'CAUSE I'M THE SWAN QU- actually can i be bonnie parker?
( oc student application )
PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Hilda
AGE: 24
CONTACT: aim: frilly betches, e-mail: palastinalied@gmail.com, plurk: juchecouture
PERSONAL LJ: starsandtildes
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A
CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Danielle “Danni” Fuchs
AGE: 17
GENDER: Female
YEAR IN SCHOOL: H2
ENROLLMENT: Her parents are rich and want to keep her out of trouble. A tiny island on the other side of the Atlantic seems far enough away from any.
APPEARANCE: Danni's a reedy white girl about 5'8", with long curly blonde hair and gray eyes. She's a former ballet student and still carries herself with the grace she learned in class, and at times it makes her look rather self-involved, though when she has her manners on she's open and smiling and almost "stereotypical Valley girl". It depends on the day and occasion how she's dressed or styled up, since she takes her cues from this month's fashion magazines and pictures on the internet, but she likes flowers and spring colors and looking "natural" as much as possible and will always wear the short uniform skirt.
PERSONALITY: Danni finds it difficult to be the first one to speak unless the other person is even shyer, preferring to keep both ears open and wait for someone else to make the first approach. After the first minute or so, though, she seems sweet and chatty almost to the point of ditziness, but she still listens - really listens and remembers - and prefers to listen more than she talks. She isn't particularly bright, but reads social cues well, so the most awkward the conversation usually gets is “have you ever thought you’d look cute with- you’re cute already but…”, as if she's trying to make sure the other person doesn't feel slighted when she tries to work style magic on them.
Even though she doesn't consciously use her attractiveness to manipulate people, Danni is very aware of her body (blame having been in ) and works hard to look good. She was kicked out of ballet school, but still lives a healthy lifestyle (probably healthier than while she was in school) aside from teen party drinking, and pays a lot of attention to both what she wears and how she acts. While she tries to be friendly to everyone, others' crude or disrespectful behavior lowers her opinion of them more than something actually wrong. She believes it's okay to break rules for a "really good reason", but almost never reasons to enjoy being gross, because it makes people unattractive and there's rarely any reason to be unattractive on purpose (people won't like you).
Speaking of breaking rules, if stuck between peers or authority figures, she almost always picks the first one, but instead of rebelling in the open, she does what she wants behind adults' backs and apologizes when called on it. Much of the time she doesn't even consider that it's against the rules, especially not if it gives someone she cares about what they want or if it "isn't hurting anyone". In the past, she's been able to get away with it because of her looks and social position and the lack of bad intent.
Danni was both born rich and almost always sheltered from many of the consequences of bad decisions, so there is a lot she doesn't know how to handle on her own. Even though she's been spoiled, though, she doesn't really act entitled: if there is something she can't handle (from something as small as laundry to major organizational skills), she might hope someone else will step in to take care of it, but she'll flail about and try to get it done on her own before calling on someone else if she fails. She’s uncomfortable with people in social classes below her, having little experience with them, but she tries to share what she have in a way that often comes off as noblesse oblige.
With people whose cultural mindset she understands, she’s genuinely friendly and affectionate, even somewhat of a doormat. Danni rarely advances her own ideas, instead supporting someone else's position or putting hers out in a way intended to make the other person think her good idea was theirs. To her, giving people the idea and letting them take credit for it makes them feel better about themselves, and while she wants to look good she prefers quieter "you saved my ass!" attention rather than all eyes being on her. The only times she shows her spine are when someone she cares about is in trouble and she wants to protect them, and even then, her outward manner doesn't change at all: she just acts.
If you look harder, Danni’s a classic co-dependent type with no image of herself outside her relationships with others. Her moral compass points toward "what will make the people I care about happy" instead of an abstract idea of good, and she puts on the bubbly princess act because she was taught as a young teenager that it was attractive behavior. The initial shyness assures her that anyone she's interacting with has chosen her, and her rare instances of self-assertion? Catty cruelty or soft-voiced smiling threats to fend off enemies or rivals, or the sudden strength to pull her beloved away from a bad situation. Something precious to her is going to be destroyed, and she has to make damn sure it's safe. If she has to hurt someone, that's what she'll do, because it's better they suffer than someone she loves.
