Isabella "Izzy" Gutierrez*

[Tagabasa†]

Name: Isabella "Izzy" Gutierrez
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Grade: 11th
School: Cochise High School
Hobbies and Interests: Soccer, popular music, anthropology, archaeology, writing

Appearance: Izzy is slightly taller than the average sixteen year-old girl, standing at roughly five feet and six inches. While she has some fat, most of her 136 pounds are made up of lean muscle, giving the girl a wiry look. Her skin tone is naturally brown, and she spends enough time outdoors that it's usually darker than that during the summer. Izzy's wavy hair is cut into a practical bob, both to keep it out of her eyes when she's exercising and because she likes the style. Most of it is black, but she dyed a streak of it red last year. By now the color has almost completely faded and Izzy shows no signs of wanting to redo it. Her face is round, and most of her features don't stand out; her nose is small and her chin is barely existent. Izzy's eyes are deep brown with a hint of amber, and she is slightly nearsighted. This is usually corrected by a pair of contacts; Izzy finds glasses to be troublesome during physically activity, so she dislikes wearing them.

Izzy doesn't do much with makeup, though she regularly applies eye shadow and concealer to hide the occasional outbreaks of acne that pop up on her face. She claims to get warm easily and this, coupled with Kingman's normally hot temperatures, leave her wearing t-shirts, shorts, and sandals for most of the year. Izzy generally doesn't put a whole lot of thought into what she wears, although she tends to favor t-shirts with bright colors such as yellow or sky blue. She also seems to have a fondness for khaki and cargo shorts, often wearing them instead of jeans. Sometimes she wears clothes that pertain to her interests, mostly consisting of band t-shirts. Her favorite piece of clothing is a white t-shirt showing a university's coat of arms and bearing the words "Marshall College Archeology Department" over the crest. The words "Est. 1772" and "Sapientia et Lux" appear under it. When the weather is very warm, or when she wants to dress up, Izzy likes to wear cute skirts, usually with floral prints. She doesn't wear much jewelry, although her ears are pierced and she generally wears silver studs in them.

Biography: Izzy is the first child of Andre and Corina Gutierrez, born on the morning of April 17th. Her parents both grew up in Kingman, the children of 2nd generation immigrants. Andre's family came from Peru, while Corina's were from Guatemala, but neither side had any issues when Andre returned from college in Phoenix and married his high school sweetheart. Andre is an certified public accountant working with Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, while Corina has her hands full taking care of two children. She plans to go back to work after the youngest, Daniela, finishes high school. The family has a modest income, enough to get by with only relatively minor worries about college funds and dental work.

Growing up, Izzy was always a rambunctious child, preferring the outdoors to inside play. Most adults found her cute and charming, while her parents laughed and cleaned up after the mud she tracked into the house. The girl always had a strong relationship with her family; her parents were supportive and always made time for her, and she spent a lot of time visiting both sets of grandparents who spoke to Izzy in Spanish and taught her about their different cultures. When her sister was born, the two-and-a-half-year-old girl acted out and demanded more attention from her parents, but she quickly grew out of this phase. While Izzy continued to tease her little sister, she began to adopt a more friendly and playful tone.

Around other kids, her exuberance made her a decent amount of friends among both girls and boys. Though her stubborn and bossy nature, combined with a habit for not thinking before speaking or acting, kept her from ever becoming very popular, Izzy was fine with small and medium-sized friend groups. Her energy also led her to sports, and she found that soccer was her favorite. Izzy started playing soccer in fourth grade, where her teammates would end up giving the girl her nickname. Thinking that "Izzy" had a good sound to it, she began to use it with her other friends as well, and the moniker stuck.

During fourth and fifth grade, Izzy also began to explore interests outside of running around outside or kicking soccer balls. Always better in History than any of her other subjects, she started reading children's historical fiction for fun. She also developed a fondness for dinosaurs, declaring that she wanted to be a paleontologist when she became an adult. Her parents humored her, deciding that this was a phase that the girl would soon grow out of, but her parental grandfather, Piero, brought her books and movies on the subject. He explained that he just wanted to support her interests. Izzy loved this and spent a good deal of time with him, translating interesting facts into Spanish.

