Cheridene Williams

[MK Kilmarnock]

Name: Cheridene Williams
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Basketball, track, geology, cinema, yoga.

Appearance: Cheri is a tall and athletically built girl, with a height of 5'9" and a weight of 160 pounds. She is African-American, with very dark skin, brown eyes, and long black hair. While having a slight and skinny frame, keeping a physically active lifestyle has given Cheri a toned musculature; in particular, her core is far above average in strength and is the focus of many of her exercises, believing a strong core is the key to a strong body as a whole. Her legs account for much of her height, with her waist being set a little higher than average compared to other girls. Her shoulders are sloped down and she has a small bust, which only makes her legs seem more pronounced.

Cheridene takes pride in her day-to-day appearance. An almost excessive amount of care goes into her hair, which is tightly tied into small braids, fastened with beads and set into a ponytail that can either be draped over her left shoulder or kept back for more athletic activities. She applies light makeup to even out blemishes but does not bother with contouring, being comfortable enough with the oval shape of her face, Nubian nose and high cheekbones. The only facial feature she's not particularly happy with are her lips which are prominent on her face; Cheri uses blending or penciling techniques to make her lips appear smaller and thinner.

Cheri's fashion varies wildly depending on the season. Rather than setting trends, she prefers to follow them and blend in, not making herself too noticeable while still looking presentable and nice. On the day of the abduction, Cheridene was wearing a light-wash denim button down with a blue and white ikat print camisole, black jeans, and burgundy Monterey sneakers.

Biography: Cheridene Williams was born to Raquel and Desmond Williams in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, as the second of four children. Desmond worked as an auto mechanic specializing in welding. Raquel was formerly a schoolteacher by trade but was laid off four months into her pregnancy with Cheridene and was on unemployment at the time of her daughter's birth. Financially, the young family struggled to make ends meet and by the time of their third child, Raquel and Desmond were wearing thin of each other and separated for six month's time. Unable to work whilst caring for a toddler and a newborn infant while her oldest hadn't even reached kindergarten age, Raquel was only able to get by through a healthy amount of assistance from her family, Desmond's family who she was still quite close to in spite of the falling out, and aid from the state. After some time, Raquel and Desmond did manage to patch things up and save their marriage, with Desmond moving back in.

As the marital strife happened when Cheridene was just two and a half years old, she was too young to remember just about any of it, allowing her to grow up happy and healthy with her older brother, Oscar, and her two younger siblings: her sister, Annaliese; and her baby brother, Isaiah. Complications during Isaiah's birth rendered Raquel unable to have any more children, but with four mouths to feed and only one source of income to do it off of, it was agreed upon by both parents that the family was plenty big enough. Life continued for the Williams family; though food and shelter were never in short supply, the living area was meager in size and possessions were often handed down whenever possible. Since money tended to be tight around the holidays, the four children often received several small individual gifts then one or two 'big' gifts shared between the lot of them, such as a family movie. While possibly too young to know any better, Cheridene enjoyed these shared gifts immensely, and it became a bonding experience for the kids to watch movies together.

When Isaiah turned one year old with Cheridene being five (Oscar was six and Annaliese had turned three just a month before), Raquel finally acted on her long-held desire to return to her old teaching career in order to better support her family. The garage Desmond had worked at for more then eight years was hitting hard times and looked to be closing an less than a year, another factor taken into consideration when making the decision to pack the family up and move to a three-bedroom apartment deep in the heart of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Cheridene grew up in a highly social environment, given that the house in Soddy-Daisy was not particularly large and the new apartment was even smaller, and she had to share the same roof with three siblings and two parents. Subject to constant interaction from her family, socializing outside of the house was something that came very easily to Cheridene. When taken out into public, the young girl would frequently chat up strangers and wander off, causing her parents a fair deal of stress. The duty fell on Oscar to make sure Cheridene didn't get into trouble. Due to this adversarial interaction, Cheridene developed a sibling rivalry-type dislike for Oscar and competing for the affection of her two younger siblings, trying to make them trust her over the eldest child. Over time, the dynamic between the four children has changed dramatically, yet the unchanging relationship seems to be her constant bickering with Oscar over the pettiest of topics. In spite of all this, Cheridene loves Oscar just as much as she loves Annaliese or Isaiah, and would proudly go to bat for any of her siblings no matter the scenario.

Cheridene's social proclivities allowed her to adjust to school life readily, as she was able to mingle and integrate well with fellow students. Her teachers also found her pleasant to work with, as Cheridene has always acted somewhat mature for her age and was respectful to adults, and well-behaved with her classmates. She has never been one to start a fight and endured very little teasing while growing up, but in her desire to keep a low and non-confrontational profile, Cheridene never stuck her neck out for anybody else that was being bullied, finding it easier to conveniently leave the area and pretend she never saw anything until the incident was over and done with. The exceptions to this rule, on the very rare occasions where she was forced to break it, were incidents relating to one of her siblings or one of her closest friends, of which she typically had two or three in her innermost circle. This is a method of social interaction that Cheridene has maintained starting from elementary school, through middle school and all the way to George Hunter High. She enjoys lending an ear to friends to listen to all of their problems and will offer whatever advice she can, but will not fight for anybody else on their behalf, both because she believes it's in everybody's best interest to fight their own battles unless they are unable to, and because she doesn't want to risk losing her quiet, low-friction high school lifestyle.