Now, why is bb such a hot mess? Danni the social butterfly is, as stated before, a new development. Until about a year and a half before current timeline, she was socially withdrawn and obsessive over ballet as a way of gaining attention from largely absent parents and respect from her peers. Most of the people she loved, both children and adults, were unpredictable presences in her life. Only her teachers were there for her every day, and since they rewarded absolute perfection, when she meets someone who she believes wants her in their life (whether they do or not), she tries to become exactly who she thinks they want her to be.
And what do people want? Instead of having a normal childhood, she learned about the "real" world from stories - cheesy kids' movies about best friends who'll do anything for each other and angsty teenage romance novels - and she thinks reality is supposed to work like it does in fiction. At this point, though, the stories' hold has begun to slip. Danni thinks she should have “gotten over 'best friends'”, partly because she's too old for childish friendship and needs to move on to romance, and also because in the competitive environment she grew up in she's never had friends who she could really trust. Spoilers: she still needs friendship, but because she denies that need, she may well confuse a close friendship with someone of either gender for romance.
She still believes in soulmates, however, and believes some of the worst teen romances about the right kind of boy (it's the boy): the one she's attached to now, Billy, loves her in a creepy controlling way and encourages her to "get in trouble" because he loves how she reacts to danger. She’s read about and seen enough real life bad examples to misinterpret manipulation and controlling behavior as love, and being a little manipulative herself, isn’t a critical enough observer to understand how selfish that is. If she sees that someone she trusts is trying to play her, clearly they want to help her, and they know best, so it doesn’t bother her on the level it should. While she’s smart enough to understand the basic definition of abuse, either by a friend or a lover, if someone hurts her she’ll try to blame everyone else around them, because in her eyes the people she cares about are perfect. However, she wants adoration in return for everything she gives, and when it’s clear it’s not everyone else's fault, but her object of affection, turn on them because obviously they don’t care about her and why did she even bother, she should have known better.
So, who’s Danni under the cute mask and co-dependent learned behavior? Someone who cares about her body, at least, if not the rest of her, and actually is sweet and self-sacrificing and loyal. She tries to pour out all the love someone else can hold, but hangs on to injuries, both to herself and to others. She will remember who tried to “steal” her boyfriend or made her look bad in front of someone she wanted to impress or hung her friend out to dry, they’ll pay. She listens more than she talks, and remembers what she hears. She cares very strongly about beauty, to the point of trying to make everyone around her physically attractive, but when it comes to people, only just starting to recognize that the way people treat those around them, not just how they treat her, is part of what makes a good, attractive person. She doesn’t have any goals at Reims aside from get out by finishing her schoolwork and come back to see her boyfriend again (if he ever gets out of jail), but while she’s there, she’ll try to find people to fit in with and have fun. It gets lonely by yourself.
ABILITIES: For eight years, Danni was in ballet school and serious about it. She wasn't number one or even near it, but she was good, and while she's lost some of her skill due to being out of practice, she still has the associated natural talents, flexibility and an ear for rhythm. It's nothing she wants to touch again, though she still keeps her body in good condition.
Phonographic memory. This mostly expresses itself in “hey there’s that song from that one time” moments and being a strongly auditory learner; she could use it to win arguments, but doesn’t want the person she’s arguing with to think she’s weird for remembering that stuff, so doesn’t try to overanalyze it.
Talented with style and coordination, especially hair. She was at a shoot with her mom as a treat if she stayed out of the way when she was about twelve, and was absolutely fascinated by what the hairstylist was able to do to make people look so different from their natural selves from pose to pose. Her experiments on herself, especially in high school after she learned more from "model boot camp", attracted friends who wanted to look that way, since she had good taste and through her family connections and time on French fashion sites was always a couple months ahead of American style.
She picked up spoken French in various circumstances - schoolwork, a French ballet mistress, one or two transfers into her schools, as a high school class - and keeps up some of it through occasionally browsing of French-language fashion blogs. She’ll be okay on the mainland, probably, if she doesn’t get too in-depth.
Computer abilities: she can get around the internet, knows some basic CSS for customizing social networking sites, and has messed around on the Reims universe's Polyvore-alike a few times, but knows nothing about information security except "have a really long password" and nothing at all about the inner workings of computers.
