#fchara

LAST 

I SWEAR

Name: Noa Saunders

Occupation: Dance Teacher

Age: 25

Residency: Sandy Waves Apartments

FC: Lyndsy Fonseca

Biography;

Acceptance is one of few things that people want to be in life. And that was no different for the tubby blonde five year old girl, forced to attend a religious school, with people who were almost as nutty for it as her parents were. Yet she always felt out of place, and couldn’t bring herself to fake being interested in Christianity or the ‘high powers’. The first few years of school were difficult for her, and she was often disciplined for being out of line, rude and uninterested. She didn’t much care for the rules the school had in place, and for the even stricter ones that her parents had implemented at home. Noa hated religion, she hated anything that was forced upon her and she liked to make it known. Her parents had been brought up in the same way — strict rules and guidelines, all stemming from the Bible. They were to behave in the way that all good children would, and they were not to question their parents or the will of the lord.

This Victorian authority that rained over her childhood only suppressed Noa into a quiet and lonely child. Adam, her twin brother, and James had it all figured out — they knew to not speak up, they knew how to behave and because of this they were the one with friends and the adoration of everyone around. Noa had none of that and instead her parents spent half their time punishing her for ignoring the rules they had for their children. Towards her their love was cold and gloomy, but by the time she was a teenager, Noa couldn’t care less. She had one thing to be thankful for, and that was her dance lessons. If she was forced to pray, that’s the one thing she sarcastically thanked the non-existent person listening to her for. Dance was her escape from the suffocation she felt at home, and Noa was good at it. It was an outlet for her to channel everything that her parents tried to bury, to finally do something that made her happy. And in her class, she was accepted. By everyone.

With her brothers baring the brunt of her parents love, she was grateful for the freedom from her parents constant pressuring. This leeway enabled her to experience life in an almost untethered world, bounded only by the threat of being grounded if she came home too late. Luckily for Noa, her and Adam were best friends. There was no bad blood between them, as there often was with the golden child and his or her sibling. She liked being the rebellious one, and it was thanks to him that Noa was able to sneak around and not be seen for 24 hours without suspicion. Noa found herself a part-time job, unknown to her parents, which funded for her to go out with her friends and wake up the next day not knowing what had happened. That was definitely not textbook bible behaviour, but thanks to Adam, her parents never found out. Never was she careless, but she was just intent on enjoying herself. After high school, Noa was scouted by an arts college in Toronto, Canada and offered full scholarship to study drama and dance. They were her two strongest subjects, which didn’t satisfy her academic-favouring parents. But seeking their approval had only failed for 18 years, and Noa decided that another 18 years wouldn’t make any difference.

After graduating from college, Noa instantly started to work across Ontario with her dance company. They were based in Toronto, but eventually the work took her back into the United States and into New York. She was there for two years before coming bored with the artificial life — she wanted to drink, she wanted to eat and she didn’t want to watch as her friends starved themselves to fit into a costume. Instead Noa quit, moving to North Carolina where she had visited a lot as a child. Southport was an area she had never ventured before, but the seaside town seemed to provide opportunities which attracted her. Upon moving, Noa managed to grab herself a teaching gig at a local studio , where she works five days a week. Leading dance classes for all ages, Noa spends her free time at local bars and clubs, trying to remember her way back to the apartment that she’s been living in for six months.

Personality;

Name: Sabrina Amber Blackwell

Occupation: Works for Blackwell’s Fishing Company

Age: 22

Residency: O’Wawa Townhomes

FC: Logan Browning

Biography;

Going back to the beginning of the Blackwell family would be a story everyone in Southport knows. Everyone knows the members of the Blackwell’s, or at least knows of them. This was something that Sabrina adored growing up. The way someones face would light up upon learning her last name, the reputation giving her a steady boost in her own personal confidence as well as her performance in school, and everything else. Sabrina lived for the attention, and wouldn’t ever dream of bringing down the sacred family name. Being a Blackwell meant more to Sabrina than anything, even her taste for designer shoes and bright bikinis. She was close with her family, and never hesitated to defend their name, even when some people tried to degrade it.

