Jessrassic World: Part One

[Jessica Reed]

{ The sun blazes down on Isla Imperial as a number of exotic insects fly frantically to and fro, the sound of a flock of birds shrieking overheard cutting through the cool breeze. Our camera begins to pan down to a large paddock with a crossed gangway spread over the top. As we grow closer we can see the figure of Jessica Reed with her arm raised in the air clutching a clicker. Beneath her in the pen we can see a pack of four raptors which are circling beneath her. As they do so they snarl and snap in her direction, causing Jessica to call out. } 

Jessica Reed: Hey! Mirsada, don’t give me that shit! Fiona and Paige, I’m watching you too! 

{ The raptor flares its nostrils and blows out a firm blast of air before back peddling slightly next to the pack, it’s eyes permanently affixed to Jess. } 

Jessica Reed: Good…. Good, that’s better. 

{ Jess hits her clicker again before reaching into a feed bag, tossing a few rodents towards Mirsada, Fiona and Paige. Jess slowly reaches her hand in again and looks Eliza square in the eyes. } 

Jessica Reed: Eliza… this one’s for you.  

{ Eliza licks her lips and steadies herself as Jess tosses the rat towards her. In one powerful leap she seizes it mid-air, devouring it in one easy gulp before letting out a call and racing into the long grass, swiftly followed by the other three. As they do so, Jess hears clapping as Roberto Verona and Hannah Reed slowly approach her across the gangway. } 

Roberto Verona: Look at them go! That was amazing. 

Jessica Reed: Mr Verona, what are you doing here? 

Roberto Verona: What am I doing? I came to see how you training was going, after all you requested this assignment personally. Besides, I paid for this animals, I wanted to see them in action. 

Jessica Reed: Well… you’ve seen them now, what can I do for you? 

Roberto Verona: You’re quite blunt and to the point. 

Jessica Reed: What can I say, you’re rarely here if you don’t want something from me. 

{ Roberto laughs and looks at Hannah who smiles. } 

Roberto Verona: You know me too well. Come, walk with us. 

{ Jess hesitates as Roberto extends and arm for her before eventually politely obliging. Roberto walks Jess along the walkaway as the sound of rushing feet beneath follows them. } 

Roberto Verona: Now, Jessica, we both know how proud I am of all your work for this company in the past. 

Jessica Reed: Thank you… I guess. 

Roberto Verona: However, we are always innovating here, looking for new ways to excite our audience. Remember what Leonard Fox said, spare no expense. 

Jessica Reed: Leonard said that, really? 

{ Roberto pauses and shuffles a little uncomfortably. } 

Roberto Verona: Ok, well maybe I am paraphrasing, but you get the point. Our park always has to be ahead of the game, that’s why I’ve commissioned a new special project. 

Jessica Reed: And what does that have to do with me? 

{ Roberto prepares to answer, but suddenly feels his phone vibrate. He raises a hand apologetically. } 

Roberto Verona: Sorry ladies, I’ve got to take this. Jessica, please take a ride with you sister, I promise you’ll be impressed! 

{ Roberto turns away smiling, leaving the sisters standing alone together. They share an awkward silence before Hannah holds out an arm, directing Jessica away from the pen as our scene gradually fades to black. } 

Oh boy, so here we are guys. Finally Ana Jones and Jessica Reed are going to face off inside the squared circle to determine once and for all who the better woman is…

Wait… haven’t we heard this before? Like the two whole other times Ana was granted her biggest wish in the whole wide world and she decided that instead of fighting she’d rather turn the matches into a no contest opportunity to jump me from behind?

Way to go girl.

Geez, if I didn’t know any better I’d say that Ana just wants to keep leeching off my legacy to stay relevant. It’s almost as if she wants to keep complaining that I won’t face her down because I’m a coward and Roberto is a big evil incompetent boss whilst simultaneously ensuring that any contest we have descends into a farce.

But I’m just an air-headed bimbo who has the audacity to have grown a pair of boobs during puberty.

Like seriously guys, they’re just sacks of fat, we all have them!

Sooo… what’s actually going to be different this time Ana? I mean I get that you really don’t care about the Berto/Alex sideshow, but is that going to be your next excuse as to why we can’t finally settle this in the ring where it deserves? Maybe you’ll have left the oven on? Perhaps you’ll have forgotten to take the dog for a walk.

Who knows, and frankly, who really cares.

