"Oh hey, Uncle Tommy." "Hey." "During the last week of summer, we were downtown... one fine day." "One day, I was with Jared, who's a little older than me." "He said we should check out Paranoid Park." "I had heard of it, of course..." "But I'd never thought of going there." "I assumed it was out of my league." "But when I said, "I don't think I'm ready..."" "...Jared laughed and said something like," ""Nobody's ever ready for Paranoid Park."" "We went to the park together the next day." "Dude, this place is tight." "We should hit it up on Saturday." "About a month later, halfway through math class, there was an announcement." "My name." "My name, and no others." "OK, so today I really really want to teach you guys about buoyant force, and... buoyant force is the force that's exerted upon an object... um, but..." "The funny thing is objects tend to uh... differ... in shape..." "Will Alex Tremain report to the front office." "Alex Tremain to the front office." "We have objects like this, like you see, divided in the middle..." "But an object can also..." "Oh." "OK, sorry about that..." "Hey there, Alex." "Come have a seat." "Hey." "Sorry I pulled you out of class." "Uh, that's all right." "So..." "Anyway, I talked to your friend Jared." "He says you almost went by the Eastside Skateboard Park on the night of the seventeenth." "Is that right?" "Yeah." "OK, did you drive around out that night or...?" "Did I what?" "Did you drive around that night?" "Um... yeah..." "OK." "Did you drive... by there that night?" "The park itself." "No." "Where did you go?" "That night, I drove around downtown, and got something to eat, parked down near the waterfront and then walked around." "OK." "Were you skateboarding?" "Yeah." "Well, no." "I had my skateboard but..." "I'm not that good so I try to practice by myself." "OK." "And... so you can give me times for these things, right, I mean approximately?" "Yeah." "Um, I went to Jared's around seven or eight... and then I dropped him off at the bus station shortly after that." "And then drove around..." "Oh yeah, that's something I got confused about before 'cause..." "I didn't go back to my house, I went back to Jared's 'cause..." "Jared and I planned to stay at his house that night... originally." "OK, that's fine." "So, where was his parents?" "His mom was... in Las Vegas and..." "his dad doesn't live with them." "OK, so no brothers or sisters, so the house was totally empty then, right?" "Yeah." "Did your parents know this?" "I mean that..." "nobody was home at Jared's?" "Uh, it's not like they cared or anything." "OK..." "Uh well no, that's... that's fine," "I mean... it's probably that old trick where... you tell your parents you're gonna spend the night at Jared's house and... your parents don't realize that his parents aren't home and... basically you get to do whatever you want." "Pretty much, I m..." "it's not like my mom cares." "No, that's fine, I used to do that." "I mean that's an old one." "No big deal." "Yeah." "What is your parental situation?" "What do you mean?" "Well, your parents." "Are they... still together?" "They've been separated for a while and they're... gonna get a divorce soon." "Yeah, all right." "Yeah, my parents got a divorce." "I mean... in fact I think I was about your age." "I know it's kind of a tough thing to..." "go through..." "Yeah..." "Uh... do you have any..." "brothers or sisters?" "Yeah." "I have a little brother, and he's thirteen." "OK, how 'bout a sister?" "No." "Uh... how 'bout a girlfriend?" "Yeah..." "Jennifer." "Jennifer?" "And where was she that night?" " My girlfriend?" " Uh huh." "She was with... just some other friends." "OK." "Did you happen to call her that night at any point?" "I mean, do you have a cell phone?" "No, I didn't call her and, I don't have a cell phone." "OK." "Uh... well..." "Just goin' through my notes," "I'll tell you what... uh..." "Let me tell you what my situation is..." "I have this security guard... and we find him deceased on the railroad tracks." "And so we're thinking maybe he tripped, or he fell." "But, the autopsy says he was struck by an object." "And... we