Aleksandra Prudius

[Aura]

Name: Aleksandra Prudius
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12th
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Basketball, music, drawing, painting, sculpting

Appearance:  Standing at 6'2" and weighing 191 pounds, Aleksandra is easily on the larger side of the George Hunter student body.  With the stocky, muscular frame of a trained athlete combined with her towering height, she has been mistaken for someone in their twenties on more than a few occasions.  Broad shoulders lead to thick, muscular arms, extending from a body that rests upon two powerful legs.  Everything about her silhouette exudes strength and solidity, and her own deep, husky voice perpetuates that.  Despite her impressive features, she doesn't bother flaunting or showing off, and instead tends to come off as quite withdrawn.  In this way, the contrast between her presence and her actual personality is quite notable.

Her head is slightly squarish in shape, with solid, sharp cheekbones and a similar jawline.  She is Caucasian, and the her cheeks and nose are liberally dusted with faint freckles.  The sides of her head are shaved, and the blonde hair on top is cut short and spiked.  Her rounded eyes house pale teal irises, and her brow is low and firm.  She never wears any makeup, not seeing the point of it when it would just wash away with sweat if she exercised or stayed out in the sun too long, and not caring much for the aesthetics involved in the first place.  Her face most frequently rests at a fairly neutral expression, and her shows of emotion are often quite muted aside from particularly major occasions.

Aleksandra's wardrobe is not restrictive, but still selective in its own way.  She likes the color green, and despises purple.  She hates shirts with collars because she doesn't like the way they feel on her neck, and she doesn't wear long pants unless absolutely necessary because they make her legs feel restricted.  Her favorite outfit consists of a white T-shirt with a green tiger on it, gray shorts, and green running shoes with white soles and laces.

Biography:  Petro and Zoya Prudius married not long after leaving high school in Ukraine, and set out on their honeymoon only a month before entering secondary education, with Zoya going to college for exercise science while Petro went to trade school for welding.  They immigrated to America at the recommendation of Zoya's cousin, a manager at a construction company who was going through a hiring surge to meet demand for some new projects that they were embarking on.  With Petro having become a skilled welder, the opportunity was tempting, and when dollar amounts were discussed, it sounded too good to pass up.  It was a daunting prospect, since both of them were no older than 25 at that point and they had never traveled far from home, much less to another country.  However, they decided that it was worth the risk, and moved overseas to chase their instincts.

Early life in America wasn't the easiest, living in an entirely new place and coming to grips with the culture while gaining a functioning knowledge of the language, but for the sake of forging a good life for themselves, they persisted.  Petro took the job he was offered and excelled in the position, quickly becoming one of the most skilled welders on his team, and Zoya did her part to help by taking an opening at a local gym, using her exercise certification to become an assistant aerobics instructor a few times a week to help earn some extra money.  They were often exhausted, but they were staying afloat.  And gradually, things improved for them as their dedication brought new opportunities and rewards.  However, shortly after Zoya was promoted to teaching a weekend class of her own, she had to take a sabbatical due to the discovery that she was pregnant.  A few months later, Aleksandra Prudius was born.

As a child, Aleksandra didn't take an interest in many things.  She would focus on a book or toy for a few minutes, then abruptly leave it and move on to something else.  The only things that she would stay with for a particularly long period of time were coloring books, a toy ball and hoop, and the radio, which she would sit and stare at when it was tuned to certain stations.  Petro and Zoya had absolutely no knowledge with children or child care, so they didn't know whether this was regular behavior for a toddler or not, but since she didn't seem to be troubled by it, they didn't worry about it.

When Aleksandra entered school, her lack of focus continued to be an issue, although at the same time, it was still tempered whenever art, music, or sport were present.  She had also shown a habit of following specific patterns, which often seemed inconsequential and distracting, and was prone to panic when unable to do so.  In addition, she had difficulty making friends because her perpetually neutral, seemingly emotionless demeanor unsettled the other children.  Although these quirks did not seem troublesome at an early age, the fact that they didn't go away as she got older started to worry her parents.  Fearing for their daughter's wellbeing, they contacted a doctor and scheduled an appointment.    To their relief, nothing was wrong with Aleksandra.  However, they did learn something that they would have to learn to deal with, as the doctor revealed that Aleksandra was autistic.

Glad to know that their daughter was fine and that they now had an explanation for what had been going on with her, they began to do research into autism, the way it affects those who have it, and how they could help Aleksandra along despite the difficulties she may face.  They spoke with her about her interests, and why those specific things caught her attention.  From there, they tried to help her find a way to take a similar interest in her schoolwork so her grades could improve and she could move up the the next grade without worry.  This was a more difficult process, and they went through many different strategies with varying amounts of success, usually very little.  They finally found success when they had the idea for Aleksandra to apply rhythmic timing to her studies, reading in her head in a song-like pattern, which helped her to stay focused on her work, to their surprise and pleasure.  With the issue of her schoolwork solved for the most part, they began to wonder about her social issues and pattern following, although those would prove to be much more difficult to deal with.

Aleksandra's case of autism is not particularly severe, although she did frequently meet with paraeducators during elementary school when her parents were still in the process of learning about her condition.  She is hesitant when it comes to talking to people that she doesn't know, and she doesn't like being in crowds.  If she does have to go to a heavily populated area, then he prefers to be around close friends and family when she does so.  Her obsession with rituals and the order of things is another major byproduct of her condition.  She gets sequences of events preplanned in her head, and deviation from these preset paths causes her to feel discomfort that she has a hard time explaining.

