THE PRELUDE – THAT DAY
INT – LILLY AND NANCY'S BEDROOM – 06:30
Two beds sit on either side of the small room. The one of the left has been neatly made, with the black cover elegantly lying on the mattress; whereas, the opposite has a large lump perched on the edge of it. Scattered across the non-existent floor are underwear of all colours; predominantly white and red t-shirts; pink and yellow socks; blue denim jeans and skirts; as well as wet hockey pucks. Posters of Back to the Future, Star Trek, Ghost Busters, Inception and Interstellar are dotted around the dying blue walls of the bedroom. A tiered set of Chester Drawers separate the beds in between, leaning on the slanted wall. Placed on the rotting top are dirty plates; charging phones; a lamp; worn out vinyl records of The Beatles and Arctic Monkeys; an electric shaver with hair all over it and the DVD of The Goonies, without the case. Most noticeably, there is a notebook with the words: "SIGHTINGS" lying at the very edge of the right hand side of the draws, a lidless pen lies on top of it.
Attempting to move across the room without disturbing the mess on the floor is Lilly Hughes. A 21 year old woman, wearing a plain white tank top and black shorts that go half way down her thigh. Her jet black hair falls to her lower back and her skinny legs strategically figure out where to place the freshly manicured feet to stand. Her hands both swing in an effort to keep the girl standing, with the left hand holding a brush, free of hair. After a few seconds of deliberation with herself, Lilly moves her right leg; only to stand on a wet hockey puck. Infuriated, she places the brush on the bed, and kneels down to tidy the mess up on the floor.
"Fuck sake Nancy, can't you clear your own shit up?"
The lump in the bed moves ever so slightly and a left hand chucks a spotted pink and white bra, white t-shirt and yellow socks at Lilly, whom proceeds to fold them and place them into a pile.
"I don't want your dirty crap Nancy. Just make sure this room is tidy before I come back tonight".
In a grumbled manner Nancy retorts to Lilly, "It's your room as well you know Lil, if you care so much why don't you tidy it?"
"Because it's not my mess".
Nancy makes an indistinguishable noise and rolls over back to sleep. Lilly, still picking up the clothes off the floor, rolls her eyes and shakes her head.
After Lilly has placed the clothes into four piles: underwear, t-shirts, jeans/skirts and socks; she then proceeds to pick up the hockey pucks and pile them into a green, mouldy bag with "Ice Ice Ladies" plastered on the front.
"Is that really the best name you could come up with?"
Nancy, clearly offended with the previous comment, leans up off the bed with a puzzled expression on her face.
"It's a pun, I told them you wouldn't get the joke", replies Nancy.
Lilly sarcastically chuckles to herself. "Very funny, now get out of bed and get changed."
Nancy falls back down and covers herself back up with the multicoloured duvet. "I'll wait until you're done. I'll miss Psychology then".
Sighing to herself, Lilly stands up and grabs the brush, switching it to her left hand. Now that the floor has been somewhat cleaned, Lilly is able to freely walk to the mirror and brush her hair.
INT – LILLY AND NANCY'S BEDROOM – 07:00
Out of the lump on the right bed emerges Nancy Hughes at eighteen years of age, with messy, black shoulder length hair; a blue New York Rangers shirt and black tracksuit bottoms. Her hands rub her face in an effort to wake herself up whilst her deep blue eyes look even more tired than a failing businessman's face. Nancy looks at the four piles of clothes next to the Chester Drawers and takes a deep breath and puffs out.
INT – FAMILY KITCHEN – 07:15
The kitchen is an amalgamation of both the dining room and the kitchen, with counters, oven, sink and fridge all on the left hand side the room, with the circular, wooden dining table sat on the right. Sandra Hughes, sits at the table in her red office attire, with John Hughes sat next to her in his black and white office suit. Lilly sits beside her father, now sporting a maroon university hoodie; black jeans and black Doc Martin shoes; all three people are staring at the TV, on one of the countertops, in disbelief, each eating a slice off buttered toast.
