Leah Chapel

[Cash Money*]

Name: Leah Chapel
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Partying, smoking, theft, rebelling, political and cultural observation

Appearance: Leah is rather tall at 5'8" and somewhat skinny at around 140 pounds. She has long, straight, dirty blonde hair that has a tendency to fall in front of her face; despite this, she doesn't bother tying it back or styling it. Her face is characterized by wide eyes, a wide mouth, a straight nose, and high cheekbones. She always has a slight amount of acne, with something popping up seemingly to replace every one she gets rid of. Her lips are also usually chapped to some degree. She always carries around Chapstick for this exact reason, and she uses it often.

Her clothes fit her surprisingly well for being hand me downs, usually consisting of jeans, a colored shirt, and her trademark brown jacket. Most of her shirts are brightly colored, and she considers them gaudy, using the jacket as a way to tone them down or cover them up.

Her face carries an expression of seriousness in most instances. She often adopts a detached posture, looking like she is standing back and observing even when she is actively involved in something.

Biography: Leah Chapel was born on October 11, 1993. She was the second child of parents that were only planning on having one, and her parents were barely able to support the both of them. She was an energetic, curious child, and at first she grew up happier than her melancholy, passive older sister Cheri, but her superstitious parents' belief that two siblings always turn out to be the opposite of each other quickly became a self fulfilling prophecy.

Leah's mother, both the daughter and the sister of policemen, was very familiar with stories of the kind of people that lived in the area around their apartment complex, and she imposed strict rules around the apartment to keep them both good, law-abiding citizens. Cheri abided by the rules without complaint, but Leah chafed under them. She wanted explanations for why she wasn't able to do this or that, but she rarely got good ones from her parents. The lack of communication slowly resulted in a rift between them, and as Cheri benefited from going with the flow, Leah resented the restrictions and sought a way around them.

That way around came in the form of meeting the other Rainier Valley Girls. She made fast friends with Cherry Vincent and Eliza Patton, finding them to share her disdain for the privileged and her predilection for rebellious teenage behaviors such as partying, drinking, and going around the town. She first joined in their activities as a way to rebel against her parents, but she found them both an escape from normal life and a way to get what she felt her parents weren't willing to give her by way of stealing and having fun. Recently, Monica Bowman also joined the Girls; she doesn't much like her, but accepts her into the group because of her car.

Since meeting Cherry and Eliza, she has picked up a penchant for making observations about American politics and culture. This happened after she heard a good deal of anarchist philosophizing from Eliza and decided to investigate whether any of what she was saying was true. Though she doesn't spend a lot of time looking at sources, she does spend more time reading and thinking about issues than the average person her age, which has led her grades in English to be slightly higher than in the rest of her classes, which are typically low but passable. This is only a byproduct though, as she mainly wants to know exactly who is oppressing her and how badly.

For how suspicious her parents can be, they are surprisingly clueless; as long as Leah doesn't drink too much or smoke too much, they usually don't suspect much, being grudgingly permissive of her right to go out and have some fun. It helps that she's a good liar about these sorts of things, and she has learned to be very sneaky and think on her feet as well. One of the times she was caught was when her smoking habit got out of control to the point that her dad, also a smoker, noticed the extra smoke. He immediately gave her an ultimatum to quit. She views this as hypocrisy, especially since her father didn't explain that it was because he didn't want her to repeat his mistake of getting addicted, but she has since kept her habit down to 2 cigarettes a day, the lowest she can manage, in order to keep up appearances.

She will never take guff or anything that she would consider to be guff from anyone. She is very assertive and generally sees the world as stacked against her. Her contrarian nature makes it hard for her to evaluate her life from an outsider's perspective, as she generally does not see her problems as her fault or something that she can change. Despite her pessimistic outlook, she's determined to do as much as she can in the short term to carve out a livable existence for herself.

Advantages: Leah is highly motivated to go out and get what she wants, and she is very loyal to those she knows well. She is very sneaky, good at lying, and can come up with a plan or take action at a moment's notice.
Disadvantages: Leah carries an "us against the world" mentality, which means she will likely distrust anyone she does not know well. Her smoking habit will come back to haunt her, both in terms of addiction once she's been deprived for a few days on the island and in terms of breathing, given that she used to smoke rather heavily.