Clarissa Shoemaker

[Cicada]

Name: Clarissa May Shoemaker
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Cars, driving, mechanics and repair, street dance, pop music and hip hop, cheerleading, hiking, thrifting, doll collecting, partying

Appearance: Clarissa is Caucasian and has pale, cool-undertone skin that is prone to sunburn. She is shorter than average at 5’0”. Her weight ranges from 105 to 110 lb on average, and she has an athletic, top heavy physique with broad shoulders and bust. She has naturally bright copper tone hair, heavily curly, which she cuts close to her shoulders and styles without bangs, using simple buns and claw clips.

Clarissa has a generally youthful, rounded face. Her grayish blue eyes are downturned. She has a button shaped nose, and thin lips. She has a naturally strong reddish blush, and heavy under eye circles. Her eyebrows are bushy and not styled. She rarely wears makeup due to sensory issues. She has a soft voice that is androgynous in pitch, and she articulates well.

Clarissa has no piercings. She often wears athletic clothing like shorts and jerseys due to her extracurricular sports and due to work, but on off days she prefers casual and comfortable feminine fashion. Clarissa likes collecting thrift jewelry, mostly claw clips, bracelets, and rings, and she tends to have no particular sense for matching colors or trends versus wearing things she personally likes.

On the day of the abduction she was wearing a baby blue camisole with white floral patterns, stained in several spots from oil and coolant, and faded gray high waist jeans, along with well used black and red split sole sneakers.She layered a running jacket, gray with bright white front pockets. She had multiple accessories including a leopard print claw clip, a faux onyx bracelet, and a defective cracked mood ring.

Biography: Clarissa May Shoemaker was born June 21, 2007; the second child of local auto repair business owners Gabe and April. She has one brother older by six years, Gabe Jr. Her parents are relatively young, having had her in their early 30s, and unlike her older brother Clarissa was planned. The family business, The Car Doctors are locally held in good esteem for good service and being a long lasting fixture of the community started by April’s own parents. The business generally keeps the family solidly in the middle class.

Gabe was a traditional patriarch figure. He put a lot of pressure on his elder son to be masculine, to participate in sports and eventually inherit the family business despite Gabe Jr having no particular affinity for either. Clarissa in contrast was her father’s princess and he indulged her early interests like paper crafts and dolls. Clarissa was gifted vintage dolls from eBay whenever she expressed interest, and she built up a collection which she took meticulous care of from a young age.

There was friction between brother and sister due to the different treatments they received, and Clarissa and Gabe Jr often had petty sibling fights, though Gabe Jr ultimately was protective of his little sister. Gabe Jr noticed from a young age that Clarissa tended to often zone out and shut down when they’d have spats at home.

This was similarly noticed by her more perceptive friends, such as her close childhood friend Raya Loux, and as soon as she joined school Clarissa often found herself being protected by both her friends and her brother due to her tendencies to shut down under stress and be naive. Her mother suspected autism and was encouraged by family friends to get Clarissa diagnosed. Clarissa’s father would hear nothing of it and April fell in line with her husband's perspective.

In her youth she had no inkling that she was not neurotypical. Unconsciously she followed the path of least resistance and was content from early on to put her comfort and safety into other peoples hands, as she often lacked the mental energy and self-preservation instincts to navigate stressful social situations of her own accord. During elementary school she learned to stick to friend groups closely and was an archetypical quiet follower of authoritative peers.

Though she was always average in school and needed to study hard to keep a middling report card from a young age, Clarissa was from a young age fascinated by the idea of a career in automotive repair. She had a multitude of influences including her own parents, her friend Raya whose own family also ran an auto shop, and a natural fascination with learning science and math even if she lacked natural talent for either.

From a young age she shadowed her mother and father in the auto shop, tinkering with tools and projects her parents deemed safe and age appropriate. Her father initially was reluctant to embrace what he saw as his daughter’s more masculine hobby, but he eventually embraced it. Seeing her passion and dedication he began to consider that Clarissa would be the heiress to the family’s auto shop. This put further tension on Clarissa’s relationship with her brother at the time, as Gabe became even more dismissive of and harsh on his son. Clarissa’s talent developed at a fast clip, and her meticulous nature meant that, while slow, she could be trusted to do projects above her age level with parental supervision.