Hey, don’t give me that look! It’s hard to stay motivated about a match with Ana considering the last two “matches” we had.

Everybody has been desperately asking me to respond to you, for months in fact, as you continue to run my name and reputation through the mud, but really why should I? You’ve got whatever bitter reason to hate me buried deep down inside you; perhaps it’s because despite equalling my accomplishments nobody respects you, maybe it’s the fact that people would rather I came back full time or could it just be as simple as the fact that people just like me more?

The reason doesn’t really matter, all that matters is that every time I’ve given you the opportunity to kick my booty all around the ring like you’ve promised, you’ve been content to just jump me from behind like a crazed fanboy at a convention.

And boy have I had enough of those already.

I mean quite honestly, I just don’t know what really expect from me. You, and for that matter Amber lately, seem to be obsessed with telling everyone just how superior you are and week after week you keep acting like Bertie hasn’t given you everything you’ve asked for yet every darned time I step in a ring with you, you find some way to weasel out of things.

We are just locked in this endless cycle of you demand a fight, you get one, then you find a way to make sure we can’t have one.

Make up your mind girl!

People tell me I am indecisive when I can’t choose between pepperoni or ham and pineapple but you make me look like an absolute pro. You want to fight, you don’t want to fight, you want to fight… can we please just get on with this? As much as it’s great people still care about me so much, this is getting a little…

You know.

Stalkerish.

Which I assume isn’t really the legacy you want to leave? Then again, you’ve always been pretty obsessed with just trying to prove some sort of point which honestly isn’t really clear any more chika. We couldn’t be any more different if we tried.

And boy do I try to not be like somebody with literally no positive character traits whatsoever.

No, seriously. I tried to make a list. I even asked other girls in the locker room.

Bizarrely… you’re not well loved.

You see unlike you Ana, I’ve actually contributed something to the Diamond’s division. Whilst you’ve been strutting around here all entitled acting like you both own the place and are an oppressed little snowflake, I’ve been busting my tushy, off camera, for no plaudits, to help train the next generation of female wrestlers.

Week after week I’ve travelled the country whilst the rest of you have enjoyed the limelight, just running the ropes before the fans even enter the arena. When my reign ended and I recovered from my injuries, I didn’t shove my way through the pack demanding to be appreciated, I knuckled down, let you girls do your thing and actually contributed to the future of the industry.

All without blowing my own horn.

Funny how you can make something about other people and not just yourself, huh?

I’m not a professional wrestler to boast about how amazing I am, I’m in the business to make a genuine difference. I know you want to think that underneath this bubbly exterior there is some deep dark evil part of me just waiting to be exposed to the world but my heart is, and always will be, in the right place.

Why are you here Ana? To prove that you’re the best? To prove everybody wrong? To show the world that there’s more depth to you than a puddle? Well guess what, you can do all of that without being such a miserable so and so.

Seriously, try smiling once in a while.

It will never matter how much you set out to hurt me, or how much you want to make everyone think less of me and everything I have done. My accomplishments speak for themselves, I don’t need to keep reminding everybody of just how gosh darned special I am like you do, maybe one of us needs a little more validation to feel like they’re really appreciated?

Do I wish I had competed more often since I recovered? You bet your life I do, but I have the grace to accept that the time for me to re-enter this company full time isn’t now, the Diamond’s division doesn’t need me to come along and soak up all the glory based on my past when there’s so many girls trying to establish themselves in the tournament that made me who I am.

I’m not selfish enough to place myself over the whole division.

This business is bigger than you, and it is bigger than me. You may not like to hear that, heck I bet you probably disagree with me, but that’s the truth. I have no doubts that a legit Ana Jones v Jessica Reed match is great for business, but we should be using this chance to show the world the very best of women’s wrestling.

Instead you’re desperate to keep showing it’s worst side. The arrogance, the ego and the tribalism.

So keep slandering me, keep on knocking me down and stomping those boots all over everything I helped build when this division wasn’t even a year old. I will be there this Sunday, Ana. The question we are all asking ourselves is which Ana Jones is going to turn up?

Will it be the hyper talented bad ass who can hang with anybody inside those ropes and has absolutely no fear or will it be the self-important bitter selfish and jealous woman who’d rather do her talking with a microphone in her hand ranting about respect?

I hold out hope that maybe, just maybe, I will finally get the chance to face the first one.

Could it be third time lucky?

Or will history simply repeat itself?