Emerging from the hallway is Nancy Hughes, now wearing a knee length denim skirt; blue Vans pumps with yellow socks; a black and white varsity jacket and underneath a white shirt with writing on that is being cut off by the jacket. With the TV saying: "ALIENS INVADE NEW YORK... AGAIN", Nancy shrugs it off and greets each family member with a kiss on each cheek, with both parties saying "morning" to each other. When Nancy gets to her sister, Lilly jokily states "Look who decided to get up this morning", which results in her giving a snarky facial expression back.
In an attempt to get the sisters in line, Sandra exclaims, "Girls, now's not the time. Who knows how many people have been affected by this."
Grabbing a Strawberry yogurt from the fridge, Nancy looks at the TV again, "It'll be fine, The Avengers have this. After all they've already saved New York from the Chitari back in 2012".
"You never know Nanc, they may fail this time", Lilly says.
"Bitch please, The Avengers never fail. That's why they're called superheroes", Nancy replies.
"One day, it'll happen. Until then we can't get complacent".
Nancy grabs a seat next to Lilly and pours herself a glass of apple juice.
"They're a group of superheroes Lil, not football players. We'll be fine. Anyway, the Ice Ice Ladies have a quarter final this weekend. That's bigger news, wish us luck!"
Both Sandra and John wish Nancy good luck, while Lilly stares at the TV screen. John looks at his watch and starts to shove as much toast as he can into his mouth, muttering something. Sandra picks herself up off the chair and grabs her bag from behind her.
"Have a good day you too, don't ware yourselves out. I'll see you later."
"Bye dad", both girls respond with.
"Nancy, your lunch is in the fridge. Lilly, tea tonight is paella; make sure it's nice."
"I always do mum, see you later", Lilly replies.
"Bye mum", Nancy says.
Both Sandra and John leave the kitchen together, and a few seconds later the front door shuts itself.
"I won't be home until 7 tonight Nanc, so you'll have to prep tea for us."
Nancy scoffs at that thought. "That's not my job, you said I need to tidy my room, I can't do both, you know that room will take time to clean".
"Ugh, just try Nancy. I'm sure your ass can deal with it".
Nancy shrugs at Lilly's comments and proceeds to eat her breakfast. Lilly stands up and turns the TV off, "Shouldn't you be getting to college?"
With her mouth full, Nancy exclaims "Meh, I've got better places to be."
Both grossed out and puzzled, Lilly simulated with her hands that she didn't understand what Nancy just said. After a few seconds of chewing, Nancy repeats, "I've got better places to be".
"Really? Better places to be than at college with maybe two months before your exams?"
"Yeah, well there's a cool film out today I may see that."
"Where are you getting the money from then?"
"I was thinking Win would give it to me, I think he loves me so he'll more than definitely give me it. Especially if I say it's a date".
"That's ridiculous Nancy. I'm driving you to college; at least I'll know you're there".
"Thanks Lilly".
Nancy jumps off her chair with a huge smirk on her face and rushes towards the door. Lilly follows after checking that everything is turned off and tidy and under her breath she mutters "You're welcome Sis".
INT – LILLY'S CAR – 07:50
Lilly's car is immaculate. There is no speck of dust anywhere to be seen, or any piece of litter. The inside is mainly grey, though Lilly has added some paint to make the car appear more colourful and appealing. The radio is playing some sort of pop song though both sisters are not paying much attention to it.
Nancy is playing with an elastic band she found in the glove compartment but also fidgeting with one of her bra straps, while Lilly is trying to focus on getting her sister to college on time, but getting distracted by what Nancy is doing.
"What is up with you?"
"It's one of your straps, it's really uncomfortable".
"One of my what?"
"I didn't have any clean ones so I just grabbed one of yours".
"Nancy, that's not how they work".
