The Real Z

Showtime

Riding to school with Mom, Z sits hunched over her notebook, scribbling and tearing up page after page as she tries to decide what CloudSong footage to build her movie around: clips from her neighborhood, Kite Hill, paddleboarding on Lake Union, the ice cream shop, or the footage from the Beanery. Mom’s advice to “start with one scene you love” isn’t helping. Z feels like her vision got washed out right along with the rained-out shoot. By the time the car reaches school, she still hasn’t figured it out, and she spots Lauren pacing anxiously by the entrance.

Lauren admits she panicked when Z didn’t text back and wasn’t on the bus, worried something was wrong. Z apologizes, explaining she’d been trying to trim CloudSong footage that morning and forgot to turn her phone back on. Lauren, backpack loaded with a neon-yellow soccer ball, says she just wishes they could have met up over the weekend to rehearse their presentation again, a dig Z feels guilty about, since she really did leave Lauren hanging while she was off filming and hiking. Z promises their gold rush video will be the best thing Mr. Kozak has ever seen and checks three times that she’s got the flash drive. To calm Lauren’s nerves, she runs through their private routine, tongue out, eyes rolled, a goofy shimmy, until Lauren finally laughs and jokes Mr. Kozak might grade them an “E,” for “Emmy-worthy.”

In social studies, Z hands her flash drive to Mr. Kozak, who calls her and Lauren up first to show their video on the California gold rush, announcing to the class that they tried something different: a video instead of a spoken report. Andrew flashes Z a thumbs-up as she and Lauren take their spots at the SMART Board. Lauren’s black-and-white, silent-movie-style opening plays fine, but the next clip isn’t their Kit-doll-and-papier-mâché-mountain footage at all. It’s Mari’s band, Needles in a Haystack, counting off their “Singin’ in the Rain” cover at the Beanery. Panicking, Z darts back to the computer, clicks another likely file, and accidentally plays a clip of her dog, Popcorn, chasing a squeaky popcorn-box toy around her bedroom. The class cracks up. Z’s cheeks burn and Lauren’s eyes fill with tears. Z stammers an apology to Mr. Kozak, guessing she grabbed the wrong flash drive that morning, while he jots something in his notebook. He lets them off the hook for today but can’t bump the students already scheduled for Wednesday. Z and Lauren will have to wait until Friday.

Lauren won’t meet Z’s eyes for the rest of class, and Z barely registers Maddie’s group presenting on the Brooklyn Bridge, too consumed with worry that she’d somehow deleted their real video.

At the lockers afterward, Lauren finally lets loose. She needs a good grade after bombing their last test, and it doesn’t feel like Z cares about anything besides the CloudSong Film Festival. Stung, Z offers to come find the missing file together after school and work in Mari’s song, but Lauren refuses. She has soccer plans, and points out Z already edited most of the movie without her, then slams her locker shut and walks off.

Scootering home, Z vents to Mari, who asks pointedly whether Z has actually told Lauren she’s sorry. Z realizes she isn’t sure she ever has. Defending herself, Z says the festival matters because winning would mean a new camera for Camera Club, since theirs broke during filming. But when she calls the “Singin’ in the Rain” arrangement Mari’s band recorded for her just a “silly song” that isn’t coming together with her other scattered clips, Mari bristles, since she’d thought Z loved it, and says maybe Lauren’s right that CloudSong is all Z cares about now. Z apologizes, but they finish the ride home in silence. When Dad calls out from the yard about their plan to test his drone at the Locks that evening and offers fresh muffins, Mari coldly says she has to get home and scoots off without a goodbye, the second friend Z has watched storm away from her that day.