also have a witness that says... he saw somebody throw something over the bridge into the river." "We happen to have that object and it's a skateboard." "Now the funny thing is there's some DNA evidence on the skateboard, that puts it at the scene of the crime." "Where did you go?" "I... drove around, downtown a little to Subway and got something to eat." "OK, there's about a thousand and two Subways." " Which one did you go to?" " By the waterfront." "OK, and the one... over in the, World Trade Center?" "That one?" "Yes." "OK." "What'd you get?" "Turkey and ham on..." "Italian herb and cheese bread, toasted... tomato lettuce pickle olive mustard oil and vinegar..." "Did you get mayo?" "No." "Gotta have mayo with that." "Mayo's sick." "Mayo's sick." "What kind of bread was it?" "Italian herb and cheese." "OK, you have a receipt in your pocket for that?" "No, I don't keep..." "Subway receipts." "OK, how much did it cost then?" "Like... six something, Subway's expensive." "Six-inch twelve-inch?" "Six." "Six-inch, for six bucks, so you must have got the meal, then, right?" "No, I just got a drink." "OK, all right..." "Large, Dr. Pepper." "Who'd you eat with?" "Myself." "I drove by myself, so..." "OK..." "You know I gotta cut this short... um..." "Let me give you my business card." "If you have anything to add..." "I want you to give me a call all right?" " OK." " You do that?" "So, can I go back to class?" "Yeah, you can." "Thanks." "Appreciate it." "I'm writing this a little out of order." "Sorry, I didn't do so well, in creative writing." "But..." "I'll get it all on paper, eventually." "What are you writing?" "Oh nothin', just homework." "Good day for it." "Anyway, after Jared had mentioned Paranoid Park, that first time, we ended up going the next day." "It wasn't the night the police detective was talking about, though." "But it was my first time there, and I liked it right away." "One appeal of a place like Paranoid was the kids that skated there." "They had built the park illegally all by themselves." "Trainhoppers... guitar punks..." "skate... drunks... throwaway kids..." "No matter how bad your family life was, these guys had it much worse." "Dude this place is tight." "We should hit it up on Saturday." "That sounds like fun." "The first problem with Jared's plan was Jennifer... my girlfriend." "Yeah but like, you, I don't know, you like hanging out with him better than me it seems sometimes and it's kind of annoying." "She wanted me to hang out with her that night." "Don't... no." "No, you cannot... no." "You can't do that." "You can't call my friends, like... it's... no." "Jennifer was nice and everything..." "but... she was a virgin." "Which meant she'd want to do it at some point." "And then I knew things would get all serious." "I told my mom I was spending Saturday night at Jared's so we could go to the winter sports expo earlier on Sunday." "Then I asked to borrow her car." "And follow the rules of the road, mister!" "I will." "All right." "Hi, welcome to Burgerville." "You can order when you're ready." "Uh..." "I'll have two cheeseburgers..." "and... a chocolate shake." "Alex, I know you're bummed and all." "But this trip to Corvalis, is gonna be like a sure thing for me." "Dude but that's weak, you'd ditch Paranoid for some girl." "Especially when she was denying you the whole summer." "Yeah but dude..." "I'm gonna get so laid this time." "And you should call Jennifer, I mean, what are you waiting for with her?" "What do you want?" "What I really wanted was to go skate with the hardcore freaks at Paranoid Park." "All right, dude, you can crash at my place." "Play video games." "Call Jennifer." "Then we'll both get laid." "I didn't want someone to damage my mom's car, so I parked on the other side of the river, which was a safer bet." "Hey, kid." "Hey." "Your mom know you're here?" "Yeah." "Is she hot?" "Dude, I don't know." "You should bring her by." "Paranoid was great." "I could have sat there all night watching the skaters and the girls and all the stuff going on." "The only bad thing was..." "I started thinking about other things, like my