BERTRAN

INT. JUNIPER’S BEDROOM- EARLY MORNING

An alarm clock goes off as the camera passes through a colorful bedroom, landing on a full-size bed with floral sheets and watery, bright sunlight filtering through a snowy evergreen onto the pillow.

A young woman with musty red hair, JUNIPER, blinks slowly awake, then turns quickly to slam her alarm clock off.

She takes a moment, blinking and brushing hair out of her eyes, then turns over to her other side, facing a large window in which she can see her reflection. She looks at herself for a moment, then smiles sleepily.

Juniper swings her legs around to sit up on the edge of her bed, slowing before her feet hit the ground. In each crack between the floorboards is a strip of different colorful patterns. She gingerly gets up onto her tiptoes, then tip toes across the room, stepping slowly over all of the colorful strips.

Behind her a small puppet man peeks out from under her bed, then slowly wiggles out from underneath. He looks a bit like a tiny old man wearing all knit clothes.

INT. STAIRCASE

Juniper continues down the carpeted spiral staircase leading down to the second floor from her room. Behind her, the tiny old man follows her at a little bit of a distance. He stops for a moment at the last stair, looking off-camera at Juniper. The sound of her opening the bathroom door off screen.

INT. BATHROOM

Juniper’s bathroom is tiled completly in aqua blue from floor to ceiling. The ceiling slopes to a rounded point like the inside of the top of a turret. There are bubbled skylights letting in more bright sunlight.

A small mirror on an extendable track is attached just above the faucet. It is turned to the side that magnifies your reflection. When Juniper looks at her reflection it is distorted and strange. She turns the mirror to the normal side and looks at herself again.

Juniper prods at a spot on her cheek then digs her nail into a spot on her cheek until patterned paint trickles down. She is on tiptoes, the tip of her nose almost touching the mirror as she digs at another spot. Different colors and patterns drip down her face. She uses the back of her hand to wipe at it. It spreads. This doesn’t seem to bother her. She is still smiley.

EXT. BATHROOM

The little old man is sitting outside the bathroom door, waiting for Juniper. From behind the door can be heard the sound of the faucet running, then turning off. Juniper opens the door, passing the tiny old man and continuing down the spiral staircase on her tiptoes. The smeared pattern is still on her face. The tiny old man follows behind her.

INT. FRONT ROOM/CORRIDOR

Juniper comes into the front room off the staircase, walking down the hall to the kitchen. Once again she tiptoes over colored strips in the cracks of the floor. The tiny old man jumps over them too as he follows her.

INT. KITCHEN

Juniper opens the fridge and takes out a hard-boiled egg. She carries it over to an orange cutting board on the countertop, and peels it, rolling it along the cutting board until the shell cracks apart.

She cuts the egg cleanly in half, then takes a bite. After chewing for a short moment, Juniper spits a glob of similarly colorful and patterned goo into her hand. She smiles, letting it drip through her fingers onto the cutting board.

Juniper looks up, seeing her reflection in another window in front of her. The smear is there. She picks at it, her brow furrowing just slightly. The smear from her spit-out food adds to it, and she opens a new drip.

Outside the window, a small origami patterned bird flits about.

The tiny man is sitting next to some dishes covered in colorful patterned goo by the sink. He sees Juniper opening the window to let the bird in, and stands up, motioning for her to stop.

Juniper does not see the tiny old man, and opens the window. The bird comes in, immediately flitting down to Juniper’s waist line and starting to peck at her stomach. Juniper giggles.

She stacks the cutting board along with the other dishes. As she does this, the little old man climbs up her leg and onto her shoulder, batting at the bird.

INT. FRONT ROOM/CORRIDOR

Juniper tiptoes back to the staircase, stepping over the colorful strips in the cracks. The little old man is on her shoulder.

SERIES OF SHOTS:

Juniper braiding her hair in two tight plaits.

Juniper pulling a thick knit hat onto her head.

Juniper sliding her bare feet into boots.

Juniper zipping up a coat.

The little old man puts on a top hat.

Juniper opens the front door, steps out, and closes it behind her.

2.

INT. JUNIPER’S HOUSE- EVENING

The front door opens and Juniper walks through. The little old man steps through behind her. Juniper closes the door and leans against it, breathing out.

She walks through the front room and corridor, into the kitchen. The lights are off. The colorful strips are more dull. Juniper takes a moment to figure out how to step over them.

In the kitchen, Juniper finds plates of uneaten meals and napkins full of spit-out food. Juniper looks bewildered and sad. She picks up a napkin and clenches it in her hand.

