I came all this way, All the way from outer space. Crashed my car into the lake. I haven’t got my license yet. Probly won’t at this rate, Don’t know the laws in this new state. The gravity, the volume, the stuff displaced. But I swear, I’ll do my best. I don’t mind being from out of time And outta space. I’ll find a home in this place. With just a simple plot, located in the woulds and coulds you’ve got, We’ll grow a tender tree, reach it out to all its pedigree. Had a dream that my time machine was broke, Flying saucers and sounds they’d call a hoax, How my hair was a mess when I awoke. A pulse, a push, outside my window. These grains of sand in hand, I let them go. Lend your ear, help me out cuz I’m new here. But you’re what’s new to me, see, I’m the oldest that I’ve ever been. I’m glad to be back here, this happens every thirty years. But I still look the way that I did all those yesterdays. My parents used to take me to the suburbs of the city just to Visit and be cheery for my grandpa’s blue condition, When I turned around from counting down, he wasn’t gone or hiding, he was Standing with an old guitar whose strings began to vibrate, When I felt that kind of kindling, like an inkling of Atlantis, It was like the cold dispersing, churning out a curving canvas, And the blue from in my grandpa’s eyes, we’re not so different, you and I And when the seasons twist and change, we’ll meet again outside of time! ***** JEREMY: Where ground is soft most often grows, arise! Arise! Arouse! A rose! Out in the cold, we were listening for The east, the south, and north. Out in the cold, we were listing toward The wind that drives our course. Tell everyone, tell everyone to hold the line. Tell everyone, tell everyone to get behind me now. Facing the void, now I know I’m one. A foot in each ocean, take a swing at the sun. I am feeling something that cannot be described. I am feeling something just outside of alive. Running for the hills and for the height I require. Sending up a smoke cuz I can’t start a fire. Why my mind would waste my time and forge memory Is totally beyond between and because of me. Empty empty empty empty subterranean streets. Now I’ve found the pieces to assemble the dream. New frost, the screen begins to shift. You lost my fingers in your grip. Now the sky seems tumble and break. The walls, they fall and bruise. How my tongue caught a cold ashen flake. I taste all the colors diffuse, and fade to white. CHIEF MEANIE: Speak your last piece! JEREMY: Peace! Peace! Supplant the doom and the gloom! Turn off what is sour! Turn into a flower and bloom! Bloom! Bloom! ***** Energy, amnesty, empathy, faculty, remedy, rooted in the ground. Heavenly, helplessly, endlessly, honestly, splendidly, growing up and down. 220, 440, 880, 1760 times around. Fantasy, family, rhapsody, destiny, legacy, see me through the sound! (Welcome back to town.)

Ella Clover, for over and over. Ella Clover. (DEB: Um, hello.) Ella Clover, for over and over. (DEB: Would you like to look like this?) Hello world, this is safe space sound. It’s ya girl Ella Clover now. No need to be blue or a light pink hue, We’ll chlorophyll up a whole party for you! “Did someone say the key of A?” Kick out the sour notes when you play! like Stay back hydrophobes with rabies, I’m 73% water, baby! C-L-O-V-E-R, C-L-O-V-E-R! C-L-O-V-E-R, clover, for over and over! I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want! I wanna go see a show and stay out for too long! I wanna write in wet pavement without getting caught! I wanna buy and try things but not need a job! I wanna smell as good as a sharpened pencil! (That stuff’s the scent in sentimental.) Wanna meddle with the mettle of my metal resolve Cuz I'm a mama-phonin’ adult! ELLA: Hello? Oh, probably about 20 hours a week? Oh, she got married? No, I don't really remember her. That was like first grade, mom. They say that I lost it? I found it, round two! Break the fourth wall like I’m looking ACHOO! (TROY: Annie, what is going on in there?? The Soul Train awards were tonight!) If you’ve got vacancy for L-O-V-E around your life, You will see Ella's O-V-E-R the rainbow tonight! Say how well you know me, like the girl from the poster-- Try it out! (C-L-O-V-E-R, clover, for-over and over!)