parents." "Hello?" "My dad had supposedly moved out." "But he kept calling the house, bugging us." "And my mom was not handling it well." "And my poor brother Henry, he was thirteen, and he would get so worried about stuff he'd throw up his dinner." "Couldn't handle the stress at all." "I also thought about Jennifer." "She seemed pretty determined for us to be together." "I mean worse things could happen." "I just wish I'd like her more or we had more in common." "Hey kid!" "Hey!" "You gonna ride that skateboard or sit on it?" "I'm waiting for someone." "Wo." "What's up?" "You gonna ride this thing, man?" "I'm waiting for somebody." "You're not gonna let me ride it." "I'm waiting for someone." "You know there's dead bodies buried here ...under the cement?" "Isn't that right?" "Yeah, that's true." "Come on, tell you what." "Let me ride the board, I don't come back, you can have the little hottie right here." " All right." " Isn't she cute?" "Hey..." "I'm Paisley, and this is Jolt." "Hey, check out Scratch." "Sweet, thanks, man." "Told you I'd come back." "Yeah, no problem." "So where you guys live?" "Right here, man." "At the skatepark?" " Pretty much." " This is our fucking home!" "How 'bout you?" "With my mom." "You wanna ride a train, man?" "You wanna get some beer?" "All right." "How 'bout you guys?" "We'll stay here, man." "He asked if I wanted to get some beer." "I didn't know about the beer, but I really wanted to ride a freight train." "Then later that night, I drove back to Jared's." "I had to change out of my clothes, they were so thrashed." "Say name and city, please." "Yeah, Tremain in Gearhart, please." "Press one to be connected at no additional fee." "Happy Citizenship Day." "So, how are things with your parents?" "Not that good." "It's official now, they're gonna get a divorce." "That must be hard." "Yeah well, its out in the open." "I uh... heard about you and Jennifer." "Well, I think, everyone heard about you and Jennifer." "So..." "Yeah..." "That didn't last very long." "Naw, it didn't." "So... why'd you break up with her?" "Why was I even going out with her, you mean." "Yeah, that's what I mean, but, you must have liked her a little?" "Well, I liked her a little last summer... before she decided I was her boyfriend." "Well with all the stuff you're going through," "I guess something like that could be hard." "Whatever." "What?" "Macy... you know there's just..." "everybody's parents get divorced." "There's... other problems." "Bigger problems." "Like what?" "Like... people dying in Iraq..." "starving kids in Africa." "Since when do you care about starving children in Africa?" "Well, you know what I mean, just..." "the little problems, they're just all so stupid." "Not if it's happening to you." "Well... just all the stuff in general." "So... it seems like something did happen to you." "No, you know what I mean, Macy." "Not really." "So, did something happen to you?" "No..." "I just feel like there's like something, outside of normal life." "Outside of... teachers, breakups, girlfriends..." "Like, right out there." "Like, outside... there's like, different levels... of stuff." "And... there's something that happened to me." "I thought so." "Alex..." "Alex..." "What, you just gonna walk right past me?" "So, did you have fun with Jared on Saturday?" "Not really." "What'd you guys do?" "Just hung out." "Well, I went swimming at Elizabeth's." "You should have come." "But, right, I guess that stuff doesn't interest you anymore because, skating with Jared is more fun." "But..." "Whatever, shut up." "So... what are you doing after school?" "Nothing." "We could do something if you want." "OK." "Cool." "So, you gonna walk me to my class?" "OK." "Come out." "Don't laugh." "The pants are a little too big." "Oh, my god." "OK, I think that's your sexiest look yet, Alex." "I need to get smaller pants." "But does it look good?" "It's um... it's interesting." "You should try something on." "OK... change." "You change now." "Oh my god." "Does it fit you?" "No, it's really big." "Look, the straps are like huge." "It looks good." "It's all like, huge." "Shall