Pilot/Script

Script Page for Season One Episode One - Pilot

1x01 - Pilot

Written & Directed by Icedancer487

Narration
PENELOPE: My name is Penelope Simmons or at least that's who I always thought I was. One day I discovered that my life was not my life, and my parents that raised me with love and care were not my real parents. The truth is I was abducted when I was 2 years old, and now my entire world was turned upside down. Everything that I knew was torn apart from me, and now I must live with a bunch of total strangers that are my real family.

Hanover Mall, Virgina (December 23,1999)
(Just outside the small town of Ashland, people from all over the city were doing last minute shopping for christmas in two days, while others took their children to see Santa in the mall. It is here where 27 year old Kate Myers is seen walking, with a visible baby bump, with her three children. She holds her twins, Naomi and Nathan's hands, while Naomi holds on to her younger sister Claire's hand.)

NAOMI (Excited as she looks arounds)I: Mommy where's Santa.

KATE (Smiles down warmly at her oldest daughter): He's close by don't worry I promise we won't miss him.

NATHAN (Equally as excited as his sister): I want to ask for a new race car, and a puppy. I really want a puppy that is named Rocky.

KATE (Smiles): We'll just have to wait and see now won't we.

(Kate smiled as she continued to walk, she always loved the christmas season and how it brought the best of most people during the year. However her smile faded as she heard her youngest daughter Claire starting to make a fuss.)

CLAIRE(Starting to cry): I-I Don't want to see S-Santa.

NAOMI (Shocked): Claire, he's going to bring us presents on christmas day. Don't you want presents.

CLAIRE: H-HE Scares me.

KATE: Nathan hold Naomi's hand.

(Kate lets go of Nathan's hand and places it in Naomi's and goes down to kneel in front of Claire and roughly puts her hands on her shoulders. Instead of looking at Claire with comfot and understanding, Kate looked more annoyed and angry with the girl.)

KATE (Sternly): Now listen Claire, Santa is not going to hurt you, all you have to do is sit on his lap and tell him what you want for christmas, and than it will be all over.

(Claire continued to cry because of her mother's mean attitude towards her.)

KATE (Removes Claire's hands from her face and forces her to look at her): Now stop crying, your embarrassing us.

(Kate quickly got up and made sure Naomi had Claire's hand and took Nathan's hand back in hers because people were starting to watch the scene unfold.)

(As Kate continued to walk with the kids, she could not help, but wonder why she could not feel any love for Claire like she did for Naomi and Nathan, and her unborn twin boys. Her and Steven were already struggling financially when the twins were born, and it didn't help when Kate fell pregnant almost a year afterwards. She thought despite that she would love and care for Claire, but she was wrong, When Claire was born Kate did not feel nothing for the girl, and even refused to hold her for the first month of her life. Kate sighed knowing that she needs some serious help because she can't go on like this with Claire.)

(Kate was soon thrown out of her thoughts by seeing the line of children waiting to see Santa.)

KATE (Smiles and turns to the children): Okay kids we're here.

(However, much to Kate's shock, Claire wasn't there standing next to Naomi.)

KATE (Worried): Naomi where's Claire?

(Naomi looks to her side and gives off a confused look)

NAOMI: She was just there mommy.

(Suddenly all the emotions that she wanted to feel for Claire came at her all at once, as Panic started to really set in for Kate.)

J.H. Rose High School (15 years later)
(17 year old Penelope Simmons is seen outside with her cheerleading squad practicing their routines.)

CHEERLEADERS: P-A-N-T-H-E-RS WHAT'S THAT SPELL PANTHERS.

(Penelope continued to raise her arms as they chanted, and as the music played helped the other girls lift Serenity into the air and catch her as well.)

CHEERLEADERS: WHO'S GOING TO BRING HOME THE CROWN, PANTHERS ARE.

