S073 - Lader, Adam

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Name: Adam Lader
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12th
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Socializing, Dating, Running, Writing

Appearance: Adam stands at 5’9” and weighs 170 pounds even. His weight is a healthy mix of muscle and fat, leaning more towards muscle. His wavy, dirty blond hair has recently been dyed a light pink. It’s cut short, reaching his chin in length, and he styles the fringe so that it falls over his right eye and curls slightly at the ends. He has a pointed nose and thin lips. His eyes are a pale blue in color, and his skin is on the pale side, as a result of his French and German heritage.

Adam’s overall style can be described as casual; he’s often seen wearing sweaters, hoodies, skinny jeans, and either platform or tennis shoes.

On the day of abduction, Adam wore a somewhat loose-fitting maroon sweater, black skinny jeans, and pink tennis shoes. His nails were painted black.

Biography: Adam Lader was born on May 1st, 2004 to Phoenix and Nicolette Lader at North Shore Medical Center. Phoenix Lader was a high school dropout, and at the time Adam was born was between jobs. While Phoenix himself was born in Massachusetts, his father hails from Germany, having immigrated to America in hopes of making a name for himself. Nicolette, by contrast, was a Cambridge School of Culinary Arts graduate who currently works as a sous-chef at a high end restaurant in downtown Salem. After graduating, she moved to Boston as part of an apprenticeship program. She soon longed for her hometown of Salem, and promptly moved back there once she had finished up her program. The two had met at a bar, both having gone there in search of companionship. The two began dating, and married just months after. Adam was their second child; their first was Belinda, who was born five years before Adam. Almost a year after Adam was born, Nicolette gave birth to twins, Maya and Skye.

Shortly after the birth of Maya and Skye, Nicolette filed for divorce. Their marriage had started falling apart the moment Belinda was born. Phoenix had been fired from his job at a warehouse around the time Belinda was due. Though he promised Nicolette that he would find another job, it quickly became apparent that he had no intention to do so, preferring to coast on her considerable income. Despite the increasing amount of daily arguments, Nicolette refused to get a divorce, thinking that it would be bad for the children. However, by the time Maya and Skye were born, she decided that it would be worse if the children were raised in such a toxic environment.

The divorce went through with little fuss; Phoenix did not deny any of the accusations of him not contributing to the family, and allowed Nicolette to take full custody over the children. Nicolette decided to keep her surname as Lader, as she did not want to confuse then seven year old Belinda as to what her name was. At present, the only issue that Phoenix has is with paying child support. While he will eventually pay for it, he is often late.

Although Nicolette’s income was just enough to cover the cost of raising four children on her own, she still needed an extra pair of hands to help look after them whenever she did not have the time. At first she enlisted the help of babysitters, but when Belinda was old enough to look after herself Nicolette asked if she could look after her younger siblings. Belinda was naturally quite maternal, so she readily fit into the role as babysitter. As such, Adam was rather attached to Belinda, especially during his early years. He would always go to her first whenever he wanted something, such as to play a game or to read him a story. As they grew older, he also got along with Maya, due to their similar personalities and interests. The only sister he did not form much of a connection with was Skye; she was shy and bookish, and spent most of her time indoors, something of which was unfathomable to Adam.

During elementary school, Adam was noted to be quite intelligent by his teachers, easily absorbing any concept that was thrown at him. In addition, he was enthusiastic about gym class, and while he was not necessarily the best at sports, his efforts usually resulted in high marks. He was an all-around straight A student, and teachers would write home about the amount of potential they see in him. The one complaint they would give is that whenever a joke was made, either by himself or by someone else, he would try to extend the joke as long as possible, disrupting the class.

While Adam had been invited to birthday parties before, it wasn’t until around third grade that he developed a fondness for them. He loved the social aspect to them, being able to mingle with a great number of people at once. On his own birthdays, he would invite his entire class. Though he was popular enough to get plenty of invites without prompting the inviter, he began pestering classmates who had not invited him to their parties. This dimmed his popularity, as those on the receiving end of his pestering had a growing dislike for him.

Another factor that contributed to Adam’s declining popularity was that he was growing to be a bit pudgy. Though he enjoyed gym class, he did not exercise outside of it, and he also consumed a large quantity of junk food, particularly candy, when at home. Belinda, concerned for her brother’s health, proposed to him a diet and exercise routine. She monitored the amount of junk food he ate and encouraged him towards healthier food options. In addition, everyday after school, the two would go for a run around the neighborhood for about an hour. While he despised having to give up his candy, he found the running to be enjoyable.

Around the same time Adam discovered his love of parties, Nicolette had deemed her children to be old enough for travel. Whenever Nicolette had enough time off work and her children could take time off school, they would pack their bags and head out to whichever destination Nicolette had in mind. Throughout the years, the Lader family has travelled to almost every tourist attraction America has to offer, from the Grand Canyon to the Statue of Liberty; Yellowstone Park to Yosemite Park. All that said, while the family has been all around America, they have never left the country. Adam dreams of changing that, at least for himself; he hopes that someday he will be able to visit Europe, particularly Germany as his grandfather hails from there.

Around fifth grade, Adam began to notice girls in a different light. In particular, he developed feelings for Cassandra Hallow, a girl one grade ahead of him. Being that she was the first girl he’d ever really had a crush on, he wasn’t sure how one was to go about this sort of thing. Towards the end of the school year, he asked her out. Her first couple of answers were noncommittal, but after a couple of tries she eventually accepted. The relationship lasted a single summer, as Cassandra grew tired of Adam’s needy behavior towards her. By Adam’s own account, he broke off the relationship as he found her boring.

