Kole Marston*

[Megami*]

Name: Kole Marston
Gender: Male
Age: Eighteen [18]
Grade: Senior [12th]
School: Bayview Secondary School
Hobbies and Interests: Football, Running, Weight Lifting, Working Out, Hunting

Appearance: Standing at 6'3" and weighing in at 230 pounds of mostly muscle, Kole's a physically imposing figure. His hair, brown in color, is kept short and is generally spiked up unless he happens to be wearing a baseball cap. Kole has a prominent forehead and thick, but nicely kept brows. He'd be embarrassed to tell anybody this, but he waxes them regularly -- first suggested by an ex-girlfriend -- to keep them from becoming wild and unkempt. He has a single eyebrow piercing, but he rarely wears it due to football practice, not to mention the fact that the teachers have a fit over facial piercings. His eyes are blue in color and his nose is just a bit larger than normal, although it doesn't look odd on his physique. His jaw is squared and defined and his teeth are nice and straight from braces he finally got removed at the beginning of this year. His body is toned from hours upon hours of rigorous workouts, and this is most apparent in his large biceps and forearms. He spends more time on his arms and legs than his middle section, and thusly has never achieved that ever-desired six-pack. In terms of attire, when Kole's not donning a football jersey or workout clothes he's a fairly well-dressed individual and can usually be seen sporting button-up collared shirts in a plethora of colors, although his favorite is blue. On a cold day, these shirts are normally covered by various sports team hoodies. Kole tends to opt for jeans and tennis shoes rather than slacks and dress shoes most of the time, but if he's really going out of his way to impress, he'll be in the latter.

Biography: Born to Kevin Marston and his wife Connie, Kole was the second of two children, the other being his sister Katelynn, 10 years his elder. Due to the age difference between them, Kole and Katelynn were never particularly close. From childhood onward, Kole had a close relationship with his father, who had a work-from-home business in which he built and customized computers. Kole, like all young boys, was fascinated by the way his father could take things apart and put them back together again, or reconstruct them into something entirely new in a matter of hours. As such, many of Kole's younger days were spent sitting on the floor of his father's office, watching his father intently and full of awe.

When Kole was 6, Katelynn -- who had been going through a rebellious phase at the time -- ran away from home. She was found two days later by the police and escorted back to her home, but it was to be the first in a long line of acting out for his older sister. Later on in the year, after many fights with her parents (which sometimes escalated into physical fights with her mother), Katelynn announced that she was pregnant and would be moving in with the baby's father. In a fit of rage, her father signed the papers, threw Kole's sister's belongings onto the front doorstep, and told her not to come back. The happy family image the Marstons once held was soon shattered. A few months after Kole's sister moved out, his mother picked up communication with her daughter once again in a desperate attempt to re-enter her daughter's -- and soon-to-be granddaughter's -- life.

It was around that time that Connie Marston began blaming her husband for their eldest child's behavior. She began to believe that if Kevin hadn't been so strict on their daughter, she wouldn't have rebelled in the first place, she wouldn't have gotten herself pregnant, and legally, she wouldn't have even been able to move out of the house, let alone get married to the father of her child. In truth, Kevin hadn't been an overly strict parent, and the rules he had enforced had been necessary evils -- after all, a girl at age 13 had no business out after 10 PM. However, over the course of the next year, Connie convinced herself otherwise, and began blaming the fact that they were no longer a "family" on Kevin. When Kole was 8, the Marstons got an abrupt divorce, and Kole found himself torn away from his father and only able to see him on weekends.

Only, when the weekends rolled around... his father never showed up.

Kole would often ask about his father, and why he never came to visit. These questions always prompted snide responses from his mother consisting of, "That man is married to his work" and "Your father doesn't have time for anyone but himself". Kole never quite understood what his mom meant, but as a few years went by, it became more obvious to the adolescent. There were no phone calls, no happy birthdays, no Christmas presents. It was like his father had forgotten about him entirely. Then came his grandmother's funeral. She passed away when Kole was 10, and, against her better judgment, Connie brought Kole to her funeral. He saw his father there -- with his new family. In the two years since the Marstons divorce, his father had remarried a woman named Susan, who had two children of her own. In addition, they'd had a set of twins together. This was a defining moment in Kole's childhood, as it was suddenly set in stone in his own mind that his father had "replaced" them.

When his mom began seriously dating a man named Grant Starr a year and a half later, Kole started to feel like he finally had a father again. Grant had one child of his own, a girl named Aurora who was around the same age as Kole. Their relationship was civil at best, and Aurora always seemed to want to be somewhere else. She frequently fluctuated between parents, wanting to live with her father when she moved to her mother's house and wanting to move back in with her mother when she came to live with her father. It was naturally a stressful situation for Grant, and thus, Connie having a well-behaved son made things a little easier on him, and he quickly slid into a "father" role for Kole. Likewise, Kole found himself wanting to impress Grant for fear that if he didn't, Grant would abandon them like his father did. And so, Kole got less and less into computers, and more into the things Grant enjoyed -- football and hunting most of all. When Kole entered junior high, he began playing football, and with some practice, along with Grant's guidance, he quickly became quite the athlete.

Grant was a bit of a health nut and was always trying to keep himself in shape, and so Kole began emulating this behavior as well. The two would go on nightly runs together and, when Kole got a little older, he started attending the gym with Grant. It was freshman year when Kole got his first girlfriend. It was also around that time that the boy realized that he was fit, he was healthy, and he was good looking. The realization of this fact brought about an aura of arrogance that was partially absorbed from his step-father and partially of his own accord. Kole started hanging out with the jocks, the athletes, and the "popular kids", and was easily accepted into this crowd because he was a "pretty face". Four years of high school and being a successful athlete have gone to Kole's head, and he's acquired quite an ego. However, Kole is unlike most "typical athletes" in one respect. He's no womanizer, and he never has been. Perhaps it has something to do with his own father, and not wanting to pass those hurtful feelings on to other people, but Kole remains completely committed when he is in a relationship, and he tends to keep girlfriends for good periods of time. He's not the type of person that indulges in flings.

An average student at best, Kole's hoping to get to college on a football scholarship, but truthfully, he hasn't thought about doing anything beyond playing football. He'd like to go pro, not only because he enjoys the sport, but because he knows he would make his step-father proud. Unfortunately, he's not quite sure if he's that good, so the added pressure of college scouts sitting in on their football games has put Kole under a fair bit of stress this year.

Advantages: His most clear advantage is his level of fitness. Most of Kole's free-time was spent working out, so he's in a lot better shape than many of his peers. Likewise, he's a runner, so he has a fair bit of endurance. He has limited experience with hunting rifles, but probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with anything other than a rifle.

Disadvantages: His size is just as much a disadvantage as it is an advantage. He's a large guy, and as such, he's a large target for the more ambitious. While he's quite in shape, Kole's not a fighter at all, and although he possesses the power to do some serious damage to a person, he wouldn't have a clue how. He's picked on some kids in the past in an attempt to "fit in" with the popular crowd, which might warrant a bit of revenge on their part.