G068 - Jones, Adele [DECEASED]

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Name: Adele Zakiyyah Jones
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Activism (especially body positivity), singing, criminal justice, fashion design, dancing, mystery novels (reading and writing), swimming, partying, firearms

Appearance: At 5'6 and 178 pounds, Adele possesses a fairly hefty figure, although she wears her weight well, with soft curves all throughout her body, some muscle evident on her back and arms due to her swimming. She has a somewhat wide, heart-shaped face with a large nose, wide lips, and deep-set eyes which are a rich warm chocolate brown in color. While her skin is typically a chestnut color, she tans quite easily to a carob shade. While she often tries to have her hair straightened, she has recently given up on this and leaves it lightly curled and wavy. While naturally her hair is black, she has recently been adding caramel brown highlights to it, with her hair reaching around the length of her armpits. Her teeth are straight and fairly white, and while she isn't the tallest, she always makes sure to have good posture.

Her clothing style tends towards the casual, preferring a wide variety of colors, but she gravitates towards blues and oranges most of the time. While her clothing isn't always the fanciest, she tries to find and buy clothing that fits her frame and accentuates her curves, while drawing away attention from some parts of her body that she considers less attractive, such as her stomach area. She usually prefers to wear heeled sandals or wedges. Most of the time, she likes to keep her makeup fairly simple, usually just wearing some concealer, mascara, blush and lipstick, although for more formal events she also uses eyeshadow.

On the day of the abduction, Adele was wearing a light blue t-shirt with "#TittyBrigadeDC" emblazoned on the chest, light blue denim shorts, black leggings, and wedge sandals. She also had a cross necklace around her neck, and an orange scrunchie around her left wrist. Her hair was done up in a hurried ponytail, a result of her having been unable to sleep well the previous night.

Biography: Adele Zakiyyah Jones was born on January 4, 2000 to Arthur and Shanelle Jones (nèe Thomas). Both were long-time members of the New Orleans Police Department, having met originally as co-workers in the Property Crimes Section of the Investigative Crimes Division. She was the second of four children, having been born three years after her older sister Nadia, and four years before her younger brothers, Matt and Michael, who were fraternal twins. Both Arthur and Shanelle's families had resided in New Orleans for at least three generations, and in fact, Adele was named after her paternal great-grandmother, who had been born into a Creole family of color.

Early on in her life, Adele only wanted to copy whatever her sister was doing, to her parents' mild frustration. This ultimately led to her also being signed up for swimming classes at the local pool after much begging. While Nadia dropped the classes after a year, Adele loved the feeling of being in the water, and was soon outpacing the rest of the students in the class. Due to this, her parents quickly arranged for her to have private coaching, and Adele found herself in the water much more often. In fact, the first friends that she found were other girls who were interested in swimming as well, with them excitedly discussing their dreams of becoming stars at swimming.

Growing up as the middle child, Adele seemed to have a need for attention since an early age. She always loved to perform in front of family and friends, sparked by the watching of a local production of The Wiz when she was seven. From then on, she would often put on impromptu shows for anyone who would listen, as she became enamored not just with the adoration she received, but also the sheer joy of being on stage.

Aside from her love of attention, however, Adele was a fairly well-behaved child, never getting into trouble either in the classroom, or at home. Shanelle and Arthur were both particularly grateful for this, especially after the birth of Matt and Michael, which divided the attention of the working couple even more. Due to this, she still enjoys a fairly close relationship with her parents, with them respecting each other's boundaries and Adele's desires for increased freedom as she has grown older. Due to this close relationship, both of Adele's parents have played key roles in shaping many of her hobbies and interests when she was young. Having grown up hearing about their exploits in the force, she believed from an early age that she also wanted to help people just like her parents when she became an adult, as well. While this adoration for police officers has tapered off over time, Adele still has a fairly positive view of enforcement overall, and believes that much of the reform must happen from within.

During these early years in elementary school, swimming and performing remained large aspects of Adele's life, and she was by and large liked by her equally excitable classmates. As such, she often spent much of her time roaming around the house with one of her many friends, practicing, or being part of her local church's children's choir; it was her parents hoping to find an avenue outside of their own home where she could explore her passion about music, and that led to her becoming part of the choir, even if that desire was motivated more by being able to perform in front of a crowd rather than any religious devotion.