Growing up, the girl wasn’t left with much want for anything – she was the baby girl, the treasure, the ultimate princess among the fishers. With three older brothers, no one dared even attempt to mess with Sabrina, either, even though she would have been able to take them on herself. She was respected in almost anything she did, and worked hard to make sure it stayed that way. At first, Sabrina wasn’t just in it for her, for the attention. She was born with the desire to be a part of the bigger picture – but it didn’t take long for her heart to change, and instead wish to be the picture itself. She was ambitious, and grew tired of being confined in the lines of the Blackwell’s little fishing business. A word of these feelings harboring was never breathed to her family members, whom she still loved with all her heart. In fact, Sabrina did her best to bottle them completely, blame it on hormones or just the teenage blahs. Shewanted to be a Blackwell, she knew she did. It had been her whole existence for so long.

As adulthood drew closer, Sabrina felt more and more restless at the docks. The walls of the home she grew up in became smaller, closing in – and the woman needed out. She’d hardly even turned 18 before she was off and out on her own, getting one of the nicer places in O’Wawa Townhomes, and for a while, her lust for more was slated. The work the Blackwell’s did was soothing to her, and she didn’t mind it. Family still meant the world to her, but that urge to explore still lingered, though Sabrina was lost about how to react to it. Give up her part she’d always been so honored to play…. or break out of the shell, be her own person, someone she never even considered being? The money, the attention, the respect – Sabrina loved and needed it all. If she were to ever disappear from Southport, she would be a nobody, and as much as she pretends she doesn’t care about her status….Sabrina cared. The idea of leaving the place where she meant something, had a part in the world, and knew everyone around her was too important to risk, so the woman still now lives nestled away in her rut. She’s happy, but wanting – a void that grows and grows, a long with the guilt of a possible pending betrayal.

The worst bit of it all was that Sabrina never uttered a word about these emotions to anyone, not even a close friend. She was a Blackwell, and she couldn’t let the name down. Sabrina Amber Blackwell would not be a disappointment, or a failure, to her family. That much she was sure of, and that much she never let go of.

Personality;

Name: Sabina Dulce Maldonado

Occupation: Waitress at the Yacht Riviera

Age: 24

Residency: Pelican Place

FC: Okairy Giner

Biography;

Sabina Dulce Maldonado was born in a life of organized crime. Her parents were an important part of a rather secret crime gang in L.A. so it was only right that Sabina would be a part of it as well. Sabina was exposed to a life of crime at a very young age and when she was about 12 years old, her parents decided that it was time for her to learn the life they led. But being in a crime gang was not something that Sabina wanted to do for the rest of her life. Surprisingly, owning a business, being her own boss and making money in a legit way had always been her dream. But when this was brought to her parents attention, they immediately dismissed it. Her parents, who were in charge of theft, began to teach her everything they knew about stealing and getting away with it. When she was 14, she could successfully pickpocket just about anyone. And by 16, she was already breaking into homes and major stores in the state. Sabina felt as if she was making her parents proud but, she didn’t realize how selfish her parents were until they were caught stealing behind the gang’s back.

At 17, Sabina witnessed her parents being carried off to be killed for her parent’s indiscretions. Being too young to fight back, she ran away from her home and waited until they gave up looking for her. She quickly returned home and grabbed everything she could before hopping on a bus and making her way to Nevada. The next several months were hard for Sabina. She lived off her “skills” and “wit” to stay alive, living in random hotels and pick-pocketing anyone she could get her hands on. When she was 18, she broke into the house of a wealthy “business owner” who made a living as a professional thief. Catching her in the act, he thought that instead of killing her, she could eventually be of use to him. So in exchange of doing a few “jobs” for him, he gave her a place to stay and taught her the life of a professional criminal (conning, fraud, etc.).

Within a few years, her “work” became notorious in famous states like California, Florida and New York, stealing only from corrupt socialites, politicians and other wealthy criminals. For the next several years, Sabina lived a life of peace, travel, success and crime until the man she considered her mentor and best friend, was shot and killed in front of her. Mourning and full of vengeance, Sabina was set on finding the bastards and getting her revenge. But her rage got in the way and made her sloppy. The killers soon found her first and carelessly shot her, nearly killing her. Escaping death and knowing that being seen alive would cause issues, Sabina quickly packed her things and was able to catch the next flight to North Carolina. She was able to hide her real identity by laying low in Southport, posing as a waitress. Now the only challenge Sabina faces is keeping her past and identity a secret and to not slip into her old ways.

