Monday, 22 September 2014

Major Project: Tennis Club episode 3: Recruitment

Over the past week I have been writing out story plans for each of the episodes of Tennis Club. This episode plan was written almost a week ago and is mainly just me getting every bit of the story written down so this isn't exactly a formal way of presenting it. I will get round to making it more formal after I have laid out the way I want every single episode.

In short this is an episode where Toby is asked to recruit more people and does so by asking the new girl in the office, though not everything goes to plan when they arrive. Below are my notes on the episode.

Tennis club episode 3: Recruitment
It’s a quite sunny afternoon, Toby’s home today so it must be a Sunday or something. He’s just sat in the front room by himself playing a game of solitaire on the coffee table. This is probably his most favourite past time even though he looks as bored as hell. Suddenly the front door to his apartment opens and Bobbers and Ross walk in, Toby is shocked and asks them how they go in. Bobbers states that he got a key cut from the spare that he found, Toby is gobsmacked that a guy he met a few weeks back is now just strolling in and out of his apartment. Bobbers asks Toby what he’s doing but before Toby can answer, Ross destroys Toby’s game of solitaire and starts dealing a game of poker. Bobbers then states his real reason for coming round and that’s to ask why they haven’t recruited anymore people yet. Toby thought that Bobbers was taking care of that since he had all of the leaflets printed out, but Bobbers says that he’s been giving out as many as possible but no one is replying, Toby suggests that they get people that they know round that would be interested in joining, Bobbers then suggests that Toby can ask people from round his office if they want to go. Toby stops right in his tracks, it’s not that he can’t ask people from around his office, it’s just that he doesn’t want to, Bobbers says he’ll try and hand out more leaflets while he suggests that Ross finds one person, Toby finds at least one person and he’ll keep handing out leaflets. And as quick as that Toby is now forced to bring someone to the tennis club from his office the place he hates more than anything. Bobbers and Ross leave without even playing a game of poker (even though the cards have been dealt).

The next day Toby is at work sitting at his desk quietly, he stares at the pile of leaflets sat next to the computer, someone gently taps him on the back. He jumps out of his skin, there’s only one person that usually talks to him in the office so he’s kind of expecting who it will be. As he turns around ready to tell Katie to go away he notices it’s someone different. A beautiful girl with long brown hair is standing behind him. She says that she’s new to the office and just started today, Toby stutters trying to tell her his name, he is so stunned by her beauty, eventually he says hello and introduces himself. She says her name is Sian, she then notices the leaflets on Toby’s desk and asks what they’re about, he says they’re nothing special and just a small club he runs. Sian seems really interested and says that she might pop along as she used to play tennis in university, Toby doesn’t say much about the club but does mention it’s on a Friday. She says that she might see him there and walks back to her desk, Toby seems slightly amazed that there’s a nice girl, in this office, talking to him, moments after Katie sneaks up behind him and once again Toby almost has a heart attack. She teases Toby about Sian being into him and him being into her, (pretty much normal convo between them, teasing and telling Katie to go away). It suddenly occurs to Toby that if Sian does come to the club she’ll see the terrible state of it, not to mention that they have terrible equipment and no proper court. He starts to panic, and starts thinking about the worst case scenario, he can’t let her meet Bobbers and Ross but he can’t really tell them to go away because there’d just be him in the tennis club. His only hope is that Bobbers and Ross have brought enough people to make the club look more lively.

It’s Thursday, the night before the weekly tennis club, Toby is pacing around his lounge area on his mobile trying. He holds the phone to his ear and Bobbers picks up. Toby desperately asks if he’s got any people sorted out to come to the club. It’s bad news, Bobbers like always has failed to get anyone to sign on. Toby breaks down, what’s going to happen when Sian turns up to see three less than mediocre tennis players, Bobbers is still on the line though, and it seems he has good news! Apparently Ross has found a few people willing to come to the tennis club. This is great news for Toby, at least it won’t be just the three of them and Sian standing in an open wasteland trying to play tennis. Bobbers even says to Toby that he’ll set up the court, bring the rackets and what not before hand so they can get the ball rolling before Toby gets there, Toby is really surprised that Bobbers has actually offered to get the club going, Toby accepts Bobbers’ offer and puts the phone down.
It’s Friday, day of the club, Toby and Sian are about to head to the club together, just before they go Katie shouts goodbye from across the office, as she sees Toby and Sian go, she kind of looks a bit disappointed, what does this mean?