"Well they have the same job so I thought..."
"You're eighteen, how do you not know how bra's work?"
"I care about other stuff okay".
Nancy looks awkwardly down to the elastic band she was playing with, whilst Lilly's eyes show that she is trying to figure out what to say. The awkward silence between the girls lasts for a little longer than 10 seconds before Lilly says something to rid the air of the pop song.
"How about I pick you up after school and we get you a couple more pairs?"
Nancy looks up and gives a little smile. "Thanks Lilly". There is another pause for 20 seconds before Nancy speaks "Is there any word of the casualties in New York?"
"Apparently, no one has been seriously injured as of yet, but this happened last night so I assume everything will be okay. You were right about The Avengers taking care of it, or what remains of them at least".
"That's good, that's really good. Never lose faith Lilly. They're the best thing this world has. We won't lose them".
"You're a little spark of hope aren't you? There was an incident in Edinburgh last night as well; some say that it had connections to New York."
"It'll be fine. If nothing else has happened then it's over, only a little skirmish".
"Let's hope so".
Lilly drives on with Nancy getting fed up of the radio before flicking over and finding "Space Oddity" on one of the radio stations by David Bowie. Both girls recognise it immediately and at first start to mumble the lyrics, as they get into it their voices get louder and louder, until they sing at full voice. As the song ends, the sisters' chuckle to themselves as Nancy gives an awkward hug to Lilly.
INT – LILLY'S CAR – 08:05
Lilly pulls the car up to the entrance to the sixth form college. Nancy looks at the college, tightly holding her seatbelt unwilling to take it off. Lilly notices the concern on her sister and holds her hand.
"Hey, what's up?"
"It's nothing, it's really nothing".
"Nancy, it doesn't look that way"
Something clicks in Nancy's brain and the seatbelt flies off her, whilst the car door opens.
"I'll see you later Lil, love you".
"I'll be here when you finish, love you too".
Nancy exits the car and shuts the door. Puzzled, Lilly looks at Nancy as she slowly walks towards the entrance of the college. She takes in a deep breath, closes her eyes and mutters "It'll be fine Lilly, she'll be good". Her eyes remerge and the car engine starts up again, soon enough the car moves and continues down the street.
INT - COLLEGE ENTRANCE - 08:06
The entrance of the college walls are plastered white, with the floors being metallic silver. Plants floor the entrance doors and make it near impossible to go through. A few feet away from them is reception, with two receptionists, both wearing the same grey jackets, on the phone; across from them are two worn out brown leather chairs with a stain-laden coffee table in the middle. At the end of the room are two firm wooden doors, that haven't been open in while, and two corridors to the left and right hand sides of the room.
As Nancy wanders through the reception, one of the receptionists takes the phone away from her ears and greets her, though Nancy just raises a hand and smiles at her. Just before Nancy turns towards the left hand side corridor one of her teachers, Mr Elwood catches her. He is a big fellow standing at six foot seven, with facial hair like Gandalf but no hair on his head; a blue and black suit and tattoos on both sets of knuckles.
"Ahhh Miss Hughes, just the woman I needed to see", the teacher says in an Australian accent. "Homework. You haven't handed any to me in quite some time. What's the reason for this?"
"I haven't got a reason sir, but I can get them to you by the end of the day."
Mr Elwood looks at Nancy suspiciously and stroked his beard; he does this for a few seconds. "Okay, you better do, otherwise we're talking about it after college".
"Just how many do I have to do?"
"This is worrying, exams are soon Nancy and you're more than unprepared."
"Well then I'll get prepared, starting from now, as long as you tell me what to do"
"Hand in a 20 mark essay about globalisation, fill out the sheet I gave you about crime, create a word document on religious pluralism and complete two ten markers on perspectives."
Nancy, taken a back, looks over-whelmed about the work she has to do. "Okay, done before the end of college. You'll see me again today".
