Watercolors Page #6

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Lane 5.

It's his first event,

so he's fresh, too.

They all seem so tall.

Don't any short boys swim?

What does that mean?

False start.

He's okay as long as

he doesn't do it again.

He's nervous.

Come on, Carter.

I know you can do it.

Well, it's not his stroke.

Come on, come on, come on.

Second.

What do you want?

Is everything okay?

You weren't in English class today.

Nope, everything is totally

f***ed up.

Everybody thinks you did fine.

I don't.

Well, did you see the school

newspaper? Your picture's in it.

Great. That's f***ing great.

Are you coming over later?

I don't think so.

How come?

Because I don't feel like sitting

around naked for you today.

All right?

I got better f***ing things to do.

I'm finished

with the drawings anyway.

I just thought

you might like to see them.

Look, we need

to cool things off, okay?

Can't you tell you're f***ing up

my whole performance.

You sure those pills

don't have anything to do with it?

Shut the f*** up!

What do you know?

You think you know me?

You don't know me!

You don't know anything!

Yeah, sure.

I don't know anything.

But at least I know how I feel.

I wish I never f***ing met you!

You f***ed everything up for me!

- What the hell did I do?

- I didn't want any of this!

You're hurting me! Let go!

You're trying to change me!

Get off of me!

Get the f*** out of here then!

- Go!

- Why are you acting like this?

Are you f***ing deaf?

Not now.

Carter, listen.

Life's going to be handing you

a lot more disappointments than this.

And don't think

I'm going to let you sit in there.

...and feel sorry for yourself

after what happened today, all right?

Thanks, Dad!

I really appreciate that!

Hey! Toughen up!

Oh, great! Sure!

Right Away!

You can't prove it.

Are you kidding?

It's obvious.

Oh, all right.

Then for argument's sake,

let's say Danny wrote it.

What are you going to do, Robert?

Fail them both?

I can't believe I'm hearing you

say this to me.

Danny is a brilliant artist.

You said yourself he's one

of your brightest students.

You want to spoil all that for him?

And Carter...

Carter is hanging on by a thread.

Do you want to devastate him?

- Are you suggesting I do nothing?

- I'm not saying that.

Give the kid a makeup exam

or something.

And I should compromise

my integrity...

...the integrity of my class,

for what exactly?

What's your definition of integrity?

Doesn't it include

doing what you know is right.

...for your fellow man?

Oh, please.

Oh, please?

Robert, these kids are crazy

about each other.

They cheated.

If I ignore this,

what does it say about fairness?

Fairness? No such thing.

You found that...

we all found that out in the '60s.

So I should play Dolly Levy now?

How did you and Nancy meet?

That's irrelevant.

Come on.

How did you meet her?

My freshman year at Columbia.

Right. She was

your French professor.

12 years older than you

and a white woman.

I know where you're going with this

and I'm telling you it's just not...

You didn't fail French,

did you, Robert?

Oh, and by the way,

how is your French these days?

One thing has nothing to do

with the other.

Nobody wanted to be called

a racist.

So whatever problems you had

with the schoolwork...

...they let it pass.

That wasn't fair, was it?

Let me ask you something.

Did you do all of your own

French homework, Robert?

Carter, would you have

a seat, please?

I asked you to stay

because I was grading your essay.

...and I couldn't help but notice

it's a marked improvement.

...over anything

you've submitted so far.

Well, I've been studying

with an English tutor.

It's helped out a lot.

In fact, it's such

a significant improvement...

I'm forced to question

its authorship.

What?

I'm certain you didn't write it.

Danny wrote it and signed

your name to it, didn't he?

Did he say that to you?

Come on, Carter!

I'm not a complete fool.

I know Danny's work and his style...

...and what's more,

I know your work and your style.

Why don't you just admit to it?

No, I'm not going

to admit to anything.

You're a bright

and gifted young man.

I can't understand

why you would risk this.

What, did he threaten you

or something?

No. No, of course not.

He was just falling too far behind.

I wanted to help him pass.

What's going to happen to him?

Danny, do yourself a favor.

...and stop worrying about

what's going to happen to Carter.

...and start worrying about

what's going to happen to you.

I had a long talk

with Mr. Frank this morning.

As you might have guessed,

I don't much like Mr. Frank.

And I certainly didn't appreciate

what he had to tell me.

So I'll ask you one simple question.

Is it true?

I got an English tutor like you said,

but it was just still too hard.

I wanted to swim in the finals...

I warned you.

No funny business on my squad.

And when it came down to it...

...you didn't show me much

out there, did you?

Clean out your locker.

Are you planning

on avoiding me forever?

Never talking to me again?

Is that it?

Or are we not far away

from school yet?

You a**hole.

They threw me off the team.

How could you do that to me?

Why didn't you just say

you didn't write the thing?

He already knew!

Yeah, well, you know what?

Just stay the hell away from me.

I don't ever want to see you again.

You're blaming this on me?

The whole thing was your idea.

Why didn't you just say

you didn't write it?

- That's all you had to do.

- He already knew!

Get lost.

I told you to leave me

the hell alone.

You're up early, I see.

I'm feeling motivated

all of a sudden.

What do you think?

Yeah, it's just not the same

when you change the scale, is it?

What am I doing wrong?

Wrong? Nothing, Danny.

You just... You just don't know

your subject yet.

I don't know my subject?

What does that mean?

Well, it's obvious, really.

I mean, you think you know it.

And to some extent, you do.

But only superficially.

You know, you can

get away with that.

with the smaller drawings.

But this work is asking

something more of you.

The scale demands it.

Demands what?

Well, only you can answer that.

I want to be able to come back

to this piece again and again...

...and every time, I want to see

something new in it.

That'll come when you paint

the essence of your subject.

That thing that sets it apart

from the rest of the world.

Watch your head.

Lift it up a little bit.

Down.

1, 2...

Carter?

Route 2,

we got a patient...

Excuse me, Sir, are you family?

Family only. I'm sorry.

- What hospital are you taking him to?

- Sagmore General.

Get back to class.

Come on, back to class.

There's nothing to see here.

It's okay.

Are you still mad at me?

They're done running tests.

I had to wait around for them

to poke and jab at me.

Did they say

when you can come home?

I don't know.

They didn't like

my toxicology report.

I won't be allowed to swim again.

Anywhere.

Come on.

It's not the end of the world.

How can you say that?

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