Money | Boyhood | Community
Talent: Daniel Pinto (@nahimblase) Ibrahim Kargbo (@ikrgb0) Isaac Baah (@iamisaacbaah) Lu Verite (@luverite_) Photography: Victoria R long (@vickyrlongphoto) Studio: Your.ldn (@yourldn.studio) Produced by: For Her Musings © for Inner Dive Tv (@innerdivetv) and New Wave Magazine (@nwavemagazine)
Part one – The Basketball Match
Four high-school senior boys organise a basketball tournament fundraiser to raise money for a charity for young teens with terminal illnesses like cancer. The boys are happy to not only celebrate finishing school, but also the hard work they’ve put into achieving a goal for the good of others. This tournament is also important because the boys are very keen on getting even with the rival school, who they’ve lost a quite a few tournaments to. First things first, the boys make an announcement on social media challenging the rival school to a re-match… the rival school accepts of course.
Part Two – Fortune
During their first match the boys play their hardest against the other team tossing the ball around with intention, no second guessing whatsoever. At the half time mark the head of the team Mace peeps over at the petty cash box and opens it to see how much money they have raised and somehow it has doubled from the original amount. Mace, Jerry and MJ huddle around in amazement and are utterly speechless that they now have enough money for the fundraiser to pay off expenses, but also to give to their charity.
Dante who went missing for a while comes back, looks briefly at the money and without thinking, starts persuading the boys to forfeit the next match, which will be against the rival school. Tensions are very high now as the rest of the boys feeling surged with energy are confident that they can achieve more of their goals.
Petty Behaviour
In the locker room, the seniors are getting changed, looping shoelaces, doing final warm-ups and pep-talks. They won their first match and now they will face the rival school who they are hoping to defeat. The boys are also eager to get back to the sports hall as the general fog of music, cheering and foot stomping from the crowd can be heard through the walls and air vents. The energy is enormous. Mace walks over to grab his jersey near the fundraising table, he notices that the petty cash box is open again, but this time all the money is gone. He hurries back and asks Jerry and MJ if they know what happened. They all look around confused but one person’s expression is missing and it’s Dante’s, who told the boys earlier that he was going outside the locker room to get something.
The truth is that Dante took the money as he has bigger plans than just a fundraiser to help young teenagers. He thinks the team have no chance of beating the rival school and so taking the money would dissuade them from competing as now they have nothing to work towards.
Dante is also in talks with the rival school who promised him a place on their team if he steals the money from the petty cash box. He is doing this because a place on the team could guarantee him a spot at the rival school, whose computer engineering course is the best in the city. This is part of his big plans so that he can create a technology that would register diagnoses quicker, preventing young people from dying prematurely.
Part four – Revelations
The boys unfortunately lose to the rival school and in frustration start piecing things together very quickly. They think Dante is behind all the painful sabotage and they confront him at the end of the tournament. Dante Is acting very tense, and abruptly tries leaving the tournament but the boys stop him.
Dante turns around and has no choice but to explain his motives, why he toyed with the money, and his plans to transfer to the other school for their computer engineering course. He seems really upset explaining that raising money isn’t going to do much for people who are going to die anyway. Mace, MJ and Jerry are disappointed by Dante’s actions and harsh words. They begin walking towards him and for a moment it seems like they are about to attack him.
Resolution
Although Dante had good intentions to do better, his passions took the better of him and he ended up doing more damage than good. Sure, prevention is better than cure, but anyone who has been ill or knows someone with a terminal illness like cancer can say that no one plans for these things to happen. It’s just life. So, although Dante thinks the boys are going to attack him, they don’t and instead try to comfort him, because they decided not to let their anger cloud the real situation. Which is that Dante needed someone to support him and instead of asking his boys he decided to go elsewhere. Here, we see how important community is because when in need we often forget that there are always people waiting to support us.
The End.
Beautiful, the boys sure demonstrated that togetherness is beneficial