"I bet I will, I have your class today. It's going to be hard giving me all that and remembering it if you don't have a bag."
"Don't underestimate the power of the dark side of the force." Nancy gives a cheeky wink to her teacher and scampers off down the corridor. Mr Elwood shakes his head and proceeds to walk to the reception desk.
Nancy blunders through corridor after corridor; a few right turns and double doors later, she enters the cafeteria.
INT – CAFETERIA – 08:09
The cafeteria is rather large, with a balcony hanging on the left hand side of the room roughly half way up. The walls are painted a warm yellow, with the floor now being ocean blue. Students and teachers alike fill up the room, leaving hardly any more seats for anyone else. On the far side of the room is the shop, where anyone can purchase their food and what not. It's close to where Nancy spots some of her friends arguing, but cannot hear what after the room is rather loud.
Crossing the room takes some time, as students and teachers aim to make it back to where Nancy was to leave the room. Weaving in and out of people and groups, Nancy slowly makes it to her friends sat round a small, circular table. Not everyone has managed to find a seat, and most chairs have two people sat on them. The group consists of 7 people, Sarah Phillips, Jo Richards, Isabelle Maitland, Winchester Owens, Oscar Clarke, Anthony Baker and Nancy.
Opposite to where Nancy stands is her best-friend Winchester, whom notices her immediately. His dress sense is a little-less fashionable than what most consider it to be in Nancy's eyes, with him wearing a black leather jacket over his grey jumper, black jeans and black Doc Marten boots. Pushing back his long, greasy, dirty blonde hair are sunglasses that can cover his lightly brown eyes. With a wave, Winchester draws Nancy over.
"Hey you"
"Hey Winchester"
"Have you seen that state of New York? It's a complete mess in some places!"
"Me and my sister had that conversation in the car, apparently everyone's fine"
"That's great, that's great. According to reports, a couple of magicians were seen fighting with Tony Stark and Spider-Man. Actual wizards!"
Jo Richards looks over to Winchester and buts into the conversation "Are you still talking about that?"
"Well yeah, this proves magic exists! Like really exists!"
"They're superhero's Winchester. Scarlett Witch proved that magic exists ages ago"
Winchester, clearly wound up, fumbles to make an argument, "Yes well, now, she's not a genuine wizard as such, you see I've done a bit of digging on the old internet and she was a lab experiment created by the Russians in the 50's, a weapon to fight against people like Captain America."
Jo's eyes roll, while Nancy stands enjoying the tussle between the two. "That can't be right. You know that's bullshit..."
"Ahhh, that's where you're wrong: On the dark web, there are files regarding that of Hydra that refer to this."
"How do you know that they're not forged? Who knows what people will make up to gain attention?"
Winchester is clearly getting aggravated that Jo isn't reasoning with him, and Isabella turns away from her conversation to separate the two. "Did anyone hear that otters hold hands when they're sleeping?"
Nancy's eyes start to gleam and a smile emerges on her face, "Oh my god. That's adorable! Have you got a picture? That's surely got to be the cutest thing ever!"
Winchester and Isabella get out their phones and look at the otters, with Jo and Nancy looking over. It takes a moment for them to find the pictures but when they do the group awwww's together.
Nancy looks at Winchester and holds his hand; he looks up, smiles at her and rests his head on her arm. This lasts for a moment before Nancy has a realisation. "Fuck, has anyone got some spare paper and a pen?!"
"You forgot your bag again Nanc? That's the fourth day in a row now." Retorts Sarah as she goes into her bag for her notebook.
"Yeah, I've lost it really. I have a dreadful amount of work to give to Elwood today and it needs to be done." Sarah hands Nancy a purple notebook with a blue pen.
An Australian voice from behind exclaims "You're fucked" to Nancy. As she turns round she notices that it's Mr Elwood, with a sausage butty in his hand walking off looking at her.
"This day cannot get any worse, I swear to god. It doesn't help when you've got a strap messing you about."
