Name: Arvel Greene
Name Meaning: Arvel is Welsh for 'Wept over'. His mom named him that because she didn't intend on actually giving birth to him. In fact, she didn't even want to conceive him...
Age: 14
Date of Birth: July 5th
Astrological Sign: Cancer
Bloodtype: B
Alignment: Whichever side he believes cares about him.
Strengths: He has boundless energy, he's flexible and good at gymnastics-type things, and he can make food disappear. And he can pull off "I'm so cute and innocent."
Weaknesses: He craves attention, is terrified of bugs, and tends to take everything at face value. And he has an inferiority complex.
Likes: Attention-- He doesn't get much of it from home and believes that he is uncared for. Thus he wants desperately for people to notice him.
Drama and dance-- This ties back in with 'attention'. Plus pretending to be somebody else is a fun way to escape reality.
Fire-- Fire is just fun to play with. Its dangerous and pretty and everyone notices when you play with it.
Food--When you're poor food is scarce. So of course getting to eat is something to look forward to.
Cute guys
Cats--They're cute and they like him. Kitties don't care what other people think you are as long as you fawn all over them and feed them and let them in
out of the rain.
Dislikes: Bugs--They're evil and scary. (Actually I made him afraid of bugs b/c my ex-boyfriend is scared of them and it amuses me...)
Economics--He has no idea what any of it means.
Being alone--He tends to dwell on the bad when alone and thinks that nobody wants to be around him. So if he's with people its reassuring.
His height and being poor--Both of these have to do with his inferiority complex. He believes that if he was taller and came from a wealthier family
people would care about him more.
Greatest Fear: Being unloved.
Motivation: His need for attention.
Favorite Food: Anything with caffeine in it (except
coffee), although he'll eat anything. He happens to think coffee tastes nasty. No special reason.
Least Favorite Food: If it's food, he'll eat it.
What grade are they in: 9th grade.
Marks: His marks are all over the board. In economics he barely scrapes by, but in drama he makes high A's. Everything else is somewhere in between.
Favorite Class: Drama! Because he's histrionic...
Least Favorite Class: Economics, because he doesn't understand it no matter how many times the teacher explains it to him.
Personality: Arvel believes that nobody cares about him and that nobody has any reason to care about him. As a result he seeks attention and reassurances of his worthiness (which he never believes, although he believes everything else anyone tells him). If someone so much as says 'hi' to him then he'll follow them around like a lost puppy. However, most people don't realize this. Outwardly he is perky and bouncy and annoyingly cheerful. He tries not to let people know that he is insecure and unhappy. He hides all negative emotions and then broods over them when he's alone. He likes everyone, though, and tries to be helpful, and he blames himself if something goes wrong. He does really stupid things in order to get people to like him, not realizing that some people like him anyway. Therefore, he can be easily influenced.
Appearance: He has wavy, orange-red hair that's about mid-back length, usually worn in a high pony-tail. His skin is pale and freckled. He has large grey eyes that can be disturbingly void of rational thought. He's short (4'11"), much to his annoyance, and slim (surprisingly, considering how much he eats). His clothing usually consists of carpenter pants, white dress shirts, and ties worn loosely. Sometimes he wears pastel colored baby tees or t-shirts from varying performances. And of course jewelry, jewelry, and more jewelry.
Social Status: He comes from a low-class background, which adds to his self-hatred. People see him as sort of a ditzy version of the class clown.
Love Life: He's currently madly in crush with his best friend, Jeremy. Jeremy is fairly oblivious to this fact, though. Arvel has never had
any sort of love life, unless drooling over the HOT male dancers in dance magazines counts. Oh, yeah. And he's uke. Very uke.
Family, Friends:
Edana Greene (Edana means 'Fiery'):
This is Arvel's mother. She is a single mother trying to get by as a waitress. She's very young (26) and pretty and dates lots of guys. She hopes one of them will marry her, but none of them wants to marry a girl with an adolescent child. She doesn't know who Arvel's father is, because she was raped. The doctor sort of screwed up the abortion and so she just kept the baby. ~.~ She's very bitter about his entire existance, though, and takes out all of her pain and frustration on her son. Oh, and she does drugs and she's an alchoholic. She didn't put him up for adoption because her parents kicked her out of the house for getting pregnant and she got government welfare benefits for having a baby. She and Arvel tend to get into lots of arguments because he wants her to attend his performances. They still live together because they are both lonely, but neither would admit it if asked. She's about 5'3 with long red hair and green eyes.
Jeremy Caldwell (Jeremy is Hebrew for 'God Exalts): Jeremy is Arvel's best friend. He's the opposite of Arvel in some respects--he's tall, handsome, and quiet (unless with Arvel and Estelle) He's just as poor, though, and lives in the same apartment complex. He is also a pyro, and the two are thus the terror of chemistry class. Arvel has had a huge crush on Jeremy since they were in middle school, but Jeremy is oblivious. He's also in theatre. Jeremy is, as stated above, tall (6'1") with short, curly black hair and brown eyes and tan skin.
Estelle Cloy (Estelle means 'Star' in case you couldn't figure that out): Estelle is another of Arvel's friends. She is short (but taller than him) and cute, hated by all the other girls and worshipped by the guys. She always plays the heroine in drama. She's also very outgoing and she and Arvel and Jeremy frequently play pranks on teachers and other students. She wants to be a professional ballerina. She has long, light brown hair and brown eyes, is 5'4", turned up nose. She isn't very buxom, she's graceful, and she makes straight A's. She's observant and keeps Jeremy and Arvel from burning the school down.
