The Last Gladiator (paid project)
Heather Nichols for Penny Hooper
Accent: Midwest American
Word Count: 6337
Style: Dark, wry, kind of like Billie Eilish
Penny is a 17 year old high school senior in Central Illinois. She plays saxophone in the marching band. She's very bright but slightly anti-social. She has big plans to escape her crazy family and go to NY to join an orchestra and become a cat lady. But her plans are all put on hold when she rescues a stranger from drowning in the lake, a stranger who seemingly came out of nowhere. Her kid brother is convinced he's an alien. Her mom thinks he's an angel. But she's sure she's seen his face before, and she's determined to figure out who he is, so she can get him out of her life before he messes things up permanently. But it's not that simple, because there are also villains.
- english
- american (midwest)
- female young adult
(desperate, trying to convince him not to fight) I don’t care about Butoli. He’s not a threat to us anymore. We have the ship. We can go anywhere. (takes his hands) Maybe we could even go back in time. It’s a time machine, right? You could go back to your family. You could do anything you wanted. We can do anything we want. We aren’t stuck here. Don’t you get that?
(talking to her controlling mom on the phone) Hi. It’s under control. I ... Yes, I know but ... But that’s ... He probably just ... But Mom ... (deep sigh) Ok. Ok. Whatever. We’ll be home in a few minutes.
(why she's sketching the stranger mom invited into the house) Drawing a police sketch ahead of time. In case we’re all dead in the morning. At least this way they’ll have some idea what the perp looked like.