Entering middle school was a hectic time. Izzy found that she had to actually work to get the grades she had earlier taken for granted, and her marks in every class but History fell from easy As to high Bs. Her parents assured her this was normal, but the change in situation disturbed the girl, who began to have mood swings. Visiting the school counselor helped keep these in check, and it was suggested that she find outlets for her emotions. Other than soccer, which Izzy continued to play recreationally, listening to the radio became one of these. She felt fast music helped the most, but she found music without lyrics to be boring. Izzy's tastes generally kept with whatever was on most radio stations at the time, although she also gained a fondness for pop-punk bands.

When Izzy was in seventh grade, the Gutierrez family received news that Piero, then 87 years old, had passed away from a heart malfunction. This was the first time Izzy had ever had to deal with death on a personal level, and she wasn't sure how to handle it. Visits to grief consolers became more common until she managed to find yet another outlet; writing. Though she had never been the biggest fan of reading, she fond it calming to sit down and write about the things that happened in her life. Though she started off with rather dark poetry, Izzy eventually moved to keeping a rather ordinary diary and then to simple prose. Her friends, mostly other members of her soccer team and fellow classmates, also helped her get through her rough patch, inviting her to hang out and listen to music with them.

Surprisingly, Izzy handled the transition to high school much better than she did the move to middle school. As a freshman she was content to get Bs in most of her classes, the majority of which simply didn't interest her. Her marks in English were better, and she put a lot of time and effort in History, which she found to be the most engaging. No longer interested in dinosaurs (which she found childish), Izzy liked to read about historical society. To her, the different ways people lived were fascinating. This fondness also began to come across in her writing; while showing no desire to read any science fiction or fantasy books (which she found to mostly be formulaic), she started building worlds for stories she would never write, entire notebooks filled with fictional cultures and histories.

It was form this that she realized what she actually wanted to do with her life. While looking for possible majors on the internet during her sophomore year, Izzy found herself drawn to Anthropology and Archaeology. The idea of studying the ways people lived, and perhaps even discovering new facts about ancient societies appealed to her like nothing else did. Her parents disagreed; while they had tolerated this kind of thing when she was a child, they had hoped that their daughter would pick a more lucrative field to work in. This became the cause of their first big fight, with another hour-long argument every day. Even Daniela, who tended to be shy and quiet, was brought into the fighting, with their mother yelling that at least she wanted to go into law. The situation came to a peak when Izzy exclaimed that Piero would wanted her to do what she cared about and left the house, slamming the door behind her.

Things calmed down after that. Izzy stayed with a friend for two days before returning home, tears in her eyes. She apologized to her parents and they apologized to her. They had a talk with both the school guidance consoler, who outlined possible career paths for Izzy, and Mr. Dukoff, who showed them their daughter's work and explained the real interest she seemed to have for the subject. Eventually the three started looking at colleges together, deciding on the University of Michigan as the best choice. Though they were worried about sending their daughter so far away from home, Izzy's parents told her that she was an adult and that they would support her choices.

Now a junior, she enjoys playing soccer recreationally, although she is not good enough to make the school's variety team. Her music taste still leans to the popular and the pop punk, with some of her favorite artists being Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Ed Sheeran. While she mostly manages to handle her emotions, Izzy still gets mood swings, and sometimes her habit of speaking with out thinking gets her into trouble with others. Regardless, she has friends and a goal in life, and that's enough for Izzy.

Advantages: Izzy is in good physical shape, with fairly good endurance. She's used to spending a long amount of time outside and is less fazed by the elements than most. She has a fairly good reputation among her classmates, and her friendly and outgoing nature might help her to find allies.
Disadvantages: Izzy tends be set in her ways, refusing to listen to others' reasoning when it could help her. She often does and says stuff without thinking about it, and her blunt manner of speaking could get her into trouble. Her  mood swings might not help endear her to others.