Suddenly grimacing in pain, Juniper looks down at her stomach, and sees three birds pecking at her middle, her dress stained with patches of blood. She curls into her middle, closing her eyes for a moment. She straightens up, keep one arm wrapped about her waist, the other batting at the birds. Juniper makes her way to the staircase and walks up it, coming to her bathroom.

She looks in the mirror. Her face is covered in open scratches, with tiny beads of blood. She presses her fingernails into the skin on her face, brushing at the blood. She takes off her coat. Her shoulders are covered in marks as well. She runs her hands down her arms, prodding at the marks and examining her body. Tears come up in her eyes. She drops the napkin of half-chewed food she has been clenching in one fist and turns to turn on the shower head. Water sprays onto her face, the blood trickling quickly down onto the shower floor at her feet.

INT. KITCHEN- EVENING

The little old man is down in the kitchen, sitting by the sink, surrounded by all the dishes of uneaten meals and spit-out food. He hears the shower turn on upstairs, and looks up, sadly. Then, getting up, he starts to collect things from the plates, pushing them closer to the sink and turning on the faucet. He starts to clean one of the plates with a sponge.

INT. BATHROOM

Juniper is rubbing herself down with a loofa. When she squeezes it out, bloody water lands at her feet, mixed with the colorful patterns from earlier that morning. Juniper wipes her wet eyes with one hand. She turns off the shower, gets a towel, wraps a towel around her hair, and exits the bathroom.

EXT. BATHROOM

Juniper walks over to the staircase that goes up to her bedroom. The tiny old man is coming up the lower staircase.

STAIRCASE

Juniper half tiptoes half normal walks up the stairs to her bedroom. The tiny old man follows her.

INT. JUNIPER’S BEDROOM

Juniper gets into her bed and closes her eyes. A moment later, the tiny old man climbs up onto her bed, adjusts her blanket, and disappears.

FADE TO BLACK

A moment of silence.

An alarm clock goes off

FADE IN FROM BLACK

Juniper blinks awake peacefully, looks out the window at the snowy evergreen, swings herself out of bed, and tiptoes her way across the room, stepping over colorful patterned strips in the cracks between her floorboards. There is no evidence of last night, except for her rough hands, maybe some blood under her fingernails.

FADE TO BLACK

TITLE CARD

CREDITS

1.

INT. MERRIS’ CRAMPED STAIRCASE- MORNING

A teenage girl, probably 15 or 16 years old, comes down the tight main staircase of her home; it is, for some reason, in the kitchen. Her name is MERRIS, and she is efficiently brushing her hair as she arrives at the KITCHEN ISLAND.

INT. TODD’S KITCHEN- MORNING

Merris stops, staring despairingly at something off screen.

Her father, TODD, is apparently attempting to feed a small, fat, worm-like creature to her new 4-month-old tortie KITTEN. The kitten is looking the other direction in Todd’s grasp. Merris looks down to see a whole frying pan full of the worm creatures, wriggling furiously, on the counter-top electric stove in front of her dad. Her posture slumps a bit upon seeing it.

INT. MERRIS’OPEN WALL LIVING/DINING ROOM

Merris turns away from the island, and surveys the room before her. It is precisely what it is: an amalgam of two rooms that has resulted in one room that is neither living nor dining room, really. COATS and JACKETS are draped on the overstuffed ARMCHAIR, and there is a moth-eaten couch that surrounds a shallow wooden coffee table.

Behind Merris, we see Todd engaged in a power struggle with the kitten, who is trying desperately to escape Todd’s grasp. Todd is making little crooning noises, trying to keep his focus on his cooking while evading the kitten’s tiny claws.

The coffee table is the only table in the chaotic room. School books and folders are on the floor in front of the couch, open and on top of each other. Along with these are tossed-aside throw blankets, odd sneakers and socks, and a half-finished bowl of wilted grapes. The TV is mounted on the wall, surrounded by shelves covered in cookbooks and old movies.

Merris makes a number of educated guesses as she picks her way knowledgeably through the contained disaster, lifting away pillows, blankets, binders… to see what they reveal. She finds her yellow sneakers, a patterned school-binder, an earring, and her squashed backpack.

As she starts to put on her shoes, she glances back at her father. Todd has given up with the kitten, and the kitten has given up with him. He still clutches it against him with one arm, as he picks from a line of spices on a shelf behind him, bobbing a bit and humming to a song in his head.

Merris reverts her attention back to her shoes, exasperated. She hops to her backpack as she fits the second shoe over her foot.

Behind her, Todd selects a spice and pours it lavishly over the worms. He falters when the kitten manages to claw his ear, and, trying to unhook the kitten, he lowers himself to the ground, disappearing behind the counter. A second later he appears again, rubbing his ear.