Due to her newfound interest in her parents and their auto shop business, she also developed an interest in cars more generally. Her brother gladly gifted her a lot of the toy car collection forced upon him by his father. She grew that collection, and began to develop a detailed mental checklist of cars that she’d read about in books and magazines and ask her parents about when she saw them in the shop or on the streets. Clarissa’s future ambitions as a child, beyond being a car mechanic, also included all the specific car models she wanted to work on or even own herself.

Clarissa’s hyperfixations meant she showed a passive resistance to adopting new interests. She was often out of the loop with trends her friends introduced to her at elementary school. She fell out with some friend groups over time due to this tendency, as some of her former friends came to view her as boring and annoying to deal with. This caused her to feel stressed at school as she became a target of former friend’s ire and remarks.

She never changed elementary schools, so friends she had fallen out with remained bothersome for her even when they forgot her and moved on to other things. Close friends who cared for her and accepted her quiet and obsessive nature protected her, but they could only do so much when Clarissa was so stubborn with her preferences and personality. For a time, in the latter half of her elementary school years, Clarissa had few friends.

Over time she began to learn to keep more of an open mind, or at least to mask her hyperfixations and develop more shallow interests. This was her survival strategy so her time at school didn’t stay alienating. This development was largely unconscious however, and Clarissa maintained little awareness or self-interest to figure out why she had the quirks she did.

In the sixth grade she made an active effort to join a few classmates in preparing for a talent show dance number to a mashup of Rihanna songs the group had planned. Her reputation for being awkward and weird meant they initially treated her indifferently and only included her out of pity, but her classmate’s reluctance waned as she proved compliant and easy to work with for once. They came to consider her a good friend, and Clarissa in turn found joy in working hard to overcome her tendencies and try new things.

The talent show was a success as far as talent shows in elementary school can be, and the group planned future talent show routines. They also began to dance together casually for fun. Clarissa began listening to pop music those friends introduced her to and developed an affinity for it, especially the popular rap and hip hop tunes of the time. She also found an additional benefit in focused physical activity elevating her mood and began to regularly crave dancing and other forms of working out.

Clarissa thus graduated to middle school with an identity to let her socially fit in at school. She remained easily stressed out by the drama of the friend groups she’d bond with over. Thus she continued to prefer time to herself, or with the few intimate friends she had like Raya. She never became close to many of her peers in middle school and was never seen at sleepovers or parties. She never took sides in squabbles common to her peers and thus could only be trusted so much.

Her affinity for physical activity and her social circles led her to consider cheerleading, encouraged by friends. She passed tryouts, and quickly became one of the more enthusiastic members of the team. She developed a strong sense of sincere school spirit, developed her social skills such as being a good listener, and worked harder on mastering routines and staying fit with cardio than most of the other girls on the team.

Given that she had lived in the area all her life and transitioned to middle school with many of her elementary school peers, her dedication was generally viewed in a positive light by peers as in character for her quirks, and adorable and inspiring. Her old reputation of being stubborn and weird was falling away as she channeled her single-minded tendencies into activities that gave her an endearing reputation. Despite this she fundamentally did not change, and maintained an affinity for being quiet and not drawing attention despite her larger social circles.

When she turned 14 and graduated into high school, the dynamic at home evolved. She was a formal apprentice working per employment laws for her age, three hours a week spent working on repair projects with her parents.

She grew closer to them than ever, but began to observe that they were often at odds and could get into heated verbal arguments that she hadn’t really noticed at home, where their guard was more up to sell a harmonious home to their beloved daughter. In reality the two had been at odds for years over business matters, especially as the Covid-19 pandemic caused financial trouble that forced both parents to take out loans to keep the shop afloat. April had grown tired of Gabe’s domineering nature, though not enough to change the direction of the way he raised their kids.

