Ed Bacon, a smug guidance counselor in a suede vest, calls students into his cluttered office one at a time to set them straight about their futures. John, a big, gentle kid who wants to be a painter, is told that art is a waste of time and that the Marines would toughen him up; he vows to prove Bacon wrong and storms out. Danita has studied ballet for years and has a summer place at a prestigious academy abroad, but Bacon insults her looks and her intelligence, tells her to drop out and hands her a club owner's matchbook so she can start a career as a stripper. Last comes Marlon, a student whose test scores are famously low. Bacon flips through a career manual looking for a job that needs no skills or brains at all, only to find that the single listing left is guidance counselor. Marlon politely turns the suggestion down, saying he will hold out for something better, and once he is gone, Bacon rips the page out of the manual and stuffs it into his mouth.