AU HISTORY: Danni grew up in the sheltered, over-privileged atmosphere usually reserved for children of nouveau-riche East Coast parents. Her parents' employment (Daddy is high up at one of the major American banks in New York, Mom is a fashion photographer, and they're only still together for the kid) meant that the three of them didn't always even share a country, much less a house. They do like her, giving her everything she asks for and what they think she’d want, but “kids are strong” and Ivana/Odalia/Amalia/this year’s au pair kept a good eye on her went they weren't around. She made sure Danni was fed and clean and at school on time, like an attentive if not particularly affectionate surrogate mother, but after the first one she could remember left and then the second dropped out three months later, she stopped hanging any hopes for love on them.
She could remember every word of stories, though - television, movies, books-on-tape, someone reading to her, wherever she could hear them - and hearing them taught her how the world presumably worked. Most of what she heard told her that she could get the love and attention she wanted either through talent or kindness. She found an way to work the "talent" in ballet: the art was pretty, she had some natural flexibility and grace, and even if she wasn't as good as others, would put in an insane amount of work to be perfect. She didn’t enjoy it for its own sake, but it was what she was best at, and her parents at least went to her performances. As for success through kindness, though? Backstage, Danni was a dorky, shy ugly duckling with a reputation as a doormat. She’d do anything to help someone else, even if it hurt her, and in the hypercompetitive environment of her school, where every student wanted to be the best of the best, that often attracted smarter girls, who knew how to use her need for affection to get her to take care of what they couldn't on their own.
The summer before tenth grade, one of those friendships went way too far. She had been helping one of her “friends” cover up an eating disorder and when the girl’s very influential parents raised hell, the school "suggested" her parents withdraw her for the sake of keeping the peace. Instead of fighting the decision, they put her in a new activity to finish out the summer (and keep her away from seeing the other friend): a training camp for would-be junior superstars, even though that really wasn't who she wanted to be. She didn't have the time or the energy for resentment or contrition, and when it was over and she was ready to start at a new high school, she was an entirely different person outwardly. School taught her how to move and make use of her body to complement her personality, and the retired prima donna director taught her how to turn her shyness and insecurity into charm points, as well as taking enough interest in her to give her the advice that changed her life: "You shouldn't be famous. Go be an ordinary girl."
But, well. What was an ordinary girl? Her frame of reference - the romances she'd graduated to - told her she needed to be concerned about looking good and having friends and attracting boys, and she really wanted to do the last one, since romance sounded like it could give her the love she wanted.
Classes were hard at her new school, but other students tutored her, and she still had plenty of time to make friends. She was attractive and sweet and knew a lot about style, but not at all a threat to anyone else's image, and quickly became well-liked with a more... social... crowd than she was used to. She even met him a week into the school year when he was assigned to help her catch up to the rest of her history class. Danni thought he was the most attentive boy she’d ever met, and so courteous and concerned for her, and so hot: everything The Boy was supposed to be. No one cares about the details of teenage romances, so let’s fast forward to a Saturday night a couple months later when they went to a party together. Their hostess had broken into her dad's liquor cabinet, and while she didn't drink much normally, he was drunk already, so that meant she needed to keep up with him.
That much booze made her feel weird. Kinda paranoid, but in a way that meant she had to fight back instead of just hide like she usually did when she was afraid. And when she saw another girl flirting with him, her fear that she might not be what he wanted forced her to deal with this threat. When the other girl escaped being backed into a corner and threatened, rather than him being happy she wanted to keep him so much, he wanted to know what the hell was wrong with her. She wasn’t thinking rationally as it was, and his sudden disgust for her destroyed the fantasy image she'd had of them. She escaped to the house's roof to mope, but wasn't alone.
Billy, her hostess’s brother, was home from one of the universities in town for the weekend and saw the aborted girlfight. Even if she was a little young, Danni was a hot girl who wasn’t afraid to do something craz and would do anything for a guy if she loved him, so it was… not quite love, but definitely a thing, at first sight, for a guy who liked having power over others. He was also a smart guy and knew that this was his best shot at her and had to take it while he could.