CIVICS TEACHER: And she said a few words. There's no place like...? STUDENTS: Home. CIVICS TEACHER: There's no place like...? STUDENTS: Home. CIVICS TEACHER: She had it always in her. There's no place like home, and home is wherever the family is. Y'all got my meaning? STUDENTS: Yes, sir! Each morning my mother, with all of her power, would leave to tend to her patients. And I’d stay with dad and sit by him as he wrote and illustrated. And then he’d make dinner and mom would come in and they’d smile so big and so winsome. And it was right there in the small town of Verton that they passed on their wisdom! ***** If you make your bed and lie in it, you’ll mess up all the sheets. So don’t make your bed, make up your mind to go straight to sleep. Or lie and say you slept there and then sleep it off instead. Two wrongs will make it right, you’ll upright with a bedder head. And if it’s happily You’re after, my darling, Don’t wait for ever; if you’re clever, it’s calling. There’s plenty of fish in the barrel and the dead ones go with the flow. It’s rude to shoot your suitors, if they’re cold, let ‘em go. But if you shoot the breeze instead of where that fish is at, You’ve gone fishing with the wind, if you catch and release my draft. And if it’s happily You’re after, my darling, Don’t wait for ever; if you’re clever, it’s calling. Everybody hurts, but the words can never do it, So blame the sticks and stones, you know the wolf can blow right through it. Wolfish words are nothing when you’re rubber and they’re glue. Nothing hurts you if you let it, so don’t go feeling blue. Glue that nothing to a page, stick your stony words upon it, Throw the page against the wall and hang up those phony phonics. If that’s a heavy load, this happy home will grin and bear it. Divided houses fall, but ours will stand and share it. And if it’s happily You’re after, my darling, Don’t wait for ever; if you’re clever, it’s calling. There’s calm before the dawn and there’s dark before the storm. Between those cumulo-nitwits’ lines you’ll find your form. Half those lines are silver and half of them are gold, You just need something borrowed, we’ll put that book on hold. And when it’s family You need for anything, We’ll be here always, just you call and you will see.

ELLA: Hmm? ...It’s probly nothing. There’s an echo in here. A wise guy, eh? [chin-strokingly] Hmm! ***** ELLA: Ella Clover. AKIRA: Akira Iwate. ELLA: You wanna form a band? AKIRA: I think we just did. Bursting at the sea-ah-weams! Life is such a dre-ah-weam! Fast and like a master when I’m out there, finding adventure! Laughing cuz I’m feeling good! Biking ‘round my neighborhood! Watch out world cuz I’m that girl And I! Am tough! As! Nails! I’m the best boss of my bus! I would never ever cuss! You don't have to buy things if you try things, Like climbing fences! ROCK SLIDE! I am a tiny marmoset, oo hoo hoo hoo! You won’t believe the crazy tricks I do do do do! You put me in your pocket but you cannot keep me locked up At the pretty little itty bitty middle city zoo, yeah I’m too fast for you! (Na na na na na-na-na! Na na na na na-na-na!) Ella and Akira, it’s your era! Scout 37! ***** ELLA: Molto bene, mio dude! AKIRA: Foxy mille!

(CHARLIE: I've got the same chance as anybody else, haven't I?) Soft and open, I was hoping for you. Light a fire, build it higher. Let’s try our rendezvous. Everybody else is leaving. Feel a tugging on my sleeve and subdue. Down the lights, lock the front door, Hang around in this candy store, si douce. Funny stomach when I felt it, How the outsides melted and fused. This could even out to trouble. But tonight, my thought bubble’s around you.

