Jeremy Ressler

[Nealosi*]

Name: Jeremy Ressler
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: Bayview Secondary School
Hobbies and Interests: Track and field, music, video games, comic books, movies, camping, partying and television.

Appearance: Jeremy is an unexceptional case, his appearance is genuine and healthy, but he doesn't really stand out in a crowd. His most expressive feature is his large, deep, dark eyes, which are complimented by his shaggy dark-brown hair, but hidden behind black-rimmed glasses. The long bridge of his nose is lightly crooked from an old accident. His formerly brace-toothed teeth are now an orthodontic smile hidden behind the hint of a grin.

Average in stature, Jeremy is about 5'8, and skinny with a naturally toned build. His body is well portioned and his runner's legs are knotted with muscle.

Jeremy dresses as a typical teenager, jeans and a t-shirt for every occasion. He almost always wears his favorite baggy black coat and has a bad habit of pulling on the drawstring, concealing his face in the dark recesses of his hood.

Biography: John Ressler and Glenda Closson married in 1989 and raised two healthy children in their comfortable Minneapolis home. As a teacher, Glenda was able to raise the two kids (Jeremy and Amanda) into reasonable, intelligent, kind young students who both prospered at school, despite the sordid, absentee father that John proved to be. John was not necessarily a bad father, just not the kind that takes the kids to play catch in the park and hover over his son and daughter, spoiling and smothering them in kindness.

Despite lacking a concrete father figure, Jeremy Ressler was able to mature into his own person, without adopting the do-right discipline and optimistic world view of his mother. Jeremy is polite and cordial when dealing with others (just as his mother taught him), but Jeremy is inherently sarcastic, cynical and can even be downright irritable. Despite this fact, Jeremy manages to get along fairly well with most people at Bayview, mostly by keeping his comments in check. Naturally, this means Ressler is quiet in class aside from the occasional quip, usually at the expense of the subject material or someone else's naïve comment.

Jeremy is aware of his own tendencies, and despises the fact that he cannot change them, which is why he has a tendency towards solitude on his free time away from school. Introversion, in Jeremy's case, does not mean inactive. He is well known for sneaking out in the dead of night to participate in whatever mischief he can find, sometimes in the company of a few close friends. Every other weekend he absconds with a handful of friends on camping trips ending in hangovers. Otherwise he will spend his downtime gaming, listening to music, watching TV and movies on his loathsome. In the end he makes time for breathless late night cram sessions before class the next day.

By no means popular, Jeremy is at an odd place on the high school social ladder. He is charming enough to avoid the ridicule of his classmates but not noticeable enough to hang out with the upper-echelon at Bayview. Some in the school resent him for his cynicism and cutting wit, but not enough to make him pay for it. He relies on a small core band of friends who have known each other since elementary, mostly made up of fellow students who also managed to stay in the forgettable middle-class of student society.

Ressler has harbored romantic interests for a few of his female peers, but cynics are a self-punishing lot. He would never act on his desires for fear of becoming a hypocrite and a reject. As the un-romantic rational sort, he has resolved to be single out of a macho delusion of grandeur.

To most Jeremy seems to be an average high school kid, but his sarcastic personality and introverted lifestyle are symptoms of a much deeper, existential depression. He denies his own feelings of melancholy; it continues to burden his psyche un-diagnosed and un-noticed even by close friends and family. He has a tendency to over-rationalize and believes he has no reason to be depressed. This self-righteous attitude only makes things worse; repression only drives him to further bitterness and indifference.

Stuck in the middle caste of the student hierarchy implies Jeremy is an average performer in school and sports, which is mostly true. While he fails to outshine any of his peers, he tends to stay somewhere near the head of the pack in sprints and long distance running, as well as in his grades. Where he focuses his attentions he excels, though his attention is often limited in scope and span. Somehow, he manages to stay on top of everything with a little assistance from his friends and family.

Advantages: Jeremy is a skilled runner in good health with a half decent head on his shoulders. Being cynical has its perks when everyone around you can't wait to put a knife in your spine. He has limited survival and technical training but he has learned the art of fist-a-cuffs the hard way. He has also learned from his late night mischief, that he can deal well under pressure, and has a knack for getting out of tough situations with precision and luck.

Disadvantages: Ressler's sarcastic persona rarely wins him any friends, especially in stressful situations. Depression may take its toll on him at any time, robbing him of crucial focus and moral when he needs it most. Just as he has a knack for getting out of trouble; trouble is attracted to him like a shark to a surfboarder.