Amber Barnes

[Pippi]

Name: Amber Stephanie Barnes
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Soccer, tennis, digital art, tattoos, drinking, video games, mobile games, collecting bottle caps

Appearance: Amber is a tall girl, weighing standing at 6’0” flat, a height that does a decent job of causing her to stand out from the crowd, and which she is actively happy about. It is far from the sole facet of her appearance that makes her stick out from her peers; her naturally wavy hair, for example, is dyed a light metallic blue, although the colour is in urgent need of being reapplied, as her light brown roots are quite prominent at this stage. She keeps her hair long, reaching all the way down to her upper back, with bangs that are messily brushed to the left, almost entirely obscuring her vision on that side of her face.

Other features of Amber’s appearance that make her easy to pick out include the numerous piercings and tattoos that adorn her body. In terms of the former, she has two conch piercings and one lobe piercings in both ears, an industrial piercing in her left ear, spider bite piercings in the right side of her lips, and, most recently, a navel piercing. Amber has been getting tattoos for a year now, with written and express permission from her parents as per Nevada laws, and has only added to this number since turning 18. Currently, she has the club badges for Liverpool F.C. and Portland Timbers on her left arm, a set of three bottle caps on her right arm, a small tattoo of a blacktip reef shark in black ink on her left wrist, and a larger one of the same animal on her left shoulder blade in a stylised stained-glass art style.

Amber is Caucasian, and while she has a decent overall tan thanks to her outdoor hobbies, she also has patches of blotchy red skin where she’s caught the sun and has neglected to wear sufficient sunblock. Her time spent playing soccer and tennis has given her great muscle definition in her legs, as well as decent toning in her upper back and arms. She has a soft stomach and a medium-sized bust. She has a round face with dark green eyes, an unremarkable nose, and full lips which are usually adorned with sparkly or scented lipgloss. She has very thick, dark eyebrows, which she particularly dislikes. She likes to wear eyeshadow, often of the same metallic blue as her hair, and mascara when it comes to makeup.

In terms of clothing, Amber has a penchant for rather revealing fashion, something she enjoys both because she likes having eyes on her, and because it allows her to stay relatively cool in the Las Vegas heat. Her wardrobe contains a large number of crop tops, tank tops, and spaghetti strap tops, along with some t-shirts for cooler weather. The bottom half of her outfit is almost always either skirts or shorts, often with tights or leggings. Amber particularly likes wearing fishnets, both as tights and as sleeves, but is aware these toe the line when it comes to school dress code, so generally only wears them outside school hours. She can often be seen wearing chokers in terms of accessories, and while she rarely actually wears it due to the generally hot weather, she almost always carries a black beanie, which has the faded logo of her mom’s old tennis club on the front and is adorned with a number of pins and badges, on her person at all times. Amber is very short-sighted, and so wears a pair of black-framed glasses with rectangular lenses at all times.

Biography: Amber was born in Portland, Oregon, the eldest child of Steven and Jocelyn Barnes. She has one brother, Freddie, who is two years her junior. Her father works in the IT department for a local video game studio, and her mother is a teaching assistant. With the exception of an uncle, aunt, and cousin, who also live in Las Vegas, the majority of her extended family remains in Portland, leading to the Barneses to be a very tight-knit family.

A curious and inquisitive child, Amber spent much of early years fascinated by the world around her and everything within it. She would constantly ask questions about things she didn’t recognise or understand, and the majority of her reading material was non-fiction about animals, plants, and the like. Her curiosity occasionally got her into trouble, when she would grab things she didn’t recognise in order to get a better look at them, but her parents were always quick to forgive due to her young age.

As far as Amber can remember, her childhood was relatively uneventful, but in truth, tragedy almost struck before her third birthday. Amber was playing dress-up with her mother’s clothes in her parents’ bedroom, and Jocelyn had to momentarily pop downstairs to take a phone call. In the time that her mother was out of the room, Amber managed to get the necklace she was wearing caught on the bed frame, which started to choke her. Fortunately, her mother got back upstairs in time to rescue her without any lasting physical damage. The incident happened so long ago, now, that Amber barely has any recollection of it, but for a good while afterwards Jocelyn was very reluctant to let her get out of sight, even for things like playdates and kindergarten.