(The girls finish the routine by forming a pyramid, with Serenity in the middle holding on to Penelope who was on her right and Jessica who was on her left. Soon after the music stopped playing the girls carefully brought the three girls back down to the groud.)

SERENITY: Alright girls that was pretty damn good if I say so myself, but there's still room for improvement.

(Penelope could not help, but grin as her best friend lectured the group on improving their techniques. Serenity would defiantley make a great spokeswomen someday.)

SERENITY: Alright see you guys on monday and make sure you bring your A game along with you. Don't forget our big cheer competition is only a month away.

(Penelope quickly walked over to Serenity as the other girls headed inside the school)

PENELOPE: Great practice today coach.

SERENITY (Turns to Penelope and gives her an annoyed  look): Please it couldn't have been any worse than it was. I mean Jennifer and Michelle nearly knocked me over more than one time, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't no accident either.

(Penelope rolls her eyes and walks next to Serenity as they start to go inside the school.)

PENELOPE: Oh it was not that bad.

SERENITY: Please we ain't nowhere near ready for the competition, we only have a month left to practice all our routine and not to mention decide on what outfits we're going to wear.

(The girls enter the hallway and start to make their way towards their lockers.)

PENELOPE: Just calm down Serenity, look I know what will make you feel better. How about we go shopping tomoroww the whole day just me and you.

SERENITY (Laughs): I swear that is your solution to everything. Not that I am complaing, I really could use a girls day out.

PENELOPE (Smiles): See shopping fixes everything.

(The two girls reach their lockers and start to open them up.)

SERENITY (Jokingly): I swear your obsession with shopping probably beats all of that of every teenage girl in America, including me and that is saying something.

PENELOPE: Oh whatever.

(Penelope opens her locker door, and starts putting all her stuff away. However she suddenly stops as she sees a image of a little girl.)

Flashback
(Claire is walking through the mall without her mother or siblings. She however is not afraid, she is quite happy that she doesn't have to see Santa, but wonders where her family went off to. However the thoughts soon left her when saw a christmas barbie doll through a store window. Claire had a widened smile and ran over to the window to see the doll.)

CLAIRE: Pretty.

(Claire soon turned around when she heard approaching footsteps, a man whose face wasn't clear kneeled down to her level and held out his hand to which she took.)

End of Flashback
(After the vison ended, Penelope just stood there completely dumbfounded by what happened.)

SERENITY (Noticing Penelope staring off into space): You ok there Penelope.

(Penelope immediantley was pulled from her trance and turned around to see the look of confusion on Serenity's face.)

PENELOPE: Yeah sorry, my mind was completley somewhere else.

SERENITY (Smirks): Let me guess shopping.

PENELOPE (Rolls eyes and smiles): You know me so well.

(Penelope and Serenity shut their lockers and start to head out of the school to go home.)

SERENITY: Ok so we need to be up by eight because the mall opens up by ten, and we must hit every store this time which should take us all the way until closing time which is 11.

PENELOPE (Sighs): My mother won't let me out past 9 you know that.

SERENITY: Really you still have a curfew, I thought you said you were going to talk to her.

PENELOPE (Looks at Serenity with a annoyed look): Believe me I've tried, my mother is very stubborn she kepts telling me that it's not safe at night. (Sighs) I know they mean well, I guess they're just old fashioned.

SERENITY: In case you haven't noticed Penelope your parents sort of are old. I mean you probably have the oldest parents in this school, you dad is what 61 and your mom is like 57 or something like that.

PENELOPE: Well I was a late child for them, and  (Sarcastically) besides we can't all have young super model moms like you now can we.

(The girls at this time walk into the school parking lot going to their cars.)

SERENITY: Please you think either me or my mom is proud of the fact that she was my age when I was born.

(By this time the girls were already over to their cars.)

PENELOPE: I'll keep trying to budge her, if not i'll go to my dad he's a lot easier to handle with this kind of stuff.

SERENITY: You better, for once it would be nice to spend the whole day at the mall with my best friend.

