A teenage girl’s campaign to be school captain descends into a murderous rampage, when her boyfriend threatens to expose her worst secret online. 

SYNOPSIS:

Madeleine Westbrooke, an aspiring Instagram ‘influencer', was once the most popular girl at Melbourne’s elite Eaton Grammar. Madeleine is desperate to be chosen as Eaton’s next female school captain, following in the footsteps of her sister, a Hollywood actress, and her mother, a morning news anchor. Emotionally neglectful yet perversely image-conscious, Madeleine’s mother constantly pressures her to reach an extreme level of fame and success.

More importantly, Madeleine needs to reclaim her popularity from her best friend and fiercest rival, Annabelle. Once Madeleine’s ‘DUFF,’ (designated ugly fat friend), Annabelle is now a gorgeous ‘fit-spiration’ influencer, whose recent weight loss has seen her popularity surge, both online and at school, greatly surpassing Madeleine’s.

Becoming school captain is the only way for Madeleine to impress her mother, regain her social media following and resolve her insatiable, lifelong inferiority complex. Shockingly, Eaton’s principal announces that this year, rather than personally selecting the school captains, she is letting the students vote. Although Madeleine is relieved when she’s announced as a female candidate, she’s horrified when Annabelle is too.

Worse still, Madeleine’s emotionally abusive boyfriend Jack, Eaton’s tyrannical football captain, reads her texts and discovers she’s cheating on him with his best friend, Tom. Madeleine believes that Tom is the only person who truly loves her, but feels trapped in her relationship with Jack for the sake of social status. Furious at her betrayal, Jack physically assaults Madeleine and threatens to post screenshots of the texts on social media, ruining her reputation and chances of being captain. To keep the affair secret and ensure her image remains untarnished, Madeleine concocts a violent plan:

With an unwitting Tom’s help, she runs Jack over with a car. But rather than killing him, she only puts him in a coma, with the doctors uncertain whether he will wake up. Her situation is further jeopardized when Matthew, an unpopular classmate and a candidate for the male captaincy, reveals he has footage of Madeleine’s hit and run. He plans to post it online unless she helps him win the vote as his running mate. Madeleine must now try to increase Matthew’s popularity on social media and at school, threatening her own social status…

Or begin plotting a more effective way to murder him too.

(Awarded the 2019 Master's of Screenwriting, Outstanding Achievement in Screenwriting by Melbourne University)