Charlotte Hood

[Buko]

Name: Charlotte Hood
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Basketball, singing, dancing, social media

Appearance: Charlotte is a clear athlete, standing at 5’9” and weighing roughly 135 lbs with a svelte and sleek physique built more for speed than strength. Charlotte is Caucasian with sun-kissed and freckled skin along with light golden blonde hair that is often worn in playful pigtails with loose French braids that extend well past her shoulders. Charlotte’s eyes are large, round, and sky-blue, her nose button-like and demure, while her lips are full and often veer toward pouty. Char does not prefer to wear makeup but does at her twin sister’s insistence, favoring purples, greens, and blues to compliment her sun-kissed skin and light eyes. Aside from being slightly shorter than her twin, an obvious difference is Charlotte’s right hand which was surgically amputated when she was four years old due to complications with amniotic band syndrome. Charlotte’s hand was cut at the wrist and has healed into a fleshy nub of skin over bone. On her sister’s insistence and through biweekly salon sessions, her left hand and nails are perfectly manicured and often painted in thematic color palettes.

In terms of fashion, Charlotte’s personality is tomboyish and subdued causing a degree of discomfort in dresses and skirts. Charlotte is often wearing a black dancer’s leotard or tights underneath oversized throwback band and basketball t-shirts. Both her and her sister are only ever seen wearing pristine Nike shoes with Charlotte’s favored pair being a pair of black-on-black Nike Air Force 1s. On the day of the abduction Charlotte was seen wearing black tights, a black sleeved crop-top under an extra-large Dawn Staley Virginia Cavaliers jersey, a backwards navy USA Basketball snap-back hat and her signature “Black Forces”.

Biography: Charlotte Hood was born eighteen years ago to Donald “Don” Hood and Elizabeth “Betty” Hood in Charlotte, North Carolina as the younger (by seventeen minutes and thirty-nine seconds) of two twins. Charlotte and her sister Carolina were named after the city they were born in, their parents having met as students at the University of South Carolina and having spent their first three years of marriage in the city of Charlotte after honeymooning in Asheville. The Hoods have what they would describe as a storybook romance, having met their first day at the University of South Carolina and getting married their senior year before beginning a lucrative and fulfilling commercial real estate business in both the Carolinas and later in Las Vegas.

Charlotte was born with amniotic band syndrome in her right hand causing her fingers to not fully develop. The Hoods were informed that amputation would be a likely outcome for Charlotte, but avoided pursuing until Charlotte was able to vocally voice her displeasure and pain. At the age of four, after a particularly painful and trying night filled with tears, Betty took Charlotte into the hospital where her right hand was amputated. Early admittance and consistent attendance of occupational therapy immediately after surgery allowed for what would be considered by many to be a miraculous recovery. While there are obvious detriments and difficulties that come with being one-handed, Charlotte’s disability has never prevented her from participating in sports and extracurriculars alongside her sister.

Charlotte’s surgery ended up being a primary motivating factor for the Hoods to relocate to Las Vegas, with Don being a native and their paternal grandparents being more able to assist in caregiving for the twins. The Hoods spend Christmas break every year in North Carolina and fly to several University of South Carolina athletic events a year. Athletics are very important to both Don and Betty with both having been varsity letters in high school and active intramural participants in college. Competition and success from the basketball court to the Monopoly board are large factors in the Hood household with victory being the primary vice and focus. Both Betty and Don have had Division I scholastic ambitions for their twins since birth and this is something that Charlotte has often struggled with in relation to her disability. Her parents struggle with anything beyond blind encouragement while Charlotte struggles with feeling that her parents believe she can do anything but also that they expect her to be able to do everything.

Charlotte’s relationship with sports and subsequent reverence and dedication to athletics is rooted in her primary life mission: to be with and take care of her sister. The two twin girls have essentially been inseparable since birth. When Charlotte went to occupational therapy, her sister accompanied her and partook in exercises alongside her with a hand tied behind her back. When Carolina participated in sports, Charlotte participated as well. Up until middle school the two shared in every activity and were desk neighbors in every classroom. Unlike some siblings, the two have never truly argued or fought and their relationship is something that both Charlotte and Carolina view as wholesome and innocent.

