Samantha Harley

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Namira
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:11 am

Samantha Harley

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Name: Samantha 'Sam' Harley
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Basketball, tabletop games, science-fiction

Appearance: Sam is huge, a notch over 6'5" in height and weighing in excess of 195 lbs. Her physique is highly impressive and she is plainly in fantastic condition, with defined muscle tone, especially in her arms and legs. Ethnically she is Afro-American, and her skin is medium-brown; she has to spend a fair bit of time and effort to keep her complexion smooth and healthy. Her eyes are dark brown, set evenly apart, and notably large. Her hair is black and naturally textured in extremely tight curls. Having let it grow out, Sam regularly wears her hair naturally in a large afro that halos out around her head. However, for sports or exercise, she pulls it back with a band into a big puff at the back of her head.

Sam, due to her size, is usually forced to dress for function rather than fashion. She often wears Atlanta Hawks jerseys or regular sports tops, usually in red, and opts for shorts more than anything else, simply because she finds it extremely difficult to find properly fitting slacks or jeans.

Biography: Sam is the younger of two sisters born to Leo and Wanda, a real estate agent and an accountant. The two originally met and lived in Atlanta, but moved to Chattanooga a year after the birth of their first child after Leo successfully applied for an advancement opportunity. Sam was born four years after that, and has lived in Tennessee all of her life, though the family does make a tradition of heading to Georgia to meet up with Sam's grandparents and uncles at least once a year. Sam's older sister, Sara, has graduated from college and is now a computer scientist in D.C.

Sam's childhood wasn't always easy. Energetic and rowdy, she drove her parents to distraction and was constantly squabbling and fighting with Sara, who generally showed a surprising level of restraint in not rising to many of Sam's antics. She was frequently disciplined by both of her parents, would temporarily improve her behaviour, and then relapse the moment she forgot about the prior punishment or became overly bored. This troublemaking streak continued in school; she seemed to have little regard for the boundaries of other children and consistently spoke out of turn, constantly being told off for not paying attention or chatting when the teacher was trying to deliver lessons.

Sam was still in primary school when her poor behaviour led to her parents being called in for a meeting with teachers. A frank and serious discussion ensued between them, and Sam's parents sat her down the following day to talk about how things were going. Sam didn't really grasp what it was she was doing wrong, but did her best to listen. Although bursts of excitement or interest would still see her sometimes lapse back into her previous habits at school, Sam did manage to tone it down a little over time.

The longest standing of Sam's hobbies is her enduring passion for basketball. Both of her parents are huge fans of the sport, dedicated supporters of the Atlanta Hawks, as well as both playing college ball (her mom actually still plays in a local over 40s league). As a result, Sam was introduced to the sport when she was still practically a toddler and began to play it from a very young age. She would often bond with Sara by playing together, but just as often would play by herself in the family house's driveway. When Sam was old enough she started to play youth basketball in the Amateur Athletic Union, moving into school and eventually varsity teams as she grew older. Above average in height even as a child, when Sam hit puberty she shot up like a beanstalk, and her increasing size perfectly complemented her rapidly developing skills on the basketball court.

Sam became interested in tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons at the age of 12 after learning about it through Sara. Fascinated by the stories Sara would tell about her gaming group and the escapades their characters got up to, Sam pestered her older sister to let her play. Although Sara refused, she did agree to run a couple of games for Sam, tailoring them to what she knew was Sam's short attention span. Sam had an amazing time and immediately started trying to play more herself, finding a few groups over the years to participate in. She still plays with Sara whenever she returns home from college, even just for a one-shot game. Sam can be a bit of a problem player due to her excitability, but with the right dungeon master, gets very invested in roleplaying, so long as people allow for the fact she's likely to not be able to sit down at the table for too long and her over-exuberant dice-rolling.

