Television: The True Depths of Life
Chapter 1: The Art of Discovery
By Ivy (singcraz) of The Awesomous Ones
-------------------------------
Computer screens tend to glare. You sit at the computer for a few hours, answering e-mails, talking to friends, surfing the net. It's a daily ritual for many people, an addiction for a few; it even has been mistaken for God by a minority of people. Most of the population swears by it, claiming they could never live without the Internet.
So you sit there, typing, staring, fingers getting more exercise than ever before, clicking clacking away. You glance at the time every few minutes. Ten minutes goes by, half an hour, "Oh look, Dharma and Greg is on!" time, and soon you've been on for three hours, hungry for social connections. Oh yeah, and your eyes are burning like two balls of fire from the seemingly harmless rays seeping from the screen . . .
- - - - - - - -
Ephram Brown rubbed his eyes. He had been sitting there for too long, searching for anything, literally anything to do in Everwood that day. So far, all he had found to do for "fun" were to sit at Mama Joy's or to surf the web in the privacy of his own home. Go figure.
As a last resort, he brought up his search engine and typed in "Everwood stuff". The results were amazing.
He quickly scanned through the hundreds of results.
'Everwood furniture.' 'Ever wonder how much money you could save?' 'The WB presents the new hit drama, Everwood.' 'I love Everwood!'
"What an asylum escapee," he thought to himself.
'The WB is completely genius! Everwood is great!'
"Who is this WB person?"
'The Everwood Escapades! A site completely dedicated to the writers of Everwood fanfiction!' 'Ephram's character on Everwood is so great. Deep, brooding, and not to mention, completely hot!'
Ephram did a double take.
"Must be a coincidence," he muttered, and continued his search. "Amy and Ephram are so meant for each other! I hope the writers of Everwood help, no, MAKE them get together!" Ephram stared, blank faced. Slowly, very slowly, he reached his hand out to click the mouse. He glanced at his hand as if every second was a chance to tell himself to stop it and to turn off his computer. It was a prank, he was sure of it; the people at his school were trying to freak him out. No, it was Bright, trying to scare him out of the city. Yes, that's right, it was Bright's fault. He should let it go and walk away. That was the only rational thing to do, the only adult thing to do.
He clicked the link. And what came on the screen was the last thing he had expected. He gasped loudly and fell to the floor.
"DAD!" Andy flew into his son's room, out of breath from running up the stairs. A floral potholder covered his right hand, as he had been downstairs cooking when he heard the yell.
"What is it?? Are you ok?" he belted as he ran towards Ephram, helping him to stand. Ephram was silent for a while, his face entirely white and entirely blank, holding no expression whatsoever. His father shook him by the elbows, but there was little reaction, only Ephram's head bobbing with the shaking action. Andy tightened his grip on his son's arms and looked him in the eye. In a shaky, slow movement, Ephram turned his head to face his computer screen. Andy followed his son's eyes and looked at the computer. He pursed his lips and blew up.
"You took a PICTURE of you and Amy MAKING OUT and put it on the INTERNET???" Andy howled. Ephram began to laugh. Not just a chuckle or a simple snort, no, it was a long, drawn out, almost insane laugh. It seemed completely out of place for that particular moment. After what seemed a forever of laughing, Ephram stopped abruptly and whispered:
"You think I put that picture up there?" and continued with his laughing fit. Andy's jaw dropped and he stuttered around for words, wishing the right ones would form in his mouth.
"Um, well, I guess you wouldn't, but um, there you are with Amy and it's really crisp and it's online and I just figured that maybe somehow there was some way you might have-"
"You jackass," Ephram smiled snidely as he said that, and finally plopped himself down on his bed, calming down a bit. A few more chuckles escaped from his lips and Andy merely stood, gaping at his son.
"I was simply searching the Internet, and all of a sudden, I start seeing all these websites, talking about me. So I decide to check one out, and there that picture is! I don't know how anyone took that, because we were all alone down there and it says there's some TV show called Everwood and there's a character named Ephram and I have no idea what's going on!"