we?" "Take this." "Take your shirt." "Give me..." "I need my clothes!" "Go, move... get out." "I need my dress!" "Can I have my dress back?" "Thank you." "Get out!" "You can't be in here." "I... stop." "Dude, that's not your board." "Yeah it is, I just got it." "What'd you get a new board for?" "Because I wanted to try something different." "Why didn't you tell me about this?" "Why would I tell you, it's just a new board." "Dude because I gotta skate with you and I can't have some fag board riding next to me." "Wow, it's not even a fag board." "Just drive." "Yeah OK..." "Mm mm." "I got boogie buns..." "Is... is that techno stuff?" "Dude, we should go check out Paranoid Park." "Dude, I don't think I'm ready for Paranoid Park." "Yeah but no one's ever really ready for Paranoid Park." "This is News Break, I'm Ken Boddie." "Was it a horrible accident or was it murder?" "Police are investigating a grisly scene at the central train yard near downtown Portland." "A security guard was found dead, literally cut in half by the wheels of a freight train." "Police say there is evidence of foul play, but they aren't releasing any more details at this time." "And at this point, there are no possible suspects." "We are following this case closely and will have more tonight... on KOIN News Six, at eleven." "I know, I woke up passed out laying next to the vending machines." "I don't remember anything that happened that night." "Were you drinking?" "Yeah." "I have no idea what happened." "I thought this master plan was supposed to work." "Hey you know why that kid's getting..." "arrested?" "Oh, yeah." "He just got like caught for pot or something." "I don't know." "He's not gonna get a fair trial, though." "That's my corndog, man." "I'm starving." "Will the following people please report to the principal's office?" "Jared Fitch, Christian Barlow, Paul and Alex Tremain." "Did he just call my name?" "Yeah." "Dude, all the skater kids are getting called to the office, man." "OK, this is Detective Lu." "Hello... hello..." "Hey, Lu Lu." "Guys." "What are those cuffs for?" "Handcuffs... handcuffs." "Hey... show him some respect, please." "Show me respect." "Respect my..." "All right..." "Thank you, uh..." "Miss Adams." "Damn!" "Check..." "What you looking at?" "Huh?" "Anyway..." "Like she said my name is Detective Richard Lu." "You can, call me Rich." "Or Lu Lu." "And, so you know, my... partner and I are here to investigate a murder that occurred downtown..." "near a skateboard park." "So the police department wants us to get in touch and make some contacts with the..." "skateboard community." "And hopefully you can help us solve a..." "a case that we have here." "So anyway... what I wanna do is uh..." "talk to you guys and get to know ya." "Let's go ahead and just go around the room..." "I want to get to know you, too." "I want you to introduce yourselves." "Start here." " I'm Paul Thrief." " Paul." "Jeremy." "Eric." " Christian." " Christian." " Cal." " Cal." "Alex." " Jared." " Jared." "Jeremy." "Brian." "OK." "Raise your hands..." "if you've ever been, to the Eastside Skateboard Park." "You know everybody's gonna raise their hand..." "But it's called Paranoid Park, nobody calls it..." "Paranoid." "OK, so you all have." "OK, good, that's what I was hoping for." "Now of those who rose your hands, who was there, at any time, during the weekend of September sixteenth, or seventeenth?" "OK, um..." "Jared." "Yeah." "Yeah, we uh..." "Alex and I went there like... that week... during the day, though." "During the week." "Do you remember what day that was?" "Uh, I don't know." "Tuesday maybe?" "OK." "We actually planned to go there that weekend but we didn't." "You didn't." "So what did you do, then?" "I went down to Oregon State." "OK, Corvalis." "All right." "So... you went to OSU, so you went to Paranoid Park?" "No." "You did not." "OK, where did you go?" "I..." "I didn't want to go the park by myself so..." "I didn't." "Yeah, no one wants to go the Paranoid by themself, man." "That place is scary." " I always go there." " Yeah, true." "They only mess if you make a mess with them." "I always