F23: PHONESAVANH, GWEN [DECEASED]

#1

DECEASED

Name: Gwen Phonesavanh
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 11
School: Patriot High
Hobbies and Interests: Science, cooking, hiking, sports, exercise, educational television and material

Appearance: Gwen is a tall teenage girl at 5’11” and weighs 150 pounds. She is of Laotian descent, with naturally tan skin, medium length black hair and dark brown oval eyes. She has thin facial features seen in the overall shape of her face, lips, chin and small nose.

Gwen is a tomboy, with a strong athletic body type, which she manages from getting overly brawny with cardio exercise. She has a relatively flat chest compared to other girls at her high school adding more to the boyish demeanor she carries herself with. Her clothing style reflects her tomboy personality, as she almost always wears regular, often generic tees, a baseball cap and boots rather than anything typically associated with females.

On Announcement Day, Gwen wore a brown long-sleeve shirt with “Patriot High” printed across the front in the school’s colors, dark grey jeans with a large leather belt, a pair of black hiking boots with brown trim and her soccer gloves. Like she does every day; Gwen put her hair up in a messy, low hanging bun, covered mostly by her Patriot High baseball cap, but with a varying amount of hair falling out from the back depending on how recently her hair was put up.

Biography: Gwen was born in Wisconsin to parents, Don and Cassandra Phonesavanh. Both parents are of Laotian ancestry whose families have been living in the United States for a few generations before the military came into power. Don, having already served his two terms in the military before settling down, uses his skills from the military as a wilderness and natures guide. Cassandra currently works as a scientist for the military and isn’t home for most of the year.

Gwen’s childhood was a very lonely one. She had nearly no friends, being out-casted because of her race in a predominantly white grade school. Her mother was never around due to her job, leaving her father as Gwen’s only form of company. Don raised Gwen to the best of his abilities, teaching her basic life skills, along with learning how to read and always helping her with her homework. Not knowing exactly how to raise a girl, Don simply taught her things that he liked to do, influencing her with similar hobbies and interests, such as sports, hiking and exercise. He would often take her camping or hiking together teaching her a few associated skills. He would also watch sports with her on the television and play ball with Gwen for fun. All of which were activities Gwen learned to love and as a result the two became very close. Gwen’s mother would sometimes come home for a few visits mainly teaching Gwen the importance of learning, education and broadening the mind outside of school for a good life someday, using her scientist career as an example for her. Though unlike with her father, Gwen and Cassandra were never as close.

At school, Gwen was always excluded by everyone else due to her heritage. Other girls were very mean to her and she found it impossible to make friends with anyone. She was even bullied and picked on by her classmates, including some of the boys, very often because of her overall appearance. She came home from school crying one day, telling her father about her bad experiences. Don, understanding that this was just the way America worked, taught Gwen a valuable life lesson that Gwen would remember and carry on with for her entire life. He told her that it was “Just the way life is” and to ignore people who gave her a hard time. The main thing for Gwen to remember was to just live her life and don’t let things that other people do get to her or even fight back unless truly in danger, as that would only cause more problems.

Don’s words were taken to heart as Gwen did her best to “suck it up” when she was being teased. It took her a while, but after ignoring everything, Gwen adjusted. Eventually the harassment just became words. A few mean-spirited pranks, pushes and trips here and there were also given unsatisfactory reactions for the bullies and they too eventually got bored with her. Gwen essentially became a bit of a quiet loner, purposely isolating herself from her classmates and concentrating on what mattered in school, being the work itself. Her favorite subjects were any of the science subjects, mostly a result from already having been exposed to science from her parents. Her grades in every subject were good, especially in P.E which she seemed to excel at on the level of many of the more athletic boys.

As she grew older and entered middle school and then high school, Gwen’s style became evident. Spending time alone at school meant very little socialization with other girls. The only sort of style she was really exposed to was from her father and it has been the type of clothing she has been most comfortable wearing ever since. As a result, Gwen tended to dress more like a boy then a girl, often with generic t-shirts, pants, boots and baseball caps. The baseball caps made it easier for Gwen to feel a bit more comfortable walking around. She felt like she could ‘hide’ while wearing one, with the brim worn low just over her eyes. Gwen also grew quite tall over her teen years and in combination with her style really made her come across as a boy at first glance.

