F22: FLORES, ANASTASIA 'TAS' [DECEASED]

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Name: Anastasia Lucia Flores de León, AKA Tas
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Grade: 11th
School: Patriot High
Hobbies and Interests: Street Soccer, Reading/Writing, Study

Appearance: Anastasia cuts a wiry figure, 5ft 10" and just a notch over 140 lbs. On another girl, the long legs and upright posture might have seemed elegant, but on the girl who insists on being called Tas, they simply contribute to her lean and whiplike figure. There's barely an ounce of spare flesh on Tas, though some muscle is evident in her legs; she doesn't come across as unhealthily skinny, just lacking in much bulk. One could easily refer to Tas' bearing as 'proud', and in truth, Tas' default expression tends to be a bold, slightly superior stare, as if challenging others to say something to her.

Tas' skintone is typical to her Mexican roots, though the hue is darkened by a slight tan, owed to time spent outdoors. Her hair is boyishly short, spiked up with gel, and bleached blonde, a defiant statement. Though Tas is moderately short sighted, her square rimmed glasses are worn only grudgingly, and outside of classes she almost never bothers. Tas is quite plain in the face, with hollow cheeks, a small, narrow mouth and a somewhat square jaw, attracting little attention for those features.

Much to her family's consternation, Tas categorically refuses to dress 'nicely', favouring jeans, sturdy boots and eclectically designed t-shirts, most of which she gets from street vendors or thrift stores. She is also fond of zipped hooded sweatshirts. On announcement day, Tas' ensemble was a pair of faded blue jeans, a baggy white hoodie, and a red t-shirt with the design of a bullet hole in the chest and a smoking gun underneath.

Biography: Anastasia is the daughter of Colonel Miguel Flores, a man semi-infamous in his homeland of Mexico. During the American invasion of the country, Miguel passed intelligence to the US army, hastening the initial military victory. His price for the betrayal? United States citizenship for his family, protection, and a pension. Grudgingly, all three of these conditions were met, and so Colonel Flores and family moved to America, changing locations every so often for security purposes. It was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that the Colonel eventually put his foot down and said that he didn't want to continue uprooting himself every few years, and so far from Mexico, there was no way he was at any risk any longer.

The monetary part of the deal left Colonel Flores - if not exceptionally wealthy, quite well off, and savings from his military career meant that he could live very comfortably, with a large home and a pair of maids brought over from Mexico. His four children remained in Mexico, the eldest, Juan, assisting American forces in peacekeeping efforts, and the other three cutting all ties, wanting nothing to do with their father. Time passed quite peacefully, a pair of US soldiers on duty most of the time to prevent harassment. However, some years later, the Colonel's wife suddenly died; without missing a beat, Flores married one of the maids, Maria, with whom he had long been carrying on an extramarital affair in any case.

One drunken and careless night later, Maria was pregnant, and at the age of 60, Colonel Flores found himself with another child. This was Anastasia, and her relationship with her father never got out of the starting blocks. Long used to a philandering lifestyle, he had very little time for a new child, leaving the infant's care almost entirely to Maria and the other maid, Celia. Anastasia's father wasn't explicitly antagonistic towards her, he just preferred to have her out of the way and out from underfoot, appearing intermittently to awkwardly hover around for a short time before vanishing again. This led to Anastasia's childhood being rather odd, her upbringing more akin to having two mothers than a married couple as parents, though with the Colonel's age, Maria and Celia were arguably better suited to rear a child. Even so, with Celia of course a maid and Colonel Flores never wanting Maria to stray too far, care given to Anastasia was a bit lacking overall, and from a young age, she had to learn to be more independent than most.

Entering school, the little bubble built around Anastasia's world was soon ruptured. She might have been well off, with a nice house, but so far as many of the teachers and later, other students were concerned, Ana was still just another outsider. Nominally American, of course, but such distinctions mattered little in the face of Anastasia's obviously Hispanic heritage (fortunately, she had been advised by Celia not to let on that she spoke Spanish, protecting herself from too many issues). Even so, Anastasia took well to education, pleased to just have something else to do and occupy herself than sitting around playing make believe or reading on her own.

