Letters from the Inside (2 page)

Mar 13

Dear Mandy,

Sorry my letters take so long to get to you. Guess I keep forgetting to post them.

I’ve been out riding my horse. He’s so nice, with such trusting eyes. He comes to the fence every time he sees me and stands there nibbling my shirt while I stroke him and scratch him. He’s getting a bit fat though, so I gave him a good long work-out.

My parents drive me to gymkhanas at weekends. They like doing it and they say they’re proud of me, ’cos I’ve won quite a few ribbons and trophies. It’s hard, but it’s worth it. I’d love to ride at the Olympics or something like that.

How’s it going with Paul? He sounds nice — I think you should go for it! I’ve been with my boyfriend for three months — his name’s Casey Winter — he’s gorgeous looking and really kind and loving but I don’t know how much longer to keep it going. Three months is a long time! I don’t want it to get too serious, although he does.

I don’t know what to suggest about earning money. My parents give me heaps of pocket money, plus they pay for my clothes and everything — my father says he wants me to look nice. So I don’t need much money.

I’m still curious about your brother. How come he’s creepy? What does he do, try to crack onto you or something?

Bad luck about your French, though I’d say 56% was pretty good. Better than I’d ever get.

Well, Mum’s just called out to say dinner’s ready, so I’d better go. It’s really nice tonight — she’s cooked Hawaiian Chicken, my favourite. And she doesn’t like us to be late.

Bye!

Tracey

PS: Say ‘hi’ to Cheryl for me, and thanks for the note.

March 17

Dear Trace,

Geez, your life sounds perfect. Great family, great boyfriend, stacks of money. I’m jealous! You want to swap?

What school do you go to anyway? In one letter you said something that sounded like a boarding school. But I guess not, or you would have mentioned it. And what are you doing for Easter? Slipping over to New York for a few days?! It’d be funny if you were coming up this way and we could meet! Wonder if we will, eventually.

I’m writing this at eleven o’clock at night — well it’s nearly midnight now — in front of TV, while I pig out on biscuits and chips and grapes. ‘Rage’ has just come on.

Speaking of rage, that’s what I was meant to be doing tonight but thanks to the lovely Paul Bazzani, it didn’t work out. Actually, it’s been a fart of an evening. You see, I was meant to be going with Paul to this party, at Marco Tanimides’ place. That was OK, we got there all right (Paul paid for a taxi), but it was a bit of a set-up if you ask me. There were only eight people there and I didn’t know any of them. I mean they were from school but they’re not the people I hang round with. Some of them I didn’t even know their names. They were off their faces by the time we got there, and they were into everything, there were condoms flashing around and people disappearing into the bushes in the backyard. And I don’t even know Paul that well: like, this was the first time I’d gone anywhere with him. It was a set-up for sure.

Anyway, without going into the gory details, it ended with Paul calling me frigid and all that, and me walking home, about a hundred ks on my own. And I tell you, I was scared. It gets pretty rough around Acacia Park on a Saturday night. And to make matters worse, I knew no-one was home here.

Oh well, I survived. But I’m so burned off. I thought Paul was OK actually. Wait till I see Marco on Monday, I’ll kill him. In fact I think I’ll ring him tomorrow.

Wonder what you’re doing right now. Probably at the ballet or opera or something. Sorry, I’m heaping it on you. It’s the mood I’m in. Blame Paul. Anyway, I can’t be bothered writing any more — think I’ll go to bed and continue this later.

Power Without Glory’s next Saturday. Hope it’s an improvement on this weekend. At least it’s something to look forward to. Write me back a great letter, make my week, OK?

Sweet dreams

Mandy

Mar 20

Dear Mandy,

I don’t know what I said that sounded like a boarding school. I must have been dreaming. Don’t you ever do that? Write things that are totally wrong, when you’re half-asleep or thinking about something else? I do it all the time. Or maybe you just misunderstood me. Trouble is, I don’t remember what I said.

Anyhow, I go to Prescott High, though not many people know me there because I’m so quiet.

Your weekend must have been a real winner. What’s happened since? Paul sounds like a con-artist. What’s he look like? You better watch out for him!

Casey and I went to a party too, at Ruyton Heads. One of his mates has a beach house there and his parents let him have it for the weekend. It was some party! Spin out! But I can trust Casey.

I did get a bit wasted though. We had cans of UDL, gin and tonic, and I guess I had more than I thought. So I ended up in a mess and felt sick and disgusting all day Sunday. It was worth it though.

But my life’s not as perfect as you think.

