Justin Greene

[MK Kilmarnock]

Name: Justin Greene
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: George Hunter High School
Hobbies and Interests: Country music, acoustic guitar, piano, electrical engineering

Appearance: Justin is 5'7" and weighs 184 pounds, carrying a good amount of weight around his middle with a chubby, paunchy figure. He has a full, round face, fair skin and generally sunny features such as straight blond hair, blue eyes, a short rounded nose and dimpled cheeks. His hair is normally kept at a length of around three quarters of an inch, but between haircuts it can grow to nearly two and a half inches, where he trains his hair to part off-center. His teeth are somewhat misaligned and there is a small gap between his two front teeth plainly visible when he smiles.

Justin dresses for practicality and comfort, alternating between wearing sneakers and steel-toed work boots depending on the plans for the day. From the waist down he wears blue jeans exclusively and will not wear shorts no matter how hot the weather. He favors bright colors and will often wear white or yellow t-shirts, his favorite colors, though it's not unlikely to catch him wearing red. At the slightest sign of cold weather he wears a black Champion brand jacket and his Cincinnati Reds baseball cap.

Biography: Justin was born to Alex Greene and Patricia Schmidt, Ohio natives of German descent with some Jewish on his dad's side, and high school sweethearts who had Justin out of wedlock and were married just before he turned one year of age. Alex and Patricia both faced heavy criticisms from their families who perceived the relationship as a sordid affair and expressed disappointment that their son was a 'bastard', a term thrown around particularly frequently by the Schmidt family. Driven in part by disgust at his and Patricia's families, Alex labored for two years at a trade school to become a licensed electrician and moved his new family as far away as he could find a job to support them. The family eventually settled in Franklin, Tennessee.

A normal child by most metrics, Justin showed some developmental concerns by preschool age. Patricia, a stay-at-home mom, was able to teach many of the basics Justin would need entering into Kindergarten but found difficulty in helping him to grasp his ABCs, phonetics and other building blocks of written language. Talking did not seem to be a problem; on the contrary, Justin was a chatterbox who would strike up conversations with mailmen, grocery store associates, strangers on the street, and the police officers who returned Justin to his parents after he got separated from them while talking to strangers on the street. Poor performance in reading during kindergarten only strengthened rising concerns that Justin might be dyslexic, and the 6 year-old boy was scheduled for testing before starting first grade, where his parents' fears and suspicions were confirmed.

Franklin's school district was well-equipped to handle students with reading disabilities, but it did little to mitigate the teasing that Justin endured for being 'retarded', drawing the ire of many school bullies who would do things like push him into the girls' bathroom, then claim he'd gone in because he couldn't read the sign. Justin's parents scheduled a meeting with the principal as soon as they could to discuss why their son was coming off of the bus in tears. The meeting initially bore little fruit apart from allowing Justin to meet with the guidance counselor on a regular basis, but it was the guidance counselor who suggested alternative methods of healthy interaction in the form of music. Justin was signed up for piano lessons each day after school, and he took to the program like a natural. While he could not read letters very well, he was quickly able to learn how to read and play music for the piano. Within two months, he was wowing teachers with basic classical songs that he had learned and befriending classmates by playing songs from movies or games that he had picked up and learned by ear. His progress was even pleasing enough that his parents had saved up enough money to buy him an electronic keyboard so he could practice at home. While Justin still endured a good deal of teasing all through elementary school on account of his reading level, the friendships he formed through playing music helped him to build his social skills, and most of his classmates would describe him as friendly and generous.

Unfortunately for the Greene family, Franklin had become too expensive to live in, particularly for those trying to raise a family. On the other hand, Alex's business as an independent electrician was in increasing demand in larger cities such as Knoxville and Chattanooga; thanks to the boom of millennials eschewing trades for going to college, Alex realized that he could stand to make a killing simply by moving closer to where the jobs were. Waiting until Justin had finished fifth grade, the family packed up and moved two hours away to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Justin adjusted to the change mostly well, able to make more friends than he had in Franklin by using the confidence that he'd built up over the past few years. Some kids still picked on him when it became apparent he read at several grades below the norm, but just as many classmates were understanding of his condition once he properly explained it to them with his steadily congenial demeanor.

