First Impressions The Tracy Beaker Survival Files - Tales from the Dumping Ground

My name is Tracy Beaker

and these are my Survival Files,

your essential guide to the ups and downs of growing up.

Tracy...

Tracy!

Life in the Dumping Ground has taught me a lot about...stuff.

-Tracy Beaker!

-Scary stuff...

THEY SCREAM

SHE SCREAMS

Complicated stuff...

-Stuff that can make you want to scream.

-Tracey!

If you can cope with the stuff that goes down in this place

you can cope with pretty much anything.

I've spent most of my life here.

First when I was a kid, and now it's where I work.

I've learned a lot about friends...

About enemies...

About what life can throw at you.

It's not always been pretty

but it's made me who I am today.

And now I'm passing on my wisdom to you guys, in a video blog.

Pay attention,

I've lived through all this so you don't have to.

On the Tracy Beaker Survival Files this time, first impressions.

How much can we tell about people on first sight?

Are first impressions reliable?

And what did Cam think when she first met me?

We all meet new people all the time

and some are like an open book.

The moment you meet them, you can tell exactly what they're like.

Oh! Sorry,

um, hi. Nathan?

Trainee co-worker?

Like Nathan. We had him sussed in seconds.

Hi, dudes.

Da-da!

He was just a big dopey kid. End of.

Da-da-da! Ace!

-Told you Tracy Beaker was the best.

-You've got it! Nice one, Tracy!

With Nathan, what you see is what you get

but other people try desperately hard to be what they think you want.

Meet Kez. She's our trainee social worker.

Yo, kids. What's up?

Er... "You seem bling."

Word!

Kez made a very strong first impression,

of a desperate saddo.

Wait, is it fist then fingers or...?

Her attempts to be down with the kids

even made Elaine the Pain look good.

Yeah, that bad.

Bye.

Sometimes first impressions are totally accurate, but not always.

Some people are careful not to give themselves away.

For example, not so long ago

a lovely polite new girl arrived at the Dumping Ground,

a girl with blue hair.

Tracy!

Sorry, Elektra!

Um, loving the hair. Do you want to come meet the others?

Do you mind if I meet them without any adults?

I just feel it's always so formal when there's staff there.

Whatever you feel is best.

'But as the girl was Elektra, our first impressions were way off.'

Aw, she seems really sweet.

Hi. You must be Elektra.

-Oh, wow, amazing hair. How did you get it like...

-Shut up.

-Who's in charge?

-Oh.

Are you all thick or something? I said, who's in charge?

Left alone with the other kids,

she certainly was...less formal.

Come on, then!

Hello, Jeff.

Next in line for the Elektra shock treatment

were Harry and Jeff.

I didn't like Elektra. Nor did Jeff.

HARRY GASPS

As soon as I saw her, I knew she was trouble. Big trouble.

Who did this?

Elektra.

-You freak!

-Get off of me!

You blue-haired freak!

Ow! Get off! Get off me!

That's enough!

No, Mike!

I'm not finished with her!

-No, Mike!

-Right, enough!

Now I've got to know her much better

and I've come to realise

that I was dead right.

MUSIC: "She's Electric" by Oasis

Elektra is...complicated.

She's angry and manipulative

and worst of all, she's smart.

She's good at putting on an act.

She certainly fooled me that first day.

And for a girl who can pull the wool over my eyes,

Carmen was just too easy a target.

KNOCK AT THE DOOR

-Are you OK?

-I'm fine.

Sorry, I'm just having a bad day.

So, why did you want to fight Liam?

I don't. Everywhere I go, someone beats me up on the first day.

I wanted to get it out of the way.

-That's awful.

-You get used to it.

So Carmen gave Elektra the benefit of the doubt.

Of course, she regretted it later

when she found out what Elektra was really like, but here's the thing.

The tough hard-face Elektra isn't the real Elektra either.

Underneath it all, she's almost human.

With me, what you see is what you get. Simple.

-I don't think that's true.

-What?

Behind the loudmouth troublemaker front,

I think there's a caring person in there.

I'm not a caring person.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

You know what, shut up, Beaker, you don't even know me.

Maybe I know Elektra more than she realises.

I know about acting tough when you're hurting inside

which might be why I can see right through her.

Every now and then, the mask slips,

just for a little while.

You can borrow it if you like.

Nah, it's too pretty for me.

What do you mean, too pretty? You are pretty.

No, I'm not, I'm ugly.

Rubbish. You can wear it tomorrow and then it'll have a memory.

What memory?

Um, the day I realised that me and Elektra could be friends.

Hang on while I puke everywhere.

Fine, then give it back. I don't care.

No. Sorry, it's just...

I never had anything nice before, so...

Honestly, Elektra,

you're just so...

So what?

Just so!

Aw. Course, it didn't last.

