- Jo Polniaczek: Tootie, that stuff is imported! Do you know how much it costs a pound?
- Edna Garrett: Jo, she's not giving it away.
- Jo Polniaczek: Yes she is.
- Edna Garrett: Tootie! Do you know how much this stuff costs a pound?
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: How much horseradish mustard, dill mustard, peppercorn mustard, lemon mustard...
- Jeff Williams: Wait a minute, wait a minute, slow down!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Okay, how much horseradish mustard?
- Jeff Williams: I don't know, Tootie, they all look the same to me.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Jeff come on, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 jars of horseradish mustard. What's the matter with you, can't you read?
- [Jeff walks away from her]
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Jeff?
- Jeff Williams: Hey reading's not my thing, okay?
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Jeff, this doesn't make sense, you're a senior in high school and you can't read?
- Jeff Williams: Look I'm into football, coach says I shouldn't get distracted.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Distracted?
- Jeff Williams: I got a lot of pressure on me. You said it yourself, I AM the football team. Now we're going for a championship and got scouts from 9 colleges looking at me, not everybody can say that.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Maybe not but everyone can read!
- Jeff Williams: I can read. I don't walk in places through the exit. I don't sit on wet paint. I've never ended up in the ladies room, I can read enough.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Alright, then read this. What's this?
- Jeff Williams: Horseradish mustard.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: It's Hollandaise sauce!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Jeff this doesn't make sense, how do you get through school without being able to read? How do you pass your tests?
- Jeff Williams: Look, people think I'm special, and they want to do things for me.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: People cheat for you?
- Jeff Williams: Look, it's not cheating, it's helping! Look I take my own tests, I get copies of them and my friends look up the answers, but I memorize them! Just like I do with my play book.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: And nobody knows about it?
- Jeff Williams: If they do, they haven't said anything to me.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Don't you want to know how to read?
- Jeff Williams: Of course, and I will, I will, but right now they're offering me the chance to be the best quarterback in the whole country. I have to make the most of that.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: ...I guess.
- Natalie Green: It's obvious why you're upset, next fall Jeff will be going off to college and you're worried he'll forget about you. But don't worry, he'll write.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: No he won't.
- Natalie Green: He will if you write first and ask him lots of questions. Then he has to.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Not if he can't read my letter!
- Natalie Green: Come on Tootie, you have neater handwriting than John Hancock.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: This has nothing to do with my handwriting!
- Edna Garrett: Tootie, are you saying Jeff has a problem with reading?
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: I babysit for kids who can read better than he can!
- Natalie Green: Wait a minute, that can't be right. How has he gotten so far in school if he can't read? How does he pass all his tests?
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: His friends help him. They give him the answers and he memorizes them.
- Edna Garrett: His friends, some friends.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Mrs. Garrett...
- Edna Garrett: I'm sorry but that really steams me! These so called friends aren't helping him at all, they're cheating him out of his future!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Look you don't understand!
- Edna Garrett: I understand plenty! Those people don't give a damn about him; Jeff is a star football player, that's all they care, that's all that matters to them.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Mrs. Garrett that's not true! The people who help Jeff care! They care a lot!
- Edna Garrett: Tootie, what're you saying?
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: His friend in biology class was sick, and Jeff was desperate so I...
- Natalie Green: Tootie, you didn't!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: But he needed me! And it didn't seem like a big deal. It was just one test in one course. Now he's going to want me to help him on this English test, how can I say no?
- Edna Garrett: I don't see how you can say anything else, not if you care; not if you want to get Jeff back on the right track.
- Jeff Williams: Look, I know you felt funny about helping me on that biology test, but the only reason you did it is because you care about me.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: If I really cared about you, I would never have cheated for you.
- Jeff Williams: Now if my other friends felt like that, I never would have a chance at a football scholarship!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Can't you think about anything else? So you're rich and you're a star and you got a babe on each arm, and you're idolized by millions of kids.
- Jeff Williams: Yeah!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: All you'll really be is an illiterate jock. Don't you have any pride?
- Jeff Williams: Tootie, you're getting out of line.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Good!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Jeff and I are perfect for each other; he's going to be a star athlete and I'm going to be a star star. We'll have so much to share, the tension, the pressures, the ulcers.
- Natalie Green: You're gonna be so happy!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: It used to be our people had to work in the field, and if they wanted to learn to read they did it in secret. Now an education is your right and where are you? Still out in the field! Alright, so it's a football field, but...
- Jeff Williams: But nothing! Look, football is what I do, and it's going to get me what I want.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: But football isn't the problem! When you're on the cover of Sports Illustrated, wouldn't you like to read the article?
- Jeff Williams: Girl, get off my case!
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: No! Jeff, it's not either or, you can play football and read too!
- Jeff Williams: Look, I'm not saying I'm happy with the way things are...
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: Then do something about it!
- Jeff Williams: But I'm almost 18! I don't want to look like a fool, I've got my pride.
- Dorothy 'Tootie' Ramsey: That's not pride, that's ego.