S020 - Chao, Cassie [DECEASED]

#1

Name: Cassie Chao
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: Senior
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Drawing, Cooking, Animation, Sewing, Animals

Appearance: Cassie stands at 5'2" and weighs 99 lbs, her poor posture and slender frame being indicative of her sedentary lifestyle. She is of Chinese-American ethnicity, her black hair cut short save for the long bangs that hide a third of her rounded face, with pale skin and dark circles under her eyes from too many late nights spent staring at a phone screen. She is rarely found wearing much in the way of make-up, with thin lips and a small nose rounding off her unassuming appearance.

Her usual attire tends to be very repetitive, usually consisting of some combination of long pants and baggy hoodies on account of her fear of dressing inappropriately for school, her attire on the day of the trip being no different: A long-sleeved black t-shirt under a heavy grey parka, a white beanie, a pair of faded jeans and a pair of boots with laces tied just a bit too tightly. Since the pandemic kicked into full swing she is also often found wearing a face covering whenever she's out in public, even as restrictions are slowly being lifted out of fear of catching something she could pass onto her family.

Biography: Being the third of four siblings in a large household that also included an elderly grandmother, Cassie has been used to fading into the background for a good portion of her life. She is a third generation immigrant, her grandmother having moved over from China as a child not long after the end of World War 2, where she would eventually give birth to her mother in 1969. Her mother in turn would marry a young chef from Boston, moving there to raise a family as a housewife, raising two sons named Thomas and Nathan before eventually having Cassie in 2004.

All things considered her family life was relatively normal, her parents weren't terribly well off but neither did they ever struggle to make ends meet, even after having their fourth and last child Bethany two years after Cassie's birth. She's always gotten along well enough with her family, her siblings being some of the few people she can be truly open with and her parents always doing their best to be supportive, even when they find themselves frequently distracted by the various issues her siblings frequently face. With Thomas struggling with various financial problems, Nathan dropping out of college and Bethany's many health scares it's not unknown for Cassie to fall between the cracks a lot of the time, though as she's never liked being the centre of attention it never bothered her that much. She has a close relationship with her grandmother in particular, always fascinated by the stories she told of life in China before the communists took over, though it has only been during recent years that she's begun to realise just how tumultuous a childhood her grandmother truly had.

During her early years she was considered a cheerful child, always smiling and burying her head into any book she could get her hands on, especially those that displayed cute creatures on the front cover. For as long as she could remember she has adored animals, starting with the old cat her family used to own and continuing to the modern day with her own pet hamster, with many of her peers commenting that she often seemed to care more about animals than she cared about people. This wasn't far from the truth, she found that people were complicated and often nigh incomprehensible, whilst animals were easy to understand and lacked ulterior motives. Even to this day she'll often find animals as the primary subject of her various creative endeavours, developing her own particular artstyle over her years of doodling over her textbooks.

She quickly developed a desire to expand on her creative inklings as she grew older, going from simple sketchings to expressive drawings, often drawing inspiration from the cutesy memorabilia she often found herself surrounded by. Said passion for drawing would eventually develop into a passion for animation, the colourful cartoons of her youth inspiring her to develop her own particular style, eventually leading to her being gifted her own drawing tablet so that she could expand her knowledge.

Her family have always been very supportive of her creative leanings, her parents in particular being eager to share their personal hobbies with her. Her mother would teach her how to knit and sew, starting with how to mend tears in clothing before going on to show her how she can create new things out of old materials. Cassie was quick to pick up on sewing in particular, delighted by the prospect of being able to create her own plushies out of leftover fabric, and continues to experiment and sew together toys in her spare time. Her father in turn would teach her all he knew about cooking, particularly stressing the importance of cleanliness in the kitchen and how to make the most of every ingredient at one's disposal. Whilst she didn't take to it as naturally as sewing, she's grown to love being creative in the kitchen after gaining a firm grasp of the basics, particularly when it came to experimenting with stir fries using whatever ingredients she could find in her parent's fridge.

Whilst she remained as cheerful as ever at home, at school things were somewhat different. She was never much of a people person to begin with, often finding herself lost in her own thoughts and lacking much in the way of interest in making friends, and after some early experiences of being teased during her elementary years she found herself developing something of a social anxiety around strangers. As a result she'd often go out of her way to isolate herself from others, avoiding group tasks whenever possible and turning down opportunities for extracurricular activities.

