𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐞 - 𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐢 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡

Production Log - Entry 15

Pippa Fitz-Amobi and River Amobi
EPQ
13/09/2017

TRANSCRIPT OF SECOND INTERVIEW WITH NAOMI WARD

Pip: OK, recording. So, your dad told me that he found out Andie was bullying another girl in your year. Cyberbulling. He thought there was some online video involved. Do you know anything about this?

Naomi: Yeah, like I said, I thought Andie was trouble.

River: Can you tell me more about it?

Naomi: There was a girl in our year, called Natalie da Silva, and she was pretty and blonde too. They looked quite similar actually. And I guess Andie felt threatened by her because ever since the start of our final year Andie started spreading rumours about her and finding ways to humiliate her.

Pip: If Sal and Andie didn’t start seeing each other until that December, how did you know all this?

Naomi: I was friends with Nat. We had biology together.

Pip: Oh. And what kind of rumours was Andie starting?

Naomi: The kind of disgusting things only a teenage girl could think up. Things like her family was incestuous, that Nat watched people undress in the changing rooms and touched herself. Those kinds of things.

River: And you think Andie did this because Nat was pretty and she felt threatened by that?

Naomi: I actually think that was the extent of her thought process. Andie wanted to be the girl in the year that all the boys wanted. Nat was competition so Andie had to take her down.

Pip: So did you know about this video at the time?

Naomi: Yeah, it got shared all over social media. I think it wasn’t taken down until a few days later when someone reported it as inappropriate content.

Pip: When was this?

Naomi: It was during the Easter holidays. Thank god it wasn’t during the school term; that would have been even worse for Nat.

Pip: OK, so what was it?

Naomi: So, as far as I know, Andie had been hanging out with some friends from school, including her two minions.

River: Chloe Burch and Emma Hutton?

Naomi: Yeah and some other kids. Not Sal or any of us. And there was this guy, Chris Parks, who everyone knew Nat fancied. I don’t know all the details, but Andie either used his phone or told him what to do, and they were sending flirty texts to Nat. And she was responding ’cause she liked Chris and thought it was him. And then Andie slash Chris asked Nat to send a video of her topless, with her face in it so he’d know it was really her.

River: And Nat did it?

Naomi: Yeah. A little naive, but she thought she was talking to just Chris. The next we all know, the clip is online and Andie and loads of other people are sharing it on their profiles. The comments were so horrible. And practically everyone in the year saw it before it got taken down. Nat was inconsolable. She even skipped the first two days back at school after Easter because she was so humiliated.

Pip: Sal knew Andie was doing this?

Naomi: Well, I mentioned it to him. He didn’t approve obviously, but he just said, ‘It’s Andie’s drama. I don’t want to get involved.’ Sal was just too laid-back about some things.

River: Was there anything else that happened between Nat and Andie?

Naomi: Yeah, actually. Something I think is just as bad, but hardly anyone knew about it. I might have been the only one Nat told ’cause she was crying in biology right after it happened.

Pip: What?

Naomi: So in that autumn term the school was doing a sixth-form play. I think it was The Crucible . After auditions Nat was given the main part.

River: Abigail? I love that play.

Naomi: Maybe, I don’t know. And apparently Andie had wanted that part and she was really pissed off. So after the parts were posted, Andie corners Nat and she told her . . .

Pip: Yes?

Naomi: Sorry, I forgot to mention some context. Nat’s brother, Daniel, who was, like, five years older than us, he had worked at the school part-time as a caretaker when we were like fifteen or sixteen. Only for a year while he was looking for other jobs.

Pip: OK?

Naomi: OK, so Andie corners Nat and says to her that when her brother was still working at the school he had sex with Andie even though she was only fifteen at the time. And Andie tells Nat to drop out of the play or she will go to the police and say she was statutorily raped by Nat’s brother. And Nat dropped out because she was scared of what Andie would do.

River: Was it true? Did Andie have a relationship with Nat’s brother?

Naomi: I don’t know. Nat didn’t know for sure either, that’s why she dropped out. But I don’t think she ever asked him.

Pip: Do you know where Nat is now? Do you think I could talk to her?

Naomi: I’m not really in contact with her, but I know she’s back at home with her parents. I heard some stuff about her, though.

Pip: What stuff?

Naomi: Um, I think at uni she was involved in some kind of fight. She got arrested and charged with ABH and I think she spent some time in prison.

Pip: Oh god.

Naomi: I know.

Pip: Can you give me her number?

River: Smoothest way of getting a number I've ever heard-

Pip: Holy shi-