Barbara Gunnerson

[MurderWeasel]

Name: Barbara Delores Gunnerson
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
School: Cochise High School
Hobbies and Interests: Listening to music, bass, piano, performance art, outdoors activities, blogging

Appearance: Barbara is a young woman of slightly above average height and medium build, standing at 5'5" and weighing 140 pounds. She has straight, dirty-blonde hair that she wears medium-length, coming to an inch and a half above her shoulders. She usually wears her hair parted on the left side, creating a slightly asymmetrical look. Barbara has youthful features, with an oval-shaped face, a straight and small nose, a narrow mouth, and wide light blue eyes. Barbara is in fairly decent shape from hiking and camping, though she carries a little extra weight courtesy of a hearty appetite. She's energetic and tends to move around a lot, often standing in preference to sitting. Barbara is Caucasian, and tends to sport a notable tan from her time spent outside.

When it comes to fashion, Barbara is a pretty varied dresser, though her default tends towards jeans, tank-tops, and cowboy boots or sneakers. Barbara does put thought into her outfits, dressing up or down depending on the circumstances. She often accessorizes with jewelry, usually cheap bracelets or necklaces. Both her ears are pierced once apiece, in the lobe. When playing with her band, she tends towards more elaborate or theatrical outfits, cycling her look frequently. On the day of the science trip, she was wearing black sneakers, tight blue denim shorts, and a black t-shirt with the name of the band Sunn O))) across the front, as well as sunglasses and understated silver stud earrings.

Biography: Barbara Gunnerson was born on January 17, 1997, to Henry and Tammy Gunnerson, a plumber and a dental assistant, respectively. These professions allowed the family to provide her with a comfortable upbringing, and Tammy was even able to keep working part-time during Barbara's childhood due to assistance from both sets of grandparents, who also lived in Kingman. Indeed, it is from her grandmothers that Barbara derived her name—her paternal grandmother is named Barbara, and her maternal grandmother is named Delores. Barbara has a brother four years her senior, Lester Matthew Gunnerson, who was named in the same fashion, though with opposite maternal/paternal priority.

Barbara was beloved by her family, far enough in age from her brother that they rarely competed directly for attention or toys and a generally happy and outgoing child. She thrived on the affection her parents and extended family showered her with, and while her childhood had its share of typical dramatic moments, and she did go through a tantrum phase, Barbara's upbringing was generally quite smooth.

As she entered elementary school, Barbara proved a quick learner, picking up basic reading and math skills easily. Indeed, she remained at the top of her class throughout elementary school, and a lot of her early identity centered around being the smartest kid in class. This was something that both her parents encouraged, for a number of reasons. By the time Barbara was really established in elementary school, Lester was in middle school, and he was struggling greatly. Barbara's parents wanted her to avoid a similar situation by establishing good habits early on, and also hoped she might be able to eventually make her way through college, something neither of them managed.

On a social level, however, Barbara's early schooling was not so smooth. Her strong self image was largely founded on a comparative basis, one which found most of her classmates lacking to greater or lesser extents. Her favorite form of insult became suggesting that the target of her ire was stupid, and this was something she often deployed against classmates she wasn't fond of. While she made friends, especially among the other smart kids in class, she also alienated a number of her classmates. She never quite pushed it to the level of getting in serious trouble—she had a time-out here or there, and a talk or two with her parents, who impressed upon her the need to treat others respectfully—but it was still enough to keep her outside the truly popular group of kids.

Academic success still came easily to Barbara as she moved into middle school, where the increased stratification of cliques allowed her to better find a place. Her social circle at this time was largely composed of nerds, kids who focused on school and loved books and video games. Barbara was always a slightly odd fit for this group, because she didn't really need to work as hard to succeed as many of the others—she did her assigned work, but usually completed it relatively quickly, and only needed light study sessions to retain information. More than this, she wasn't too interested in reading in her free time; to her, schoolwork was a means to the end of proving her intelligence and securing a nebulous positive future her parents often told her about, not a goal in its own right. As such, her friendships during this stage of her life tended to be rather shallow and casual, with individual classmates drifting in and out of her affections without leaving too major impressions.

Meanwhile, Lester was struggling even more greatly in high school, failing classes and getting into drugs and alcohol. Barbara's parents were adamant that she not follow his example, frequently praising her by comparison to him, but for the first time this started to make her uncomfortable; while she did not idealize her brother as completely as some siblings do, she did look up to him, and found him easier to understand and relate to than her parents just due to his closer age. She did feel smarter than him, but viewed that more as a failing of his than a virtue of hers.

