Nameless

NAMELESS By Noel Ahlers

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

kitsu.kiyo@zoho.com

INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING It is 7:30 A.M. The clock’s hands move slowly, and there is nothing but a few desks and chairs that are stacked on top of them. Though it is warm outside, it feels cold, lonely, and desperate.

A TEACHER walks in, wearing a paper covering his face. It has the word TEACHER in a small text on the middle of the page. It is hiding any emotions the teacher is feeling at all.

He picks up a marker and SIGHS, lowering his hand as he begins to write on the board.

PAN TO: The clock becomes 7:50 A.M. The school bell RINGS for class to begin. Before you know it, multiple STUDENTS go into the classroom one by one. They too have paper on their face, saying names like HOTTIE, NERD, GAMER, and LAWYER. Everyone begins taking down the chairs and pulls out their bags, then begins to look towards the direction of the teacher.

INT. HALLWAY - MORNING NAMELESS, a student of the school, rushes towards the classroom wearing a blank piece of paper on his face. He wears all white, and the only thing contrasting is his black hair.

Before he gets to the door, the bell RINGS again and the door SLAMS shut. It is 8:00 A.M. Class has begun.

Nameless lowers his head and walks slowly to the office.

INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING The time is 8:05 A.M. Most of the students are working and listening to the teacher’s RAMBLINGS. Other students are on their phones or HITTING each other with paper balls.

The door OPENS as Nameless finally enters the classroom with a late pass. The teacher NAGS him and points to an empty desk near the window. Nameless’s paper gains a word in the middle: TARDY. He walks to his desk and carefully takes the seat down, then sits in the chair. For a bit, he looks outside and smiles underneath the paper.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

2.

A SCREECH from across the classroom makes Nameless jump from his seat and GASPS, quickly looking towards the sound. It is only a group of GIRLS, their paper labeling them as SEXY, POPULAR, and CUTE. They begin to LAUGH it off and smile at each other. Nameless CHUCKLES and starts to look at CUTE. The girls notice Nameless and WHISPERS about him. CUTE then gives Nameless the middle finger.

CUTE (ANNOYED) Teacher!

The teacher looks at the girls that begin pointing at Nameless. A word is written underneath the word TARDY: DESPERATE. Nameless looks at the teacher and shakes his head violently, following with a gesture explaining that he was just studying.

The teacher face palms himself and points to Nameless’s desk that has nothing on it, then begins to speak in Charlie Brown BLAHS. The class SNICKERS, and the word LIAR appears on Nameless’s page.

Soon the teacher points to the question on the board asking "What is YOUR name?" and gestures Nameless to come up to the board. Nameless GULPS. Nameless gets out of his desk nervously and begins walking to the board. Everyone is watching him, creating his body to shiver. He now is near the board and picks up a marker. He then looks at the question intensely.

Everyone turns silent. The time is 8:19 A.M. Nameless’s hand begins to shake, but he leads it to slash an X on the word "Name." He writes underneath the question: "Why? Who are YOU?" Instantly, the word RUDE appears on top of the word TARDY. Everyone covers where their mouths would be as the teacher CLEARS HIS THROAT, then writes Nameless a note.

Hesitantly, Nameless goes to take the note and lowers his head. He drops the marker and walks out of the classroom. A low MURMUR fills the room.

3.

INT. PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE - MORNING The time is 8:30 A.M. Nameless is sitting before the PRINCIPAL with the teacher’s note. The principal is reading the note and GRUNTS, tapping his foot impatiently. The principal then looks at Nameless with his head tilted.

The two stare at each other for a brief moment before Nameless raises his pointer finger. Quickly, the principal SLAMS the desk, and soon Nameless shuts his mouth and puts his finger down. The two then end up staring for awhile more.

Nameless looks away and frowns underneath the paper.

CUT TO: The time is 9:00 A.M. The principal covers his ears,and the school’s bell RINGS. He then shoos Nameless away and gestures that the principal will be watching Nameless. The two nod to each other, and Nameless leaves the room.

INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The hallway is crowded and LOUD. Nameless tries to assimilate into the crowd. At first, someone pushes him back out of the crowd and Nameless gains the word UNWANTED on his paper.

He tries again and gets PUSHED to the door that Nameless left from. The word WEAK appears, and Nameless goes to the office to hide.