go there." "Man, whatever." "I'm just saying it has like a reputation." "OK, all right." "I understand that." "Let's..." "let's get started here..." "Hey, what exactly are you accusing us of?" "Well, I'm not accusing you of anything, nothing at all." "I mean... this is not about suspects." "In fact, just so we're clear, nobody here in this room is a suspect." "In fact if you were a suspect, we'd be treating you a little differently than we are today, OK?" "What it is, is that I'm trying to learn, and get some background from you guys about your skateboard... community." "It's not like a community." "It's not like we know each other." "Well, I understand that." "In fact..." "let me flip this around, let me give you some background here." "What we have, is a... possible murder situation." "Will you hand that out for me?" "Take a look at these pictures and you can understand why we're here." "Aw, dude!" "Let me see." "Oh sh... shit..." "Gentlemen, that's the real deal there." "It's like part of his clothes is on the bar..." "Now the deceased there was found on the railroad tracks just outside of the central train yard..." "over by downtown." "Now the train that was involved in this thing here you're looking at... just before it got to that yard it, went by... the Eastside Skateboard Park." " Eastside..." " So?" "Eastside!" "?" "It's called Paranoid Park here, man." "Well... exactly." "And... and you know what?" "We think it's possible, if this is a murder... situation, that somebody from..." "Paranoid Park..." "was involved with this." "So you think a skateboarder did it?" "Check out that." "I had tried to put this part out of my mind." "But Lu's picture brought it all back." "This was my chance to take a moment, to think for a second, to figure out the best thing to do." "Woo!" "Pretty cool, huh?" "Next time you ride a train get on in the same spot." "It's safer there." "If you lose your grip and you swing off, you'll just hit the side and bounce back in." "If you're riding here and you fall off, you're gonna go right under there." "Woo!" "You like this man, you diggin' it?" "Oh quick, man, hide!" "Hide hide hide." "Hide, man, hide hide!" "He was trying to kill us." "He had a lead bat." "Why... why can't you just understand that..." "God... you know..." "Call the police." "It's OK, Alex, you're not gonna get in trouble." "Call home..." "Call Someone." "It was self-defense." "I thought about my skateboard..." "People defend themselves all the time." "But never mind that..." "I had to tell someone." "Maybe that was the thing..." "It's OK, Alex." "You're not gonna get in trouble." "It's OK." "Get a lawyer first..." "then call the police." "That's what sports people did..." "Just calm down, Alex." "...Didn't it?" "My brain could have debates all night long." "My body didn't care." "My body wanted only one thing, to get the hell out of there." "Oh my god!" "Oh my god!" "I was so screwed." "What was I going to do?" "I shouldn't waste time." "I needed to talk to someone." "I needed to take an action and get this weight off me." "My dad, that was the person to talk to." "I knew where he was, at my Uncle Tommy's." "I could already feel the relief of telling him." "Say name and city, please." "Yeah, Tremain in Gearhart, please." "Press one to be connected at no additional fee." "Happy Citizenship Day." "Hey, honey." "What are you doing home so early?" "We didn't go the Expo, Jared got sick." "What did he get sick with?" "Not sure." "Honey?" "Hey, honey?" "What?" "Uh, Uncle Tommy called earlier." "He said he got a call at the beach, on his caller ID." "He did?" "Yeah, he said the call was from the Fitch's, and... he asked me if I e..." "knew anyone of that name and I told him that's where you were staying." "Oh." "Did you call Uncle Tommy's?" "Yeah, maybe by accident." "Well he said the call was at 4:35 in the morning." "That's weird." "Were you still awake then?" "N... no..." "But... then again, I was trying to call Ryan... but..." "I could have been half asleep or, even sleepwalking." "Hm." "Oh." "Yeah." "So I have no clue." "OK." "I'm going to the mall to check out some