How’s your dog? Have you got a name for him yet? You could call him Roy, after Roy Lugarno from Dust and Ashes. Or call him something so dumb and obvious that it’s funny, like Rover or Spot or Lassie. I used to like
Harry the Dirty Dog.
You ever read that book? Don’t know why I didn’t call my dog Harry.

Next Saturday while you’re raging at the Power Without Glory concert I’ve got our big basketball game. If we win this we end up second in the minor premiership and go into the major semi. If we lose we’d probably only come fourth or fifth — it depends on the other results. So this week is solid training. Basketball’s a good game though — I like it. Today we were doing bounce passes and rebounds, plus working out some new signals. Trouble is, Mrs Strauss, she’s our coach, I don’t think she knows as much as some of the players. And she tries to be popular by giving us slack work-outs but most of us would rather go for it. . .

Anyway, I’m just raving on. Hope life’s cool, and that you’ve sorted out Paul and Marco.

Bye,

 
Trace

March 27

Dear Trace,

God, that’s a boring way to start a letter. I’ll come up with something better next time, I promise. But my life’s boring at the moment. Can’t wait till the holidays, not that we’re doing anything or going anywhere. Oh well. At least the Power Without Glory concert was good. Actually it was better than good; it was over the mountain and far away. It was a great great concert. I didn’t go with anyone, any guys I mean, just Cheryl and Rebecca, but that was fine by me. Sisters of Rock were the support band and I like them, too.

That Phil Nuffield, he’s amazing. He was jumping off the stage into the audience and jumping back up again and ripping off these amazing vocals through it all. There were four encores so it went late. Those encores are a pain in the butt — the bands know they’re going to play them, they’ve rehearsed them and everything, the crowd know they’re going to play them — but you’ve still got to go though the routine of clapping till your hands are burning. It’s so fake.

Anyway, I’m being selfish, ’cos Saturday was your big basketball game. How did you go? Did you win? Hope so. I actually remembered it a few times during the night and crossed my fingers for you — maybe it was when you were shooting the winning goal.

You know, that’s — don’t take this the wrong way — but that’s one of the first times since we’ve been writing that you’ve let yourself go a bit, like it was the ‘real you’ or whatever you want to call it.

You seem reserved. Is that what you’re like in real life? I keep thinking of questions I want to ask you but it’s hard when you’re a week away. For instance, who are your friends? (apart from Casey). What do you look like? Send me a photo. Do you believe in God? Do you do drugs? Do you smoke? Do you get on with everyone in your family? Do you follow a footy team? Are you a brain at school? What kind of jokes make you laugh? What kind of clothes do you wear? Gee, now that I’ve started, I could go on all night. Lucky I don’t have to answer these questions myself. Have you ever been anywhere, like travelling?

Sorry if I’m overdoing it! You don’t have to answer them anyway.

Oh yes, I was going to tell you about Paul and Marco. Well believe me, I’m offering this as a script to ‘Days of Our Lives’. But I handled it good! I handled it great! I’ve never been this tough before! I rang Marco Sunday night and just blew him off the phone. Poor guy, he didn’t know what hit him. You see, I’d had all day (and a lot of Saturday night) to think about what I wanted to say. I was right though — he virtually admitted Paul had asked him to get a few people together and have a ‘party’ because he wanted to screw me. Bastards.

Well, Monday morning I walked right past Paul like I was the principal of the school. I treated him like scum all day, even though he tried to talk a few times. But after school I let him have it, face to face. And not the kind of face to face he’d been hoping for Saturday night. I told him how I’d trusted him and thought he was a pretty straight guy and how much I’d changed my mind about him. He just stood there dripping with guilt. And he grovelled for a long time. Actually we parted on OK terms. You know, I don’t mind him — he’s a decent guy, but he hangs around with some of life’s legendary losers.

So, that all happened yesterday, though it seems a long time ago. Today was good. Paul was ultra-nice all day and Marco avoided me. But best of all, I’m proud of myself for putting it to them like that!

Good luck in the finals, if you’re in them!

Love,

Mandy

Mar 29

Dear Mandy,

Thanks for your letter. I don’t know how to answer your letters sometimes. What to say to you. You say I seem quiet and reserved. Well maybe I am. But you seem confident. Is that what you’re like in real life? The way you dealt with those guys, that was good.

I get the feeling that if we met we probably wouldn’t even be friends. If we went to the same school for instance.

Well, we took the basketball game, 54-50. It wasn’t one of our best efforts, but we won. Day after tomorrow’s the first final — if we take that we go straight to the grand final. I’m nervous already, to tell you the truth. It’s against a team called Chieftains who’ve beaten us twice this season. Last time they thrashed us but that was the worst we’ve played. (Our best player had suddenly left so we were a bit of a mess.)