Major Project: Tennis Club episode 4: The Fiance

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's sister Elsie announces she's getting engaged to someone Toby's never met (he's obviously pretty pissed off about this). She invites Toby to dinner to meet this new guy but Toby has seen this guy before and knows him very well. Below are my notes on the episode.

Tennis Club – Episode 4: The Fiance

Toby is at work (it’s around 12:30), he’s doing his usual thing, just typing into his computer minding his own business, suddenly his phone starts buzzing, the caller id shows that it’s Elsie calling, unlike Toby’s normal hesitant to answer attitude that he’s usually taken when talking to Elsie, this time he picks it up almost straight away. Elise is quite surprised that he answered in general never mind quickly, she proceeds to ask him if he’s free to go for dinner tonight. Toby actually agrees much to Elsie’s surprise, she asks if he’s feeling alright. Toby says he’s feeling alright and there’s nothing that’s changed within him. However since Toby’s joined the tennis club a lot has changed with him, he’s more talkative than he used to be, he’s come out of his shell a lot more plus he’s made some new friends (despite them being some of the shittiest friends you can come across). Regardless Toby agrees to meet Elsie for dinner in the evening and hangs up.

Katie then does her usual thing and starts to hang around Toby’s desk. She points out that Toby Is quite close with his sister, considering he never used to talk to anyone. Toby tells her that she’s the only family he’s got left, since their parents died. Katie shows her condolences but Toby tells her not to worry about it as it happened quite a while ago. Katie asks if it’s anything important or if there a reason his sister called him out there, Toby just assumes that it’s a regular catch up sort of thing just to see how he’s doing, probably won’t be anything important.

Cut to the restaurant and Toby’s surprised face “YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED?!”. Elsie smiles and waves her hand at him showing off her wedding ring. Toby gets a little frustrated and asks why she didn’t even tell him she had a boyfriend.  She points out that it was facebook official but he gets into more of a huff because he doesn’t have facebook. He’s still hung up that she didn’t even tell him she met someone, she is his only family after all, he points out that she used that reason so many times with him and  starts calling her a hypocrite. She tells him to calm down, and apologises. She tells him that he should come round for dinner to meet him, according to her he’s a real nice guy, a little quiet at times but he means really well. Toby takes all this into consideration, if she’s happy it’s okay, he sighs and agrees to meeting him for dinner. Elsie is really happy and gives Toby a hug. She suddenly gets a phone call and says she has to rush off, leaving Toby with the bill which he doesn’t look to happy about, she quickly rushes back and taps Toby on the shoulder and tells him “Oh and bring a girl it will be a double date afterall” before running off again. Toby seems unpleasantly surprised he definitely wasn’t expecting that.

Toby gets off the bus fully dressed in tennis gear, the usual wasteland where tennis comes to be killed or mutated into some other weird sport. Two people are standing in the usual spot but not the same two people. Bobbers is there as always but it’s not Ross that’s with him today it’s Bill! (the tall old pervy guy from the last episode) Toby is a little surprised, he asked why Bill was there, Bobbers says that Bill liked it so much last time that he’s decided to take part in all club activities, Toby doesn’t seem to enthusiastic about him being there but at least it’s another club member. Toby asks Bobbers for the spray paint, he chucks it at Toby who proceeds to spray it on the ground. The can sprays about 15 centimetres worth before running out. Toby sighs “ well it was fun while it lasted” Bobbers says that they can just get another one by next week and offers Toby a game of “wall-tennis”. Toby doesn’t even care that they haven’t even played Tennis yet, het just agrees and picks up the cheap poundland plastic tennis bat and proceeds to play with Bobbers. Bobbers offers Bill a racket but he just stands there staring at Bobbers and doesn’t reply, few seconds of silence and eye contact between Bobbers and Bill, Toby looks at the two guys just standing there silently as if they’re having a staring contest. Bobbers then comes back to life saying that Bill probably won’t play, and so Toby and Bobbers play their game of wall tennis. Bobbers notices that Toby looks kinda down and asks it everything’s alright, Toby mentions about his sister and the double date that he needs to bring a girl too. Bobbers suggests bringing someone from the office, Toby straight out refuses, he may be coming out of his shell but that still doesn’t mean that he likes anyone in that shithole, he also brings up the last time he took someone from the office out (Sian) and reminds Bobbers that she ended up hating him and married with a 70 year-old man. Bobbers mentions that he got invited to the wedding, Toby gets slightly offended that he wasn’t invited but Bobbers reminds him that Sian hated him which kinda puts him at ease. Bobbers asks if there’s anyone at all that he’s friends with that could go with him, Toby starts thinking to himself, he takes his eye off the game and gets hit in the face with the tennis ball, Bobbers claims the point and carries on the match despite Toby’s pain.

