Teenagers Jesse and Billy have been best friends/ brothers since elementary school. Jesse the basketball star and Billy, his sidekick that is also his coach Billy recognizes he may not be good at sports but he is always paying attention, watching and learning, and as time goes on, he gets a pretty good eye for basketball. He assists Jesse with his form as they play a little one on one with each other. Nothing could tear them apart from each other except the one thing they knew was coming but they didn’t see coming… life. They didn’t anticipate that once high school was over, they wouldn’t continue life together but a basketball scholarship took Jesse away and what is experienced as a breakdown of sorts makes Billy too unstable to do anything but watch Jesse from a distance. Even though Jesse always tries to visit when he is home from school Billy completely cuts him off. But like all tragedies something as simple as a night on the basketball court brings them together. Jesse wants to know why Billy walked away from their friendship and Billy wants to know how he could have walked. A coming-of-age story that reminds us to check on the people who have always leaned on us when life necessitates that the relationship must change. Some people adjust but for Billy he doesn’t see a world without the one person that gave him love and treated him like family, like a brother. It is a difficult existence when one feels like they don’t have a purpose.
Outlaws
(Scene opens with Jesse, an 18-year-old young man stands with a basketball looking at the net lining up for a shot. He does, misses. His frustration is clear. He lines up and shoots again, misses. Billy, another 18-year-old enters watching in silence, somber. Jesse shoots again and misses, rebounds the ball and slams is on the ground hard.)
Billy: Bro, don’t be mad at the ball, not it’s fault you’re sucking this morning.
Jesse: (Ignores grabs ball, bounces, shoots, misses) Shut up. Don’t say a word.
Billy: But-
Jesse: Nope, not one word.
Billy: One.
Jesse: Shhh. (they stare at each other in silence then Jesse cracks a small smile, Billy sees this, he knows he’s got him.) Fine, speak. (he breaks and goes up for a lay-up)
Billy: (now they play together, Billy is bad but Jesse likes the company) It’s your form man, it’s always been your form.
Jesse: (laughs) My form? Like mine, for real?
Billy: (Billy takes a very serious focused shot, misses, they laugh) Hey, I never proclaimed to be able to play. I’m the sidekick remember Jesse James.
Jesse: Sidekick… Billy the Kid. (they laugh) Billy the Kid would be so pissed if he heard you call him a “sidekick.” (Jesse laughs, Billy doesn’t)
Billy: I mean, I am your sidekick, right? (Billy needs this confirmation)
Jesse: (not looking at him, playing basketball around him then he stops and sees Billy needs this validation) Sidekick? Hell no, you’re not my sidekick
(Billy is disappointed, but Jesse comes back with energy and some nice courtside play with the ball. They have a nice moment of offence/ defense. Billy steals the ball, shoots and makes it. Maybe Jesse let him, but Billy doesn’t know. Billy shoots, makes it. They celebrate.)
Jesse: See, that’s not a sidekick, that’s a brother. (Beat) Could you imagine if Billy the Kid and Jesse James ever met back then, linked up on their horses- (Jesse “gets on a horse)
Billy: (without confidence) Yeah. Yeah, they met up and rode their horses into some western town and they- (he takes out his “gun” and kicks open the door, with an accent of some kind.) Nobody move, and we won’t have to hurt you.