AKIRA: We need a bassist! ELLA: Someone amazing! AKIRA: Someone who can do extra singing and playing! ELLA: Someone in town! AKIRA: To play things low down! BOTH: Someone with a car who can drive us around! ELLA: Akira, get ready and rowdy and really restless, I know the girl who’d be the bass bestist. How ‘bout a little show and tell, oh You simply must meet Cindra Mellow! (AKIRA: Did you say bass bestest?) ***** Cindra Mellow has the money for a new pair of shoes! Cindra Mellow’s never ever ever gotten the blues! Cindra Mellow falls asleep in the middle of class And wakes up for the test like--! Cindra Mellow’s gotta lotta friends who just tag along! Cindra Mellow knows her left from her right from her wrong! She’s a smart and alarmingly charming adult With a car and a heart worth a jar full of salt! Cindra Mellow would be absolutely GREAT in our band. AKIRA: Sounds like we should get her. ELLA: No you don’t understand! Like, Cindra Mellow’s pink and yellow and an aquamarine, Cindra Mellow put her sneakers in a washing machine! Cindra Mellow isn’t picky when she’s picking her lunch, Cindra Mellow’s got a time turner! Cindra Mellow makes a million and doesn’t know / how-- MR CLOVER: Say, are you kids hungry? ELLA: Dad, not now! MR CLOVER: OK! AKIRA: I’m kind of hungry… Cindra Mellow once fell down a whole case of stairs! Cindra Mellow could meet aliens and not even care! Cindra Mellow’s tattoo says the day that you’ll die! Cindra Mellow shoots lasers and she knows how to fly! She’s the greatest ever bassist pulling aces today! And a bigger better badder ball of power and play! For this band, Cindra Mellow’s at the top of the list! AKIRA: Ok, let’s get her. ELLA: No but listen to this, Cindra-- AKIRA: Ella! She sounds awesome, let’s just go ask her to join. ELLA: Alright. I’ll do the talking, you do the knocking. ***** CINDRA: Hey, what’s up? Are you two selling cookies or something? [Recognition.] Ella Clover. ELLA: For-over and over! CINDRA: And who’s your friend? ELLA: Friend AND drummer! We’re in a band. AKIRA: ~~An awesome band~~ CINDRA: Huh, that’s cool. So what, it’s just you two? ELLA: Well, actually… We need a bass player. A third member who could answer our prayers. AKIRA: Someone we would owe, like, a million favors. ELLA: Someone so cool we could never repay her. AKIRA: Someone with style and grace and flair… ELLA: Someone with a car— CINDRA: Nope, no way, never. ELLA: But Cindra... AKIRA: I told you I should’ve just stood on your shoulders in a trench coat. CINDRA: Listen. I’m taking classes you can’t even imagine. I haven’t played that bass since I was like 7. I’ve got doctor’s appointments and groceries to buy, I’m working part-time at the TCBY. I’m not hanging out with a kid I used to babysit. ELLA: Then do it for Akira! CINDRA: I don’t know who that is! (AKIRA: It’s me…) ELLA: Don’t you remember all the fun that we had? CINDRA: I remember weird advice from your mom and your dad. ELLA: And the crazy dance parties and the food you would nuke In the microwave to make it explode? CINDRA: That was you. ELLA: And the talks we would have and the secrets we’d share? CINDRA: And the VHS-- Wait. ELLA: And the truths and the dares CINDRA: Clover child, don’t you say it. ELLA: How you pulled out your hair Over William Bleaker who’d very unfairly stolen your heart? CINDRA: So when do we start. ***** ELLA: Alright folks, give it up for the totally tubular Akira “Rock Hands” Iwate on the drums! And the newest addition to the band, the incomparable, never terrible Cindra Mellow on the bass! ...Cindra, you’re supposed to take a solo. CINDRA: Oh, how was I supposed to / know that?! ELLA: And on guitar, the sweetheart of Verton USA! Yours truly, Ella Clover! ELLA: Y’all make some noise for Scout 37! CINDRA AND AKIRA: Buy our merch! Buy our merch! ELLA: Your new favorite band and burning obsession! CINDRA AND AKIRA: You know you’ve got to try our shirts! ELLA: Scout 37 is the ultimate craze! Scout 37 will impress you for days! Scout 37’s gonna come to your town and then leave you amazed! ***** CINDRA: Why’s it called Scout 37? ELLA: Cuz we got hot licks like Vulpix! AKIRA: Oh, Brock on, dude! CINDRA: Oh god. (NADIA: Thank you. It's my bad attitude that keeps me young.)

