S099 - Valdez, Mallory "Mal" [DECEASED]

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Name: Mallory "Mal" Valdez
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: Senior
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Baking, Worship and Prayer club, sewing and fashion design, textile arts, cross country

Appearance: Mal stands at 5'3'' and weighs 110 pounds. She has a generally lean appearance helped by her years of running track. She has black, straight hair that goes to her chest. Her hair is usually held back in a ponytail with a ribbon that matches her outfit for that day or is sometimes braided with the colored ribbon woven into the braid. She has high cheekbones, wide, almond-shaped eyes, and average-size lips with a pronounced Cupid's bow. Her skin is a light brown color with yellow undertones. Her nose is small and without bumps, turning up slightly at the end. She had a nose job the summer before junior year to make her nose smaller when it had been formerly wider with a slight downturn.

Mal typically dresses in a conservative but stylish way. She favors dresses with leggings in cold weather and skirts with tops in the warmer months. Her clothes are usually feminine and in warm weather, she favors a lot of peasant tops or shirts that she has embroidered with intricate flower patterns. In colder weather, her clothing is a bit more minimalist with fewer embellishments and more straight silhouettes. On the day of abduction she was wearing black jeans, a pastel pink turtle neck, and a black and white houndstooth-patterned coat and black winter boots.

Biography: Mal was born the second child of Angelo and Marina in Boston on April 19. She has a fraternal twin sister, Maritza. Her father is a Pentecostal pastor of Mexican descent and works in Boston; her mother is El Salvadoran and works as a nurse. Her parents met while they were both in college. Although her father works in Boston, he and Marina felt that Salem was a better place to raise their children and liked the more suburban feel of Salem.

Mal and Maritza had a middle-class upbringing and didn't want for anything. They were both introduced to the church at a young age and much of their weekend time with their parents was somehow connected with either the church or doing activities with local Christian organizations, such as volunteer work. Maritza was much more outgoing than Mal, usually being the first to go talk to people in school while Mal was quieter and preferred to keep to herself with only one or two friends. Her older sister tended to be bossier and would sometimes play pranks on Mal, which Mal typically didn't retaliate against due to being timid and not very clever with pranks.

Although her sister had better grades and was more popular with her peers, their parents tended to favor Mal due to her obedience, reverence towards faith, and willingness to spend more time to help do church activities. As they moved into middle school, because she stayed home much more often with her parents and older relatives, she picked up several domestic hobbies. She began baking more and more around age 12 because of the demand for baked goods for various bake sales and for both parents to take treats to their work. Though she likes to bake and make more challenging desserts, she does not actually eat very much of what she bakes. She doesn't like sweets all that much and doesn't want to become too heavy.

She also began to pick up sewing and other textile crafts such as knitting and crochet from her maternal and paternal grandmothers who would visit. When she was 13, a skirt she made was entered into the county fair and won second place for her age group. She began ordering more and more fashion magazines and pattern books to the house, sometimes making pieces for people she knows to garner their favor.

Upon entering high school, her parents felt that it would be good for her to choose a sport in order to stay in good health. After trying a few of them, Mal settled on cross country. She runs every day in the morning and finds that it's a good time to clear her head, likening it to meditation. On the cross country team, she usually runs the 10k.

Mal immediately joined the Worship and Prayer club when she arrived at John Endecott Memorial Academy, happy to have a place to do Bible study and help volunteer in the name of Christ. She is both very involved and very religious, having a collection of crosses in her room. Whenever a family member goes out of town or to a new country, they bring her back a new, decorative cross for her wall.

High school served to make Mal and Maritza even more distant than before. Although Mal still held the favor of her parents, she was jealous of Maritza's grades and popularity. Although Mal would like to be better liked among her peers, she is sensitive and can quickly become passive-aggressive and cold to people over perceived offenses -- even if the other party did not mean any offense. She is also cowardly, fearing direct conflict. If someone wishes to talk out why she has an attitude with them, she will ignore them or make any excuse to leave in order to not be confronted. Mal has been known to stop talking and immediately leave a room if someone she is in conflict enters, making some kind of excuse to leave.

During junior year, she happened to walk by her sister's room when Maritza was with another friend. She didn't see very clearly what was happening, but their faces were close and there was whispering. Mal decided to tell her parents that she saw Maritza kissing another girl. She decided to tell her parents this as she partly convinced herself that something intimate was happening and partly out of jealousy and resentment she harbored towards her sister. In the moment, she wanted to lower her parents' opinions of Martiza and get her into trouble with their family.

Her parents do not say anything about LGBT people openly but privately because of their religious beliefs and Hispanic cultural background of having very conservative beliefs and family, Maritza was pulled out of school and sent to live with a strict aunt in Maine. To people at school, Maritza left suddenly at the conclusion of junior year and not much else is known about why she left or where she went. Questions to Mal about her sister make her very nervous and she is afraid of her part in Maritza's disappearance being found out. Mal and Maritza haven't spoken much since, but Maritza is not aware that it was her sister who caused her to be sent to live with their aunt. She is, however, suspicious and during their last email exchange asked Mal if she had something to do with the situation. Mal has not responded due to her fear of confrontation and guilt, but justifies not responding to her sister by telling herself that she's too busy to respond.

Her grades currently hover mostly in the B- range with her highest grade being her B+ in math. She has her eye on going to school for fashion design at Parsons. Mal practices her seamstress and design skills currently by occasionally volunteering to help with costuming for the school theater department and makes extra money by making cosplay for people sometimes -- though she has no idea what the costumes are from.

While she has a few friends -- mainly from Worship and Prayer -- most of the students see her as too religious and someone who is cold and ill-tempered in her own soft-spoken way. She has not had any boyfriends. She is considered attractive by boys but not like someone they would like to spend time with. When she is in a good mood or in the company of people she likes, she is sweet and gentle. In her work with Worship and Prayer and her hobbies, she is organized and a hard worker. However, even her friends often tire of her extensive complaining about people she doesn't like and who has wronged her most recently.

Advantages: Mal is athletic and has good stamina from her time in cross country. She is extremely conflict-averse and cowardly, which could help her avoid dangerous fights and situations. She may have some built-in allies from the Worship and Prayer club.
Disadvantages: Mal is disliked by a lot of students for her poor attitude. Her small stature could be a disadvantage against a bigger opponent in a fight. Mal isn't particularly smart or clever. Her cowardice could paralyze her when a life or death decision needs to be made.

Designated Number: Student No. 099

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Designated Weapon: Winchester Model 1895 (lever-action rifle)

Conclusion: Plenty of students end up selling out their own flesh and blood to make it in the game. S099's already done that, she's got a bone to pick with everyone who's ever crossed her, and now she's got a gun. Yeah, this could go somewhere. - Christina Stockton

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