Treasure

Series synopsis: Our protagonist is 17-year-old JONI BENNETT. She’s overweight, has a large collection of Beanie Babies, and used to care about nothing but getting into Art School. But before the summer holidays her popular, beautiful sister, SOPHIE, was found dead at sports camp and her parents started fighting. Joni turned to MySpace, weed and heavy eye makeup for comfort. When the police conclude that Sophie committed suicide, Joni refuses to accept it. She launches her own investigation, and finds something they missed: a picture of a penis in the gallery of her sister’s Pink Motorola RAZR. Joni’s shocked because it’s 2007, and people just don’t send those. Helped by her equally outcasted friends - OSCAR, the disabled emo hacker and LIZ, the acne-prone, only-black-kid-at-a-white-school chess nerd - Joni plots a way to find the owner of the penis. Certain it’s one of the rugby boys, she puts aside years of hatred and bullying to befriend them, and ends up the object of their affections. She even befriends the lacrosse girls, and discovers that Sophie had a nude leaked. While hunting for clues, Joni sees her MUM kissing the lead police officer - someone who definitely isn’t her dad. In a heated confrontation, Joni learns that her dad was paid off by the school to keep the truth around Sophie’s death quiet. In the paperwork, Joni finds the Facebook group that leaked Sophie’s nude, and fights with Oscar when she sees that he was a member of it - but never mentioned this. Joni sleeps with one of the rugby boys to see if it’s his penis in the photo, and to get back at Oscar. She fights with Liz who wants her to ‘move on’, happy to finally be ‘popular’ after they’re invited to a huge Pimps and Hoes party by rugby captain AJ. Isolated from her friends and parents, Joni gets closer to art teacher MR LANGDON. They connect over his own tragic past, and how the students at this cruel school bully him because of his lisp. She kisses Langdon after he gives her notes on her art school entrance essay, but he freaks out and rejects her. Embarrassed, Joni leaves, and on the way breaks into the school’s file room, and finds a connection between Sophie and the rugby captain, AJ; it was AJ’s who paid Joni’s dad his hush money, through the school. Joni calls Oscar and gets him to use his computer genius to confirm that it was AJ who uploaded the photo to the Facebook group. Joni and Oscar reconcile, and head to AJ’s party to confront him once and for all. At the party, Joni finds AJ in his bedroom with Liz. She’s giving him a blowjob and he’s secretly filming it. Joni smashes a bottle and threatens AJ with it, and gets him to admit that he uploaded the photo to Facebook, and owns the Facebook group. But AJ shows the girls the email he received the photo from as proof it wasn’t him who sent it. Liz persuades Joni to believe him - and says it’s definitely not his penis in the picture. Way too small. At Joni’s house, Oscar tells her there’s nothing more she can do from a hacking perspective, and Liz reminds her that nothing will bring Sophie back. Joni decides to let go. She saved Liz, and that’s enough. Returning Sophie’s phone to her room in a final act of closure, Joni spots a note on the wall, and recognizes the handwriting - Mr Langdon. She leaves her friends in her house and arranges to meet Langdon at Sophie’s grave. At the grave, Joni seduces Langdon and, down to his underwear, she confirms the penis is his. She gets him to admit that he had an affair with Sophie, and that he sent her nude to the group when they had a fight. Brandishing her art scissors, Joni is ready to cut his penis off. Meanwhile, Liz uses her chess skills and Oscar uses his hackery to work out Joni’s plan, and they enlist Joni’s parents to find her. Her mum and dad reconnect over the sudden realisation that they have one daughter left - and she needs their help. The group reach Joni just in time, and the family reunites, finally understanding each other and ready to face the trauma they share. Joni learns that the only person she is able to save is herself.