Lester had to repeat a year of school, meaning that his last year of high school was Barbara's first. For the first time in a long time, the siblings were spending a lot of time in close proximity, and Barbara found herself enjoying her brother's friends and social circle. The slackers and the stoners were much more on her wavelength; rather than stressing out about life and school, they took things as they came. In Barbara's mind, the only real difference was that she was just talented enough to find success while they weren't. Even so, she remained aware that she was putting in more effort than her brother and most of his friends, but chose not to dwell too much on the fact.

Barbara's parents, especially her mother, were extremely concerned by these developments, and they tried several solutions, even sending Lester to live with his maternal grandparents for a month, something intended to impress upon her the severity of his poor decisions and keep the two of them apart outside of school hours. Over time, however, they began to relax when they saw that Barbara was not falling into the same rut—she still brought home good grades, kept up with her hobbies, and displayed generally good responsibility. If anything, Lester tempered his behavior somewhat when she was around, and in doing so was able to pull himself together enough to finally graduate high school.

One of the hobbies that has most connected Barbara with her family, and which she found more in common with her newest group of friends, is music. Music was very important to almost everyone in Barbara's family—both of her grandmothers sang in choirs, and her mother studied violin throughout her middle and high school years. Her father, meanwhile, had spent a year in the mid-80s as a roadie for a metal band, and carried a lot of nostalgia for the scene. As such, Barbara was exposed to a wide range of musical styles from a very young age, especially classical music—which her mother had heard was supposed to increase the intelligence of babies—rock, and, when she was slightly older, metal.

This musical upbringing extended beyond passive enjoyment. Barbara's mother insisted upon enrolling her in piano lessons from third grade onwards. While Barbara's enthusiasm for these lessons was not always constant, especially since the instrument did not come as easily to her as most other things, she kept up with them at her mother's urging. She became quite good over time, playing daily on an older piano her parents borrowed from her paternal grandmother. For her twelfth birthday, Barbara's parents gave her a fairly nice keyboard, which she easily adapted to, allowing her to experiment with a greater range of sounds. It was also around this time that she took a larger interest in experiencing rock music from a performer's perspective, and with her father's encouragement she chose to specialize in the bass, which her brother had also played. Her father suggested the bass because Barbara wasn't too drawn towards any particular instrument and the bass had a much lower initial cost for the family; Barbara inherited Lester's first bass and a lot of his learning materials, allowing her to self-teach. After she and her brother grew closer upon her entry to high school, he spent time helping her learn the instrument, and she became a lot more serious about it, moving beyond the basics. Her parents weren't too worried about this, since music was one of the few points where they could still engage with their son without conflict.

As a listener, Barbara's tastes are quite broad, but she tends towards artists and styles that are perceived as challenging or intellectual, ideally those that are initially off-putting to casual listeners. This is another manifestation of her intelligence as the core of her self-image; her musical experience allows her to legitimately pick out elements that may elude casual listeners, and she grew to like some groups she initially followed mostly for the image. She's been on a streak of following drone and stoner groups for the past few years, favoring artists like Sleep, Sunn O))), and Earth, though she also stands by old favorites like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine.

Near the end of her freshman year, Barbara was approached by two of her classmates, Vanessa Stone and Cameron Herrig, with an offer to join their band, Peyote Coyote. They approached Barbara due to their awareness of her interest in the bass, which she'd been learning for the past few months, and she leaped at the opportunity to participate. They were also joined by Brady Kim Floyd. Peyote Coyote plays mostly music in the stoner rock genre, with Barbara often trying to steer the group into more experimental directions. She plays bass most of the time, but also contributes keyboard work when the opportunity arises.

Barbara is also engrossed by the performance aspect of concerts and of art in general. Her interest in stage presence and performance art—including of the non-musical variety—has largely sprung up in the years since her entrance to high school. Performance art's reputation for being baffling is a major draw to Barbara, who likes to supply her own meanings. She often encourages her bandmates to add more avant garde elements to their performances, though her success in this direction is decidedly mixed.

Since childhood, Barbara has greatly enjoyed the outdoors. She used to go hiking and camping with her family, and now often does so with her friends. She finds the desert terrain quite beautiful, and also likes getting away from Kingman for a while to enjoy the relative solitude. Barbara often rides her bicycle around town, or even a short ways into the desert, and frequently accompanies her bandmates on their desert ramblings. Barbara's bicycle is her main source of transportation; while she has a driver's license, she does not have a car, and her parents let her use the family vehicles only on special occasions.

Barbara maintains a blog, which is what she devotes the bulk of her remaining free time that's not caught up in schoolwork or socializing towards. She started this in the middle of middle school, and while it was at first a more simple personal diary, she now fills it with album reviews and philosophical musings as well as more typical updates about her life. She doesn't have much of a following—even most of her friends are intermittent readers at best—but Barbara enjoys using the written medium to organize her thoughts and finds having a written record of her life and thoughts fascinating.

