Q-Friends
written by Isabella Gomez Giron
ig906@nyu.edu
INT. DAY Sarah, 30, ethereal voice, psychologist, lonely herself, trying to spread positive vibes, opens the website Q-Friends and finds pictures of the participants that have signed up with their names under it. She clicks on: start zooming now. CUT TO: Zoom platform, gallery view participants start joining all with their microphones and cameras off (Clara, Cassandrif, Laura, Mardin). SARAH Welcome, welcome! Lovely to see you joining. Feel free to turn on your microphones and cameras, so we can start meeting each other. My camera broke down last week so I won't be having access to it for a while. All cameras remain off, they all turn on their microphones, but say nothing. SARAHÂ (CONT'D) Okay! Thats okay, we can start just with your mics on. Well, as you all know this is going to be our space for weekly hangouts. Thank you for signing up for the first 10 sessions; they will be filled with diverse joyful activities. In this current times, the search for new friendships is challenging, but through the Q-Friends program I assure you, you will come out with long-lasting relationships. A couple of seconds of silence. SARAHÂ (CONT'D) Let's start introducing ourselves shall we? I will ask you a couple of questions so the rest of your Qbuddies can get to know you a little better. Who wants to go first? Still silence.
2. SARAHÂ (CONT'D) Well lets start with you Clara, since you were the first one to sign up! Tell us your age, where you are, and why are you here. Clara unmutes herself. Clara, a 12 year old, timid, talks very slow with lots of pauses in between, kind-hearted girl, turns on her camera. Low energy and not very smiley. She fidgets with her hair, her neck, her nails in a weird slow pace while she speaks. Hi.
CLARA
SARAH Turn on your camera sweetie. CLARA I'm Clara. . . I'm 12. Silence. SARAH (O.C.) Why are you here today? CLARA I don't know. . .my mom told me. SARAH (O.C.) Sorry; I can't hear you. CLARA My mom. She told me, she told me I should come because um she wants me to make friends um and to talk more um and now there's no school, so I talk less. Obnoxious sneezing comes from Mardin's microphone. SARAH (O.C.) Tell us about your passions. CLARA Umm. . . I like. . . Um I like. . .to watch from my window the birds. I like to watch animals. SARAH A very calming activity indeed. Anything else you like to do?
3. CLARA I read. . . too. Ramona the Brave is my favorite. The sneezing resumes from Mardin's microphone. SARAH Hello? Mardin? Bless you are you okay? MARDIN Uuu my bad, I have the allergies, but all good, I'll turn off my microphone. SARAH No worries darling. Clara is there anything you didn't finish saying? CLARA Um I have a turtle and I feed her lettuce and um and she likes it. She does. CUT TO: Cassandrif, 28 still living with her mother in a farm in Ohio, heart of gold, smiles non-stop, hat-maker. CASSANDRIF Hi I'm Cassandrif, yeah. I design hats. Yeah I- I live with my mom, Natrisha, in Ohio. Like we are in Ohio right now. And we have a farm with horses, and pigs and um cows....And the hats, I design them and I make them. I make them for my family, and for the people in the farms next to ours. Um and yes I am here because so I heard about this platform and um I think it would be fun to like see people, because I don't do that a lot. And now I can do it from my farm, I don't have to leave my farm, which is why I never do it. And like my 28th birthday is soon and instead of celebrating it with my mom which is amazing I always do it like that, perhaps this time I could include all of you. (MORE)
4. CASSANDRIFÂ (CONT'D) I also thought that I could make hats for all the people that join and send to them when services are open for that. But yeah, I am excited to be here. SARAH (O.C) Great! Thank you for sharing. Thats a wonderful idea. Anything else you want to tell us? CASSANDRIF I like met my dad and my step-well she is like a half sister-but it doesn't feel like half. She is so professional. I like really admire her. So yeah um my dad. I didn't know I had him until like 3 months ago, but its okay, he is here now and um he said he would visit the farm. He was supposed to arrive last week. I'm still waiting. Loud flushing of the toilet is heard from Laura's mic. SARAH (O.C.) Oh! Feel free to leave your devices in your rooms when using the restroom, no need to stay connected the whole time. Laura, 17, careless, too cool for this, responds. My bad.
LAURA
SARAH Why don't we move on to you Laura! Laura turns on her camera. She finishes settling in on the messy floor of her room. LAURA Sure. I'm Laura. Sound coming from Cassandrif's mic, its her mom: CASSANDRIF'S MOTHER My little cake pop, I have your warm milk waiting for you. Let me know when to bring it in.
