English

1. VIDEO: Lawrence telling us how he’s feeling (Scripts are at the end of the document)

2. READING
I thought, she knows I know, and I know she knows I know. I expected her to have a little talk with me, which is what usually happens in our house if there're any problems, but she never said a thing about it. She was scared . . . You see? Chicken.
My sister Gill came home later and we satand watched TV and ate crisps together, but I never said anything to her about it. She's two years older than me and she's always giving me advice about girls. Once I said to her, 'What do you know about girls?'
And she said, 'I am a girl.'
‘Not a proper one,' I said.
She got up in a huff. 'Can't you take anything seriously?' she snapped.
'Only if it's worth it,' I said, and she rolled her eyesand stamped out. But I was being serious, she doesn't know anything about girls, not the kind of girls I want to go out with. The kind of girls I want to go out with would like me talking like that.


3. VIDEO: Mum

4. READING: Extract from Lawrence’s diary.

I once caught my mum and dad having sex, you know. I went into the room without knocking and she was sitting on top of him. Ihadn't thought at the time, but looking back I could hear her making pleased-sounding noises before I went in. I didn't really know what it was at the time, but Gill told me. She said it must have been. It didn't look anything like what she was doing with this other bloke, though.
The day after I saw her and Nigel Turner, I remember standing by my bedroom window, which is above the kitchen, lookingdown into the garden where they'd been and saying to myself, 'She has a lover,' but I still couldn't make it as though it had really happened. I said, 'Sandra,' to myself. We always called her Mum. Even though that woman down there with her blouse open had been my mum, it wasn't the same person who cooked and worked and shopped and woke up every morning smelling of Dad.
When I was younger, a fewyears ago, I used to try to see my mum with nothing on. I used to peep through the keyhole of the bedroom . . . well, I'd never seen a real woman in the nude. I hadn't done it for years, but now I wanted to see her like that again. I was handing the dishes to her after dinner a few days later. I was


fed up thinking about it whenever I saw her. She still hadn't said anything to me. She wasbending over, putting the plates in the Dishwasher and I was looking at her back. I was wondering what was it that made

Nigel Turner so turned on? She had on this slightly transparent blouse - you could see her bra strap under it, and where the flesh squeezed out on either side. I reached down, I took the strap in my fingers and I snapped it.
She looked up at me as if I'd hit her. 'What did you dothat for, Lawrence?' she exclaimed.
I shrugged. 'I dunno.' Well, I didn't know . . . I just did it
She scowled; she was really furious. She stood up and yelled in my face, 'You're not to do that to me again. Do you understand?' 'Yeah, sure, so what?'
Then she stamped off out of the room. I was really angry. It was just a joke. It didn't mean anything, it was a joke. Maybe I did it harder thanI'd meant to. I thought she should be grateful to me really. I could have said something if I'd wanted. I thought, what would happen if I told my dad?


5. AUDIO (NO VIDEO): Around the dinner table

6. READING: EXTRACT FROM Lawrence’s diary

Of course, I got the little talk then. Then she was right up the stairs, my mum, telling me how it wasn't my fault, but it was all too late then,wasn't it? Anyway, she was only saying that, she never believed it. Gill thought it was my fault all right, she never stopped going on about it. Mum and Dad were always saying how it wasn't my fault at all, but even they say I should have spoken to Mum about it first. But I never let it out, did I? I didn't actually say anything about it.
They were down there for ages. We never did get our pudding....