James Undehill*

[Khan Podo*]

Name: James Underhill
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Bayview Secondary
Hobbies and Interests: James enjoys reading, as it keeps him away from the people around him and their obnoxious ways. He also enjoys writing, drawing, and making music on his mandolin. He's not especially skilled at any of these fields, but he enjoys them and pursues them on his own time. He also enjoys various outdoor activities, including fishing, hiking, and simply spending time by himself in natural areas.

Appearance: James is fairly average, at 5'10'' cm tall. Never one for sports--that would include communing with other students--he is very slight of build, weighing in at 135 pounds. This causes him to appear quite scrawny when compared to other boys his age, considering that he generally dresses in whatever he can find. Never one to care much for appearance, he wears whatever is the most comfortable. This usually translates into a baggy hoodie overtop of a t-shirt with some form of sarcastic one-liner written on it, along with baggy bluejeans and comfortable walking shoes.
His eyes are bright blue and very bad, with one being nearsighted and one being farsighted. As a result, he wears (and very much needs) his small octagonal glasses for day-to-day survival. His hair is a light brown, and he wears his hair to middling length, slightly past his ears and eyes. This is not out of any misguided sense of fashion; he is often simply too lazy to bother having it cut. His skin is quite pale, reflecting his german and russian blood, and he burns very easily in direct sunlight. His nose is very large and bends downward in a hawklike fashion due to a breakage he suffered when he was young, after falling off of his father's boat as it was being pulled from the water. His upper lip is rather small, as he was born with a bi-lateral cleft lip.

Biography: James is fairly unremarkable. Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, he lived a generic boy's life. He went to school every day, did all his work, and passed with minimal efforts. He was not a star student by any means, but his grades were slightly above average, which was more than enough for him. His only real issue was with people. His parents were both software engineers, and as a result were very focused on their jobs much of the time, leaving them little time to spend with James. He did not blame them for this, and by no means were they negligent or unsavoury people. On the contrary, James got along well with both of his parents, and they would often set aside at least one or two weekends per month for family activities. This activity usually took the form of time out of the home. Fishing with his father was the most common, along with long hikes and the occasional camping trip with both of his parents. His father, though busy, was a good man and taught James to always respect other living things. Most importantly, James was taught never to harm or kill an animal unless his intent was to eat it. This was a rule his father was quite strict about, and James adheres to it to present day.

This once or twice a month interaction was not enough for James to really gain much in the way of human contact, however. Due to the sporadic attention he received from his parents, growing up he simply assumed that all people were like that; preoccupied with their own endeavours and too busy to be relied upon for any casual interaction. He did not view this with any sort of malice; he simply accepted it as a constant. Needless to say, this mindset quickly led to his interactions with other people to be somewhat strained. He was not rude, but he tended to come across as rather...abrasive. He saw no issue with stating what he thought or explaining what, to him, seemed the most logical solution for any given situation.

But it worked for him. He had few friends, but that was fine. He was a happy child, despite his difficulty with people, he was content with his lot in life. Then he moved. His father was offered a job in the United States, just before James' grade 12 year. He pleaded to stay, for his father to reject the offer, but the job was far too good. Before he knew it, James was living in the States and going to a school filled with what his bitterness at being wrenched from his home caused him to see as nothing more than a pack of savage, uneducated hillbillies.

This did not help his abrasiveness in the slightest. He tried his best to avoid the notice of his classmates, to a moderate amount of success. He would never start conversations with others, though if directly addressed he will answer and respond quickly and efficiently, in hopes of ending the conversation as quickly as possible. As a sort of mental defense against the people around him, James dove into his studies, attaining high grades in all of his classes. He still was not getting the best marks in the class, but he was always within the top three or four.

At home, he poured himself into his art. In order to escape the world in which he disliked, he began to write, compose, and draw with a violent fervor. He would spend uncountable hours alone in his room writing stories of high fantasy, or in the forest with his mandolin, strumming along to birdsong. His sketchpad and pencils accompanied him everywhere, and he could often be found all alone in a secluded corner of Bayview Secondary, drawing pictures of nature, or from his stories.
Pictures of the worlds he enjoyed.

Advantages: A particularly large knowledge-base. As his preferred activities generally include quietly being alone with a book in his hand or surrounded by nature, he has had ample opportunity to absorb large amounts of potentially useful (and useless) knowledge. No matter what the topic is, he probably knows a little bit about it.

Disadvantages: Bad with people. His view of his current classmates is rather negative by default, and he will avoid working together with anyone if he can at all help it.
Would have extreme trouble (more than the average student) harming or killing another student, due to his father's words of wisdom.