Her parent’s secretly deteriorated relationship disturbed Clarissa, and she often tuned out at work or even preferred spending her hours at Raya’s family shop when her parents allowed her to. Both April and Gabe were evasive with their troubles when Clarissa would enquire and the couple maintained their pleasantries at home, which only further confused Clarissa. This became a long term source of stress for her as she could only process the complex situation so well.

Clarissa in turn grew close with her brother as she sought advice from him over the family situation. She appreciated all he’d done for her as a child despite the arguments and fighting they’d had, and Gabe Jr in turn was mellowed out now that he was out of the house and had no grievances with his baby sister. He would confide in her that he was gay. She was the first person in the family he came out to as he didn’t trust his mother to not let it slip to his father.

She began to find more mental hygiene staying engaged outside of her home. She became something of a popular girl due to how easy she was to get along with, and her ability to be shallowly interested in most things others would get her to go along with. She had a broad assortment of friends from across all social strata in Red Rock, though she was close to few. She remained skittish and flighty around conflict, but could shrug it off by ignoring it. This caused her reputation for being flighty, shallow, and airheaded to develop as the years went on. She began to be invited to parties as early as her Freshman year, though she was a quiet presence in them at first, mostly taking in the atmosphere and avoiding drinking.

Clarissa focused on her cheerleading activities outside of work, with her parents' approval as both were satisfied with her development as an auto technician and wanted her to enjoy high school.

She continued to follow pop music and hip hop, with some of her favorite contemporary artists including Doechii and Kehlani. She has been casually involved in Red Rock’s dance club all four years of high school, though this is not her focus and she is generally only around to practice and socialize, not take part in formal dance team competitions. She was likewise also quickly invested in the Outdoor Rattlers, developing an interest in hiking trips that would allow her to take time in nature away from the stresses of home and the social scene in school.

Clarissa’s academic performance has trended downward, as her focus on non-academic work has cut down her study time and she doesn’t have the natural intelligence to keep up. She is particularly bad in English, and continues to enjoy science classes despite her math abilities being below par. Her favorite class in her senior year is physics despite her dismal grades. Though it is low priority, she does take personal pride in scraping together the time to do well on a single test or homework assignment when the inspiration strikes her.

Clarissa was an avid scroller of TikTok and Reddit in her free moments. Through this she was exposed to online queer culture. Combined with her own brother’s entrusting her with details of his struggles as a maturing gay man, Clarissa was actively mindful of exploring her own maturing sense of sexual attraction. She was quick on entering high school to openly identify as bisexual, at least at school. At home she remained mum, anxious given her brother’s experiences with the homophobia of her father. Her father, additionally, has openly disapproved of the idea of his daughter dating anybody more than a handful of times.

Her hesitation due to being closeted at home and her passive social nature means that, while she has dated men and women, she has only done so very casually to the point where a common rumor is that she is likely asexual and or aromantic. She is open to advances, and through observing others she has developed the ability to flirt and signal interest in peers, but Clarissa will rarely go on more than a handful of dates before asking to return the affair to being platonic.

Both her parents are Republicans due to economic leanings, and her father in particular is also socially conservative. Clarissa has never had to absorb her own parents' beliefs, left out of dinner conversations due to her parents assuming she’d be not very capable of engaging. Her peers, likewise, leave her alone. Generally, they correctly presume that she is apolitical and not especially capable of grasping the finer points. Clarissa is aware of her peers' leanings, though any discussion of politics involving her tends to quickly lead her to tuning out. She is wary enough of what she does know of Canon’s character to have decided to not vote for him despite her father’s pressing of the issue. She quietly skipped out on registering to vote in 2024 despite being of age and being encouraged by friends and family.

