TALLY IT UP

Written ByAmanda Espinosa

Second DraftOctober 6, 2014

EXT- CAR CRASH

A YOUNG BOY sits in the middle of the street, surrounded by ER vehicles and bystanders. There is blood splattered on the street, and the boy is clutching his hand close to his chest. A YOUNG GIRL is carried into one of the ER vehicles. The boy starts crying.

BOYNo! Please don’t! You can’t, please!

The boy pulls his hand from his chest and stares at it intently. On his wrist, there is a small black mark. As he watches, the mark fades away until the only thing left is a scar. The boy screams.

BOYNo!

INT- BEDROOM

ELLIOT wakes up screaming. Breathing hard, he grabs his pillow and clutches it like a lifeline. He forces himself to take deep breaths, until eventually his panic dies down with a final sigh. A sharp knock comes from the door.

MOM (OFF SCREEN)Elliot! Wake up!

Elliot sighs.

ELLIOTI’m awake, Mom! I have an alarm!

Elliot’s alarm goes off. He quickly shuts it off.

MOM (O.S.)Sure you do, honey. It’s your first day back to school, so don’t be late!

Elliot drags himself out of bed. He grabs his phone and taps and swipes until he opens Spotify. He presses the play button and music starts to play.

EXT- STREET

Elliot walks along the street, looking around as the shops on the street begin to open up. A cat crosses his path and he crouches down to pet it. The cat brushes against Elliot’s hand before running off into an alley. Elliot continues walking until he reaches the same part of the street where the accident happened. He stares at the road and, for a moment, there is a flash of the scene in his nightmare. Elliot shakes his head and continues walking, now with his eyes on the ground.

INT- SCHOOL HALLWAY

Elliot taps the stop button on his phone and the music stops playing. He pulls out his headphones and shrugs up his backpack. The hall is crowded full of teens. Elliot moves through like a ghost, refusing to look anyone in the eye. A FRESHMAN gets shoved into a locker by a SOPHOMORE. Elliot purposefully doesn’t notice. The bell rings.

INT- SCHOOL GYM

All the students are sitting in the pull out bleachers. One group of FRESHMEN try to shake the bleachers, much to their neighbor’s annoyance. Most people are on their phones. Elliot is seated at the top of the bleachers by himself. Slowly pacing in front of the bleachers is the GYM TEACHER.

GYM TEACHERI expect each and every one of you to do your very best in this class. I refuse to spend another year watching this class drag their feet at the mere mention of running. In my day-

Elliot sighs and turns to his own phone for entertainment. There is a loud bang as the gym doors opens, and HEATHER walks in. Everyone’s eyes immediately turn to her. She quickly walks over to the Gym Teacher, who is glaring intensely at her. After a few moments of murmured conversation, the Gym Teacher sighs.

GYM TEACHERI’ll excuse you for today, but only because it’s the first day of school and I’ll have to deal with stragglers all day anyways. But I expect you to arrive on time the rest of the school year, got it?

Heather hurriedly nods.

HEATHER

Yes! Thank you!

GYM TEACHERGo sit down in the bleachers with the rest of the class.(to class)You’re free to do whatever for the remainder of the period. But keep your phones away! If I catch you with your phone, I will confiscate it! First dress is next week, don’t forget!

Immediately, the class dissolves into chatter. Elliot goes back to his phone. Heather walks up the bleachers steps, moving around students with quiet “excuse me”s and “pardon me”s with the occasional “pardonnez moi”. She finally ends up seated a few feet away from Elliot. Elliot ignores her. Heather slowly scooches towards Elliot, until she’s leaning over his shoulder and staring at his phone. He turns it off and turns to face her.

ELLIOTCan I help you?

HEATHERWhat was that game you were playing? I’ve never seen it before.

ELLIOTIt’s called deemo. It’s sort of like guitar hero.

HEATHERCool! I’ll have to check it out!

Heather pulls out her phone and opens up the Play Store. She hesitates at the search engine.

ELLIOTD-E-E-M-O.

Heather types it in and starts downloading the game.

HEATHERThanks, dude. If you are a dude.

ELLIOTI am, thanks for asking.

There is silence for a few moments. Heather coughs.

HEATHERSo, I was wondering…

Heather pulls out a schedule from her backpack, marked to death by highlighters.

HEATHERDo you know where any of these classes are?

ELLIOTDon’t you have a map?

HEATHERWell, yeah, but have you honestly tried to read this godforsaken thing? It’s horrible!

Heather pulls a map out of her backpack as well. She pokes it several times.

