Lulu in Honolulu (7 page)

The girls pin them in their hair. The boys stick them onto their shirts.

LULU

I cut them from plants around my house this morning. You always say it's your favorite flower.

Lulu holds out a hibiscus to Auntie Moana. She leans down for Lulu to pin it in her hair, and while she does, Auntie's rough hand smooths Lulu's wild hair.

EXT. 'IOLANI PALACE, STAGE—CONTINUOUS

The cluster of Ohana Camp kids tries to make lines on the stage. Caridyn, her
pahu
drum pressed against her right hip, directs kids who scamper from one place to another. Lulu bumps into other campers. She's scanning the audience.

LULU

(stage whisper to Noelani)

I can't believe my mom and dad didn't come.

Noelani doesn't hear. She scoots into the back left corner leaving Lulu alone in front of the audience.

LULU

(loud)

Noelani! What are ya doing?

THWACK, TAP, THWACK, TAP. The drum begins. All the kids stand with their heels together but miss the starting cue. Caridyn bangs out the introduction again and again. Everyone stands motionless until the fourth time, when Kapono actually moves with a right tap.

LULU

(talks to herself out loud)

One, two, three, tap. One, two, three, tap.

Without anyone to follow in front of her, Lulu goes left when she should go right and right when she should go left. Liam and Maleko burst into a spell of giggles, lose their place in the dance, and just shuffle from side to side. Not even Kenna and Kapono are coordinated with each other. Noelani performs with smooth swaying, perfect rhythm, and graceful arm motions, but with the clonking, bonking kids in front of and around her, no one sees her.

Every moment she can look up without falling on her face, Lulu scans the crowd.

THWACK, TAP. TAP, THWACK. The drum continues in perfect rhythm, even as the kids trip and bump into each other. And then…Lulu spots them!

CAMERA FOLLOWS—Fiona, in her high wedge shoes as she jogs toward the stage. She holds a black-and-white clapper. Linc, dark, aviator sunglasses; tousled, blond-streaked hair; baggy jeans; and a vintage, faded T-shirt that says “The ENGLISH BEAT” runs through the middle of the audience and onto the stage.

CAMERA ZOOMS ON ALEXIS, under a straw cowboy hat encircled by a leather-and-silver braided cord. She sits herself front and center, sets her iPhone to “Record,” and points toward the stage.

Fiona now stands on the stage in front of Linc and the dancers. She snaps down the clapper.

FIONA

(loud, firm voice)

HILARIOUS HULA! Take One!

With a nod toward Caridyn, Fiona gets the music going again. This time, Linc Harrison performs the
hukilau
in the most exaggerated, hammed-up way ever seen on the grounds of the Royal Palace!

Linc sways his hips in a smooth rhythm. He's athletic and cool but performs playfully. His shoulders, arms, and hands bend and flow. A giant, handsome smile lights up his face below his sunglasses. Without missing a beat, he plucks the hibiscus from Lulu's hair and chomps it in his teeth, like a flamenco dancer. He sways his way to Maleko and Liam and knocks his hips in each of their directions so they bang into him. Linc spins over to the twins and twirls Kenna first and then Kapono.

The audience's laughing and clapping are so thunderous, coconuts in the nearby trees quiver.

Linc sashays over to Caridyn and square dances around her. There's no question why Linc Harrison is a movie star. The audience can't get enough of him. He thrives on the audience's cheers.

CAMERA CUTS TO ALEXIS. She's filming but catches Khloe and the Cs sitting stiffly behind her. While keeping her iPhone forward, Alexis glances over her shoulder and flashes them a smile and a thumbs-up.

ALEXIS

(under her breath)

Don't mess with a big girl, girls.

Caridyn bangs out a jazzy, swift, improvised tune to finish up. Linc puts his arm around Lulu's waist and does a little can-can.

The drumming stops and before the last THWACK floats away on the warm air, the audience goes wild. Fiona glides back to the center of the stage and smacks down the clapper.

FIONA

That's a print!

Ohana kids mob Linc. They whoop and high-five. Linc flashes them each a picture-perfect smile. He slaps the boys on the back and hugs the girls.

Lulu leaps from the stage and runs toward Alexis.

LULU

Lex! You got them here.

ALEXIS

An hour away from the set on a Saturday, no big deal. I knew I could pull it off.

LULU

(putting out her hand to high-five her sister)

Here's to Sister Power!

ALEXIS

(slapping Lulu's outstretched palm)

Here's to Payback.

INT. 'IOLANI PALACE, GRAND STAIRCASE—THIRTY MINUTES LATER

Knowing about a small side door, Liam and Maleko sneak the Ohana kids into the grand, four-story palace. Inside, it's quiet and cool. Fearing being caught, the kids scamper up the wide, wood staircase. At the top floor, they flop down, laughing and talking at once.

KENNA

Wow, Lulu! I'd never met a real actor before.

KAPONO

Neither have I.

The twins look at each other and crack up.

MALEKO

Guess who actually won the hula-off?

With his hands, Maleko drums a
ta-da
drum roll on the wood banister.

ALL KIDS TOGETHER

Island School of Hula.

All laugh.

LIAM

Who would want to be as boring as them?!

Noelani huddles by herself on a stair. She turns her body into a tight ball by hugging her legs to her chest. Lulu smooshes in next to her friend.