At sixteen Clarissa hit a major milestone that she’d been looking forward to for years and got her license. She had a natural knack for driving due to her dedication and regular practice, and she passed both her written and practical test on her first try. While she had access to the family car she also earned a more important prize to herself. The family had three vehicles on their lot that they kept via abandoned vehicle title, which they used to test certain repair techniques before applying them to customers' cars. These rehabilitated cars were the ones Clarissa had practiced on regularly. Clarissa claimed one, a Mustang 2016 V6 with low mileage. It became her reliable baby, and she would give it a couple of performance mods and keep up with its maintenance almost religiously.

With the freedom of a car Clarissa finds that she has a lot to do outside of the house. She became a reliable driver for her friends and even acquaintances in need, a task she greatly enjoys as she simply enjoys driving in and of itself. She was able to help with events for her cheerleading team, and also with events for the Outdoor Rattlers that took place far from the city. She was also able to attend trade shows and thrift a lot on the weekends, which allowed her to greatly expand her collections of toy cars and dolls, her two childhood collections that survived into her teen years. She wants to go on road trips with close friends, but her parents have been skeptical of her driving out of the state thus far.

In her junior year Clarissa began to fall under the thumb of her cheerleading friend Joanne Martinez. Clarissa admired Joanne’s self-assured personality and superficial friendliness, and over time she became one of Joanne’s trusted confidantes. Joanne however was a stronger personality than Clarissa dealt with among her other close friends, and didn’t necessarily have Clarissa’s best interests at heart as opposed to her own personal gain.

Joanne is a heavy partier, and Clarissa has increasingly followed suit under Joanne’s heavy-handed encouragement and subtle manipulation. Clarissa’s partying has taken a turn, she flirts more brazenly despite still having little interest in serious relationships or intimacy, and has also begun drinking. She keeps alcohol to parties and can hold her liquor well, but she does not personally enjoy being drunk or its aftermath. She takes personal shame in losing the ability to be her friend’s designated driver.

Parties have become more stressful for her due to the character she is expected to play, but she feels a lot of social obligation to her party crowd and to Joanne in particular, and thus continues to go despite feeling increasingly alienated.

Her closest confidantes have expressed concern over this turn of character, and have become increasingly concerned with how her social blossoming has not come with a similar growth of self-awareness or self-preservation. Friends have also suggested she is neurodiverse and could benefit from exploring the possibility of autism, but Clarissa remains deeply uncomfortable with this due to her parents continuing to object to the idea that she could be anything besides normal.

Clarissa thus remains well liked, but close to few at school. She remains indecisive on how she feels about her parents and their marital difficulties, and stays quiet and compliant at home due to a lack of courage to tackle the matter. She has become very close to her older brother, who is her closest confidante and vice versa, and his perspective is one she values as highly as her few close friends even if she has difficulty applying his life advice, as she always has.

Clarissa is eager and excited for her future, and remains motivated in all of her endeavors. She’s run into conflict with maintaining both her cheerleading and her auto shop work. She wants to shift full focus onto her planned career and start attending trade shows and car shows on the regular, but the weight of social obligations has made her waffle back and forth on this. For now she maintains the status quo in her schedule.

She likewise has had difficulty setting a concrete plan for what she will do after graduating. She wants to deepen her mechanical knowledge and get an associates degree on work study, and get out and see the country in her car, but her parents and some friends have both brought up issues of practicality and concern for her ability to thrive on her own. The assumed path is working at the family auto shop full time the moment she graduates, and she also likes this idea and has yet to make a concrete decision.

Advantages: Clarissa is broadly known and popular to most people in her grade and has a reputation for being easy to get along with and harmless, so she may be underestimated to her benefit. Clarissa is more fit than her average peer due to her multitude of active hobbies. Clarissa’s extensive experience with mechanics gives her a potential for novel solutions to island problems.
Disadvantages: Clarissa is easily overloaded from unpleasant social situations such as arguments, and her coping mechanisms leave her vulnerable to tuning out and avoiding uncomfortable situations to the detriment of her survival. Clarissa is also both willfully and unconsciously naive, indecisive, and a highly passive people pleaser, and she will be easily manipulated by people acting in bad faith. Clarissa's dependent tendencies means the deaths of her peers, especially those close to her, will have a larger negative impact on her mental state than is typical.