Stranded/Episode 1

This is a preview of the first episode of Stranded, entitled, Thirty-eight.

Episode 1; Stranded
''If anyone reads this then please help me. I don’t know what happened but I’m not where I was an hour ago. I was with a group of classmates helping set up for prom and then there was this awful earthquake. I don’t remember much after that but next thing I knew I was in a classroom of my high school, Marcos de Niza, with a classmate. The doors are locked, the windows don’t seem to even budge and I’m scared. She doesn’t seem to remember anything either, but we figured that if we could get this message out there -- someone might come get us. So please, anyone...come help us.''

-- Nic Kerri

Earlier that morning…

A young man, eighteen years of age, sits in the back of the crowded and noisy school bus. He has longer blonde hair, a pretty nice tan, and one of the better looking guys in the school. His name was Nic Kerri.

A little background on Nic; he is the president of the glee club, and arises from a single mother and two older sisters. He is also very flamboyant compared to the others in Marcos de Niza High School, and is often bullied for it. On the contrary, he is popular amongst most of the student body for being very influential with the decisions made by the ‘leaders’ of the school.

Nic had his light pink earphones plugged into his light blue phone, and blasted Do What U Want by Lady Gaga as loud as he could to tune out the others on the bus. After all, he did have a long day in store for him.

He could faintly hear the two students in front of them, one of which he recognizes as Josh, a sophomore who is also involved in the glee club. He’s confident, mature, collected. He currently sits against the window of the bus seat, next to his best friend, the bright and bubbly Sammi.

Sammi and Josh have been best friends for years, for as long as they could remember, even though the two are very different. Sammi is very open, she has this spark that draws everyone in; while Josh on the other hand, is more reserved and quiet, and instead of drawing in others, he pushes them away.

Today was different for Sammi, however. Sammi sits practically on top of Josh, her head resting on his shoulder, her face a shade of bright red. Her eyes barely open, she looked like any moment she could just start convulsing. Josh calmly rubbed her head in the same circular-pattern, saying the same things over and over again. “You’ll be fine...you’ll be fine...you’ll be fine…”

“I’m just a little under the weather, Joshie.” she smirked. Josh hated that nickname; for reasons more than even Sammi knows. All Sammi knew was that it irritated her seemingly monotonous friend, and that gave her some slight joy.

A little bit of background on their relationship; Josh grew up in a household of a single mother, a mother who never had any time for him, due to ‘work’, or whatever the case may be. So, Josh was often left in a daycare for more than eight hours a day. The owner of a daycare, a sweet woman by the name of Trisha (who was recently diagnosed with cancer, poor thing), had a daughter his age named Samantha. The two grew up together, in that daycare, it was home for them.

“You had a rough night last night, didn’t you?” Josh quietly asked, continuing to rub the top of Sammi’s head.

“Huge party -- last night at Devon’s.” she responded, giggling to herself.

Josh only smirked. He was worried for a moment there, he should’ve known it was because she had a little too much to drink last night at a party. A party he unfortunately couldn’t attend, due to having a job, and piano practice, and other commitments he had made prior.

Sammi loved it when Josh smiled, it was a rare sight, it truly was. The only think Josh seemed to get joy out of these days where Sammi herself, and, as cliche as it sounded, being able to play music. Nowadays, Sammi finds most of her days finding new ways to make Josh smile, that’s what best friends are for anyways, right?

Marcos de Niza High School. What a place. This school had cliques like no other. The jocks stood together, the preppy girls stayed together, the nerds had each other, and even the weird kids, the ones who most people thought would shoot up the school, they even had one another. And, if you weren’t part of a social group, you were alone. Plain and simple. That was the case for Brie, a junior.

Brie DiLorenzo had no friends, no family (that she cared about). She is a loner, and, if it weren't in need for extra credit so she didn’t completely fail biology, she wouldn't socialize throughout the day at all.

It’s not like she was gonna amount to nothing anyways. Brie had dreams of getting out of this stupid school, and maybe going to a small town in North Dakota or something. Maybe becoming a stripper or a prostitute...if the money’s right, of course. And, not that she was a slut by any means, but it beats kickin’ it here with all of these other prima donnas and what not.

At the moment, Brie sits outside of the school on the hood of a black SUV smoking a cigarette. She let the cold wind tickle her neck, letting the ashes rain down on the car. Not that she cares if she ruins the car or anything, it’s not like it’s hers (in fact, it belongs to a teacher, Mrs. Johnson, an elderly woman, about two months out from retirement),

Brie peers down at the black watch on her pale wrist, the minute hand right in front of the roman numeral XII, and the the hour hand almost directly on VIII, and, just as if she had timed it herself, the minute hand moved onto the XII, and the loud school bell rang.

“Fuckin’ perfect…” she muttered to herself, hopping off the hood of the car, brushing the long strand of brown hair away from her eyes. She was just so ready for another boring-ass day at this boring-ass school.