S012 - Waite, Iris

[Ruggahissy]

Name: Iris Karina Waite
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Photography, yearbook, student council, entomology, volleyball

Appearance: Iris is 5’6” and weighs 137 pounds. Her figure is slightly bottom-heavy, with a slim torso but wider hips and toned thighs. Iris is Caucasian and has a fair skin tone; she tends to burn rather than tan, so she takes care to protect her skin from the sun. Her face is oval-shaped, tapering towards her chin. She has upturned light brown eyes, an average-sized nose with a slight bump in the bridge, and small, bow-shaped lips. Iris’s hair is straight and strawberry blonde, worn long and layered, reaching just past her shoulders. Currently, she has an undercut, with the hair on the left side of her head buzzed short and the rest left its former length; her undercut has just begun to grow out and is slightly fuzzy. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are very light in color, matching her hair. She suffers from astigmatism and always wears a pair of brown, oval-framed glasses or contact lenses to correct her vision, with a preference for her glasses.

At school, Iris will usually wear a blouse or a long-sleeved sweater over a t-shirt or tank top, shorts or a skirt sometimes paired with leggings or stockings, and heeled sandals or boots, depending on the weather. She likes purples and reds in her wardrobe for how they complement her complexion. Iris wears little jewelry; her ears are pierced once in the lobes, and she usually wears small earrings. She always wears makeup when leaving the house. Typically, she will use makeup to fill in her eyebrows and eyelashes, plus foundation, contouring, and light pink or red lipstick. She likes to keep her fingernails and toenails painted, and most often has them painted red.

On the day of the abduction, Iris was wearing a lavender handkerchief-sleeve blouse with a dark purple and white floral pattern, black pleated shorts, dark purple leggings, and black and gold lace-up snow boots with a low wedge heel. Over this, she had on a thick, light gray wool peacoat with a matching knit beanie and gloves. She was wearing makeup with color filling in her eyebrows and eyelashes, foundation and contouring, and pink lipstick. She also wore her glasses and a pair of faux diamond stud earrings, and she had her fingernails and toenails painted red.

Biography: Iris was born on September 20, 2003, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the only child of Aino Jokinen and Orion Waite. Aino was a Finnish graduate student studying criminology in the US, and Orion worked for the Nantucket medical examiner’s office as a coroner and forensic pathologist. The pair had met while Aino was interviewing various pathologists in the area for her graduate research, and they began dating shortly afterward. Things quickly grew uneven between them; Orion tended to dominate the relationship and make all the decisions, and he would argue and lecture Aino whenever they disagreed. She went along with what he decided for the most part, finding that it just wasn’t worth it to argue.

When Aino got pregnant about a year into their relationship, the cracks began to show. Orion pressured her to keep the child and was affronted when Aino confessed that she would rather not go through with it. They had increasingly frequent and hostile arguments about it, but Aino eventually caved once again.

Iris’s early childhood was marked by the increasing tension between her parents and a severe imbalance in the attention and affection that she was shown; her father was almost smothering, while her mother was constantly distant. As the distance between them increased, Orion began pressuring Aino to marry him, hoping that they could still salvage their relationship. Instead, Aino opted to return to her home country of Finland in order to pursue her doctoral studies, and not long after that, she cut off all contact. Her family relayed a few curt messages to Orion to make it clear that Aino would not be returning to the United States and asking him not to pursue her for child support, and then they too ceased communication after a short while. Without the time and resources to try to track Aino down, given that she was now overseas, Orion had no choice but to accept that things were over.

Iris was almost four at this time. Orion never properly explained to her just why her mother would not be coming home; he believed that Iris was too young to fully understand what was going on, and he was feeling lost and adrift himself in the face of his relationship collapsing. He didn’t want to admit the substantial part he’d had in Aino’s leaving or that the decision to have and keep Iris had also contributed, as he didn’t want Iris to blame him or herself. The lack of explanation did not mitigate the emotional damage that losing her mother did to Iris. From her perspective, she abruptly found out that Aino would not be coming back, with no reason at all behind the decision. The hurt and confusion resulting from this led Iris to develop intense fears of being further abandoned without warning or reason.

Following her mother’s departure, Iris began school as a clingy and easily upset child. She often cried when Orion left her at school for the day and would follow teachers and friendly classmates around rather than spend any time on her own. Kindergarten was a constant struggle to adjust to her new schedule and environment; first grade went a little better, as Iris had gotten used to school and made some friends in her class, but things were disrupted again the year after when Orion informed her that they were moving. He had been seeking to move to a new workplace for a while, wanting to get a fresh start away from his old job and the memory of his failed relationship with Aino. He had finally found a promising position in the Essex County medical examiner’s office, and he and Iris moved to Salem during the summer before Iris started second grade; Orion chose Salem over moving to Boston for the quieter atmosphere, and it was little trouble for him to commute to work when he was on call.