It all went wrong pretty quickly.

-Elektra?

-As soon as Carmen changed her mind.

Could I have my necklace back, please?

But you said I could wear it today.

Um, because, I was kind of planning to give it to Lily

-as a welcome home present.

-Oh!

That's great. Give Lily the present you were going to give me first!

It wasn't a present.

More of a...

borrow.

Yeah? "The day I realised Elektra and me could be friends!"

Know what, I don't want your stinking necklace.

Why would I even want a stupid piece of plastic all for your friend?

I'm sorry, Elektra, you can take it... Ow!

Oops, I slipped.

Mike, you've seen a lot of kids go through the Dumping Ground.

What do you make of Elektra?

Elektra's...

-Complicated?

-Yeah.

Yeah. She's been through a lot, so she tries to protect herself.

She puts this hard face on, so she doesn't get hurt.

So what can we do to help her?

We can try and respect her, and not judge her too harshly.

There's a great girl in there somewhere.

If we keep being there for her, she'll eventually shine through.

When do you think that might be?

By the time you retire, if we're lucky.

Elektra can be trouble, but there's only one of her.

Imagine coping with three Elektras.

Actually, I don't need to imagine. I know exactly what it was like.

When the Wellards first hit the Dumping Ground

they made quite an impression.

The Wellards believed in arriving with a bang.

They were not to be messed with

and they wanted everyone to know that from day one.

THEY YELL

What are you doing?

This is a Wellard's room.

-Ha-ha!

-Wellard's room.

-Course it is. Silly us.

Sorry, we're just... tidying up for you, yeah.

Pass me an egg, Marco.

Pass us an egg, Chantelle.

Everyone was fair game for the Wellards. Kids, adults...

Oops.

Even innocent dollies.

Uh-oh! Another terrible accident!

Bye-bye, dolly!

I'd just moved out to live with Cam. Again.

But I was still the undisputed Queen of the Dumping Ground

so when there Wellards took over, everyone came running to me.

Tracy, can we stay?

Oh, well, I am very busy!

Aw, Tracy, seriously, we can't go home!

The Dumping Ground's been taken over by aliens.

Yeah, please, Tracy.

Honestly, there's no escaping from you lot, is there?

Time to find out if these Wellards could stand up

to a little people power.

-I'm Tracy Beaker.

-Yeah!

-You might have heard of me.

Charge!

So there you go.

All it took was a military charge from the entire Dumping Ground,

led by me, and the Wellards crumbled.

Well, we won that one anyway.

But the Wellards didn't give up just like that.

Whenever there was a chance to big up the legend of the Wellard clan,

they would take it.

-I was thinking.

-Makes a change.

-Rio's dad.

Why's he in jail?

Umm. Teacher abuse.

Rio's teacher gave him detention so his dad paid him a visit

and tied him to the seat with sticky tape.

Not so bad though, is it?

It is when it's the last day before the summer holidays.

They found him six weeks later.

So, Rio's dad was a dangerous criminal then.

No wonder Rio was such a hard case.

It all fitted in perfectly with the Wellard image.

The only snag was none of it was true.

-Rio's dad.

-What about him?

-Why's he in prison?

-Because the police caught him, stupid.

-For stealing?

-Yeah.

-What's it got to do with you anyway?

-Stealing?

-You said Rio's dad was in prison for teacher abuse.

-Stole dogs as well.

And robbed banks.

Rio's dad isn't even in jail at all.

-What's going on?

-Rio lied about his dad being in prison.

-I haven't.

-Then why is your dad in jail?

-You don't have to tell him.

My dad's in jail because...

..because he stole a car.

And he drove it to this big bank and then he went inside and nicked

all this stuff from the safe,

and money and jewels, and money and stuff.

Everything, he stole everything in the whole place. The lot.

Dad didn't flinch.

Not even when the big angry guard dogs started growling

and showing their teeth.

GROWLS

That's my dad, see. Not frightened of anything. Nothing at all.

He's a hard man, a tough nut, a real hero.

LOUD BARK

-He's making it up!

-I'm not.

Crash had made a big mistake. He was trying to be mates with Rio.

Crash's dad really was in jail

so he'd thought they had something in common.

He wasn't impressed to find out that Rio had lied.

I only said my dad was in jail to frighten Lol.

I didn't know your dad had... I didn't know...

At least you know where your dad is. I don't even know WHO mine is.

So, the Wellards weren't quite what they seemed.

Funny how often that happens.

If you take the trouble to dig beneath the surface,

you'll find all sorts of surprises.

What have we learned so far

about first impressions to put into the Tracy Beaker Survival Files?

Elektra and the Wellards deliberately went out of their way

to look tough but that's not always how it works.

Some people can make a bad first impression, totally by accident.

Hold that.

I wonder how fast this thing goes.

