Branson M.O

By Jesus L. Diaz

INT. Meade high school — day

We see the view of a high school hallway through the lens of a wrinkly dinky digital iPhone camera. Tracking down the walls in a singular continuous shot with small sounds of wind in the background.

A BENCH

Sits gazing outside the bright window with lights shining down on it.

A STAIRWELL

Sits still with no life left on it other than the view of dust costing on by its steps.

A CLASSROOM DOOR

Sits decorated and still with no life on it.

We see a teacher teaching a class, unable to be heard by the audience.

Cut to:

INT. Meade high classroom — moments later

We see a teacher sitting at their desk occupied away from their work through the eyes of an iPhone camera once more. The person holding the iPhone camera we see through is JAY-JAY (18). A shaggy haired high schooler with something to hide, and not yet much of his character to be understood.

Jay-jay

OS

Okay, so, what we would like for you to do for us here today is to tell us as much as you can about your thoughts on the end of the school year?

We see through the lens of the iPhone more and more interviews asking the same question and a host of others to multiple people.

(CREDITS)

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

How will your grades look by the end of the school year?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

What are you most proud of in your personal life?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

Do you wish you could have accomplished more?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

What’s the status of your mentality as we approach the end of the school year?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

Do you think that you ever entered the “zone” while you were here?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

Have you found anything special?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

Has it been worth is to have a career as a teacher?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

Was it all really worth it in the end for you?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

If you could change anything about this year? Can you?

JAY-JAY (O.S.)

Do you consider yourself to be special?

(TITLE CARD)

(END CREDITS)

Cut to:

INT. MEDIA PRODUCTIONS ROOM — day

We see a massive green screen that takes up the entire frame, until we see JAY-JAY walk into the middle of the frame holding a microphone, he has a blank expression. Clearly hiding something behind his eyes, but we might not ever know what it is.

JAY-JAY

As we approach the end of the school year, we believe from the mustang media that it is incredibly important that we give gracious congrats and reflection to the many students and teachers of Meade high school.

The green screen behind JAY-JAY changes to provide more information and thematics on the certain circumstances of JAY-JAYs discussion.

JAY-JAY (CONT’D)

Over the course of the last few days, we have asked and spoken to numerous amount of students and teachers on their reflections regarding the end of the school year and where their mindset is now. Here’s what some of them had to say!

A compilation of answers to unheard questions plays for the audience to see and hear, with hyped up inspirational music in the background and flashes of a cardboard cutout showing up on screen for just barely visible and small moments.

JAY-JAY

Well folks, there you have it and that is what you see, the final moments of this year for Meade High School! I cannot wait for the future! So excited to see where it all goes!

The scene doesn’t end. Instead, we see with a single blink, the world around JAY-JAY changes. It’s not through the lens of an iPhone any longer. It’s something dark and professional, the world isn’t so bright and cheery when the life we live is hidden behind something stale and fragile. This is what Jay-Jay does not want us to see.

Hard cut to:

INT. ABANDONED THRIFT STORE — midnight

We see a dark and decrepit environment, disgusted with stains of shit and feces. The moss is tearing through the floors and ceilings, its disgusting and wretched environment.

A stage light illuminates a withered away and shadowy, small standing green screen. In the middle on a small chair sits JAY-JAY.

A small cardboard figure sits in a place of power over the environment, overlooking the scene and production. This is HOMA.

Homa

Tell us everything you can about yourself.

JAY-JAY

Antidepressants, the world doesn’t care, my name is JAY-JAY. My mom is dead, I play the piano. I think my legacy isn’t exactly holding up the way I want it.

HOMA

So how do we fix that?

JAY-JAY

The end of the school year is so crazy, so we find what’s inside the energy drink, we have a band practice…

HOMA makes a small and sudden movement unseen by the rest of the cast, he prepares to turn on a strange device.

JAY-JAY (CONT’D)

… Separate the rest of the world away from myself, engage in more, play the banjo, get together in a much more fixed state with my subconscious.

HOMA

What was inside the energy drink?

JAY-JAY

Hope.

HOMA

Pain? Desire? Pleasure? Lust?

JAY-JAY

A world of evil for both you and I to benefit from.

HOMA

Isn’t that such a turn on?

JAY-JAY

yeah.

HOMA finally turns on the device, it’s revealed to be a projector of sorts. It shows an image of Baltimore city, photographed by someone unknown.

JAY-JAY turns around slightly to look at it, it transfixes him, almost like an obsession.

HOMA

What about this? Something like this for a legacy?

JAY-JAY

Legacy? I’m 12.

HOMA

Not anymore. What type of legacy is it that you want to leave here? I think you know what it is.

