She's born to a wealthy family. Her mom married young to a rich man, but had some savings with her career as an actress. Her birthday is Jan. 10, 1906.

Helene was considered a child prodigy. She's been able to speak 7 languages fluently by age 5 (English, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Spanish) and continued to be tutored until she had 16 languages comfortably under her belt by age 9 (Irish, Tagalog, Italian, Greek, Latin, 4 other dead languages, of which started the spark for archaeology).

She also knows to play the piano and how to sing, was taught social dances and etiquette. Not to mention being frequently brought along her parent's meetings and business parties where she learned to be cunning and charming.

Speaking of cunning, she religiously practiced hiding, lockpicking, and mastering the sleight of hand, after seeing it in action from a professional magician.

She has an amazing memory, near-perfect recall, and an IQ tested for 165 (not me channeling Elizabeth Benson a bit but. ahem. still maintain IQ tests are bullcrap actually)

she went to college early at age 12 and earned 2 undergraduate degrees by age 15 and 16, one for Biology and Archaeology respectively.

Her parents, finding out she wanted to pursue an Archaeology course, rather than continue her studies in the medical field threatened to pull funding for her studies. In response, Helene takes it as a personal challenge and starts gambling illegally (in games she knows she can win, or cheat to win) to pay her way through. It works and she technically has enough money to fund herself, but instead, she finishes her schooling with honors, shuts down, and causes her grandparents (Jack & Molly Addams) to step in and take her in.

It takes Helene years to recover from the burnout and find her passion in regards to her schooling, which she spent hanging around her grandfather who worked preparing bodies in a funeral home, and perfecting skills on how to shoot. On the other hand, she also learns more domestic skills like cooking, sewing, and gardening, courtesy of her grandmother who retired early bc of her health condition, and remained as a homemaker.

(Jack, before he came (a little illegally) to the US himself, was once a doctor named Shan Wei. He fled China in fear of persecution after failing to save the life of the son of an important high-ranking official, and simply wants a simple life, starting as a laborer for train tracks. But as the years pass and when Helene gets with them; he discreetly starts teaching Helene in the times she's with him in his work, knowing that she had studied Medicine as well, bc while she may look and gone rebellious, she once craved the love and affirmation of her parents, and did her best to reach AND surpass their expectations of her, until she simply couldn't.)

ANYWAYS

Helene finds her groove back at 19, decides to go get her pHD at Oxford, and starts her studies again to be admitted by the time she's 20.

(she does, and she's with María's batch)

They meet, they become academic rivals, they fall into bed with each other, they attend class, they find out they became roommates, repeat the process again, eventually catch feelings, Helene gets close to admitting it, María gets spooked, starts going through the material, then Helene leaves briefly after the untimely death of her grandparents who left instructions for her, and gets back and focuses on classwork-- and both finish their studies at the same time

except the third blow comes, and Helene's heart breaks again.

Helene does the infiltration mission against Maxie, and emboldened by the adrenalin rush, goes back to her self-destructive tendencies and throws herself at the mercy of the world

While María started her career as a morally ambiguous freelance treasure hunter, Helene traveled across Europe for the first 3 years, gambling and winning and drinking, before getting a harsh wake-up call and sobers herself while going all over the world for another year, going on an adventure; finding and doing several things that may or may not be legal depending on the place and her fancy.

The money though? Half she's kept as investments, a quarter going out as charitable donations, and the other quarter being used up for her constant adventuring.

She does make a lot of contacts, one notably a pilot named Ted "Stevo" Stevenson, who she regularly hires for rides and eventually befriends.

Ever an academic, Helene publishes articles for journals detailing some of her discoveries over her travels, helping establish some credibility over her lack of job history when she applies to be a professor at Tulane.

AND SO FAR THAT'S THAT