Monica Bowman

[Flare]

Name: Monica Bowman
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Video games, exercising, hiking, languages

Appearance: Monica stands at 5' 3" and 125 pounds. Her body is built due to her somewhat small, but noticeable muscles from years of exercise. Although of Irish descent, she usually has a tan due to her outdoor activities. Her hair is a dark brown, flowing down to her shoulders, though it is usually tied up in a ponytail. Her eyebrows are thin, and her eyes are dotted with dull brown irises. She has a narrow, short nose and tight, full lips, slightly off-set by her heavyset jaw and round face.

Monica's favorite shirts tend to be very casual, usually leaning towards t-shirts with graphic designs on them from her favorite video games. It usually takes her hours of hunting online to find shirts specifically for girls, though. She also wears basketball shorts and sandals. Other than that, she is fond of wearing tank tops and denim shorts when the weather permits it. When she is exercising, she'll usually wear sneakers, running shorts and an old t-shirt.

Biography: Monica Bowman was born to Larry and Christine Bowman on October 14, 1993, in a hospital in Seattle, Washington. She was the couple's third child. Christine already had given birth to Johnny and Craig Bowman, who were two and four at the time, respectively.

Growing up in the company of two older brothers, Monica quickly became involved with their roughhousing. Though it was in a childish, non-serious way, the two would pick on and get physical with each other and eventually Monica. Though their parents disapproved of this behavior, they were sometimes slow to stop it, and Monica grew up fending for herself and learning that she had to fight to get what she wanted. This ended up staying with her throughout her whole life.

Despite their bickering, Monica was still close with her brothers, spending a lot of time with them when she wasn't at school. This relationship helped her gain a great passion: video games, specifically fighting games. One day, when she was nine years old, she walked in on Johnny and Craig playing Soul Caliber 2 for the XBox. It was a Teen rated fighting game which their parents had bought for Craig as a 13th birthday present. The two invited Monica to play with them and she agreed. After spending multiple hours playing, she realized how much she loved the game, and it still remains one of her favorite video games of all time.

Her parents, however, weren't too pleased when they found out that their nine year old daughter was playing a game they had stated only Craig could play and punished the three of them. This did little to kill Monica's interest, and she did everything she could to play video games she wasn't allowed to, whether it was playing at friends' houses or playing Craig's games while her parents were out. She quickly latched on to other fighting game series like Street Fighter, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter, enthralled by the vast array of characters, energetic gameplay and quick thinking required to succeed.

At school, Monica was not all that popular, many people choosing to steer clear of her when possible. The fighting with her brothers and her natural aggressive personality caused her to have a hot temper, lashing out at whoever happened to be annoying her on that occasion. This put some people off, but most of it was verbal, and nothing was serious enough to get her in major trouble. Her parents were called a few times about her behavior, though, which they weren't happy about at all. They gave many stern talks to her and ended up grounding her twice.

Finally, Monica turned 13, meaning that her parents allowed her to play Teen rated games. No longer having to play behind her parents' backs, Monica started gaming a lot more frequently, and she ended up getting a lot better at the games she owned.  Her mother is a homemaker and her father is a surgeon at Virginia Mason Medical Center. This meant that they had enough money to buy whatever video games Monica wanted as long as they weren't rated Mature.

Around the same time, Monica also started hanging around a lot more gaming groups, both online and in person. Though some of them laughed at her at first due to her young age, her defiant attitude and fair gaming skills eventually won over their acceptance. Through these people, she managed to see a lot more of the stereotypes surrounding gamers; specifically the one that many of them are very obese. Determined not to fall into that stigma and hoping to enjoy the benefits, Monica began working out three times a week, lifting weights in her basement or going out to run. This exercise rewarded her with a rather toned and athletic body.

Entering high school, Monica managed to fit in rather well, joining the video game club and managing to keep the same average popularity that she had kept for most of her life. However, during her sophomore year, a guy would not leave her alone and ended up insulting her video gaming hobbies. In response, Monica punched him square in the face, nearly breaking his nose. She was immediately suspended for a week, and her parents were understandably livid, grounding her for one month. Monica did feel somewhat bad though, as she hadn't meant to take it that far. She felt even worse about how it ended up damaging her reputation, as even some who had put up with her behavior at this point now knew that it could escalate to a physical level. The story spread around school like wildfire, gaining her a certain level of infamy for a while, especially when she finally came back. The boy moved away at the end of the year though, causing the story to die down, though it still occasionally comes up and causes a few people to stay away from her.

When she was 16, as Monica grew more and more competitive in her video gaming, she began talking with bilingual players online from all around the world. She discovered she was enthralled by the different languages spoken by all of them, and became driven to learn another one herself. After some begging, her parents agreed to buy her Rosetta Stone software to start learning Spanish along with Monica taking up Spanish at school. Two years later, she is now fairly fluent in it and hopes to take up another language in college.

At that point, her parents decided that she would have to assume some responsibility and start paying for her own video games. Desperate to earn her own money, Monica got a job at The Castle, where she met a group of girls from Rainier Valley: Cece "Cherry" Vincent, Leah Chapel, and Eliza Patton. Monica immediately latched herself to the group, hanging out with them at work and on other occasions where they would get together. The group was reluctant to take on Monica, due to her rather well-off background, but she managed to fit in well enough, so they let her stick around with them.

Monica manages to have a pretty good relationship with her family, though her father's job means he isn't around as much as she or her father would like. When he is at the house, though, he and Monica enjoy hiking together in the nearby wilderness. The two of them will drive a bit out of Seattle to a trail, and spend multiple hours walking around and enjoying the view. Monica enjoys it as both bonding with her dad and as exercise. Both of her brothers are out-of-state at universities, Johnny at UCLA and Craig at Texas A&M. They come home often, though, and still have a lot of fun messing around with each other, whether it's playing video games or facing off in sports. She also gets along with her mother fairly well, and some weekends they will go together to the mall to shop.

At school, Monica manages to make mostly Bs and Cs, being of average intelligence. Her best classes are P.E. and Spanish, while she struggles in Math and Science. Her circle of friends, outside the core group of trouble makers, is of a fair size, consisting of fellow gamers and a few others she's known for a while. Her temper still causes minor squabbles from time to time, but she manages to keep it under control most of the time.

Advantages: Monica has above average strength due to her years of exercising, as well as good endurance from her runs and hikes. She is also willing to fight extremely hard to get something she wants.
Disadvantages: Monica has a rather bad temper. Her reputation around school could ward off some potential allies.