(The girls give each other a hug before getting in their cars and driving off for thier homes.)

National Missing Childrens Center
(All around the room hundreds of workers were quickly working around the clock, either taking phone calls when new information came up or putting pictures of children that are missing and sending them though people's mail and making them available for people to see online. One group of workers were currently working on a missing child who has been missing for 15 years.)

DAVID (Sits next to his co worker Jake): Jake pull up a file on Claire Myers.

JAKE: Got it.

(Jake quickly typed the name in and her information quickly came up on the large computer.)

Name: Claire Elizabeth Myers

Date of Birth: November 7, 1997

Date Missing: December 23, 1999

Age Now: 16

'''Last Seen: Hanover Mall. Ashland, Virgina'''

Mother: Kate Myers

Father: Steven Myers

JAKE (Smiles Softly): Cute kid.

DAVID: Yea, I remember the day she went missing, it was just right before Christmas. The media was having a real frenzy with that one, because the police searched the mall for hours and she never turned up anywhere and the cameras only caught a very faint picture of the girl.

JAKE: I don't understand how the cameras could not be working, don't they always have to be on 24/7.

DAVID: The cameras at the time were malfuctioning, they were being fixed at the time she went missing so security was real tight. The only known evidence was a faint picture of her walking out hand in hand with a young gentlemen

JAKE: That's horrible, did her mother have her back turned or something.

DAVID: The mother claims that the child had let go of her older sister's hand and must of wondered off as she was holding her two other children's hands on the way to see Santa Claus.

JAKE (Confused): What about the father, where was he at?

DAVID: Working last minute for the holidays.

JAKE: I have no idea how I would be able to handle losing my daughter and not knowing what happened all this time.

DAVID: Just imagine how the mother must of felt. She ended up being hospitalized for severe panic attacks for almost 2 weeks and she was nearly 6 months pregnant at the time. The father wasn't much better either, I heard he took sleeping pills to help him at night during the first few months. The photo was the only big lead the police had, and that was really fuzzy.

JAKE: So nothing new has come up after 15 years.

DAVID (shakes head): No nothing at all. More than likely she was killed, even the police stated they were searching for a deceased body, but they could never find her body.

JAKE (Sigh): Well don't forget now, there has been cases where the victim turns out alive after so many years later, like Jaycee Dugard for example.

DAVID: True, that's why we have to keep updating their profiles after so long. We just finished her age progression picture today.

(David uploaded a file onto the computer and showed the new updated missing photo. It showed a picture of Claire at 2 along with her age progression photo next to it, with all the updated information.)

JAKE (Surprised): Wow those are some thick eyebrows.

DAVID (Ignoring Jake): Ok everything seems to be up to date, is everything ready on your end.

(Jake takes one last look at the shipping of the posters.)

JAKE (Nods): Yes they're all ready to be shipped out.

DAVID: Good.

(David then hits the accept button, and the missing posters of Claire start to get printed out and get ready for sending.)

Simmons Family Home
(Penelope is outside her home playing a one on one game of basketball with her father.)

JOHN (In a defensive stance, egging Penelope on): Come on Penelope do you actually think you can beat your old man, we've been through this before.

PENELOPE (Dribbling the ball with a confident look): Really dad, your 61 I think I can beat you this time.

JOHN (Smirks): You sure about that, you happen to forget that I was the captain of my high school basket ball team.

PENELOPE: Which was like what over 40 years ago, in the 18th century.

JOHN: You just going to talk or you going to play ball.

(Penelope smirks and quickly starts to move to her right, with John following her. Penelope however quickly did a turn and when she saw her free move threw the ball towards the hoop. John however quickly jumped up and pushed the ball away.)

PENELOPE (Groans): Really all the time.

JOHN (Laughs at his daughter): Told you sweetheart I may be old, but I still got game.

PENELOPE (Giggles): I'll beat you one day dad.