5. CASSANDRIF (O.C.) Thank you mother. Hear some murmuring off Laura's camera: LAURA'S DAD Just give it a chance Laura you never know. This could be really good for you, be nice. LAURA Dad, I know. Agh. Um so similar to Clara, my dad got me to do this, except he is paying me for each session. He thinks my friends at school jul too much, so he wants me to find other people I guess. Laura's phone rings. She picks ups. LAURAÂ (CONT'D) Whasup. Sorry, I'll be back. Laura, goes to another room (O.C) but leaves her microphone and camera on. SARAH Well Mardin let's go straight to you! Mardin, 22, French/Latina, quirky, expressive, very excited to be here, has a combination of a French and Spanish accent turns on her camera and microphone. MARDIN Hello. My name is Mardin. I immigrated to Rhode Island from France, but my mother is from Ecuador. I grew up half of my life speaking Francais and half speaking EspaĂąol. I think I am stuck in America for a while because of the whole coronavirus. I am here to stay connected with people and maybe I could meet more Americans because I have only been here for 2 months. I came to study Archeology here because they gave me a big, big scholarship and because my big sister lives here and I wanted to be closer to my big sister because she moved out of the country when I was little. I want to make friends and I hope that we can have fun.
6. Noises come from Laura's zoom box, indicating she is back in the room. LAURA (O.C.) Fucking asshole. CASSANDRIF Aaah. The fff word. SARAH Hello? Laura? Lets try to monitor our language, to make sure we all feel comfortable. Fuck.
LAURA
(walks towards screen) My bad, microphone was on. (as she texts maybe) My dickhead boyfriend broke up with me. The cunt cant go a month without a sex. SARAH Well, I...I am sorry about that. Perhaps our next activity can brighten your mood. No response. SARAHÂ (CONT'D) I am going to pair you up and place you in break out rooms. You will get a couple of minutes to tell the other person a fun fact about you that not many people know. CUT TO: BREAK OUT ROOM 1: CASSANDRIF AND LAURA LAURA (as she swipes her phone) Deleted.. Like this guy has to be kidding me. I didn't even like him that much anyways. I mean I'd say he was good in bed, but not even. You know what I mean? Like when you're in bed and its your imagination keeping you hot, not the naked body on top of you.
7. Cassandrif has never felt so uncomfortable in her entire life. Umm. Mhm.
CASSANDRIF
LAURA Aghhhh why did he fucking have to do this now!!?? CASSANDRIF Can you please stop saying that word. It really unsettles me. LAURA You've never said fuck in you're entire life? Cassandrif moves her head no. LAURA (CONT'D) Shit. I can't believe I'm here. Cassandrif turns sad. This moves Laura. LAURA (CONT'D) Umm hey. Its okay; I won't say it anymore. Do you want to do the exercise? Whats your fun fact? Cassandrif lights up again. CASSANDRIF That sounds splendid. Well, talking about males; I did have a romantic encounter in the barn with Bowie. He lived in the farm next door and is an expert in raising chicken. We hear two parents fighting coming from Laura's microphone: LAURA'S MOTHER (O.C) I can't look at your face right now, can you just give me some fucking space? LAURA Sorry, let me close my door. You said in a barn? Steeeeamy. What happened?
8. CASSANDRIF It is very steamy hehe. (Cassandrif re-lives the whole moment, breaking into the present for certain moments) Well, I was at the barn trying to milk one of the oldest cows. I had been squeezing her teats for some minutes now but nothing was coming out. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, like the Messiah, Bowie appeared. Without saying a word, as he was a very reserved boy, he wrapped his hand around mine-- my heart stopped, and I think his did as well; his goat-smelling hair almost hypnotized me-- and then he squeezed the cows teat in the most gentle way a teat has ever been squeezed. Milk starting pouring like rain. Then he half smiled, and said "You better share a cup of that milk with me." I was speechless. LAURA Oh okay, and so then, you shared the cup of milk? CASSANDRIF I dropped the bucket on the way home. LAURA Well did you see him again? CASSANDRIF No his family moved to California the week after, but I still think about our hands coming together all the time. FOCUS ON LAURA'S FINAL REACTION AND: CUT TO:
9. BREAK OUT ROOM 2: CLARA AND MARDIN MARDIN And after finding the remains of that body I knew I wanted to be an archaeologist. Looking at that century old human hair felt so powerful. I've been in love with digging up our history ever since. CLARA (or maybe no answer, just a nod a short silence) Thats um cool. MARDIN Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? CLARA I...umm... I want to work in the zoo. MARDIN That would be a zoologist. They are pretty fantastic. My great great aunt was a zoologist. She learned how to communicate with ostriches better than any other human ever had. But anyways, it's time for your fun fact. Umm...
CLARA
MARDIN Come on Clara, we all have something special. CLARA I can say the 50 states in 13.6 seconds. MARDIN Uuuu please the stage is yours. CLARA Alabama, Alaska.... (Clara does it). MARDIN Fabuloso!!! Fabuloso!
10. Clara smiles more than we've ever seen her do so. CLARA'S MOTHER (O.C.) Oh no! The turtle! She's throwing up! Terror comes into Clara's face. CLARA (in a dead pan traumatized way) She's the... only thing I have.