ELLA: They say all’s fair in love, but I’m wary this means war. If I say farewell to fair, will civil this remain? With ease does fair so swiftly change our form, but "Call you me 'fair'? That 'fair' again unsay." [CLOUDY emerges.] CLOUDY: Godspeed, fair Helena. Whither away? To retreat: Call you me "fair"? To delete: That "fair" again unsay. ELLA: I’d more quickly call you “scary” or “terrifying display.” CLOUDY: To compete: How you say, you’re stultifying dis play. ELLA: Who are you? CLOUDY: Ah, ok. To make my entrée: I’m a deep-seated fan of any crew person Who tries their hand being the in-view person. To give my congrats, I thought to save your debut. ELLA: What is it you want? CLOUDY: That’s what I’m asking you. What do you want? ELLA: Oh… Well. To explain: All the stage is my world, and the players my problem. We’re missing some props, I wanna know where they dropped ‘em. To obtain: A couple swords, some boots, a mustáche. CLOUDY: To disdain: D'artagnan, you cheap piece of trash! And to detain the thief, you were saying their lines…? ELLA: To regain their props, you gotta get in their minds. CLOUDY: To maintain: ELLA: Obligation… CLOUDY: To profane: ELLA: through oration! CLOUDY: To lie in vain: ELLA: I was trying echolocation...? CLOUDY: What do you want? I see a hunger hidden down under, I’m your confidante. You seem devoted; I want to know, What do you want? CLOUDY: To compliment: Demetrius loves your fair. To drop laments: O happy fair! To supplement: Your eyes are lodestars and your tongue’s sweet air More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. ELLA: Sickness is catching. CLOUDY: O, were favor so! Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go. ELLA: To infer: You’re an actor, and of course you have thoughts. CLOUDY: You recognize me? Well, I must give you props. ELLA: To dignify: You all seem the same backstage. To FYI: You actors should start acting your age. But to identify: You have the room at the end. What kind of name is Cloudy? ...not to offend, but Comprehend: The props live by your room and TBH, I notice there’s something tucked behind your waist, so What do you want? CLOUDY: Um. Hah. To contend: If it’s behind me and wasted, it’s probably my time. They should have you committed-- ELLA: Like you did to this crime? CLOUDY: To pretend: Yes I steal, I’m a thief of bad acting. ELLA: To apprehend: You’re under arrest for distracting! But to defend your honor, you were all set to duel. CLOUDY: Lest you make amends, Robin, that might still be in view. ELLA: To resist: CLOUDY: All your crap. ELLA: To blacklist: CLOUDY: You’ll never act! ELLA: To let this untwist: CLOUDY: You better stop to ask! BOTH: What do you want? ELLA: You’ve got a secret, I can see it. CLOUDY: If you need a foil, I’ll be it. BOTH: You’re so nonchalant. CLOUDY: You’ve put on quite a show. ELLA: It’s time to tell, I gotta know, BOTH: What do you want? CLOUDY: To coalesce, I think that we’ve both been blindsided, So acquiesce to a gag order or find that I add the S to wordplay and let things turn violent. ELLA: To... uché. I suppose I’ll stay silent. But to insist you’re entrapped, I enlist you to talk. It’s for -ticing your prac-! You’re a fighter at heart! CLOUDY: To persist with this nonsense deserves no response. To dismiss with a laugh: A-hahahaha. ELLA: Well I know how to be tough! And you could teach me to act. CLOUDY: No I can’t! ELLA: Yes you can! You can fight! CLOUDY: No I can’t, it’s not right-- ELLA: Come on man, let’s abandon stage fright, Take a stand, it’s just us in this theatre tonight! BOTH: What do you want? ELLA: Come on, we’ll do some sparring, CLOUDY: On the stage on which you're starring. BOTH: Let’s start our détente. ELLA: I’ll teach your staring daggers. CLOUDY: And I’ll make you an actor! ELLA: My ear should catch your voice, CLOUDY: My eye your eye; ELLA: My tongue should catch Your tongue’s sweet melody. CLOUDY: Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, ELLA: The rest I’d give to be to you translated. [Beat.] CLOUDY: To be translated to me? ELLA: Um, to translate to you! To transfer my meaning, to transport my view-- CLOUDY: To transform completely, so I’d be like you. BOTH: That’s what I want. (TOPH: Are you kidding me? I wouldn't have cast it any other way!)

CLOVER PARENTS: If I had a nickel cavity for every time they told me that money can’t buy sappiness, my smile would be golden. But swine-sight’s 20/20, open up those pearly gates, That rotten frown will come on down, we’ll set that lovely smile straight! And when it’s dentistry Faced apprehensively, We’re both nearby, just close your eyes and count to three. ***** Why would God let sugar taste so sweet If all it does is give you cavities? How was I to floss each week? Why would teeth not go to the same place? Please, don’t meddle with your metal in my face. Not orthodontia’s cold embrace. Please! (Doctor dentist!) I’m on my knees! (Doctor dentist!) I mean, I’m in the chair, (Doctor dentist!) But figuratively! (Doctor dentist!) Ask me nothing, (I won’t say!) I’m not brushing. (Twice a day!) And hand in mouth, (My entree!) It’s rather muffling. (Please padre!) No! Doctor, please! NO! (BUSTER: I'm a monster!)