Now in her senior year, Barbara is still a successful student. While she is no longer reliably at the top of every single class, her natural intelligence and the still-notable effort she does put in typically lands her in the top fifteen percent or so in every subject. Her favorite subjects are math and science, as she is very good at finding patterns and is comforted by answers that are unambiguously right or wrong. To Barbara's great frustration, she sometimes struggles in English, mostly due to overstretching and reading too deeply into things, leading her to make unsubstantiated claims. She also takes choir class as an elective, and is generally successful, though her eye is mostly towards improving her vocals as a backup singer for the band.

Barbara's friend group now is more diverse than it has been in the past. Her closest friends are the others in the band, because she attaches a lot of importance to their shared artistic endeavor. Her other friends tend to be a mix of slackers and academics—those who follow a laidback philosophy, or those who can appreciate her intelligence. She remains a little bit stuck up on this subject, and so favors friends she feels smarter than; she can actually become a little unpleasant if she feels like her intellectual status is being threatened. This has left her with a reputation for pretension among most of the school not in her close circles, and means she does have a good number of classmates she doesn't like, though this dislike rarely informs her actions beyond prompting some passive-aggression. Barbara is generally an open-minded person, largely something learned from her parents, who skew unusually liberal for the area. Many of Barbara's friends come from traditionally marginalized groups, especially the LGBTQ spectrum, so she tends to take quite an interest in that sphere of social issues. She's quite vocal about her beliefs if the opportunity arises, both to support her friends and because it gives her a great opportunity to feel comparatively enlightened.

When it comes to interacting with her friends, Barbara tends to be friendly, engaging, and outspoken, though she also likes to show off, either casually mentioning her successes or bringing up her particular areas of expertise to better display her aptitude in them. She especially delights in confusing others with her favorite music or her interpretations of art. She sometimes can push or tease friends a little roughly, believing that she knows her way around social situations well enough to get away with it, but if she ever figures out she's caused offense to someone whose opinion she cares about, she will quickly and genuinely apologize. Barbara has a somewhat offbeat and occasionally inappropriate sense of humor, developed largely from hanging out with her brother and his friends, but for the most part knows how to keep it under control and what the boundaries are in any given situation.

She has dabbled somewhat in the excesses of her less academic associates, mostly in the form of occasional light drug and alcohol use, but tends to keep such things infrequent and very under wraps. She's seen the damage overindulgence can cause, and while her brother never ended up in too much trouble, she's very afraid of ending up in hot water with her parents; the thought of being viewed the same way her brother was is extremely distressing to her.

Barbara is on good terms with her family. She visits her grandparents regularly, though less so than when she was younger. Her brother, who has pulled his life together somewhat and still lives in town, sometimes comes to her shows, though he rarely visits her at home due to lingering negative conflict with their parents. Her father is quite supportive of her role in the band, tapping into his own nostalgia for his days on the road and living vicariously through her. Her mother is a little bit less enthused by the whole thing—she's worried that the others may be trouble, but gives Barbara the benefit of the doubt. Barbara's parents in general don't keep her on too tight a leash; while they were very protective of her and provided a lot of hands-on guidance when she was younger, as Barbara proved that she could make her own choices and still find success, they relaxed their hold.

One of the few areas of dispute between Barbara and her parents is her name. She hates it, finding it old-fashioned and unfortunate. Barbara insists on being called by nicknames in school—she answers to "Bee" or "BB" (for the two Bs in "Barbara") but never to "Barb," "Barbie," or "Babs." She allows her grandparents to call her by her given name without fuss, understanding what it means especially to her grandmothers, but tries to coax her parents into using her nicknames, a wish they've grown to generally honor. Barbara picked up this dislike for her given name very early in life, when she got made fun of in elementary school on occasion for having the same name as a Barbie doll, and so most everyone knows her by her nicknames—some of her less-close acquaintances don't even know her given name. She's considered changing her name legally, but has decided not to until she's no longer dependent on her family at the very least, being aware that doing so would represent a serious source of conflict.

Barbara has been accepted to the school of music at the University of Arizona. She hopes to translate her musical interests and talents into a career—ideally, she'd love for her band to make it, but she realizes the unlikelihood of that and is looking towards other options for a career, perhaps as a session musician.

Advantages: Barbara is smart. She has a solid core group of friends, especially in the band. She's in pretty good shape from her time hiking and riding her bike around, and she's been camping enough to have basic outdoors skills, though she's by no means very specialized.
Disadvantages: Barbara thinks she's a lot smarter than she is, and, more dangerously, she thinks she's a lot smarter than almost everyone else too. This leaves her very open both to overestimating her own abilities and underestimating her opposition. She's also pretty well known among her classmates both for being a little stuck up and for overstepping her abilities, which may make it very hard for her to convince others to listen to her even if she does know what she's doing.