Chapter 2 (The Wrath of Francis)

Chapter 2 (The Wrath of Francis) is the second chapter of The Clearwood Murders: Episode I - The Wrath of Francis and the second chapter of the overall Clearwood series. It is currently being written by Donald Newton. This chapter will be published on April 25, 2020.

Plot
Andrew and Scott, best friends, are socializing with two different groups separate from each other. But is this what they want? Lorraine is fighting a habit in her love life.

Full Chapter
EXT. CARTER RESIDENCE - DAY

The Carter house is an average urban middle class three story house (an unseen basement from below). There are four different cars parked within the property. Two in the driveway. One of them is a police car, indicating that a police officer lives here, and the other one is an old brown car. There is a nicer car parked alongside the front of the yard. The fourth one is a plain white car parked on the side of the house.

INT. CARTER RESIDENCE - KITCHEN

KATHY CARTER (42), a blonde housewife/mother, is cooking breakfast for her family. Getting ready for work is her husband, CLARENCE CARTER (45), the town's sheriff. He looks very dignified, handsome, tough, and a leader. Clarence looks like someone that you'd want to follow and protect you.

Coming into the kitchen with his backpack is their youngest child; their son ANDREW CARTER (17). He is wearing glasses and is a total dork. But his style has changed lately due to his new social life with his new popular girlfriend.

KATHY: Good morning, Baby.

ANDREW: Morning, Mom. Dad.

CLARENCE: Son. How is that new girlfriend of yours?

ANDREW: Good. (sits at the table) We're going on three weeks in a few days.

CLARENCE: That's good. It's changing you. You're no longer looking as much of a dork as you've been for most of your life.

KATHY: Be nice, Clarence.

CLARENCE: I'm just messing with the boy.

Kathy brings over plates of eggs and bacon to the table for four people. Someone has not joined them for breakfast yet.

KATHY: (to Andrew): Have you spoken to Scott lately? I noticed that he hasn't come by in a while.

ANDREW: He's doing okay. He doesn't hang out with my new group of friends but we still talk and hang out at the Cafe.

KATHY: That's good to hear. I do miss him. You two use to be friends.

CLARENCE: I know he's a stoner and somewhat the rebellious type. But I must admit that I liked him.

ANDREW: Yeah. I do miss those days when we hung out all day everyday.

Finally entering the kitchen is the oldest child; their daughter LORRAINE CARTER (19). A beautiful blonde. She dresses like she's innocent to play Daddy's Little Girl. But her posture and walk just screams promiscious.

CLARENCE: (to Lorraine) Good morning, sweetheart.

LORRAINE: (playing sweet) Morning, Daddy.

KATHY: Morning, honey.

LORRAINE: (not interested) Morning.

Lorraine takes a seat across from her brother.

CLARENCE: This morning at five, I heard somebody walking on the balcony.

Lorraine laughs nervously.

LORRAINE: Oh, that was me. I needed a smoked.

CLARENCE: Yeah. I guess those cigarettes makes you look like a guy trying to sneak out of the house.

Lorraine is extremely nervous. There's more to it than just her being caught with a guy late at night.

KATHY: Oh, it must be her boyfriend Keith Curtis. Handsome young man.

CLARENCE: Unless Keith grew long black hair in the last twenty four hours since we've last seen him, I don't think that was Keith, Kathy.

Everyone at the table finally gets it. Kathy is taken aback by this. Is her daughter sleeping with another guy besides her boyfriend? Andrew is having a ball with it.

ANDREW: BUSTED!

LORRAINE: (angry) Shut up!

Lorraine is embarrassed that her father caught her cheating on her boyfriend.

CLARENCE: Now finding a guy who is your boyfriend sneaking in and out of your bedroom late at night is one thing. But if it's someone else besides your boyfriend, it's wrong. We didn’t raise you to be like that.

LORRAINE: (fake) I'm sorry, Daddy. I made a mistake. I won’t do it again.

EXT. CLEARWOOD HIGH SCHOOL - PARKING LOT - DAY

A black 1967 EL CAMINO roars into the parking lot, getting the attention of most of the people in the parking lot. Especially the girls. The El Camino is parked in an empty spot. The driver steps out of the car and is revealed to be -- SCOTT LANE (17); shoulder length light brown hair, wearing blue jeans, a black shirt of a rock band, and a black leather jacket.

Scott puts on some classic GARGOYLE SUNGLASSES with blue lenses. He looks badass in them. He's smoking a joint despite being on school property. But he doesn't give a shit. This is your typical rebel badass. He's handsome yet tough looking. The kind of guy that the ladies go crazy over.

EXT. CLEARWOOD HIGH SCHOOL - COURTYARD - DAY

Scott enters the main courtyard as he's approached by a group of three: CHUCK LARSON (17); a Jason Mewes looking stoner with long hair and wearing a beanie, his girlfriend CHERI HAMILTON (17); a punk girl with makeup and bleach blonde hair, and the cute nerdy girl IRIS LILLY (17); dark brown hair, glasses, and hair tied in the back.