JOHN: Yeah only when I'm near my death bed you will.

(Nicole steps outside from inside the house and smiles at the scene of her husband and daughter hugging each other and making jokes.)

NICOLE: John, Penelope come on dinner is ready.

JOHN (Smiles at his wife): Ok dear coming.

(Penelope and John followed Nicole back into the house and into the dining room, where their plates was filled with Steak, Mashed Potatoes, and Corn.)

JOHN (Starts to eat his food): This is excellent dear, is this a new recipe for the sauce it tastes different.

NICOLE: Yes I took advice from one of the nurses at the hospital, it contains less fat in it and choloestral.

(As John and Nicole continued to talk, Penelope continued to look back and forth at each parent deciding on the best course of action on how to approach the mall situation. Nicole however saw Penelope looking at each of them carefully and figured she was up to something.)

NICOLE (Smirking at her daughter): What are you up to Penelope.

PENELOPE (Shocked): What makes you think I am up to something.

NICOLE: I saw you looking back and forth between your father and me, you want something and trying to decide which one of us will say yes.

PENELOPE: How did you figure that out.

NICOLE: I'm your mother, I am suppose to know these things. Now go on and tell us what you want.

PENELOPE (Sighs): Serenity and I were planning an all day girls trip to the mall on saturday, but I want to be able to stay out until the mall closes at 11.

NICOLE (Sternly): Absoulutley not young lady, 11 is too late for you to be out.

PENELOPE (Annoyed): Oh come on mom, I am not a child anymore I know how to take care of myself, please just trust me.

NICOLE (Looks at Penelope with a soft expression): I do trust yotu honey, it's just the people out there that I don't trust. You're my only child and I don't want to see nothing bad happen to you.

JOHN: Your mother is right Penelope, it's not as safe as it used to be at night back in our generation.

(Penelope sighed, but decided to drop the subject. While she hates that fact that she still has a curfew, she understands her parents fears and doesn't want to upset them any further.)

Penelope's Room
(After Supper Penelope went straight up to her room and flopped on her bed trying to relax. She turned on the right side of her bed so that she was facing the wall. When she opened her eyes, she couldn't help, but notice her old barbie christmas doll that she affectionatley calls Emily on her shelf. Penelope got off her bed, and grabbed the doll and sat on her bed,)

PENELOPE (Playing with the doll's hair while smiling): It's been a while Emily.

(Penelope knew that people would think of her as strange for keeping such a childish doll for so long. Serenity always questions her on why she still keeps it, truth be told Penelope doesn't know why either. Anytime Penelope would try to get rid of Emily, she would get this knot inside her stomach that always made her change her mind. Emily was a christmas gift her parents had gotten her for her second christmas, and it was by far one of the best gifts she had gotten at the time.)

PENELOPE (Smiles): I don't care what anyone says Emily, you will always be my first real friend, even though you can't speak.

(Penelope then layed back on her bed laying with Emily in her arms.)

Mall (2 Days Later: Afternoon)
SERENITY (Walks out of the changing room in a low cut green dress): How does this look on me?

PENELOPE (Studying Serenity): I would go with a different color, like red or blue. Green doesn't seem to match with your skin tone.

SERENITY (Looks at the dress): Your right what was I thinking.

(Serenity walks back into the dressing room to get change, leaving Penelope outside.)

SERENITY (inside the room): We should start looking for a prom dress for you as well.

PENELOPE (Rolls eyes): Junior Prom is not for another 3 months, I still have time to choose.

SERENITY (Walks out of changing room): You should choose soon before all the good dresses are gone.

(It always amazes Penelope, how quickly Serenity can get change and not mess up her hair at all.)

(The Girls leave the shop and continue walking through the rest of the mall)

SERENITY: By the way Penelope, if your mother is so up tight on your curfew. How on earth is she going to let you go to prom?

