Fade in:
Introduction. Cold
Open, Bathroom -- Afternoon
Camera is fixed on
screaming mouth of mother outside bathroom door.
“You don’t have the guts!”
She continues to taunt, “why don’t you just do it already! Put us all out of our
misery.”
Camera view changes to the inside of the bathroom,
We see a young girl
staring at herself in the mirror. The camera view changes to the perspective of
the girl, Our Hero, she is staring at her face in the mirror. Her arms are down
near the sink, out of view.
“Fuck you, I will.” She
whispers once to herself and then yells it at the top of her lungs.
She makes slicing motions
in the direction of her wrists out of view still.
The camera pans down to Our Hero’s wrists where you can see her trying over and over to slice her wrists
with a lady bic, it does nothing. The camera fads.
(laughter)
Scene 2 Bathroom,
to hallway, to bedroom – A while later that same day
We watch as Our Hero looks
out the bathroom door to ensure the coast is clear, then sneaks from the bathroom, to
the hall, to her bedroom. Her door closes extremely quietly behind her.
Scene 3 Mothers bedroom – A while later that same
day
The mother is sitting up
in her bed. She is in pajamas, in the middle of the day. She is taking pills.
She looks lost in sadness and thought.
Cut to Our hero’s bedroom.
Our hero is sitting up in bed also. She is crying quietly and keeps looking up
at the door, hoping her mother will come in and talk it out. The camera pans to
the door and stays there for a really long time. The audience knows her mother
will not come, the audience is filled with sadness.
(aaawwww)
The camera cuts to Our Hero making ridiculous smiling poses in the mirror.
(laughter)
Music cue’s
Scene 4 Downstairs, in the kitchen, holding the
phone -- That Evening
Our Hero is holding the
phone to make a phone call. She looks in her phone book. The camera cuts to the
phone book pages as our hero leafs through the pages. Our Hero looks at blank
pages in all the category sections; Church – empty, School – Empty, Relatives,
there are two listings. They both say Grandma in the beginning. She chooses
one, and starts to dial.
The camera cuts out to Our Hero sliding down the wall onto her butt, as the receiver clicks in acceptance
on the other end of the phone.
Our Hero is nervous,
“Hello? Grandma? It’s your Granddaughter. I know I’ve never called before,
but…”
We watch Our Hero look
surprised, then a little happy, a then terribly sad.
(aaawwww)
“Okay then, maybe another
time.” Our Hero eeks out, “yeah, I love you too!”
Our Hero stands up and
hangs up the phone. A tear streams down her cheek. “Not even worth the time
of a lame brained senior citizen, awesome.” She laughs at herself and the
leaves the room. The camera fades.
(laughter)
Scene 5 Jr.
High School Campus, -- The Next Day
The camera view cuts to
the inside of an, obvious, English classroom in progress. The students are
starting to take turns, in order, to read. The camera then pans to Our Hero.
Our Hero Voice Over, we
are again inside Our Hero’s head.
One, two, three,… Okay, I’m sixth… The more we told Dill about the Radley’s,…
The camera pans back to
the readers and then the classroom. We see the class listening intently. The
camera pans closer and closer to Our Hero. The Audience starts to realize Our Hero is rereading her paragraph over and over and not listening to the the
readers.
The camera cuts to a
moment later and we hear Our Hero read the last few words of her paragraph to
read, “The more he would wonder.” Our Hero then looks up with a nervous smile.
The rest of classroom does not notice and everybody quickly moves on. The next
person starts to read.
Our Hero Voice Over
Nailed it! (then goes back to rereading the paragraph she was
assigned to read again, ignoring the reader.) after a few rereads Our Hero
starts reading the paragraph in a southern drawl, The mower we tol Diyall ‘bout the Redleey’s…
(laughter)
Scene 6, Our Hero’s Bedroom, Later That Night
We open to Our Hero
sitting on her bed listening to good music. Her mother yells from across the
hall, “Will you come here please?”
Camera cuts to Our Hero
standing in the door frame looking inside her mothers bedroom. Her mother is in
pajamas again, and sitting up in bed again.
“I’m sorry we fought
yesterday.” Her mother looks up apologetically at Our Hero.
“I’m sorry too.” Our Hero
whispers back.
“I thought you said you
were gonna kill yourself?” Her mother says with sarcasm and guilt.
“Yeah, I didn’t have the
guts.” Our Hero says with a small smile.
“Okay, well I gotta go to
sleep now, I work tonight, of course.” Her mother laments.
“Okay, good night, I love
you.” Our Hero says.
Her mother does not
respond.
The camera cuts to her
mother with outstretched arms, waiting for a hug.
Our Hero hugs her mom.
They embrace for a few moments. The mom pulls away first.
“Okay, now goodnight.” Her
mother insists.
“Okay, goodnight.” Our
Hero says, on her way out her mothers bedroom door. Camera fades.
The camera cuts to Our
Hero, almost entering her bedroom, when she tilts her head as hears her mother.
“Oh, Honey!” Her
mother yells.
Our Hero, looks up,
excited and happy, she turns and looks back into her mother's room through the
door frame, her mother is laying in her bed. Her mothers tilts her head up slightly, to say
something meaningful, their eyes meet.
“Yes?” Our Hero asks
excitedly.
“Shut my door please,” her
mom says through tired eyes as she lays her head onto the pillow.
The door closes.
End of Cold Open