Personality;

Name: Madeline Kelly Banks

Occupation: Illustrator

Age: 30

Residency: Port Heights

FC: Evelyne Brochu

Biography;

Her father liked pistachios. That’s what she told herself, anyway – that was why no one else in her family could stand them but her. When there’s an empty chair at the table, you can fill it however you want. Madeline filled it with him: wavy-haired and dimpled, he drew stick figures in his work notebook and he laughed like a roller-coaster, and no one could tell her otherwise. She had a made-up father. Fine. It kept her from being alone.

Her mother and her brother were twins, somehow. People flocked to them like seagulls in a parking-lot, and they listened when they talked. It wasn’t hard to see why. When Julian was around, the world got bigger – on his shoulders, she could almost reach the ceiling – and her mom read stories at night that lit up the inside of her chest. It was everyone else that Maddie shrank away from. She felt small in the grocery store, tiny at the beach, invisible at school. If Julian and their mother and their new step-father were giants, then Madeline was something stuck between the floorboards of the gymnasium. Stepped-on. Passed-by.

Over-looked.

She didn’t know when exactly she lost her voice. It wasn’t like the movie, with the mermaid and the wish – if only, she’d think, on the school-bus home, if only I’d given it up for a boy – it was just there, one day, and then it was gone. Like turning the volume down on a radio until there’s nothing coming out. She couldn’t answer questions in class any better than she could pick up the phone; it was as if her lungs had realized how unimportant she was, and had decided to stop wasting their breath. Julian pulled away from her. Her parents (her parent and step-parent) (her real father would never) took her to a psychologist, who called it Social Anxiety and Selective Mutism and a lot of other words that got written down on paper. She carried those words with her like additions to her name. Madeline Banks, Social Disappointment. Strangled by her own mediocrity.

And then she found art, in her freshman year of high school, and she learned how to make her fingers talk, instead. Suddenly she was drawing like she had in kindergarten, but bigger – and all the time, all over everything, notebooks and her bedroom wall. When Julian stayed came home from college, he’d find her sitting on her bed with a sketchbook, charcoal under her fingernails. She’d explain what they were as he looked on. He’d come back for her, you know? He hadn’t left.

She learned how to fake deafness once she got to college. It was easier, that way, to just sit in studio classes and sketch on the easels and let people think it was real. A boy learned sign-language for her, and they talked that way: a language all to themselves, no worries of stutter or cracking voice. She could make her body work for her, and she wouldn’t have to be small. And as she learned how to draw, and as Julian kept his hand on her back, and as she moved her fingers to say all of the things she couldn’t say out loud, somehow, Madeline’s voice came back. Little by little. Person by person. Situational development, ‘til she was almost better all-around.

She’s lost it, now. A hand-clap – overnight – her mother dead and her curtains drawn closed again. She draws pictures for childrens’ books and magazine articles in her brother’s house, where he’s keeping her “safe” and “supported.” She can’t help but feel like there’s a prison in her throat again. She can’t help but see the bars on the windows.

 Personality;

For all of her social anxieties, Madeline is truly an independent person. She is completely capable of functioning on her own, so long as she doesn’t have to speak to anyone outright, and she’s found that sign language – or, in dire circumstances, hand-written words – can help her communicate what she might not otherwise be able to say. She’s imaginative, if not a little flighty, drawn to fantasy rather than concrete reality, and her moods are often all or nothing. Black or white. Sunny or a thunderstorm.

