Young Writers Society

This was written by myself and two of my friends for a creative writing class. This is the first script I've ever written so anything would be very helpful.

~peanut~

SCENE ONE

(The scene opens in the pantry of a kitchen in New York City (where the land of Faratopia is hidden from human eyes) before the dinner rush as the after noon crowd is dying down. There are boxes on all of the shelves, lining all three walls. The shelves stop at a door that has a hole in the bottom corner and window in the top center that looks out into the kitchen. From the view of the window a stove is visible, along with THE CHEF, who is wandering in and out of frame. The camera pans down from the window of the door and runs along the shelf, then comes to a stop in front of a huge wheel of what looks like Swiss cheese, but the holes are slightly too large. A mouse, LATIFAH, stands biting into the cheese.)

NARRATOR: LATIFAH , a mouse who emigrated from India found himself in a beautiful restaurant in Faratopia. He loved the food, and there were plenty of hiding places. One day, he found a fantastic hiding place when he was eating some of THE CHEF’s best cheese.

LATIFAH (heavy Indian accent): Ooh, this is the best cheese I’ve ever had.

Narrator: He finally ate a hole all the way through the wheel of cheese and found a mouse hole.

LATIFAH: Oh, this is the perfect hiding place.

NARRATOR: He climbed into the mouse hole and all of the sudden “Wham! Pow! Yikes!” The mice had surrounded LATIFAH and growled in deep menacing voices.

ROSE: Surrender or be disposed of! (pointing a toothpick sword at LATIFAH’s throat)

LATIFAH: Why? I just, I want…good food? Please, please, mercy, please?! Home?

CLOUSE: (says through his laughter) Oh, ROSE, listen to him talk.

ROSE (through her teeth): Shut up, CLOUSE, he’s the enemy.

LATIFAH (Shaking his head no, then at friend, nodding): Enemy? No, no enemy. (enunciates) Fri-eeend.

ROSE: What? Do you think we are just going to let you live with us? You must really not understand English, because here we don’t just let strangers stay with us.

LATIFAH(confused): What? What is this…stranger you speak of? No, me friend. Me good.

CLOUSE: Oh, come on. Let him stay. He’s kinda funny to listen to.

ROSE: What, are you insane?

(ROSE pulls CLOUSE away from LATIFAH out through a hole in the cheese. LATIFAH waits for a few seconds then starts to follow. He stops half way through the hole to listen to what they are saying. They whisper quietly, a bit of their conversation is heard as they try to think of a solution.)

ROSE: …gonna get us killed.

CLOUSE: Don’t you think….fun to be around?

ROSE: Why on…would…be…fun?

CLOUSE: He’s not going to…killed.

ROSE: We’ll put him through…

CLOUSE: Initiation?

(ROSE turns back to LATIFAH and sighs, pulling him the rest of the way through the hole.)

ROSE: Okay, mouse, what’s your name?

LATIFAH: Um…Latifah?

(CLOUSE starts laughing uncontrollably. ROSE smacks CLOUSE with the toothpick. CLOUSE takes a deep breath.)

ROSE: Shut. UP. Here, LATIFAH, I’ll make you a deal. An offer you can’t refuse. If. And only if you pass the initiation, you can stay and eat all the cheese you want.

CLOUSE: All of it?

(ROSE holds a blindfold out to LATIFAH)

ROSE: Here, in order for this to work—for you to stay here with us—

CLOUSE: Seriously, ALL of it?

ROSE: Clouse. SHUT UP. Anyway, as I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted (glares at CLOUSE). You have to wear this.

LATIFAH (stares at the black blindfold that is clutched in ROSE’s paw.): No…me no see good. That thing kill me.

ROSE: Fine, little blind mouse, how many fingers am I holding up? (Holds up three fingers.)

CLOUSE: Come on, ROSE, let’s just get this over with before THE CHEF gets back. (Looks worriedly toward the pantry door where there is a circle of glass that shows the kitchen that is empty except for THE CHEF, who is putting something into a pot.

LATIFAH (squinting his eyes to see a little better): Tw—wait. Um…three? Me think? Me eyes no good.

ROSE: You’re not blind. It’s not fair if you get to go without it. CLOUSE, don’t you think he should wear it? Otherwise this’ll be too easy.

CLOUSE: Yeah, sure. Whatever. Let’s get a move on please…We have to go when he takes out that order. (He keeps his eyes on THE CHEF; he motions for ROSE to hurry and doesn’t see the look of horror on LATIFAH’s face.)

LATIFAH: No…no…not that (said like dat). Anything not that. You two fine, no me. Bye-bye…bye-bye.

(LATIFAH tries to run behind ROSE and CLOUSE back through the cheese into the mouse hole that splits into pipes farther back.)

ROSE: Stop right there! (ROSE holds the toothpick to LATIFAH’s neck once more) You wouldn’t last ten minutes in the pipes by yourself.

LATIFAH: What? Why so bad there?

(ROSE removes the toothpick and looks at it sadly, sighing.)

ROSE: Years ago in this very restaurant, there were three mice. Just. Like. Us. One day one of the mice, the new mouse, wanted to overthrow the leader mouse. They fought until the leader’s toothpick…slipped. Let’s just say the new mouse couldn’t see well enough to try to take over after that. ‘Til this day the mouse haunts the pipelines that connect this very restaurant to the sewers where the rats rule. So go on, try to escape. I dare you. (she says intensely)

LATIFAH: No, no ghosts. No rats… no fear. No dare.