# White riot, I wanna riot

# White riot, a riot of my own

# White riot, I wanna riot... #

Take Liam. High-spirited, fun-loving, enjoys a good laugh.

Wait your turn.

Yeah, he can be a bit of a tearaway but his heart's in the right place.

That's how his friends see him,

but when Liam decided to borrow a mobility scooter,

the owner saw things a bit differently.

Oi! Get off!

Mr Spooner, who owned the scooter, was not impressed,

nor were the police.

So Mike begged Liam to try harder to impress the magistrate.

Liam, face the front. Take your hands out of your pockets

and try to make a good impression for the magistrate.

I despair with Liam sometimes. This was really serious, you know?

He could have been looking at time in a young offenders' institute.

The least he could do was try

and make a good impression with the magistrate.

BEEPING

What's with the phone?! I don't believe you. This is big stuff.

All right.

Tracy, what am I doing wrong? He's out of control.

PHONE BEEPS

-Gus has got a date!

-Tracy.

-Good morning.

-Sorry.

At times like this, it's important to give the right impression.

We had to look responsible and serious

and Liam needed to show he was sorry for what he'd done.

He's the thieving beggar who took my scooter.

Thank you, we have your statement.

He might as well have taken my legs. I can't go anywhere.

-What, you've still got your scooter.

-But it's broken because of you.

-Give him the maximum, go on. He's a little menace.

-You lying old codger.

-Quiet.

-See, no respect.

-This is the thanks an old war hero gets.

-Quiet!

-It wasn't going well.

Spooner had called Liam a young thug

so it was up to Liam to prove that basically, he's a decent lad.

To be honest, my hopes weren't that high.

This isn't the first time

you've been before a magistrate, Mr O'Donovan.

I don't have any parents to show me a good way, your Honour,

living in care.

We've read your file and it would appear

previous punishments have not acted as a deterrent.

I'm afraid this time we shall have to consider a more serious sentence.

I knew I was going down but my sentence was worse than I thought.

Seven days of community service working with old people.

That was bad enough,

then they told me which old people I was working with.

-Aah! Didn't think he'd have the guts to show.

-You?

Come to do his time, he has.

Help himself, more like, thieving little beggar.

No way was I sticking round for a week.

As soon as Spooner would see me, he'd start banging on again.

He was doing my head in.

What are you doing hanging around here for? Casing my room, eh?

I'm sorry about your scooter. I'm not a thief,

I wasn't casing your room.

Eavesdropping though, weren't you, little tyke?

Are you all right?

No. Yeah, just get me to a chair.

COUGHS

Look, I'm going to get you some help, OK?

No, this is just a dizzy spell, that's all. I've had them before.

They'll only fuss.

When someone collapses in front of you,

you've got to make sure they're all right.

I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible

but then I spotted something on the wall.

That the war?

No, Suez Canal crisis, doing my national service.

-National service, what's that?

-In my day,

you had to join the army for two years whether you liked it or not.

-You just did it?

-Of course.

Happy days. All gone now.

So that's how you got all them medals?

I don't like to talk about it.

You did in the courtroom.

You lot have it easy nowadays.

Those fellas, they were the only family I had.

I've got no family either.

I don't like to talk about it.

You did in the courtroom.

All of a sudden, something amazing happened.

The thieving little beggar and the lying codger started swapping stories.

It turned out they had more in common than they thought.

A right old scrape that was.

I think I was chased for about a mile before the old bill got me.

-I don't think I could keep that up now.

-No.

Look, I'm sorry about the scooter. I was just mucking about, honest.

Look, forget the scooter. It's been nothing but trouble.

I've spent nearly all my savings on it and it still won't work.

Look at that lot.

150 quid for brakes? What brakes?

Look, I'm no expert but I think this guy's ripping you off.

No, he wouldn't do that. He's ex-forces.

We look out for each other, like family.

Spooner thought all young lads were trouble

and all ex-soldiers were heroes but life's not that simple.

Some people you hate, they can surprise you by doing good things

and the people you trust, they can let you down.

Oh, keen customer. That's what I like, Mr Spooner.

We don't need to go through it all again, eh?

Two honest squaddies like us.

You really are a class act, Eddie. What's this?

150 quid a service, 200 for wheel bearings. It goes on.

About two grand's worth of bills.

On top of what Mr Spooner paid you

for that heap of rubbish that you sold him.

What's this, Mr Spooner?

-You hired some yob to shake me down or something?

-No, Eddie.

He's just an honest young lad who opened my eyes.

You're a cheat, a liar and a thief.

Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call the police?

So I helped Spooner out and he realised just because

I borrowed his scooter doesn't make me a violent yob,

and I realised he weren't so bad for a shouty old man,

so we'd both changed.

Just goes to show, you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover.

You can't tell everything about someone by their age,

the way they dress or seem to behave at first sight.