After exhibiting his piano talents several times over his sixth grade school year, Justin finally confessed to his parents in May that while he loved the piano, he had another passion - country music. Whenever Justin went anywhere in the car with his parents, the radio was always tuned into one of Tennessee's many country music stations and it was the genre he grew up with. He loved the pop-inspired beats of modern country but also had a deep love for older generations, particular instrumental works such as those by Chet Atkins. To this end, he wanted to learn the guitar. By this point, Alex and Patricia had no doubt as to their son's ability to learn an instrument. That June, as a present for the end of the school year, Justin received his first acoustic six-string guitar and some lessons over the summer. He only needed a few lessons to understand how to handle the instrument, fingering for chords and how to hold and strum with the pick; after these few lessons, Justin preferred to buy sheet music books made especially for guitar and practiced all summer. By the start of seventh grade, he claimed proficiency in two instruments. Justin still practices playing his keyboard but spends more time on the guitar, and has upgraded to fancier models several times through birthday and Christmas gifts, or by saving up his allowance. He plans to one day play the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, though he recognizes he isn't the best singer and can only approximate a more nasal tone akin to the style of Randy Travis.

As he was grounded enough to understand that such a dream was risky and far-fetched, Justin knew he had to have a backup in mind. To that end, starting after his Freshman year of high school, Justin began accompanying his father on jobs as often as he could to start learning the trade of electrical engineering. He displayed good qualities such as patience and an ability to stay still, quiet, and focused, even when working in the Tennessee heat, which Justin has become rather tolerant of. He went on almost every job his father had over the summer, and during the school year, would be sure to attend at least once a week while also taking relevant classes such as physics and electrical shop. While he is not absolutely in love with the field as a whole, Justin deems it as something within his ability as it requires minimal reading - most important things that had to be read were numbers, not letters, and he has no problems with numbers. After high school, he plans to enroll in a trade school just like his father and obtain his electrician's license so he can make a living while attempting to make it as a country music artist.

Justin handles high school about the same as he did grades sixth through eighth, not recognizing much of a transition. Academically, he favors music classes and can play piano music for the theatre program, which he frequently volunteers to do. He dislikes PE, knowing that he is in terrible shape and that a little bit of running isn't going to change that. He needs special-placement reading courses, and many of his other classes that require reading (such as history or physics) have Individualized Education Plans for him to follow so he can learn the same subject material the other students are learning without actually having to read it. Under this IEP he performs well in most classes and receives A's and B's, though he is not graded on a traditional scale as most other students are. Socially, Justin enjoys a close circle of friends and handles himself well in larger groups, preferring to keep the attention off of himself and direction conversations toward others. He likes to make himself known for being generous, often bringing more lunch than he actually needs and passing out extra sandwiches to those going without.

Advantages: Justin is a team player and puts the needs of others before his own, easily lending himself to fit in groups that offer strength in numbers. He has a low metabolism with reserves of body fat that should help to ward off starvation when food is limited in availability. He handles high temperatures well, and can operate in hot weather for longer than most others.
Disadvantages: Justin's selflessness can easily be turned against him, never wishing to assume the worst in anybody even if they intend to take advantage of him. He is in poor physical shape due to lack of exercise and has very low stamina. He cannot handle cold weather very well and low temperatures cause him to become sluggish.

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Hello, it's me, you know the drill, we duel at dawn. Justin is temporarily DENIED pending a couple of small edits.

Justin needs a skin tone and ethnicity in his appearance section.

I'd like more elaboration within the biography of Justin's advantages and disadvantages regarding his personality; while I can get that he's a pretty good-natured kid who gets along with others and that he's generous, I don't see a mention of him necessarily putting others' needs before his own prior to the Advantages/Disadvantages section. Just a bit more on that and how it manifests in his daily life should do it. I'd say throw in a line or two about his preference for hot weather also, since that's only really hinted at in the appearance section.

And that's it, post in here once you've done that and Justin should be ready to go.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Added skin tone.

Added a line about his ability to tolerate heat in the bio, but I already had this in appearance:

Justin dresses for practicality and comfort, alternating between wearing sneakers and steel-toed work boots depending on the plans for the day. From the waist down he wears blue jeans exclusively and will not wear shorts no matter how hot the weather. He favors bright colors and will often wear white or yellow t-shirts, his favorite colors, though it's not unlikely to catch him wearing red. At the slightest sign of cold weather he wears a black Champion brand jacket and his Cincinnati Reds baseball cap.

So that should hopefully cover it.

In the same vein, I believe being a good-natured kid who gets along with others and is generous are the very qualities to being a team player, even if the exact wording of 'putting others' needs before his own' doesn't appear in the profile itself. Just straight up fighting you on this one I guess.

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APPROVED