HEATHERIt says here that the school has six buildings. But I looked around and there's, like, eight! And then the map shows nine buildings, but none of them are the ones I’ve seen around school!

Elliot shakes his head and scooches closer to Heather, pointing at the map.

ELLIOTNo, there are six buildings in the school, those three are the second floors of those three buildings. The other two buildings on campus are the main office and the cafeteria, but those weren’t deemed important enough to put on the map, apparently. Also, they’re all interconnected, so it’s really better to think of it as one giant building instead of a bunch of separate ones. Also, like? What are you, a valley girl?

Heather crosses her arms and huffs.

HEATHERI’m a Californian, thank you very much, and I’ll have you know that everyone speaks like that over there.

ELLIOTAh, I see, the IQ must drop dramatically with all that sunlight.

HEATHERBullshit! Accents don’t define how smart you are and you know it!

Elliot holds up his hands in mock surrender.

ELLIOTAlright, alright, you have a point. After all, you guys do have a shit ton of colleges.

HEATHERYeah, it’s one of the joys of being such a huge state. We have a shit ton of everything.

Elliot smirks.

ELLIOTHey, can I see your schedule again?

HEATHERHuh? Oh, sure.

Heather hands over her schedule. Elliot pulls his own schedule out of his backpack, and compares the two. He whistles.

ELLIOTI didn’t even think that was possible anymore.

HEATHERWhat?

ELLIOTWe share the first five periods together.

Heather whistles.

HEATHERHoly shit, what are the odds?

ELLIOTWell, since we practically have the same schedule, I might as well show you around. It’s not like I have anything else to do.

HEATHERReally? Thanks, dude!

Heather hugs Elliot, much to his surprise. He’s awkwardly stiff until Heather stops hugging him.

HEATHER

Oh, by the way, what’s your name? Mine’s Heather.

Heather holds out her hand. Elliot stares at it, still in shock from the sudden hug.

ELLIOTElliot.

They shake hands.

INT- BEDROOM

Elliot steps out of his bathroom, wearing boxers and a t-shirt. He flops down on his bed with little enthusiasm. As he’s reaching to turn off the light, his computer blares with an incoming skype call. Groaning, he moves to flop down in the desk chair. On the computer screen, the notification says “INCOMING CALL FROM D’ARKNESSDEMENTIAWAY”. He clicks the “Answer Call” button and Heather’s face pops up in the video feed.

HEATHERHello!

Heather waves at Elliot, though the movement causes the video to lag. Elliot sighs.

ELLIOTIs there something you needed?

HEATHERYeah, do you know what the homework is? No, I just wanted to see what’s up. Whatcha doin with your bad self?

ELLIOTDo you always talk like that?

HEATHEROnly when I want to, which is all day, every day.

Elliot laughs a little.

ELLIOTAlright, sure. Anyways, I’m not really doing anything with my “bad self”, as you call it. It’s ten o'clock on a Monday. I was planning on sleeping before I give my first impression to half of my teachers.

HEATHER

I’m sure they’ll love you just as much as all the other hormonal students at our school. Seriously, I doubt any of them care. Oh! By the way, forgot to ask, how do you sign up for clubs? Is there, like, a secret initiation or something? Because I’ve been dying to join anime club and I’ve heard nothing.

ELLIOTAnime club?

HEATHEROr Creative Writing Club. Or the TV Club. Do you guys even have a TV Club?

ELLIOTI don’t think so? There’s a sign up day for all that stuff in a few weeks. I don’t know when, though. You could ask the commissioner, they have his email at the office.

HEATHERSweet! What clubs are you in? You look like the Gamer Club type. Or maybe you’re in some sort of music club? You’ve got a guitar.

Elliot swivels his chair to face the acoustic guitar leaning against the wall.

ELLIOTThat thing? I haven’t played it in years. It probably needs to be tuned or something.

Elliot swivels back to face his computer screen.

ELLIOTClubs aren’t really my thing. People aren’t really my thing.

HEATHERI feel you, man. I get what you’re saying. Still, if you want to get plenty of extra curriculars in your college application, you should try joining a few clubs. Just try to find some that require less talking. Avoid debate club.

Elliot laughs.

ELLIOTI’ll keep that in mind.

HEATHERSo, what do you do in your spare time? Read romance novels?

ELLIOTI don’t really do anything. I like to read, I guess?

HEATHERHow is that even possible? Everybody likes to do something.

ELLIOTJust because I don’t do anything in my spare time doesn’t mean that I like to do nothing!