Another interest Sam inherited almost wholesale from Sara was that of the science fiction genre. Sara had grown up with the second series of Star Wars movies and been a massive fan, resulting in there being lots of memorabilia and toys around the house, which Sam would also play with. Happy to have a distraction from Sam pestering her, Sara let Sam watch the movies on video, and soon enough Sam was happily chatting about them with her big sister. One of her best memories is going to the premier of The Force Awakens in town with Sara. Sam has developed a lot of interest in the genre as a whole though, and will often download cheesy movies or audio books to watch and listen to during her workout regimes.

Sam's issues with her attention span and excitability persisted into middle and high school and although she made her best efforts to focus, it was frequently a major challenge just to stay on task in class. Her grades in most areas were lagging and she was causing a lot of frustration to many of her teachers, particularly those who had taught her older sister, who had been a model student. Once again, her parents were called in to help, and after further discussion between the faculty and her parents, it was agreed to have some of her problems looked into by medical professionals. The conclusion, after a few assessments, was that Sam had fairly severe ADHD, causing a knock-on into some learning difficulties, and it was recommended she received assistance in the form of George Hunter's Disabilities Program. Her parents agreed, opting for the program along with a course of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, as they were reluctant to encourage medication. Sam was highly disgruntled by this, as she already had issues fitting in due to her size and sometimes her ethnicity, and felt as if she was going to wind up being picked on, hating the idea of being classed as 'special needs'. However, she didn't want to get on her parents' bad side and reluctantly agreed, although she would bristle at the slightest hint of someone making fun of her.

Fortunately, Sam's growing frustrations were mitigated by one of her main new teachers, Rowena Bautista. Recognising that Sam acting out was mostly spurred by having been inserted into the new program, Mrs. Bautista worked tirelessly to smooth out these wrinkles and convey the concept that the program was simply to help. This also helped Sam to develop a better understanding of her own view of special needs and disability, coming to realise that she had some prejudices, which she has worked on over the past few years. The program has certainly helped with some of Sam's behavioral issues and academics, although she still has an enormous chip on her shoulder around the topic, and is highly sensitive to being called or implied to be stupid. This eptomises her rather polarising personality; she's bright, loud and constantly exuberant, but also brash and cocky. She gets excited easily, but also has little-to-no dial to adjust that excitement, which can be overwhelming to some and annoying to others. Moreover, Sam doesn't generally take well to being told to calm down, and at least amongst her peers, will see this as an opportunity to just ramp it up further.

On the George Hunter women's basketball team, Sam has enjoyed the status of one of the star players for a few years now. Her athletic gifts, hard work, dynamism and size have, along with talented teammates, brought the team a lot of success. She does occasionally land herself in a little hot water with her habit of trash talking and deliberating antagonizing her opponents, though she stops short of deliberately roughing them up. Indeed, Sam has been courting the attentions of a number of college teams and talent scouts, and there is already a fair bit of buzz surrounding her as someone who may take only a single year of college and then go straight into the professional draft. Sam has her heart one hundred percent set on becoming a professional basketball player, and has openly stated a few times that if her educational shortcomings prevent her from getting a scholarship and playing college ball, then she will enter into the draft right out of high school. Her parents are very supportive of her ambitions, and their relationship is a good one, though Sam's best familial bond remains with her sister, who she calls to talk to two or three times a week to catch up.

Advantages: Sam is an exceptionally gifted athlete, about as fit as she can be with a great deal of core and leg strength, very used to strenuous physical activities and pushing her limits. Sam is also social, lively, and easy to like, with the kind of infectious enthusiasm which often brings others along for the ride.  
Disadvantages: Sam can frequently be a cocky loudmouth, exceedingly confident and often full of herself. She talks trash for fun and will never be the cool head who tries to deescalate a situation, in fact, someone being angry at her is more likely to bring her into an argument, and she has a bad habit of baiting others' tempers. Sam is also highly impulsive and doesn't often think things through, rarely looking before she leaps, meaning she could easily land herself in a lot of trouble.
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