It's Yr Life
Page 11
I ran upstairs with the camera and Dad was hitting Mom again. So I filmed it. I didn’t stop him. I filmed it. And then I yelled. ‘What’s the world going to think about your latest film production, Dad?’ He saw the camera and almost fainted. It was like he didn’t even know he was hitting her until reality set in that I might show the video to people. He ran for me, screaming, but I was faster and I ran out of the house all the way to Hailey’s place in the next neighborhood. He doesn’t know where to find me ’cause he never asks who my friends are or where they live. Mom looked even more upset that I’d filmed them than Dad did.
I’m thinking about sending the tape to Entertainment Tonight or TMZ (celeb gossip website and TV show), and they’ll release it to the world. That way it will become real and Mom and Dad will have to start dealing with it and I won’t have to feel guilty for letting it happen anymore. Or I could send it to the cops. America’s Funniest Home Videos?… Kidding.
I AM SO MAD, SIM. I AM SO MAD I FEEL LIKE I COULD DO ANYTHING. EVER GET THAT FEELING?
WHO’S THE ASSHOLE WHO KEEPS LOOKING IN MY WINDOW? MAYBE YOU’RE RIGHT. MAYBE INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON MYSELF I SHOULD FOCUS ON MY ART. THE ART OF VIDEO. I’M GOING BACK TO THE HOUSE.
Milla xx
* * *
From: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
To: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
Subject:?
* * *
have u flipped? yr going back? u really r turning in2 me. don’t be an idiot.
r u even serious? yr not just tryin 2 get me back?
if u want me 2 be there 4 u then cut the crazy crap. repeat after me: ‘i am not paris hilton’. go on. say it. ‘i am not paris hilton.’
call me … +61 2 666806543
sim
* * *
From: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
To: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
Subject: in hospital
* * *
Hey. You were right. I shouldn’t have gone back to the house. I’m in the hospital. I’m using my aunt’s iPhone to email you.
I went back to the house, snuck around the corner and saw someone near my window. I started filming but I couldn’t see who it was. I was so mad that I ran screaming at them. I ran as fast as I could and rammed into them … and then I started hitting them. With all my might. I punched and I punched and I punched. They started punching back. I guess I got knocked unconscious, ’cause now I’m in hospital.
Cops want to know if it was my dad. They think it was, ’cause they saw the cut on Mom’s face when they questioned them. I’m tired.
Gotta go to sleep.
Milla
* * *
From: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
To: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
Subject:!
* * *
is yr face ok?
r u just f*#&in with me? if this is payback for the ‘mrs johnston’ thing then u got me but if it’s not … do u know that guns r legal in yr country? what if it wasn’t yr dad and this guy had filled u full of lead? did u used 2 do this kinda thing b4 u started e’ing me or have i turned u in2 a freak? u seemed normal. apart from the hollywood weirdness.
whaddya do now? u can’t go back + live there. what if the guy comes back? and now yr dad’s gonna base a tv show on yr ass n there r gonna be stoopid kids all over the planet gettin thr asses kicked by would-be murderers.
i’m half wanting 2 be there 2 help u + the other half of me wants 2 kick yr ass myself.
s.
ps been lots of weird cars out front + people coming 2 the front door + me being asked 2 stay in my room. ‘it’s best if u stay out of it sim’. whatever that means. they’ve scurried lozza away somewhere 2. i saw her leave in a white ford this afternoon with an older guy and woman. raj said sangeeta (the psychologist deepspace e’d the day after we found the fingers) is coming 2nite 2 talk 2 us. all of us. raj looked guilty. i feel like i have a pool of acid sitting halfway between my stomach + my mouth.
pps it wasn’t yr bro working on his family album again, was it?
* * *
From: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
To: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
Subject: feel good
* * *
Mmm, yeah, face is busted up. Looks fake though. Like special FX. The blue bruise looks like Halloween make-up.
Wish I was messing with you but I’m not. Still in hospital and the cops won’t leave. I didn’t feel like talking so I just gave them the tape. They can work out that it was my dad hitting Mom. As for the freak outside the house? None of us are going to figure that one out. Could be Dad, could be bro, could be someone else. (But I’ve got to say that when I ran into him/her, he/she seemed bigger than my bro – he’s a pipsqueak.) Didn’t smell like Dad … you know how your parents have their own smell … oh, sorry. Guess you don’t know that. Well, you know how Raj and Deepspace smell a certain way? The guy did not smell like Dad.
I know you think I’m crazy, but it felt so good not to be scared for once and stand up for myself. It felt sooo goood. I didn’t even care that I got beaten up. It was worth it.
Gotta sleep again … oh, hang on, cops want a ‘chat’. Here we go.