The clock goes from 9:05 A.M. to 9:15 A.M. There is still a crowd and Nameless is unable to leave the office.

When it becomes 9:30 A.M., almost the whole crowd is gone.

Some students linger the halls, but it is generally empty.

Nameless comes back out and walks to his next class. He peeks inside the window of the door afterwords.

INT. CLASSROOM - MORNING CUTE looks straight at Nameless and SNICKERS, then whispers to the students she were sitting with. They point and LAUGH.

4.

INT. HALLWAY - MORNING Nameless backs away from the door and clenches his hand into a fist. He goes to strike the wall, but stops himself when he swings too close to the wall. His paper begins to become wet.

Nameless feels a droplet fall onto his arm, and he notices he is crying. He SNIFFLES, lowers his head, and RUNS towards the staircase.

INT. STAIRCASE - MORNING Nameless FUMBLES up the stairs, drying his tears.

INT. FIFTH FLOOR - MORNING Nameless opens the door to the hallway and covers where his eyes would be, then rushes to an empty classroom.

INT. "EMPTY" ROOM - MORNING Nameless enters the room and hides underneath the teacher’s desk. The room is dark and only a guy labeled STONER lurks in the corner with his paper crooked.

All that can be heard from this classroom is heavy SOBBING and a SNORE from opposite sides of the room PAN TO: The door OPENS as a girl walks backwards, her back turned to the classroom. Slowly, she raises her hand to her face, then takes off her paper. She places the paper on her shirt and zips up her coat. This is HOPE, another student from the school with a pimply face and hand-me-down clothing.

She runs to the STONER and hugs him happily as he wakes up and hugs her back. Her attention changes to the SOBBING noise as it grows louder and louder.

Cautiously, she moves to the noise, only to see a weak boy: Nameless, crying his eyes out with names engraved on his paper. He looks up to hope while she lifts the paper of his and smiles politely.

5.

INT. GIRL’S BATHROOM Nameless sits awkwardly on the sink counter top, anxiously looking around to make sure he isn’t going to be seen.

Hope is in a stall, making sure Nameless’s paper is clean.

She replaces the old paper entirely, then writes ME on the paper. As a finishing touch, she laminates the paper and tapes the top. Smiling, Hope nods her head.

She leaves the stall and looks at Nameless’s face. He still is teary, but has not been crying as of yet. Nameless looks back at her and worriedly waves to her. She points to the mirror and points to his face.

He looks through the mirror and touches his face. A smile forms onto it as he LAUGHS happily. Hope tilts her head, and soon realizes he never really saw himself.

With the paper, Hope taps Nameless’s shoulder and shows him the new one. Before placing it on his face, she taps where his heard would be and nods her head. He nods back and places his hand on top of her’s.

Hope pulls her hand away and places the paper on his face.

He waves to Hope again as she waves back, then begins to walk out of the bathroom.

Hope HUMS and unzips her jacket. For a moment she is hesitant, but eventually takes the paper off her shirt and replaces the tape. She looks both ways, places the paper onto her face, and leaves soon after.

INT. LUNCHROOM - DAY The time is 11:50 A.M. The lunchroom is already full with paper-faced students galore. It is NOISY, with people in groups depending on what their paper labels them as.

Nameless enters the lunchroom and looks around. He starts to get some strange looks, but soon a few WEIRD KIDS wave to him. They gesture him to come over.

He nods and then walks to them, takes a seat down, and begins talking and LAUGHING.

6.

INT. ADVISORY - DAY The time is 1:00 P.M. Nameless is playing with a BOY labeled DORKY with a paper ball. Other students in the room are studying or talking.

CUTE enters the room and looks at Nameless and DORKY. She makes sure to walk towards Nameless and tap his shoulder, and whisper something in his ear. Everyone begins to pay attention.

Nameless begins to shiver and lowers his head slightly.

DORKY notices this and throws a paper at CUTE, which makes her stumble.

The other students begin to CHUCKLE or smile underneath their papers. Nameless GASPS in shock, but then whole heartedly LAUGHS as CUTE looks at DORKY. DORKY sticks out his tongue and throws another paper ball at CUTE, then another ball to Nameless. Nameless catches both paper balls and throws them back to DORKY. CUTE tilts her head for a moment and looks at Nameless, then walks away confused and sits in a desk.

INT. HALLWAY - DAY It is the end of the school day, 2:30 P.M. Everyone is leaving school, and the hall is as crowded as ever.