There was a pause.
"You were ALONE with Amy MAKING OUT?" Andy shouted.
"Stop saying that!" Ephram yelled back. "She kissed me once and ran away! It didn't even last two seconds and you're not even paying attention to what I'm saying!" Ephram yelled back.
Andy was mad now. "Well what are you saying?? Spit it out already!"
"Well," Ephram started, "I think we're being watched."
Now it was Andy's turn to laugh. He chortled silently, his hands placed on his hips.
"What are you laughing at? I'm completely serious!" Andy just continued.
"Damnit! Listen to me!"
"So, haha, so let's see, your theory is that there's a television show called Everwood and we're the stars?"
"Exactly!" Ephram sighed.
"Oh yes, of course there is, sweetie," Andy smiled sarcastically, "And there's a camera there and there and probably one right in front of your face! Hell, they might have attached them in the night into our eyes so we're really filming everything we see!"
"Why are you making a joke about this?" Ephram bellowed.
"It's because I'm with them. BOO," Andy shook his hands next to his face in a mock-scary way and Ephram crossed his arms over his chest and looked up at the ceiling, obviously embarrassed.
"C'mon, be rational, Ephram. Go read a book or something, and stop thinking about it," Andy added sincerely. "And don't you dare fill your sisters brain with these silly thoughts. Dinner will be ready in an hour," Andy walked out, and glanced back in as he shut the door slowly.
Once Ephram wouldn't see him any longer, he smoothed down his hair and blew out a long breath. Suspiciously, he glanced around, looking for hidden cameras. He finally laughed at himself and walked downstairs, only once turning around to look at the side of the bookshelf near Ephram's room.
"He's right. It's silly. Go grab a comic and sit down. That's right. Ok," Ephram sat on his bed and began to read.
But couldn't stop his gaze from going to the computer screen. The picture was still up there. He got up and pressed the "back" button and sat back down. "Concentrate!" he whispered to himself. He crossed his legs, flipped the page, and sighed.
"Fine! You win!" he said to the computer and sat down, clicking another link.
"Everwood fanfiction contest?" he said to himself as he read about this . . . Everwood Escapades thing. He wrote down some notes, muttered, "Huh," and clicked the link titled 'fanfiction.net' and. He decided to start reading, to see what this "fanfiction" thing was.
Starting with the nominated "Best Authors":
Ditey
Jack B. Nimble
Lady Jenna
DarkKnight6
Drama-Duchess
MariBlueCareBear
WickedWillow1
Always Krissy
It always seemed smartest to start with the best! As he read the stories written by these authors, he was immediately saddened. People knew about him. They found him sarcastic, cute; sometimes they even made him suicidal. They wrote about Amy, about Colin, about how his family, friends, enemies and acquaintances. It seemed they could get into his head and make anything seem, well, true. They put words in his mouth, quoted things he had really said, made up stories and fantasies, sometimes even about "Sir Ephram of York". They were silly, depressing, romantic, and gory. His life was public entertainment.
Sometimes they mentioned a "Greg Berlanti" fellow. He was supposedly the "creator" of this "Everwood" show.
Ephram wanted to find him.
Ephram needed to find him.
It was his life mission.
- - - - - -
"Operator, how may I help you?"
"I'd like the number for a . . . Greg Berlanti," he replied strongly.
"What area?" she replied.
"Um . . ." The operator sighed.
"Do you know where this guy lives?"
"Not exactly," Ephram answered slowly.
"Look kid, find out where this guy lives and then I'll tell you his number, capish?"
"Sure," Ephram snorted. Maybe this wasn't going to be so easy after all. He hung up the phone. Maybe it would be impossible. He went downstairs, grabbed up the phone book, and dodged his dad as he shouted, "Who are you trying to call?"