INT. TODD’S KITCHEN- MORNING

Merris, backpack and shoes arranged, walks past Todd to the fridge while putting her hair in a pony-tail. The kitten purrs and weaves between her legs. Merris greets the kitten lovingly, and Todd looks up, noticing her fully for the first time.

TODD

Oh, good morning sweetheart!

Merris braces herself as she opens the fridge.

MERRIS

Hi daddy.

The fridge is full of crazy ingredients- chicken feet, frog legs, tongue…- and lots of jars with pickled things in them. There is one lonely takeout container.

TODD (O.S.)

Here, honey- come try this…

There is a slimey noise. Merris deflates a bit, wincing; she is disappointed. Looking dejectedly at her father’s idle cooking experiment, she reaches blindly behind herself for the takeout container. Bringing it in front of her, she opens it, sniffs its contents. Looks back at her father, then tries to squeeze past him behind the counter, heading for the back door on the other side of the kitchen.

Todd turns around suddenly with a serving spoon full of the worms held up at Merris’s level. Merris only barely manages to dodge it.

MERRIS

No Dad.

TODD

Come on, they’re not bad, Merry!

Merris eschews eye contact with her father, trying to sling her backpack over her shoulder and continue towards the door. Todd accidentally and unknowingly knocks her in the head with his elbow as she stoops to get her backpack.

MERRIS

Absolutely not.

Todd takes a single worm out of the spoon and airplanes it towards Merris’s mouth, taking a huge bite from the worms on the spoon himself.

TODD (mouth full)

They’re so complex, here-

He takes a second worm off the spoon as Merris is still trying to get around him and now dealing with all the clutter in front of the back door. Todd holds out the small handful of worms to her as she turns her head away hurriedly. The worm ends up in Merris’s hair.

MERRIS

Oh, for the love of…

She starts to brush it out, quickening her pace as she reaches for the door handle.

Todd tries to help her, essentially grabbing a handful of her hair.

MERRIS

Oh, OW- hey, hey, HEY!

Todd tries to let go, but Merris’s hair gets a bit stuck to his fingers. He is frantic

TODD

I’m so sorry, Merry-

MERRIS

Don’t call me that!

Merris grabs a hat from the pile by the door and turns the door handle, giving up completely on the worm, which is still hanging from a wisp of her hair.

Todd sets the serving spoon down, burning himself on the stove as he does so. He jumps back, stepping on the kitten’s tail. He jumps off of that, too, turning to try to help Merris some more. All he does is get in the way of her shoving a knit hat over her now frizzy ponytail.

MERRIS

Dad. Go away.

She leaves through the back door and slams it behind her.

A moment.

The kitten comes out from under a pillow.

Todd walks back to his cooking experiment. It is smoking slightly now. He rubs his temples.

A scrap of note paper attached to the fridge catches his eye. It is peaking out from beneath what appears to be a hastily-written recipe for the worms. He takes the note down. It says:

GOOD MORNING DADDY-

PLEASE DON’T FORGET

TO PACK ME A LUNCH!

I’VE GOT A TEST, SO IT IS

SUPER IMPORTANT.

♡ MERRIS

Todd looks up. Underneath Merris’s note is a collection of well-wishing cards from neighbors and family friends. They say things like “If you ever need our help… we’re here for you.” Next to those is a picture of a woman, Merris’s MOTHER. She and Merris are snuggling in a hospital bed. The woman is connected to many medical machines. Todd sighs, rubs his temples, then looks back at the worm concoction he has going on the stove. He turns back, resting his forehead on the fridge

EXT. MERRIS’S BACK PORCH- MORNING

Merris, still cooling down from the kerfuffle, stands just before the back steps, listening. She glances over her shoulder, then turns back, walking down the stairs and out of frame.

FADE TO BLACK

FADE IN FROM BLACK

2.

EXT. BUS STOP- MORNING

MERRIS stands at a public bus stop, surrounded by three other people. One is an OLD MAN in a peacoat who carries a cane and briefcase. Another is a YOUNG WOMAN in business-casual attire, the bag on her back is a backpack that got a promotion. The last one is a TEEN BOY, smoking a joint almost directly into Merris’ face.

He blows a super big puff of weed smoke into her eyes as the bus arrives, a blue public bus packed to the brim with passengers, and Merris distractedly makes her way onto the bus as she waves a hand, attempting to dispel the smoke.

INT. PUBLIC BUS

Merris pays her fare, and forces her way through the crowd of passengers. Some give her funny looks, maybe covering their noses. Merris rolls her eyes and continues.

