Clare
Long days were not Clare's cup of tea, but much to her chagrin, each day seemed to stretch further than the last. She always arrived home exhausted and despondent, dreading the next morning's return to school.
The only thing that seemed to help was Mozart. Clare even gave him a special section in her schedule: "Violin Concerto No. 3," 4:00-5:30. While all of her school hours were written in a messy black scrawl, her hour and a half of happiness was etched out in blue, Clare's colour for joy.
She would creep into the apartment like a robber, hoping her mother was not home early. Mother rarely left her job early, but those odd occasions occurred always when Clare most needed to play. Having her mother around, after all, was not even close to relaxing when Clare was attempting to free her soul with her fingers.
If Mother was still working, Clare shut the door with a glorious bang and ran through the apartment, marking it as "all Clare's for the moment" before skipping to her room and retrieving Jenny, the toiling little violin Clare considered her dearest friend.
This is only one of many story bits I've written about Clare. She's a girl with long, pale blonde hair and a real passion for the violin. After her parents split up, she moves down from Canada to Florida with her cold-blooded mother, with whom she isn't very close. Her new school district has no orchestra program, leaving her desperate for music. Unfortunately, her mother is a bit clueless and points out that this would be a wonderful time for Clare to try sports.
When she gets fed up with her new life, she goes running off, intent on getting back to Toronto and her father. On the way (in one version), she meets a freaky little kid named Izzy and gets mixed up in an X-Men-like plot that requires her musical skills. (That in itself is actually an outgrowth of another story involving Izzy, but I never wrote anything about that one.) In the other version, she gets to Canada, learns a good lesson about living with what can't be changed, and ends up back in Florida.
In any case, she got a haircut and was moved over to the world of Melly and Mossie before anything good took shape. Fun fact: Clare's full name is Clarence, and she hates it.