Hard Cut to:

INT. Jay-jays room — night

We see a dark, disgusting and shameful neet room. Clothes scattered all over the entire room, with unfinished drinks and noodles cowering in the corners of every crevice. JAY-JAY’s head is laying restless on his computer, in the same posture small school children do to sleep on their desk in school’s.

THE TV

Illuminates the room with as much light as it can, playing LUCKY STAR reruns with the attention of no one. Fitting in perfectly on this depressing sight.

THE ALEXA

Sit’s atop a MINI FRIDGE, playing ONE LIFE by THE PILLOWS at a low volume.

THE ENCLOSURE

Taking up such a large space of the room contains a snake hiding from the sad passages of the land right outside it’s thin tempered plastic glass.

THE COMPUTER MONITOR

Is on an unseen thread site, assumingingly filled with disgusting freaks of nature and perverted racists that fit into this kind of environment. Just inches away from it, the head of JAY-JAY lay’s stagnate, unknown as to why so.

JAY-JAY

Whispering with head down

Don’t summarize, analyze. Don’t summarize, analyze. Don’t summarize, analyze. Don’t summarize analyze.

As JAY-JAY lay’s there mumbling his life away, We see THE MONITOR screen change. Playing with the rampant urgent sounds of a discord call unwanted.

JAY-JAY slowly wakes up, with barely enough energy to even lift his head up or move his computer mouse…

JAY-JAY (V.O.)

Whenever I’m alone, I don’t feel whole. Not particularly free or fun, and not much at home either.

…after mustering up just barely enough energy, he manages to finally answer the discord call.

Across the other line is an annoying man of youthful exuberance and JAY-JAY’s best friend, CHEW.

CHEW

Hello?

JAY-JAY

What?

CHEW

What?

JAY-JAY

Huh?

CHEW

Huh?

JAY-JAY

What is it?

CHEW

We need the finishing product of that little video we’re making of all the kids for the end of the school year now.

JAY-JAY

I’m finishing it, sorry I haven’t been at school for a while recently.

CHEW

Where the hell have you been?

JAY-JAY

I have been playing crabs with all my great friends.

CHEW

Fag…

JAY-JAY (V.O.)

I fucking hate this pile of dicks, I hate the presence of his annoying voice scathing the speakers of my computer whenever he speaks to me or makes these stupid calls.

CHEW (CONT’D)

… I miss your sexy ass greatly, come here and pay me a visit from 30 minutes away.

JAY-JAY

Oh, yeah?

CHEW

Yeah.

JAY-JAY (V.O.)

This miserable and spiteful bastard. I wonder if his stupid girlfriend hasn’t given any more entertainment, so he comes hawking back over to me again and again. Maybe he caught on that she’s fucking other guys obviously, or he’s no longer oblivious to the fact his slutty girlfriend is using him as an emotional crutch to get over her cheating ex. I pity him, I pity myself for the wallowing I entail. Disgusting of myself to let this shit stain who still takes online school in 2024 to command my ever so graceful presence.

JAY-JAY

Hey, make sure to tell the lady you got I say hi, okay loser?

CHEW

Sure, I guess I can see you later with it then, Jay-Jay.

JAY-JAY

Sure. I guess.

Chew finally leaves the call, leaving JAY-JAY to wallow down much further into his own self-pity.

We see JAY-JAY switch over to a new tab on his computer that was unseen by us. JAY-JAY let’s out a loud sigh mixed with a yawn before continuing on this hidden project of his. It’s an editing platform, with the video from the beginning of this story as the presentation. (The music of Alexa gets louder.)

JAY-JAY (V.O.)

sarcastically

Humanity is just so fucking grateful.

Cut to:

INT. ABANDONED THRIFT STORE — night

We see JAY-JAY back in the original position he once was, sitting alone on the chair with lights shining down on him brightly in the dark decayed place.

HOMA proceeds to ask more and more questions.

HOMA

Was his girlfriend really a slut?

JAY-JAY

I certainly thought so, I thought so for a long time.

HOMA

Why did you never step up to say anything about it?

JAY-JAY

I didn’t think it was my place.

HOMA

But it was, because you are his best friend.

JAY-JAY

Do friends do that?

HOMA

They can if they please.

BEGIN MONTAGE:

HOMA appears closer to JAY-JAY than ever before now, in a way, it feels intimidating.

QUICK CUTS:

HOMA

What else is there for us to transcend upon?

JAY-JAY

Fear.

JAY-JAY

Rape.

JAY-JAY

Trashiness.

JAY-JAY

While messily strumming a guitar

A dead mom.

JAY-JAY

A dead dad.

JAY-JAY

A dead suicide.

JAY-JAY

A truckload of humanities greatest flaws and something so disgusting I wish the rest of the world never had to see it.

