Ready Kids › On Your Own, Out There › Badge 2 › Lesson 2.1
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Vapes, drink, pills
Know what actually gets offered at thirteen and by whom, and have a refusal line that sounds like you.
1Watch
The park, after
The park, after
Five kids on a bench at dusk. One takes out a vape, has a go, passes it left. It goes along the bench and arrives at the last kid, held out. The film ends on the hand.
22 secondsNobody in that film thinks they are doing anything much. Watch how ordinary it looks.
2The idea
It will be a friend
Not a stranger at the school gate. Not a dealer. The first time you are offered a vape, a drink or a pill it will be somebody you like, somewhere you already are, and it will be casual. It will come mid-sentence. The offer being casual is the entire difficulty.
That is why the lecture version never helped anybody. Everybody already knows the stuff is bad for you. What nobody teaches is the four seconds on the bench, with the thing held out and four people not quite watching. You do not need a speech for that. You need one short line and no pause before it.
3The idea
What is actually on the bench
Vapes: one disposable can hold as much nicotine as a packet of cigarettes, sometimes more, and nicotine gets its hooks into a brain that is still growing faster than into a finished one. Drink: one drink at thirteen hits harder than one at thirty, because you weigh less and have no idea where your limit is.
Pills: you cannot tell what is in a pill by looking at it, and neither can the person handing it to you. It’s just a painkiller is something people say because it is what they were told. None of this is a lecture. It is the three facts the person offering probably does not know.
4Look
What you cannot tell by looking
Three things on a kitchen counter
A disposable vape, an open can, and one loose white pill on a kitchen counter, nothing else in the frame.
The packaging looks like a shop. That is the only reason anybody believes they know what is in any of it.
5The idea
Watch it work once
The bench. The vape arrives in your hand, held out. No pause: Nah, I’m good, and you pass it straight on to the left, so it keeps moving and you are not holding it. Somebody might say, go on. Same line, same shrug. Then you say something about anything else. The conversation carries on.
That is the whole thing. Short, about you, no reason given unless you want one, and no explaining. Later tonight, one sentence to a parent: got offered a vape at the park, said no. That is Tell tonight. You do not have to name who, and you are not in trouble for being on the bench.
6Decide
Where does the first offer actually come from?
Pick one to carry on.
7Build it
Four offers, three refusals each
Four offers
Four short scenes: a vape on the bench, a drink at a house, a pill that is just a painkiller, a bottle passed back in a car. For each one you pick from three refusal lines, hear it said in your own voice, and see how the scene carries on. Every line works. Some feel more like you.
Notice which one you picked most. That is your line.
8Find them
Which of these are true?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 3.
9Say it
The line
Say it like you are turning down a crisp
“Nah, I'm good.”
Three words and a shrug. You will need it on a bench, at dusk, with four people watching.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Pick one refusal line. Say it out loud ten times to a mirror or a parent, until it sounds like something you would say about a crisp. If it still sounds like a speech, pick a shorter one.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
The first offer comes from a friend, and it comes casually. Have your line ready before it does.
Next lesson: Refusing without losing the room