The adjustment process at her new school went much the same for Iris as her first school years. She did eventually settle in, but she established a reputation that would follow her throughout her school years as being attached at the hip to friends or teachers. While she did make some friends, she struggled around new people and often turned them away with her social awkwardness and neediness. She tried to make up for this by being more of a people-pleaser when she could, offering to do favors such as helping others with homework. Between Orion’s well-paid job and some profitable stock investments he’d made on the side, he had no trouble supporting the two of them and affording a home with room for recreational amenities like a TV and games room, and he encouraged Iris to invite people over to make use of the space.

Sometimes, these approaches worked. Some people, however, saw Iris as a pushover who would do whatever she was asked as long as the asking was done nicely, which wasn’t entirely untrue. She was easily pressured into going beyond her initial offers, such as letting others copy her homework instead of simply helping them, or doing more than her share in group projects. She enjoyed the positive attention that helping people got her, and she didn’t want to ruin that by saying no to any requests.

Iris also got into the habit of taking notes about her classmates, especially people that she wanted to be friends with, as she thought that this would make it easier to get on everyone’s good side. She would make note of likes and dislikes, hobbies, and relationships with other people. For a time, she would keep her notes in one of her school notebooks. However, after an incident in middle school where a classmate noticed this and called her a stalker, she suffered a period of social backlash and mockery for this habit. Though most have let the incident go over the years, it is something that longtime classmates will occasionally still bring up and it remains a source of humiliation for Iris. Despite the turmoil it caused, Iris would later resume this activity after moving on to high school, albeit more privately and less frequently. On occasion, she will make notes about people on her phone and later copy them into a journal that she keeps at home and hides religiously from any potential snooping.

Academically, Iris always did well. She was naturally capable in most areas, and Orion pushed her to study hard and put in extra effort wherever she could. She started taking honors classes as soon as they were available and consistently placed near the top of her class. She always showed an affinity for the sciences, particularly biology and chemistry, and she strove to do especially well in these areas as they were her father’s favored subjects as well.

In terms of extracurriculars, Iris preferred to do whatever her friends were doing. She picked up photography after joining the art club with several friends and quickly discovered that she had a knack for portraiture. Iris loved taking pictures of herself and her friends engaged in various activities so that she would have mementos of their time together. She also liked to take candid pictures of others, especially of people that she wanted to get closer to; taking photos made her feel more connected to these desired friends while the distance of the camera kept her from having to really engage and face potential rejection. This fear of rejection sometimes became a self-fulfilling prophecy however, as people who caught her taking pictures weren’t always pleased. Many were able to write it off as Iris just being socially awkward, but some considered her behavior akin to stalking, much like with the note-taking, and this has been a subject of mockery and a stain on her reputation on and off throughout the years.

Iris participated in a variety of other clubs and teams from elementary school on, either following friends to the activities or taking up things that her father suggested in the interest of being well-rounded. She floated through several sports over the years; while she was never a standout, she was usually enthusiastic and determined, willing to try things over again even in the face of mistakes and minor injuries. At the beginning of high school, Iris finally settled into a spot on the volleyball team. She enjoys the fast-paced, shorter rounds and the relatively simple structure of volleyball as opposed to more complex and longer-lasting sports like basketball or lacrosse; she feel that she can be more well-rounded in volleyball rather than having to focus on honing her skills in one particular position on another team. She is a middling player, as her real physical ability lies in her endurance and a high pain tolerance rather than outstanding talent for the sport itself, but she is a consistent source of team spirit.

Iris has also kept up with her photography hobby, and in high school she joined the yearbook team as one of their photographers. She volunteers to attend many sporting events and fundraisers in order to take pictures, and she does some of the editing and page design for the yearbook as well. On the personal side of things, she likes to take selfies with her friends while they are doing things together, and she still sometimes takes candid shots of others, which she keeps private.

When her peers started dating, Iris was led on several times by boys, usually because they wanted some favor out of her or as a prank. Iris had trouble saying no to things when faced with the possibility of someone showing romantic interest in her, and she sometimes put herself in situations outside of her comfort zone as a result. Orion has gotten somewhat strict on her about dating after seeing Iris get her feelings hurt when things inevitably fizzled out, but it is still a pattern that repeats from time to time. This pattern has not been good for Iris's already shaky self-esteem; the immediate aftermath of a failed relationship typically results in her wallowing in feelings of being unattractive or unlovable for a while before recovering and moving on to a new crush. Iris considers herself straight, but she has gone on a couple of dates with girls who expressed interest in her, wanting the idea of being in a relationship and someone being attracted to her more than the attraction that she feels towards someone else.