Milla
* * *
From: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
To: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
Subject: leaving
* * *
psychologist chick came 2nite. talked 2 us for ages. me, raj + deepspace. i finally found out everything. i don’t know whether i’m gonna be living here much longer. not the way i feel.
what did the cops say? wish i was there with u.
s.
* * *
From: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
To: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
Subject: hello? answers please
* * *
What? Found out what? Why did you not tell me? As if you’d write an email saying you found out everything and then not fill me in. Are you high? Well, I’ll fill you in on everything ’cause I’m not evil and cruel. Here goes:
Watched tape and even though I couldn’t see the guy when I was filming in the dark (Mom never got the sensor lights put in ’cause Dad convinced her I was making it all up), the camera could. It was Danny! The guy from the dance! The cops made me verify it. They’re going around now to arrest him. What the hell? Was he seeking revenge on me ’cause my dad busted his nose? This is sooo creepy. And here I was thinking he was all into me. All he wanted to do was smash my face in. Great.
BTW … hello? Do we even know whose fingers they are? We can talk forever about who cut ’em off, but I want to know whose they are. Don’t you? And did they get to the cops in time for them to be sewn back on? (Maybe you’ll get a reward for finding the missing fingers and then you can use the money to come see me in Hollywood?)
You’ve been telling me nothing, start spilling the beans, I’m getting mad.
Milla
PS My aunt won’t let Mom or Dad see me and it’s sooo nice not to have to deal with them.
PPS E me back with answers, like a normal friend.
* * *
From: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
To: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
Subject: kidnap
* * *
danny? did i not tell u that guy was wrong? i think i was only saying it so u didn’t go 2 the dance with him cos maybe i wanted 2 or somethin. i dunno. what r they gonna do with him? does he go 2 jail or do u think the fact yr old man assaulted him will let him get off easy? if yr dad hadn’t gone ‘postal’ on that dude’s ass at the dance he never would’ve been stalkin u.
but, remember, u had dudes outside yr window b4 u even met donny. cld that’ve been him? remember the small feet? whose were they?
does danny have
bound feet? does yr bro know what’s goin on or is he still chowin thru the wacky tobackers + keeping pringles in business?
that’s good yr aunt’s looking out 4 u. somebody’s got 2.
u wanna know how the fingers got there? i copied + pasted it from the local paper site. raj took the photos of the dude and helped bust him. that’s why all the weirdness.
* * *
Bizarre Kidnap Plot Goes Awry
Article from: The Byron News
Three fingers discovered in a dumpster by a local teenager have now been returned to their owner.
Forty-five-year-old dotcom billionaire and Wategos Beach resident Ron Satin allegedly paid a group of young men to kidnap him in order to experience abduction.
‘This is not an isolated event,’ said Detective Darren Steed from Byron Bay police. ‘This so-called kidnapping service, based on the Gold Coast, is increasingly popular with bored and wealthy residents looking for kicks.’
Satin was taken from his bed at 2 am by a group of six masked men from DarkStream, an organisation specialising in legal kidnappings. He was transported to an unknown location and tortured for nineteen hours before being dumped outside his Wategos Beach property just after 9 pm.
Previous customers of DarkStream claim that torture methods included being bound, gagged and locked in a small, dark cupboard for several hours with a child’s toy playing a repetitive tune.
It is alleged Satin requested that his abductors sever the fingers of his right hand during the kidnapping. A spokesperson for DarkStream claims that their client signed a written request and waiver for this service.
Satin’s lawyer read a statement from the billionaire, in which he claimed, ‘This was nobody’s business but my own. There is nothing illegal in my actions or that of my abductors.’ Satin went on to say that he will not rule out using the service again.
Investigations into DarkStream and their affiliates in other states will continue.
* * *
is that the most f’d up thing u ever heard or what? paying some mofo 2 cut pieces off u 4 entertainment. don’t let yr dad hear about this. sounds like his kind of thing.
hey and did i tell u? lauren’s leaving 2morrow and we’re going to get some other kid.
i feel bad 4 suspecting everyone in my fam when none of them did anything wrong.
s.
* * *
From: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
To: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
Subject: as if
* * *
OK, for starters, you’re a really good writer ’cause that totally looks like an article in the paper … BUT I’M NOT BUYING IT. What the hell? I know you’re hiding the truth, Sim. I’ve told you everything about me, EVERYTHING, and you fake up some dumb story about Kidnappers-R-Us?
One word: BULLSHIT. (Or is that two??)
OK, so I know you think I’ve gone postal over Dad and Danny and all that stuff but I haven’t gone postal over normal stuff. Well, I guess chopped-off fingers aren’t normal, but you know what I mean.
Look, bottom line, you’ve been the only person in my life who has really helped me when I needed it. I know the assignment is coming to an end but I don’t want you to go away. I want to always have you to talk to. If I’ve learned anything in the last few weeks it’s that truth can and will set you free, and if you don’t live an authentic life, what’s the point?
