B013 - Vacanti, Alvaro[/DECEASED]

[Slam]

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Name: Alvaro Vacanti
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Cochise High School
Hobbies and Interests: Business, Working at the Café, Chess, Soccer

Appearance: Alvaro is Caucasian, stands at 5'4" and weighs 110 pounds. While not drastically underweight for his age, he is considerably short and light compared to others of his age. He has long, light blond hair, which goes down to his chin. It is straight, and he takes care in making sure it is kept tidy and not unruly every morning. He has blue eyes, which he covers with glasses. He generally only uses them to make out things further away to him, but he keeps them on when they're not needed, out of habit. With a petite nose, a smooth skin complexion, and deep eyes, he has features that could be considered cute, but he generally doesn't take much notice of them, only taking care of them so that he looks presentable. He normally has an upright posture, although if he's talking to a person he's never talked to before, he'll be a bit more bent forward, and fidgety, due to his issues with other people.

Alvaro tries to dress in a way so that he doesn't have to change clothes when he works at the café, normally either wearing blank white button shirts, or a t-shirt that has the logo of the café on it, with a pair of jeans or other brand less pants to go with it, and formal black shoes, to match uniform at both Cochise and the café. He doesn't wear any other accessories. On the day of the abduction, he didn't stray from his normal fashion style, wearing a t-shirt with his café's logo on it, and a pair of plaid jeans.

Biography: Alvaro was born in Mexico City to parents Miguel and Silvia Vacanti, on September 27th. While the Vacanti clan was centered in Mexico, with Alvaro's side of the family having been there for several generations, many members had moved out into surrounding countries, such as the USA and Canada. Both parents were of an upper middle class standing, due to very well-known café that Miguel had been able to launch off the ground and be successful with. Due to this, and the fact that Alvaro was an only child, both parents decided to pool the majority of their spare money so that Alvaro could undertake an education at a fairly well known elementary school. During elementary school, he was able to learn both his native language and English, due to the school's way of teaching; Spanish for the first half of the day, while teaching in English for the afternoon. He generally had visits from his uncle, Alejandro Vacanti, who lived as a construction worker in Kingman, Arizona. Other than that, nothing of interest happened during Alvaro's early life, and he was able to enjoy an upper middle class lifestyle without any threats to it.

However, when Alvaro was ten years old, his father shared some news that meant that Alvaro could no longer live this lifestyle. Alejandro had been in a work accident, and had broken his lower spine, becoming a paraplegic. Alejandro could no longer work, and he couldn't retire, his injury not being severe enough to qualify for nursing care. Because they thought that the USA could provide better healthcare for Alejandro's condition, Miguel decided that his family was moving the cafe to America, so that they could continue the business while taking care of Alejandro. They sold the house, temporarily leased the cafe to a family friend, and on the 19th of November, moved into a house in Kingman, Arizona. A month after moving in, Alvaro was assigned into a middle school in the local area. Alvaro wasn't very happy with the move, due to having to leave his friends and teachers and go to a place that was completely unknown to him. He understood why he had to, though, and was sympathetic to what had happened to Alejandro.

Alvaro had trouble adapting to his new lifestyle, despite the fact that he knew English. The problem was that he knew his status as the new student from a foreign country, and worried about his ability to speak English. While he had been taught English along with his native language in elementary school, he wasn't confident about his abilities, and he thought that he wasn't speaking correctly. While his classmates understood what he was saying, Alvaro felt that they were hiding something from him, and that they were laughing about his inability to speak English behind his back. This escalated over the years, and while he now knows that he can speak English adequately, he started to become increasingly paranoid about the people around him. He feels that people deceive him, and talk about him behind his back. He knows about the advantages that owning a café in the area brings, and feels that people pretend to like him to take advantage of that. He is aware that this is not normal for the average person his age, and tries to force his mind to get over it, and move on. It's still present to this day, however, and he tries to work his way around it by being extroverted and honest to people. Sometimes this manifests in the form of his hands shaking, and he sometimes has panic attacks where he doesn't want to be around people and needs to be alone for a bit. He's only told people who he feels he can trust with the secret, and who he feels like him a lot and won't judge him for it. He hasn't told his parents about it, because he doesn't want them to worry about him, with him hiding it from them by not talking to them about his social life, unless prompted. His parents only currently know about the panic attacks, which he has told them was because of the stress that school brings. Alvaro is aware that he is likely more paranoid about other people than the other people his age; something that he thinks is something brought on by the move that he hasn't been able to shake off.