Even after she’d woken up the next morning, Danni believed all of Billy's stories and reassurances and promises that night up on the roof. For once she was being taken seriously, and it was the biggest rush she’d ever had in her life. He was so sweet and took care of her and made her feel loved and protected her, even if he only wanted her eyes on him, and it didn’t matter that she had to hide a lot from her parents and her friends. There wasn't anything wrong with her always being at his place if they loved each other, and he always kept her "safe" if they were somewhere "kids" didn't go or if she'd accidentally drank too much, and his side business wasn't really hurting anyone, either. If someone was dumb enough to want to take pills to study longer or have more fun, she thought it was their deal, not anyone else's, and it wasn't like people didn't take them all the time anyway. She could live without it, not like the kids she knew at school who bought from him.
It was one of those friends who put an end to that time, about six months ago: he named his source when his parents found his stash, and one of the weekends that Danni was staying over, the police pulled up outside Billy’s building. He knew it was coming, and when he made a break for it, she knew what she had to do.
The police found her behind the wheel of his car an hour later while he was in the middle of a panicked call to get him out of the country. Her parents hadn’t suspected any problems, they said when they came to bail her out, and they more than made up for the past by their vigilance now. No rehab because, well, teenagers drink sometimes, but she was only allowed out of the house her court appearances, and her school put her on a kind of sick leave, sending her the assignments to take care of. Since her charges were pled down to a criminal traffic case due to being a female minor with a good lawyer and a daddy with money, the worst part for her was the isolation. Her friends had mostly stopped contacting her after her arrest, and she could keep up with what was happening with Billy’s case (as of now, still sitting in the system with an arms' length of charges), but not contact him or help him out. If she got to the mail before her parents, she could get letters in and out, but that was it, so when her parents told her they were sending her to a school in France without them watching her, it was actually exactly what she was looking for. While no one else had stuck by her, she'd stick to him no matter how long it took.
SAMPLES
INTRANET/1ST PERSON SAMPLE: [text]
Summer's coming up, right? I just got here so my parents are having me stay. I hope everyone has fun wherever they end up!
If we stay, can we go to the mainland like the teachers or is it still every other week? My parents took me to like St. Tropez and stuff when I was a kid and I really liked it, so I thought it might be fun to go again if anyone wants to. I don't know how far any of the really nice beaches are from here because my mom and I were so worried about making sure I got here okay that I didn't look, but I'd love to go with some of you if you're staying. We can have a lot of fun even if you don't like swimming, and I'll make sure no one comes back burned.
LOG/3RD PERSON SAMPLE:
Mom had taken care of most of the paperwork, but she'd left Danni one sheet for her course schedule. She was the one going to school, so it was her job, right? She'd covered the packet of high school courses in highlighter and even now, the Sunday before she started class, she was curled up on her bed to write down her choices. Even if she'd only be here a few weeks before vacation started, the school wouldn't let her sit around all day.
One came quickly. Okay, I need to take "High School Year 2" English Literature. She carefully filled in the time blocks on the sheet, hesitating for a moment before writing the year. Every time I see "Year 2", I get confused for a second, like they held me back. My grades this year were so bad I'm surprised I wasn't. The thought wasn't pleasant enough for a smile, but leaned her head back as she remembered the relief before moving on.
Math... I guess I should take the one, since I was in it back home, but maybe Reims is a lot harder? She clicked her pen in a rhythm - open shut, open shut, open shut - as if it could open her mind to the answer.
Her head snapped up when the door burst open and her new roommate stalked in. "What do you- never mind," she trailed off when she saw the other girl's face. "Are you all right?"
The only response was the other girl slamming into her chair and shoving on a pair of headphones. Danni could hear the beat, if not the actual song, and while she knew that wasn't good for her, sometimes people needed time to calm down before they could talk.
The interruption helped her, though she didn't realize it. I'll just finish up so I'll be ready to talk. I'll take the same math, science, and history, so only two classes left. Maybe when she feels better she can recommend one to me. She quickly filled out the rest of the form and picked up her old copy of Winter Sunset, sticking page 137 back in for what she hoped was the last time. Her summer book package was already on its way.
HAVE YOU READ THE FAQ? I'm not going to make posts with hackability percentages. I heard about those rabid wombats.
PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Hilda
AGE: 24
CONTACT: aim: frilly betches, e-mail: palastinalied@gmail.com, plurk: juchecouture
PERSONAL LJ: starsandtildes
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A
CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Danielle “Danni” Fuchs
AGE: 17
GENDER: Female
YEAR IN SCHOOL: H2
ENROLLMENT: Her parents are rich and want to keep her out of trouble. A tiny island on the other side of the Atlantic seems far enough away from any.
APPEARANCE: Danni's a reedy white girl about 5'8", with long curly blonde hair and gray eyes. She's a former ballet student and still carries herself with the grace she learned in class, and at times it makes her look rather self-involved, though when she has her manners on she's open and smiling and almost "stereotypical Valley girl". It depends on the day and occasion how she's dressed or styled up, since she takes her cues from this month's fashion magazines and pictures on the internet, but she likes flowers and spring colors and looking "natural" as much as possible and will always wear the short uniform skirt.
PERSONALITY: Danni finds it difficult to be the first one to speak unless the other person is even shyer, preferring to keep both ears open and wait for someone else to make the first approach. After the first minute or so, though, she seems sweet and chatty almost to the point of ditziness, but she still listens - really listens and remembers - and prefers to listen more than she talks. She isn't particularly bright, but reads social cues well, so the most awkward the conversation usually gets is “have you ever thought you’d look cute with- you’re cute already but…”, as if she's trying to make sure the other person doesn't feel slighted when she tries to work style magic on them.
Even though she doesn't consciously use her attractiveness to manipulate people, Danni is very aware of her body (blame having been in ) and works hard to look good. She was kicked out of ballet school, but still lives a healthy lifestyle (probably healthier than while she was in school) aside from teen party drinking, and pays a lot of attention to both what she wears and how she acts. While she tries to be friendly to everyone, others' crude or disrespectful behavior lowers her opinion of them more than something actually wrong. She believes it's okay to break rules for a "really good reason", but almost never reasons to enjoy being gross, because it makes people unattractive and there's rarely any reason to be unattractive on purpose (people won't like you).
Speaking of breaking rules, if stuck between peers or authority figures, she almost always picks the first one, but instead of rebelling in the open, she does what she wants behind adults' backs and apologizes when called on it. Much of the time she doesn't even consider that it's against the rules, especially not if it gives someone she cares about what they want or if it "isn't hurting anyone". In the past, she's been able to get away with it because of her looks and social position and the lack of bad intent.
Danni was both born rich and almost always sheltered from many of the consequences of bad decisions, so there is a lot she doesn't know how to handle on her own. Even though she's been spoiled, though, she doesn't really act entitled: if there is something she can't handle (from something as small as laundry to major organizational skills), she might hope someone else will step in to take care of it, but she'll flail about and try to get it done on her own before calling on someone else if she fails. She’s uncomfortable with people in social classes below her, having little experience with them, but she tries to share what she have in a way that often comes off as noblesse oblige.
With people whose cultural mindset she understands, she’s genuinely friendly and affectionate, even somewhat of a doormat. Danni rarely advances her own ideas, instead supporting someone else's position or putting hers out in a way intended to make the other person think her good idea was theirs. To her, giving people the idea and letting them take credit for it makes them feel better about themselves, and while she wants to look good she prefers quieter "you saved my ass!" attention rather than all eyes being on her. The only times she shows her spine are when someone she cares about is in trouble and she wants to protect them, and even then, her outward manner doesn't change at all: she just acts.
If you look harder, Danni’s a classic co-dependent type with no image of herself outside her relationships with others. Her moral compass points toward "what will make the people I care about happy" instead of an abstract idea of good, and she puts on the bubbly princess act because she was taught as a young teenager that it was attractive behavior. The initial shyness assures her that anyone she's interacting with has chosen her, and her rare instances of self-assertion? Catty cruelty or soft-voiced smiling threats to fend off enemies or rivals, or the sudden strength to pull her beloved away from a bad situation. Something precious to her is going to be destroyed, and she has to make damn sure it's safe. If she has to hurt someone, that's what she'll do, because it's better they suffer than someone she loves.
