A teenager with wild straw hair walks up a hill with a backpack over his shoulder. He has a sheen of sweat and looks a bit wired. He walks up the drive way to a small bungalow and enters from the small sunporch.
ANNE: Hi, Telly!
TELLY: Uh… hi…
Telly makes a beeline for the bathroom. Cut to his dilated eyes as he stares with slight panic into the mirror.
TELLY: [muttering to himself] Keep it together, keep it together…
ANNE: [loudly from other room] I haven’t seen you in a coupe days! What have you been up to?
TELLY: Uh.. I mean.. just the samedest thing that I ever do…
ANNE: …
Telly quickly turns on the water for a shower, buying himself some time.
ANNE: When you get out, could you please pick up your dirty clothes? Your father will be here in half an hour.
TELLY: [eyes wide open] WHAT? Dad’s coming?
ANNE: YESSS! I told you, he’s in town and we’re doing dinner tonight.
TELLY: Oh.. (shit…)
ANNE: We need to go over plans for this summer, it’s only a little more than a month away.
Despite it being his birthday, Telly does not have any recollection of this rare meeting of the entire family. He regrets dropping the Snoopy windowpane in the Square after school. This is not good.
We hear a car pulling up into the driveway and a door slamming shut.
ANNE: Oh! Oh. no! He’s here. Hurry up!!
TELLY: …
DOUG: [beaming under his silly straw hat] Hello! Good to see you, Telly.
TELLY: Yeah, hi… [looks around for a distraction. anything] Um… so…
ANNE: Well go ahead and sit down. Dinner’s just about ready. [It never actually is, but this time, time flies, like the crow… oh no, he’s peaking…]
Anne brings out a steaming cauldron of pasta, writhing like worms in the recesses of Satan’s Abbey. And–
ANNE: Telly, would you please get us some drinks?
Telly: Huh? Wha?? (barracuda… this is gonna be rough, he thinks. Oh shit, they can hear my thoughts!! Oh no..)
Telly returns with three tall glasses of sugarless flavorless carcinogenic lemonade.
DOUG: So!! It’s been a while. How are you?
Telly: Yeah. I mean… YOU LOOK MARVELOUS!
Telly giggles and both parents say nothing.
TELLY: You know, like.. I.. Sorry.
DOUG: Well, how is school? I heard you’re into the computers.
TELLY: Right.. Well, I mean. I am liking the theater class. It’s.. the .. I can see through time. Rachel is Lois, and the sun came out last night, and it …
Telly interrupts himself to pour some lemonade down his chin and onto his clothes. This is not going well.
ANNE: Telly, tell your dad about your music class.
TELLY: Oh, yeah, I mean.. May I be excused?
The answer, unfortunately, is blowing in the wind.
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