

GIRL: I can’t believe I’m friends with you. God, I’m right; I really have changed so much.

BOY: (gets up) well, at least you know what you’re gonna write now, right? (enters the curtain)

GIRL: (turns to her laptop and on the screen we can see her deleting everything she has written and she
closes the Word window; then she gets up and packs her laptop. She nods). Yeah.