{ Our scene re-opens outside a large imposing concrete paddock. Sparks fly as worker frantically begin to attach new steel beams and concrete slabs begin to be lowered into them by large construction units. Hannah begins to march up a small flight of stairs as Jess follows her, look anxiously over her shoulder before her sister swipes a card through a electronic reader and the pair enter what appears to be a control room. Inside large thick planes of glass look out of a jungle enclosure and a security guard sits quietly at a desk surrounded by a number of monitors. } 

Hannah Reed: Welcome to our latest attraction. 

{ Jessica turns to look at her sister. } 

Jessica Reed: Nobody notified me you were building a new enclosure. 

Hannah Reed: You’re just an employee, why would they? 

Jessica Reed: So what did you guys cook up this time? Oh, please tell me you made a Carnotaurus those guys are so bad ass! 

Hannah Reed: You really shouldn’t get so excited about this when you work with these things every day. 

Jessica Reed: Well geez, way to kill the buzz. So what exactly did you make? 

Hannah Reed: A hybrid. 

Jessica Reed: Like a Toyota? 

Hannah Reed: What? No, like a mixture of different animals. 

Jessica Reed: You just went and made a new wrestler? 

Hannah Reed: Wrestler? 

{ Jess looks shiftily from side to side. } 

Jessica Reed: I mean… you just went and made a new dinosaur? Sure, that’s a great idea. What could possibly ever go wrong. I mean it’s not like making featherless dinosaurs worked out terribly for everybody concerned the first time. 

Hannah Reed: I sense a lack of faith on your part. 

Jessica Reed: I sense a lack of common sense on yours. 

{ Hannah sighs. } 

Hannah Reed: People have gotten bored of dinosaurs, they’ve seen them all now. Our investors needed something new, something frightening. Something with more teeth. The Anadominus Rex will keep us all in our jobs. 

{ Jess sniggers. } 

Jessica Reed: The Anadominus Rex? 

Hannah Reed: Laugh all you want, but have you seen a ten year old attempt to recollect what surname Ana may be using this month? 

Jessica Reed: Touché. 

Hannah Reed: I need you to make sure this enclosure is big enough to contain the dinosaurs ego. Mr Verona doesn’t want it getting out of containment, the asset is too valuable for that. 

Jessica Reed: Asset? You realise these things are living breathing creatures right? They’re not just number of a spreadsheet for you too book in random scenarios on a weekly basis with seemingly no semblance of common sense attached to them.  

{ Hannah sighs. } 

Hannah Reed: Look, will you just do this for me? 

Jessica Reed: I don’t know, last time I got inside one of these things full time things didn’t end well. 

Hannah Reed: I really need you on this one, besides your raptor training is going really well I heard. They actually seem to listen to you down there. 

{ Jessica pauses, mulling over her options before closing her eyes and sighing. } 

Jessica Reed: I’ll look into it… but, I have a bad feeling about this. 

Hannah Reed: Oh relax sis, what could possibly go wrong? 

{ Hannah smiles before walking off slowly to the corner, lifting her mobile phone to her skull again as Jess looks at the security guard, both shaking their heads sympathetically. Walking close to the glass Jess peers in, gazing at the faux-jungle before her but despite watching for several moments she can’t seem to detect any movement. Puzzled, she turns to the guard. } 

Jessica Reed: Is it normal to see literally nothing? 

Security Guard: She’s usually quite loud and we can rarely get her to shut up. Let me to a heat signature, the hot air from one of her rants should be detected. 

{ The guard begins to punch away at his keyboard, looking at is monitors which scan the paddock. The ominous words “not heat signature detected” begin to flash across them as he looks back at Jessica with concern. Jess steps away and turns her head, catching something in the corner of her eye. Deep claw marks appear to be gashed down one of the perimeter walls. Jess turns to her sister, a nervous hesitance in her voice. } 

Jessica Reed: Hey… Hannah. Were those claw marks there before? 

{ Hannah scowls and looks up at her sister, clearly annoyed she has interrupted her business call. } 

Hannah Reed: What? 

{ Jessica points at the marks as Hannah marches defiantely towards her, her anger quickly washing away as her eyes affix to the gouges. Hannah’s eyes open wide as her breathing become more rapid. She swallows hard before raising the phone back to her ear. } 

Hannah Reed: Get me control room… 

{ Jessica and Hannah share a worried gaze. } 

Hannah Reed: We have an asset out of containment.