Script Frenzy – Teaser

Yes, today is the day. After a week of Script Frenzy – and thirty something pages -, I’m sharing with you the teaser of the would-be first episode of a would-be TV series. It makes for a fairly long post (it should read pretty quickly though as script format makes less words take more place) so I won’t ramble about how the challenge is going. Not yet, anyway. 😉
To spare you the character description paragraphs, Ksenia Solo would make a good Mac, Partner is Joshua Gomez-ish and Drew… huh… I don’t know. There aren’t a lot of cute and slightly overweight twenty-four year old actors.
Provided this is any good and that you trust I could maintain that quality for twenty-two times forty-five minutes, would you watch this still untitled show? That is the question…

EXT. SANTA MONICA BEACH – LATE EVENING

Sneakers skid to a stop. Hands catch a GLASS BOWL an inch from the ground. A CHARM BRACELET rings. Hands raise the bowl a bit. Glowy GOO lands in it. A dollop sloshes out. Ricochets off the bracelet’s glow. Hits a pair of jeans.

MAC (O.S.)
Shit!

Hands put the bowl down. Fumble for the belt with a ‘Super Witch’ well-worn buckle. Slide it free.

MAC
Shit! Shit! Shit!

Belt over the shoulder, a young woman (MAC) with tousled hair and a sandy torn t-shirt rubs a bracelet’s charm between two fingers. SPARKLES. It disappears. YANK. Jeans rip free like paper and EXPLODE in mid-air.

Back to Mac, catching her breath in her panties, black knee-high Converse, sandy t-shirt and tousled hair. Behind her, a somewhat hairy guy (Partner) is untangling himself from a beach chair. A side of his body’s caked with sand.

MAC
(buckling her belt around her waist)
You’re the worst Partner EVER!

Partner stares forward. Lights play on his face. Mac turns. Reveal SANTA MONICA PIERS’ FERRIS WHEEL.

MAC
You gotta be kidding.

Mac picks up the bowl.

MAC
(to Partner)
Come on, Fur Ball.

Mac runs toward the city. Partner stays behind. WHISTLE. Partner follows.

Pull back. Cars are abandonned in the streets of Santa Monica. Mac and Partner free run through them towards a big thundering sphere (an INSTABILITY), hovering in the middle of the SANTA MONICA MALL.

EXT. CITY STREETS – LATE EVENING

Mac slaloms between cars, expertly balancing the bowl of glowing goo. Partner’s on her trail. Mac jumps over a fallen garbage can. Stops by the mall’s entrance. Partner joins Mac a second later. She stuffs the bowl in his hands. Partner stares at her ass.

MAC
(tracing a symbol in the air)
Will-o-wisp, heed my call.

A ball of light sprouts from Mac’s fingers.

MAC
(to the Wisp)
Find Drew.

The wisp rushes through the door. Mac grabs the bowl, noticing where Partner’s looking.

MAC
(grunts)
Eyes front, Fur Ball.

She and Partner run after the wisp.

INT. SANTA MONICA MALL – LATE EVENING

The wisp flies ahead. Mac and Partner dodge SHOPPING BAGS abandonned on the floor. Round the central open area where the instability growls. A slightly overweight man (Drew) appears, hands outstretched towards the instability and surrounded by a blueish glow, eyebrow creased. A DUFFLEBAG’s by his feet. ZAP. Mac dodges a bolt of energy shooting from the instability.

DREW
(seeing Mac’s dodge, straining)
Sorry ’bout that.

ZAP. Partner has a near miss with a bolt. He cowers in a corner. Mac drops the bowl next to him and pushes the dufflebag his way. ZAP. Another bolt zings inches from Drew’s head.

DREW
Little help here!

MAC
(joining him)
Can’t be everywhere at once.
(to Partner)
Come on, Fur Ball, we can’t hold it forever.

Partner pulls vials out of the dufflebag. His hands shake. The instability hums.  ZING. A bolt bounces back against a transluscent blueish boundary. Mac gasps. Drew grunts.

MAC
(to Partner)
Come on…

Partner measures ingredients from the vials and pours them in the bowl. ZING. Another bolt bounces against the boundary. The shock reverberates and pushes Mac and Drew a step back. Mac looks toward Partner, worried. He pours an ingredient in the bowl. The goo turns black and opaque.

MAC
(to Partner)
Slide it over!
(to Drew)
Ready?

Drew nods. Mac kneels. Grabs a fabric shopping bag. Drew grunts. Sweat pearls on his forehead. Mac upturns the bag. Pours the goo in it. Spins it over her head. Throws it toward the instability.

The goo-filled bag flies. Mac steps behind Drew. The bag ignites and hits the instability. KAPLOOEY. It explodes into sticky strings.

Drew and Partner are covered with strings. Not Mac, shielded by Drew.

MAC
Let’s get out of this hell hole.

Mac picks up the empty glass bowl and leaves. Drew stuffs the vials in the dufflebag.

DREW
Mac!
(grunts)
I hate her.

Partner rubs his wrist against his face, peeling the sticky strings. Drew closes the bag. He grabs Partner’s arm and they head out.

EXT. SANTA MONICA MALL’S PARKING LOT – LATE EVENING

Mac walks toward a car with sirens on top and business tags. She opens the trunk and pulls a plastic bag out. She bags the bowl, then puts it in the trunk. Drew and Partner exit the mall.

DREW
You know, selfishness ruined an otherwise smooth mission.

MAC
(foraging in the trunk)
Smooth? I lost my favorite jeans!

Mac pulls new jeans out. Drew dodges the jeans backlash. Partner plays with his sticky strings, one step away.

DREW
You should have known better.

MAC
(putting on her jeans)
I was on a date, Drew.

Mac zips up the jeans. Drew walks past her to the trunk. He pushes a bouquet of flowers aside and grabs a towel underneath. Reveal a HAMSTER CAGE.

MAC
(squarely facing Drew)
Some of us have a life.

DREW
(rubbing off sticky strings)
Just bring a change of clothes in your life.

Mac unbuckles the belt on her waist and passes it through the jeans’ hoops.

MAC
(not looking at Drew, half mumbling)
A duffle in a five star.
(scoffs)
Right.

DREW
Your dates don’t make it past the coffee cup. Much less to dinner.

MAC
(normal voice, angry)
SO not my point!

Mac pulls a wand out of the trunk and points it at the sky. Green light shoots out.

FEMALE VOICE
(V.O.)
Instability secured. Thanks for calling O’Sullivans.

MAC
(putting the wand back)
Things would go a lot smoother if you stopped signing us up for three men jobs.

Mac walks up to Partner and puts a hand on his shoulder.

DREW
(scoffs)
We clear them fine. Not many teams can.

Mac rubs a charm between two fingers.

MAC
But we’re NOT three!

The air crackles around Partner. POUF. Partner and the charm disappear. Mac has a hamster in her hand.

MAC
(putting the hamster in its cage)
Temporary partners will kill me.

DREW
Classic forty percent of exaggeration.

The hamster runs in his training wheel. The movement creates colorful lights. Mac snaps the trunk shut.

MAC
Oh yeah?

Popping sound off screen.

Drew wraps the towel around his neck. Mac hooks her arm in Drew’s.

MAC
(through clenched teeth)
You’ll say different once you’re almost twenty-five and partnerless.

Drew chuckles. They spin around with an artificial smile. Journalists head for them. Others teleport in.

DREW
Like you would die in the next two months. Be reasonable.

The journalists’ excited chatter grows louder as they approach. Cameras snap pictures. Mac elbows Drew’s flank between two pictures.

FLASH. To opening credits.

— END TEASER