[CINDRA and AKIRA are chatting. ELLA enters.] CINDRA: Hey Ella, you’re late. AKIRA: Dang, you look exhausted. Did you, like, get up with the sun? AKIRA: Did something huge happen that rendered you speechless? CINDRA: Are we deaf from not wearing ear plugs? CINDRA: Akira, please tell me, do I need closed captions, or is there an elephant in the room? AKIRA: There’s something I would dub a silent Ella-phantom, But I’m not sure what killed her. Hmm... I remember Ella saying she was due for braces, plus probly cavities from the way she eats candy. CINDRA: Ha, I remember those, I hated those things. AKIRA: Well I’m on the drums, I guess you’ll have to sing. CINDRA: No way! [ELLA plays two harmonics.] Can you not speak guitar to me? AKIRA: Harmonics, she’s saying that we gotta work in harmony! Just sing about bass! CINDRA: That’s a door we can close. AKIRA: Then sing about feelings. CINDRA: Yeah, I don’t have those. AKIRA: Then complain about classes! CINDRA: Oh great, I’ll just gush about life as a serf within medieval Russia. [ELLA plays a surf riff.] AKIRA: Yeah! A surf song would be perfect! CINDRA: Hey, hold the homophone-- AKIRA: You don’t hold it, you surf it! ***** AKIRA: Hang ten! CINDRA: Feudal system. AKIRA: Wipe out! CINDRA: Catherine the Great. BOTH: Serf’s up! Serf’s up! AKIRA: Radical! CINDRA: Fief. AKIRA: Woah, cowabunga, dude! CINDRA: The Bubonic Plague. BOTH: Serf’s up! Serf’s up! CINDRA: Imagine you were not allowed to leave your house or marry without permission. This was what it was like for 75% of Europe’s population during medieval times. Serfs did labor in their lord’s fields in exchange for a small piece of land called a fief. They could use this land to grow crops to sell and hopefully buy their freedom. ***** Nodding off in class, that’s a bored you can surf! Yeah, you want a different class? That’s a war on your turf! Bang bang on the castle, what you whining about? When you play the game of thrones, you either win or you wipe out! Carpe diem and the means of production, Tar and feather all those chickens, yeah I don’t have a cow! They burn your bungalow for a chunk of the bunga, But you just took their really castle, who’s cowabunga now?? ***** AKIRA: Ella, you remembered how to talk again! And swear! CINDRA: Yeah, you had me in stitches, Lilo. / And speaking of getting left behind: Akira, have you heard of a metronome? (ELLA AND AKIRA: Nani?) AKIRA: Oh, yeah, Togepi! CINDRA: Good, I think before next practice we should-- Wait. What did you just say?

Heavy in my hands and heart, straining in my legs. Suddenly the floor drops out, there’s red as I falter and break. You stop the world and you let me know your name. You take a knee to cover me and everything’s ok. Breathe in. Watch my eyes. Breathe in. Watch my eyes. Breathe in. Watch my eyes. Breathe in. Watch my eyes.