Basketball has always been a bonding point in the Hood family, it being the preferred sport Elizabeth played in high school. There was a tiny hoop and small balls in the twins’ crib. The two began individual training as a way of supplementing Charlotte’s occupational therapy and by eight years old the two were competing in Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball. Carolina is considered by some to be a prodigal talent at basketball and while Charlotte is fairly talented, her single hand provides obvious limitations. Through practice and adjustment, Charlotte has learned to shoot the ball with one hand and has become a proficient three-point shooter whose primary mission on the court is finishing whatever her sister starts. Charlotte is a tenacious defender, but a limited dribbler even today as a high school product. With that said, her teamwork and communication with her sister is no more seamless than it is while they are on the basketball court together. Charlotte views the game of basketball itself to be an expression of her sisterly bond, connection, and affection.

As she began elementary school Charlotte revealed herself to be a decent student who excelled most in subjects and assignments requiring active participation. It was in elementary school chorus and music classes that Charlotte discovered her love of song and dance. This was in fact an area where she showed more talent than her sister initially, possessing a natural and playful soprano singing voice. In their elementary years, before committing entirely to AAU basketball, the twins were classically trained in dance (specifically ballet, jazz, and hip-hop styles) as well as church choir. Charlotte’s musical taste is diverse, but she prefers singers who belt and have big performances. She most admires and tries to emulate performers like Adele, Chappell Roan, Cristina Aguilera, Aaliyah, and Beyonce.

The Hoods are Methodists and attend the same church Don attended as a youth growing up in Las Vegas. Neither Don or Betty consider themselves strict practitioners but do identify and see value in continuing to be culturally Christian. The church played a prominent role in the twins’ early years in Las Vegas as it provided both the community support and childcare services that were needed as Charlotte adjusted post-surgery and the family adjusted post-move. Charlotte grew up attending Sunday school and participated in the church’s after-school program whenever her parents were unable to pick her up from school due to business. Charlotte has strong faith in God, mixed intellectual feelings on organized religion in general, but fond memories of her time spent in church. While Carolina has always been the star on the basketball court, Charlotte was often chosen for solos or prominent singing roles within the church’s children’s choir. As the twins have gotten older and basketball has demanded more, their regular church attendance has waned and became sporadic. In those early years however, the structure and schedule provided by the First United Methodist Church of Silver Springs was foundational. The twins have been baptized, but have not begun the process of getting confirmed. Presently, Charlotte feels unready both practically and personally to begin that process but she has thought that attending church regularly again in college might be a good way to make friends.

Middle school presented several challenges for Charlotte. Firstly, it was the first time that she and her sister would ever be separated within school, in 6th grade they only shared three out of six classes. This produced both an understandable anxiety but also a very real challenge as Charlotte struggled socially while absent Carolina’s presence. Secondly and most prescient, middle school became the first time she would truly struggle with identity. Forever linked to her twin sister, Charlotte’s sense of self has always been rooted in her relationship with someone else. At the age of thirteen, as her classmates began to express more romantic interest, Charlotte began to struggle with the same. Topics related to sexuality and companionship immediately cause the normally tenacious and confident Charlotte to shirk and shrink. In middle school, exposure to online literature and content made her think she was asexual, but as she has gotten older Charlotte has become more and more aware that her desires are more sapphic in nature. Less because of any specific religious morals or family opposition, Charlotte is not out and open with her sexual orientation mostly to avoid her own discomfort with being any more “different” than she already is. The only person whom she has discussed this topic with any explicitness is her sister, but even then, Charlotte has not put a direct label on herself outside of just “not liking boys”. Her sister, to Charlotte’s knowledge, is both an acceptor of her and a protector of her secret.

In eighth grade while participating in remote learning due to the pandemic, the twins began posting short videos on TikTok and Instagram with their mother’s assistance. Employing both their basketball talent and dance training, their videos are often equal parts silly and skillful. As the two transitioned into high school, this social media following has grown and become a part of the twins future planning and brand with their shared TikTok and Instagram having over 50,000 combined followers. The social media use of the Hood twins is curated and clean and it has always been made with the idea of encouraging curiosity amongst schools and potential sponsors for Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) deals. Both of their parents are very much invested in the idea of a Hood family brand and are willing participants in home-movie-style vlogs documenting the journey toward NCAA Basketball stardom and then the WNBA thereafter. Don and Elizabeth see raising Division I athletes as the equivalent of raising concert violinists and are entirely focused on achieving this dream. Don has modeled the twins’ path on contemporary athletic sibling families like the Cavinder twins and the Ball family. At first Charlotte found recording this content fun but as the burdens of high school and athletics increased, it has begun to feel more like a chore. As they have gotten older and Carolina has garnered more attention from big time collegiate programs, Charlotte has reluctantly leaned more into content creation and showcasing her personality in more forward ways, feeling it is the only way to provide leverage for her own talent in relation to her sister.

