Tegan Ashmore*

[Everett_Rowe*]

Name: Tegan Ashmore
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Soccer, millinery, climbing, racing. Teams include girls soccer team and track team.

Appearance: Tegan is a fairly short girl, standing at 5'3'' and weighing around 125 pounds; she attempts to maintain this weight through careful dieting and exercise. On a similar vein, she sports easy to maintain, medium-short, jagged blonde hair, as well as rather fair skin with a few freckles from sun exposure, and an infectious smirk. Her eyes are dark brown, her nose small and her teeth fairly white and a little bit crooked. Her face is more fresh and honest than alluring, and she tends to avoid makeup because not only is it annoying to get off, but it almost melts off her face whenever she does any sort of physical activity, which is often. She has a reasonably attractive figure, and is fairly well-endowed, to her annoyance.

Tegan tends to avoid overcomplicated, fragile or restrictive clothing, such as short skirts, lacey or 'floaty' dresses, or skinny jeans, opting for "easy-to-remove" and "easy-to-move-in" clothes. Her usual outfit consists of singlets and blouses and jeans, shorts or trackpants, with maybe a high-rise skirt if she feels particularly inclined to dress up. She also absolutely adores hats, especially berets, and she takes every opportunity she has to wear one. If she's not wearing sneakers, she's wearing leather boots. She hardly ever wears jewellery, unless the occasional sweatband counts.

Biography: Tegan was born into a less than perfect home in the farming regions of Washington, where she grew up relatively peacefully with her seven-years older brother and often bickering parents. They were not poor, nor were they jobless; her parents had simply become sick of each other. She was too young to understand what was going on at the time, but as a result she spent most of her time with her brother, Roger, and his friends; she therefore cultivated a more tomboyish mindset, cutting her hair short, climbing trees and growing up on sport. She started off speedy and managed to stay that way, and gained a passion for soccer, racing and rock-climbing.

When she entered elementary school she was teased for her boyish characteristics by both genders, and she tended to get into fights a lot. Her parents started to notice their daughter's oddities at this point and she was another point of conflict for them. They both felt she could be whatever she wanted to be, but her mother wanted her to change a bit to stop the bullying, as well as wanting to interact with her daughter a bit more, while her father believed she ought to stick it out, as she'd come out better for it. The conflict in their house started to get worse and worse, and as a result Tegan and Roger often stayed out of the house. Her school marks lowered, though her sporting achievements grew, and the home conflicts worsened.

By the time Tegan entered middle school, her parents were in the middle of a messy divorce and court dispute, and her brother had gone to university. Compounded with the previous years of bullying, her bad grades and her non-existent social circle, she started to get a cold, cynical streak. She, however, was not one to let herself become a doormat. She decided to take her life into her own hands and tried to make middle school different to elementary. She bowed to the pressure and tried to become more 'girly', discovering her love of hats at around this stage. While she strove to get into the school track and soccer teams, she also attempted to try harder in her academics, and eventually managed to scrape a B grade. She eventually found some acceptance among the older students, with whom she often shared the training grounds with. Her home life was hardly ever peaceful, so in her later years of middle school she often stayed out of the house and slept over at others' houses a lot. She started to gain the impression that she couldn't trust others to make her decisions for her, and as a result became more mature and independent for her age.

In a warmer environment of social acceptance her speed and agility flourished, and she started to excel in the sporting field. Upon discovering the extent of her sporting ability, her father decided to move to Seattle so she could cultivate her skill in a more funded institution. At the age of 14, after finishing her final year in middle school, she entered Aurora High School's freshman year.

It was quite hard for her, as she had just started feeling comfortable in her own element. Despite her bad experiences, it was still her home, and she found the move quite monumental. She didn't want to leave her mother, nor her brother, nor her new-made friends. However, she still felt some excitement at having access to greater sporting facilities, as well as the usual anticipation of going somewhere most technologically advanced than a rural area. Her anticipation gave her a sense of guilt, especially to her high school friends who were expecting her to come to their high school the next year. This all compounded into quite an emotional move for her, and it was hard for her to stay positive and hopeful that Aurora High School would be a good experience for her socially.

In the end, however, it was for the best. Aurora had the superior sporting facilities, as well as a larger array of students who would appreciate her skills, as well as having skills of their own. She found her abilities and her cynical, grown up and slightly world weary character were more appreciated in this school, and despite some stories developing from her apparent disinterest in boys as romantic partners and more as friends or team-mates, which were mostly untrue, she became more or less popular in the Aurora crowd. Though she appreciated her father's efforts, she still avoided becoming dependent on her parents, waking up early every morning and coming home late every night from rigorous training and rock-climbing sessions (and occasional parties) with her peers. Her efforts eventually got her places in the various track teams, as well as the soccer team. While her marks are not suffering too badly, she knows her goal will be to make it through to Varsity and train hard enough to get a sporting scholarship at a good college- a goal that she will not let anyone get in the way of.

Advantages: She is a fast sprinter, though her endurance is quite average, and her experience on the track team will give her a good idea of her limits. Being an avid climber, she may use height as a tactical advantage to attack or avoid opponents. Her experience in physical activity has also given a natural boost in her strength and agility. Aside from that, growing up with an older brother, she knows how to throw a punch. She can be open-minded and friendly if she has a good opinion of you, and she can be determined with a single-minded drive to survive if it comes to it.
Disadvantages: The SOTF environment will probably trigger her defence mechanisms; she may become more antagonistic, untrusting and much more ruthless and cynical, and she will have a harder time making new allies. She tends to have an inflexible opinion of others, both positive and negative, and will carry grudges. As a team player, it will be harder for her to psychologically take the pressure of the game alone. She is also quite straight forward, tending to adapt the mentality that the shortest, easiest route is probably the best one.