In the office Katie is sitting at her desk typing away on her computer, on the desk is a picture of her at her graduation, a couple of stuffed animals and a bobble-head of Enrique Iglesias, it’s safe to say that this desk has a lot more personality to it compared to Toby’s desk. Toby slowly walks over, he looks like he’s trying to build up courage for something. He awkwardly puts his elbow on the side of her cubicle and greets her really awkwardly. She’s quite surprised that he’s actually here, he’s never walked over to her desk before, she asks him what’s up and that he looks kinda constipated. Toby awkwardly just says he wanted to chat, but because he’s never come to Katie’s desk before she knows he wants something else and asks him what it is. Toby breaths out and tells her about his sister being engaged and what not and that he needs to bring a girl to the dinner, considering she’s the only girl he talks to he asks her if she wants to go with him. The ball is in Katie’s court now. Let the teasing begin. She starts to ask why she should go with him considering he’s never gone to anything she’s invited him to? Toby starts to stutter, he wasn’t expecting this. He says he’s sorry and asks again, after more teasing Katie accepts and Toby says he’ll meet her somewhere and they can get a cab together. Just as Toby leaves Katie calls out “Be Gentle with me” catching the offices attention, everyone in the office give Toby strange looks.

It’s the night of the Dinner date. Toby and Katie turn up outside a nice house with a drive. Katie is pretty amazed that Toby’s sister can afford this place, he explains that it was left to them by their parents but Toby used the money that was left to him to buy a nice apartment, the only reason that he has the job that he works in now is to pay the bills, other than that he says that he’s living pretty comfortably. They walk up to the front door and ring the doorbell and Katie asks what this guy that his sister is engaged to is like, Toby explains that he hasn’t met him before but his sister seems to like him so it can’t be too bad. Someone comes to answer the door, Toby is expecting a tall sleek man who looks charming (and maybe slightly Mediterranean), but this is not the case. The person who opens the door is someone Toby recognises, it’s the fat shit that we’ve seen many times before. Ross’ smile when he opens the door turns into a surprised yet terrified look, he asks what Toby is doing here, Toby asks the same thing. Elsie then appears behind Ross and greets Katie and Toby and introduces Ross her fiancé, Toby and Ross don’t break eye-contact, Toby’s eye is slightly twitching while a drip of sweat rolls down Ross’ face. Katie and Elsie are really unsure what’s going on here, Elsie invites Katie in for a drink, she accepts and walks into the house leaving the guys still standing there. Toby asks Ross aggressively when he was planning on telling him that he’s been dating his sister, Ross insists that he didn’t know that the two were related, Toby calls bullshit saying that there’re photos of him in the house, Ross says that he didn’t seen any, Toby points at one within about two seconds. Ross turns to see it “ Oh yeah, must have missed that”. Elise starts calling out from the kitchen asking if the guys are coming inside, Toby shouts back saying he’ll be in right away, he walks past Ross and whispers “this is not over”, Ross takes a massive gulp and walks through the door.

