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Micah is a skater boy at war with authority - or any "old people" for that matter. “I can’t stand old people,” he says. “They think because they’ve grown up and [are] older they’ve got a lot of wisdom. If I’m skating down the street they’ll tell me to get off the footpath. I just give them the finger.” When he’s not smoking or drinking, he spends all his time hanging out at the skate park.

“On the weekend I go way overboard,” he says. “I drink until I’m absolutely wasted. I have about nine, ten bottles, and then we have shots. I can still walk…but barely. I like to have fun because you only live once. “There’s been times where I’ve though that I was going to die. That’s how drunk I was.”

He’s been suspended once from school, which he says “sux, really bad.” “That [my suspension] was for throwing a bottle at a chick and calling her a whore because she bagged a mate... She punched me in the face. It was pretty funny. I laughed.”

Micah lives with his mother Joyce, who’s struggling to cope with her rude and verbally aggressive son. “I really don’t have a lot of control over him,” she says. “He sees me as an authority figure and he doesn’t want that. He can be intimidating. There’s no respect for me. It bothers me - what’s he going to do to women. You can’t help but wonder, ‘Where did I go wrong?’”

Micah’s parents divorced when he was in grade three and since then his behaviour has spiralled out of control. “I believe the lack of a role model has been a contributing factor to Micah’s behaviour,” Joyce says.

Micah’s relationship with his mother has hit rock bottom. “Living with my mum is really frustrating. She thinks completely different to me. It’s just like banging your head against a brick wall. Kids are different to back when she was younger.”

When it comes to respect, Micah has none for the woman who raised him. “I say anything to my mum. I don’t’ really care. The worst thing I’ve said would probably be, ‘Go f%@* die!”

With his couldn’t care less attitude, Joyce has run out of ideas and hope. “She’s pretty much given up,” Micah shrugs.