Anastasia continued to lack for much of a social life as she grew older, her mother and Celia having accordingly less time to spend on her as she became more capable of taking care of herself, and struggling at school. This wasn't purely because of Ana's heritage - as of course there were some people prepared to overlook it, but also because her odd upbringing hadn't provided her with much in the way of interpersonal skills. Conversation didn't come naturally to the young girl, and she often struggled for topics to talk about - much preferring to stick her head in a book than try to make friends. Immersing herself in fantasy worlds and stories of heroism seemed preferable to negotiating the minefield that grew out of every social interaction. Shortly afterwards, Anastasia began to write her own stories, some anecdotal, some fantastical, some dark and macabre - a similar form of escapism to her reading.

When Anastasia was around twelve, her father finally seemed to remember that she existed, immediately announcing that her problem was that she didn't get involved in enough activities involving teamwork. Whilst this seemed like something of a swooping statement, Anastasia was nevertheless press-ganged into taking up soccer at school. Rather than rebel against this, Ana opted to knuckle down and try her hardest, reasoning that if she succeeded, then it would lead to her distant father paying more attention to her. Due to their lack of a connection, Anastasia always felt that she could never get her dad to notice her, and this seemed like a good way to solve that.

For a time, this actually worked, Anastasia making the school soccer team as a central midfielder, proving to be well suited to athletics. She discovered, in playing sports, both a competitive streak and a boisterousness that had never really been present previously - her enthusiasm was always high and her encouragement infectious. However, Ana's heritage meant that not only did she have to work twice as hard to get the same chances in the team that others did, but that when Ana finally made it into a starting role, she often found herself victimised by opponents and especially match officials. Although home life improved slightly now that Anastasia actually had something to talk to her dad about, her frustrations began to mount with the sport. Although previously she had allowed racism to mostly roll off her back, soccer threw into sharp relief exactly the extent to which the problems ran. The injustices piled up, Ana contained them, but the more she was unfairly booked, the more opponents got away with fouling, the greater that reservoir of anger became.

It was inevitable that Anastasia would snap, and when she did, it was in spectacular fashion. Brought down in the penalty area by an opponent grabbing her by the hair and pulling her to the ground, the whistle was blown, and Ana found herself in the referee's book for 'diving'. Her composure cracked, and a few moments later, the opposing player was on the floor with a black eye, and three of Ana's team mates were restraining her from attacking the official. The response of the school was swift, dropping Ana from the team and banning her from playing sports indefinitely. Anastasia took all of the blame and received no sympathy for having been provoked (though her father had a good cackle about her decking somebody), finding herself suddenly ostracised from a large section of Patriot High's community.

That was a reality check for the teenager. No matter how hard she tried, or how good she was at something, her background was always going to play against her. Little slights, previously ignored, were now magnified in Anastasia's eyes, in some cases simply overreacting, but in others, finding the truth towards a lot of little mysteries she'd never quite solved. A poor grade in an essay that she had thought was very good? Deliberate. Teachers passing her over when she had her hand raised? Deliberate. The way Ana seemed to be punished just a little more heavily for the same misdemeanour? Deliberate. Some people would have become withdrawn at this kind of revelation, and indeed that's perhaps what most would have expected by somebody as reclusive as Anastasia. However, her resentment exploded outward, rather than inward, her attitude becoming a lot more provocative and in some cases aggressive.

Anastasia had been previously nicknamed Ana for most of her life - both for the sake of convenience and the fact it drew attention from her very Mexican name. However, at this point, she instead chose to start referring to herself as 'Tas', primarily as an act of defiance. With this change came a bit of an image makeover too - the teen had her hair cut short and bleached, as well as renovating her wardrobe, exchanging her former style for something more rough and ready. Her father, being her father, merely commented that she looked like a boy, and that she would never get away with that kind of thing in the military. However, since the Colonel was now in his seventies, his apathy towards Tas was at an all time high, and he most certainly couldn't be bothered to attempt to stop her from going off the rails. Conversely, Tas' mother and Celia (now more in charge of housekeeping than a maid herself) meant well, but lacked the assertiveness to reign Anastasia in. As she was never particularly close to either Maria or Celia, the problem became that Tas didn't see either woman as having a right to tell her what to do, and largely ignored their attempts at discipline.

