i will go to secret gardens in my mind

Emerson Cassidy’s life had never been easy. From the moment she was born there were problems and situations so wildly out of her control that from a young age she learned to just keep her head down and take it. To accept the hand that the universe had dealt her and to try and make the best of it. Emerson never really knew her parents, not really. They’d been in and out of jail and rehabs for all of her childhood, so the only really parental figure in her life had been her aunt, who also tried to help make the best of a really bad situation. And she had her brother too, Jameson. Jameson was only a few years older, but he was her protector, watching out for her and taking care of her as much as he could. To this day Emerson is pretty sure she owes every good thing in her life to her brother- either by what he’d done for her or what he’d taught her.

She learned to read from a young age, reading and writing by the time she was three and that love of literature followed through for her entire life. Reading and learning allowed the young girl an escape from her life, and when her parents died when she was just seven, Emerson ached for that escape more than ever. Especially as the years went on and she kept realizing just how cruel and unfair the world really was. She still kept her head down though, still just tried to grin and bear it. And for the most part, it worked. She went from hiding away in Aurora Bay’s bookshop to volunteering to even getting a job before she was even fifteen and as she grew up, Emerson (by some miracle) managed to stay kind, and to stay soft. She still tried to see the good in the world and in all people, she tried to see reasoning behind every bad thing. And for a while there, their lives were good. Emerson excelled in school, being top of her classes, and Jameson finally had love and seemingly a peace in his life that she’d wanted for her big brother for years.

So of course another wrench would have to be thrown into their paths.

Jameson had always been labelled as trouble, but Emerson knew who he really was. She knew the acting out- the drinking and the fights and the stealing- it was all due to the horrible cards they’d been dealt. She knew the group he hung out with weren’t as bad as people perceived (after all, they even allowed his baby sister to sometimes hang around). And she knew it wasn’t his fault, not really. She knew he was a good person, someone who loved her and took care of her, someone who was strong and defiant and good. So when the news broke that he’d killed someone…Emerson knew down to her bones that he didn’t do it. But sadly, the damage was done, and few believed Jameson’s word when stacked up against the life he’d led. And so, again, the world had taken from her.

Rumors and whispers had always followed the Cassidy children around. They were somewhat of outcasts in Aurora Bay given how they just didn’t belong, sticking out like sore thumbs even after their aunt had gained custody and made sure they were always well taken care of. Jameson was too loud and Emerson was too quiet, the two not fitting in into the expensive, cookie-cutter lives so many lead here. So when Jameson was sent to prison (just like her parents) when she was just barely seventeen, it all finally became a bit too much for her. She could handle the whispers and the looks when she had her brother there, when she had someone who understood and would cut through all the noise, but without Jameson she was just…alone. And she didn’t want to be. So when Emerson graduated high school (still top of her class, thank you very much). She applied to schools all over the country and got into NYU on scholarship, and as much as she wanted to stay close to where her brother was, she knew she needed to do this for herself too.

New York was a whole new world to her and she loved it. Emerson thrived in a space where no one knew her name or her family, where no one judged her before even meeting her. She again did well in her classes, actually had friends… She got herself a tiny little apartment and worked in a library and honestly, life was good—even if It still felt like something was missing. She kept in contact with Jameson as best she could, and even kept in touch with his ex(?) and her niece, genuinely loving the little girl and trying to facetime with her as much as possible. Every day though she still worried about her brother and longed for the day that she’d see him again.

It’s been four years now since she moved, five since Jameson had gone to jail for a murder she knew he didn’t commit. And it’s been almost a month since she’d been told that he was out. Emerson admittedly was more than a little hurt that Jameson hadn’t immediately told her herself and she instead had to hear about it from their aunt, but of all the things she wanted to say to her brother, yelling at him wasn’t one of them. Life was great in New York, but something just…didn’t fit right. Because even with the looks and the whispers, Aurora Bay was still home. She missed the sunrises and walking on the beach, missed her aunt’s cooking. She missed home. So she’s moved out of her apartment and packed her things and is now back in Aurora Bay (with her cat Ichabod, no less). She’s still the same soft, quiet girl she’s always been. She still always has her nose stuck in a book, would sooner say fiddlesticks than swear, but she’s at least a little braver now too, a little less feeble, and this time she’s not going to run away. Especially if she’d have her brother back at her side.

Extras:

full name: emerson dove cassidy

birthday: december 12, 1999

height: 5′5

nicknames: em, emmy, ems

parents: lenore and quentin cassidy (both deceased)

went to nyu and ​lived in new york from 2019 - 2023 

moved back to aurora bay february 2023

fluent in french, can read italian and latin

pinterest

Current Connections:

Jameson Cassidy - older brother @jamesonxcassidy 

Darcy Anthony - close friend, pseudo-older sister @darcyxanthonyx 

Felix Kumara - neighbor/friend/occasionally babysits @felix-kumara

Finn Brooks - friend @finn-brooks 

Leo Larson - neighbor @leomlarson

Noah Atwood - friend @noah-atwood

Lucy Driscoll - fellow bookworm friend @lucydriscoll

Wes Evans - fellow bookworm friend @wesxevans