Scene 01
[SFX]: CAMERA BEING SET UP.
[SFX]: TAPING ON MICROPHONE.
BAILEY: Mic check, one two, one two.
ANIKA: Oh my God, you are such a dork.
BAILEY: Haven’t you ever seen a movie? This is how microphones work. Okay. I think it’s on.
ANIKA: Is the little light flashing?
[SFX]: CAMERA BEING ADJUSTED.
ANIKA: Where did you even find this thing? Didn’t they stop making camcorders in the nineties?
BAILEY: Better this than I explain why I need a new phone to my parents. Again.
ANIKA: Sorry.
[SFX]: CAMERA BEGINNING RECORDING.
BAILEY: Okay, we are rolling!
ANIKA: Here we go.
BAILEY: This is trial one. It is ten-thirty PM and absolutely past both of our curfews. My parents are asleep, and we have set up in the garage for minimal damage.
ANIKA: I know that?
BAILEY: Yeah, but the people who watch one day won’t.
ANIKA: What people?
BAILEY: You’ve got super powers, dude! There are going to be people. Test one. We’re going to see if we can, maybe, purposefully bring her powers to the surface and figure out what causes them. How did it happen the first time?
ANIKA: I mean, nothing special was going on. I told you, I was working on the car, trying to get it to work like I have been for months, and then everything just sort of… blew the hell up.
BAILEY: But it’s not the first time you worked on the car.
ANIKA: I just said it wasn’t.
BAILEY: Don’t snap at me, I’m trying to help.
ANIKA: I know. I’m sorry. No, it wasn’t the first time I’d worked on the car, but it was the first time things just kind of, you know. Undid themselves.
BAILEY: Was there anything different this time? Maybe a weird part, or a radioactive spider snuck into the garage and bit you on the ass? Anything like that?
ANIKA: You know there wasn’t.
BAILEY: Okay… How were you, you know, feeling when it happened?
ANIKA: I don’t know? A little nervous, I guess.
BAILEY: Really? You usually work on the car to calm down.
ANIKA: I know, but it was – I don’t know I was frustrated, I guess? I’ve been working on that stupid thing for months, rebuilding and unbuilding and rebuilding it again. I still can’t get it to start. I’ve never had this much trouble with something mechanical, and I was thinking that, I don’t know, maybe I’m not so good at this anymore? Like, I had reached my limit on the one thing that totally makes logical sense, and if I couldn’t do this right, then maybe I couldn’t do anything right and –
[SFX]: STATIC ON MICROPHONE, METAL BENDING, COMING APART, PIECES HITTING A GARAGE FLOOR.
BAILEY: Holy shit.
ANIKA: See? I told you, it was definitely me that caused it, not some freak accident.
BAILEY:Yeah… I can see that, now.
ANIKA: And?
BAILEY: And that was fucking awesome! That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life! I can’t believe you have super powers!
Scene 02
[SFX]: DOOR KNOCK.
[SFX]: DOOR OPENS, HARRISON ENTERS.
[SFX]: LAPTOP SHUTS.
SEAN: Can I help you?
HARRISON: Oh, God, sorry, were you like, watching porn, or something?
SEAN: What?
HARRISON: I just… The laptop, the defensive attitude, all tell tale signs of –
SEAN: I’m not watching porn in the office, Jesus Christ.
HARRISON: I mean, live and let live, dude.
SEAN: Is there a reason you’re in here?
HARRISON: Oh! Yeah, another one of those envelopes came for you?
[SFX]: ENVELOPE PASSING FROM ONE PERSON TO ANOTHER
SEAN: This is open.
HARRISON: Is it?
SEAN: Opening someone else’s mail is a felony.
HARRISON: I mean, technically it isn’t mail, someone hand delivers them to the mailroom, which deceptively sounds like mail, but doesn’t actually go through the US Postal service, you know? So technically speaking it’s not exactly mail and oh, my God please don’t eat me.
SEAN: Eat you?
HARRISON: Uh, just. You have a very, like, I eat children for breakfast vibe around the office. Some of the other interns — totally not me, obviously — call you uh, Dragon Wilkes.
SEAN: We have other interns?
HARRISON: Did you think I was just running this place by myself? And, uh, I know the death glare of doom is for me to skedaddle but… I did, maybe, totally see what was inside the package and I’ve – I’ve kind of been tracking this girl since she hit the airwaves, and this is like, a dream of mine, a really specific, probably kind of wet dream.
SEAN: Half of what you just said is definitely grounds for termination.
HARRISON: Right, totally, yes. Could I just – Could I show you something?
[SFX]: OPEN LAPTOP. TYPING/CLICKING.
SEAN: Is this… a fan site?
HARRISON: I wouldn’t say fan but… it’s you know, it’s online journalism. I’ve been aggregating all the sightings, and, you know, incidents involving her and anyone who’s… a little special since my freshman year of college.
SEAN: Why?
HARRISON: ‘Cause no one else was.
SEAN: Pull up a chair.
[SFX]: PULL A CHAIR UP TO DESK. SIT DOWN.
SEAN: Under no circumstances should any of this end up on your… bumblr, or whatever, got it?
HARRISON: Tumblr. And Scouts honor.
[SFX]: TYPING
HARRISON: I mean, I’m not a Girl Scout, but if I was, I would be a super honorable one.
SEAN: You done?