Heather stares at Elliot doubtfully.

HEATHEROh, really? Then name something that you like to do.

Elliot is silent.

HEATHERThought so. Dude, clear your calendar this weekend. I’m gonna introduce you to the fabulous word of…

Heather sweeps her hand in an arch.

HEATHER...not school.

Elliot groans and hits his head on the desk.

HEATHERC’mon, dude, it’ll be fun! Scout’s honor, and all that. Anyways, I’ve gotta go. Need some beauty sleep and all that jazz. See ya!

Heather closes out of the call before Elliot can reply. Elliot mumbles into the desk.

ELLIOTNow that’s just hypocritical.

INT-BOWLING CENTER

Elliot and Heather are standing in front of a shelf full of bowling balls. Heather eagerly picks up one ball after the other, testing the weight of each of them before setting them back in favor of a

new one. Elliot grabs one of the bowling balls with both hands. He tries to lift it, but the ball refuses to budge.

HEATHERThat’s probably too heavy for you, dude. Try the yellow one.

Elliot tries to pick up the yellow bowling ball. To his surprise, he lifts the ball easily, and he stares at it in awe before turning his gaze to Heather.

ELLIOTHow did you know which one was heavier?

HEATHERYou can tell how heavy they are from the numbers. Just go from the smallest to the largest to find out which one’s the right size.

Elliot looks down at the bowling ball.

ELLIOTActually, I think I’ll just keep this one.

HEATHERYou sure?

Elliot nods. Heather shrugs and grabs a blue bowling ball.

HEATHERSuit yourself. C’mon, lets get this started!

They walk over to one of the lanes. The only other occupied lane is on the other end of the bowling alley. Heather quickly drops her bowling ball in the ball rack and grabs the control center. Elliot places his bowling ball next to Heather’s and sits down.

HEATHERHey, do you want me to set up guardrails? They’ll keep you from throwing your ball in the gutter.

ELLIOTNo thanks, I’m good.

HEATHERDude, it’s not really that difficult to do. Takes two seconds.

ELLIOT

I’m good, thanks. Seriously, I don’t want the gates. I don’t need them.

Heather sighs and presses a few buttons.

HEATHERFine, fine. You’re up first!

Elliot gets up and grabs his bowling ball, walking over to the foul line. He looks back to Heather. She gives him a cheesy thumbs up and he smiles in return. He turns back to the lane, staring at the pins at the very end. Taking a deep breath, Elliot throws the ball. It bounces once, twice, and lands in the gutter, rolling away with little enthusiasm. Heather breaks out into laughter.

ELLIOTOh, like you could do better!

Heather shakes her head violently.

HEATHERNo! That’s not it! That’s not it!

She runs over to Elliot and grabs him by the shoulders, pulling him a few steps back. She points at the scoreboard. In big, bright letters, the words “YOU GOT GUTTERED, DUDE!” flash as a cartoon bowling ball skateboards into a gutter. Heather pats Elliot on the back, her laughter becoming high pitched and wheasy.

HEATHERI can’t- I can’t even, dude! It’s ridiculous!

Elliot groans as the screen switches back to the normal scoreboard. He sits down. Heather stops laughing and stands next to Elliot, patting him on the back.

HEATHERHey, it’s alright to get the gutter sometimes. I was absolute shit when I first played, too.

ELLIOTSure you were. Sure.

HEATHERAnyways, it’s my turn! Watch how the pros do it, you might learn a thing or two!

Heather grabs her ball from the ball rack. After a few practice throws, she lets the ball fly. The bowling ball barrels through the pins, taking down about half of them. Heather turns around and grins at Elliot sheepishly.

HEATHEROkay, so I may have been exaggerating on the whole “expert” thing.

ELLIOTAre you kidding? How did you do that?

Heather blinks.

HEATHERQue?

ELLIOTThat was a good score, right? You took down half the pins!

HEATHERI guess? I mean, it’s sort of like school where fifty percent is a failure.

ELLIOTHey, at least you didn’t get the gutter.

Heather smirks.

HEATHEROkay, now I have to teach you how to bowl. C’mon.

ELLIOTBut isn’t it still your turn?

He points at the scoreboard. Heather puts her hands on her hips.

HEATHERDo you really care?

Elliot thinks about it for a moment, glancing between Heather and the scoreboard.

ELLIOTI guess not.

HEATHERWell, come on, then!

She holds out her hand and smiles. Elliot grabs it and pulls himself up. They walk over to the foul line, Elliot grabbing his bowling ball along the way. Elliot gets into position to throw again, but Heather stops him.