I know you are a really good person and I won’t do anything to fuck things up for you. I know you think I’ll ring the Byron cops or your school or something, but I won’t. I just want to make sure you are OK and you are doing the right thing for you.
Whatever happened with those fingers was majorly wrong and you have to face it and deal with it. Maybe the people in your life are not cool. I know you thought they were, but everyone has a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on. Everyone. Including me and you. It’s whether the Hydes outweigh the Jekylls. If they do, you gotta do something. You’ve got to protect yourself.
TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WITH THE FINGERS. You’ve been avoiding answering for a while, so I know you know.
You can think about how you are going to tell me the truth while I tell you what happened with Danny and the cops. You almost guessed it. Bro wasn’t just showing guys photos of me, he was SELLING them (to get enough money to buy his pot). When good neighbor Danny got hold of one, he started coming to my window nearly EVERY night in the hope that I would get changed with the lights on. He then asked me to the dance – that’s why he was all over me. He felt like he’d already made it past a few bases. And that’s why bro didn’t want me to go to the dance with him. He knew that Danny had all these photos of me and he didn’t want him to do anything weird. So it was bro at the window taking pictures, but then later on it was Danny and some other random dudes spying. (The same perverts who came around to the house with him and that caught the limo with us. No wonder they couldn’t stop sniggering. Jerks.) So Danny was trying to spy when I ran at him but he didn’t know it was me, he thought it was either my bro or my dad. The good news is that I busted his nose again. MORON. What a creep.
My brother feels so bad. He kind of cried when we had a ‘family meeting’ about it. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him give a shit about me. (But that could be ’cause I stole his pot stash and replaced it with herbal cigarette tobacco … he’s probably having major withdrawals.)
Mom and Dad are putting him in some fancy rehab place. (He looked kind of excited that maybe he’d get to see someone from Lindsay Lohan’s crew there … uggh. I watched her in Mean Girls the other day ’cause you said she was hot in it … I don’t know about her being hot but she’s an OK actress, I guess.)
At our family meeting, Dad asked me to give him the tape of him hitting Mom. Although he never said that. He just said, ‘Give me the tape.’ So I said, ‘The one where you hit Mom?’ and he couldn’t answer. I told him he had to go somewhere (like the bro) and get counselling before he was allowed back in the house. Mom and bro couldn’t believe I’d said it. Dad couldn’t believe it. But guess what. He said yes. And then my Mom just collapsed on the floor crying. It was the weirdest thing. But for some reason, I felt relieved. Maybe it’s possible that I can have a real family?
I don’t know. Who knows. But I feel better. And, the dumb thing is, I don’t even have the tape; the cops do. You’d think after all the cop shows Dad’s made, he would’ve figured that out. But I got what I wanted so who cares?
I feel better ’cause I’m saying the truth. To myself and to other people. Hailey even called to see if I’m all right. Maybe she’s not such a loser after all? I totally thought she’d cut me loose.
As for what I’m going to hand in for the assignment? I’m going to hand in THIS. Every page. They wanted us to converse with someone overseas and find stuff out about their culture. Well, we have. And then we found out even more stuff … we shouldn’t get in trouble for doing what they told us. And it will be good for them to see what’s really going on with kids. I don’t think my teachers have ANY idea.
And if Bitch Mayo refuses to give me As for all the excellent fake work I’ve handed in, then who gives a shit? Maybe she’ll give me an A for the real uncensored version? Yeah, right. She wouldn’t give me an A if I was the smartest person on the planet.
If I hand it in, are you going to as well?
I miss you.
Milla
* * *
From: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
To: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
Subject:
* * *
milla
fuck you. it was lauren. that’s why they’re taking her away. feel better?
s.
ps don’t even think about handing this in
* * *
From: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
To: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
Subject: you can trust me
&nbs
p; * * *
Sim, don’t get mad at me. I didn’t do anything. What do you mean, it was Lauren? I’m your friend, I’m not going to get you in trouble. I won’t hand these in, I promise. Talk to me. I’ve never seen you write like that before. Are you OK?
Milla
* * *
From: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
To: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
Subject: help?
* * *
Sim, write me back. Maybe I can help? My dad knows a lot of people in the crime world (advisors for his shows). They have a lot of connections and influence on people. I might be able to help. I know it sounds dumb but I might. I hope you are OK, I’m thinking of you.
Milla
* * *
From: Milla Gainsberg [millag@beverlyglengirlshigh.net]
To: Sim [sim@byronshireprogressive.edu.au]
Subject: write back or else
* * *
Sim, write me back. Seriously. Or I will call the Byron cops … I need to know you are OK.