Now, why is bb such a hot mess? Danni the social butterfly is, as stated before, a new development. Until about a year and a half before current timeline, she was socially withdrawn and obsessive over ballet as a way of gaining attention from largely absent parents and respect from her peers. Most of the people she loved, both children and adults, were unpredictable presences in her life. Only her teachers were there for her every day, and since they rewarded absolute perfection, when she meets someone who she believes wants her in their life (whether they do or not), she tries to become exactly who she thinks they want her to be.
And what do people want? Instead of having a normal childhood, she learned about the "real" world from stories - cheesy kids' movies about best friends who'll do anything for each other and angsty teenage romance novels - and she thinks reality is supposed to work like it does in fiction. At this point, though, the stories' hold has begun to slip. Danni thinks she should have “gotten over 'best friends'”, partly because she's too old for childish friendship and needs to move on to romance, and also because in the competitive environment she grew up in she's never had friends who she could really trust. Spoilers: she still needs friendship, but because she denies that need, she may well confuse a close friendship with someone of either gender for romance.
She still believes in soulmates, however, and believes some of the worst teen romances about the right kind of boy (it's the boy): the one she's attached to now, Billy, loves her in a creepy controlling way and encourages her to "get in trouble" because he loves how she reacts to danger. She’s read about and seen enough real life bad examples to misinterpret manipulation and controlling behavior as love, and being a little manipulative herself, isn’t a critical enough observer to understand how selfish that is. If she sees that someone she trusts is trying to play her, clearly they want to help her, and they know best, so it doesn’t bother her on the level it should. While she’s smart enough to understand the basic definition of abuse, either by a friend or a lover, if someone hurts her she’ll try to blame everyone else around them, because in her eyes the people she cares about are perfect. However, she wants adoration in return for everything she gives, and when it’s clear it’s not everyone else's fault, but her object of affection, turn on them because obviously they don’t care about her and why did she even bother, she should have known better.
So, who’s Danni under the cute mask and co-dependent learned behavior? Someone who cares about her body, at least, if not the rest of her, and actually is sweet and self-sacrificing and loyal. She tries to pour out all the love someone else can hold, but hangs on to injuries, both to herself and to others. She will remember who tried to “steal” her boyfriend or made her look bad in front of someone she wanted to impress or hung her friend out to dry, they’ll pay. She listens more than she talks, and remembers what she hears. She cares very strongly about beauty, to the point of trying to make everyone around her physically attractive, but when it comes to people, only just starting to recognize that the way people treat those around them, not just how they treat her, is part of what makes a good, attractive person. She doesn’t have any goals at Reims aside from get out by finishing her schoolwork and come back to see her boyfriend again (if he ever gets out of jail), but while she’s there, she’ll try to find people to fit in with and have fun. It gets lonely by yourself.
ABILITIES: For eight years, Danni was in ballet school and serious about it. She wasn't number one or even near it, but she was good, and while she's lost some of her skill due to being out of practice, she still has the associated natural talents, flexibility and an ear for rhythm. It's nothing she wants to touch again, though she still keeps her body in good condition.
Phonographic memory. This mostly expresses itself in “hey there’s that song from that one time” moments and being a strongly auditory learner; she could use it to win arguments, but doesn’t want the person she’s arguing with to think she’s weird for remembering that stuff, so doesn’t try to overanalyze it.
Talented with style and coordination, especially hair. She was at a shoot with her mom as a treat if she stayed out of the way when she was about twelve, and was absolutely fascinated by what the hairstylist was able to do to make people look so different from their natural selves from pose to pose. Her experiments on herself, especially in high school after she learned more from "model boot camp", attracted friends who wanted to look that way, since she had good taste and through her family connections and time on French fashion sites was always a couple months ahead of American style.
She picked up spoken French in various circumstances - schoolwork, a French ballet mistress, one or two transfers into her schools, as a high school class - and keeps up some of it through occasionally browsing of French-language fashion blogs. She’ll be okay on the mainland, probably, if she doesn’t get too in-depth.
Computer abilities: she can get around the internet, knows some basic CSS for customizing social networking sites, and has messed around on the Reims universe's Polyvore-alike a few times, but knows nothing about information security except "have a really long password" and nothing at all about the inner workings of computers.