When Aleksandra entered high school, the first thing she did was try out for the basketball team.  Although she had been rather invested with sports in general during her youth, she gradually grew bored with all of them aside from basketball.  Graduating from the toy ball and hoop of her toddlerhood to a hoop in the driveway, she had developed a very good eye for the game, and practicing with the team had helped her to develop her own style.  She was a good shot, but rarely made an attempt unless she was absolutely positive that she would make it.  And when she missed, it would completely throw her off her game since, since it broke the pattern that she was expecting.  Aside from shooting, however, she has proven to be an extremely strong and effective defensive player, able to steal the ball from her opponents with surprising speed and fluidity.  She serves as the team's sixth woman, not scoring high in many games, but effectively playing whatever role she is needed for.

Although Aleksandra does enjoy basketball, and she appreciates the game and the workout she gets from it, she doesn't like it quite as much as she used to.  As she get older and college comes closer, the growing competitiveness and the feeling that she could let the team down if she has a bad game are really starting to eat into her enjoyment of the sport.  She has much more fun playing pick-up games with her friends in the park than she does playing for the team, although she wouldn't admit that out loud.  But she feels that the team depends on her to play her part, and she doesn't like causing tension, so she remains on the squad.  Even with these conflicting feelings, she still has some days where she wants to do nothing other than play basketball, so it remains one of her chief hobbies.

She is extremely ponderous by nature, silently taking in details around her and frequently very slow to act.  She is no a particularly talkative person, usually only speaking in response to being addressed first.  Even among friends, she rarely talks at length, usually relying on short comments or agreements.  Some take this to mean that she is a more action-oriented person who places their own acts over their words, but in actuality, she is just not a very comfortable speaker in most situations.

Although Aleksandra's social skills are still not the strongest for a girl her age, she does have a friend group unofficially known as the Slav Squad, a group of students of Eastern European descent, many of whom are quite politically active.  Although she is not as outspoken as many of her peers in the group, she does agree with them on a great many topics.  Admittedly, she is only particularly close to a few members, but her friendship with them is absolutely solid.

One area of life that is completely alien to her is dating and romance.  Aleksandra is familiar with relationships thanks to her parents' very healthy marriage, as well as the dates and budding romances that she witnesses on campus.  However, Aleksandra herself has never has so much as a crush or a furtive thought about anyone, and that is something that she thinks about a lot more than she would expect to.  She privately wonders if she may be asexual, but has never seen fit to ring the topic up in conversation.

Despite her aptitude for basketball, she isn't quite positive that she wants to continue pursuing it after high school.  She started following music very seriously in sophomore year, and began learning to play the guitar around the same time.  She took to the instrument quickly, and although she isn't at a professional level, she has shown a surprising amount of growth in a short time.  That isn't the only art that has caught her eye, though.  She also frequently draws in her spare time, and her notebooks are half full of notes, and half with varying sketches.  Her parents had to buy her a specific sketchbook to keep her from wasting precious space that was supposed to be used for schoolwork.  Regardless of how appropriate her choices of where to draw were, just like with the guitar, she showed a lot of emerging talent.  Once electives opened up for her, she added painting and sculpting to her list of interests, and both captured her attention just as well.

Drawing was the first art to catch Aleksandra's eye, way back in first grade.  Her early work consisted of childish, inconsistent doodles, but her heavy criticism of her own work forced her to develop a specific style, which she did in the latter stages of middle school.  Much of her drawings have a very sharp, vaguely anime-inspired look to them, and the consistent designs she has managed to create make her proud.  Painting and sculpting came to her much later, and her approach is vastly different.  Whereas she is very specific in the way she draws, her painting and sculpture has a very free-form, chaotic style to it.  Her paintings are swirling splashes and strokes of color, and her sculptures are twisting, oddly shaped masses that still get across some form of artistic vision.  Just like her drawings, she feels a lot of pride involving finishing these pieces and showing them off, even though people don't always see what she was aiming for.  Although in actuality, a lot of her sculptures and paintings don't have a set goal in mind.  She just starts from nothing and sees where it takes her.  She finds just letting things fall where they may artistically to be an incredibly freeing feeling, and it's almost therapeutic for her.

Aleksandra is now in a state where her attention is continually shifting between her various interests.  She will be enraptured by basketball for a few days, then switch to drawing, then painting, then sculpting, then back to basketball.  She did not necessarily go in that pattern, but her jumps in attention are always circular in some way, and when she leaves something alone, it's never too long before she eventually comes back to it.  Unfortunately, this leaves her in quite a conundrum with college fast approaching, as she still doesn't quite know what she wants to do with her life.  She has multiple paths ahead of her, and considering how well she has taken to all of them, she could likely succeed in any of them if she managed to commit.  However, the question is whether she would actually be able to stick to just one goal in life.

But with the possibility of an athletic scholarship within sight, she may have some form of guidance.

Advantages: Aleksandra is very strong, fast, and has impressive endurance.  Fitness-wise, she would likely be expected to last a very long time in comparison to many of her classmates.  She would also likely have easy aliances in the form of the basketball team and the Slav Squad, especially if she ran into any of the members that she was particularly close to.
Disadvantages: Aleksandra's tendency to lose focus and let her mind wander could be lethal in SOTF, where the slightest mistake or lapse in judgement could end one's life in moments.  Her tendency to follow patterns and experience distress when they are broken could lead her to danger for similar reasons.  Even though she has managed to make friends, her silent, unemotional demeanor is still off-putting to many of the other students, which could hinder her from making alliances.