The four are sat around the dinner table, and there’s an awkward silence, all that can be heard is the cutlery. Toby is sat opposite Ross, who is pretty terrified at the moment at the man giving him a death stare from across the table. Katie compliments Elise’s cooking, Elsie welcomes the compliment and it falls back into silence. Katie then asks how Ross and Elsie met, Elise explains that it was in the supermarket and they were both buying the same food as eachother, they got talking and just hit it off from there, Elsie goes on to explain that they have only been seeing each other for a couple of months, Katie points out that a couple of months isn’t a long time before deciding to get married but Elsie explains that she felt that there is a connection between the two of them which is why they decided to get engaged so soon. Elise turns her attention to Toby who has been sitting silently and cutting the same piece of steak for 2 minutes now, she tells Toby that Ross is also into a lot of sports. Toby takes this opportunity to try and catch Ross out, he asks what kind of sports Ross plays. Ross uneasily lists a couple of sports, and at the end mentions tennis. The mention of tennis catches a nerve with Toby, he starts questioning Ross about tennis like where does he play, Ross simply answers “on a court” Toby starts getting louder now he says “I haven’t seen you play on a court or even play for that matter” Katie tells Toby to calm down, Elsie is a bit confused as asks if Toby and Ross know eachother, Toby passes the question to Ross who starts stuttering. Suddenly the front door swings open and Bobbers walks in, he seems in a party mood, Toby’s anger is now mixed in with confusion, Elsie asks who he is and why he is in her house, Bobbers explains that Ross texted him saying that Toby was round and everyone was having a party so I decided to come along. Bobbers then questions why neither Ross nor Toby have mentioned him to Elise considering they both know him. Ross explains to Bobbers that he just texted him that Toby is round and angry, there were no instructions to come to the dinner. Toby then gets angry at Bobbers, as he knew that Ross is was together with his sister, Elise tells everyone to calm down and explain what’s happening here, at this point Toby snaps, and goes into a blind rage he explains to Elsie that Ross and Bobbers are part of the tennis club which he told her about, he then goes on to point the finger at everyone round the table, he note that he’s angry at Elsie for not telling him about her boyfriend, angry at Ross for dating his sister and angry at Bobbers because he knew all along about what was wrong. Toby storms out after that and Katie follows, Elise starts crying and runs upstairs to her room that just leaves  Bobbers and Ross in the dining room together. Bobbers asks if they’ll be having dinner at all, Ross says they probably won’t, Bobbers shrugs and tucks into the meals which have already been slightly eaten.

Toby has stormed off out of the house, Katie is chasing him and trying to calm him down. He turns to her and says that he’s been left in the dark for everything, and continues to say this is why he didn’t want to talk to people, they always fuck you over, he just wants to be alone. Toby tries to walk away once more but Katie grabs him by the hand and sets him straight by saying if he goes back to his house he will go back to what he used to be, a loner with no friends who will be alone for the rest of his life, she says she doesn’t want that for him and that she likes the new Toby because he seems to be having fun with people even though they can be dickheads that make mistakes. Toby quiets down, Katie says she’s going home because he needs to sort things out with Elsie and Ross. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and walks off, leaving Toby on the drive by himself.

Elsie is crying in her room on the bed, a small knock comes from the door and Toby enters. He’s calmed down a lot after his chat with Katie. He apologises to Elsie about making a scene, she also apologises for not telling him about dating Ross. It falls silent for a moment, she asks Toby if he feels uncomfortable about her and Ross being together, he takes a pause and says that it’s not his decision who his sister dates, and that if she feels like her and Ross have something going on then it’s none of his concern, they both smile and hug all is restored. Toby goes to leave the room but before he goes Elsie points out that Toby hasn’t hugged her in 7 years, Toby turns back and says he probably won’t from now on, as she smells a bit like Ross now and that makes him feel really uncomfortable. He closes the door and Elsie chuckles to herself.

Toby comes downstairs to find Ross and Bobbers sitting at the dining table, Bobbers is still tucking into the remainder of the steaks that were left by the majority of people, Ross stands up ready for a blasting from Toby. Toby walks around the table towards Ross, Bobbers perks up complimenting Elsie’s cooking, as Toby passes him he slaps Bobbers round the head, he walks over to Ross who apologises for everything, Toby doesn’t say anything just gives him a firm handshake and as he goes in to pat Ross on the back he whispers into his ear “if you do anything to her that’ll make her upset I’ll fucking kill you”. Toby pulls away with a smile on his face, Ross on the other hand looks like he’s about to shit his pants. Toby says that he’s leaving and grabs Bobbers (who is still munching away at the free steak) by the collar leading him away from the table, he walks out the front door with his hands in his pockets looking like a badass. Bobbers and Ross look on as he walks down the drive. Ross compliments Toby saying he looks like a badass, Bobbers agrees. They then watch as Toby trips over and falls on his side, he cries in pain screaming about his ankle. Ross looks at him sympathetically and says to Bobbers that they should probably help him, Bobbers nods, puts his hand on Ross’ shoulder and says “Right you call the ambulance, I’m gonna get myself some more steak” - end