A few seats down there is a girl about Merris’ age, sitting next to an empty seat with her quilted shoulder-bag saving it. Her name is ANNIE, and she has saved the seat next to her especially for Merris, as she always does. Annie is laser-focused on her brightly-colored knitting project.

Merris slides into the seat, setting her backpack on her lap. She slumps a bit, slightly exhausted from her morning.

A moment of Merris resting her head on her backpack. Then Annie elbows her without taking her eyes off her knitting.

ANNIE

What’s the sitch.

Merris turns her head to the side.

MERRIS

I wanna sleep.

She shifts her position again, trying to get comfortable.

MERRIS

I’m sleepy.

ANNIE (dry)

I don’t care that you’re sleepy!

MERRIS (joking)

Well that’s because you’re just mean.

The two sit in silence for a moment.

ANNIE

I’m your best friend. It’s in the job description.

MERRIS

Yeah sure.

CUT TO:

3.

INT. MERRIS’S OPEN-WALL LIVING/DINING ROOM- MID MORNING

TODD is sitting on the couch, staring at Merris’s note, pinching the bridge of his nose.

He gets up and walks over to the counter, looking over at the pan of worms. He gets out a tupperware container and carefully packs up the worms, setting them to the side. He then grabs a legal pad from by the fridge, and walks over to the small, round dining room table. Sitting down, Todd flips past all of his recipe notes and scribbles to a blank page. At the top of this new page he pauses, and then begins writing a list of dishes. “LIMEADE/ CHIPS AND GUAC/ VEGGIE LASAGNA/ SNICKERDOODLES/ VANILLA ICE CREAM/… His handwriting is spidery and loopy.

4.

EXT. BUS STOP BY SCHOOL- MORNING

MERRIS and ANNIE get off the bus among a group of fellow highschool students. Most of them are sports kids who are much taller than Annie, so Merris grabs her by the arm and forces their way through the group. Merris is barely tall enough to see over them herself. It isn’t that Merris and Annie are tiny, the sports kids are just good at towering over them.

Merris bends her elbow in front of herself as if attempting to be aerodynamic. She plows her way through the kids, Annie pulled along behind her.

ANNIE (sarcastic)

Oh, this- this is my favorite part

Merris bats away a BOY’s hand from stealing her hat.

BOY (in passing, snickering)

Hey, I like it!

MERRIS

Piss off!

BOY (O.S, teasing)

We should be best friends, Merry!

ANNIE

Back off! Spot’s taken!

Merris makes a final push through the crowd, and she and Annie arrive on a clear sidewalk that passes in front of their highschool’s main entrance. There is a huge analog sign that proclaims “OPRF- HOME OF THE HUSKIES!” They both take a moment to breathe.

ANNIE

Just today, then we can be happy we didn’t die-

Merris looks at her feet. Annie falters.

ANNIE (apologetic)

• … Be happy we have a whole two weeks to worry

About next semester… Sorry, Merris.

Merris is already walking ahead of Annie towards the main doors.

MERRIS

It’s fine. Come on.

5.

INT. MERRIS’S OPEN-WALL LIVING/DINING ROOM- LATE MORNING

TODD puts on a coat and puts a piece of folded legal-pad paper in his pocket, walking out the door. Behind him, in the kitchen, the KITTEN jumps up onto the counter and starts to lick the pan of worm things curiously.

INT. GARAGE- LATE MORNING

TODD turns the key to start the RED BUGGY car, but it whistles and ker-chunks back off again. The car is frozen.

TODD sighs and tries to open his door. It is stuck. He tries once more, then gives up, exasperated. He rests his hands on the steering wheel.

6.

INT. HEMINGWAY ROOM- LATE MORNING

The camera pans across a classroom with about 10 students all looking up at the board behind the camera, down at their notes, or elsewhere. The camera reaches ANNIE, who is absorbed in her knitting, looking straight down into her lap.

The ball of yarn by her feet is unwinding quicker than you would think possible. Just slightly unrealistically fast.

Annie is so absorbed that she doesn’t see the teacher standing just in front of her desk, hand outstretched to receive her paper.

MERRIS, who is sitting just screen-left of Annie, realizes what is happening and jabbs Annie in the shoulder with the eraser end of her pencil. Annie jumps, and then scrambles to get her paper from her knitting bag that is full of pencils and papers tangled with yarn. She hands her paper over. It is a bit crinkled and disorderly, but all together good. The teacher raises her eyebrows, and Annie looks back sheepishly. Next to her, Merris smiles a bit and looks back at her notes.