HEATHEROkay, first of all, you’re tense in all the wrong places. You aren’t trying to throw the ball into the air, you’re just putting some force behind it so that it gets all the way to the end.

Elliot nods and does his best to relax. Heather grabs Elliot’s arm.

HEATHERSecondly, your arm needs to be straight. I’m not sure why, but my mom always said it was important. Lastly, you want to be as balanced as possible. When you throw the ball, all your weight is going to be on one foot, and if you can’t balance on that foot, you’re going to waste whatever energy you put into your bowling ball on balancing.

ELLIOTGot it.

Heather nods, seemingly done with her tips. As she turns to walk away, she remembers something and turns back to Elliot.

HEATHERHave you watched Teen Wolf?

ELLIOTYeah, why?

Heather puts her hands on Elliot’s shoulders and leans in.

HEATHERImagine me naked.

Elliot looks extremely uncomfortable for all of two seconds before turning to face Heather.

ELLIOTI am not Scott, any more than you’re Allison.

Heather gasps and slaps him on the shoulder.

HEATHERI am wounded!

They both laugh.

HEATHERAlright, Mr. Comedy Central, go ahead and try again. And remember what I said!

Heather walks back to her seat as Elliot gets into position. He throws again and, this time, it hits the pins, knocking them all down. Elliot jumps.

ELLIOTYes!

HEATHERHey, Elliot! Come look!

Elliot jogs over and looks at the scoreboard with Heather. “NICE SAVE!” is projected in the same garish coloring as before. This time, the cartoon bowling ball trips over a rock and barrels into a row of pins. Elliot snorts.

HEATHERNice job, dude.

ELLIOTUh, thanks. I was just following your advice, though.

HEATHERDude, don’t be humble about it. The student who learns from the master becomes even better than the master himself. Look at Hitler and Mussolini.

ELLIOTThat’s a horrible analogy.

HEATHERYou’re a horrible analogy.

Elliot’s ball lands on the ball rack. He grabs it and walks over to the foul line again as Heather sits down.

EXT- BOWLING CENTER ENTRANCE

Elliot pushes the entrance doors open, stepping aside for Heather, who looks positively furious.

HEATHERAll I’m saying is, a total noob like yourself shouldn’t have beaten me so easily. I’m calling foul play.

ELLIOTBut weren’t you saying earlier that, and I quote, “the student who learns from the master becomes better than the master herself”?

HEATHERYeah, but not this quickly!

ELLIOTWhat can I say, I’m a fast learner.

Heather scoffs, but she relaxes and the two walk down the street together.

EXT-STREET

Heather and Elliot continue to walk together. Their shoulders bump together.

ELLIOTSeriously, though, thanks for taking me bowling.

HEATHERIt’s no problem, dude. We can go again next week if you want.

ELLIOTSure, that sounds good. I’m paying next time, though.

HEATHERSuch a gentleman.

Elliot laughs.

HEATHERI’m serious, you’ve got more charm than the rest of the school combined. It’s a wonder that you’re not fending off potential dates with a stick.

ELLIOT

Nah, you’re not seeing straight.

HEATHERI am, too! You’re nice, friendly, supportive, and super attractive-

Heather stops, like she just said something she shouldn’t have. Her hands move to cover her mouth, but she forces them down to her sides. Elliot notes all of this with confusion.

ELLIOTI’m gonna regret asking this but…

Heather looks terrified.

ELLIOT...do I have the booty?

Heather blinks. It takes her a few seconds to realise what Elliot’s trying to do. When she does, she smiles.

HEATHERYou dooooooooooooo!

Elliot laughs. Heather laughs along too, all her leftover tension disappearing.

ELLIOTAnyways, I appreciate the flattery, but I don’t think the rest of the school is willing to place me on such a pretty pedestal.

HEATHERWhy? Did you create a National Essay Test Day or something?

ELLIOTNo, I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m just not…

Elliot grabs his right wrist and rubs his thumb against it.

ELLIOT...normal.

Heather nods in understanding.

HEATHERWell, I’m not normal, too! We can be misfits together!

Heather starts singing.

HEATHERWe’re a couple of misfits. We’re a couple of misfits. What’s the matter with misfits?

HEATHER AND ELLIOTThat’s where we fit in!

Elliot and Heather laugh together. The two continue to walk down the street, singing the rest of “We’re A Couple of Misfits” together until they walk out of sight.

TO BE CONTINUED…