Survival Of The Fittest

so first things first, throw an expectations of quality or coherence out of these. they're pretty undeveloped; i came up with these ideas this weekend in a fugue state powered by poor sleep.

that said, enjoy and if you feel like it, share your thoughts! i'll probably keep developing these kids right up until applications open and i might even post about it. let's get this bread

Mary Watson: Bookish Questioning-God's-Existence Christian, newly-discovered queer (bi? lesbian? idk yet), child of divorce, discovering herself for the first time, Big Time late bloomer, artist & a creative, getting into roleplaying games and creative writing, old church was the worst kind of christian-culty, maybe mormon as well - or some other sort of insular denomination. maybe originally from Utah, moved here with one of her parents who also escaped?
Looking For:

• A tabletop games group

• Potentially a love interest? I think it'd fit the arc in mind

• Other kids coming out of their shells

Kenneth Trainor: Swim team kid, sports kid in general, medals on medals, practically being groomed for the Olympics by out-of-prime former athlete parents, redirecting anxiety and not-good-enough-insecurity into bullying. rich popular kid, good grades, under a lot of pressure, no time for hobbies, frequently exhausted. probably a closeted bisexual, since as a bisexual myself i dont feel like playing a straight character. parents are probably pretty accepting but other popular kids at school might not be
Looking For:

• Other sportsball kids or popular kids

• Another guy to have a confusing first crush on

• someone who he might bully, lmao

Cody Conroy: Laid back stoner C’s-get-degrees trans guy, reliable in a good way, more worried about his future than he lets on, absentee “oh, I’m just giving my kid freedom” parents. they dont do a whole lot of work themselves. working as a mechanic or something else blue-collar to support family & younger brother, kind of a cinema freak (wants to direct), maybe plays bass guitar or some other musical hobby? i think he played soccer and was much more athletic in elementary & early middle school
Looking For:

• A band to join. I think Cody probably likes grunge or metal-adjacent stuff. Probably not a big fan of the most hardcore stuff, but he certainly doesn't mind it.

• Work friends. If your kid works something blue collar, especially to support their family like Cody does, i'd love to hear it!

• some other people really into movies and moviemaking. maybe a club? i think cody's family has a lot of old movies on VHS so he quote unquote 'knows the classics'

Alriiiight let's check this out

Kenneth Trainor

Manuel "Mañana" Hernández
Fellow cool bully popular jock; they'd definitely be friends. They both do the channel-insecurity-into-bullying thing, are both sports freaks, ect. They'd hang out, talk shit, talk sports, all that good stuff. I honestly nominate him for "confusing first boy crush", I think that'd be a fitting and interesting dynamic.

Céline Sharpe
The *premier* target for bullies at school. Shove her into a locker, talk endless shit about her and everything she does, no one will care, least of all her.

Cody Conroy

Raya Loux
Raya Loux is *the* mechanic at the school. If Cody's also doing that (he could even be part of the metalworking club) I could see them getting along really well. Raya and Cody could talk shop, she could tell him shit about the finer points in mechanics and Cody could even introduce her to blazing.

Hello what's up it's me... me.

Tragically for Mary, I don't think any of my gay-as-hell ladies are particularly good fits for a romance arc. Definitely feel free to crush on any of them though!
Also I put this thread together for tabletop kids, hasn't been all that popular as yet but worth nosing at?

As for Kenneth, may I shove L.K. his way? As a big gamer nerd she's prime bully material, but wait, that's not all! She's also transgender, so if you're down to get into the weeds about sexuality, she could be a source of particular consternation for his bi confusion? Not entirely sure how to phrase this in a way where I don't feel like I'm somehow being transphobic to my own self, but I think you get where I'm coming from?
Could also pick on Hope, unsure. She hangs around in sports-y circles sometimes as a big baseball nerd (and lately; potentially also a soccer player?) so they'd have crossed paths.

And finally for Cody: Mercy Myers' band has room for a bassist, they're primarily a My Chemical Romance cover band though, so... may or may not be to his taste. Not sure if the other extant bands have spaces though so could be a case of both in- and out-of-character taking what he can get and not being entirely satisfied? Figure that might drive some fun interactions.
Speaking of Mercy, she's also a movie buff in general and a huge horror nerd in specific, so that's a vector for friendship!
Hope comparatively is a big MCU fan, which may or may not be at odds with The Classics?
Also Heather has been known to partake, perhaps they've smoked together? Possible musical collaboration too, unsure.

And I guess in a broader sense, Heather's an eternal ally to struggling queer kids, even if she doesn't much like them personally.

Mary: Taylor is a lesbian from a conservative Christian household, so if she and Mary connected, they’d understand each other. Does Mary like card games? She and Don could connect through that.

Cody: Taylor’s father works at an auto shop, so perhaps if Cody worked at the same place, they could have interacted (she’s also an ally to trans people). Simon also wants to get into filmmaking, but he specializes in horror. Perhaps Simon and Cody have collabed at some point.

Kenneth: Taylor might not like this guy because of all the bullying he does. She might have heard of him through gossip around the tennis court.

I'm checking this thread out:

Beavis Hunter-Santos:

- He would interact with Cody, discussing about some movies he had recently watched and give him a soda.

Lindsay Summer:
- She like watching movies as she has a couple of favorite movies. Although Lindsay would mention fictional film directors such as Steve Scott from Grand Theft Auto. So she would be a nice friend to Cody.

(Didn't include Chiyoko because her interests doesn't fit any interacts for your characters.)