ELLA: Am I dreaming? CLOUDY: Are you sleeping? ELLA: I had a good day. Don’t ruin it. CLOUDY: Am I supposed to say good night? ELLA: There’s no point now, with that moony look in your eyes. CLOUDY: Surely you mean loony. ELLA: The way you wax poetic or Wayne like you’re not worthy. CLOUDY: And Alice wonders why she’s cooped up in a nunnery. Oh well. CLOUDY: A quick hit from a meter stick will drop your words in line. (ELLA: Bro.) And what you say will give away that Ella-meant, surprise. (ELLA: No!) ***** CLOUDY: So here we are for a playdate. ELLA: What? I don’t need a playmate! CLOUDY: I mean, this is an ok date. ELLA: This is an in-no-way date! CLOUDY: Well, we’ve played around to date; you’ll recall your unstaged play. ELLA: If you press play on this reel, for real dude, I’m pressing stop again. CLOUDY: If you’re gonna try and make that play, I suspect you’ll be stopped short. ELLA: If the umpire’s calling me out, I’m gonna strike back with some force. CLOUDY: You’re done, Obi-wan, it’s a trilogy. You won’t make it home by the rule of threes. ELLA: You’ll huff and you’ll puff but I’ll block you with brick. CLOUDY: Third time’s the charm, expelliarmus, Flitwick. ELLA: Avada cadaver, your prefects are late! Now you’ve got word- as your only playmate. CLOUDY: Au contraire, Ron frer, you’re using to spar A quidditch pro quo on your nimble guitar. ***** ELLA: Lame! Tocar y jugar y poner aren’t the same. CLOUDY: Un ¡otra! for your obra, let’s do it again! It’s bien to see that you’re using your brain. ELLA: It’s bueno to see that you’re losing your breath. CLOUDY: Your strings are still smoking, I’m choking to death! ELLA: Not that you’d know it the way that you play, But there’s something forgiving in multiple takes. CLOUDY: You take and you take but prepare to refund. You’re licked for your licks; play was just station one. ELLA: I’ll fight to the end, all the way to eleven! CLOUDY: St Nigel is plugging his ears up in heaven. CLOUDY: Your pacing and your race are lost, You know you’ve twice been beat. ELLA: It’s you who’s gonna taste exhaust; Prepare to feel de-feet! (CLOUDY: Why are you taking off your shoes??) ***** ELLA: I’m on my toes; I gotta lotta foes to beat. CLOUDY: I suppose your foe is “it” when you’re up on your feet. ELLA: I would never flee the scene when I’m out on the beat. CLOUDY: Ok, Watson. Get back to Baker street. ELLA: The baker can take it, I think you better leave, There’s too many cooks who can’t handle the heat. CLOUDY: I can more than bear heat, whether R or a T, pull your tail up and exit pursued, end parenthesis. ELLA: Oh no, another burn by the Bard. I can’t bear to be beat by the battling star. CLOUDY: The beat in the theatre’s more shrewd when it grows, Unless the pause is pregnant—? [Beat.] Oh! ELLA: I can’t quite see it, but you’re making a scene. That’s deadpan for me, did you mean: [Beat.] You won’t pass a poly- unless you’re both beat, Prepare for ensnarement! ***** CLOUDY: Wow. You don’t expect the detective to do it. ELLA: There are clues in the ruse you can use to intuit. Got a look at the book in your hand; it’s well-read. CLOUDY: “I am a brain,” as Sherlock has said, “The rest of me’s a mere appendix.” ELLA: Your honor, I move to remove the defendant. CLOUDY: Objection, the plaintiff is beating the witness! Miss Clover has clearly put drums on her hitlist! ELLA: Don’t be so witless, you see that I’m kitless! My incorporation is none of your business. CLOUDY: I’m having my own corpor-realization my corpse will be outlived by my creation. ELLA: You wanna be Frank? Put your appendix to work. Write an afterward for your afterword. Start with the art in your head, CLOUDY: And make it into concrete fact. And then when you’re gone and dead, ELLA: Artifact will bring you back. CLOUDY: We can fall from the stars and still make an impact. ELLA: If I can survive the landing intact. ***** ELLA: I’m on a new stage, from the voms or the flagpole. But it’s staged like she wasn’t in the last castle. CLOUDY: You’re on a staged stage but you might beat it yet. You can’t really know while you’re still on the ledge. ELLA: I join them in a twist; I feel like a mannequin. CLOUDY: How’d you get a no ‘twixt your body and your sister twin? ELLA: Neither side’s right with a double-edged blade. CLOUDY: One has to deduce when the world’s a stage, however improbable, what’s left is what’s right. ELLA: Those mirroring Marx are a farcical sight. CLOUDY: Life is a Ball or a dream or a weight. So grab it from Atlas; take over the place! ELLA: Planet schmanet, that’s not what I’m planning. CLOUDY: You’d settle for village or villa or hamlet? ELLA: We know where we are but know not where we may be. A game or a place that we beat without saving. CLOUDY: Ophelia there, but if you Den- leave a -mark, You can at least die being true to your heart. And high on a stage, the unknowing people Will see when you’re put on, you’re proven most regal. ***** ELLA: Good lord, your own soap box is growing quite feeble. I’m exeunting now, I pray you go with. I’ve given the axe, it’s time that you give. CLOUDY: I’m felled from the stage, now how will I live? ELLA: Where there’s would, there’s a way; I’m sure you’ll surviv’. [Beat.] CLOUDY: Surviv’? ELLA: Just let me h've this. I’m supposed to go study with Cindra. CLOUDY: Ah, the close contriv’r of your harms. ELLA: Hah, no, that would be me: I asked if I could. For all my charms, I somehow double my toil and trouble. CLOUDY: Well, worthy Thane of Verton, how ya gonna turn the stakes before you get burned? ELLA: There’s only one girl who can ease us through this devil’s snare. CLOUDY: Akira? ELLA: It’s time for lofi hip hop beats to study-slash-relax to.

CINDRA: I said you could STUDY with me! Why is it always “sweet licks like Vulpix” with you? ELLA: It looked like you were falling asleep, you were starting to drool! I figured some firepower would knock out the Gloom and rock out the VROOM! Ok, let’s do this! Let's go!

Sleepwalking bus stop afternoon. Interim sunshine, into the gloom. Slippery solace, counting the time. Numb by the numbers, falling behind. Where will you run to? What do you wanna find anyway? How can we make this endless dream turn into day? Nowhere is good enough for me. Could be worthless, could be free, and who knows the difference? The promise of the streets, the weight of the week, You must be sick to be leaving. Nowhere is where I’ve got to be. Stop in the water, break up the game. (Cannot swim and cannot see.) Old wallet pictures staying the same. (Caught in amber perfectly.) Empty interior for all of your friends. (Same without and same within.) Not gonna step in this stream again. (Reaching out for Dorian.) And what will you run on? And what are you running from anyway? Would you just let them throw your life away? America, you can sing of me. A ballad without a melody, and fully electric. A poem written in prose, these stores never close, the signs stretch up to the heavens. Hear the skyway singing: Vacancy need not apply. Welcome to your modern life. Twilight towns, yellow and pink. No campground, nowhere to sleep. Nowhere is good enough for me. Could be worthless, could be free, and who knows the difference? It’s made up in my mind, leave my shadow behind, There won’t be any more winter. Nowhere is where I’ve got to be. (Everywhere’s all the same to me.) Nowhere is where I’ve got to be. (Empty as far as I can see.) Nowhere is where I’ve got to be. (No one to know, no one to be.) Nowhere is where I've got to...