ROSE: Then this is what you have to do (ROSE points toward the door and the window that shows the kitchen.) We’ll tell you when he walks out with whatever that is that he’s making. Then you’re going to squeeze through that hole in the corner. You see it? (LATIFAH nods, staring at the door.) Okay. Now, you see that pot over there? (ROSE points to the small pan simmering on the stove. LATIFAH nods, swallowing hard, his eyes getting bigger.) THE CHEF always, always lays his spoon across the top after he finishes plating something. You have to climb on top of that box—see it?—and run across the spoon. Then jump off. Then you can take off the blindfold and come back here.

CLOUSE: Don’t you think that’s a little dangerous, ROSE? Especially with the blindfold…

ROSE: No, if he wants to stay here he’s probably going to have to do more dangerous stuff than this.

LATIFAH: More…danger?

ROSE: It’s not that bad. Here’s your blindfold, LATIFAH. You know how these work right?

(ROSE hands the blindfold to LATIFAH and waits for him to figure it out.)

CLOUSE (whispers): He’s not from another planet…

ROSE: What was that? (Turning her attention from LATIFAH, who is struggling to tie the black fabric over his eyes.)

CLOUSE (annoyed): I said “He’s not from another planet.”

ROSE: Well from the way he knows how to do things he might as well be. (Turning back to LATIFAH) Here. Let me do it so you don’t have to keep messing with it. This way I’ll know you can’t see anything.

(ROSE pulls the knot tight and ignores LATIFAH’s cry of pain.)

LATIFAH: Ow, hurts! Stop! (ROSE double knots it.)

CLOUSE: ROSE, quit it. He won’t be able to see or get the thing off.

(ROSE lets go of the blindfold and spins LATIFAH toward the door.)

ROSE: Okay, lets do this. LATIFAH, I hope you remember where you’re going. Just go straight until you feel it slop, the shelf’s broken at the end so it’ll take you down to the floor. Then it’s left to the door and straight. You’ll feel the legs of the table beside the oven. Straight up then right and straight to the pan. Good luck. (Shoving LATIFAH in the right direction.)

CLOUSE: ROSE, I really don’t think this is a good idea. That stove is insanely hot.

(ROSE stays silent and they stand there, watching LATIFAH take small steps, edging along the sides of the boxes and other food. He slides down the shelf and bumps into the wall before he regains his balance again and walks in the general direction of the door. He walks back and forth in front of the door until he finds the exact place of the hole. CLOUSE stares up at the window, watching THE CHEF walk through the kitchen doors to deliver a plate of food.)

ROSE: He better get a move on.

CLOUSE: You shouldn’t have made him do this. It’s like you want him to die or something. Poor guy…just his luck that he’s stuck with you.

ROSE: Don’t pin this on me; you could have stopped this.

(CLOUSE opens his mouth and stops. LATIFAH is now on top of the table beside the oven. He fumbles around, knocking over a salt shaker that spills all over the floor. His feet step up carefully onto the surface of the stove, feeling their way around the eye that isn’t on. He slows as he gets closer to the heat of the pan that sits on a burner that is turned to off but the pan is still sizzling from the food that was cooked only minutes ago.)

ROSE: But you couldn’t have stopped that…

(The door opens, THE CHEF pushes it open with his back. So he doesn’t immediately see LATIFAH on the stove. ROSE runs, not even bothering to go down the slope. She jumps off of the shelf and only stops for a second to balance herself. CLOUSE jumps too but his feet slip and he takes a little longer to get up. ROSE is through the hole in the door before THE CHEF turns around with a dirty plate in his hand. When he sees LATIFAH he throws the plate, smashing it against a metal serving counter that is near the door. CLOUSE is now out of the pantry and right behind ROSE whose feet get caught in the salt that LATIFAH spilt earlier. She pauses for a moment, trying to hide behind the leg of the table. CLOUSE stops beside her. They both try to shake the salt off of their paws. LATIFAH jumps onto the spoon, making it clatter against the pan and THE CHEF scrambles to get around the shattered plate and to the stove. As he rounds the left side of the stove (his left), ROSE leads CLOUSE up the leg of the table that sits on THE CHEF’s right.)

THE CHEF: I’ll get you little mouse! (diving for the wooden spoon that LATIFAH is half way across. He hits his hand on the pan and hisses in pain. But reaches for LATIFAH with his other hand, grabbing him by the middle. LATIFAH yells, letting off a string of Hindi that sounds like nothing more than mouse sounds to THE CHEF.)

THE CHEF: You think you can talk your way out of this, little mouse. Well you’ve got another thing coming. No mouse sneaks into my kitchen and gets away with—

(THE CHEF stops to see ROSE and CLOUSE running across the table, making as much noise as possible, knocking over anything they can. He jumps, and LATIFAH falls. His claws grasp the edges of the spoon but his tail is too long and hits the bottom of the pain.)

THE CHEF: Three fried mice, three fried mice,

Don’t try to run, don’t try to run.

They all ran after the chef’s cheese

Who fried their tails with a hot pan.

Did you every see such a sight

as three fried mice?