While her social life has had its ups and downs, Iris’s academic trajectory has been strong throughout school. She gets mostly A’s, and her various extracurriculars ensure that she has a well-padded resume for college applications. She joined the student council in her sophomore year at her father’s behest, and in senior year she chose to run unopposed for the role of class secretary, feeling that there would be little pressure in taking on a position that nobody else wanted. Iris enjoys feeling like she can actually contribute to improving student life with her work on the council, as well as the somewhat exclusive feeling of belonging to the group that makes some of the decisions.

Iris plans to attend college after high school and major in biology with either a minor or a double-major in chemistry. Ostensibly, she is going to take a pre-medical track in undergrad, but she isn’t actually sure of this. She has doubts about whether she could handle the pressure of having patients’ lives on the line, and she has considered pursuing pathology and becoming a coroner like Orion. However, she isn’t sure that she has the stomach for performing autopsies either. Her fallback plan is to study pharmacy, which she sees as a well-paying and low-pressure career related to the medical field.

Iris’s true passion in the sciences is entomology. Ever since she was little, she has been fascinated by insects and arachnids and their biology. She would often collect live specimens when she was a child before letting them go outside, and over the past few years she has begun to collect and pin specimens that catch her attention. She has amassed a fairly impressive collection and enjoys showing it off to her friends, who rarely understand the appeal. While Iris has considered that she would like to study entomology in college, discussions with Orion about it convinced her that it wasn’t a path to a viable career, so she has decided to stick with medicine.

Iris and her father have always had a close relationship, but it is not always particularly healthy. Orion can be overbearing, pushing Iris to succeed academically, often prying about her social life and love life, and openly criticizing people that she associates with if he considers them troublemakers or not up to her standards. Despite his dominating presence, Iris considers her dad her oldest and closest friend, and he has long been her confidant when she is struggling. She rationalizes or ignores his controlling tendencies, and he in turn downplays or justifies Iris’s own flaws, putting the blame outside their family for any failures or hardships. Aino never re-established contact with her ex and daughter, and her absence and the lack of either Aino or her family reaching out still hurts Iris a lot. She wants to try to re-establish contact with her mother eventually but doesn't know where to start, and the fear of being rejected once again has kept this from being more than an idea so far. Iris reasons that whatever Orion’s flaws might be, he is the parent who wanted her and everything that he does comes from a place of love for her. While they are both quite busy with work and school, Iris and her father take yearly trips back to Nantucket for a couple of weeks every summer, which she treasures.

Not being able to make their usual summer trip in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic made Iris very sad, on top of the fear and concern she experienced for her father given the risk to workers in all areas of the medical field. Orion took strict precautions to keep himself and Iris safe, including having them separately quarantine at home when necessary; he has been making effort to spend more time with Iris personally now that life has somewhat returned to normal, though he is still very busy. They were able to take the trip to Nantucket again in the summer of 2021, though their activities were somewhat restricted still.

Aside from that, the isolation during the pandemic took a heavy mental toll on Iris and made her cling even harder to the friends she was in touch with, something still ongoing even after returning to school in-person full time and being able to socialize face-to-face again. At times, the distanced communication with her friends became sporadic due to the circumstances, and Iris would spend these periods wondering if people really liked her and wanted to keep in touch with her, or if they were deliberately ignoring her because her clinginess had driven them away. She is afraid of being left alone again by people that she cares about, and when she lacks the external validation that they provide, it gets harder for her to pull herself out of emotional slumps.

Currently, Iris is both excited and anxious about the future. She knows that she isn’t of great social standing at school, and she looks forward to a fresh start at college. She is mostly worried about losing contact with friends when they go their separate ways after high school. She intends to stay at home to mitigate this fact, planning to enroll as a commuter student at one of the many universities in Boston rather than going somewhere farther away. Iris has applied to Boston University and Harvard among others, and she knows that she stands a good chance of getting into at least one of her top choices.

Advantages: Iris is physically fit, and she has good stamina and a high pain tolerance. She has a decent theoretical and practical knowledge of anatomy and experience treating minor injuries from sports and thus could perform some first-aid on herself or others. She has a history of keeping tabs on her classmates, making her more aware of their potential strengths and weaknesses than many of them realize.
Disadvantages: Iris is not very emotionally stable, and she is more reliant on others for support than many of her peers. Isolation and the loss of people she cares about are likely to affect her more acutely than others. She is also susceptible to peer pressure and manipulation from people she likes; conversely, she is regarded as weird by many of her classmates, who may mistrust her based on reputation or consider her a drain on resources. Iris has astigmatism and her vision will be impacted if she loses her glasses and contacts.

Designated Number: Student No. 012

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Designated Weapon: Flashbang grenades x3

Conclusion: Iris likes to make sheets with information about her classmates containing notes about them, their hobbies, and relationships. Hmm, maybe she'd like a job here with us. - Abby Soto