Now that he is in his final year of high school, Alvaro dedicates his time to studying for his finals, and working at the café in the local area. His father, while not as successful as he was in Mexico - due to being on the same street as Cheryl's, a restaurant that was bigger and had better service than Vacanti's - had succeeded in creating business in the USA. While the lessened success of the cafe led them to become a lower class that they were before, they don't need to spend or shop too much, with most of the food they eat coming from the cafe. Alvaro does his best to advertise the café during the day, and, after school, he serves at the café as a waiter, having done so since he was fifteen.  He finds that it's a great bonding experience with his father and uncle - who works as a host at the café - and he likes to talk to the customers while they wait for their food, before going home to study after the café closes at 7 PM. He generally likes working at the café, as it's a social experience that allows him to talk to new people every day, which he thinks might help him overcome his paranoia, figuring that if he talks to enough people who like him back he'll eventually get over it. He takes commerce courses, such as Running a Business and Economics, due to his interest in taking over the café when he graduates from college, allowing his father to potentially retire when he does so.

While he still cares for his mother, he doesn't have as much a bond with her as much as he does with his father and uncle, since both of their schedules mean that they only ever really interact at the dinner table, with working at the cafe and study dominating Alvaro's side and Silvia's new job as a night guard at the Kingman Museum dominating her side. He still has memories of her before he started working at the cafe, but these are mostly pushed aside by other thoughts.

Between working at the café and studying for homework and finals, Alvaro likes to spend his spare time either playing chess or soccer, both of which he picked up while in America. While he did watch soccer while back in Mexico, he didn't really take much of an interest in it until a PE class during grade nine, where he managed to block a goal near the end of the game, winning his team the match. This talent gave him an interest, and he enrolled himself into the soccer team at Cochise, functioning initially as a goalie, but changing roles to a striker when he was made the captain. He likes soccer as a hobby, and finds the sport exhilarating, loving the cheers that he gets when he is able to successfully defend the goal and win. He found out about how to play chess while in the school library, and has since had a mild interest in it, due to the feeling that he gets when he's able to successfully outplay his opponent and checkmate their king. He isn't very good at it, though, and isn't the best tactical thinker, with him very often missing minor details that cause him to consistently lose matches most of the time. He's generally humble when he loses though, and tries to improve on this. He has enrolled into competitions several times representing Cochise, but doesn't get very far, due to poor tactical thinking.

Alvaro functions well in school, both academically and socially. His studying after the café closes pays off well, with him generally managing A's in the majority of the subjects that he participates in. In particular, he excels and enjoys the health courses and social studies courses, due to being able to focus on himself, and learning about the actions of his ancestors. The two subjects that he struggles in are maths and physics, thinking of those units as easy at the start, but having them bring so many new concepts in that they become way too complicated for him. Despite the study that he does, he doesn't manage past a B for both of those subjects. In the social area of his life, Alvaro also excels. He has a close group of friends, generally from the soccer/chess clubs, and has formed a basic group around people who regularly go to his café, and talk to him while he serves them. He acts like a nice and upbeat person around them, trying to hide his paranoia issues, and he is generally driven away from people who he knows hate him or make fun of him. He tries to avoid these people in most scenarios, and if they confront him, he generally tries to shy away from the encounter and not talk to them. He can generally tell what's serious and what's not, but sometimes he feels that corrections on his English are the person making fun of him for saying it wrong, because of his issues with paranoia.

During his last year of high school, Alvaro decided to nominate himself as the captain of the soccer team, figuring that he may as well since he fit the qualifications and since he doubted he would actually become captain. Surprisingly for him, he was elected captain, due to him being the only person to nominate themselves for the position. He initially was excited by his new position, but it soon became another source of pressure on him, due to the responsibility that being captain entails. He feels that everything on the team relies on him, and if the team loses a game, it's always his fault, in Alvaro's head.

After he finishes school, Alvaro wishes to take a business course at a college, learning the finer intricacies of how to run a successful business and how to apply them in practice. He has applied to Harvard, but hasn't gotten anything back yet, nor has he applied to a different college in the case that he is unsuccessful. After he finishes, he plans on taking over the business back in Mexico, so that his dad is able to retire and take full time in taking care of Alejandro. While he doesn't have plans to marry someone and settle down, he isn't against it, and while he hasn't dated anyone yet, he is actively heterosexual, and he has his eye on a couple of people who he has romantic interests in.

Advantages: Alvaro, due to playing soccer and working at the café for long periods, is physically fit, and can stand doing physical labour for long periods of time. Furthermore, his basic knowledge in chess would give him a slight knowledge and consideration of current and future strategic options, although these strategies would likely begin to fall apart in a large scale scenario. In addition to this, his extroverted and outwardly friendly nature could help him make allies on the island.
Disadvantages: Alvaro is paranoid of others' opinions of him, and this could escalate during the game, due to the severity that is being on Survival of the Fittest. Furthermore, as his experiences in chess and colleges prove, Alvaro might not be the best tactical thinker, in terms of micromanaging and thinking ahead, as he always misses small details that add up in the end.

Designated Number: Male student No. 013

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Designated Weapon: $1000, in 100 $10 bills
Conclusion: If this was The Apprentice I'd give this kid a chance, but considering that you can't buy your way to victory on SOTF? Alvaro, you're fired. - Trent Camden


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