"Someone," he said back as he bounded up the stairs. He plopped the book on his desk and opened it up.
"Berlanti, Berlanti . . ." he muttered as his finger scanned through the B's. He checked again. And once more. He cursed after finding no luck and sat down, defeated. Who else could he call? There seemed to be no one. But then there was that "WB" character . . . He flipped to the W's now, and searched more carefully this time over.
Aha! "WB Studios". He dialed the 1-800 number and waited.
"Hello, you've reached the WB Studios, Burbank, California. Please wait while we connect you." He waited for five minutes and was finally connected to an on-site worker.
"Lisa Johnson, how can I help?" a woman with an East Coast accent asked kindly.
"Hi, um, I need to know where I can reach Greg Berlanti. I guess he created a show called Everwood and I needed some information." He waited for a second in silence as the aforementioned Lisa spoke to a co-worker.
"I don't think I can give you his number," she said, "but I might be able to answer a few questions if you want." Ephram answered, somewhat disappointed, but would take whatever he got.
"Sure. What's the show about?" As Lisa answered and Ephram listened intently, smiling slightly at the whole idea that his life was on TV! It was sort of a frightening concept, but could have really cool effects on his life! He had always wondered what it would be like to be a television star. But wait, he didn't even know he was on TV until and hour ago! Was this some weird ploy? How was it he hadn't found out until now? How long had this been going on?
"Thanks," he said, cutting her off, and hung up.
"I'll be home in a few," he said to his dad as he ran out the door. Andy stared in shock. He began cutting vegetables again as he glanced around his house, wondering what really was going on.
- - - - - - - -
That night, thousands of people around the world watched Andy Brown as he made a casserole for dinner.
- - - - - - - -
[A/N: you heard it! The nominees for best author are: Ditey, Jack B. Nimble, Lady Jenna, DarkKNight6, Drama-Duchess, MariBlueCareBear, WickedWillow1, and Always Krissy. Now get voting!]
Everwood Escapades: www.angelfire.com/stars4/everwood_escapades
Chapter 1: The Art of Discovery
By Ivy (singcraz) of The Awesomous Ones
-------------------------------
Computer screens tend to glare. You sit at the computer for a few hours, answering e-mails, talking to friends, surfing the net. It's a daily ritual for many people, an addiction for a few; it even has been mistaken for God by a minority of people. Most of the population swears by it, claiming they could never live without the Internet.
So you sit there, typing, staring, fingers getting more exercise than ever before, clicking clacking away. You glance at the time every few minutes. Ten minutes goes by, half an hour, "Oh look, Dharma and Greg is on!" time, and soon you've been on for three hours, hungry for social connections. Oh yeah, and your eyes are burning like two balls of fire from the seemingly harmless rays seeping from the screen . . .
- - - - - - - -
Ephram Brown rubbed his eyes. He had been sitting there for too long, searching for anything, literally anything to do in Everwood that day. So far, all he had found to do for "fun" were to sit at Mama Joy's or to surf the web in the privacy of his own home. Go figure.
As a last resort, he brought up his search engine and typed in "Everwood stuff". The results were amazing.
He quickly scanned through the hundreds of results.
'Everwood furniture.' 'Ever wonder how much money you could save?' 'The WB presents the new hit drama, Everwood.' 'I love Everwood!'
"What an asylum escapee," he thought to himself.
'The WB is completely genius! Everwood is great!'
"Who is this WB person?"
'The Everwood Escapades! A site completely dedicated to the writers of Everwood fanfiction!' 'Ephram's character on Everwood is so great. Deep, brooding, and not to mention, completely hot!'
Ephram did a double take.
"Must be a coincidence," he muttered, and continued his search. "Amy and Ephram are so meant for each other! I hope the writers of Everwood help, no, MAKE them get together!" Ephram stared, blank faced. Slowly, very slowly, he reached his hand out to click the mouse. He glanced at his hand as if every second was a chance to tell himself to stop it and to turn off his computer. It was a prank, he was sure of it; the people at his school were trying to freak him out. No, it was Bright, trying to scare him out of the city. Yes, that's right, it was Bright's fault. He should let it go and walk away. That was the only rational thing to do, the only adult thing to do.