JAY-JAY

Maybe something picturesque.

END MONTAGE:

HOMA

Picturesque?

JAY-JAY

Something so perfectly picturesque you have no idea.

HOMA

Picturesque.

JAY-JAY

An overweight brunette girl.

HOMA

You said all of these thing’s but you never once said love, or even mention hatred.

JAY-JAY

Why did I have too?

HOMA

Because you can entertain both if you need to. Try it JAY-JAY.

JAY-JAY strums his guitar one last time with a sense of misery. He looks down, sweat dripping down is forhead.

HOMA

Everything you said, did it really happen?

JAY-JAY

I wish it did.

HOMA

But something did? Didn’t it?

JAY-JAY finally looks up.

JAY-JAY

Yeah.

Cut to:

INT. UNKNOWN LOCATION – day

We see a door with low light shining down upon it, making it barely visible to us.

Blood starts to violently flow down from the bottom opening of the door.

The music swells even louder as we see flashes of the door getting even bloodier and bloodier.

JAY-JAY (V.O.)

If you realed in your whole body before a photo shoot? Do you think a small bathroom break might hurt? Imagine the giant swelling pain flinching up against you even deeper and deeper into your abdomen. Inevitably…

We see new flashes of a road with even more blood on it then the door.

JAY-JAY (CONT’D)

…The pain might swell so deep and so fast that when your life flashes before your eyes like it does when death occurs. You may notice it isn’t what you want to see. You may see people that could never please you the way you wanted. You might see yourself in the past of a tight spot you don’t want to see any longer, you might see bullshit.

We see even more new flashes, this time the lower half of JAY-JAY’s face with blood dripping off from his mouth onto the rest of his body.

JAY-JAY (V.O.)

Bullshit, bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit, like Branson.

We finally come to a still image of the door, with blood sprinkled all over it but none flowing from under it, JAY-JAY sit’s in front of the door with his head facing down. He’s sulking.

JAY-JAY

I don’t think anyone, ever, could please me the way I can please myself.

Cut to:

EXT. highway overpass – dusk

We see JAY-JAY hanging out and finding comfort on the steel fence of an overpass, smoking a cigeratte right between the holes of the fence.

HOMA stands close by.

HOMA

What is there that can be done in the highlands? Alchoalism and domestic abuse?

JAY-JAY

Is that not good enough for you?

We see a new character we havent seen before for the entire short film, a black teenager standing behind JAY-JAY. This is LACE, a close friend of JAY-JAY but not quite chew.

JAY-JAY

What do you think Lace?

lace

I think i’m good to go.

JAY-JAY

Right…

JAY-JAY looks down at HOMA and his cardboard figure one last time before trenching forward more on his journey.

JAY-JAY

Let’s bounce.

JAY-JAY and LACE walk off.

Cut to:

INT. car – moments later

We see JAY-JAY driving the car with LACE in the passenger seat, both men unenthusiastic about the location their heading to, which just so happens to be the school’s media production room.

The car stops suddenly.

LACE

Confused

What is it?

JAY-JAY

Sorry, I just…

JAY-JAY looks out the window.

JAY-JAY (CONT’D)

…just need a moment.

LACE

Okay.

JAY-JAY

What is this?

LACE

What’s what?

JAY-JAY

All of this? If you could take, every little thing, to have happened in your life, some big and some small, would you like it?

LACE

I don’t know, I never really thought about any of it.

JAY-JAY

Is what we come to here, something more of passion or something more of just hate?

LACE

Something that I think most people dont see, something most people never thought about.

JAY-JAY

So what have you thought about?

LACE

Probably whatever Chew has.

For the first time in the entire story, a depraved and disgusting man filled with shame, JAY-JAY, let’s out a soft smile. One of content. Before it fades quickly.

Fade to:

INT. MEDIA PRODUCTIONS ROOM – moments later

Were back in a familiar location, we see what we have seen before. Once again, were in the lens of an iPhone camera.

JAY-JAY is standing in the same familiar location, with a soft but fakish smile. Most notably the newest aspect of him we see, glasses.

JAY-JAY

Speaking directly into camera.

And with that, we leave you all to have a very happy rest of your live’s. Whatever Legacy you have left with you today, may change sometime more in the near future. We here wish you all the best.

As camera of the iPhone cuts, we come back to a more professional view.

LACE is standing by the door. Slouched and comfortable with confidence.

LACE

You think CHEW and the rest catch this drift?

JAY-JAY takes out a box of cigarattes and begin’s smoking one out of the box.

JAY-JAY

They better I think.

LACE

Why the glasses of all days today by the way?

JAY-JAY puts his finger through one of the lenses.

JAY-JAY

They’re fake.