G050 - Kiesling, Rebecca[/DECEASED]

#1

DECEASED

Name: Rebecca Kiesling
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: ballet, crossword puzzles, reading, and amateur magic (assistant)

Appearance: Standing 5'5" and weighing 126 pounds, Rebecca Kiesling has a lithe dancer's build that is starting to go to seed. Her dark red hair is cut into an asymetrical bob, shorter in the back and longer in the front. Rebecca's pale complexion and ice blue eyes are warmed up by the sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her button nose and cheeks. Her freckles continue down the sides of her neck and spread across her shoulders and chest. She prefers to keep her make-up simple and minimalistic, using only a touch of lip gloss on her naturally pale pink lips and mascara to darken and highlight her golden eyelashes. On the left side of her neck below her ear is a small, one inch burn scar.

Rebecca's clothing style could be classified as casually preppy. Ballet flats or ankle boots, above-the-knee skirts, long-sleeved dress shirts or pastel t-shirts paired with a vest make up the majority of her wardrobe. Rebecca is rarely without her antique-looking gold ladies' watch and 2012 class ring during school hours. However, when working with Leona Van Kamp, Rebecca's clothing and makeup styles change dramatically. Her assistant's wardrobe is very fitted and revealing, consisting mainly of dark colored satin bustiers and hot pants that are heavily embellished with beads, crystals, sequins, and lace in order to draw the eye. For shows, Rebecca wears very striking makeup and pins her hair up in cascading curls.

On the day of the abduction, Rebecca was wearing a a light blue camp shirt over a pink camisole, khaki colored clam diggers held up with a canvas belt, white canvas tennis shoes, and a gold watch.

Biography: Rebecca Kiesling was the only child born to Sharon and Dave Kiesling before the dissolution of their marriage when Rebecca was five. Dave, a vehicle mechanic for King County, retained sole custody of his daughter due to his ex-wife's sudden relocation from Seattle to Florida with her new fiancee four months after filing for divorce. For several months after her move, Sharon made token efforts to keep in contact with her daughter, with more and more time passing in between each phone call. Sharon would promise Rebecca that she would come and see her soon, or have Rebecca come visit her soon. Neither event ever came to pass.

After about eight months, the phone calls stopped completely and never resumed. Sharon disappeared completely from Dave and Rebecca's life. Dave was relieved when Sharon stopped calling because then he didn't have to soothe an upset child afterwards. He was unconcerned that Sharon never paid any form of child support since, in Dave's mind, her being in arrears would prevent her from being able to demand any form of visitation or a change in the custody agreement in the future should she ever decide to reconnect with their daughter. For that reason, he never pursued his ex-wife over her delinquent payments.

Dave did worry about how his daughter would react to the absence of her mother. He interpreted any sort of tantrum or negative behavior as the harbinger of some sort of neurotic behavior that would scar her for life. Several sessions with a therapist convinced him that there was nothing abnormal about his child's behavior but that perhaps a structured activity would benefit both father and daughter. Dave took the therapist's advice to heart and enrolled his daughter in a plethora of after-school activities including Girl Scouts, ballet class, and a karate class. Over the next two years, Girl Scouts and karate fell by the wayside in favor of ballet, thanks mostly to the soft-spoken but firm instructor. Rebecca also enjoyed the soothing nature of dancing and the plethora of dance outfits her father purchased for her. Ballet, in addition to building muscles and encouraging graceful movements, also introduced Rebecca to Leona Van Kamp. The two girls became fast friends and have remained the best of friends to this day.

When Rebecca was nine, her father married Carol Walters, a divorcee with two sons of her own. Rebecca was less than thrilled when she moved into their home, having to move out of the only home she had known in addition to instantly shifting from only child to youngest child now that she lived with two step-brothers; Peter, who was five years her senior, and Laurence, three years older than her. She slowly began to become accustomed to the idea of having siblings and having to share her father's attention with others. Laurence quickly latched on to Rebecca, glad to have someone who was willing to humor him and who found him funny. Peter viewed himself as responsible for all of his younger siblings and did his best to be a proper role model and facilitate the blending of the two families. Of the two boys, Rebecca grew closer to Laurence than to Peter, the two of them engaging in childish mischief and pranks under Peter's watchful eye. Two years after her father remarried, her step-mother gave birth to Rebecca's half-sister, Piper. Rebecca has never made a serious attempt to contact her mother, and has instead embraced her step-mother as the main maternal figure in her life.

Rebecca channeled her turmoil over all of these major life changes into her dancing. She practiced at every available opportunity, enjoying that in at least one aspect of her life, she had total control. One of the proudest days of her life was the first time she danced en pointe in ballet class at the age of 12. Her teachers noticed her dedication and rewarded her efforts with company dancer roles in many productions such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet. Rebecca was thrilled and began dreaming of a career as a principle dancer in a prestigious dance troupe.

