Golden Gate Comic Con, Chapter 7: Pages 13-14
PAGE 13
PANEL 1-3: A three-part set of panels that focuses on the same setting and layout as the last panel of the previous page. In Panel 1 and Panel 2, the pain and anxiety has hit its peak for Adam; the thought bubble of discordant whole notes representing the chaos in his brain. In Panel 3, a few moments later, he opens his eyes and quickly looks for some type of escape from the smell. The connecting through line of each panel, outside of the thought bubble with shattered and skewered musical notes, is the sound of multiple clicks off-panel emanating from his Leonardo figure.
ADAM [to himself, Panel 1]: Gotta find a safe zone... ADAM [Cont. to himself, Panel 2]: Gotta find a safe zone... ADAM [Cont. to himself, Panel 3]: Gotta find a...!
PANEL 4: Action shot of Mr. de Connick dashing off in a hurry toward a particular location off-panel, moving past someone wearing an America Chavez T-shirt and jeans as well as someone in a light red Flash T-shirt; the action figure that was hinted at at the top of the page in full view now in his left hand.
INT. BATHROOM STALL- Minutes Later
PANEL 5: Cut to a shot of the young man a few minutes later seemingly heading into what appears to be a bathroom stall; the musical notes in thought bubble, for the first time, are a little more orderly than was the case before. He's sat down on the toilet, and can be seen trying to reach into the pocket of his costume pants in search of a comm seemingly. You can see the black and dark blue colored tiles littered on the walls behind him in the background.
ADAM [panicky singing, to himself]: Here another...Saturday night And I...ain't got...nobody...
INT. BATHROOM STALL, HIGH SCHOOL- 2003
PANEL 6: We move to a similarly framed shot of a 15 year old Adam sitting on the toilet, in a similar state of panic repeatedly tapping on the Leonardo action figure. You can see his sliding cell phone resting on his lap, perfectly balanced (or at least somewhat close to it). As for the stall itself, it has a similar tile scheme but with a primarily gray color scheme.
ADAM [Cont. panicky singing, to himself]: I got some...money but I...just..got paid Now, how I wish...I had...someone to...talk to... I'm in an-- SOUND EFFECT [from the phone]: DING DING!
PAGE 14
PANEL 1: A few moments later, we see him holding the phone in his free right hand to glance at the message on his phone; the action figure resting on the other side of his lap, though still in hand. The background of the panel behind him is the same to what we saw at the end of the previous page.
JANICE [green text bubble, up from the phone's screen]: Richie told me about what happened in Biology class. You okay? You need me to come pick you up?
PANEL 2: Same setting/layout as the previous panel. A few minutes later, the young man types up his response (which shows up in another green text bubble underneath the one from Panel 1. For the first time in the page, we see Adam start to dial down the anxiety and return to a state of (for him) normalcy.
ADAM [green text bubble, below Janice's text]: Not now. But my next class is Journalism and I don't wanna miss it--after that class though?
PANEL 3: Same setting/layout as the previous panel. Moments later, after receiving his mother's response, he glances up from the phone screen for the first time this page with a bit of a smile on his face. Off-panel, as this goes on, is the sound of the school bell ringing the five minute "Get to Class" warning.
JANICE [green text bubble, below Adam's text from Panel 2]: Sure, honey. There's an early birthday gift for you waiting at home that should help cheer you up.
ADAM [thought bubble]: Hmm, early birthday gift? Wonder what that might be...
EXT. HIGH SCHOOL- Later
PANEL 4: Cut to an action shot of the teenaged boy stepping out of the double doors, backpack slung over his shoulders; the mid-Fall sun hitting his face. You can see a grouping of other kids his age heading out of the same double doors as Mr. de Connick.
PANEL 5: We move a few minutes later to the school parking lot. You can see Janice's modest looking purple Saturn pull into view of the panel moving from right to left, just as Adam approaches the edge of the sidewalk waving upon noticing the familiar car.
PANEL 6: Cut to a shot of the passenger side window going down after the car has firmly been put into park. From inside, we see Janice in the driver's side, glancing over in her son's direction with a caring motherly smile.
JANICE [to Adam]: Hey honey...How are you feeling?