Birthplace: In Fayetteville, Georgia (thus he uses southern phrases)
Current Residence: He lives in a very dilapidated apartment complex. One bedroom (so he sleeps in the closet 0_o ), peeling wallpaper, leaky roof, and neighbors all involved in activities of questionable legality. He owns multiple cats (the landlord could care less), his mom leaves dirty needles and empty beer bottles all around the house. His bedroom is a walk-in closet. The floor is entirely covered by his 'bed' aka a mattress with blankets piled on it. The wall is plastered with promo posters from varying productions he's been in and cuttings from dance and theatre magazines.
History:
Birth---
As stated above Edana Greene was the victim of a rape and had an unwanted child. She wanted to abort the unborn baby, but as the doctor screwed up and the baby lived she felt obliged to care for it. She named the child 'Arvel', meaning 'Wept over'. Being bitter about his existance she isn't exactly the best mother in the world. The baby is frequently left at daycare, the most traumatizing place anyone can be left.
Elementary school--
Arvel realizes that he is poor. When in 1st grade he gets bronchitis and the doctor says he needs to have his tonsils removed. His mother unwillingly pays for the operation then leaves him home alone the two weeks he stays home from school. When he complains about it she reveals the truth of his origins and throws things, which results in an awful lot of broken glass and a boy too frightened to ever complain to his mother again. He stays at the after school program every day and is always the last to be picked up. In 3rd grade the drama teacher sees potential and offers him free after school lessons. His mom accepts, as that's one less hour she has to have him around. Then he begs his mother into letting him take dance lessons. She complains about the cost, but pays for him to take unlimited classes at the local studio anyway. He takes as many different dance classes as he can. His mother never attends any recitals or performances. In 5th grade they move to New Eden.
Middle School--
He joins both the drama and dance clubs at school and befriends two other thespians, Estelle and Jeremy. He gets good parts in most of the school productions, especially the musicals. In 6th grade he realizes he isn't attracted to girls, but really likes this one guy in his class. After about a month of dwelling on this fact in silence he confesses to Estelle that he thinks he's gay. Estelle reassures him that its alright. Then he tells Jeremy, who doesn't really care. During the spring semester he developes a crush on Jeremy, but doesn't tell anyone. His mom still doesn't attend any of his performances. He goes on lots of trips to see plays and dances with his school acting troupe and amateur dance company, although his mother balks at the expense. The other students refer to him as ''gutter trash". His already low self-esteem plummets.
In 7th grade he gets braces. This makes the already difficult middle school years even more difficult. Fortunately the orthodantist has them taken off after 6 months, saying Arvel's teeth are fine. Some of the other students find out he's gay and make life miserable for him when Estelle and Jeremy aren't around. The 3 friends get in trouble for ceran wrapping a teacher's car. In 8th grade they get in trouble for herding a cow onto the roof of the school. They also get in trouble for putting explosives in the toilets and thus completely ruining the school's plumbing system.
High School--
Is this year. He's in senior company at dance (the highest part of the company) and does well in theatre. Most of the other students are now mature enough not to torment him about his sexuality.
Writing Sample:
Chemistry was a boring class. All those ionic bonds and elements, who needed to know those, anyway? Arvel didn't see the point, but his mother would flay him alive if he failed, so he tried to pay attention. Today was Friday. That meant labs. Labs were the only thing Arvel remotely liked about Chemistry. He couldn't believe that they were actually allowed to mess with chemicals. As usual he and Estelle and Jeremy were a group. The three grinned at each other from across the lab table as the teacher handed out instructions to each group.
"Yes! We get to use Bunsen burners!" Arvel exclaimed as he scanned the directions. "Fireworks!" And he began making sparks with the bunsen burner.
"Woo! I love these things!" Jeremy said, crumpling up a piece of paper and sticking it over the flames. The two boys watched it burn with fascination.
Estelle laughed. "You two are so wierd. Let's start the lab." She looked around for the directions. "Uh...where did they go? They were right here..."
"Oops..." Jeremy stated, making a guilty face. "Those were the instructions...?"
"What do you mean 'oops'?" Arvel asked as Estelle screamed and lunged at the burning paper. She knocked it onto the floor and began stomping on it, trying to put out the flames. The teacher was too absorbed in doing equations on the black board to notice.
"Why are you burning the directions??" Estelle chastised the boys in exasperation. She picked up the paper and smoothed it out. "You goons burned
the first three steps. Now what are we gonna do??"
"Oh, whatever. Let's just start at step four." Arvel suggested.
"Sorry. I'll go ask for a new copy." Jeremy replied sheepishly.
Arvel stared after Jeremy as his friend went up to the teacher. He was so handsome. And that body...So well muscled and proportionate. His black hair framed his square-jawed face so perfectly. The red-head sighed dreamily.
"Helloooooooooo." Estelle waved a hand in front of Arvel's face. "Stop drooling, already. Or do you want him to notice?"
Arvel shook himself out of his daydreaming, blushing slightly. "Wasn't drooling." He denied in a barely audible murmur. "But would ya blame me if I was? Ya cain't deny he's fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine."
"What's fine??" Jeremy appeared behind the two, new instructions in hand. "Here you go. Mr. Lamprey didn't mind at all. I just told him we each wanted a copy..."
"Liar." Estelle laughed. "But thanks, anyway." She took both copies from Jeremy and the group began their lab.
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