Kaliska Day

[Arscapi*]

Name: Kaliska Day
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: Senior 12th
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: singing, cross-stitching, English history

Appearance: Kaliska has a round face, framed by straight black hair which falls a few inches above her waist. She usually wears it in a braid, with a beaded headband. Her brown skin reflects her Native American ancestry. Her dark brown, slightly almond shaped eyes are evenly spaced. Her eyebrows have a very small arch, towards the outside edge of her eyes. Her top lip is slightly thinner than her bottom lip and is almost always smiling. Her nose is straight and small. Kaliska is 5'0" and at 145 pounds is overweight for someone her size. Kaliska carries her excess weight mostly in her chest and torso.

Kaliska dresses in bright, baggy t-shirts over jeans. She usually wears sneakers; her favorite shoes are black lace up Converse that hit just below her knee.

Biography: Kaliska, an only child, lives with her parents in an apartment near Aurora High School. Kaliska's mom, Winona, works as a dentist and her dad, Edward, is a cross-country truck driver. Kaliska's parents met at the University of Washington. The two dated and married soon after discovering that Winona was pregnant. Eddie, who was growing frustrated with the prospect of two more years of school, dropped out and obtained a license to drive tractor trailers. During Winona's pregnancy and Kaliska's first years he drove local loads. As Kaliska grew older and Winona's practice became more established, Eddie started to drive longer loads, a way for them to save up for Kaliska's college education.

Kaliska's mother enjoyed living in Seattle and chose to start a practice in Seattle instead of returning to the Muckleshoot Tribe Reservation. Winona still maintains close ties with the reservation, returning at least once a month to visit and provide dental care to the residents. Kaliska's grandparents, on her mom's side, live on the reservation and work at the casino that the tribe has established. Kaliska would often spend summers at the reservation, usually with her uncle's family. Her uncle, a deputy with the King's County Sheriff's Office, and aunt filled Kaliska's summers with tribal stories and taught her the traditions of the tribe. Kaliska enjoyed the stories and legends of the tribe, but was slow to pick up on the carving and fishing skills.

Kaliska generally enjoys spending time with her aunt and uncle and learning the ways of her tribe. She can be a little self-conscious of how it makes her different than her classmates. In middle school she resented the fact that she had to spend summers on the Reservation instead with her school friends. When her parents and aunt noticed the change in her attitude they confronted her about it. Kaliska spoke her mind as she'd been encouraged to do and her summer trips were altered slightly. In high school Kaliska would be allowed to stay for several days with friends in the city provided all the details were worked out ahead of time. Kaliska gets along well with her parents. Her parents and aunt and uncle also made more of an effort to make her part of the tribe and she made several new friends on the Reservation.

During a camping trip in the summer of her freshman year, Kaliska was exploring the landscape with her cousins. She stepped down and her left knee twisted out from under her. Her cousins helped her to limp back to their camp, where she spent the next two days with it propped up. At first her parents thought nothing of it, but when it happened again later in the summer and again towards the start of the school year they took Kaliska to the doctors. The doctor diagnosed Kaliska with uneven growth in the muscles of her legs. This meant that the muscles on one side of her knee were stronger than the ones on the other, and pulled the knee cap out of its socket. Kaliska was given a brace, which helped, but Kaliska's knee still can go slide out, especially during strenuous activity. Due to this condition Kaliska does not exercise as much as she should, which has caused her to become overweight.

Kaliska takes pride in her mixed heritage and embraces both parts of it. At the end of her junior year, one of her cousin's on her dad's side of the family became interested in researching the family history. Kaliska, who had always enjoyed hearing the stories of her mother's tribe, volunteered to help. Together the two discovered that her family was English. Kaliska began reading about English history and began to enjoy the "real-life soap opera" that she's discovered in the English royal family. Her current topic of interest is the Tudor period. With this new love Kaliska has decided to major in History in college.

Kaliska is an alto in the school's advanced choir, which perform at competitions at least twice a year. Kaliska takes music very seriously and loves to sing. She started singing in her church's children's choir at 6. Kaliska has been involved in music every since. Kaliska enjoys a lot of different music styles, but favors the classic rock of the ‘60's and ‘70's. Kaliska also sings in a classic rock band outside of school. Kaliska is outgoing, friendly, and optimistic. She makes friends easily and has many acquaintances throughout the school.

Kaliska's other hobby is cross-stitching. When Kaliska was eight her mother gave her a cross stitch sampler to play with. Kaliska tried a few stitches but soon became bored with the process. The neglected sampler ended up in the back of her closet, where it remained until Kaliska was 10. She rediscovered the sampler after being ordered to clean out her closet. This time she found that she had more patience for practicing and working on the simple project. While school work and choir take up much of her time, Kaliska always has some project waiting to be finished. After seven years, Kaliska has mastered all of the basic techniques and is branching out into designing her own.

Kaliska is polite and respectful to adults, a fact that her parents instilled in her. Kaliska is a well-behaved student who gets along with her classmates. She is an A or B student. Her best classes are music and history. Her worst is science.

Advantages: Kaliska has some knowledge of fishing, which may help her survive. She alos has a friendly outgoing attitude and a wide group of friends which may help her in finding allies.
Disadvantages: Kaliska is not athletic and her knee injury may limit her movements on the island.