Project prompt
TITLE: 13 MISSED CALLS — EP.01 “OCTOBER 14”
Genre: Supernatural Romance / Mystery / 2000s Teen Drama
Runtime: Approx. 3 minutes
Setting: Suburban America, 2006
[0:00–0:18] COLD OPEN — 13 MISSED CALLS
Late at night.
A quiet suburban neighborhood in 2006.
Orange streetlights glow through rain streaking down the bedroom window.
CLAIRE, 17, lies across her bed flipping through a magazine.
Her room is pure mid-2000s:
band posters, a CD player, a digital camera, photos tucked into the mirror, a small television.
A secondhand silver flip phone vibrates on her desk.
The screen reads:
13 MISSED CALLS
UNKNOWN NUMBER
Claire stares at it.
Then it rings again.
UNKNOWN CALLER
She hesitates, then answers.
“Hello?”
A teenage boy’s voice.
“…Hello?”
Claire:
“Who is this?”
The boy:
“You called me.”
Claire looks at the phone.
“No, you called me.”
A beat.
“That’s weird.”
TITLE:
13 MISSED CALLS
[0:18–0:45] THE FIRST CALL
Claire sits up.
“Seriously. Who is this?”
“Daniel.”
“Daniel who?”
“Daniel Reed.”
Claire:
“Do I know you?”
Daniel:
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
They both assume the other person is messing with them.
Behind Daniel, faint music and distant teenage voices can be heard.
Claire:
“Where are you?”
Daniel:
“Parking lot behind Madison Lanes.”
Claire laughs.
“The bowling alley?”
“Yeah.”
Claire glances out the window.
“Madison Lanes closed months ago.”
Daniel:
“What?”
“They tore down half the sign.”
A pause.
Daniel:
“They’re open right now.”
Claire’s expression changes.
[0:45–1:10] THE DATE
Claire:
“Okay. What date is it?”
Daniel:
“What kind of question is that?”
“Just answer.”
Daniel:
“October 14th.”
Claire:
“Year?”
Daniel laughs.
“2005.”
Claire stops smiling.
“Very funny.”
Daniel:
“What?”
“It’s 2006.”
Silence.
Neither of them knows if the other is joking.
Claire:
“Okay. Tell me something I can check.”
Daniel:
“Like what?”
Claire thinks.
“Something that happened today.”
Daniel:
“The varsity game got canceled because Coach Miller’s truck caught fire behind the gym.”
Claire freezes.
She remembers that.
It happened exactly one year ago.
[1:10–1:35] PROOF
Claire rushes out of her room.
She digs through a stack of old school newspapers in the hallway closet.
Daniel is still on the line.
“Hello?”
Claire unfolds an old issue.
Headline:
FRIDAY GAME CANCELED AFTER VEHICLE FIRE
Date:
OCTOBER 14, 2005
Claire stares at it.
Daniel:
“Claire?”
Claire:
“…How do you know my name?”
A pause.
Daniel:
“You told me.”
Claire looks confused.
“No, I didn’t.”
They both go quiet.
Daniel:
“Well… you just did.”
Claire lets out a nervous laugh.
For the first time, the tension breaks.
[1:35–1:58] CURIOSITY
Claire sits back down on her bed.
Daniel:
“So, future girl…”
Claire:
“Don’t call me that.”
“Future Claire?”
“No.”
“Claire from the future?”
“Worse.”
Daniel laughs.
Claire laughs too.
For a moment, they sound like two completely normal teenagers.
Claire:
“What are you doing at a bowling alley at midnight?”
Daniel:
“Avoiding going home.”
Claire:
“Why?”
Daniel:
“Long story.”
Beat.
Daniel:
“What are you doing?”
Claire:
“Avoiding homework.”
Daniel:
“Much darker.”
Claire smiles.
For the first time, she becomes interested not just in the impossible phone call—
but in him.
[1:58–2:16] THE FIRST CONNECTION
Daniel:
“So what’s 2006 like?”
Claire:
“Exactly like 2005, but worse.”
Daniel:
“Great.”
Claire:
“We have slightly smaller phones.”
Daniel:
“Worth waiting for.”
They laugh.
A comfortable silence.
Daniel:
“Hey, Claire?”
“Yeah?”
“If this actually is the future…”
He stops.
Claire:
“What?”
Daniel:
“Never mind.”
Suddenly, static fills the call.
[2:16–2:31] DISCONNECTED
Claire:
“Daniel?”
Daniel:
“Can you hear me?”
Heavy interference.
Claire:
“Yeah. Daniel?”
His voice breaks apart.
“I think the phone’s—”
The call dies.
CALL ENDED
Claire stares at the screen.
She immediately calls back.
CALLING…
UNKNOWN NUMBER
Then:
CALL FAILED
Claire looks strangely disappointed.
[2:31–2:48] FINDING DANIEL REED
The next day at school.
A classic mid-2000s American high school hallway.
As Claire walks past a display case of old yearbooks and senior photos, she stops.
She heads into the library.
Instead of searching online, she pulls an old yearbook from a shelf.
2005 YEARBOOK.
She flips to the R section.
Then stops.
A photo.
DANIEL REED.
A normal seventeen-year-old boy.
Claire smiles faintly.
“Daniel.”
[2:48–2:57] THE REVEAL
Then she notices a small black memorial ribbon beside his photo.
Her expression changes.
At the bottom of the page:
IN MEMORY OF
DANIEL REED
1988–2005
Claire freezes.
Below it:
“Forever 17.”
[2:57–3:00] ENDING HOOK
Inside Claire’s backpack, the flip phone vibrates.
She slowly pulls it out.
The screen reads:
1 NEW VOICEMAIL
DANIEL
Claire stops breathing.
CUT TO BLACK.
END OF EPISODE 1.
