The Skater Girls

Pretty Pictures From the Past

Hazel's P.O.V

"We need to clean this up before my mum gets home." Zoey hesitantly bent down onto the kitchen floor, a bucket of lukewarm water beside her. 

"I'm not touching that shit." Danielle stated, backing out of the kitchen. 

"Danielle, you need to fucking help!" Zoey exclaimed, overwhelmed by the amount of blood splattered across her kitchen. 

"Is it definitely blood?" Ellie said, leaning closer to the tiled floor. 

"Don't taste it! For Pete's sake Ellie, that's nasty." 

"I'm not gonna taste it..." Ellie dipped her nose a bit closer, trying to smell the substance. 

"Ellie you're getting too cl-."

There was a pause of silence. When Ellie looked back up there was a red stain on the tip of her nose. 

We all stared blankly at her. 

"It's on my face isn't it?" 

We all nodded. More silence...

"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! Get it off me!" Ellie cried running over to the sink. 

"You're a bloody nutter Ellie," I said. 

************

Grace's P.O.V 

There was something that I'd discovered when I went into the kitchen, something that I didn't want to show the girls. 

An envelope, dipped in blood and addressed to me. I was too scared to open it in front of everyone, so when I saw it stuck on the fridge, I snatched it in horror and stuffed in it my back pocket. 

Now I was in the bathroom, sitting hunched over in fear on the closed toilet seat. My hands began shaking uncontrollably as soon as I pulled the envelope out. 

Breathe... Just breathe...

"Grace, you in there?" I nearly had a heart attack from Danielle banging on the bathroom door. 

"Yeah," I called, voice a bit shaky. "I'll be out in a minute babe." 

Maybe if you just rip it open, then it will be less scary?

I listened to the angel in my head, tearing the envelope in less than 5 seconds. 

 Struggling to breathe at the contents inside, I fell to the floor in pain, gasping for small breaths. My hands fumbled over the pictures that had fallen out, tears dripping wet spots on them as I tried to contain a cry of terror. I held back a sob and cleared my blurry eyes, trying to see better. 

It can't be? How did you get these? These wer– I deleted these as soon as I–.I don't understand? 

I stared blankly at the 15-year old me. The naked 15-year old me. Posing in front of my bedroom mirror, hands barely covering my budding breasts. My hair was shorter, but my face was still the same, only a bit younger. You could clearly see that this was me. There was no denying it – no shifting the blame to someone else. 

I wept quietly. I thought whoever was doing this was coming for all of us together... I didn't expect to be targeted directly. 

I glared at the envelope, haunting my side. Picking it up with a blurry vision, I looked inside to see if any more pictures were there. But instead I found a $100 dollar bill, bloody, with a note stapled to it. 

"So.." it read. "How much do you charge?" 

************

Hannah's P.O.V

"Well Hannah, great news." My lawyer came back into the room after leaving me alone for about 15 minutes. "You're being released. You can go back home now." 

I sighed in relief. "What happened to me being arrested for the murder of Michelle?" I asked. 

"You haven't been ruled out as a suspect, but we have gathered more evidence that strongly suggests that it's someone else."

"Who?" I was desperate to know. 

"I can't let you know that." He gestured to the door. "Be sure to stay out of trouble, Hannah. I don't want to see you in here for anything else." 

I walked out of the police station, happy to see that my mum was parked outside waiting for me. She looked exhausted and concerned, but other than that she was completely fine. 

"How did it go?" She asked, starting the car and driving off. 

"Fine. They've released me because they have evidence that suggests it's someone else." 

"Good." She stated. "Oh, and by the way," my mum opened the sun visor and took an envelope out. "This came in the post today, thought you might want to open it, it looks important."

I looked at the front. It seemed fancy, with my name written in small neat italic handwriting. 

"You gonna stare at it, or open it sweetie?" My mum said. 

I chuckled slightly, opening the envelope. 

My face dropped when I saw three naked pictures of Grace, posing seductively in front of her bedroom mirror. 

"What is it sweetie?" My mum asked, glancing my way. 

I stuffed the pictures back into the envelope and faked a smile. "Just a letter from a friend saying that their sorry about me being arrested." 

"Oh, that's nice." She said smiling to herself. 

I looked at her. She was oblivious to what was going on with us. 

"Hey mum, can you do me a favour?" 

"Of course," 

"I need you to take me to Grace's house." 

"I don't think she's home honey, they're having a sleepover at Zoey's." 

I paused. I was pretty sure that they still didn't want me talking to them, I was hoping that I could speak to Grace on her own. 

"Do you want me to take you to Zoey's house then, Han?" 

"Yeah." I said, my mind already made up. "Yeah that would be great."