Played By: Hilary Duff Voice: Lady Gaga (for The Empire), Fiona Apple Birthdate & Age: 3rd May, 1986 (23) Siblings: Ainsley (29), August (26), Alyse (24), Alfie (20), Abram (16), Asher (13) Screen name:babyeater aubrey Biography: Seven weeks before she was meant to arrive, the last of the Laine girls came into the world with all the attention trained on her, and things haven't changed since. The middle child of seven, littlest female, and loudest and blondest of the lot, Aubrey's earliest years were divided between time spent standing on tables and singing The Cure at the top of her lungs, raising her countless pets, perching at the piano bench taking in the lessons Mum taught (and more importantly, following older brother August's every musical move), and running around the 141,000 acres the Laines called home. Born and raised on a farm in rural South Australia, AUS, Aubrey had never seen much outside the small town her family visited once a season for essentials. She was more than happy in her little bubble, playing with animals and brothers, letting her imagination run wild, and putting on shows whenever there were boarders and August was in the mood for performing. The entire family was immersed in music, thanks to both parents being huge musical people themselves. Mum Vanessa was an avid fan and pianist, and dad David had played in a rockband until the birth of his second child and relocation from Sydney to take over the station that his family had been running for generations. Musical talent was natural and appreciation of the arts was instilled in the children from an early age, with bi-monthly visits to the bigger town always including massive record store outings, and even bigger purchases. The kids were raised on the classics, and for her entire first decade, Aubrey aspired to be Debbie Harry - she was a blondie herself, afterall. At least, that was when she wasn't intent on being the next Steve Irwin. The only thing Aubrey loved more than her music was animals, and that adoration was cemented when she - with the help of Mum, who held a degree in animal sciences from MacQuarie and had obviously passed her love for creatures onto her daughter - raised an abandoned emu from hatching to full grown. Sal, as the bird was named, was Aubrey's pride and joy - still is, really. Animals were what Aubrey had set herself on doing, leaving music to the brothers who'd gotten far more talent, and actually had the patience to sit and learn an instrument. At seven, she'd planned to finish school quick as she could, then get an animal science degree and work at one of countrys many wildlife reserves. The plan was underway, and all was going smoothly enough until Aubrey hit the age of nine and, on othing more than a whim and a one-time desire to go for a swim, decided to take up competitive swimming. What had started as a ploy to make three year old Abram angry that he couldn't go swimming too, ended up as the basis of Aubrey's life for the next twelve years. At the age of nine, she began swimming competitively on weekends, coming into the nearby town of Hawker and training through the mornings while Dad took care of station business. By eleven she was good - really good, and after a lot of thought, and a lot of 'are you sure' being asked by both child and parent, it was decided that the next school year, Aubrey would be off to train properly in Port Augusta, the closest town with a proper facility for the little speed demon.
All of the kids eventually went to Port August for their upper school years anyway, Aubrey was just heading there a little bit early. Instead of a boarding house, she moved in with Dad's littlest sister, Aunt Sophie, and there she stayed for the next three years, training and attending school. It wasn't an immediate switch, but in her time away from the station, Aubrey went from being a sweet, attention-loving little girl, to a bitchy, attention-craving teenager. It was more than the typical teen angst, feeling cast from her home and like she could never live up to what her dad wanted, problems adjusting to both the social and academic atmospheres of her new school, and having little adult supervision (Aunt Sophie was kind of a flake) left a lot of room for trouble. Her swimming was picking up, but the rest of Aubrey was steadily sliding downhill.
By fifteen, she'd swam in no less than ten different countries and earned international medals and held age-bracket records in all of her events, but she'd also lost her virginity to a nameless competitor at a swim meet and spent most weekends packing bowls and shooting tequila and taking boys to dark corners. She also failed year 9, and decided not to give it another go, ending her run at academics and moving even farther away from home - to Adelaide with her coach, for more intense training. At least August was attending uni in the same city, and she wasn't entirely alone.
The training paid off. Competing against adults now, Aubrey was still at the top, bringing home Commonwealth gold and only getting faster with each meet. The Australian record breaking times at olympic qualifiers in Melbourne were only the tip of her proverbial iceberg, and Aubrey's career hit it's highest point when she won three golds in Athens, setting world record times with each of her races. A new level of celebrity was suddenly reached, and upon arriving back in Australia, Aubrey finally returned to her family's station - it was too crazy out there for the new golden girl of the country, and now that she'd won Olympic gold, surely that'd make all those issues she'd taken up the sport to fix all better... right?