He clicked the link. And what came on the screen was the last thing he had expected. He gasped loudly and fell to the floor.
"DAD!" Andy flew into his son's room, out of breath from running up the stairs. A floral potholder covered his right hand, as he had been downstairs cooking when he heard the yell.
"What is it?? Are you ok?" he belted as he ran towards Ephram, helping him to stand. Ephram was silent for a while, his face entirely white and entirely blank, holding no expression whatsoever. His father shook him by the elbows, but there was little reaction, only Ephram's head bobbing with the shaking action. Andy tightened his grip on his son's arms and looked him in the eye. In a shaky, slow movement, Ephram turned his head to face his computer screen. Andy followed his son's eyes and looked at the computer. He pursed his lips and blew up.
"You took a PICTURE of you and Amy MAKING OUT and put it on the INTERNET???" Andy howled. Ephram began to laugh. Not just a chuckle or a simple snort, no, it was a long, drawn out, almost insane laugh. It seemed completely out of place for that particular moment. After what seemed a forever of laughing, Ephram stopped abruptly and whispered:
"You think I put that picture up there?" and continued with his laughing fit. Andy's jaw dropped and he stuttered around for words, wishing the right ones would form in his mouth.
"Um, well, I guess you wouldn't, but um, there you are with Amy and it's really crisp and it's online and I just figured that maybe somehow there was some way you might have-"
"You jackass," Ephram smiled snidely as he said that, and finally plopped himself down on his bed, calming down a bit. A few more chuckles escaped from his lips and Andy merely stood, gaping at his son.
"I was simply searching the Internet, and all of a sudden, I start seeing all these websites, talking about me. So I decide to check one out, and there that picture is! I don't know how anyone took that, because we were all alone down there and it says there's some TV show called Everwood and there's a character named Ephram and I have no idea what's going on!"
There was a pause.
"You were ALONE with Amy MAKING OUT?" Andy shouted.
"Stop saying that!" Ephram yelled back. "She kissed me once and ran away! It didn't even last two seconds and you're not even paying attention to what I'm saying!" Ephram yelled back.
Andy was mad now. "Well what are you saying?? Spit it out already!"
"Well," Ephram started, "I think we're being watched."
Now it was Andy's turn to laugh. He chortled silently, his hands placed on his hips.
"What are you laughing at? I'm completely serious!" Andy just continued.
"Damnit! Listen to me!"
"So, haha, so let's see, your theory is that there's a television show called Everwood and we're the stars?"
"Exactly!" Ephram sighed.
"Oh yes, of course there is, sweetie," Andy smiled sarcastically, "And there's a camera there and there and probably one right in front of your face! Hell, they might have attached them in the night into our eyes so we're really filming everything we see!"
"Why are you making a joke about this?" Ephram bellowed.
"It's because I'm with them. BOO," Andy shook his hands next to his face in a mock-scary way and Ephram crossed his arms over his chest and looked up at the ceiling, obviously embarrassed.
"C'mon, be rational, Ephram. Go read a book or something, and stop thinking about it," Andy added sincerely. "And don't you dare fill your sisters brain with these silly thoughts. Dinner will be ready in an hour," Andy walked out, and glanced back in as he shut the door slowly.
Once Ephram wouldn't see him any longer, he smoothed down his hair and blew out a long breath. Suspiciously, he glanced around, looking for hidden cameras. He finally laughed at himself and walked downstairs, only once turning around to look at the side of the bookshelf near Ephram's room.
"He's right. It's silly. Go grab a comic and sit down. That's right. Ok," Ephram sat on his bed and began to read.