HARRISON: Totally.
[SFX]: CLICK TO START VIDEO.
Scene 03
BAILEY: Dude, you just made an old toaster spontaneously combust. I can see every piece of it! There’s little cogs and screws and…
[SFX]: BAILEY WALKING AROUND GARAGE. SHE STOPS TO PICK UP PIECES OF METAL.
BAILEY: Jeez, they’re all in perfect condition. Like, not like you exploded it but… like you took it all apart into individual pieces, really, really fast, and then threw those pieces everywhere.
ANIKA: Oh… okay?
BAILEY: It’s like… okay, dude, what were you feeling just then? Right before the toaster exploded?
ANIKA: Uh, I don’t know? Stressed out?
BAILEY: I think… Look, I know we don’t really like to talk about it, but remember when we were little and, well, sometimes you’d just get a little. A little overwhelmed?
ANIKA:B…
BAILEY: Just hear me out. I know you don’t like to think about it. But… you used to get so freaked out that you’d just sort of crumble, and there was nothing I could do to help. I just kind of, you know, hung out until you came back and calmed down. And, it wasn’t exactly the same, but just then? You kinda sounded like you would right before I lost you for a few.
Come on, I didn’t mean to upset you, it’s just… well, do you think this might be that?
ANIKA: No.
BAILEY: Why not?
ANIKA: Because I didn’t explode shit with my mind when I had panic attacks! Don’t you think we’d remember that tidbit?
BAILEY: So maybe that parts new. You’ve never exploded anything with your mind before. Doesn’t mean that this isn’t the reason you suddenly can now.
ANIKA: I haven’t felt that way in years. You know that. I’ve been… I’ve been doing pretty good.
BAILEY: Around me, at least. Sure.
ANIKA: So, there’s no way I’m going back to… going back to feeling like that all the time. For no reason at all.
BAILEY: No one’s saying you have to. I’m just – okay. Look. Let’s test it out. That’s what this is all for, right?
ANIKA: Okay. Okay, fine. Let’s test it.
BAILEY: Okay. Um. If I’m right, we just have to… have to make you feel not so great, and then you’ll… blow shit up with your mind, I guess?
ANIKA: This is, quite possibly, the worst plan you’ve ever had.
BAILEY: You got any better ideas?
ANIKA: Ignore this all and find that if we ignore it hard enough, eventually it will go away?
BAILEY: Healthy. Look, let’s just… let’s try it, okay? There’s no one here except me. Once we know how it starts, we can go from there.
ANIKA: Fine. What do you want me to do?
BAILEY: Um. Uh, okay. Is there anything you’re feeling particularly… anxious, I guess, about?
ANIKA: Uh, nothing really. Just, you know. The fact that I am haphazardly making things explode. With my mind, that’s not super cool.
BAILEY: I mean, depends on your definition of cool, but whatever.
ANIKA: Look, maybe it could be cool, if I could control it, or if I didn’t feel like total garbage after it all happened. But it’s totally not normal by any definition of the word, and it could totally ruin my life? Like, you’ve seen a movie before in your life, there are so many things we should be afraid of right now, dude. Shadowy government organizations, and other people with powers and bad intentions and just, vigilante people who think no one should have this much power, and – and –
[SFX]: STATIC CUTS INTO THE RECORDING, AND THINGS AROUND THEM START TO SHAKE. THE ROOM RUMBLES, METAL COMES APART, ITEMS HIT THE WALLS AROUND THEM.
BAILEY: Hey, hey – holy crap we did it.
[SFX]: THE SHAKING GETS WORSE.
BAILEY: Hey, okay, let’s calm down a little. Deep breaths. Hey, hey. Breathe with me, okay?
[SFX]: WALKING AROUND ROOM SLOWLY. DODGING FLYING METAL.
[SFX]: NUTS AND BOLTS FLYING THROUGH THE AIR, BARELY BEING DODGED.
BAILEY: See, feel that? That’s me, okay? I’m right here. Can you feel this? Can you breathe with me?
[SFX]: SLOWLY, THE SHAKING STOPS, AND THE METAL PIECES CLANG TO THE GROUND.
ANIKA: I – I’m sorry.
BAILEY: Hey, no need to apologize.
ANIKA: You know it makes me feel like a freak.
BAILEY: A freak with super powers, dude. So the coolest freak I know.
[SFX]: CAMERA RECORDING ENDS.
Scene 04
[SFX]: Typing.
HARRISON: Do you have to make it sound so clinical?
SEAN: What?
HARRISON: “Subject’s powers coincide with extreme bouts of anxiety.” You’re not a scientist.
SEAN: I’m a journalist.
HARRISON: That’s not the –
SEAN: And I am writing a report of what happened, which is what journalists do, kid.
[SFX]: STAND UP
[SFX]: WALKING TO OFFICE DOOR.
HARRISON: Yeah, absolutely. I’m just gonna head out, okay? Thanks for, uh, for letting me sit in.
[SFX]: DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING.
BAILEY: Mic check, one two.
Scene 05
[SFX]: RUSHED FOOTSTEPS THROUGH BUSY NEWSFLOOR
[SFX]: HEAVY DOOR OPENING.
[SFX]: NYC CITY STREET. BUSY AS PEOPLE PUSH PAST, CARS ZOOM BY.
HARRISON: In and out, dude. You got this.
END OF EPISODE 2