Josh Paterson and Michael Compton

Treatment

Housing estate-Midday Josh knocks on the door of a white, two-storey house. Michael answers the door with a stupid grin on his face. Josh asks Michael if he is ready for something unspecified to which Michael responds positively (yeah). Michael and Josh immediately start walking down the middle of the street in slow motion; Josh with a pretend nonchalant look on his face while Michael continues with his stupid grin. Michael is unaware of him leaving his door open; his highly stressed mum does it for him. Josh and Michael are walking down the street when Josh trips and stumbles, both are laughed at by a group of youths. Josh tells Michael to keep going (Josh is red, Michael is chuckling). Soon afterwards a car screeches to a halt and both friends look shocked. The driver verbally abuses the friends and they quickly walk away from the street, looking scared. Children’s park-Midday The two friends walk into the park constantly being aware of whatever is behind them (in case of the angry driver). Josh spots a group of kids their age and tells Michael to act cool. Michael’s grin disappears and he tries a bad imitation of Josh’s bad imitation of nonchalant. They saunter towards the group. The ring leader immediately makes it clear that they are not welcome. Josh tries to act like they are joking but Michael has gotten distracted by something red. When told that nobody was joking Josh asks why. A girl in the group suddenly explains that Josh is a typical nerd with a bad attitude and Michael is really stupid. Michael immediately snaps to attention and asks a very stupid question. He is answered with contempt and the two friends walk away. Soon after, Josh tells Michael that it is true nobody likes them and that they need to find a group of friends. This paves the way for the rest of the story.