'Certainly no-one had Mr Spooner down as a boy racer,

'but it's easy to be taken in by appearances.

'Even I've been known to make that mistake.'

Sorry, couple number one. Thank you and good night.

'Looking back, I could have been more open-minded.'

Potential family number two -

you think someone as cool as me could live with that hairdo?

Get real, lady.

'I could have tried to get past my first impressions.'

-They're here! 'Especially when it was important.'

-Wait there.

'When I was meeting people who could have changed my whole life,

'like potential foster parents.'

Tracy,

this is Mr and Mrs Brown.

-Call me Terry.

-I'm Jill, pleased to meet you.

-There must be a mistake.

-What?

These people are old.

But there was one visitor to the Dumping Ground

who I definitely wanted to impress.

She wasn't coming to foster anyone, at least that's what she thought.

She thought she was coming to write an article about care homes.

I've written about how upset my foster parents were

when I made them bring me back,

so I've drawn a picture of them crying a river of tears.

More like tears of happiness, getting shot of you.

This couldn't even go in a puddle, let alone a river.

-Come over here and help me tidy this lot away.

-I can't.

I won't have enough time to finish this before the writer gets here.

I'd better start at the top then work my down then, had I?

I don't know why you're bothering. I bet she won't even read it.

So there was this writer called Cam coming to meet us

and I wanted to be a writer.

I knew we were bound to get on

and that she would foster me, eventually,

but just to be safe, I decided to go the extra mile

to make an impression.

-Hi, I'm Cam Lawson.

-Hello, Jenny Edwards. Do come in.

Cam, what do you remember about the first day

you came to the Dumping Ground?

I was a bit nervous, really. Don't know why.

I suppose I had no idea what to expect,

what all of you would think of me.

The kids I did meet certainly made an impression.

This is my granny.

She's dead, and so's my mum. They're angels in Heaven now.

There was one who stood out from the crowd.

Someone's been using my make-up. One person's missing

and when I get my hands on her I'll kill her.

Hello!

At first, the crowd was stunned into silence as Tracy Beaker,

the glamorous best-selling writer

arrived to be interviewed by another famous best-selling writer.

Then they couldn't control themselves a moment longer

and went absolutely wild!

No-one told us there was going to be a freakshow.

Cast your mind back then, to the moment we met.

What was your first impression?

Hard to say. I couldn't really see you under about 15 tons of make-up.

Yeah, maybe the make-up was a mistake.

Should have gone for more glitter.

Hmm, more glitter?

Could have worked.

Now, Tracy, come and meet Cam.

Tracy's the girl I told you about who wants to become a writer.

Tracy, a writer?

Yeah, that's really going to happen(!)

Give that back!

I'm Tracy Beaker, with my incredible heart-rending story.

Tragic - she's only cut out a picture from a magazine

pretending it's her mum.

You two girls, stop that!

Now, be honest. It wasn't the perfect start.

-You made sure I could never forget you.

-I hate you.

I'm sorry about this, Cam.

You're a total headcase, Tracy Beaker.

I thought I'd blown it. Cam would never want to see me again.

Bog off, Jenny. I hate you.

You knew how much I wanted to meet that writer.

And I hate that Justine Littlewood. She always spoils everything.

Tracy, it's me, Cam.

I just wanted to tell you that I've looked through your life book

and you've written some fantastic stuff.

I adored the bit about your foster parents and the river of tears.

Showed a lot of imagination.

The thing is, first impressions can often go wrong.

That's why it's good to give everyone

a second chance to get it right.

That's what I did.

No, not exactly.

Are you just saying that because you feel sorry for me? You better not,

-because I don't care.

-I know.

No, you don't. I'm the one stuck in here, not you!

I bet you're not even a proper writer.

Writers don't bite their nails or wear tatty jeans.

You look like a right loser, you do. Not rich and glamorous at all.

That's how smart writers are.

Really smart with posh hair and swanky clothes and loads of make-up,

and loads and loads, and loads and loads and loads.

So what did you think of me after that?

Well, if I'm going on first impressions,

I thought you were stroppy, moody, difficult...

-Hang on!

-Rude, unreasonable, obstinate.

But when you got to know me better...

I found out you were all those things and more.

Go on, put the boot in, why don't you?

But I also found out that I wouldn't want you any other way,

-because then you wouldn't be you.

-Aww.

Thank you!

Lucky for Cam I made such a big first impression,

or she could have missed out on all the happiness

I have brought into her little world.

So, what have we learnt about first impressions

to upload into my Survival Files?

So, that's the Beaker guide to first impressions safely uploaded

to the Tracy Beaker Survival Files.

More gems of wisdom from my experiences next time.

On this occasion, your first impression is right.

It's going to be unmissable.

Remember,

I've been through all this so you don't have to.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

Email [email protected]