Game Time Decisions

EXT. HOME
A classic Domestic Sitcom establishing shot- two story home, an upbeat tune plays.

One of the fairy lights strung along the roof begins to blink. The upbeat tune fades out. 

We see a man in his mid thirties- IAN- exit from the front door as he calls out to someone in the house.

IAN
We’re not even going to be outside!

He stands on a chair to twist the bulb. The lights stop blinking. He goes back inside.

The string of lights fall. The upbeat tune plays again. 

INT. CAR
A couple in their late 20s- LAURA and LUKE are in the middle of a tense conversation.

LUKE
I’m not used to it.
My family doesn’t do this stuff.

LAURA
But you’ve done it with
us so many times.

LUKE
And I always get lost. You guys
like speak your own language. 

LAURA
Just don’t act... 

LUKE
Dumb?

LAURA
I wasn’t going to say...

Their conversation fades and the upbeat sitcom tune plays.

INT. APARTMENT
KAT- early thirties- runs around her place getting stuff together with the intensity of prepping for war.

She packs a bag with her laptop, an adapter, a notebook, an extra pair of socks. 

Her phone pings, a voice note from Laura.

LAURA (O.S.)
We got a baguette and a
couple of nice cheeses.

KAT
Fuck.

Sitcom tune...

INT. HOME
The inside of the house is different from the establishing shot- one story, your basic starter home but decorated in a way that shows the wife- GABBY- has good taste.

Gabby appears nervous, checking her phone for the time.

Ian enters and places a packing box on the table. Gabby empties it.

GABBY
I thought we had more. 

They look at the contents with puzzlement.

SHOT OF:
Three different color dice, a broken sand timer, two unsharpened miniature pencils, a few checkers.
And a couple of old dusty and broken game boxes.

A knock at the door followed by Kat entering with her backpack and half a bag of chips and opened salsa.

KAT
Are you guys drinking tonight?
I can’t decide if I want to drink. 

Gabby shakes her head, Ian shrugs. Kat walks over to the table of games.

KAT
So what game are we playing?
Ooh Scattegories...

EXT. FLASHBACK
Gabby and family playing Scattegories a few year back- in a heated debate over the answers. 

“LITTLE BIT DOES NOT COUNT AS A MEASUREMENT”

“THEN LEG LENGTH DOESN’T COUNT FOR DOUBLE”

Gabby is visibly upset at the lack of peace.

INT. STARTER HOME- PRESENT

GABBY
Something with black and white rules.

Another knock then Luke and Laura enter. 

KAT
Are you guys drinking tonight?

LAURA
Dry January.

KAT
Well that eliminates some games.

LAURA
I didn’t think we’d be playing pong...

KAT
I mean phone games like Picolo, or
Jackbox- I brought my laptop!

GABBY
No, tonight is a classic, old school
board game night.

Laura walks over to look at the board games. The girls discuss the options.

Luke and Ian eat chips, seemingly oblivious to the conversation going on.

IAN
(sarcastically)
There’s always charades.

INT. FLASHBACK
A scene where Luke first meets the family- all of them playing charades.
Gabby, Kat, and Laura constantly taking turns to go because they get each other’s clues right away. 

Ian- annoyed and used to it. While Luke is frantically trying to keep up- the sound of his heart beats as they let him have a turn.

As soon as he gets up to the front of the room he says “two words”.

The whole family yells at once “NO TALKING.” 

INT. STARTER HOME- PRESENT
Luke gulps. 

LUKE
I’m up for whatever. Uno?

LAURA
Did you even look at the games..

Laura gives him an annoyed look. 

GABBY
(to Laura)
At least he came up with a
suggestion. Ian wouldn’t even
decide what room to play in.

KAT
My imaginary boyfriend thinks
we should play in the living room.

GABBY
I think the dining room table
makes more sense.

LAURA
Living room is a cozier vibe…

A beat. Each person looks between the living room and dining room, as if they’re weighing a life-changing decision.

CUT TO:

Everyone sits around the dining room table.

KAT
Trivial pursuit?

The rest of the shrugs and shakes their heads. Kat folds her arms, annoyed she’s once again been outnumbered.

LAURA
Y’all know my vote.

LUKE
Pictionary?

LAURA
Seriously? Monopoly. I’ve told
you how much I like that game.

LUKE
Well pictionary is like charades--

KAT
--Monopoly is too long, anyways.

Ian eyes the monopoly board, like looking down an opponent.

INT. FLASHBACK
Ian’s big family plays monopoly. Utter mayhem- his older brothers form an alliance to have houses stacked up on each avenue.

Ian secretly steals money from the bank.

INT. PRESENT

GABBY
Babe? Can you answer me.
What game should we
order for next time?

IAN
Whatever you want.

KAT
What was that game we used
to play at Christmas?
Outburst! Get that.

LAURA
Or Sorry!

LUKE
Clue is one right?

Gabby is overwhelmed. She takes out her phone and starts looking up games to order- infinite options. 

She opens her friend group text and asks: “which game should I order?”

KAT
I have an idea. So we’re
deciding between phone games,
board games--

IAN
We have cards too.

KAT
Right so another category. There’s
this wheel spinner online where we put
in each of the categories and
let the wheel decide. 

Gabby, caught up in the texts of suggestions she’s receiving from friends, half listens.

GABBY
Sure fine.

KAT
Let’s hook up my laptop.

GABBY
Just do it on your phone.