Southwest Red Rock High was chosen as the landing spot for the twins for three reasons: proximity, prestige and potential. Donald and Elizabeth are both prominent members of the community with a vast network and net worth due to their involvement in Las Vegas real estate. This has allowed for them to contribute significantly and consistently to Rattler athletics. The prestige of the athletic conference Red Rock was in also presented the best opportunity to consistently showcase the twins' talent against the best high school competition. Due to their experience and dedication to the game, along with their talent and skill, both Carolina and Charlotte have been four-year contributors to the girls’ varsity team in high school.

Basketball has remained the consistent metronome of Charlotte’s life and in high school as both her and her sister chase Division I dreams the beat has only intensified. Charlotte wakes up every morning at 4 a.m. to perform an hour of basketball drills with her sister. The hours between 5-6 are spent showering, doing hair and make-up, and preparing for the school day. The Hood family have daily meetings where they discuss their long-term plans and short-term schedules for the day, every day. This meeting is sometimes short and sometimes long, but Donald and Elizabeth tend to run a tight ship and manage to fit both a lecture and breakfast into the window more days than not. On one end, Charlotte feels that her family is the only thing that keeps her from feeling burnt out and on the other she feels that her family is the one doing most of the burning. With college approaching, it is Charlotte’s hope that once the family dream is realized the toil will be over and she will have a chance to celebrate.

Socially, this leaves the twins very little room to interact with others outside of school and extracurriculars. Charlotte does not partake in drugs, nor does she drink for fear of compromising either the Hood brand or her athletic performance. She can be somewhat standoffish with people but also overly familiar with her primary conversational practice being with her twin sister and in their specific twin-speak. Charlotte’s most prominent personality trait is both her tenacity and intensity. She describes herself as a ‘100 percenter’ in that she cannot help but dedicate herself completely to any task that she is doing, whether it be basketball, schoolwork, or Monopoly. She’s still learning to practice control over her passion and allow more room for connection. She is a person incapable somewhat of intellectualizing the idea that people are different from her and that she’s also unlike anyone else and the nuance this requires provokes both internal and external conflict with herself and others.

Charlotte has a large chip on her shoulder when it comes to both her disability and her position on the basketball court without her sister. They continue to have most of their classes together at Southwest Red Rock and although their family is more than capable of providing a room for each, they’ve always shared both their space and time. Charlotte feels like she might be holding back her sister from bigger things because while Carolina has received scholarship offers from several prestigious Division I programs, Charlotte has received none. Carolina has sworn that she will not attend a school that does not also provide scholarship for Charlotte, something that Charlotte feels both guilt and gratitude toward. Perhaps to make up for the things she cannot control, Charlotte is a dedicated student and has maintained a 3.54 unweighted GPA and has managed to score within the 85th percentile for the SAT. Her dream is to play for the University of South Carolina with her big sister and under coach Dawn Staley, her plan is to follow her sister wherever she may go with or without a scholarship.

Advantages: Charlotte is tenacious, intense, and driven. She is a life-long athlete with obvious advantages when it comes to speed, strength, and conditioning. Her twin Carolina is a built-in ally whose connection and relation run deeper than most of the others her classmates are bringing to the island.
Disadvantages: Charlotte’s disability presents obvious limitations in terms of her ability to coordinate and complete tasks normally requiring two hands. She is someone who has only experienced structured, regimented schedule and she may struggle to adapt to the constant changing of circumstance SOTF presents. She also is someone who struggles in clear communication with most people who are not in her immediate family and may accidentally or purposefully provoke someone to consequence.

[Gundham]

It was twenty years ago today, on this very spot. A group of handlers was submitting profiles on this very website, when all of a sudden they were massacred by a rogue staff member. Some say that every year on the anniversary of that terrible day, you can still hear his voice. It absolutely doesn't sound like someone saying: Hi, I'm Gundham. You've been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Let's roll!

All in all, Charlotte's looking very good, but she's Not Approved Yet pending some small grammar tweaks.

Charlotte is a clear athlete, standing at 5’9” and weighing roughly 135 lbs

Need a space between the number and the unit.

Char does not prefer to wear makeup

From what I can tell, "make-up" is only used when you're doing, say, a make-up test for an exam you missed, whereas the cosmetic is usually all one word.

