haunted by the loss of their mother, casey discovered an interest in the occult and all things morbid. they found solace in the world of gothic literature, horror films, and video games from a young age. however, the weight of grief did not fail to surface, permeating every aspect of their life.

their father, cold and traditional, turned to alcohol and offered little support to casey growing up. as a result, they spent much of their time isolated and alone. casey would find comfort through art or niche online forums. when days became too suffocating, and none of their interests could ease them, casey would resort to self-harm to keep themselves grounded. she always wears longsleeves to hide the scars.

one day, casey lashed out at someone at school - an incident which took everyone by surprise. the schoolmate carelessly touched on a sensitive nerve related to their mother’s death. it triggered a surge of emotion within casey, a teen who had gained a reputation for eating lunch alone everyday, which lead to an uncharacteristic outburst. it was the first time they had ever shown physical aggression in public.

recognising the severity of the situation and the need for intervention, school authorities, along with casey’s father, made the difficult decision to enrol them into new dawn.

✧ casey never learnt how to process emotions and often uses art to express it. otherwise, they generally bottle it up until they snap.

✧ they feel a lot of frustration about going to new dawn. but deep down, they hope it's the help they've been looking for for a long time. while casey isn't particularly excited about socialising, it would be nice to make new friends

✧ casey takes a weed gummy most nights to help with sleep, but also because it's easier to hide from their dad.

✧ they struggle with body dysmorphia. casey struggles with being percieved in general and is often conflicted between showing off their figure and covering it up completely. 

Nawwaf's life has been full of ups and downs. His mother did her best to raise him as a single mom, but she struggled to keep a job and they were homeless by the time he was a toddler. She decided to make the difficult decision to give him up for adoption when she ran out of money to feed them.

As a child, Nawwaf was adopted by Brennan and Addisyn Solis. They moved him into their three bedroom high rise in San Myshuno and he immediately felt culture shock. It took him a while to get adjusted to always having more than enough and it still surprises him sometimes. He channeled his complex emotions into his art and was starting to show real promise. Then high school happened.

His first year of high school was one of the worst years of his life. Being a creative outcast with an Arabic name, he was the target of intense bullying. His parents tried to help him, but they lived a very privileged life and have never been able to truly understand his struggles. Something inside of him hardened that year and he came back sophomore year a changed person.

As part of this change, he started to work out all the time and gave into some of the high fashion trends that his classmates wore. He even gave up art and joined the football team. Now he could both blend in better and stand up for himself. However, he lost himself along the way and it all became twisted when he started to join the bullies. He even started to push them to go further, especially with the physical violence.

Flash forward to the end of junior year and he has officially been expelled. In just one school year, he got caught starting fifteen different fights and accused of ten others. His new found mean streak has even spilled over into his attitude toward his teachers and his parents. The final straw was when the last fight sent three boys to the hospital with one now having permanent brain damage from the severe concussion he received.

Truthfully, Deborah and Marcus never thought they had bad kids.

Growing up, Devon and Noah were considered, by all accounts, to be pretty good kids. Mostly quiet, despite whatever petty squabbles siblings may go through. As an older sister, Devon was attentive and caring of her little sibling, even if they weren't all that far apart in age. As they grew up, Devon was always regarded as a bright, pretty girl, and Noah crawled around in her shadow - despite Devon's best attempts to drag them up alongside her.

Middle school began a shift in behaviour from both of them, the pair of siblings starting to fall into a more troubling routine. Noah, to escape the discomfort of ever being compared to his sister, had begun to fall behind in classes. He started smoking pot early, very early, and spent more time listening to music in the basement and playing video games than minding his schoolwork. And then there were other kids - the horrors.

While Devon always had it relatively easy, Noah did not. Uncomfortable in their skin, gangly, awkward, bullies buzzed around him like flies, gnashing their teeth and balling their fists.

A-student Devon wasted no time swooping in to protect her sibling. Where Noah was naturally made of softer stuff, Devon had a heart of steel - she had absolutely no qualms cutting down other students. It started verbally, but when her sibling came home with a fat lip or a swollen eye, she balled her own fists in response and marched back out to take vengeance - swift, brutal vengeance.

The pair only fell deeper into their roles come high school. Devon ruled the school with an iron fist. From being a pretty girl with good grades and a sweet heart, she'd become the ultimate mean girl. And Noah, in his small corner of the school, fell in with the other outcasts - but it meant he finally had friends, a change he held on to for dear life. It didn't mean he wasn't skipping class, though. It didn't mean he wasn't ending up in the principal's office with bruises, cuts, bumps.

And every time he did, another kid would show up soon after with the fear of tall blondes now pummeled into their very base DNA.

In the end, they were both ruled problem children, though even school staff was afraid to take disciplinary action on Devon Sykes(rumours told of an instance of a boy harassing Noah, insisting he was adopted, so Devon went down to their house to seduce the boy's mom and tear their family apart. School administrators, too, lived in fear of Devon Sykes).