Fast Friends – the adventures of Marie and Kelly when they were young

• The goal is to tell a 6-8 page story featuring the two leads from the road to god knows… as 8 year old girls. I wouldn’t mind doing a series of these at some point, but for now I want to focus on a story where they first meet.
• The image I really like is Marie sitting on some concrete steps all by herself. Could be a school. She’s lonely and upset. I’m loosely thinking of having this be the aftermath of a bullying experience and if so she could have some favourite comic torn up and left in piles around her.
• I don’t want the story to maudlin, though. It’s important that it’s fun and light. I definitely want the end to have the feeling of Casablanca (“this could be the start of a beautiful friendship”).
• The idea here is how friendship can help two people get over their own problems. I don’t want Kelly’s friendship to seem like a crutch for Marie so there needs to be some balance. Something she can help Kelly with, too.
• Actually, instead of bullying I think I’ll go in a different direction. Betty, Marie’s mom, wants her daughter to get some exercise. So she kicks her out on the front steps to get some fresh air. Marie, for her part, would dearly like nothing better than to curl and read. Betty ain’t gonna allow that and tosses her daughter outside with a ball. Marie is sitting there, aimlessly bouncing the ball off a step, as Kelly comes walking up the sidewalk.
• I’m loosely thinking that she has to return three late movies and was hoping not to have to pay the fine. She knows she has to; she just doesn’t want to. Her Mom had picked ‘em out for her a few days ago and they aren’t movies she’d ever watch (touchy feely cutesy cartoons or some such). As a result, she forgot about ‘em. Now, she’d much rather Return of the Jedi but she’s going to have to pay the fine on the late flicks.
• Marie knows the corner store people really well and is pretty confident she can get the store owner (“Todd“) to wipe the fine clear. That way Kelly can rent whatever she wants to.
• The story will end with the two of them walking down the street, chatting about how silly Return’s Ewoks were but how cool the space battle was. Kelly, “I even heard they were supposed to be wookies instead of teddy bears. Can you imagine? Wookies! How cool would that have been?!” (text gradually gets smaller).

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