Jo's face sparks with an idea, and her hands jingle about, "I know how you can fix that. Come with me and I'll sort it for you".
"Okay." Nancy puts the notepad on the table and walks off with Jo out of the cafeteria.
INT – BATHROOM – 08:17
The bathroom is moderately large with three stalls and sinks opposite, with hand dryers next to the door. The girls are in the farthest stall with Nancy's varsity jacket hanging on the hook of the door, and Jo's satchel on the floor. Nancy is readjusting her top, which can now be read "MY SISTER HAS A FREAKING AWESOME SISTER!" Jo stands there, with a proud look on her face. "Does that feel better?"
"Yeah, a little. Thanks for that."
"Anytime Nancy, don't take this the wrong way, but what's going on? You're an absolute mess."
"I don't know Jo, just life I guess. Things get in the way and there you go, you're spiralling."
"If you need to, you can stay with me for a bit, if things are getting too much".
"Thank you, I do have Lilly as well. I can't think of a better sister to have."
"That's because there is no one else. Just try and take care of yourself. We're all here for you, no matter what."
Nancy and Jo hug it out for a while until the door knocks very loudly. Nancy puts on her varsity jacket and Jo picks her bag up. They open the door to a very surprised student.
"I've gotta use that y'know. Have some consideration for other people when you share a stall".
Both girls look confused until they realise what the student is saying. "Oh my god, no we weren't doing that". Jo profusely exclaims.
"Yeah, bet you weren't".
Jo and Nancy leave the bathroom with a very judgemental set of eyes staring at them.
INT – CORRIDOR – 08:20
The corridor is now filling with students bustling to their form, Jo and Nancy stand beside the entrance to the bathroom, Jo looks rushed.
"I'll see you at lunch, if there's a problem then just let me know."
Jo rushes off down the corridor and Nancy moves up it, before realising that she's once again left something behind. She stops and groans a frustrated noise, then pushes against the crowd to get back into the cafeteria. Luckily, her friends come out just before she enters and Winchester hands her the pad.
"Don't forget it next time or I'll have to staple it to your chest."
Nancy chuckles as she joins their conversation on the way to her form room.
INT - CATETERIA – 13:02
The group are sat in relatively the same place as they were in the morning, though they're around a bigger table and everyone is sitting down chatting together about John Krasinski's film "A Quiet Place" and eating lunch. Nancy, having managed to survive the first two lessons of the day, works on one of the tasks Mr Elwood gave her in the morning with the page has being more-or-less filled with illegible writing. Winchester sits on her left eating strawberries, with Jo on her right next to Sophie on her laptop.
"Hey Nancy, you haven't eaten anything all day."
Nancy ignores Winchester and continues to write.
"Nancy eat some goddamn food or your work will be worthless!" Vents Isabella.
Nancy looks up at Isabella for a second, looking as if she will say something, only to tilt her head down and write. However, she is able to write a few more words before slamming the pen down.
"I can't eat or do anything. I've been working on these motherfucking things all day. I can't hand them in half-assed can I?"
"No, but you can give him what you've done today and the rest tomorrow. Even he knows that you cannot do all of it in one school day." Replies Jo.
"I told him I would have it done, one hundred percent. If I don't, then shame on me for going back on my word."
Winchester places a strawberry into the hand of Nancy and closes it. She looks at him caringly before putting the strawberry into her mouth. When all of it has been devoured, Nancy goes on to claim "If I go back on my word then it looks as if I don't care."
"Look at what you have done today, how much work have you done?" Isabella responds
Nancy flicks back roughly 14 pages of work showing the group what she has done.
"There, you see. He can't complain. He will if you keep up missing homework. All you have to do is organise yourself. Get your head out of the sand and sort yourself out."
Nancy takes in what Jo said and cools herself down. She picks up another strawberry from Winchester's box and eats it. She closes the notepad and places the lid back on the pen. To relax more, Nancy rests her head on Winchester's shoulders and takes a deep breathe in, before blowing out.
