Charlotte Herald: Character Bio (For Contest)

---Biography---1

Character Name: Charlotte Herald2

-~-Physical Appearance-~-3

Gender: Female4

Age: 175

Height: 5'3"6

Weight: 120 pounds7

Skin Color: A medium tan8

Hair: An ebony black with russet streaks, angled steeply from her chin down and parted to the side. It is straight with a slight and the ends.9

Eyes: A bright emerald green with gold streaks radiating from the pupil. They are wide and slightly almond shaped.10

Distinguishing Marks: She's too clumsy to list all of the scars she has accidentally inflicted upon herself, but her most prominent one might be the long scar along the top of her hand, which she got when she fell with a knife in her hand.11

Distinguishing Mannerisms: She often cocks her head to the side when she is curious. She bites her nails but is trying to break the habit, and she doesn't wear jewelry because when she does she always plays with it. She is constantly tripping over things.12

Describe the character's appearance in a brief paragraph: Her face is heart-shaped, her ebony hair framing her face nicely. Her eyes are slightly large for her face, though not bug eyes, rather creating an innocent look. She has a slender body and an hourglass figure. She's kind of small and doesn't look muscular, but is strong and knows street fighting.13

-~-Background-~-14

Birth date: February 29th (Leap Year)15

Birthplace: New York City16

Ethnic origin: She has a variety of ancestries from all over the world.17

Family members: 18

~~Mother: Sandra Herald. She is a small, outspoken woman whose job changes all of the time, earning most of the income for the Heral family. Kind, caring, brisk. Often worried about family income.19

~~Father: Marcus Herald. He is an author who has yet to publish a book. Imaginative, absentminded, kind, out-ofit. Doesn't care much about money and has slight memory problems. He is not bothered by his younger brother's more successful life, though his wife does.20

~~Uncle: Edmund Herald. He is a successful CEO. He is boastful, strict, and succinct, very famous. Edmund is very proud of his daughter, Cameron.21

~~Cousin: Carmen Herald. Snobby but kind and pitying. She goes to a fancy private school. Charlotte hates her sympathy.22

Friends:23

~~Best Friend: Jake Malpeki. Smart and adventurous with a good sense of humor.24

-~-Personality-~-25

In one word: Fun26

First impression: People may think her a little on the shy side, but soon learn that when they are with her, there are always surprises.27

Personality as a whole: She is spunky and fun with a sarcastic/dry sense of humor, and is very witty. She has a sense of adventure. She is intelligent and hates sympathy. Charlotte can hold her own and never backs down to any challenges. 28

Gets angry at: Sympathy and bullies - she always supports the underdogs29

Laughs at: Sarcastic humor and her own clumsiness 30

Cries at: Remembering her dog, Lego. Jake getting hurt.31

Regrets: She regrets punching Ian D'Imar in the nose. He hates her now and he and his friends never give her a moment's peace.32

Vulnerability: Jake getting hurt, people talking about her father33

Prejudices: Tends to not like wealthier people.34

Fears: Her family losing their home, Dan, and failure.35

Most valued possession (and why): Her most valued possesion is her dog's old leash. It reminds her of Lego and she never wants to forget him. He was her best friend (even though he was a dog) before Jake came along.36

Pressing need: A stable situation - her family is constantly moving (though always within NYC) as her mother's job changes.37

Pressing desire: A sister. A girl to just talk to, and have her understand.38

Other goals: She wants to become an architect, though she never tells anyone that.39

Responsibilities: She used to have to take care of Lego. Now she often works on a newspaper route using her bike. She often does little things to help her family financially, like babysitting.40

Sense of humor: Dry and sarcastic, often witty41

Other positive personality traits:42

~~Intelligence: She is smart and can keep up in school43

~~Sense of Humor: She can make light out of almost any situation and many naturally gravitate towards her.44

Other negative personality traits (character flaws):45

~~Impatient: She never wants to wait for anything to get done.46

~~Sense of Adventure: Well, this can be bad and good. No one is bored around her. She does, however, also get into lots of trouble and doesn't always know when to stop.47

-~-Other details-~-48

Hobbies: She loves to read and write, which let her enter a world of her own. Running makes her feel happy and free. She plays the trumpet and guitar.49

Skills: Playing trumpet and guitar, running. She knows a llittle self-defense, too.50

Smells: Lavender - she is always relaxed whenever she small it.51

Favorite color: Her favorite color is blue, because that was the color of her favorite house.52

Favorite food: Spaghetti and meatballs53

Favorite beverage: Water- it is the best for running.54

Favorite music: Pop and Classic-Rock55

Favorite clothing: She always wears jeans and a form-fitting tee shirt. Her jeans are always dark blue and often raggedy. 56

Describe this character's home: Right now, she lives in a small, three bedroom apartment, with a tiny kitchen with a small couch. It is in one of the small neighborhood just outside NYC, so most people live in houses.57