KAT 
It’s fun on the big screen!

INT. LIVING ROOM
The group watches the wheel spinner with great anticipation on the TV. 

They’re all rooting for one (Kat- phone game, Laura- card game, Gabby- board game, Luke- anything but “misc.”

Ian doesn’t care but is proud of himself for hooking up the laptop to the TV.

As the sound of the wheel slows down, Laura closes her eyes with nerves.

INT. FLASHBACK
Various moments of game nights throughout the years- Laura never getting to choose because she’s the youngest. 

The seeker in hide and seek “you’re the youngest.”

A game where the rules are too confusing for her because it’s above her age range. 

“And guessing what the acronym A.G.A stands for.. American Gas Association, American Games Association, and.. A Girl Ape? Laura did you put a girl ape?”

Haunting laughter. 

INT. PRESENT
The wheel lands on Misc.- Kat sighs, Luke cheers, and Laura lets out an “ugh.”

LAURA
Can we please not do Pictionary?

KAT
That falls under board game

LAURA
There’s no board.
Wait- Luke why did you cheer?

LUKE
Because now charades and trivia
are eliminated. Look.

The screen shows the wheel spinner is down to three options.

KAT
It’s shouldn’t be elimination. 

GABBY
That makes no sense.

LUKE
Elimination kinda makes it fun though...

KAT
So elimination or choose?

The group looks at one another. Kat tinkers with the website.

Gabby checks her text message thread-there is now a poll going on in her group message of what game she should order.

KAT
It won’t let me change
settings so elimination it is.

The group watches the wheel spinner, screaming at the TV, cheering for what they want like watching the Kentucky Derby. Finally it lands on one. 

CUT TO:
A deck of cards in the middle of the table.

GABBY
Gin?

KAT
B.S?

LAURA
Go fish!

LUKE
Poker?

GABBY
Ooh I should get a poker set.

Gabby goes on her phone and adds a poker set to her shopping cart which is full of games she is narrowing down based on the poll in her group text and reddit threads.

Laura whispers to Luke to stop fidgeting, who is playing with the box filled with broken game pieces. 

He lets go of the dice in his hand, as Kat walks by to get a beer from the fridge. She goes wide-eyed.

KAT
Person who gets the highest roll of
the dice chooses the card game!

EXT. FLASHBACK

A family game night that feels like a PTSD flashback. A younger Kat and her team are deciding what answer to choose for a Family Feud board game.
The team wants to go with one answer, but Kat is so sure of hers that they go with it.

“Wrong.”

Kat reacts as if she just watched her troop die after sending them on her planned out military operation.

INT. PRESENT
The camera follows the dice that rolls along the table, then to the ground. A six. 

Pan up to show it was Ian’s roll. Aka the person who has not made a single decision all night.

IAN
Uh. So you guys said poker and B.S?

GABBY
Why don’t you do one you want to do?

IAN
President?

A collective groan, no one wants to sit through an explanation of the game they don’t know. 

Ian starts doing “eeenie meenie minie moe”, pointing at Luke and Laura.

KAT
What the fuck are you doing?

IAN
Laura is poker, Luke is Gin.

LAURA
Just flip a coin.

IAN
Babe where are our coins?

GABBY
We’re doing president. It will be
good to learn a game for our new
traditional game night.

While Ian explains the rules, many questions are asked, and many tangents are made in the monotony of it- like white noise that ends up fueling thoughts. 

A sister gossips leading to a rabbit hole of a conversation that Luke tries to follow.

LUKE
So that girl you accidentally followed
on instagram, at a wedding,
with her ex boyfriend’s phone?

SISTERS
(all at once)
Ex friend’s boyfriend. 

A beat. They look to Ian who seems winded already.

GABBY
Let’s do a play as you go round.

Throughout the game, they continue to chat. Speaking about the card magic tricks their dad does, old school solitaire on the computer, someone mentions a time they played strip poker in high school which leads to…

KAT
You know what’s a fun game? Me
and my high school friends do “headbands” sometimes- where you
write down a name and put it on the
forehead of the person to next to you.

Everyone except Ian nods with excitement. Laura cleans up the card game, Ian whimpers at his lost work.

Gabby gets pens and post-it’s while Kat continues to explain.

KAT
You ask yes or no questions about
yourself. We used to narrow it down to people who went to our high school.
Ya know- am I teacher? Did any of
our friends hook up with me? 

LAURA
But we can’t do high school
or friends specific with us.

GABBY
Let’s just say anyone.

LAURA
Anyone?

KAT
Yeah like celebrity, historical,
people we all know.

It takes everyone a long time to decide who to write down. At one point someone write’s Luke’s card but Laura says he won’t know them, so they have to change. 

At another point Ian tries to cheat by looking in the mirror.

Eventually everyone has a card taped to their head and it’s very diverse-
a mutual friend, JFK, The Golden Bachelor, Dennis Rodman, and Miley Cyrus. 

Over 40 minutes later...

Things are contentious as the last two people cannot figure out their person. Some people want to do a new round, some want to keep going. The couples fight over the clues they give.

Finally it ends.

LAURA
We need to narrow down
the category this round. 

GABBY
Actors?

Kat and Laura nod. Ian and Luke give each other a look.

They all write down their choice- moving quicker this time. 

Everyone’s post it is on their head. They look around at one another. 

GABBY
You’re joking.

Each person has “Tom Hanks’ written on their forehead. 

Sitcom music as we fade out.