In large part due to her nature and fascination with the things around her, many of Amber’s early interests stemmed from her parents, a few of which have stuck with her to this day. Steven had spent a lot of his time at college playing video games, and still owned his original Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System from that period. Even after graduating and getting married, he still kept up with the latest consoles and games, and would play them in the living room while Amber watched on, enraptured. While she enjoyed playing multiplayer games with her dad when she was old enough to do so, her favourite thing to do was still just to watch instead while he played his favourite genre of game; RPGs, predominantly the Final Fantasy series. She loved the art direction, character design, and often-over-the-top attacks and abilities used in these games, and after much pestering and convincing him that she wouldn’t delete any of his saves, Steven allowed her to play herself, on her very own save files.

Soccer was also one of Steven’s influences. A Portland native born-and-bred, he has supported the Portland Timbers all his life, both the initial incarnation during the NASL days, and the club of the same name which currently plays in the MLS. He made sure to watch every single Timbers game which was broadcast, and Amber, as inquisitive as ever, sure enough started watching as well, drawn in by the bright colours and sounds from the crowds. While she initially asked plenty of questions about what was going on, she quickly picked up on the rules of the game, and before too long was as dedicated a Timbers fan as her dad. The two managed to go to a number of home games on the weekends over the years, something Amber always looked forward to.

Her interest in tennis, however, came from her mother, who had weekly tennis classes after work. Jocelyn would frequently bring Amber along to these classes, where she could sit off to the side with a snack and a drink. Initially, this was so that her mother could keep an eye on her daughter without having to pay for a childminder, but soon enough Amber became genuinely invested in the sport and, like with soccer, quickly picked up the rules of the game. She loved to play tennis in the back garden, hitting a ball against a wall and imitating her mother in the process.

When Amber was eleven years old, her family made plans to move from Portland to Las Vegas. Steven’s mother, living in Las Vegas and in her twilight years, had a bad fall and was hospitalised, and he wanted to spend more time with her while he still could. There was significant back-and-forth on the idea within the family, but the tipping point came when he was able to secure a job that allowed him to remain in an IT role but which paid more and also allowed him to work in his beloved games industry. About a week before the family moved, Freddie went swimming with a group of friends as a sort of small farewell party. A bout of roughhousing and play-fighting almost turned tragic, when Freddie’s head was held underwater and he nearly drowned. Although he survived the ordeal, he gained a paralyzing fear of water from then onwards, and Jocelyn, who had already been closely monitoring her childrens’ activities, became even more zealous in making sure that they didn’t come into harm’s way.

This, in part, led to Amber’s first year in Las Vegas to be a rather miserable one. Not only was she desperately missing her friends and her old home back in Portland, she also felt as though she was under constant surveillance from her parents. She was required to phone or text back home every lunch period while at school, and was forbidden from joining any extracurricular clubs outside of regular school hours. She was rarely allowed to hang out at her classmates’ houses, as Jocelyn wanted to be absolutely sure that the parents would be reliable and trustworthy, and would keep a close eye on her daughter. Even something as simple as going to the closest corner shop required her to be chaperoned by a parent.

As such, Amber spent most of this first year indoors, playing video games on her dad’s games consoles and watching sports on TV. She still managed to keep in contact with her classmates via text and online, and in particular she found some measure of happiness in playing mobile games and adding everyone she knew as friends that way. It allowed her to feel a little more connected to her peers, and like they were still working towards something or doing something together, even when she was cooped up inside of her room. However, most of the games she played had a rather limited form of connectivity, such as giving gifts to one another, rather than allowing her to play simultaneously with her friends, and she still missed being able to hang out face-to-face with them, leading her to feel isolated and lonely despite her best attempts.

Fortunately, Jocelyn and Steven soon realised the negative effects that came from being so overprotective of their children; Amber being listless and lonely, and Freddie being sullen and acting out by breaking rules and guidelines. They acknowledged that wrapping them up in cotton wool would only do more harm than good in the long run, that there would be adults at school and clubs to make sure nothing bad happened, and that Amber especially was old enough to keep herself safe. To that end, they loosened the majority of the restrictions that they had previously implemented.