It wasn’t that Gwen didn’t want friends, in fact she liked when people were friendly toward her, but she rarely if ever initiates any friendships herself, not wanting to feel rejection like in elementary school. Instead she prefers to let other people approach her first, hoping things turn out well. She is still a bit cynical or wary when someone is nice to her first, especially if they’re white. Aside from her race, the tomboy and loner way she carries herself makes Gwen comes off as less approachable than others and she still finds it difficult to relate with others, especially with other girls.

Gwen’s high school, Patriot High pushed athletics for every student. Gwen already liking sports joined the girls’ soccer and softball teams. It was evident from the start that with her size and skill during practice, Gwen was quite skilled in both sports. However, she was barely used to play over Caucasian girls of around equal skill and was benched quite often, due to her ethnicity. Still, Gwen stuck around, not letting it get to her, because she still enjoyed playing when she could. In school, Gwen stayed consistent in terms of academics and her love of science classes in general.

Most of Gwen’s free time is spent by herself when her father isn’t around. She occupies her time by reading and expanding her knowledge on whatever material she has available at home. Most of these were various educational magazines, mostly on science and sometimes cooking. She’d sometimes use these cook books to keep herself busy by experimenting on cooking, a hobby she began to enjoy as well. Gwen would sometimes watch television, but she’d only watch educational networks, such as National Geographic or Discovery and the cooking channels rather than anything else. She does so with her mother’s advice to always learn and expand her mind, for a hopefully brighter future. Whenever he is home, Don manages to spend time with Gwen, often training her with their work out machines at home, even teaching her to bench press. They’d sometime go jogging together as well. Just as with childhood, Don still takes Gwen hiking, sometimes camping on the weekends and even taught her how to make fire. On tired days, they often watch sports games on television together. Gwen's mother, usually leaves the two to their own devices whenever she's around the house while focusing on work.

The people she gets together with are the people who she was able to get to know and like, but it isn’t much. Gwen has very few friends who she may spend time with on rare occasions and mostly spends her time alone. She is still out-casted and verbally bullied, but still doesn’t let it bother her much with her father’s words about how life is still in her mind. She doesn’t like the overly patriotic and racist spirit many people have in their treatment in her, but prefers to simply ignore it. The farthest she has ever gone to respond was telling another student “I think you'd actually like me, if you just gave me a chance." To which she received scoffing laughs in response.

In an opposite yet similar vein, Gwen just doesn’t understand people who want to ‘fight the power’ or have to loudly voice their problems and hate against America. She considers it ridiculous, a waste of time and something they should just get over as well. In a way she considers herself neutral to both sides, preferring not to get involved in any sort of political discussion as it causes too much problems in her eyes. The Program is something else that Gwen just accepts as part of American life and always dresses accordingly on the day just in case.

For the future, Gwen plans to go to college to further her education and hopefully figure out what sort of career she wants to do. She has big dreams of doing something good, hoping her constant extra-curricular studying would pay off someday.

Advantages: Gwen is in good condition from daily exercise which could help her during the Program. She knows how to handle the terrain and make fire, due to hiking and camping trips with her father.
Disadvantages: Gwen has trouble getting along with overly Pro-American people especially those who hate her because of her race. Similarly, Gwen dislikes people who are too Anti-America in their behavior due to her upbringing as she believes it’s a waste of time constantly fighting back and being angry. Gwen also doesn’t have very many friends due to her tendency to isolate herself from others. This results in very little chance of allies or comfort in working with anyone else.

Designated Number: Female Student #23

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Designated Weapon: Ice Axe
Conclusion: F23 has the physical conditioning to possibly make some use of her draw, but there's a good chance her isolation and general attitude will prevent her from actually accomplishing anything of note. In all likelihood, she'll just be another mid-tier contender who falls before the final stages.

DECEASED