While Adele never had any sort of disciplinary record, she was also a never stand-out student during this time, preferring to socialize and play with her friends over completing assignments. This was changed when her third-grade teacher, noticing both Adele's love of law enforcement and theater, introduced to her the Nancy Drew series, hoping that the novels would help spur additional commitment to reading and studying in general. From the beginning, she was enamoured by the complex mysteries within the novels, eventually becoming a far more invested reader than she was before. In accordance with this, her performance in English and other language-related classes increased, although her performance in more calculative subjects remained the same. She also found that some of the skills that she was required to use when attempting to figure out the true culprit in a certain case were also somewhat applicable to real life.

These mystery novels, aside from giving her an avenue to become more invested in schoolwork, also helped Adele deal with leaving the rest of her extended family behind in New Orleans at the end of third-grade. Shanelle had received a job offer from the Chattanooga Police Department that came with a hefty pay raise, and so it was after a month of lengthy discussion that Arthur agreed as well to resettle the family in Chattanooga.

While the initial transition period was indeed difficult, regular contact over email and Skype with her family and friends back in New Orleans helped Adele deal with the feelings of isolation she had in her first few weeks in Tennessee. Although not as close as they once were in elementary school, family occasions mean that the Joneses return to Louisiana at least twice a year, and it is these occasions which allow them to remain fairly close to their extended family. Additionally, Adele always takes the time to hang out with her old friends when back in her hometown, sharing stories about Tennessee with her friends, and babysitting many of her younger cousins.

Early on in her move to Chattanooga, it was with the swim team in which she found solace and camaraderie. While still pleasant as ever, moving so suddenly from the only home she had ever known resulted in her feeling quite isolated and alone. With swimming as an extracurricular, however, she began to meet people who were interested in the same thing as her, and quickly bonded with the rest of the team. Even if it was only one common interest bonded them together, the community that Adele found in it helped her adjust to Chattanooga that much more quickly.This was aided by her also becoming close friends with two other girls who were similar to her in temperament, Tanisha Abbey and Joanne Coleman, who quickly accepted her into their friend group.

Although Adele's naturally positive and outgoing personality meant that she had found a fairly large group of friends by the conclusion of elementary school, the beginning years of middle school were not an easy time for her. While always somewhat on the bigger side as a child, puberty only exacerbated this, and ended up being teased by many of her more mean-spirited classmates. At first, she tried to keep on reasoning with them, hoping she could change their minds, but when that didn't work, she simply attempted to keep her head held up high and not care about what they were saying. Despite this resolve, however, it still hurt, and once again, swimming became a stress reliever for her. It was only with the help of her friends, including Tanisha and Joanne, and family that she was able to accept herself for who she was, and realize that beauty came in all shapes and sizes.

Due to these experiences with bullying, Adele feels a strong sympathy with anyone who is being oppressed or harassed at school; her parents being fairly liberal, she has inherited their views, and often attempts to stand up for those who can't do so for themselves. This, particularly, gave her a window into what activism was, and Arthur and Shanelle, believing that their daughter should grow up to be a confident young woman, encouraged her to believe in herself and fight against injustice, even if it was risky. Hoping to be able teach his daughter how to defend herself, Arthur began taking his daughter to the shooting range when she was about to enter high school, in an effort to bond with her. Much to her surprise, Adele found shooting to actually be quite stress-relieving, and if she is stressed, she often goes to shoot some targets in order to calm herself down. However, she takes great effort to hide this from her more liberal friends, believing that it would cause fractures to erupt in their relationship.

This newfound confidence also helped Adele to take up singing again, which was something she had temporarily dropped during the move to Chattanooga. As always, the feeling of being on stage gave her a belief that as long as she stood up and sang her heart out, people would indeed listen. Outside of going to karaoke with her friends or singing in the shower, however, she mainly just sang at home, enjoying how the words came together to tell a story through song.

