Scene 01
ANIKA: You ever meet someone that makes you so nervous that you think: Ah, this is what everyone is talking about. This is that crap people write movies and songs and poetry about, and promise you you’ll find one day. This is the thing that makes people fight wars, and make babies, and travel across the world. This is love. It’s either that, or you’re having a heart attack. But you don’t remember sweaty palms or a weird, fluttery feeling in the pit of your stomach as symptoms of a heart attack, so you think, hey, maybe it’s a stroke. But you remember that being something about a whole side of your body going numb, and your body is anything but numb. If anything, it’s a freaking live wire because you are ready to jump out of your skin you can feel everything all at once and it’s so much but not enough and, oh my God, someone is talking to you, you freak. Open your mouth.
SEAN: Come on kid, give me something I can actually use.
ANIKA: That’s what it was like when I met Cole. It felt like… well, it felt like everything was exploding. But in a good way this time. In the right way. He made me so nervous. The first time we talked, my heart was beating so hard that every locker in the whole hallway neatly spun until they unlocked in unison, quietly popping open in tune with my heart beat. He didn’t notice, because he was too busy asking me if I understood the math homework, and did I maybe want to work on it together sometime after school? That was the weird thing about it. The… orderliness my, uh, condition took on when I was with you. It was, truly, the first time Bailey and I thought, maybe, we could control this whole thing. It seemed right with him. He made me nervous, but it wasn’t the kind of nervous that I was scared of. It wasn’t the kind that made things feel uncontrollable. It wasn’t the kind that meant people got hurt. I’m gonna be honest. When he asked me out the first time, I thought it was a joke.
Scene 02
[SFX]: High school hallway. Students talk to each other, lockers open and shut.
BAILEY: Wanna catch up on some… practice… tonight?
ANIKA: B, I don’t know if I’m up for that tonight. We’ve been… practicing a lot and you know it really wipes me out.
[SFX]: Footsteps approaching.
COLE: Hey.
ANIKA: Oh, hey.
COLE: Thanks for the help with that math stuff the other day.
ANIKA: Totally, no problem. Any time.
BAILEY: Literally. Any time.
[SFX]: Anika steps on Bailey’s foot.
BAILEY: Ow! I, uh, forgot something. Somewhere other than here.
[SFX]: Footsteps walking away.
COLE: So, uh. I was wondering if… would you want a ride home?
ANIKA: With you?
COLE: Yeah. Yeah, with me.
ANIKA: Is this some sort of PUNK’D situation? Is Ashton Kutcher about to come out at me? Because I really don’t like things jumping out at me.
COLE: What?
ANIKA: Punk’d? It’s this show where —
COLE: No, I – I know what Punk’d is.
ANIKA: Oh, good. So this is not that?
COLE: I am absolutely not punk-ing you.
ANIKA: Oh. So you’re… doing what, then?
COLE: I’m asking you out?
ANIKA: You’re… asking me out.
COLE: At least, trying very hard to.
ANIKA: You’re trying to ask me out.
COLE: Yes.
ANIKA: Oh.
COLE: Uh, so, I’ll take that as a no and maybe see you in math class, or something.
ANIKA: Wait! Sorry, yes. Yes, I would like a ride home.
COLE: You would?
ANIKA: Yeah. Yeah, I really would.
Scene 03
[SFX]: The recording stops with a computer click.
[SFX]: Computer is picked up. Footsteps out of office, door closes behind him. Footsteps across the office, and Sean opens the door to Heather’s office.
SEAN: Always gone when I need ya.
[SFX]: A drink being poured over ice.
[SFX]: Computer clicks. A new video begins to play.
Scene 04
BAILEY: This is trial twenty-six. Would be twenty-nine if someone hadn’t bailed on me three weeks in a row.
ANIKA: Very scientific note there, B.
BAILEY: And now she cares about science.
ANIKA: Sure don’t. You wanna get this show on the road or what?
BAILEY: Whatever. Trial twenty-six. We’ll be experimenting, as usual, with the ability demonstrated by the subject’s —
ANIKA: Stop calling me the subject, Jesus.
BAILEY: THE SUBJECT’s ability, since we are NOT USING REAL NAMES on this footage, the subject’s ability to exhibit control over the technological attributes of objects.
ANIKA: Control is a stretch.
BAILEY: That’s what we’re working on. Keep it together, would you?
ANIKA: Your dad won’t miss the lawn mower?
BAILEY: He won’t miss it because you’re not going to break it. You’re just gonna nudge it apart and nudge it back together again. Fine. He won’t miss it because we hired a gardener and he hasn’t mowed our lawn in months, okay? Now just try this out.
ANIKA: Can you… can you maybe get behind something? This has a lot of parts and I don’t want anything to hit you.
BAILEY: But how will I bring you back down if I’m, you know, hiding?
ANIKA: Just talk. It’s your voice, mostly, anyways. Just go somewhere I can still hear you.
[SFX]: Sound of something large and heavy being dragged against the garage floor.
BAILEY: Okay. You can still hear me?
ANIKA: Yeah, that’s good. Okay.
[SFX]: As Anika’s breathing gets shaky, the lawnmower starts to shake.
[SFX]: Cell phone rings.
ANIKA: Oh.
BAILEY: Did you bring your phone into a practice session?
ANIKA: Shut up, it’s… Hey, Cole.
BAILEY: Oh my God.
ANIKA: No, I’m not busy.
BAILEY: Yes, you absolutely are!
ANIKA: Yeah, I’m just with Bailey.
[SFX]: The lawnmower shaking increases.
BAILEY: Oh my God.
ANIKA: Yeah, I could do that. Maybe like, 7?
[SFX]: The lawnmower turns on.
BAILEY: Dude.
ANIKA: Okay. See you.
BAILEY: Dude!
ANIKA: I’m sorry, he had a thing today and I just wanted to be able to hear how it went.
BAILEY: That’s so not what I’m talking about. Or, maybe it is, but… dude, look.
ANIKA: Oh. Oh my God.
BAILEY: You did it. Can you put it back together?
ANIKA: I um. Yeah I… I think I can.
[SFX]: Metal clacks together as the lawnmower comes back into one piece and turns on.
BAILEY: Dude. Trial twenty-six. The subject can exhibit unforeseen control over her abilities when she’s got major hearts in her eyes and thinks about that good good booty – Hey! Ow – ugh get off!
[SFX]: Recording ends.
Scene 05
[SFX]: Keys in lock. Door opens.
HEATHER: You’re home.
SEAN: Yeah.
[SFX]: Coat and bag hitting the floor.
HEATHER: You could hang that up.
SEAN: Do you remember the first time I asked you out?
HEATHER: Sure.
SEAN: I mean, do you remember how it felt? How you felt when I asked?
HEATHER: I don’t know, probably mildly irritated?
SEAN: Come on, I’m being serious.
HEATHER: I don’t know, Sean, that was forever ago.
SEAN: Did I make you happy?
[SFX]: Heather stands up and starts to walk down the hall.
SEAN: Heather?
HEATHER: I’m going to bed. Turn the lights out when you’re done.
[SFX]: Sean sits down, pulls his laptop out. He plugs his headphones in and presses play.
ANIKA: You ever meet someone that makes you so nervous that you think: Ah, this is what everyone is talking about. This is that crap people write movies and songs and poetry about, and promise you you’ll find one day. This is the thing that makes people fight wars, and make babies, and travel across the world. This is love.
END OF EPISODE 3