On her sister’s insistence and in keeping up with her make-up routine her left hand and nails are perfectly manicured and often painted in thematic color palettes.

Is this something that Carolina does for her, or that she goes to salons to do? It doesn't appear that Charlotte has a prosthetic, so it's not clear to me how she'd be able to do this herself.

On the day of the abduction Charlotte was seen wearing black tights, a black sleeved crop-top under an extra-large Dawn Staley Virginia Cavaliers jersey, a backwards navy USA Basketball snap-back hat and finally her signature “Black Forces”.

The "finally" is a bit out of tone, would recommend removing it.

Both Betty and Don have had Division I scholastic ambitions for their twins since birth

You are the sports guy, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the examples I found seemed to indicate that this is how it's conventionally spelled.

On one hand, her parents believed she could do anything–on the other hand, she only had one hand.

This seems a taaaad too cheekily prosaic for the AT.

Charlotte’s relationship with sports and subsequent reverence and dedication to athletics is rooted in her primary life mission: to be with and take care of her sister.

Take care of in which context here? It's not clear that Carolina needs to be taken care of, since by all accounts Charlotte is the one more likley to be struggling with health issues, bullying, and that sort of thing.

This was in fact an area where she showed more talent than her sister initially, possessing a natural and playful soprano singing voice. In their elementary years, before committing entirely to AAU basketball, the twins were classically trained in dance (specifically ballet, jazz, and hip-hop styles) as well as church choir.

Are the Hoods religious? If so, how religious are they? It's briefly alluded to in the section on Charlotte's sexuality, but it'd be good to get it clarified, since that will likely inform how Charlotte's parents would feel about her sexuality, and how she'd feel about how they feel about it, etc.

This produced both an understandable anxiety but also a very real challenge as Charlotte had never socially had to exist without her sister present.

"Had never socially had to exist" is a very awkward way to word this. Find a way to revise.

Charlotte is not out and open with her sexual orientation mostly to avoid her own discomfort with being “different”.

This rings a bit odd to me. Charlotte is very publicly "different" when playing basketball, and putting herself out there on social media. The profile doesn't indicate that she has any anxiety over that whatsoever. She also doesn't appear to have attempted seek a hand transplant or a prosthetic, both of which seem like they'd be options given the circumstances, and feel like options that someone who's concerned with being different would want to pursue. Obviously sexuality is a horse of a different color, but it does seem odd for "I don't want to be seen as different" to be that large of a motivator there when it doesn't seem to be motivating anything else she does.

Both of their parents are very much invested in the idea of a Hood family brand and are willing participants in home movie-style vlogs documenting the journey toward NCAA Basketball stardom and then the WNBA thereafter.

There definitely needs to be an adjectival hyphen between "movie" and "style," and probably one between "home" and "movie."

on and Elizabeth see raising Division I athletes as the equivalent of raising concert violinists and are entirely focused on achieving this dream.

Division I again.

Charlotte wakes up every morning at 4 a.m. to perform an hour of basketball drills with her sister.

"4am" is all right for informal prose, but in profiles it should likely be the more formalized "4 a.m."

Charlotte does not participate in drugs, nor does she drink for fear of compromising either the Hood brand or her athletic performance.

I feel like "participate" should be "partake" here?

She can be somewhat standoffish with people

Standoffish isn't generally spelled with a hyphen.

Charlotte feels like she might be holding back her sister from bigger things because while Carolina has received scholarship offers from several prestigious Division I programs-Charlotte has received none.

Division I again. I'm also not sure that the em-dash between "programs" and "Charlotte" is apropos, feels like a comma would serve that function better.

Quite simply, Charlotte is playing this game with a hand tied behind her back due to the obvious detriments of only having one hand. Furthermore, this is a person whose life has been on rails and regimented in its entirety, the pressure and demand to be self-sufficient and controlled will present obvious challenges and adjustments.

The prose here feels a bit unnecessarily informal in tone, especially for the advantages/disadvantages section.

That's all I've got for you on this pass, post here when the edits are done and I'll take another stab at it.

[Buko]

We talked through a lot of the edits on Discord through DM and I appreciate again your patience, grace and professionalism. My Word Processor actually has 135lbs as the grammatically correct version of how to list that, blame Bill Gates and Microsoft. Either way, I went with your version as google shows it's the standard practice. We've added a paragraph discussing faith and sort of early years spent in the church. We've completely edited the Disadvantages. Everything else was a word here or a sentence there. We should be good, but you'll tell me if I'm not!

Thank you!