It was during this time that Adele began gaining an interest in fashion design, specifically plus-sized clothing. With herself and many of her friends being on the bigger side, she often found that finding clothes that both flattered her figure and were up to date with current trends were often hard to come by, and so she often tried to sketch clothing that fit both of those criteria. Spurred on by the encouragement of her friends, she began keeping more regular tabs on her fashion sketches, although to this date that interest remains purely theoretical.

By the time she had entered George Hunter, Adele believed that she already had most of her life together. Ever-cheerful and accepting, she held onto many of her friends from previous years while also making an effort to speak to all those willing to speak to her, whatever end they may have been on the popularity ladder. Still as much of an activist as always, she soon joined the Anti-Bullying Association and Gay-Straight Alliance, hoping to use her positions there to create positive change in the student body. She also joined the choir and swim team in order to explore some of her passions further, and although not initially passionate about it, joined the dance team as well at the urging of her friends.

Dance did not initially attract Adele, and she only chose it as an elective because many of her friends had chosen it as well. In the end, she found herself enjoying it as both a physical and creative activity, allowing her to express herself through her body rather than through her voice, as well as being much more free-flowing than the routine of swimming.

While not the most dedicated or talented soprano in in George Hunter's choir, Adele makes an effort to encourage each and every one of her choirmates, often volunteering herself to be the one to speak to those nervous before performance to help cheer them up. Aside from performances, however, Adele's singing is usually limited to her belting while doing karaoke with her friends. She often plays the motivator role on the swim team as well; although not the strongest racer in her individual events, Adele often tries to be the team's cheerleader, pushing her team to succeed in the relays.

Always a social butterfly, and also never one to decline a polite invitation, Adele quickly found herself going to parties with her friends. While a lover of large social gatherings, a bad experience with marijuana in her sophomore year caused her to become much more cautious of using any illegal substances. This means that most often she becomes the designated driver for her more inebriated friends, being the one to look after them and ensure that they get home safely. Despite this, Adele still tries to keep fairly quiet about her partying, feeling that her fairly straitlaced parents would not think well of her for it, even though she was the one saying sober.

While perhaps not motherly or maternal, Adele will not hesitate to stick her head out for those who she feels are being mistreated and abused. While this has gained her favor for the more socially downtrodden at George Hunter, it has also drawn her into conflict with many who find her too outspoken and loud. Unafraid of confrontation, she aims to be pleasant at all times, but if she is treated with disrespect or feels that someone is being treated unfairly, she will call out the perpetrator. However, while loud, she will never try to escalate the argument into physical violence; naturally respectful and cautious of authority, she tries to avoid turning the situation into one that will result in punishment for anyone involved.

Politically, Adele considers herself a proud progressive, both due to her own experiences with bullying and discrimination, as well as her parents, who are loyal Democrats themselves. While definitely in support of most traditionally progressive positions on social issues, however, she takes a dimmer view of gun control than many of her friends, feeling that allowing people a means of self-defense to be worth the risk of having restrictions be loosened somewhat. While in-school she works to create awareness and respect for issues like body activism and LGBT rights to promote acceptance, she also works out of school with the local NAACP Youth Council, where she assists in creating campaigns to shed light on a number of issues important to the African-American community, most notably mental health services. While time-consuming, she finds it rewarding to be fighting to make the world better, and even if not in a leadership position, she tends to put in all of her effort into events and coordination.

Although reading has taken somewhat of a backseat in terms of Adele's extracurriculars, she still tries to read at least one new novel a month to keep her mind sharp. Her favorites range from classics like the Miss Jane Marple series to more contemporary fare like the Cormoran Strike series, enjoying the banter and wit contained within. In sophomore year, she began to try her hand at writing some mystery novels of her own. While nothing spectacular, she enjoys the exercise in thinking that it gives her, and often turns to writing as a break between doing assignments. Through the writing and reading of such mysteries, often with numerous twists, turns, and red herrings, Adele has accrued some skill in circular reasoning, able to pinpoint the connections between two seemingly unrelated events. It has also helped her in approaching things in a more logical manner, separating each problem down to it's parts so she can solve things more efficiently.