Nameless makes sure to avoid the crowd by going in the nearest staircase.

INT. STAIRCASE - DAY Nameless rushes up the stairs happily.

INT. FIFTH FLOOR - DAY Some of the students wave to Nameless and high five him as Nameless continues to walk to the room he met the girl in.

INT. "EMPTY" ROOM - DAY Nameless enters the room and looks around quickly. No one is in the room this time, not even STONER.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

7.

He shrugs and takes out a small paper from his bag, then writes a "THANK YOU" note in big letters. As he finishes up the last two letters, he hears a faint SNIFF. Following the noise, Nameless cautiously walks to the corner of the room to see Hope curled underneath a desk. Her paper is torn and says horrible words, such as WHORE, SLUT, BITCH, RETARDED, and multiple other words filling the whole page.

NAMELESS (HESITANT) Are you okay?

Hope looks up to see Nameless. He picks up her lifts the paper of his and smiles politely.

Gently, he takes the paper off her face and caresses her cheeks, making her smile a little bit. He points to where her heart would be and taps it, then points to Hope and gestures that your heart matters.

She GIGGLES and nods, but remains slightly saddened.

Noticing this, Nameless takes the ruined paper and places it on a desk.

He tries erasing it, trying to get the words off. They still show, but not as much. He then tapes the broken bits together and SIGHS. The paper still looks horrible.

Nameless straightens his back and hops slightly, then puts his pointer finger up in the air to show he has an idea. He takes some scissors, some tape, and a black marker and smiles.

CUT TO: Hope looks at the time. It is 3:00 P.M. She’s had enough sulking, so she gets up weakly to see Nameless working diligently on her paper.

Nameless looks to Hope and waves, then gestures her to close her eyes. She nods her head and does so.

The paper is rounded and says YOU in bold, black text. It had no trace of anything horrible on it, and the tape has been replaced. He places the paper on her heart and smiles.

Hope opens her eyes and feels her face to see if the paper was on her face, then her upper body to feel a rounded paper. She tilts her head and cannot see it.

Nameless gets his phone out and takes a picture of her, then shows Hope the new paper. She begins to tear up and hug him happily, throwing him a bit off guard.

8.

He hugs back.

INT. HALLWAY - NEXT DAY Nameless looks around to see everyone going to their classes. He walks to his class, high-fiving people in the hallway and waving to others.

INT. CLASSROOM - NEXT DAY The teacher allows every student to come into the class, but halts Nameless. Nameless tilts his head only to be directed to the question on the board that remained on: "What is YOUR name?"

Nameless lowers his shoulder and walks towards the board.

While everyone is getting out their stuff, they watch Nameless almost diligently.

He smiles for a minute under his paper, and then takes off the paper on his and tapes it underneath the question. Below it, he writes "I AM NAMELESS" as he turns to face the teacher.

Everyone GASPS as the teacher looks at Nameless. Slowly, the teacher takes off their paper as well and bends down to Nameless, then hugs him tightly with tears in the teacher’s eyes.

The students look at each other, then takes off their papers slowly too. Some begin to feel happy, others ashamed as they put the paper back on for a moment, but then ends up ripping the paper off them.

CUTE shivers, lowering her head down. Nameless walks to her and taps her shoulder. She looks at him, and shakes her head.

Nameless stares at CUTE for a minute, then takes her paper and quickly takes it off. CUTE SCREAMS, hiding her face. He pets her head hesitantly, then raises her head.

He gestures to her heart, and CUTE begins to CRY. Nameless goes to hug her and pats her back.

9.

INT. HALLWAY - NEXT DAY Almost everyone began to stop wearing the papers on their faces, except for a few that kept their papers close to them.

Like usual, the hall is pretty crowded, however, Nameless walks through the halls happily as he talks with the weird kids he sat with at the lunchroom the previous day.

They see the principal with a cup of coffee, leaning near the office as he looks at everyone with his dead-like expression.

Nameless waves at him, and the principal only gestures the "I’m watching you" look to him. Nameless GULPS, but awkwardly laughs it off with the other kids.

As they continue walking to the staircase, they spot Hope and STONER holding hands and acting like a couple. Nameless fist bumps STONER as he nods his head in thanks, and after that Hope and Nameless high five.

Nameless nods back and then goes to the stairwell. He looks back one last time and sighs in relief, then walks out and down the staircase.