"Relax for half an hour before lesson and we'll go to Elwood's lesson together."
"Super doper, will do Doctor Who".
Nancy closes her eyes and rests whilst the rest of the group eat and chats. From time to time, Winchester kisses Nancy's forehead and strokes her hair.
INT – MR ELWOOD'S ROOM – 14:23
The classroom is an average sized room which fits 13 desks with two people to each one, on this occasion no one is off ill. The walls are white with the carpet being a dull grey and the blue chairs bring some colour into the room. Mr Elwood is standing before the class talking about something, as Nancy is paying no attention. Rather, she is staring out the window babbling to herself. Outside is a main road with a few shops, takeaways and a post office, cars speed past and people quickly walk on by. Jo sits next to Nancy essentially writing down everything Elwood is saying onto a word document on her laptop.
"Nancy... Nancy." The daydreaming girl's hand drops, leaving her head to follow, almost hitting the desk, as Jo nudges her elbow to bring her back to reality. "Elwood's noticed that you're not paying attention" whispers Jo.
"That's funny. I swear that there was a woman there a second ago." Nancy exclaims as she looks as Jo.
At that moment a car screeches and slams into a takeaway on the opposite side of the road. This grabs everyone's attention as alarms go off, with some people screaming. At the top of her voice Jo's voice shouts "OH SHIT", and another girl can be heard freaking out.
Nancy retorts "It's only a..." whilst turning around to see that Jo and most of her class have disappeared, the girl in the corner is virtually in tears with another classmate looking astonished.
Nancy's mouth drops in astonishment, "Has everyone gone out to help?"
"They've just gone."
As Nancy gets up to leave the room the girl speaks again, holding some dust in her hand. "No, they've just gone."
There is some panic in the corridor as some students run past and look into their room. Laughing it off Nancy goes "This has to be some sort of... This is prank. Has to be".
The guy at the front looks at Nancy in disbelief, "This isn't a prank".
Nancy clearly confused and upset, "Yeah, but... they can't... They can't just disappear. Can they? That's impossible."
"They didn't disappear..." The girl states, holding some dust in out her hand.
Nancy, now realising what has happened takes out her phone and starts to frantically tap it. "She'll be fine, she'll be fine", Nancy repeatedly reassures herself. However, the call only goes to voicemail, "No, no no, not my Lilly, not my sister." Nancy tries to call her mother and father but only get the same response. It takes a second of deliberation but Nancy makes her mind up on what she's going to do. "I need to find her, she's can't be... she can't be that." Before anything else can be said the girl picks up Jo's satchel and Laptop and leaves the room packing them. The other two surviving class members look at Nancy before calling their loved ones to check on their safety.
INT – CORRIDOR – 14:25
The corridor has dust floating all over it, with people in shear panic running down. Nancy jogs down the hallway to the entrance, only to be stopped by Sarah who's already started to be disintegrated. "Help me Nancy, PLEASE!" Nancy looks at Sarah horrified and shaken, before giving what remains of the girl a hug while saying "I'm so so sorry". In her arms, her friend falls into specks of dust onto the ground. With tears in her eyes, Nancy continues down the corridor, grabbing the phone out of her pocket and calls Lilly again, only with the same response as before: voicemail. "This can't be true, please this cannot be true." More panicked and scared than before, Nancy spurts down to the reception and leaves the college building.
EXT – SMITH STREET – 14:27
As Nancy runs out of the building and onto the main road she can see car's smashing and smashed into one another, people running up and down the road and some people holding what seems to be dust. In the sky, the a roar of a plane tumbles down onto the ground roughly 5 miles to the right of Nancy, making an ash cloud fly up into the sky and the floor shake violently. The screams of those involved fill the sky. Now fully realising the scale of the situation, Nancy runs down the road, towards the black cloud...