Chapter 1 - The Meteor
Derry (or Londonderry, depending on your persuasion). A land known to most narrow-minded civilians for being the epicentre of sectarian violence and strict army procedures that shook two religious communities to its core for almost thirty years. But as the ceasefires are drawn, another fire is ready to be stoked. Peace. With peace, as many people would think, you have so much to lose, the boundless optimism that will echo down to your guilty subconscious for years to come, should it fail.
But to the five known as the Derry Girls (and one boy; an English fella, but we'll get to that later), this vision would be expressed through the medium of cinema, as they try (and fail) to make their "Oscar-bait" film, whose turbulent production has plagued them since the last summer; in the face of other matters such as exam-result-related panic attacks, accidental burglaries and the infamous interrogation prematurely stopped by the one and only Uncle Colm. But we'll be back to him in a second.
First, we have the group of five; at loggerheads over conflicting creativities, at the front of the FREE DERRY Corner that marks itself onto the town as a symbol of sectarian unity.
"Guys, can we at least stick to the script for at least 50 seconds?! The camera battery's nearly low!" James, holding the camera that is weighing itself dangerously onto his shoulder, cried over the fierce and indignant argument that Erin, the intrepid writer (or so she thinks), and his cousin, the brash-mouthed Michelle are currently engaging themselves into.
Clare, ever the pragmatic one, is trying to break it up between the two, projecting her high-pitched voice as much as she could muster. But even then, her panicked protests have become deaf to the ears of the two, currently blustering over the quality of Erin's screenwriting abilities.
"What the fuck is this, "What path to choose, the path to peace or the path to senseless violence?"? It sounds like a sappy load of balls if you ask me!" Michelle ranted to Erin, waving the crumpled script in front of her to emphasise her point.
"How about you write something better, then?! Maybe something with less vulgarity!" Erin spat out, wildly flailing her arms about as she gesticulates her righteous anger towards Michelle, taking light steps towards her dangerously.
"I knew we should have done a reel for You've Been Framed!; at least it would have made this shoot more fucking memorable! Right, dicko?" Michelle turned to look at James, who holds his hands up in defence as he looks at her cousin (Erin joining in shortly afterwards), their steely eyes quickly widening purposefully and boring itself deeply into his emerald irises as he stammers, trying to think of something that can appease them both. He couldn't speak, his words failing him as his brain goes into overdrive, diving down the multiply, but unattainable paths of tryin to perserve peace between the two.
Menawhile, Clare; having solemnly acknowledged her failure to break up the incomning altercation; goes to check over on Orla, Erin's cousin, who is buried into her airy demeanour, spinning in circles at the grass whilst the rest are arguing. Clare steps over to Orla, in her attempt of silently beckoning her to help the other group break up their fighting; but suddenly, there was a loud, rumbly, almost earth-shattering BOOM nearby, in the nearest corner of the clouds at the right, gaining darkness within the upcoming sunset on the pinkish-orange sky.
Orla stops spinning in circles for a moment as she looks over with Clare. The threesome seem to have heard the boom as well, as they immediately stopped their blazing row to look over at the source of the thunderous sound, James pointing his camera up at the clouds to find the source itself.
"What do you think it is?" Clare nervously asks, her voice getting higher as her mind gears up for the imminent cack attack that illustrates her well. "Fuck knows." Michelle replied, her eyes drawn to whatever has caused the boom.
Orla points over something in the clouds, her breezy smile setting her apart slightly from the perplexed four of the group. "Oh, look! It's a big ball of light! Right above us." She pointed up to the left corner.
As per Orla's word, a bright orange glow suddenly expands itself over the furthest cloud, darkened by the night sky, now illuminated by the bright ball of light streaking over the line of clouds and the long green hill, illustrated by the famed walls of Derry, soaring over it dangerously, the speed steadily gaining up, so much so that it doesn't even look like a meteorite anymore.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, it's GOING TO CRASH! IT'S GOING TO CRASH! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Clare steps back, her palms clutching her head, as her panic starts going into overdrive; as the others look, fascinated; although slightly fearful of what will come next. Erin, standing behind her, turns to her and places her palms on her shoulders.