With tensions at home running high, Anastasia took to spending most of her time out and about Milwaukee, for lack of anything better to do. Depending on her mood, Tas would take out books to read, hang out in the poorer (often minority-dominated) parts of town, pencil and notepad or - more often than not, a soccer ball. The lattermost tended to get her into a lot of scrapes. Whilst she was still good at the sport, and arguably her ball control and dribbling ability got even better, something like a ball was a prime target for those that wanted to pick on a minority. When she was younger, something like that might have got Tas upset. At fourteen, it just compounded her existing anger. It wasn't uncommon for Tas to come home sporting bruises, scrapes and on a few occasions, a busted lip as a result of brawls with other teenagers. In the Flores household, Anastasia's mother attempted to dissuade her from getting into fights, whilst her father's response was a huge belly laugh and then telling Tas not to be afraid of fighting dirty. The lack of a strong hand at home further developed Anastasia's streak of fierce independence, fostering the notion that first and foremost, she had to rely on herself.

Meanwhile, school was becoming tougher to negotiate. Being banned from sports had left a black mark on Anastasia's reputation in the mind of the faculty, and it didn't help that Tas' attitude had taken a serious turn for the worse, too. Although she still enjoyed working and studying, particularly in the face of the situation at home, Tas was a lot more abrasive both in and out of class, more prone to getting into arguments with both teachers and other students. The result was a lot of detentions and on two occasions, being temporarily suspended after disagreements with her peers turned physical. After the second suspension, Tas came to her senses - at least to some degree, and realised that if she didn't keep that type of thing out of school, she was going to find herself getting kicked out and screw up her future, long term. Tas decided to channel her aggression - at least whilst at school, into her writing instead. Most of it wasn't great and had a tendency to be exceptionally violent, but it at least prevented her from getting into any more fights.

Anastasia is, at current, a bit of an aloof figure. Although the worst of her social anxieties are behind her, she has a tendency to bristle at others and a low tolerance for anyone she perceives to have a problem with her heritage, though she's become better at excluding herself rather than lashing out in anger. Her grades are highly mixed - paradoxically Tas does best in logic-based subjects like math and sciences as opposed to more essay inclined studies. This is primarily due to a belief that in the former, there are definitively correct answers, meaning that if she does well, there's no way for the teachers to mark her down, whilst it is easier to give her lower grades in subjects like English. This has become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, Ana doesn't try as hard in those subjects, so her grades are lower, leading her to not try as hard because she believes she won't get good grades no matter what. Outside of school, Tas still finds herself in scraps on a semi-regular basis, leading to her gaining something of a reputation as alternatively a delinquent or simply a 'typical Mexican'

Advantages: Anastasia has been in more than her fair share of fist fights, and knows how to handle herself in a brawl better than the average person. She is also in good shape, meaning that her stamina and overall athleticism are better than normal, though this factors more into speed and agility than strength. Tas is used to being independent and taking care of herself, so she may be able to handle isolation to a better degree than her classmates. Finally, considering her attitude is already quite aggressive, Tas may have an easier time of bringing herself to cause violence.
Disadvantages: Tas is by nature a hothead, and few of her normal anger-management techniques will be applicable in the Program, particularly given one of her favoured solutions is simply to remove herself from the stressful situation. It's reasonably likely that Tas will lose her temper at an inopportune moment and lash out, putting herself into jeopardy. She is fiercely proud of her own independence, which may lead to her refusing to admit she needs help or entertain the idea of teaming up and compromise her safety. Furthermore, Tas reacts poorly to others in the best of circumstances, and she is reasonably likely to imagine offence where there is none and cause herself issues even with those who don't care about her heritage.

Designated Number: Female Student #22

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Designated Weapon: 1860 Henry Repeater
Conclusion: F22's bad attitude is likely to nullify any of her outstanding advantages; avoiding making enemies is frequently as if not more important than kill count, and F22 lacks the diplomatic ability to avert this.

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