Name: Avryn Harper

Occupation: Florist 

Age: 25

Residency: Port Heights

FC: Penelope Mitchell

Biography;

There is something about a child being born that must make some parents delirious. Brett and Eva Harper knew that in 1989 that when they gave birth to their child she would be the last little creature they’d ever bring into the world together. Avryn Rose Harper was named after her paternal grandfather Avery and her great aunt Eryn With a dispute over how exactly to honor both parties with the child’s moniker they’d decided upon seeing her little face that Avryn would be the chosen decision for them. A unique name that Avryn has always gone along with and pretended to understand despite strange looks from all teachers and professors combined whenever she’d sit in their classes and wait to have her name called.  Though a name with lesser personality might not have fit the bubbly blonde child as well as the unique name has for the past twenty-five years. Anything else lesser might have never given her a reason to dispute spellings and pronunciations. Perhaps that would have made her a little more tame mouthed than the constant fighting and arguing had done. At the time of their expectancies Brett and Eva had been both thrilled and excited to welcome the tiny bundle into their lives and to introduce her to the four combined siblings she’d suddenly been tossed into. However, just as their first marriages had gone, Avryn’s parents called their nuptials a farce and when she was just seven years of age a nasty divorce pulled their blended family at the seams like a big of jelly beans split in the wrong place and fumbling around the floor. Avryn and hr siblings were caught in the middle of new family history and messy heartbreaking fight. With the elder kids turning their backs on such a disaster and running from the hell that had turned into their lives, Avryn spent majority of her time hidden in her father’s estate, tumbling amongst the gardens and making friends with the numerous flowers. For many it might have been punishment, for Avryn it was an excuse to hide in the magical world of make-believe, to give each one of the colorful buds a name and a personality all its own. Whenever the battles inside the house or over the phone took place Avryn always knew to pick the petals off of a flower, pretend the colorful pieces were the flowers children, and she’d explain to them how the flower would never treat them as her parents treated her. (Most people might have thought her crazy but for a child who couldn’t deal with the name calling and screaming pretending with the flowers was an escape all in its own). Aryn’s obsession with flowers hardly ended in the garden after her parents were finally on their third marriages. Instead, her fascination followed her right into school. Biology and science classes came easily for her, at least easier than painting or writing. The colors and the magic of watching a seed turn into a sprout and soon into a beautiful flower was magical to her. A science nerd fit her well, perhaps a little bit too well. Being that typical statistic that fell for her lab partner was not supposed to be her trend in the cards she wasn’t counting on and nor did she even want. Jace was sweet though, she (after his many failed attempts) saw in him what most people must see in the one they fall for. He treated her better than anyone had ever, remembered her favorite things, left flowers at her seat. By Junior year Jace and Aryn were a couple. A couple whom had found themselves planning for futures; tomorrows and yesterdays. Even the likes of college hadn’t put the nail too far in the coffin of their relationship as everyone had expected out of them.   Who could really fully love a girl who’s aspiration was to open a flower shop when all he wanted to do was to see the world and all it had to offer? As he studied aboard and saw the world she fell further into her flowers. His letters where he’d press the dried flowers were always her favorite. Not only because seeing the scents of the different countries did she love, but as well knowing that he thought about her even overseas was she in love with. She thought it had meant that they’d make it, that they’d be what her parents never had the shot at being. Though it shouldn’t have surprised her when what they’d had fell apart. It was just a little while after her twentieth birthday that it all went to hell. On the cusp of graduating from college and on the verge of opening her own forest shop the stick turned pink. He’d been home the month before, to simply tell her that maybe they needed to take a break and see other people, to tell her that regardless if he loved her more than anything else in the world he wanted to stay in Italy. When a chef handed an American the reigns it meant business and it also meant that Jace wasn’t sure he ever wanted to come home again. So she kept the news to herself until she was eight months pregnant and Jace’s relationship with Giovanna was striving. With a mix between English and Italian he’ cussed and cried through skype call on her way to the hospital. Daisy Liana Harper-Bryce was born at 4:57 AM with a head full of blonde curls and her father on video (much to the doctors and nurses objections). Daisy still wasn’t enough to make Jace say that he was coming back to North Carolina to stay (not that she’d been expecting it of him).  Daisy was an accident of circumstance. It didn’t put a stop in Avryn’s plans. Since Daisy’s arrival five years ago Avryn’s persisted to follow her dreams. Despite the fact that life hasn’t been as easy as it could have been (toddler years were hell) she’s fought through it all and finally made her way to opening her flower shop that she dreamed of. Daisy lives in the world of flower crowns and does her homework amongst the lilies much like Avryn herself did.

Personality;