Amber took full advantage of this, joining the school’s soccer and tennis clubs, wanting to get a chance to experience both of the sports that she had grown up watching. To her pleasant surprise, she took to soccer near-instantly, her keen understanding of the game quickly giving her a starting position on the school team. Her preference for eschewing fancy tricks or techniques in favour of executing the basics exceptionally well made her a natural fit for a left back position, where she is well known for getting stuck into tackles and arguing with the referee when decisions go against her. She was much less initially adept at tennis, sending a lot of wild shots and serves in any direction other than where she’d been aiming for, including out of the court. While she has definitely gotten better since then, and shows glimmers of talent occasionally, she’s still considered very raw and unpredictable. Amber takes this label in her stride, as she still really enjoys playing tennis, and knows she won’t get any better at it if she gives up now.

Another club that Amber ended up joining was the school’s art club. She had occasionally picked up pencil and paper to sketch with when she was stuck at home and needed a break from looking at a screen. She found that she really enjoyed drawing, as it allowed her to take scenes from real life, such as the view outside her bedroom window, and capture them in a different medium and style on paper, and it also meant that she could draw her favourite characters from video games and TV in poses and scenes that she came up with in her head. She decided to join the art club so that she could learn further techniques and improve her skills, and it was here that she was introduced to digital art via a fellow club member who let her borrow their drawing tablet. Amber was instantly enthralled, as she’d never had an opportunity to use a tablet before, and she loved many of the features that digital art had over traditional art; most notably, being able to undo any mistakes without having to use an eraser. While she wasn’t quite prepared to purchase a tablet of her own, due to the age of her computer and her uncertainty as to how frequently she would use it, she was more than happy to borrow one from her friends in the art club and use it there. She predominantly works by scanning her sketches into an art program and then adding linework, colour, and shading digitally.

Thanks to the number of clubs and teams that Amber participated in, alongside both her earnest curiosity towards the world and the people around her, and her friendly, good-natured personality, she quickly grew in popularity, something she enjoyed immensely. She genuinely enjoyed making the people around her happy, and always tried her best to make them laugh, or at least smile, but she also loved being the centre of attention and having all eyes on her. She started changing her appearance to help draw more attention, dying her hair, altering her style of dress to be more revealing, and getting more and more piercings as she grew older.

Amber had, for a few years, also wanted to get tattooed; both because it would further help her stand out, and because she truly loved the idea of having something permanently marked on her body to reflect her loves and interests, and to have a part of herself always facing the world. While her parents initially weren’t fond of the idea, Amber’s continued good behaviour - and the fact that she hadn’t lost any of her initial desire for a tattoo after two years - eventually swayed them. With written consent and permission from her parents, and accompanied by Steven to the tattoo parlour, Amber got her first tattoo at age 17, a small blacktip reef shark on her left wrist, her favourite animal. Since turning 18, she has only added to this, and plans to get even more tattoos in the future.

Due to Amber’s popularity, she’s frequently invited to parties and gatherings, something she loves and that she’s always on the lookout for. She will frequently be found drinking at these parties, if there is alcohol available, as despite the fact she doesn’t actually enjoy the taste of most alcohol, she does enjoy the sensation of being drunk and letting go of her inhibitions, as she knows she doesn’t get angry or sad while drunk. Despite this, she always has a contingency plan prior to starting drinking, where she makes sure she always has a ride home or a room to stay in at any house parties, and she will refuse to drink if she doesn’t feel totally safe to do so. Outside of parties, Amber occasionally uses alcohol to de-stress after a difficult day, stealing from her parents’ liquor cabinet when they’re busy. She feels guilty about doing so, and is fully aware it’s not the healthiest coping mechanism, but it works and she hasn’t been caught yet, so she is unwilling to give it up entirely just yet.

A little after she started drinking, Amber began collecting bottle caps, something that she had briefly attempted as a child for about a week before giving it up. Now, though, she had more drive to maintain a collection, as many of the caps told a story about where she had been, and reminded her of parties or events that she had been to. There were also a number of soda or bottled water caps that she had just gotten at restaurants or corner shops, but even these fascinated her, with the design for the same brand of soda changing over the course of the year, for example, and various other brands having special designs for holidays like Halloween or Christmas. Amber hasn’t told anyone about this collection, aside from her parents, as she knows it wouldn’t exactly be viewed as a cool thing to do, and she’s also not certain what she’s going to end up doing with the growing hoard she’s collecting; she now has several jars full of bottle caps hidden under her bed.

In conjunction with her partygoing nature and popularity, Amber is very sexually active and very sex positive to boot. She considers casual sex to be akin to any other interest or activity - it’s something that she enjoys doing and that makes other people feel good, so she doesn’t see why there should be any hangups about it - and she uses it as a way of showing love and appreciation for those around her. Like with drinking, she has a number of baseline rules she follows, including that she’ll never have sex while under the influence or with anyone in a committed relationship, and she’s very firm with these.

