Land Of The Stupid

Daddy Issues

The Jury finds the defendant to be…

“Guilty.”

Poppy hissed under her breath. She had known all along that she would be caught out; there was way too much evidence against her. The prosecution had an easy bugger ever since they first found her partial print on the wheel of the car.

Poppy could hear her father swearing profusely at the Jury. She felt a little twang in her heart, but she quickly shoved it to the side. It was her father’s fault she was in this situation anyways. If he weren’t always going on ‘Business Trips’, then maybe she would have grown up as a normal teenage girl. She definitely would not be sitting in this courtroom right now.

The Judge slammed his gavel down for quiet.

“Order in the court.” He said solemnly. Everyone in the room quickly shut up, but Poppy could still hear her father cursing the Judge, Jury, prosecution, and most of all, Poppy herself.

“Rihannon Sophia Kelly.” The Judge said, looking her straight in the eye. She had to fight back the urge to wince at her full name.

“Yes your honor?”

“The Jury finds you to be guilty on three counts: Grand Theft Auto, Hacking of Classified Government Files and Manslaughter of two Officers Of The Law. Do you deny these accusations?” Poppy shook her head softly.

“No your honor, I do not.”

“Then I sentence you to Welshington Detention Centre, thirty years to life with parole.” Poppy buried her face in her hands. Thirty to life? She was just a kid for Christ’s sakes.

Yeah Poppy, a snide little voice reminded her, you’re just a kid. Just a kid who hacked top-secret files that no one outside of the Government of Australia or the United States was supposed to see. Just a kid who stole a Jaguar and then killed the two police officers trying to detain her. Just a kid, hey Poppy? Poppy nearly cried. She wanted to desperately to go and redo that night. She wanted so desperately to be able to undo every crime she had ever committed.

Snap out of it! You’re about to be jailed in Welshington, you seriously need to grow a pair!

The voice was right, Poppy decided. She was about to be shipped over to Welshington, the most notorious juvenile detention centre in the entire world. She had heard rumors that the kids at that place did fourteen hours of hard labour every day, and that they only got fed bread and ham. The Government didn’t even care, either. Welshington was a very dark place in their perfect shiny lives, and they didn’t bother to send the inspectors more than once a year to check the kids were being treated right. Which they obviously weren’t. Then again, these kids were the nastiest on the face of the planet. They murdered and robbed and raped, without a guilty conscience. If Poppy was going to be in Welshington, she needed to seriously toughen up.

Poppy realized that someone had been shaking her shoulder for quite some time now. She snapped out of her daze and glanced at the person who was roughly shaking her. It was one of the courtroom guards.

“Get up, you little criminal. We’ve got to take you to your holding cell.” Poppy gave the ugly bastard her best death glare, but she knew that it would have no effect whatsoever. This guy had probably dealt with serial killers death glaring him, an average fourteen year old girl with a knack for computer hacking and trouble wasn’t even going to make his little toe nervous. The guard shook her shoulder once more, harder this time though, and told her to snap out of it.

“Listen here you little skank, I’ve dealt with kids like you before. You think that you’re top shit and you can’t get caught. Well, guess what? You can and you will. That Forensic stuff they have going nowadays is pretty damn smart, and they’ll catch you, no matter how hard you try.”

“Listen here, pal.” Poppy hissed at him, “I’m not in the mood for a lecture. Put my damn cuffs on and take me to my cell.” The guard chortled at her threat.

“Whatcha gonna do? Hack my mobile? Steal my Toyota? I don’t think so kiddo.”

Poppy was in a foul mood by the time she was placed in the tiny holding cell. Not that she wasn’t in a bad mood before, now she was in an even worse one. It didn’t help when the guards brought lunch around, and all it had been was an old tuna and lettuce from the courtroom cafeteria. Poppy hated tuna, and she hated lettuce. She was pretty sure that somehow, the person who had gotten her lunch had known, and had given it to her on purpose. Maybe it was her father. That wouldn’t be unlikely, especially considering how angry he was with her at this moment.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, Poppy though grimly to herself, as she saw her father negotiating with the guards to come and see her. She sat stoically in her cell. She wasn’t going to let daddy dearest she her weak and soft. She had to prove that she was hard. She was going to prison after all. Perhaps she might even get a tattoo.

“Rihannon.” Her father said to her, standing in front of the cramped cell. Poppy didn’t reply.

“Rihannon.” Her father said, although a little more forcefully.

“What, daddy?” She asked, her voice sticky sweet.

“Why?” Poppy cocked her head to the side and widened her eyes, the picture of perfect innocence.

“Why what, daddy?” Her father sighed and ran a hand through his thinning brown hair.

“Why did you hack? Why did you steal? Why did you kill?” Poppy bit the inside of her cheek. How dare he judge her.

“I did it for you daddy, obviously. I mean, you pay so much attention to me, I just wanted to give you a little thank you.”

Her father’s jaw tightened and his hands fisted at his side.

“I’m not a bad father Rihannon.” That was the last straw for Poppy.

“LIKE HELL! LIKE FUCKING HELL YOU AREN’T A BAD FUCKING FATHER!” She screamed, her long withheld anger finally taking the reins, “YOU FUCKING IGNORED ME FOR MY WHOLE LIFE. EVERYTHING I DID! YOU IGNORED ME!”

“That’s not true!” Her father yelled, his own anger starting to show through, “I did my very best! I’m a busy man!”

“THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!” Poppy took a deep breath before continuing, “Everytime I did something cool, something amazing, something normal parent’s would’ve been proud of their kids for, you just looked at me. Not with pride, not with happiness, not with love. With blankness. When I got the lead role in the school play two years ago, you didn’t watch a single performance. When I got the highest results in the school for my exams, you didn’t blink an eyelid. You HATE me! Just admit it dad.” Poppy felt exhausted after her little rant, but decided to finish it.

“I could have had such a bright future daddy. I could have gone to a great university, I could have had a fantastic job, I could have had a beautiful family. You ruined all that. You ruined that because you don’t love me enough to want me to succeed. But guess what dad? I love you. Because you’re my father. And children love their father’s unconditionally, even if their father’s don’t love them back.”

Poppy’s father stood shell shocked. A look of guilt was slowly beginning to make it’s way across his face. Good. Let him feel guilty. This was his fault anyway. The guards came over and gently shook the man.

“Time to go now sir. Sorry.” One of them said to him brusquely. He nodded dumbly and turned to go out the door.

“Bye Charles.” Poppy said to her father, addressing him with his full name. That was the last time that Poppy ever saw him.

Heeeeey so this is my third upload :) haha YAY! Yeah, but please vote and comment and stuff! I WOULD SERIOUSLY APPRECIATE IT!

I know that it's a little heavy going right now, but it gets lighter and funnier I PROMISE. JUST KEEP ON READING! :)

anyyyywaaaay hope you enjoyed!

x Millie