"Ach, It's probably just another meteorite, Clare! This isn't going to be like Armageddon! They always soar over us!" Erin hissed to Clare, in a hurried attempt to calm her down, but even then, she couldn't help but wonder if it was really a normal meteorite.
"It's broken into two!" James cried out, as he holds his camera, the lens zooming in for a closer look. "Look, the meteor's cracked into two!", James handed over the camera to Michelle, who scoffs despite the peculiar sutiation. "Let me see that, James. Like a meteor's going to split into tw…." She trailed off as she pointed his camera to the ball of light soaring into the centre of the walls, which has now suddenly seperated itself into two fiery balls of lights, like a cell dividing itself.
"Holy fuck, he's right! They're breaking off into two! One of them's landing near the church!" Michelle called out in panic, as she sees the first ball of light plummeting into the church, letting out an almighty BOOM as it does so, bathing the church into an almighty orange glow as it does. It quickly fades away as the other ball soars over the girls, them squeaking in terror as they duck in anticipation. To their relief, it doesn't land on them, but on to the farthest corner behind them: The Bogside, near where Erin and Orla's family live.
Erin's eyes widen in horror as she sees the ball of light drifts over the sequenced houses of the estate, fearing that it might crash into her house. But to her relief, it fades away much further from there, not even touching the one bit of roof as it crashes far away behind the hills of houses that make up the Bogside.
The group look over, the shock from the previous moment leaving them for a minute, replacing that momentary state with astonishment.
"What in under Christ was that?!" Erin was the first to speak. She turned to look at the others, equally dumbfounded as her.
"It's an omen. I knew it! That's what this is. The apocalypse! A day of judgment upon us all!" Claire fretted, her arms and hands wildly flailing in the fear of the anticipated disaster upon them all.
Michelle scoffed in response. "It can't have been the fucking apocalypse, Claire! They would have warned us in mass last Sunday. Erin has a point, they must be one of these wee meteorites that pass over us once a while. It's not something to get all fucking worked up over!"
"Maybe it's aliens. That's the easiest answer." James piped up. "And you would know that how?" Michelle turned to stare at him in apparent disbelief to what she has heard.
"It's what happens in the movies. A meteor fast approaches an average city and aliens come out for an invasion." James explains, turning off his camera and packing it up.
"And what by some miracle, would aliens be doing in Northern Ireland? In Derry, of all places? Where Fenians and Provos walk around with so much as a fucking gun in their hand? Snap out of it, James!" Michelle inches closer to James, harshly shattering any hopeful illusion he has running in his mind.
"Maybe it's E.T, he's finally decided to pop round." Orla's dazed innocence never failing her as she spoke.
"How can it be E.T, Orla? We don't know what it is, or where it comes from! It's not like it's popping round for tea!" Erin shouts at Orla, who still has the same airy demeanour in the face of skepticism.
"We'll find out when we get there." Michelle vowed as she walked on the uphill road, much to the perplexed looks of the others.
"Go after it?! Michelle!" Claire squeaked, panicked at the idea of being in more danger.
"Once we're there, we'll see what we're dealing with, and once we do, we'll decide on what to do with him."
"Or her." James piped up.
"Whatever, fuck-features. Although if it's a woman he wants, as they always do, then I wouldn't mind diving in. Hope he's got a big enough tractor beam…" Michelle added with a sly look on her face.
"No, Michelle." James ordered, with an exasperated and disgusted look on his face, turning green at the thought of his cousin, already randy by nature, copulating with the unearthly visitor.
"Like you've never done it yourself! You always like to wank off to that creep in the magic telephone box you're always watching!"
"I don't wank off to it! It's a childhood classic, and it's Doctor Who!"
Michelle stopped and turned round to face the girls. "The point is, it won't know what hit it. And if it does come to invade; then it will be sorry that it ever came to stick a probe up our holes. Who's with me?" she asked the rest of the girls.
Nobody raised their hands, to anyone's surprise; except Orla, whose hand was still sticking up eagerly, before an exasperated Erin put it down for her.
"That's all settled then. You're all coming." Michelle ordered,as they run over to the estate where Erin's house is, where the majority of their stuff is, in spite of the group's weak protests.
But in spite of their new discoveries, the one thing that they didn't know is that the new discovery with come with bigger things, and not all good…