After a rocky start to their time in Las Vegas, Amber’s relationship with her parents is now excellent. From Steven and Jocelyn’s side, after nearly losing both of their children and then seeing that they were overprotecting them, they want Amber to enjoy her life as much as possible, and encourage her to seek out whatever makes her most happy; hence why they are perfectly happy to let her get the piercings and tattoos that she desires. For her part, Amber repays this trust in her own judgement by being open and communicative with her parents, letting her know where she’ll be and how long she’ll be out when out of the house and not at school, particularly if she’s going to a party and needs a ride home. Her parents are happy for her to drink, as they trust in her to be sensible with it and also recognise they did much the same when they were her age, and will let her have the occasional glass of wine or beer at home during Thanksgiving or Christmas. Her relationship with Freddie is unfortunately nowhere near as good; he still feels bitter over the family’s first year in Las Vegas, and has fallen in with the wrong crowd at school, resulting in him acting out and misbehaving and, thus, getting punished for it. His frequent bad mood means he’ll frequently snipe at or try to make fun of his sister, who will inevitably retaliate, so there are few good words shared between the two.

At school, Amber is a decent all-rounder, albeit without particularly excelling at any specific subjects, hovering around a B-average across the board. Her reputation amongst her teachers is mixed, primarily due to Amber cracking jokes and trying to make people laugh during class; putting on silly voices during readings of The Crucible, for example. While some don’t mind this as it’s clear she’s still putting the effort into her studies, and a select few actually enjoy her cheerful presence in class, others consider her a nuisance and a distraction, with some occasionally handing out detentions when she pushes her luck with one joke too many.

Among her classmates, Amber remains generally very popular, with a lot of people appreciative of her friendly and laid-back personality and her love of making the people around her smile. She has a lot of friends from the clubs she participates in, and from the parties she frequents. There are exceptions to this, however. Due to her reputation as a class clown, there are some who don’t see her as being able to take anything seriously; a viewpoint exacerbated by the fact that her attempts at comfort or support, no matter how genuine, are usually quite clumsy, with Amber stumbling over her words or attempting to slip a joke in. Amber herself can get very frustrated sometimes, even with people she considers good friends, as she feels like sometimes she isn’t allowed to be anything but cheerful and funny; when she has her own grievances or off-days, she feels like many people just ignore her problems or expect her to quickly bounce back from them due to her usual sunny personality. There are also a number of people who dislike Amber due to her sexual freedom and openness of such, which has given her more than a few derogatory labels by those who disapprove.

Amber has, for a while now, been uncertain as to what she wants to do after graduating from high school, and at this late stage is pretty much set on taking a year off to solidify what she wants her future to be. While she has a wide array of interests, and a number of subjects and areas of study that she is average-to-good at, she has a real difficulty in actually nailing down a single one that she would like to focus on. While she’s frustrated by her own indecision, she also feels confident that with the support of her parents, she’ll figure out exactly what she wants to do after her year out.

Advantages: Amber has athleticism and physicality on her side, thanks to her time spent playing both football and tennis. She’s especially scrappy and eager to get stuck into tackles for the former, meaning she has both a higher pain tolerance than expected, and is unafraid of getting into fights when needed. She’s an overall very well-liked person, owing to her friendly personality and desire to make those around her happy. Her relaxed and laid-back nature could help her to stay calm during stressful situations. Amber has a history of being underestimated and not taken seriously due to her reputation as a class clown, which she could use to her advantage on the island.
Disadvantages: However, this reputation also comes with a number of downsides. There is a decent chunk of people who do not believe Amber is capable of taking anything seriously, and may be unwilling to work alongside her or ally up with her because of this. Her reluctance to shed this label may also cause her to play down her own needs and desires in favour of those of the people around her. Alternatively, the stresses of the island may cause her to act poorly or lash out if she is repeatedly looked down upon. Amber also does have some pre-existing enemies due to her sexual freedom and openness about such. Her usage of alcohol as a means to relax and de-stress also comes with a few drawbacks; for starters, it is entirely up to chance whether she will even have the ability to obtain any while on the island. If she does get her hands on some, however, being in a state of intoxication on the island could result in disastrous consequences.