Brownie Points:58

What complications arise from this character?59

She causes trouble often, and is always getting into arguements, especially with her cousin Carmen and Charlotte's 'nemisis,' Ian.60

Comments/Notes: Uncle Edmund and Carmen have bought Marcus, Sandra, and Charlotte a new, slightly bigger apartment with three bedrooms because he and his daughter's house burned down recently. They are staying with Charlotte's family for a month.61

SAMPLE SCENE (to get a sense of the character):62

Charlotte grumbled quietly to herself as she ran swiftly through the street, soggy newspapers tucked under her arm. She heard the faint click-clack-click as a pair of high heels tried to keep up with her, sliding on the slippery pavement.63

The owner? Why, Carmen Herald, of course.64

"Wait... up, Char...lotte," Carmen huffed as she caught up to Charlotte when she slowed down. She flipped her blond hair over her shoulder, clutching her purse to her side.65

Gritting her teeth in irritation, Charlotte tugged her ragged jacket more tightly over her shoulders. She felt bad for Carmen, what with the fire that swept through her house and everything, but still. She was taking over Charlotte's life bit by bit: first her school, then her room... And now she was following her everywhere. She had even commented on Jake when Charlotte had seen him last, saying things like, 'Isn't he cute?' and such in a dreamy manner.66

Wasn't that taking things a little too far?67

Maybe Charlotte was just too used to moving around - she did it almost every few months or so as her mother changed jobs. This was farther than she had ever moved, though. She had always lived in Manhattan - at least she had been able to see Jake regularly. Plus, she now lived closer to Ian, the bully that had beat up Jake one day.68

Charlotte had punched his nose. He hadn't liked that.69

No, duh.70

The last stop was just around the corner, in a narrow alley that stopped only about a hundred or so yards in. Charlotte rounded the corner quickly and dropped the newspaper by the door of the last house.71

Raucous laughter echoed down the street, and Charlotte heard Carmen squeak as she took in the nine people's appearances. At the head stood - who else? - Ian D'Imar.72

Speak of the devil.73

Eyes darting quickly around the alley for a way out, Charlotte recalled the lessons Jake had given her on self defense after Ian had tried to beat her up. One main thing had been drilled into her head time and time again: never fight fair. Use any advantages you have. So far it had worked, but she'd never had someone else to defend.74

Oh yead, the other option was to escape. But they were hemmed in, the 'gang' having blocked the only way out: ahead.75

"Will you look at that? It's Charlotte," said Ian, under the false pretense that her had randomly found her here.76

"I broke your nose once, Ian, and I'd be glad to do it again," Charlotte said, feeling Carmen's wide eyes turning on her. "I've even made a business out of it. One punch for twenty-five cents," Charlotte said, smirking as Ian's hand went reflexively to his nose.77

A jerk of his head signalled two of the people - Vladmir and Matthew, Charlotte recognized vaguely - to lunge at her. She backed up lightly, landing in front of a telephone pole, and grabbing it, she used the momentum to swing herself around, kicking at the two. One foot connecting with Matthew's mouth, and she heard a couple snaps. The other, Vladmir, went down as his breath was knocked out of him.78

Three of them then leaped at Charlotte, and she ran swiftly to the other corner of the alley, and -79

Her foot slipped out from under her, the rain making the smooth pavement slippery. Her head smashes into the wall behind her, and Charlotte moans dizzily, trying to orient herself. An acrid tang hit her tongue as her lip split when one guy punched her.80

Two were down, three were on Charlotte. "Run, Carmen!" she yelled.81

Carmen ducked under one guy's - Darren, was it? - arm, stepping on his foot as she went, and he howled in pain. Kicking off her heels, Carmen slammed into someone who had just entered the alley, then rounded the corner and out of sight.82

The man sprinted towards Ian, bowling him over. Jake!83

Picking herself up as quickly as she could, Charlotte saw Ian roll over onto Jake's chest, shoving his hand onto his face, breaking Jake's nose.84

"No!" Charlotte yelled, and the three people grabbed her arms, twisting one behind her shoulder until tears sprang into her eyes.85

Struggling viciously, she bit one's finger, and he slammed her into the wall, and she heard another crack as her head hit the wall.86

Darkness began to crowd her vision before everything went black.87

Charlotte heard Jake shout, "NO!" before she passed out.88

___________________________________________________89

She woke up in someone's arms - Jake's! she realized, probably with too much pleasure. Touching her head gingerly, she remembered the fight that had just occured. How did he get out?90

"What the hell happened?" Charlotte asked, craning her neck to see Jake's face.91

====================================================92

Hmmm. I might continue this scene as a short story later. 93


Hmmm. I might continue this scene as a short story later. Maybe. Maybe not.