Call an EL function with a Scriptlet variable

I seem to be having a weird issue where I can not pass a Scriptlet variable to an EL function call. It will all run properly but it sends a null value instead of what I set in the jsp... I feel like I am missing something very basic here.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>


<%@ Sudo / All other tag's required.... %>
<%@ taglib prefix="fn_" uri="/WEB-INF/tags.tld" %>

    <script>
    
<%  LinkedList<MyBean> mb = (LinkedList<MyBean>)request.getAttribute("mBean"); %>
<%  String f="first"; %>
    </script>

</head>

        <td>${fn_:getMyBean(mb,f)}</td>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<taglib
    xsi:schemaLocation= "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee web-jsptaglibrary_2_1.xsd" 
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    version="2.1">
     
     <tlib-version>1.1.2</tlib-version>
     <uri>http://some.thing/mine</uri>
     
     <function>
     <name>getMyBean</name>
     <function-class>com.glass.MyBean</function-class>
     <function-signature>java.lang.String getMyBean(java.util.List, java.lang.String)</function-signature>
     
     </function>
     
     
</taglib>

package com.glass;

import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;

public class MyBean{

    
    public static String getMyBean( List<MyBean>cb, String st) {
        return "Hit! "+ st;
    }

The output will give this:

Hit!

And does not return the string value. When I run the debugger I can see that the string value is null. I also tested below if I just try to get the String value like : <%=f%> It does properly show me the value.

How do I properly use a String value in a EL Function call?

Solution

Set the value of f as follows:

<c:set var="f" scope="request" value="first"/>

and then use it as follows:

${fn_:getMyBean(mb,f)}