Perhaps somewhat shockingly to most, Adele is actually quite a strong student academically, both due to her natural enthusiasm for many subjects as well as some natural cleverness. She does particularly well in her social studies classes including history and psychology, finding the study of people to be particularly exciting, as well as English, where her avid reading assisted her in analyzing common tropes and themes in a variety of texts. Weighted, her GPA hovers around 4.0, buoyed by AP classes in government and history, but dragged down by slightly weaker marks in math and science. Oftentimes, Adele simply brute forces her way through questions with hard work and studying, but this has taken a toll on her. Since the beginning of junior year, she has taken to coffee and other caffeine-filled drinks to sustain her late-night studying binges as well as her extracurricular duties; while early on this didn't lead to many more problems than more pronounced eyebags, her continued and increased consumption has led to her becoming slightly more anxious and with difficulty sleeping. Without any caffeine in her system for a prolonged period of time, she has a tendency to become much more annoyed than she would usually, a drastic change in demeanor from her usually vivacious state. Still, she continues to drink coffee, believing that otherwise she would not be able to dedicate her full amount of effort to each one of her activities.

Balancing all of these extracurriculars and a social life with her academics has not been easy work for Adele, although she tries to pretend it isn't troubling her much. While still outwardly cheerful, and trying to be cheerful inward, she has become more and more stressed due to recent financial problems hitting the family. Halfway through junior year, Adele's father was struck by another vehicle during a routine patrol, being the victim of a head-on collision. While his partner was not seriously injured, Arthur ended up paralyzed from the waist-down. He is currently undergoing physical therapy in order to help restore his range of motion. While he does enjoy some benefits due to his status as a tenured member of the force, the loss of a more stable second source of income has destabilized the family's finances. While nothing major on that front has happened, the household budget has certainly become tighter. More significantly, he has become more withdrawn after the accident; with so much of his life defined by his occupation, finding new hobbies and ways to spend time has been difficult. While he still plans on rejoining the force on desk duty after Adele graduates, it was Shanelle who convinced him to hold off on going back to work until that date, believing it would be best if at least one parent was around the house more often when their second daughter was about to leave the nest.

These financial concerns were especially pressing due to the cost of higher education. Nadia was unable to find significant financial aid, and found herself at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga after transferring from Chattanooga State. While Adele was able to secure a scholarship due to her strong academic and extracurricular record to Vanderbilt University, it was only partial, and she worries that despite her parents' assurances that they won't have enough to see her through the full four years.

With all of these commitments, however, Adele's time at home has been somewhat limited, which has hampered her relationships with her siblings. When once she idolized Nadia, they now possess only a mild friendship with some degree of coolness, especially with Nadia's continued studies at UT-Chattanooga. While interactions between the two are still friendly, those interactions are not very often. Much of the same follows with her twin brothers; while also swimmers, Adele doesn't exactly spend too much time with them outside of their one shared extracurriculars, and often spends most her time out of the house rather than interacting with them.

In any case, Adele plans on attending Vanderbilt majoring in law, history, and society or public policy studies, but as of now is undeclared. She is hoping to be able to find part-time employment while there, in order to cover any costs that may fall through the cracks otherwise. She hopes to be able to use the summer to hopefully get her financial affairs in order, as well as finally be able to relax after a hectic year.

Advantages: Adele is in surprisingly good shape from years of swimming, and when able to focus for a sufficient amount of time, a decent shot with a pistol. She has cultivated a large number of friendly relationships at George Hunter, who could help her survive on the island. Her avid reading of mystery novels has made her fairly proficient at using circular reasoning in order to make connections between two events, as well as solve problems more efficiently by dividing them into parts.
Disadvantages: Her exuberant attitude could lead people to get annoyed at her behavior, and her frequent attempts to stand up on behalf of others could get her into a situation she can't get herself out of. Adele is also quite moral, and normally she would never think of stealing someone else's supplies or killing another person, even if it would help her to survive. While she tries to keep a happy face, she has been finding herself under more duress recently, and in a stressful situation like this, she could end up cracking under the pressure. Due to a low-level caffeine addiction, she often finds it difficult to sleep, and can become touchy and easily-annoyed if kept without it for long enough periods of time.

Designated Number: Female Student No. 68

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Designated Weapon: Small shopping cart

Conclusion: What kind of- did our budget run out? Where did we get that? - Veronica Rai

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