snowboards... since I didn't go to the Expo." "Oh, OK." "Well that's all right with me." "Uh, hey, where's your skateboard?" "Oh, I left it at Jared's." "OK." "Morning, how are you doing?" "Good." "What can I get you?" "Uh, I'll just get a glass of water, is that cool?" "Yeah." "I'll leave this here if you change your mind." "Thanks." "All right." "Hey." "What are you doing here so early?" "Nothing." "Really?" "Looks like you're..." "reading the news." "Yeah I'm just reading the newspaper." "Oh." "Anything in there about the war?" "Nope." "Just checkin' out the sports." "In the Metro?" "Yeah..." "In the Metro?" "Yeah..." "Hey, Rachel." "Hey, Alex." "So uh... so that's why you came, just to read the newspaper?" "I was just bored so I came to the mall." "I just wondered." "Yeah..." "Well, we're gonna go see a movie." "You wanna... come with us?" "No, thanks, I'm good." "Rather sit here and..." "pretend to look at sports?" "Yeah, sports section." "OK, um..." "Yeah, I guess I'll talk to you later, then." "OK." "So... yeah." "Bye." "See ya." "That's a good one." "Thanks." "No no no..." " What...?" " You put a mirror in the..." "How?" "It doesn't make sense..." "I don't know, you..." "you throw it down there..." "Why would that look at yourself?" "Yeah, how would you..." "But it'd be all mucky, you won't be able to see." "I don't know, Gabe told it to me." "I didn't get it." "That's a terrible joke..." "I mean, Alex..." "Alex." "Alex..." "Awkward..." " Awkward." " As in Alex." "That... that just..." "Do you think we should do it again?" "Or... maybe we should wait." "You know, we're gonna need more condoms." "We should go to Rite Aid and get 'em." "That's where um..." "Pauline and George get theirs." "Yes, we totally did it." "Oh my god, I know right?" "No, it was fantastic." "OK, OK, I gotta go." "All right." "Do you think Lu knows more than he's telling us?" "Like what?" "I don't know, like he's..." "trying to trick us or something." "That's what detectives do." "No dude, don't be paranoid." "Why even worry about it?" "I mean, he like, doesn't know anything." "He just like acting like he does." "Yeah, but that was pretty weird, though." "The detective coming to the school, and only talking to skateboarders?" "Yeah..." "Dude, cops are like that." "I mean, why do you think they're cops?" "They get paid less than a janitor." "Yeah, but I mean they do it for other reasons." "Like what?" "Grownups do stuff for money." "There is no other reasons." "Cops do shit like that." "Just random shit." "Hey babe." "Hey." "Did you get the condoms yet?" "Nope." "Do you wann get 'em, after school?" "Maybe." "What's the matter?" "Are you mad?" "No." "Well, you sure do act weird sometimes, because you'd think after what we did you'd be a little more happy to see me." "It was your idea." "What?" "!" "What is that supposed to mean?" "Nothing." "So having sex was my idea." "You didn't want to." "You just went along." "No, I'm just saying." "You were the one that, wanted to get the condoms, so..." "I thought we'd get 'em together." "Oh." "OK, sorry." "I thought you were talking about something else." "No, that's all I meant." "OK, well, we'll do that." "Hey, Alex." "Hey, Dad." "Oh, shit, wondered where this was." "Are you gonna take that?" "I'm just gonna borrow it." "Your Uncle Tommy and I are going up to the lake this weekend." "Do you need this?" "Yeah... thanks." "Look I wanted to talk to you," "I don't..." "I don't know what you've heard or... what your mother's been telling ya." "Um... but I'm probably not gonna be comin' around here anymore." "Um, we're still working on the details, logistics and, you know, trying to figure out what's best for... for you and Henry." "Uh, working with your mother is..." "not the easiest thing in the world... as I'm sure you know." "But if there's any special considerations that you have... um... be sure and let me know." "How's school going, how are your classes?" "School's good." "How are Parker and those guys?" "They're fine." "I saw Parker's dad the other night at Outdoor World." "Yeah?" "Yeah..." "Are you still skateboarding?" "Yeah, a little." "Right