IRIS: Hey, Scott.

Scott passes Chuck the joint.

SCOTT: What's up?

Chuck takes a hit of the joint as Iris speaks for them.

IRIS: We were just going over some homework that Chuck needs to get done today. If he'd stop getting high all the time and study, I wouldn't need to help him all the time.

CHUCK: (passing the joint to Cheri as he speaks to Iris) School sucks. I'm going through this until I can legally drop out in a few months.

IRIS: Why do I even help you then?

CHERI: Because you're Iris Lilly and you have a good heart.

Cheri offers the joint to iris, who declines the offer. Cheri passes it back to Scott, who finishes the rest of the joint. He glances towards the other side of the courtyard to see Andrew hanging out with his new friends.

Scott has a little bit of sadness in his eyes over not being able to go over to see his friend.

Andrew looks out of place with his own group. His group is filled with the "pretty" ones. His girlfriend, ALICE WORTH (17), has pretty straight shoulder length reddish brown hair, and mostly wearing pink in her outfit. Her best friend, CASSIE MONROE (17); a gorgeous blonde. Definitely the leader of the group. Her boyfriend, OSCAR FISCHER (17), short dark brown hair and wearing a preppy striped shirt. Oscar is somewhat of a jock. But not as much as his friend JEREMY SMITH (17), who has the image of the typical high school jock. A football player.

Andrew sees the sad look on Scott's face. He wishes that he could go over there to comfort his best friend.

ALICE: Why don't you go over to him?

ANDREW: He doesn't like your type of people. He probably thinks that I'm a traitor for coming to your group.

JEREMY: We can't be too bad.

OSCAR: Just because we're jocks, preppies, and in the "popular" group, doesn't mean we're the typical assholes who look down at people like him.

CASSIE: We accepted you.

ANDREW: I know. But I just don't know if he'll ever see it. He's spent most of his life hating "the man", being anti-conformist, and anti-popular. No. He hangs out with the outcasts. The losers, the stoners, the nerds, and those who aren't considered "cool."

ALICE: I think it'd be interesting to merge the two groups into one. The popular and outcasts together. It'd be a nice example to the rest of the school.

CASSIE: It'd be awesome.

ANDREW: I'd like nothing more to have my friends and his friends become friends.

ALICE: Maybe the next time you guys talk at the cafe, you should talk to him about. We'd welcome it.

CASSIE: We really would.

OSCAR: His friends don't seem to bad.

JEREMY: Especially the girl with the glasses. She's kinda cute actually.

CASSIE: Oh, Jeremy. I didn't realize that you had a thing for nerdy girls.

JEREMY: Something wrong with that?

CASSIE: No. Not at all.

CUT TO:

INT. CLEARWOOD HIGH SCHOOL - ENGLISH CLASS - DAY

Scott, Andrew, Iris, Alice, Cassie, Oscar, Jeremy, Chuck, Cheri, and many others are sitting at their desks in English class. The English teacher is MICHAEL CRUISE.

CRUISE: So in fear of getting arrested for murder, even if it was in self-defense, Ponyboy and Johnny ran away to Windrixville and hid in an abandoned church. Ponyboy has his hair cut and dyed as a disguise.

Not paying attention to the lecture, Scott notices the new girl, MELINA GLOVER (17). She has dark bown hair, and her clothing style looks to be a mix of preppy and punk. Someone who could fit in either social group. But all he can see is how beautiful she is. Cassie notices this.

CASSIE: (to Scott) PSSS!

Scott turns to Cassie.

CASSIE: Her name is Melina Glover. She's from Everett. It's her first day here.

SCOTT: (acting not interested) Uh-huh.

But, of course, he cannot stop looking at Melina, making his "uninterested" attitude unconvincing. Melina finally notices Scott looking at her and turns to him. Scott quickly turns away, hoping that she didn't catch him. He slowly turns back to her only to find her not only staring at him -- But smiling at him. She knew that he was staring at her and she likes it. Scott smiles back at her. A first for him. Scott, a rebel not interested in love, smiles with passion to a girl. Could this be love at first sight?

Cruise realizes that Scott isn't paying attention.

CRUISE: Mr. Lane!

SCOTT: Yeah?

CRUISE: Can you tell me what poem Ponyboy recites to Johnny?

Scott takes a moment. But luckily, despite his anti-school-like attitude, he actually did pay attention to this book.

SCOTT: "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.

CRUISE: That is correct. Glad to see that you've been paying attention.

But Scott is no longer paying attention. He turns back to Melina, whose writing in her notebook. She is so beautiful and Scott is feeling the crush-bug.

Deaths
None.

Trivia

 * First appearance of:
 * Scott Lane
 * Andrew Carter
 * Lorraine Carter
 * Clarence Carter
 * Kathy Carter
 * Iris Lilly
 * Melina Glover
 * Alice Worth
 * Cassie Monroe
 * Oscar Fisher
 * Jeremy Smith
 * Chuck Larson
 * Cheri Hamilton
 * Michael Cruise