Toby and Sian have just got off the bus, they seem to be getting on pretty well, Toby warns her before hand that the club is just getting to its feet so there may be a few mishaps, she laughs it off and says she won’t get too disappointed. Suddenly Toby and Sian spot a tennis ball go right over their heads, someone’s got a massive serve on them apparently. Toby starts to feel a bit uneasy, thinking about it now maybe it wasn’t a great idea for Bobbers to set this up.
As Toby and Sian enter the wasteland, Toby’s suspicions are correct, it really wasn’t a great Idea for Bobbers to set this one up. We see Bobbers, Ross and two old men (one short and one tall) standing in a really odd shaped tennis court made out of Toby’s white spray paint he bought the last episode. It’s so odd shaped infact that it’s actually a square, and there’s no line for where the net is supposed to be. Each of the men are stood in each corner of the square and Bobbers is the only one holding a racket (at least it is a racket this time. We see Ross throw a tennis ball at Bobbers who actually looks like he’s ready to play baseball this time around judging from his stance. Bobbers takes a swing with his tennis racket but the ball isn’t fast enough to reach him so it just falls at his feet. Bobbers starts to shout abuse at Ross for not having a sufficient serve. It’s time for Toby to step in now, he angrily asks what they’re doing, to which Bobbers replies “Tennis, what else?” Getting a sense of deja vu here. Toby is quick to point out this isn’t how tennis is played, but Bobbers retorts, saying that they drew the court too odd shaped so they decided to change up the rules  a bit, Toby is even more frustrated and tells Bobbers that you can’t just change the rules of tennis, his frustration then turns to the two old guys, Bobbers points out that they’re the people Ross brought over, the taller one is called Bill and the shorter one is Ben, Ross apparently met them in a garden centre….Toby is stood there open mouthed at the back story he has just heard about the two men, does Bobbers not see the connection of their names and where they came from. Sian then speaks up and asks Toby if they’re going to play tennis, he is quick to say that he will correct what Bobbers is doing and suggests that she gets changed in to her gear while he sorts it out, there is one problem though, there aren’t any changing rooms. Toby glances around the area to see if there is anywhere Sian can change discretely, he notices a small area which looks to be secluded with bushes and dead trees. Toby suggest that she gets changed behind there and the guys will face away, she reluctantly agrees and seems quite weirded out by the events taking place here. Toby tells the guys to face the other direction, they all agree. Bobbers whispers in Toby’s ear and asks if he likes Sian, Toby becomes all defensive and starts blushing like a school boy. Toby notices that Bill isn’t here with the rest of the guys and a loud shriek comes from where Sian is, Toby turns quickly to find Bill standing next to Sian (presumable trying to perv). There is no expression on his face he just looks down and stares at her (he looks quite creepy and menacing at the same time). Bobbers gives Toby a quick nudge and says that “this is a good way to make your self look more macho infront of her, just beat up the old guy like you did with those teenagers” Toby disagrees and refuses to punch an old man, but he could still make himself look macho. Just as he is about to speak up Ben (the other old dude) rushes (he’s surprisingly quick for an old man) to Sian’s side and shouts at Bill telling him to back off. Ben turns his attention to Sian who is slightly teary eyed, he starts to comfort her and tries to make her feel better. Toby asks Bobbers what Ben’s doing, Bobbers laughs and says “looks like he beat you to the punch mate”, Ben helps Sian to her feet and starts to shout at the trio and Bill calling them all shameless and perverts for preying upon this young girl, he then leads her away from the wasteland and towards the bus stop. Toby then calls out to Sian saying that that wasn’t his plan and it was Bill being a dick. She turns to Toby with tear sin her eyes and says that she thought he was different and then begins crying again, once again Ben comforts her and starts leading her away again, he subtly turns back to the guys with a devilish grin and gives them all a wink. Bobbers has a massive grin on his face, Ross and Bill are just stood there both expressionless as ever whilst Toby is stood there in disbelief “Did that guy just join our club to pick up girls?” Toby asks Bobbers, to which he replies “Probably mate”, he gives Toby a pat on the back and offers for them to go to the pub Toby accepts….The gang are still yet to play a real game of tennis.

The next day at the office, Toby is sat at his desk typing away as usual. Katie walks over to him, Toby is somewhat calm when she arrives (compared to the usual jumping out of the skin). She asks how tennis club went with Sian, Toby tells her how things worked out and that she left with Ben. Katie is in shock, she then proceeds to tell Toby that Sian left her job and is now married but she didn’t know it was to someone like Ben. The two discuss a bit more about what happened at the last tennis club a bit more, surprisingly Toby then asks Katie if she wants to go get lunch with him, Katie is pleasantly surprised at this and she gladly accepts. Toby is definitely coming out of his shell a lot more now. 


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