The start of middle school was the start of a new Adam, so to speak. For one, Belinda was gradually trying to distance herself from Adam around this time. She was 17 now; her sights were set on attending a business course at Boston University upon graduating, and she was determined to see this vision through. To do that, though, she had to first put some distance between herself and Adam. Although he was as self-sufficient as the average 12 year old, he still showed a strong attachment to her. Knowing that it would be a shock to him once she left for university, she decided that the best course of action would be to gradually wean him off his dependency.

For another, middle school marked the beginning of Adam’s dating spree. Around the same time that Belinda was gearing up for university, Adam had discovered that dating was quite the enjoyable experience. He didn’t mind that his relationship with Cassandra only lasted a single summer; if anything, he personally thought that was the way relationships should go. To Adam, dating should be a short-term arrangement, lasting only as long as the initial interest lasts.

Finding dates was a simple task for Adam, as he could easily figure out what the right thing to say to the right girl was. Moreover, it was his ability to feel out what kind of things would get what kind of reactions that made him regain his popularity. That said, some of the more callous students noted that it was easy to make him do embarrassing things just to get that person to give him attention. Oddly, he wasn’t bothered by this. He does have a sense of shame; it’s more to do with his ability to stay mentally grounded that lets him endure unpleasant events.

Sometime around the last six months of seventh grade, Adam’s friends noted that he had a gift for storytelling and encouraged him to start writing some of his stories down. At first he balked at this, feeling as though writing stories was uncool. His friends clarified that they did not mean writing about things they considered dumb, such as dragons, but rather he should write about real life events. Though he scoffed at their idea, later that night he decided to test it out. He discovered that he found writing to be quite an enjoyable experience, however due to his own opinions on writing being uncool, he figured that he should keep his written works private.

Eighth grade was when Adam discovered his feelings towards girls also extended towards boys. There was a new classmate named Alex Medina, a small, slight boy hailing from Mexico. Adam was enamored with Alex upon his introduction, and only a few days after did he ask him out.

However, by the end of middle school, the relationship was falling apart. Adam and Alex had been together for almost a year, making it the longest relationship Adam has ever had. However, Adam was intensely attached to Alex, more so than in any other relationship he had. He wanted Alex’s attention at all hours of the day, and disliked it whenever his attention was diverted to someone else. The two were having frequent arguments, but Adam refused to break up with Alex. Whenever Alex broached the subject, Adam would threaten him by hinting that he’ll spill all of Alex’s embarrassing secrets on social media.

Adam didn’t seem to care about Alex’s wants and needs, he only cared about his own. The morning before the beginning of high school, Alex phoned Adam to tell him that he was breaking the relationship off. Before Adam could respond, Alex hung up and blocked his phone number.

Adam was furious about the break up. Every other relationship he had, either Adam was the one to break it off or both he and his date would do so at the same time. This was the first time he was the one to be rejected. His feelings for Alex quickly soured, and what was once intense attachment changed into intense loathing almost overnight.

Adam continued his middle school trend of doing hardly any schoolwork, though his grades remain around the A’s regardless. His concern for attending a good university tends to fluctuate, as a part of him wants to attend BU as Belinda did, however a part of him that’s apathetic to school in general doesn’t care.

While Adam was always hygienic, it wasn’t until midway through high school that he began to seriously focus on his appearance. He began to buy more outfits in pink, and he experimented with makeup, though he quickly learned that he only cares for nail polish and mascara. At the same time, he learned that the term used for his sexuality is pansexual. The more conservative staff and students at JEM disapprove of his more feminine appearance and interest in boys, and a few of his peers would insult him for these traits. Adam finds these reactions more amusing than anything else, and he’ll deliberately play up his femininity in order to further anger them.

If anything, it is Adam himself that can be something of a bully. Should someone not do what he wants, he’ll manipulate them into doing so by using their insecurities (either known or guessed) as leverage. Should that not work, he’ll intimidate the person, whether with his force of personality or straight up threatening them. Of note is that such tactics usually fail when used on him, as he is mentally strong enough to endure such things.

Even without Belinda around, Adam still goes for his daily runs, which he has now increased to two hours a day. He also joined the track team as a long distance runner, though the lack of funding and general interest in JEM’s athletics have led to Adam skipping out on most meetings. That said, he still attends just enough meetings so that he won’t get kicked out of the team. He also continues to write in secret, with the subject he writes about being potential letters he would send to his exes.

Currently, Adam and his mother maintain a good relationship, and he also maintains a good relationship with Maya. Though he still does not quite understand Skye, he does make the effort to be on good terms with her. His relationship with Belinda has soured somewhat on her end, as she disapproves of Adam’s callous behavior towards his classmates, especially his former datefriends. Though she keeps this to herself, Adam can sense that she’s disappointed in him. Adam is aware of who his father is, but he has no desire to be in contact with him.

Adam currently has no plans for what he wants to do after he graduates. When asked, he usually jokes that he’ll be a sugar baby. Despite his general lack of direction, he isn’t too worried about where he’ll end up as he was in his junior year, and he has hope that wherever he lands, it’ll be somewhere good.

Advantages: Adam is quite intelligent in his ability to grasp foreign concepts. He is physically in good condition, and he is mentally quite strong. He knows both how to intimidate someone and how to find someone’s weak points for manipulation.
Disadvantages: Adam is driven by his need to socialize, and as such can become rather clingy to individuals he’s interested in, to the annoyance of others. Moreover, if driven to desperation, he will do just about anything he believes will give him attention, regardless if he humiliates himself. He is very mercurial in temperament, and tends to make decisions on a whim. People generally like him, but also know he's selfish, and therefore wouldn't trust him.

Designated Number: Student No. 073

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Designated Weapon: Laminated paper listing all weapons in the game and the students they have been assigned to

Conclusion: Attention whores never last, but we give them everything they've ever wanted before they bite it. You're welcome. - Veronica Rai