on." "Well, listen, I should be uh..." "getting' my homework done, so..." "Look I..." "I just want you to know that..." "I feel horrible about this whole situation." "I never, never in a million years wanted anything like this to happen." "If there's anything, anything that I can do to make it easier for you ...please, let me know." "I know how you feel, Dad." "Jennifer!" "Jennifer." "I can't believe you." "You think you can break up with me after we had sex." "Why would you give up free sex?" "She was even hot." "Yeah dude, hope you have a backup, or somethin'." "Dude, her and her friends were just drama." "Dude, I don't know what you're talking about." "You're crazy." "Dude, I didn't like her either." "But getting laid is always better than not getting laid." "Yeah, man." "True that." "How's it going?" "Good." "Do you guys have, caramel cappuccinos?" "No, we don't have caramel cappuccinos." "Damn." "Do you guys...?" "That's only... that's only Starbucks." "Robin, can I get a slice of pie?" "Mm hm." "This looks really good." "Hey, guys." "Need a coffee." "Say that again." "Let me pick this up actually." "Coffee." "You remember... you remember Tina..." "the llama?" "I think so." ""Tina, you fat lard, come get some dinner!"" "And uh, remember he's at school, the chapstick part?" "He's like, with the nurse he's like..." "he's like," ""Can I use the phone?"" ""Why?"" ""'Cause I don't feel good!"" "And, he uses the phone..." "he... and it's his... brother Kip, he's kind of a wuss." "He's like, he's like, he's like, um, "I... is Grandma there?"" "He's like, "No Napolean..." "Can I..." "Well, where is she?"" ""At the dunes."" ""Since when does Grandma go to the dunes?"" ""I don't know, she's with her boyfriend." ""He's like, "What?" And he's like," ""Can you at least bring me my chapstick?"" "He's like, "No, Napolean." ""He's like, "God!" And then... he says," ""Come on, just..." "just borrow some from the nurse, she has like fifty sticks in her drawer."" "And he's like," ""Ew, I'm not gonna use nurse chapstick, you sicko!"" "And then he hangs up." "And then, um..." "We should be out now, dude." "What are you talking about?" " The war..." "Iraq..." " no" "Oh." "What do you think?" "I really don't care." "Geez... that's the kind of thing that's wrong with people today." "Apathy..." "What?" "Oh, not caring." "I don't really know much about the war." "Figure it out, dude." "Read the newspaper." "I hate... reading the newspaper about the war." "OK, I'll never..." "Hello?" "Hello?" "Bad..." "Why are you lying in the middle of the driveway?" "Because..." "Is it fun down there?" "You know what, just push me." "Wait wait wait." "What about your face?" "Just go." "Pedal." "Hold on a sec." "I have the answer." "To what?" "Like when you were saying..." "if something happened, to you and you couldn't tell anyone." "It doesn't matter, just forget it." "See, what I would do is..." "I'd write a letter." "To who?" "The person you did it to." "Like, an apology or whatever." "Or... maybe to someone else, like a separate person." "But the point is, to get it down and off your chest." "And then, you can stop stressing." "And, what am I supposed to do with the letter... after?" "Doesn't matter, like, save it, send it, burn it, you know?" "Th... writing it down is the important thing." "So... yeah." "I mean, once you get it out there you'll feel way better." "It's a big relief." "I don't know, Macy, it sounds like a homework assignment or something." "Trust me, it's not a homework assignment." "You know..." "it just feels good to have it all out." "Yeah... maybe." "But, the trick is... write it to someone you can really talk to, like someone you're comfortable with." "Not your parents or your teachers or whatever." "Write it to a friend." "Yeah." "Write it to me." "OK, Macy." "It's late now." "I'm gonna stop." "All right, we're gonna follow up on yesterday's field study and we're gonna look at the macro-invertebrates." "We're gonna look at the tolerant group and the... intolerant group..." "And let's put a... drop of uh, pond water on it." "And let's classify..." "micro-invertebrates." "Alex?"