#|biography|

Cassandra Bennett is probably one of the only people in New York that isn’t still trying to fulfil a life-long dream of ‘making it in the big city.’ Working two jobs to afford to split the bills with her sister-come-roommate Jenny is enough to keep her happy in their modest Lower East Side apartment – it’s certainly better than the off-the-map town in Kentucky that they left behind.

Cassandra Bennett, although she prefers to be referred to by Cassie was born in a little town in the heart of Kentucky to two very loving and present parents just four years after her older sister Jenny. Their home in Kentucky was never anything to brag about, Her parents kept mediocre jobs that were just enough to keep the lights on and food on the table. That’s probably why living in Kentucky had been the only time that Cassie had ever done any real dreaming. Cassie had already dreamt of trading in her small town country life for the big bright lights of New York city. Having a sister who had a cosmetology degree and dreams bigger than her own, Cassie jumped at the opportunity to travel over states to live with her in The Big Apple.

Her sister’s outshining success was never a bitter reality. Cassie was able to stop resenting her hometown and actually live in New York by the time she was twenty-two, simply because their parents believed in her sister’s aspiration to become ‘the hairstylist of New York’s Elite’ enough to fund their move and first month’s rent. She is good at what she does too, her sister, but until the rest of the world figured that out, Cassie is content on working her ass off to split the cost of the roof over their heads.

Maybe if she was being honest with herself, she could admit that deciding against college to work her way up at that convenience store back in Kentucky might have been a bad idea. Maybe she could admit that she didn’t have the work ethic right after high school to climb up to a managerial position, and maybe she could go so far as to admit that, over three years later, when she was still stuck in the same job and her sister made her New York proposal, she was so damn relieved for a way out of her drab job.

That’s if she was being honest though and, as genuine as she fancies herself, Cassie has never been one to let her pride slip. Besides, look at her now.

RELATIONSHIPS:

EMPLOYEE AT OTHELLO - It’s certainly no career in comparison to her sister’s success, but Cassie is perfectly happy with her job at the club. The management is easy-going and lets her pick up extra hours most nights (even if it means staying for the awful clean-up shifts) and she spends more time laughing behind the bar than she does working in silence like her last job.

JENNY BENNETT - Still content in their loft, the Bennett sisters spend most of their downtime binging Netflix and refining their shopping budget. Cassie insists that Jenny tags along to the club to let her hair down and make some new friends in the city but, as money remains tight, the older sister’s priorities lie in banking late appointments to help provide for Cassie, even if it means seeing less and less of each other these days.

JORDAN MOORE - Under the scrutiny eye of all of New York these to just seemed to hit it off form the start. Despite being from two completely separate walks of life these two relish in each others company. Despite being complete opposites they’ve found that they are exactly what each other need. She has the ability to keep him grounded while he has shown her that there’s more to living than just simply making it by.

(TW: Infertility, Cancer, Child Death)

She spent most of her childhood alone, her peers more interested in her family's bowling alley than her company, it wasn’t until she was older and began dating that she really felt what it was like to have somebody genuinely seek out her company. Now suffering from a heart wrenching death and the end of a six year marriage, Esmeray is having a hard time remembering how to rely on herself for her happiness. She's back working with her family at the bowling alley and the arcade, and is relying on the charm and whimsy of the business to keep her social life alive and mind occupied. If only she could see that her warm and sprightly personality is more than enough to have people falling head over heels for her.

Working at the bowling alley at thirty years old wasn't exactly where she had thought she would end up, especially not six years ago when she was running away to California with a man that she had only met in a little coffee shop a week prior. However love made you do crazy things, that was only further solidified when she called up her family to inform them that they would be getting married merely months later. Although her parents were a little weary on the idea they didn't express such worry, instead allowing their daughter to live her life. Then again if they hadn't had a crazy vision in their minds they never would have made the move to New York in the first place.