But couldn't stop his gaze from going to the computer screen. The picture was still up there. He got up and pressed the "back" button and sat back down. "Concentrate!" he whispered to himself. He crossed his legs, flipped the page, and sighed.
"Fine! You win!" he said to the computer and sat down, clicking another link.
"Everwood fanfiction contest?" he said to himself as he read about this . . . Everwood Escapades thing. He wrote down some notes, muttered, "Huh," and clicked the link titled 'fanfiction.net' and. He decided to start reading, to see what this "fanfiction" thing was.
Starting with the nominated "Best Authors":
Ditey
Jack B. Nimble
Lady Jenna
DarkKnight6
Drama-Duchess
MariBlueCareBear
WickedWillow1
Always Krissy
It always seemed smartest to start with the best! As he read the stories written by these authors, he was immediately saddened. People knew about him. They found him sarcastic, cute; sometimes they even made him suicidal. They wrote about Amy, about Colin, about how his family, friends, enemies and acquaintances. It seemed they could get into his head and make anything seem, well, true. They put words in his mouth, quoted things he had really said, made up stories and fantasies, sometimes even about "Sir Ephram of York". They were silly, depressing, romantic, and gory. His life was public entertainment.
Sometimes they mentioned a "Greg Berlanti" fellow. He was supposedly the "creator" of this "Everwood" show.
Ephram wanted to find him.
Ephram needed to find him.
It was his life mission.
- - - - - -
"Operator, how may I help you?"
"I'd like the number for a . . . Greg Berlanti," he replied strongly.
"What area?" she replied.
"Um . . ." The operator sighed.
"Do you know where this guy lives?"
"Not exactly," Ephram answered slowly.
"Look kid, find out where this guy lives and then I'll tell you his number, capish?"
"Sure," Ephram snorted. Maybe this wasn't going to be so easy after all. He hung up the phone. Maybe it would be impossible. He went downstairs, grabbed up the phone book, and dodged his dad as he shouted, "Who are you trying to call?"
"Someone," he said back as he bounded up the stairs. He plopped the book on his desk and opened it up.
"Berlanti, Berlanti . . ." he muttered as his finger scanned through the B's. He checked again. And once more. He cursed after finding no luck and sat down, defeated. Who else could he call? There seemed to be no one. But then there was that "WB" character . . . He flipped to the W's now, and searched more carefully this time over.
Aha! "WB Studios". He dialed the 1-800 number and waited.
"Hello, you've reached the WB Studios, Burbank, California. Please wait while we connect you." He waited for five minutes and was finally connected to an on-site worker.
"Lisa Johnson, how can I help?" a woman with an East Coast accent asked kindly.
"Hi, um, I need to know where I can reach Greg Berlanti. I guess he created a show called Everwood and I needed some information." He waited for a second in silence as the aforementioned Lisa spoke to a co-worker.
"I don't think I can give you his number," she said, "but I might be able to answer a few questions if you want." Ephram answered, somewhat disappointed, but would take whatever he got.
"Sure. What's the show about?" As Lisa answered and Ephram listened intently, smiling slightly at the whole idea that his life was on TV! It was sort of a frightening concept, but could have really cool effects on his life! He had always wondered what it would be like to be a television star. But wait, he didn't even know he was on TV until and hour ago! Was this some weird ploy? How was it he hadn't found out until now? How long had this been going on?
"Thanks," he said, cutting her off, and hung up.
"I'll be home in a few," he said to his dad as he ran out the door. Andy stared in shock. He began cutting vegetables again as he glanced around his house, wondering what really was going on.
- - - - - - - -
That night, thousands of people around the world watched Andy Brown as he made a casserole for dinner.
- - - - - - - -
[A/N: you heard it! The nominees for best author are: Ditey, Jack B. Nimble, Lady Jenna, DarkKNight6, Drama-Duchess, MariBlueCareBear, WickedWillow1, and Always Krissy. Now get voting!]
Everwood Escapades: www.angelfire.com/stars4/everwood_escapades