FADE IN:
1 EXT. TUNNEL - NIGHT 1
The titles begin over black. We hear the sound of an old typewriter. Someone reaching out to us. The bell dings, announcing the end of a line, and we see our title...
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
Music begins, picture fades up, and we are in the city.
Downtown Pittsburgh. Looking out of the back window like a child in the back of a station wagon.
We see lights on buildings and everything that makes us wonder. We see the bridge. And the river below. And then we enter...
The Tunnel.
We keep moving backwards, watching the lights. Golden, alive, and hypnotic. The music carries us as we float out of the tunnel. Onto another bridge. And over the highway.
We move into the night sky, back through the trees, through a window, and into...
2 INT. CHARLIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT 2
It is a neat and tidy little room. Few posters or books.
CHARLIE is 15. He is innocent, hopeful, awkward, and likable to everyone but his classmates. He sits at his desk, writing a letter in pencil as he tapes the title song through the radio on his cassette boom box.
CHARLIE (V.O.)
Dear Friend, I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have.
Please don't try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I don't want you to do that. I just need to know that people like you exist. Like if you met me, you wouldn't think I was the weird kid who spent time in the hospital. And I wouldn't make you nervous. 3 INT. CHARLIE'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER 3
Charlie anxiously walks through the hallway of his suburban split level house.
CHARLIE (V.O.)
I hope it's okay for me to think that.
You see, I haven't really talked to anyone outside of my family all summer.
Charlie moves to the living room where dad watches a football