The Real Z

“The Horrible Homework Hacker”

Z and Lauren are deep into filming their stop-motion short, “The Horrible Homework Hacker,” based on Lauren’s script about two friends whose homework keeps mysteriously vanishing whenever they step away from their desks. Lauren shouts from off camera, in her best character-in-peril voice, that the Hacker has struck again. She’s pulling double duty as screenwriter and prop master, building a laptop out of a book wrapped in aluminum foil with a poster-board keyboard, while Mari has dressed their two American Girl doll stars in jeans and tees, finishing one look off with a beret. Z’s lights and backdrop are set up right on her bedroom floor, and even her dog, Popcorn, is behaving herself for once.

It’s been two weeks since Z submitted her documentary to CloudSong, and she tells herself she isn’t thinking about the results email, not really, only a little. Filming is a good distraction. The girls work through the storyboard scene by scene. Lauren voices her character’s worry that their teacher, Mr. Kozak, will never believe their homework has been stolen three separate times, and Mari’s character suggests they leave a decoy assignment and a flash drive out to lure the thief back. For the actual “Hacker,” they’d planned to use a huge teddy bear Lauren won at a carnival basketball game, but it’s too big to frame in the shot, so they let the recorded voice-over keep playing while they figure out the problem. Mari’s character states she and Lauren’s character are stepping out for food, leaving their homework unguarded, and Z growls out her best villain line as the hacker, vowing to eat more homework.

Mid-take, Popcorn crashes onto the set for real, tangled up in Mari’s knit wrap and unable to shake it off, toppling the dolls and their little desk. The three girls burst out laughing, and Z jokes that they’ve found their real Homework Hacker: it’s Popcorn. Lauren, only half-joking, wonders aloud if the dog could actually work as the villain instead of the stuffed bear.

Before they can test the idea, an email alert chimes, Needles in a Haystack’s version of “Singin’ in the Rain” that Mari set as her notification sound. It’s from CloudSong. Panicking, Z can’t bring herself to look, picturing a polite rejection waiting in the subject line. Lauren and Mari beg her to open it, but Z pulls her purple beanie down over her eyes instead, reminding herself of what her parents would say no matter what happens, and asks Mari to read it for her. Mari gets only as far as the subject line, a “CloudSong Seattle Film Festival Young Filmmakers’ Contest Update,” before Z, suddenly unable to stand not knowing, grabs the message back and reads it herself. She’s won second place. Her documentary screens at the film festival in a few weeks.

The celebration brings Mom and Dad running upstairs, drawn by the screaming and Popcorn’s barking. The news earns Z big hugs, even though Mari mourns the missing prize money. Z insists she’s too excited to care. First place went to a boy whose film explored Seattle’s underground tunnels. She’s just glad Camera Club will keep making videos, even without a fancy camera. Lauren and Dad both insist second place is still huge.

Lauren texts Becka and Gigi to join the chat, and replies fly back fast. Gigi wants to know what the festival said. Becka jokes about needing to beg their parents to let them fly in for the premiere. When Z shares her news, Gigi cheers, and Becka chants “Team Z!”

Mom credits Z’s persistence in finally finding her story, and Dad already has an idea for her next documentary subject: him, “the coolest dad on the planet.” Z laughs it off, already imagining the million stories still waiting to be told.