PENELOPE: Believe me we have had this discussion, she is willing to make an exception for prom, but we won't discuss it further until prom gets closer.

SERENITY (Smirks mischievously): Let me guess your prom date will be your dad, so that way you will be supervised all night.

PENELOPE (Bursts out laughing and shakes her head): Oh god no, I will not let that happen on my life.

SERENITY (Gets distracted): Come on Penelope they have a 25% off sale over at Cartier's.

(Serenity eagerly grabs Penelope's wrist and drags her along.)

(As the girls look around the jewerly store, Penelope spots a young girl walking out of a store holding her hand with her father. Suddenly a scene popped into Penelope's mind.)

(The little girl with long wavy black hair walked out of a store clutching a barbie doll while holding hands with a young man who appeared no older than 19. The two smiled at each other before walking out of the mall.)

SERENITY (Noticing Penelope clutching herself, runs over to her): Penelope are you alright, what's wrong?

(Penelope felt short of breathe and started to feel dizzy. However someone helped her steady her balance. Penelope looked over and saw it was Serenity who was looking at her very worriedly as well as other customers in the store.)

PENELOPE (Breathing heavily): I-I need to go home, I-I'm not feeling well.

SERENITY (Keeps a tight hold on Penelope and helps her out of the store): Ok we're going, it's going to be ok.

Simmons Family Living Room
(Penelope was sitting in the the passanger's side of Serenity's car with her head against the windown as Serenity drove Penelope back to her house)

SERENITY (glances over to Penelope worriedly): You sure you don't want to go to the hospital.

PENELOPE (Shakes her head): No, I particularly do not feel like visiting my mother in the hospital over nothing. I just think I need some rest is all.

SERENITY: What happen back there anyway, i've never seen you in so much pain before.

PENELOPE: I honestly do not know, it just came out of nowhere.

(Serenity pulls up to the front of Penelope's house and turns to look at Penelope)

SERENITY: You should probably get some rest you look exhausted.

PENELOPE (Huffs): Believe me you don't have to tell me twice. I'll call you later when I'm feeling better.

SERENITY (Pulls Penelope into a hug): You better.

(Penelope pulled out of the hug and got out of the car and quickly entered her house. As soon as she got inside, Penelope immediantley went to the couch and layed down. Penelope was thankful that her mother was working a double shift at the hospital and that her father had quite a few clients to deal with, so neither of them would be home until after 8, which left Penelope with the house to herself.)

(Penelope just stared at the ceiling trying to comphrend on why she keeps having these weird hallucinations. Penelope started to wonder if she was starting to show signs of schizophrenia. It was something that ran in the family for a long time, her grandma Sophia suffered greatly during the final years of her life because of the disease. However Penelope thought it was strange though that little girl in her hallucinations seemed so greatly familar to her, but she couldn't make out a clear face on the girl since her hallucinations were blurry. Penelope sighed and just closed her eyes letting sleep take over and hoping that she would feel better when she woke up.)

(Penelope was woken up by a loud knock on the door, which caused Penelope to groan when she realized that it was only four in the afternoon and that she only managed to get an hour of sleep.)

PENELOPE (getting off the couch to answer the door): Curse me for being such a light sleeper.

(Penelope open up the door to see the mailman holding a package in his hand)

MAILMAN: Package delivery for John Simmons.

PENELOPE: He's not home right now, but I can sign for him.

(The mailman hands Penelope the paper to sign and then hands over the package as well as the other pieces of mail. After shutting the door Penelope quickly placed the package and the other mail on the table for her parents, however one piece slipped and fell on the floor.)

PENELOPE: Shoot.

(Penelope bent down to pick the paper up. Out of curiosity, Penelope turned the paper around to see what it was. However her curiosity soon turned into complete shock because on the paper was a Missing person's picture of the little girl she was hallucinating about, but this time Penelope knows why she seemed so familiar, it's because it's her as a child and next to the picture of the child was an exact image of Penelope herself.)