Esmeray and her husband had been in pure bliss, the wedding a beautiful celebration of the love that the two truly shared together. Their happiness only expanded when one day at an appointment the pair found out that they were expecting. The two were overjoyed, a family being the next logical step for their future. They both had great paying jobs, he owned his own publishing house and she had begun to teach at a local school, a career that would be put on hold the moment their daughter made her entrance into the world.

Asli was born nine months later after what Esmeray could only describe as the perfect pregnancy and delivery. She was a natural and for the first time ever she truly knew what she was meant to be in this world, a mother. It was no surprise that the twelve weeks of time off that she had received wasn't nearly enough for her, causing her to resign from her teaching position and instead became a stay at home mom. The first three and a half years of Asli's life was pure bliss. The little family couldn't be happier. Missing the small baby moments the couple decided to try for yet another bundle of joy, only this time was different. Esmeray didn't have as easy a time conceiving as she had with Asli. Fertility shots and treatments were introduced, along with eating certain foods and keeping a closer eye on her cycle but nothing really seemed to help.

They kept up with the treatments for a year, causing a pretty steady decrease in their funds with still no improvement. The stress was starting to cause cracks in their perfect little family. Her husband was taking more business meetings, choosing to travel a little extra or further away. He claimed that is was a necessity seeing as he was the only one working and their finances were starting to struggle because of these treatments. They had both decided after nearly a year of trying that it was a lost cause. They instead played around with the idea of adoption... however before they could ever make a decision on it tragedy struck their family.

Asli grew sick... really sick at the age of five. She had a high fever and wouldn't stop crying, refusing to sleep even after being given medication so the couple took her to the nearest hospital, scared as they awaited results of test after test. Eventually she had been diagnosed with leukemia. There was no cure, only treatments that could make her comfortable and possibly prolong the inevitable. It had prolonged it, however it had only given the couple a measly six months with their baby. Those six months they put on a united front for her, acted like the family they had been for her first few years. However when the day came that they had lost their child it shattered an already fragile relationship.

Biography

TW: Death, Faulty Foster System, Neglect

Mekhela Maes was born in Colorado on April 1st 1995 to a musician and one of his many groupies. Now if you were to ask Mekhela which musician had fathered her she would tell you she didn’t have the slightest clue. In fact she honestly wasn’t sure if the man was ever even made aware of her existence or not. Her mother was also a mystery to her. All she had from the women was a note she had left in her crib the day that she had abandoned her at the hospital, apologizing because she wasn’t ready to raise a child yet and claiming that she was only doing this in hopes that her daughter would have a better life than she was able to give her, man was she wrong.

Mekhela jumped around the state of Colorado in and out of foster homes, each one seemingly worse than the last, until she finally turned eighteen and was able to remove herself from the system. She hoped on a bus and stayed on until the very last stop, which just so happened to be Providence Peak Colorado. She lived on the streets for about a year, getting a job with no high school diploma or a place of residence seemed to be nearly impossible, until eventually her path crossed with an older lady names Adeline.

Adeline had taken her in when she had no one else to turn to. She gave Mekhela a roof over her head and food to eat. She eventually helped her get her GED and even gave her a job at the bakery she owned, The Rolling Pin. Adeline became a mother figure to Mekhela and had saved the girl when she was at her lowest.

However just as quickly as Mekhela’s life had seemed to come together the rug was quickly pulled out from underneath her. Just three years after meeting Adeline she was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. The cancer already to far gone to render any treatment useful, she was given only a few months to live. In those few months Mekhela was by her side every step of the way, she researched herbal medicines and THC. Adeline refused to smoke so Mekhela learned how to make butter and edibles, knowing that if she ate them it would help with her pain, which it did.

Adeline had passed only three days after Mekhela’s twenty second birthday. Having no real family left of her own she had given everything to the girl. Although Mekhela was distraught over Adeline’s death she kept pushing. She took over the bakery, going through the process of not only selling Adeline’s delicious recipes but also incorporating edibles onto their menu, wanting to let people out there know that there was a substitute to medications and smoking out there.