I've always wanted to be a scriptwriter since I was younger. Somehow, whenever I watched a movie that was great but not the greatest, I always found ways in which it could have been improved. Some of my movie-watching friends hated me for it, others applauded me for it and we'd come up with whole alternative scripts for said movie, including completely new characters and different actors for the main characters.
It was a lot of fun but I was quite serious about it.
I've never pursued it. Why? Well, for the same reasons why I never pursued art and music: my family was of the kind that felt that art and music, and scriptwriting, wasn't going to get me anywhere. In fact, they never even believed that journalism would get me anywhere. But my curious side and the need to write out my thoughts kept me on that path until I was old enough to decide for myself. I don't hate them for it, nor do I regret not taking those steps. I did what I did and it is fine.
This doesn't mean I don't still have this itch sometimes.
I've written or helped to write, a few scripts actually.
Not anything great but fun nevertheless.
But let's get into my characters for the contest now.
Here we go!
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Bella flung her arms up in the air and in a dramatic voice she exclaimed:
"Where would you be if I hadn't saved you from certain death? Where? Tell me!" She swung around to face him, her long blonde curls almost slapping his face.
For a short moment, her big blue eyes looked at him, and she frowned... annoyed as if she was waiting for an answer that never came.
She then turned her back towards him, not with any less drama, letting out a deep and exaggerated sigh.
Jeremy was in deep thought.
'What on earth did Melissa mean earlier?' She'd been cryptic and allusive, and she was rambling words out as if she'd been on fire.
He could barely get a word in.
He really had no idea what she was talking about.
Or maybe, deep inside, he didn't want to know.
It was about Bella, after all.
When it came to her, Jeremy tended to ignore whatever people said.
But what Melissa had been telling him...it puzzled him, and now he needed to know.
He made up his mind there and then to get to the bottom of this.
"Jer!" Bella hissed at him.
He lifted his eyes up at her, his hands running through his dark brown hair while trying to make sense of it all.
Her eyes again. Even more annoyed this time.
His mouth was slightly open, and his face showed confusion when he looked into her eyes, that almost seemed to have changed colour from bright blue to a darker shade.
Bella now frowned and silently mouthed the word: "Nowhere..."
Jeremy blinked and suddenly remembered what he was doing.
In a hasty voice, he threw out:
"Nowhere! I'd be nowhere and I'd be no one if it weren't for you!" Jeremy meant it when he said it.
He grabbed Bella's shoulders and moved his face closer to hers.
"But there is one thing you have to understand!"
A loud tap on wood startled them.
Bella looked at him again. This time her eyes were on fire.
"No, No, NOOO!" Rosalind Barnes tapped her walking stick on the wooden floor again before she raised her voice even more and almost yelled:
"What do we have here? Are you ACTORS, or are you AMAteurs?"
The people on stage murmured a few inaudible words.
Rosalind walked up the stage with the flair of a wounded butterfly, until she stood facing Jeremy.
Her skinny, frail hand seemed to cramp, even more, holding her walking stick.
She straightened her back while looking up at the six-foot young man that was Jeremy.
"What is going on in your mind, Jeremy? You're not here with us. If I have to tell you again how important this play is, then..."
Jeremy interrupted her, something he knew she hated.
"No, you don't have to tell me again. I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
Rosalind narrowed her eyes.
"You're right. It won't. Even you can be replaced."
Rosalind snapped at him while glancing at Robert, who had been sitting on the sidelines.
She turned her glance away from him but not before she caught the sly smile that his lips had twisted into
.
"And you Ms. Bella? What were you thinking? We're not performing a Shakespeare's play. What's with the dramatic hand gestures?"
Bella blushed and said:
"I'm sorry ma'am, I will remember now."
"Very well," Rosalind said.
"I think this was quite enough for today, I will see you all tomorrow at 8 am sharp."
The actors all started gathering their things and went on their way.
Jeremy caught up to Bella after she slid past him towards the exit.
"Bella, wait.."
"Nice going Jer. Thanks for being in the present moment during rehearsals."
She quickened her step.
"See you tomorrow Jer. And you better be here with us then."
Jeremy let out a sigh as he watched her walk away. He knew this was not the time to ask her about what she knew about Prop 232.
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Bella walked out the door and looked up to the sky.
"Oh, great. Just great...rain." she thought.
She stopped to search her bag for her umbrella when she heard footsteps approach behind her.
Even more annoyed because her hair was starting to get wet, she turned and wanted to throw more mean things at Jeremy.
But it was Robert instead who had tried to catch up with her.
"Ugh! I really don't..."
"Listen Bella. We need to talk..."
Robert insisted.
"I don't need to talk about anything, and definitely not with you", she said as she opened her umbrella and started to walk away.
Robert grabbed her wrist, angry blue eyes looking up at him. "What the..?"
"Oh, but I think we do my dear Bella. I really think we do."
His dark eyes grew smaller, and a smirk formed.
Dark hair fell down his face in wet streaks.
As his fake tanned face grew closer, so did his grip.
Bella was now getting a bit scared, although Robert had never really scared her. He was just a big bully. Nothing more. Nothing to be concerned about.
His face now almost touched hers, and she could smell his expensive cologne. It was strong and nauseating.
She grimaced as he said:
"He knows. My dear brother knows. Now...Get in the car."
She paced the room of her apartment, biting her nails.
Not knowing what to do, or who to talk to.
She had picked up the phone a few times now, only to put it back down again.
Melissa had no idea who she should or could call.
"It's just no use. No one will believe it."
She spoke out loud, one hand twisting her strawberry blonde hair as if she tried to twist it off her head, the other with one finger in the air where she had just been biting the nail.
She dropped herself on the couch and pushed her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose.
As she did this, she caught her own reflection in the window.
"Melissa, Melissa, what on earth have you gotten yourself into now", she asked herself out loud while looking at her own round, speckled face.
A little paler than she always was.
She picked up the phone again, stared at it for a while, and then dialed the number of the one person she could trust.
But she knew that there was a chance he wouldn't believe her.
She had to try. He was her best friend and he needed to know.
With shakey fingers, she pressed the touchscreen on her phone. Still shaking, she held the phone to her head and waited...
"Hey, you! What's up?"
"Jeremy?" She hesitated for a moment.
"Yes?" He answered with a laugh.
"I need to tell you something."
"Jeremy! Wait a minute. Help me with this, will you?" Jeremy turned around from where he stood after Bella walked away from him.
"Here, let me take that," he said while pulling the box from the desk that Rosalind had tried to grab.
"That's too heavy, I got it."
"Ok, ok, thank you. Now..." she almost lost her balance but Jeremy reacted quickly, and while balancing the box in one hand, he wrapped his other around her shoulders to hold her up.
"Thank you, dear. If only you were this fast thinking when you are in front of that girl on stage." Rosalind laughed. "Rehearsal would sure be much shorter."
"Did something happen, Jeremy? Is there something wrong between you and Bella?"
He thought for a moment. Maybe he should ask her but he swiftly let go of the idea.
He turned his face towards her and smiled.
"Come on, mom, let's get you home."
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