“The Magical Marvelous Magnificent Club,” Friend, June 2014, 24–25
The Magical Marvelous Magnificent Club
The author lives in Massachusetts, USA.
Looking for something fun to do this summer? Why not put on a play? All you need is some friends or family to help you out!
Scene One
[Mariah, Molly, Max, and Miles enter.]
Mariah: I love summer.
Molly: The ice cream!
Max: The swimming pools!
Miles: The sunshine!
Mariah: And no school. This summer is going to be the best ever!
Molly: What should we do first?
Max: We should start a club.
Miles: Yes! Clubs are the best. We can make badges—
Molly: And a clubhouse!
Max: And make up a secret password!
Mariah: We can call it the Mariah, Molly, Max, and Miles club. Hey, all our names start with M!
Molly: That can be part of the club—your name has to start with an M to join. We can call it the M Club!
Max: The Marvelous M Club!
Miles: The Marvelous Magnificent M Club!
Mariah: The Magical Marvelous Magnificent Club!
Molly: This is going to be the best club ever.
Max: And the best summer! [Molly, Max, and Miles exit. Simon enters from the other direction.]
Simon: Hi, Mariah.
Mariah: Hi, Simon. Excited for the summer?
Simon: Yeah! Do you have any plans?
Mariah: Well, Molly and Miles and Max and I just formed a club, and it’s probably going to be the best club ever. It’s called the Magical Marvelous Magnificent Club.
Simon: Wow! That sounds really cool. Can I join? I could bring some of my favorite books for the clubhouse.
Mariah: Sorry. Only people whose names start with the letter M can be in the club.
Simon: You mean I can’t join your club just because my name is Simon and not Mimon? That doesn’t seem very fair.
Mariah: I’m sorry, but club rules are club rules.
Simon: OK. Well, have a good summer. [Simon walks off, looking sad. Mariah goes the other direction, after Molly, Miles, and Max.]
Scene Two
[Max, Mariah, Molly, and Miles are sitting around their clubhouse.]
Molly: Majestic!
Miles: Memorable!
Molly: Majestic!
Miles: Memorable!
Molly: Mariah, which do you think sounds better? The Magical Marvelous Magnificent Majestic Club, or the Magical Marvelous Magnificent Memorable Club?
Mariah: I don’t really care.
Max: What about amazing?
Molly: That doesn’t start with an M.
Max: It can if you say the uh part really soft. Uh-Mazing. See?
Miles: Mariah, why aren’t you helping think up more M words for the club name? Is something wrong?
Mariah: Simon asked if he could be in the club.
Molly: You told him no, right? Because his name doesn’t start with an M.
Mariah: I told him no, but it didn’t make me feel very good. Don’t you think we should include everyone?
Miles: It might be more fun that way.
Max: Simon is a really good friend.
Molly: Simon probably doesn’t want to be part of our club anymore. It’s not as fun as I thought it would be.
Max: There really isn’t much to do.
Miles: We argued about the name, made up a secret password, and made a clubhouse. What do we do now?
Mariah: Maybe our club would be better if we weren’t just thinking about ourselves all the time.
Molly: You mean make a club to help other people?
Miles: I like it!
Max: I think it’s a great idea!
Mariah: And I know just who we can start with.
[All exit]
Scene Three
[Mariah, Miles, Molly, and Max sneak on stage. They set notes in various places, making a trail of notes across the stage. They all exit. Simon enters. He sees the first note and picks it up.]
Simon: What’s this? [Reads it out loud.] “Simon, you are always so kind to everyone you meet. I’m glad you’re my friend.” [Simon smiles.] I wonder where that note came from. [He takes a few more steps and finds another.] Here’s another one! “Simon, you are really smart, and I admire how hard you work in school.” [He looks up and sees the trail of notes.] All these nice notes are about me! I wonder who left them.
Mariah: [entering with Miles, Molly, and Max] We did!
Simon: Oh. Was this part of your moldable, magnetic, macho club that I can’t join?
Molly: Actually, you can, if you still want to.
Max: We decided to change the club rules so that everyone can join, no matter what letter their name starts with.
Simon: Really? But why’d you leave me all the notes?
Max: We want our club to be about more than just us. From now on, our club is all about doing nice things for other people.
Miles: We’re going to pick up trash at the park—
Molly: And make cards for the nursing home down the street—
Max: And cook dinner for someone in the neighborhood!
Molly: So what do you think? Want to join our new and improved club?
Simon: You bet I do!
Mariah: Then welcome to the official first meeting of the Kindness Club, dedicated to making the neighborhood a better place, one good deed at a time!
Max: But can we still have a secret password?
The end