Wrong. Somehow it was only worse, and it wasn't long before Aubrey was back in Adelaide, living on her own, training all day and partying - quietly, of course, now that she was a national icon - all night. Despite all the hard work, her times never reached those she'd set in Athens, and although she brought home more gold from the Commonwealth games and had several first place finishes, the failure to measure up to her own standard soon had her image falling. That, paired with the hear-say stories spreading about her partying and love for cigarettes and alcohol, quickly tarnished the brightest star in the sport, and by 2006, Aubrey had taken a hiatus from the sport and relocated herself to Los Angeles. It didn't go over well with her public or her family, but Aubrey had needed out. The adwork and guest spots she'd done back home hadn't been much, but within three months of moving into her Palisades apartment, Aubrey had her first movie role. It only went up from there, and while she was by no means a household name, the tiny brunette - she'd dyed her hair as soon as she'd gotten to LA, the blonde thing far too overdone here, she felt - was working steadily and living happily with a close friend. Of course, it was Los Angeles and there was always a party, and it didn't take long for her appearances in tiny dresses and huge heels to become her claim to fame. Although she was absent from competition in her sport, unless Aubrey was on location for a role, she kept up a regimented training routine. No less than four hours were spent in the pool each morning after a 10k run. March 2008 were the qualifying trials for Beijing, and Aubrey was set on proving to her country, that she hadn't lost it. Things didn't go as smoothly as planned, and upon returning to Australia, she fired her coaching staff and refused to train at all, until she arrived in Sydney just days before her races. The work she'd been putting in wasn't for nothing though, and Aubrey not only placed first in her races, but set new world record times in her two top events, proving herself to the country, and more importantly, herself. No sooner did she prove them all wrong, did she turn around and prove them all right. The celebrations after the close of the meet and the announcement that Aubrey had made the Olympic squad got a little out of hand, and instead of waking up to headlines of a comeback, the Laines woke up to news of their littlest girl being hospitalised for alcohol poisoning. It took only a month's deliberation before it was announced that despite having world record times, Aubrey would not be allowed to compete for Australia. The heartbreaking news came a week before her birthday, and by then, Aubrey had managed to bounce back - or at least put on a happy face. Turning her focus back to the screen, Aubrey signed up, along with brothers August and Alfie, for a reality show documenting the three of them living in Los Angeles although the brothers were only there temporarily. It was the only work Aubrey had in 2008, thanks in part to a pile of personal issues that finally had to be dealt with, until she was offered the role of Sophie in 'Mamma Mia' - a leading role the producers felt she was made for. Despite dealing with a lot of personal problems, including the rise and fall of her first and only relationship during filming, they managed to all make it work, and Aubrey returned to America, meeting up with Soundwave on tour, preparing to return home to Australia for the remainder of 2008. A month long stint in rehab immediately followed filming, but was cut short when on-again boyfriend Bailey Riain's mother died, sending her out of treatment prematurely and back overseas. The relationship ended for good despite their best efforts, but Aubrey kept on trucking... sort of. Two weeks were spent globe-hopping to promote 'Mamma Mia' and Aubrey won the role of the next Bond girl, all before Christmas break. The holidays were spent at home, marked by both ups and downs - the premiere of pet project 'The Empire' with brother Alfie, and a miscarriage that resulted in emergency surgery just days before the aforementioned secret concert. Despite the downs, the ups prevailed - the movie was a smash success, the single hit radio and exploded all over Australia, and it looked like Aubrey was finally starting to get her shit together, so to speak, and forge herself a real career. And then she went back to LA. Within a week of her return, and left to her own devices with no one but a drug addict ex-boyfriend to hang out with, Aubrey didn't stand much of a chance of surviving Los Angeles with her soberity in tact. An attempt to salvage their relationship ended with a dose of tequila and Xanax, and an involuntary committment to the psych ward for three days. Her family was pushed away as she stormed out at the first possible moment, heading back to Bailey and head first into the storm of that dysfunctional relationship she couldn't break herself out of. The spell broke itself when the headlines screamed, just two weeks later, that Bailey had died. It had been cited as an accident, but anyone who knew him could have almost seen this coming, between the drugs and the problems he faced - his death seemed to scare Aubrey sober and send her into a state of shock that rocked life as she'd known it. Already dropped from the Bond film by the studio for her bad behaviour, Aubrey quickly gave up the rest of the roles she had scheduled to work on and headed back to Australia, going straight into hiding with the family who she'd brushed off not long before. Just as he'd scared her out of the drugs, they were aware of how easily the two could have swapped places, and welcomed her back to them with relief. And until further notice, that's exactly where she's staying - home, away from the drama and the trouble that comes with being a pretty young thing in Hollywood. Credits: Here OOC Information: Always up to AIM or scene! I'm on EST and tend to be around in the day more than any other time, although you can find me on in the evenings from time to time as well. I prefer writing on AIM and in storybook format, although I am flexible - just let me know what you're comfortable with and I'll do my best to comply! |