Academically, Cheridene has always been an A and B student. Her laid-back attitude made it seem as if she could achieve good grades with little effort, but in truth she spends much of her free time at home studying and meticulously reviewing her homework to make sure everything has been completed correctly. Even then, English and the humanities have proven to be struggles for her and are the classes where she most often receives middling-to-low B averages. In contrast, math was something that came naturally to Cheridene. Regrettably, despite her mathematical talents granting her easy A's, Cheridene didn't enjoy math when she could not apply it to something. Science courses proved to be the remedy for this, catering to an analytical and definitive way of thinking while also finding a way to apply themselves to the real world in concrete fashion. In addition to acing both physics and chemistry, Cheridene was sure to take science courses as electives whenever possible, both for enjoyment and to bolster her report card.

While studious and placing much of her energy in academic pursuits, Cheridene realized that staying in shape was also important. From an early age, being physical wasn't a problem; she actively played with her siblings and ran around her neighborhood with childlike glee. But as Cheridene grew older and her tastes changed, she developed a dislike for going outside, finding Tennessee's hot summers and muggy climate to be less than ideal. She enjoyed being physical and playing sports, but was limited by her desire to stay inside. Basketball, dodgeball and volleyball were all enjoyable gym activities, but soccer, track, and anything involving being in direct sunlight was strongly disliked. Looking through options to keep fit after school while using little space and more importantly, staying indoors, she opted to begin practicing yoga. Initially buying a few DVDs to get herself started at home, Cheridene found the activity delightfully vigorous, low-impact, and beneficial for stamina and flexibility. She eventually used money earned from working summers at Starbucks to buy a gym membership, where she practices yoga in classes three times a week.

Extracurricular activities were not something that flowed so naturally into Cheridene's life. If left to her own devices, she would have been perfectly happy to go to school, mingle with friends on free periods and during lunch, go home, study, watch movies and sleep. However, in her desire to fit in and remain with the appearances of a normal, active and decently popular girl, Cheridene developed a relative inability to say no to things requested of her, such as being asked to join sports teams, including George Hunter's famous girls' bastketball team, soccer and track. She had no problems accepting an invitation to the basketball team, but had no real desire to play either of the other two sports in which the coaches and PE teachers thought she would excel in. In the conversations that followed, the best outcome that satisfied everybody, she thought, was to agree to either a fall sport or a spring spot, claiming that studies rendered her unable to commit to both. In the end, Cheridene picked track as the lesser of two evils. While an accomplished and well-rounded athlete, Cheridene's lack of passion renders her wholly average in the scope of high school sports. She turned out to be skilled enough at basketball to hold a spot on the varsity basketball team's starting roster but, even so, Cheridene believes herself to be the least skilled of the five starting players.

Though her social skills had seasoned with time, by the time Cheridene had entered high school she had come to greatly appreciate any time she could spend by herself. Her summer schedule tended to be far more relaxed than her day-to-day life during the school year; when she wasn't working at Starbucks or doing yoga, Cheridene often stayed in the room she shared with Annaliese, watching various movies in a collection formed from various bargain buys at local video stores or, for particularly difficult-to-obtain but renowned titles, purchased online. Movies became a passion to her, and she joined internet forums that allowed her to discuss directors she liked or disliked, the development of film techniques over time, and general facets of cinema history. While movies have become a true passion for her, Cheridene doesn't fancy herself a director, producer or an actress and has no interest in pursuing a career in cinema.

In fact, Cheridene has struggled to determine exactly what career she'll pursue, if any, once graduating from high school. She has some experience working as a barista for a summer job, but the prospects of working at places like Starbucks or Peet's for the rest of her life don't particularly excite her. The only thing that both interested her and seemed like a career within her reach was working as a geologist. She found the subject matter to be riveting and she grasped the scientific process well, but being a geologist was sure to involve lots of work outdoors, Cheridene's natural enemy. She is still in the process of weighing the cons versus the pros, and has been doing research in preparation for applying to the University of Tennessee.

Advantages: Cheridene is physically fit and possesses excellent stamina and footwork, allowing her to pursue somebody or flee from trouble when the situation calls for it. She is used to avoiding confrontation whenever possible and choosing the path of least resistance, which should offer her a greater ability to fly under the radar if nothing else. She performs well under pressure, a trait learned through a combination playing team sports, helping to raise two younger siblings, and constantly working to stay unremarkable in high school society.
Disadvantages: Cheridene's non-confrontational nature can easily be turned against her by having her be forced to further the interests of others rather than her own. Her disdain for outdoor environments limits the areas in which she can operate comfortably without some form of distraction or great discomfort.