By the end of sophomore year, Rebecca's life was proceeding according to her plan. Her family life was reasonably calm and peaceful, she was doing well in school and with her dancing, and she had a blossoming social life. Her time that wasn't dedicated to school or dancing was taken up hanging out with Leona, filling in as her assistant while she worked on her act, or with her boyfriend. That changed early one evening during a family barbeque. While celebrating Peter's graduation from boot camp, Rebecca and Laurence were playing on the trampoline located in the back yard. Both teenagers were doing their best to impress Peter with their athletic abilities. As dinner was announced, the two began to playfully wrestle, trying to be the first off the trampoline and to the table. Rebecca, unaware of how close she was to the edge of the trampoline, bounced at an inopportune moment, tumbled, and landed awkwardly.

Alarmed at the sound of their oldest daughter's cries of distress, her parents quickly bundled her into the car and took her to the hospital. An exam and x-ray confirmed Rebecca's greatest fear. The fall had slightly torn her ACL and broken her ankle. Her right leg needed to be immobilized for the next two and a half months. Rebecca tried to be optimistic about her injuries, joking that the enforced rest was good since it would give her a chance to relax and recharge before coming back to dancing. In reality, she worried and fretted over every lost minute of practice time and every vanished opportunity to be working on bettering herself in the hopes of securing a spot in one of the rigorous, highly competitive dance programs.

To keep get her mind off of her injuries, Rebecca spent many hours doing crosswords, reading, and assisting Leona as best she could from a seated position. She relished feeling success each time she completed a difficult puzzle and took special delight in attempting the Sunday puzzle of The New York Times. After running out of her own books to read, Rebecca began to work her way through her step-mother's collection of romance novels. She enjoyed their escapist nature and perpetually happy endings. Glad that she was taking pleasure in something outside of dance, Carol loaned Rebecca her collection of The Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris. Entranced by both the romance and drama of the series, Rebecca devoured the books. Step-mother and daughter passed many hours that summer discussing their favorite parts while sipping lemonade on the back patio.

As summer ended, the cast was removed and physical therapy began. During physical therapy, Rebecca learned that her broken ankle had caused a 12% permanent loss of mobility, hardly noticeable or noteworthy in most people but a potentially devastating condition for a dancer. Even with two months of twice-a-week physical therapy, her ankle could not consistently reach its former degree of extension, which was especially noticeable when she was en pointe. Unwilling to accept the diagnosis, Rebecca began pushing herself even harder than before. She cut back on her warm-up periods and often danced in the basement of her home. Rather than helping her improve, the extra practice aggravated her injured knee. By the winter of junior year, it became obvious that she would not return to her previous ability levels.

Rebecca decided that a new life goal was in order. Since professional ballet dancing was no long feasible, she settled on a new goal: world's best magician's assistant. She began spending long hours practicing with Leona, learning the other girl's illusions and tricks. Leona instructed Rebecca in setting up the illusions and how to use stage presence to distract the audience. Under Leona's exacting tutelage, Rebecca has learned several of the principle illusions in Leona's act. The two of them are currently working together to choreograph a show that will appeal to a wider audience and establish Leona's credentials as a bona fide performer.

In order to eliminate distractions, Rebecca felt that the only sensible course of action was to break up with her long-time boyfriend, Daryl. Daryl, a student at one of Seattle's other high schools, was a fellow dancer in Rebecca's dance company. Their relationship began when the two were paired up for a performance, and consisted predominantly of spending time together at dance practice and during rehearsals and discussing their shared passion for dancing. Having spent many months reading romance novels, Rebecca was unwilling to stay in a relationship with a man who did not cause her heart to skip a beat or feel incomplete when they were separated. After the break-up, Rebecca confessed to Leona that she felt that their lives were going in two different directions since she could no longer dance.

Rebecca's home life is currently a little tense since her father and step-mother have enrolled her baby sister in dance. While they try to be understanding, her parents are irritated at Rebecca's refusal to be more supportive of Piper's tap dancing. Rebecca cannot understand why her parents would enroll her sister in dance knowing how much losing dance hurt her. Piper, being only six years old, appears to be oblivious to the tension in the home. Rebecca has a good but fairly casual relationship with her step-brothers, neither of whom currently live in the family home. Peter lives with his wife and child in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Laurence rents a house with three of his fraternity brothers near the University of Washington, Seattle campus.

No longer focused on attending a school for the performing arts after high school, Rebecca's dedication has wavered a bit during her senior year. An average student currently maintaining a B- grade average, she does well in English and government but struggles a bit with chemistry and math. Most of Rebecca's friends at school are involved with the arts in some way. Rebecca tends to be somewhat quiet and reserved at school, content to let others take center stage while providing support to her friends. With dancing out of the picture, she does not have a clear educational goal beyond attending one of Seattle's community colleges. She will begin her freshman year as an undeclared major student.

Advantages: Years of dancing have taught Rebecca to ignore minor physical discomfort in order to achieve her goal. Working as Leona's assistant has taught her a bit about the art of misdirection.
Disadvantages: Rebecca's knee injury tends to flare up at inopportune times. Not nearly as active as she used to be, she could easily overestimate her physical limits and abilities.

Designated Number: Female Student No. 050

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Designated Weapon: One Package Sharpie Minis
Conclusion: I was really ready to like this girl. She worked hard for a grueling goal and then suffered something difficult she couldn't overcome. However, she lost me at "magician's assistant." For your next trick, try disappearing. - Abby Soto

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