ELLA: This is just to tell you honestly, I ate the trail mix from in your bag. You were saving it quite probably, Forgive me, love, I wanted M&Ms, Just sleep, we’ve got til three, Oh oh… I will look for the bathroom alone, Wash my face in the shirt that you own, Couldn’t find mine, I should’ve brought more clothes. CLOUDY: And how can I sleep, churlish messenger? You’ve left your tender rings upon my state. ELLA: If my outside charms, fair Olivia, You’re better love the dream within thy pate. CLOUDY: I wake… ELLA: I’ll go-- CLOUDY: No, stay. BOTH: Oh! how the rain traces rivers and roads. Lying softly so no one will know. Nothing feels very far when you’re close. ELLA: You could be my lost brother-deity, Betrothed to both a maiden and a man. CLOUDY: How I watched the waves devour you. So welcome back, my drownèd sister twin. ***** (It’s a story of same and other, me and you I am becoming when my hair grows like a ritual chrysalis. We are not looks, thoughts, our bodies or self. Just the palpitating certainty of a shirt that fits ‘cross my heart.) ***** ELLA: Hold out your hand and we’ll go someplace sunnier Deep San Francisco where the ice cream is runnier. CLOUDY: Out on the beach where our problems seem funnier, You eat lots of food on the street till your stomach hurts. BOTH: The heat on the seats makes your skin feel gummier. You walk into town in a swimsuit and undershirt. Everyone smiles and you’re always an extrovert, Cuz when you’re in paradise there’s nothing that ever hurts. ELLA: That’s what I want! CLOUDY: Are you really sure? (CASS: Deckard, don't you think it's weird she hasn't grown up yet?)

CINDRA: Test, test. ELLA: Not again. AKIRA: Got too used to feeling accepted. CINDRA: It’s time for a fresh starter. ***** I am thankful you’re alive still. Couldn’t make it here without you. If we’re changing, let us change then. Can’t grow up and just sit in this basement. When we come home we’ll just stare at the ceiling On a bed that’s too small and no longer for dreaming. A city of squalor, no longer appealing. We’ll look at each other, there won’t be no feeling. Hard to soften, fight the motion. Biting time, throwing rocks at the ocean. Lose my nerve when the real is reeling. Hurt we’re here and I’m hurt that we’re leaving. We’ll play on this roof at the top of our power, And sit in the Steak 'n Shake for 44 hours. We’ll sleep in the booths, use the sink for a shower. I don’t want to leave, I don’t want to go sour. And we’ll be like exes, or far distant cousins, Or awful survivors with nothing in common Except they’re the ones who remember the others. We’ll sit by the fire and not look at each other. We’ll only get loud when recalling the golden, or describing TV shows we’re endlessly watching. I don’t wanna live if I’m not really living, I don’t wanna die here but can’t live somewhere different. ***** ELLA: And I hope that I’m mistaken. (CINDRA AND AKIRA: Don’t let me live haplessly ever after.) ELLA: Don’t know where I’ll awaken. (CINDRA AND AKIRA: Don’t let me live absently ever after.) ELLA: I am grabbing for something. (CINDRA AND AKIRA: Don’t let me live helplessly ever after.) ELLA: And I’m scared but I’m running. ***** (THELMA: I don't remember ever feeling this awake. Know what I mean? Everything looks different. Ever feel like that, like you got something to look forward to?)

When you find me now, I’m writing in the dark, Recounting beats from in our repertoire. And it could be that like me, you’re on a train That takes you to and from your home very late. And when the tunnel swallows you, You hold your breath and watch the view, The window shows you something old and new. The exit’s ancient, rusted sigh, The couple folks who left to die. The way the movies make you cry. You wonder why, wherefore, where to? I’ll bring it with. A bag of clothes, a couple notes, and a toothbrush. My yearning and this journal, nothing much. Cuz I can swear, when my moment comes, If I am brave and smart and strong, When my moment comes, though it well may not, Some people wait their whole lives long, But if my moment comes, and I pray it does, now I know. I will step into the light and start the show.