LULU

(to all the kids)

I've found where all of Hawaii's koa trees went. (Waves her hands over the stairs.) Look at this staircase! How many do ya think they had to chop down to make this?

Liam gives a here-she-goes-again look to Maleko.

LIAM

We perform the greatest hula in history, and you want to talk about dead trees?!

MALEKO

Our
Hilarious Hula
already has more than five hundred YouTube hits. And it's only been up for, like, twenty minutes!

LULU

Well, my sister doesn't waste time getting anything out into the cyber world.

Ohana kids huddle around Maleko's iPhone screen and watch their now-famous performance. Noelani, however, remains on her stair, squeezing her knees and staring at her toes.

NOELANI

(softly to Lulu)

It's my fault.

LULU

(joking)

What's your fault? Chopping down a zillion endangered trees to build this grand staircase?

NOELANI

Everything. I told you I wasn't brave. I just couldn't dance up front.

LULU

(talking softly to her friend)

Don't worry about it, Noe. Geez peas! No one's bummed. Ohana Camp put on a great hula show!

Noelani hides her face in her folded knees. Lulu rests her hand on her pal's shoulder.

Lulu watches Noelani's tears run down her leg. The drips slide from her eyes, stream down her face, over her knees, and continue slipping down to her ankles.

LULU

You're turning into a waterfall.

NOELANI

(into her knee caps)

My mom is so brave. She's a Marine, training people on an aircraft carrier. And me? Today I hid in back like a total chicken!

LULU

No one thinks that except you.

The Ohana kids wander around the palace. Lulu and Noelani listen to their friends chuckling and chatting as they explore.

LULU

I know you're really brave. It's just today wasn't your brave day.

Lulu reaches into her I USED TO BE A PLASTIC BOTTLE bag and yanks out a green, heart-shaped
li
hing
mui
lollipop. Lulu unwraps and starts licking.

NOELANI

You're not supposed to eat in the palace.

Lulu offers Noelani a lick.

NOELANI

Lulu, you're the Ohana Camp hero today. You saved us from total embarrassment and bitter defeat.

LULU

Not me. It was my whole family. They came through because that's what families do—they support each other.

HAWAII
FIVE-0
MUSIC RINGTONE comes from Lulu's bag. She reaches inside and withdraws an iPhone in a SAVE THE EARTH case.

LULU

(into the phone)

Hi, Lex. (pause) I thought you left with Mom and Dad? (pause) OK, I'm coming right now.

Lulu hangs up, then stares right into her friend's deep eyes.

LULU

(speaks really fast)

Noe, this is my best and first family summer ever. And guess what? This summer you're gonna be a member of the Harrison Ohana.

NOELANI

What do you mean?

LULU

I'm going to figure out another chance for you to hula. That's what families do. Help each other.

NOELANI

I'm petrified even thinking about standing in front of people.

Lulu clomps down the grand koa wood staircase.

LULU

(voice echoes as she hollers up to Noelani)

That'll be our summer goal! Get you brave enough to hula and show this island who's really the best!

Lulu darts out the palace's side door.

CUT!! Don't you think things happen in crazy ways? This hula-off is a perfect example of how life can be nutty, but good things happen if you pull together with your sister and BEG your parents to do something—like leave work to help you not die of embarrassment dancing hula. And, because I have this amazing family acting as, well, a family this summer, I'm sure they won't mind helping me get Noelani through her stage fright. As usual, I've got an idea but no plan, so I better get back to: ACTION!!

EXT. DIAMOND HEAD HAWAII FILM STUDIO—HALF HOUR LATER

Tall metal gates swing open. Maya drives a white Prius through the main studio entrance as a guard in the booth waves her through.

WIDE SHOT OF Maya's car as it slowly drives through the studio, past the makeup trailer and prop house. It pulls up next to Alexis's black Volkswagen Bug parked in front of a tiny house called a bungalow. Lulu leaps from the car. Alexis pauses and reapplies coral-colored lip shimmer and strokes a Mason Pearson brush through her long hair.

INT. PRODUCTION OFFICE BUNGALOW—CONTINUOUS

The small bungalow is filled with schedules, scripts, clipboards, and frantic PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS. Every type of power charger known to man or woman is plugged in around the small space. Smartphones, iPads, laptops, walkie-talkies, wireless headsets—any communication tool that needs power, there's a cord for it. MAXWELL, an eighteen-year-old guy with curly blond hair and khaki shorts, shouts his crisp British accent into a phone.

MAXWELL

Finish the auditions ASAP. Fiona wants all those extras on the set in two days!

Maxwell notices the sisters. He smiles and gives a thumbs-up to Lulu and a wink to Alexis.

Maxwell hangs up and turns his full attention to Alexis and Lulu.

MAXWELL

(kind, warm voice)

Sorry. That was the casting director.

LULU

Aloha
, Maxwell. Where're my parents? I gotta tell them how great it was that they came to my hula-off. They made it so fun, and my friends loved it.

ALEXIS

(light, flirty, smiling)

But they went tearing out of the hula thing and stranded me there.

MAXWELL

And that would be because after Linc and Fiona went zipping off with you, Alexis, the head of the studio, Mr. Sanyo, happened to pop by and visit the set.

LULU

He DID??!

MAXWELL

He jolly did. He wanted to have a chat with the director about cutting costs on the movie.

ALEXIS

Fiona isn't good at doing anything on the cheap.

MAXWELL

Well, she better start, and while she's at it, she better hurry up and finish production.