(As she is putting on her backpack we hear the buzz/chime of a cell phone. Tara hears it too and perks up. She pulls off the bag she just put on her back and zips it open. She paws through her bag furiously looking for it. Some bangs fall out of her ponytail and land over her forehead and eyes. She continues to rummage, now faster, as the phone rings and she blows the pieces of hair off her face in exasperation. She finds the phone – just in the nick of time – and glances at the screen before she presses a button and then puts it to her ear.)
TARA: Hey.
(Split screen moves in from the right. On the new right side we see a bronzed, light haired brunette wearing Gucci sunglasses. She is leaning towards a bathroom mirror, applying lip-gloss with one hand and holding her Blackberry to her ear with the other. This is Morgan, as we soon learn)
MORGAN: (her tone is slightly vapid, like she’s distracted/disinterested, but this is just how she talks) So we’re still on for Jitters before work right?
(We see Morgan close the lip gloss and she stares down at her nails, finely manicured, and picks at them a little. As Tara answers, Morgan’s split of the screen slides out to the right.)
TARA: (Her face looks slightly confused, eyes squinted a little. Her tone is half questioning, half confused, and a pinch of humored by her friend’s tone) Uh yeah we’re “still on”. (The last part of her sentence is elevated to mock Morgan’s.)
(Tara puts food in a dog bowl and a small pitbull/hound mutt (or something like that) brushes past her leg to get to the food. She bends down a little to ruffle the fur on the dog’s head. The camera stays on Tara but we can hear Morgan talking on the phone in the background, though the words are heard more as mumbles as Tara’s voice over eventually overshadows them.)
TARA (V.O.): I don’t know why we wouldn’t be “still on”. We were always “on” for Jitters on the first day of camp. We always stop for coffee before the first morning so we don’t all have to arrive separately.
(Screen cuts to Morgan chatting vigorously on the phone while painting her toenails. We see her mouth moving and invigorated expressions but we can’t hear what she is saying due to the layover of Tara’s voice over narration.)
TARA (V.O.): That’s Morgan, by the way. She and our other friend, Nora, met at camp about twelve years ago. We’ve been inseparable since. Every first day we make our mothers drive us to Jitters so that we can all get to camp at the same time and walk in together.
(Flashback to three small girls walking in with their parents all close behind, carrying camp bags on their shoulders. They look eager to get there, running ahead of their parents.)
TARA(V.O.): As we got older, we only became closer.
(Transition to the same girls, now about age 9 walking in together without their parents, they are all holding hands and giggling, eating donuts.)
TARA (V.O.): Our friendship even survived the inevitable “awkward stage”.
(Transition to the girls again, now about 13. They are wearing Abercrombie and sunglasses, holding cappuccinos and flip phones, trying to look “too cool” for everyone else there.)
(Tara comes out of the flashback and back to the split screen of her conversation with Morgan, who is still talking, now swiping bronzer across her cheeks in the mirror.)
MORGAN: …and I said to her that she just needs to swallow it like its not that bad ya know?
TARA: (coming back to the conversation, realizing that she has no idea what she is talking about) Uh yeah, right…
MORGAN: Thanks Tara! You always know what to say. So I’ll see you in like ten minutes, kay? Toodles!
(The split screen closes as Tara rolls her eyes a little as she holds her phone in her hand a little confused and exhausted by the conversation she tuned out of.)
TARA: (while shutting her phone, in a sarcastic tone) Uh toodles?
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