Is that me in the mirror? Did the glass reflections interfere somehow? Do they stay here while I sleepwalk, through snares and foils, props and talk, I don’t want to be the same next time around. A fistful of the biggest balloons, I know I’ll have to let go soon somehow. I dream through every single day, If I grow up and blow away, You’ll know me as the dew drops know the clouds. Well, all the stars don’t feel so far! Good night, sweet Verton. It’s alright, I’ll visit here again. Sleep tight, green Verton. Close your eyes, let the music pour right in. We’ll play the last song of the night, then let it fade to black and white and gold. I save this dance in my third slot, I use this Gameboy quite a lot, I’ll come back here if ever I get old. I sing my hymn in this old gym! Good night, sweet Verton. It’s alright, I’ll visit here again. Sleep tight, green Verton. Close your eyes, let the music pour right in. ***** The things that come to those who wait live well but never prosper. And absence cannot kill you, it’ll make your heart stronger. You are what you repeat, and it might be cliché, But the more this world changes, the more you’ll want to stay. And now it’s happily, (ELLA: And as my family,) You’re after, my darling, (ELLA: You’re before everything!) We love you dearly and we’re here for anything! (ELLA: Yes, you’ll hear of everything!) (ELLA: Each evening my parents would both disappear just to be in their beds by 9:30...) ***** AKIRA: Ella Clover! CINDRA: For over and over! AKIRA: This is crazy, is the whole world here tonight? ELLA: Shucks, I forgot to invite my cousin! CINDRA: We’ll squeeze him in if any space opens up. AKIRA: If he waits a couple weeks, he can have my spot. I’m headed south. Hash browns and Nash- towns for the foreseeable future. CINDRA: You see four there now, just wait til it blows up on you. ELLA: If she wakes in a rubble heap, she can have my cot. I’m off to Universe City. And my train leaves tonight. AKIRA: What?? CINDRA: Great. It’s all headed south then. ELLA: Oh! Cindra Mellow isn’t yellow, but she’s green for a trip. Cindra Mellow isn’t flushing, she’s just red from the tiff! CINDRA: Ella Clover’s black and blue if she thinks she’ll be missed. AKIRA: Well I think we’re all blue to diffuse and be split. But all of us know if we track the rainbow, Back here at this end, we’ll always stay gold. ELLA: Speaking of which, I have to go. Cloudy’s coming tonight. CINDRA AND AKIRA: Woah! CINDRA: Cloudy is… / Real? AKIRA: Here? ELLA: Maybe I’m Misty-eyed, -ducking our Psy’s. Grab a goody-bag, dear scouts, and good night. ***** Inside that bag you’ll find some trinkets to remind you of all the lovely times here. A copy of Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night's Dream”, A ceramic bowl of strawberries and cream, Our sullen initials carved into a tree, one of those jumpy plastic frog things. A baby tooth, One final chorus, A pocket sized thesaurus Pressing a flower petal from the forest. Our parents’ public wishes for us, And a heart that weighs enormous. A letterman jacket ripped at the seams, And all your childish dreams. ***** CLOUDY: Will my goodbye look that mechanical? ELLA: Still awake? The iron tongue hath told twelve. CLOUDY: I’ll not trust it when silver gleams your own. For well I know, was it time for fairies, Then with what ease should I say this farewell. ELLA: You were my first verb. I didn’t used to know words. CLOUDY: So what, I taught you how to curse? ELLA: You taught me how to learn. CLOUDY: And what are your terms, now that we’re pros at the prose? ELLA: I don’t know. I don’t think about it anymore. It always just feels like it’s… us. CLOUDY: What do you want? I’m sick of guessing, I’m acquiescing. ELLA: You’ve got my response: I want the world! CLOUDY: Is that singular or plural? CLOUDY: You’re what I want! PARENTS: Now that you’re travelling, CINDRA AND AKIRA: Don’t refrain, don’t refrain! CLOUDY: I hope you get it, and you always stay electric. PARENTS: To Universe City, CINDRA AND AKIRA: You know you’ve got to catch that train! CLOUDY: Now life calls us on! PARENTS: We’re in your heart and we’re a part of you. CINDRA AND AKIRA: Become a star and change your name! ELLA: Oh hear it now, I’ll make you proud! (ALL: Goodbye! Goodbye now!) ***** Well, that’s my story. Hope I didn’t bore you, anyway. what’s your name, strange sir, by the way? ... Don’t look so blue, friend, Vera-ly I’m sure “we’ll meet again”, I gotta go though in the end: It’s time to write my anthem. (MONKEY: We grow stronger. The world grows more dangerous. Life has a funny way of keeping things balanced.)