Age: 15

Height: 5’ 7’’

Weight: 124 lbs.

Ethnicity: Hispanic/White

Jessie has had a fairly rough upbringing. He doesn’t even know his older sister (from his mom‘s previous marriage), whose graduated from college and is probably married with kids by now. His older brother (his parents only actual child), who is planning on moving in with a friend of his, can’t go to college because of their family’s financial problems. His younger brothers were adopted and he considers himself a ‘mistake’.

His parents argue a lot and his mother wants to have a divorce, but she doesn’t have the financial security to strike out on her own, especially with three kids who still need her attention since she believes her husband can’t do anything on his own.

Jessie finds himself taking care of his younger brothers, since his dad is hardly ever home during the day and his mom works days and sometimes nights as a nurse at the bigger and (according to rumors) better of the only two hospitals in the city. He found one way to escape from everything: he cuts himself.

Over the past year, he’s broken the habit, although he swears that he’s going to at least finish the name carved onto his arm. So far, only the letters “R”, “A” and “D” are permanently scribed onto his flesh. There are other, much smaller marks on his chest and part of his arm.

He used to put on a homophobic front due to an incident that happened at a school dance a few years ago, but upon making his one and only friend, he’s dropped the act to let his true personality shine forth. He used to carry around a knife with him, but he’s stopped doing that because he feels he no longer needs to. He even has a collection of knives secretly stashed under his bed, but he’s made a promise to himself never to use them again.

He cares deeply and is extremely loyal to the few friends he’s managed to make. He told one of his friends his only two secrets: that he’s gay and the story about his family.

Name: Brandon Thomas (prefers to be called Radley)

Age: 15

Height: 5’ 4’’

Weight: 118 lbs.

Ethnicity: Black

On the outside, Radley seems to have everything in control with his life. He has good parents, has stepped out of his anti-social boundaries to make a few friends, plus, he is a talented poet and painter.

But on the inside, he’s a completely different person. He was, at one point, suicidal. He hates the way he looks and dislikes mirrors with a passion. Oddly enough, both of his only friends have crushes on him. Maybe he’s slightly more attractive than what he believes? When an attempt at suicide was interrupted by a stranger, he soon found himself a good friend. He had gotten himself tangled up in the rather complicated web of lies that his friend had gotten in and he was there to witness the untangling of it all.

Radley is a good cook and wants to be a chef and have his own television show when he gets older. He specializes in mainly sweets and knows how to cook all kinds of pies, cakes, cookies and others desserts. He learned how to cook almost out of necessity. With his parents busy with their jobs during the course of the day, Radley basically had to feed himself, which is how he learned how to cook breakfast foods and make dinner for himself. At first, this was nothing more than a chore, but as Radley got older, he soon began to enjoy it, coming up with his own recipes and adapting existing ones to his preference.

The most recent thing to happen to him was his boyfriend leaving him. It happened just before going back to school became a burden on most children’s hearts. His boyfriend had different interests, he had the strangest urge to raise kids, but it wasn’t until recently that he finally found somebody who could actually have children.

Radley was upset, having trusted and depended on his boyfriend wholeheartedly for the four months they were together. The only thing good that Radley will admit of this event is that he learned to be a tad more social, but now that things have gone sour, he’s closed off his heart, and has once again become the silent Goth that he had been.

Rock is his favorite kind of music and loves to dress in his favorite colors: purple, dark red, and black. His favorite accessories are chains that he wraps around his legs. His style is... questionable, but he doesn’t like the fact that society has silently split its teenagers according to race with the black gangsters on one side and the white punk rockers on the other with the white gangsters in the middle. One of the only few things that gets Radley upset is for someone to talk about his style of dress or taste in music. He likes the fact that he’s made such a bold transition, adding a new category to the list: black punk rocker.

Age: 16

Height: 5’ 11’’

Weight: 155 lbs.

Ethnicity: White

Paul is Jessie’s cousin. The two are as different from each other as night is to day. Where Jessie dealt with a rather difficult family life, Paul hasn’t suffered too much. Paul grew up on the beach, where he taught himself how to swim and surf. Growing up on the beach gave Paul a bronze tan and a reason to work out at the gym.

He has a “delicious” body, according to the girls at the beach, but the girls weren’t what Paul was interested in. He just wanted to surf and be out on the ocean. Paul was a relatively wealthy child due to his father being part-owner of the beach, receiving rent from the many hotels and restaurants on his part of the shore. His mother owned a hotel that was, for some reason, extremely popular with teenagers during the summer.

Just before he hit high school age, his dad died in a tragic boat accident that was in newspapers all over the small, coastal city. Both he and his mom were greatly grieved by the loss. Not too long later, a major hurricane was said to strike. Not taking any chances, his mom packed up everything and took him to a slightly larger city further inland to escape the storm. The storm wasn’t the actual reason why they moved. His mom had wanted to move for a completely different reason, but used the hurricane as an excuse to go on ahead and move. Paul still doesn’t know the real reason to this day.

He misses the ocean and being able to surf its waves. He misses having a beach for a backyard. He misses the three story “semi-mansion” he used to live in. He misses the almost constant flow of money, being able to get almost anything he wanted whenever he wanted with his weekly allowance that was in the triple digits.

Over the years, he’s adjusted to inland life, but there is one thing that he very badly wants: Radley. Paul off-handedly experienced the trauma Radley went through with his recent break-up. Paul loves the fact that Radley is now available and that Radley has slunk back into his anti-social state.

Why? It was the depressed, poetic Radley that he fell in love with; not the happy, cheerful and surprisingly energetic Radley that appeared when he got a boyfriend.

Paul is frighteningly obsessed with Radley, losing himself in thoughts of the boy almost 24/7. Paul is also artistic with a stack of paintings and sketches that he did that were related, no matter how loosely, to Radley.

He claims that he is the only one capable of properly loving Radley, that he is the only one good enough for Radley. Paul’s favorite food is fish and isn’t odd that Radley is a Pisces?