That said, she's not been completely without friends, though the majority of her closest connections have been with people she's only ever interacted with online through her forays into the animation community. This in part has played into why she's developed into something of a night owl, as a fair number of her online friends hailed from the west coast, leading to many late nights spent staring at her phone in bed long into the early morning. Whilst this has concerned her parents greatly, they've been hesitant to dissuade her from the few social connections she has, even going so far as to support her ambitions of eventually moving to California to study animation at CalArts. Some of her online friends have even encouraged her to become more interested in trying hobbies she'd otherwise never consider, such as a friend from France who often talks about going skiing in the alps.

Her social life has improved since she enrolled at John Endecott Memorial Academy, particularly when she was able to take Art and Sewing as two of her subjects, and though she's still something of an introvert for a good while she'd been able to get past the barriers her anxiety gave her when it came to interacting with her peers. Grade wise whilst she's nothing exceptional she does tend to perform above average at the subjects that interest her the most, with consistent A's during her Sewing and Cooking classes, though despite her talent for art she often underperforms due to her lack of investment in artforms outside those that personally interest her.

Amongst those close to her, there are many who would describe Cassie as being something of an introverted extrovert. She tends to be quiet and reserved around most people, sometimes even coming across as being standoffish and to-the-point with her interactions, rarely engaging much in small talk or even asking for directions when lost. Even amongst friends and family she can be quite soft spoken compared to what she was like as a child, though she is quick to open up and revert to her old cheerful self when she's in a good mood. She tends to be most open with her siblings and online friends, her online persona in particular being a far cry from the wallflower she can come across as at school, more readily showing off her sense of humour and readily interacting with people.

Over the years many of her peers have interpreted her reserved nature as indicative of a depressive outlook on life, whilst other peers who know her better argue that the opposite is true and that she's simply too shy to show the world how she really feels. The truth is a bit more complicated, with Cassie herself being unsure where she lies on the axis between cynicism and idealism. On the one hand her creative endeavours are always joyful, light-hearted and morally unambiguous, always showcasing her love of the natural world and bright hopes for the future. On the other hand, she is deeply disparaging of humanity as a whole, never caring much for politics or economics and generally finding herself assuming the worst of people she's not close to. Nevertheless despite her misanthropic leanings she likes to think things will improve once her generation takes the reins, and that for all humanity's flaws there's still plenty of good people out there capable of making a difference where it counts, even if they are but an exception to the norm.

Her life however entered an unfortunate chapter in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and turned her world upside down. Whilst she didn't lose anyone close to her, she began to develop an intense fear of catching the virus and passing it on to her vulnerable grandmother, one that only grew more severe as the weeks of lockdown quickly turned to months, with news of the numerous deaths across America affecting her deeply. She had always been somewhat squeamish about bacteria and her health, ever since her father taught her about what could happen if they didn't practice health and safety in the kitchen, and the pandemic just heightened these anxieties to the point where they have become debilitating at times.

Even as the lockdown measures have lessened, she's found herself frequently entering intense periods of health anxiety, overreacting to minor symptoms and constantly worrying that she's been infected with one thing or another. This has led to many cases of her missing school under fear of being ill and a significant drop in her grades, and remains an ongoing subject of discussion between her parents and her teachers to this very day. At her worst, she's even been known to suffer severe panic attacks in public spaces, particularly when she finds herself overcrowded or believing that someone nearby is infected.

Nevertheless, despite this there have also been periods where she's been able to put her fears aside and return to a state of relative normality. She's well aware that a lot of the time her fears are irrational, and does her best to fight past her concerns in order to live a normal life and get the grades she needs in order to achieve her long term goal of moving to California. Though she still wears a facemask to school throughout the day, she can function fine in public spaces the majority of the time, with her grades seeing a small improvement in the months leading to the winter trip. And despite her parents' concerns, she has insisted on going on the skiing trip despite her anxieties, not wanting to let it stop her from enjoying herself and missing out on new experiences.

Advantages: Cassie is a very cautious individual by nature, slow to trust others and rarely taking undue risks, and has something of a knack for flying under the radar. Her knowledge on how to cook and sew can potentially help in a survival scenario where food preparation and well-maintained clothing can be the difference between life and death.
Disadvantages: Cassie is not terribly athletic, nor does she have many friends to rely on or much in the way of people skills. Most significantly her various anxieties will be a great hindrance, as she's had a history of panic attacks in stressful situations, which could lead to her making bad decisions during moments of duress.

Designated Number: Student No. 020

---

Designated Weapon: Pair of ice skates

Conclusion: Oh come on, we give them all these fun things, this girl could go ice skating on a frozen lake, but no, she's probably just going to curl up in a ball and cry a lot. Why do we even bother? - Josie Knight