AU HISTORY: Danni grew up in the sheltered, over-privileged atmosphere usually reserved for children of nouveau-riche East Coast parents. Her parents' employment (Daddy is high up at one of the major American banks in New York, Mom is a fashion photographer, and they're only still together for the kid) meant that the three of them didn't always even share a country, much less a house. They do like her, giving her everything she asks for and what they think she’d want, but “kids are strong” and Ivana/Odalia/Amalia/this year’s au pair kept a good eye on her went they weren't around. She made sure Danni was fed and clean and at school on time, like an attentive if not particularly affectionate surrogate mother, but after the first one she could remember left and then the second dropped out three months later, she stopped hanging any hopes for love on them.
She could remember every word of stories, though - television, movies, books-on-tape, someone reading to her, wherever she could hear them - and hearing them taught her how the world presumably worked. Most of what she heard told her that she could get the love and attention she wanted either through talent or kindness. She found an way to work the "talent" in ballet: the art was pretty, she had some natural flexibility and grace, and even if she wasn't as good as others, would put in an insane amount of work to be perfect. She didn’t enjoy it for its own sake, but it was what she was best at, and her parents at least went to her performances. As for success through kindness, though? Backstage, Danni was a dorky, shy ugly duckling with a reputation as a doormat. She’d do anything to help someone else, even if it hurt her, and in the hypercompetitive environment of her school, where every student wanted to be the best of the best, that often attracted smarter girls, who knew how to use her need for affection to get her to take care of what they couldn't on their own.
The summer before tenth grade, one of those friendships went way too far. She had been helping one of her “friends” cover up an eating disorder and when the girl’s very influential parents raised hell, the school "suggested" her parents withdraw her for the sake of keeping the peace. Instead of fighting the decision, they put her in a new activity to finish out the summer (and keep her away from seeing the other friend): a training camp for would-be junior superstars, even though that really wasn't who she wanted to be. She didn't have the time or the energy for resentment or contrition, and when it was over and she was ready to start at a new high school, she was an entirely different person outwardly. School taught her how to move and make use of her body to complement her personality, and the retired prima donna director taught her how to turn her shyness and insecurity into charm points, as well as taking enough interest in her to give her the advice that changed her life: "You shouldn't be famous. Go be an ordinary girl."
But, well. What was an ordinary girl? Her frame of reference - the romances she'd graduated to - told her she needed to be concerned about looking good and having friends and attracting boys, and she really wanted to do the last one, since romance sounded like it could give her the love she wanted.
Classes were hard at her new school, but other students tutored her, and she still had plenty of time to make friends. She was attractive and sweet and knew a lot about style, but not at all a threat to anyone else's image, and quickly became well-liked with a more... social... crowd than she was used to. She even met him a week into the school year when he was assigned to help her catch up to the rest of her history class. Danni thought he was the most attentive boy she’d ever met, and so courteous and concerned for her, and so hot: everything The Boy was supposed to be. No one cares about the details of teenage romances, so let’s fast forward to a Saturday night a couple months later when they went to a party together. Their hostess had broken into her dad's liquor cabinet, and while she didn't drink much normally, he was drunk already, so that meant she needed to keep up with him.
That much booze made her feel weird. Kinda paranoid, but in a way that meant she had to fight back instead of just hide like she usually did when she was afraid. And when she saw another girl flirting with him, her fear that she might not be what he wanted forced her to deal with this threat. When the other girl escaped being backed into a corner and threatened, rather than him being happy she wanted to keep him so much, he wanted to know what the hell was wrong with her. She wasn’t thinking rationally as it was, and his sudden disgust for her destroyed the fantasy image she'd had of them. She escaped to the house's roof to mope, but wasn't alone.
Billy, her hostess’s brother, was home from one of the universities in town for the weekend and saw the aborted girlfight. Even if she was a little young, Danni was a hot girl who wasn’t afraid to do something craz and would do anything for a guy if she loved him, so it was… not quite love, but definitely a thing, at first sight, for a guy who liked having power over others. He was also a smart guy and knew that this was his best shot at her and had to take it while he could.
Even after she’d woken up the next morning, Danni believed all of Billy's stories and reassurances and promises that night up on the roof. For once she was being taken seriously, and it was the biggest rush she’d ever had in her life. He was so sweet and took care of her and made her feel loved and protected her, even if he only wanted her eyes on him, and it didn’t matter that she had to hide a lot from her parents and her friends. There wasn't anything wrong with her always being at his place if they loved each other, and he always kept her "safe" if they were somewhere "kids" didn't go or if she'd accidentally drank too much, and his side business wasn't really hurting anyone, either. If someone was dumb enough to want to take pills to study longer or have more fun, she thought it was their deal, not anyone else's, and it wasn't like people didn't take them all the time anyway. She could live without it, not like the kids she knew at school who bought from him.
It was one of those friends who put an end to that time, about six months ago: he named his source when his parents found his stash, and one of the weekends that Danni was staying over, the police pulled up outside Billy’s building. He knew it was coming, and when he made a break for it, she knew what she had to do.
The police found her behind the wheel of his car an hour later while he was in the middle of a panicked call to get him out of the country. Her parents hadn’t suspected any problems, they said when they came to bail her out, and they more than made up for the past by their vigilance now. No rehab because, well, teenagers drink sometimes, but she was only allowed out of the house her court appearances, and her school put her on a kind of sick leave, sending her the assignments to take care of. Since her charges were pled down to a criminal traffic case due to being a female minor with a good lawyer and a daddy with money, the worst part for her was the isolation. Her friends had mostly stopped contacting her after her arrest, and she could keep up with what was happening with Billy’s case (as of now, still sitting in the system with an arms' length of charges), but not contact him or help him out. If she got to the mail before her parents, she could get letters in and out, but that was it, so when her parents told her they were sending her to a school in France without them watching her, it was actually exactly what she was looking for. While no one else had stuck by her, she'd stick to him no matter how long it took.
SAMPLES
INTRANET/1ST PERSON SAMPLE: [text]
Summer's coming up, right? I just got here so my parents are having me stay. I hope everyone has fun wherever they end up!
If we stay, can we go to the mainland like the teachers or is it still every other week? My parents took me to like St. Tropez and stuff when I was a kid and I really liked it, so I thought it might be fun to go again if anyone wants to. I don't know how far any of the really nice beaches are from here because my mom and I were so worried about making sure I got here okay that I didn't look, but I'd love to go with some of you if you're staying. We can have a lot of fun even if you don't like swimming, and I'll make sure no one comes back burned.
LOG/3RD PERSON SAMPLE:
Mom had taken care of most of the paperwork, but she'd left Danni one sheet for her course schedule. She was the one going to school, so it was her job, right? She'd covered the packet of high school courses in highlighter and even now, the Sunday before she started class, she was curled up on her bed to write down her choices. Even if she'd only be here a few weeks before vacation started, the school wouldn't let her sit around all day.
One came quickly. Okay, I need to take "High School Year 2" English Literature. She carefully filled in the time blocks on the sheet, hesitating for a moment before writing the year. Every time I see "Year 2", I get confused for a second, like they held me back. My grades this year were so bad I'm surprised I wasn't. The thought wasn't pleasant enough for a smile, but leaned her head back as she remembered the relief before moving on.
Math... I guess I should take the one, since I was in it back home, but maybe Reims is a lot harder? She clicked her pen in a rhythm - open shut, open shut, open shut - as if it could open her mind to the answer.
Her head snapped up when the door burst open and her new roommate stalked in. "What do you- never mind," she trailed off when she saw the other girl's face. "Are you all right?"
The only response was the other girl slamming into her chair and shoving on a pair of headphones. Danni could hear the beat, if not the actual song, and while she knew that wasn't good for her, sometimes people needed time to calm down before they could talk.
The interruption helped her, though she didn't realize it. I'll just finish up so I'll be ready to talk. I'll take the same math, science, and history, so only two classes left. Maybe when she feels better she can recommend one to me. She quickly filled out the rest of the form and picked up her old copy of Winter Sunset, sticking page 137 back in for what she hoped was the last time. Her summer book package was already on its way.
HAVE YOU READ THE FAQ? I'm not going to make posts with hackability percentages. I heard about those rabid wombats.