"SNAKELAND MUST BE DESTROYED!": SCENE THREE

* This is a fictionalized account of some shit that actually happened. All the names, locations, etc. have been changed to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. – JG *

INTERIOR – HOOVER’S HOMEROOM – DAY

Hoover is sitting at his desk in homeroom, headphones on blaring “Hate Paper Doll” by Husker Du. He is drifting off to sleep despite the fact that the music is incredibly exciting and brutally loud. He is shaken awake by GRIFFIN, a freshman with a Beatle haircut wearing a paisley shirt and a Nehru jacket.

HOOVER

(pulls headphones off) The fuck, Griffin!

GRIFFIN

Jesus! I was just making sure you knew, that’s all!

HOOVER

(interest piqued) Knew what?

GRIFFIN

Dude, Hannah Graeber is fucking dead.

Hoover’s eyes trace forward to the desk in front of him, which is empty.

HOOVER

What are you talking about?

GRIFFIN

Hannah Graeber is dead. Somebody killed her in Snakeland.

HOOVER

Jesus! Snakeland?!

GRIFFIN

Yeah, and then they dragged her body out to the railroad tracks

behind it. That’s how they found her – I guess the engineer

stopped the train just in time before it cut her in half.

HOOVER

(stares at the empty desk) How was she actually killed?

GRIFFIN

That I don’t know. Strangled, maybe? Stabbed? I’m not sure.

HOOVER

(shakes head) That’s crazy. First Rand, now this.

GRIFFIN

(puzzled) Rand? Rand who?

HOOVER

You wouldn’t have known him. He was in my

grade, he shot himself last year. In the head.

GRIFFIN

(exhales loudly, looks away) Fuck.

HOOVER

Yeah, right?

GRIFFIN

(whistles) Well, either way I’ll see you at practice after school.

HOOVER

(remembers) Shit! Practice! Yeah, definitely. No problem.

Griffin looks at Hoover, backs away slowly.

GRIFFIN

Yeah, practice – don’t forget.

HOOVER

I won’t!

After Griffin leaves, Hoover’s focus returns to the empty desk in front of him.

FADE OUT AND INTO: