Chapter 7 From Page to Screen 265inspirations for storytelling can spring from many sources. Consider this
series of story beginnings:- Sarah looked at Jackie and Mykki through coursing tears and said,
“Th at’s it.” She let herself fall against her locker, tilting her head back
a bit so that it banged on the metal. Jackie reached out too late and
Mykki just stood with her arms crossed and eyes and lips scrunched
in plotting. “Let’s get him,” Mykki said to her two friends. Sarah, eyes
closed, tapping the back of her head on the locker, said “No.” She
opened her eyes, “No, let’s just get right out there. Let’s get them.”
“Who?” asked Jackie. Sarah replied, “You know, whoever we want.
Let’s make a list and that’s how we start. Here’s the name: B.W.P.
Boyfriends Without Pain—I’m not getting hurt anymore.” - Th ere was something strange going on around the corner from the
Junior High. Hector stood at the kitchen table shoving cereal in his
mouth while his mother talked on the phone with a neighbor as she
got breakfast ready for the little ones. His mother and the neighbor
were gossiping back and forth about all the wild kids being sent to
juvie, but Hector knew something was up. Jerome, the latest middle
grade kid to disappear was friends with Hector’s little brother, and
he knew Jerome would never have done anything to end up in court.
Not even close. He was going to get his little brother to take him over
to Jerome’s place that aft ernoon. - Jimmy glanced down towards his hand to see the text just before
the bell rang. “Not in class today. Call now.” Jimmy quickly asked,
“Mr. G, can I go to the bathroom before the bell rings?” Th e
teacher just grunted and waved his hand toward the door. Jimmy
was out of the classroom in a fl ash. Back at her house, Carrie was
waiting for Jimmy’s call. She couldn’t even go in to start the day in
Auto Shop, she was too freaked out. Yesterday, she had removed
the tarps and pulled in to the unused bay to surprise Jimmy with
some extra work on his Camaro, and everything blinked. Time
shift ed. Was she losing her mind, or was there some sort of door,
a concrete road to another time. Was this a sign? Th e school was
trying to pull the plug on Auto Shop so that they could fi t in more
Advanced Placement classes. Was this some weird result of that?
Carrie’s ringtone made her jump up: it was Jimmy calling from the
bathroom. - Serena sat in her chair, staring down at the faded, chipped tile between
her feet. She didn’t want to be in this session, but she had to be. Th e
only words she had been able to say to her parents since her brother
found her were: “Okay, I’ll go.” She listened to the breathy, “I’m so
sensitive” voice of the counselor and then followed the voices around
the circle spitting out their labels: anorexia, suicide, gambling, drugs.
She closed her eyes and heard her song, saw herself walking around
this circle, belting out her words to wake them up, to tell the therapist
where to go, to be heard for real.
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