Brett Palmer*

[Cherry†]

((Because time is running out to officialize my other characters before v4 starts! Or, well, it's not, but my internal panic-clock thinks it is and my panicking overrides all.))

Name: Brett Felicity Palmer
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: 12th/senior
School: Bayview Secondary
Hobbies/Interests: Team sports (volleyball, soccer,) hanging out with friends, occasionnaly video games and other such nerdy pursuits—although she probably wouldn't admit it. Dabbles in knitting, scrapbooking, and other arts and crafts.

Appearance: If, upon hearing her name, someone expected a boy or at least a tomboyish girl, this person would be hopelessly wrong. Brett is tall, slender, and willowy, with the lean figure of a dancer or a gymnast. She looks either ethereal or just colorless, depending on who you ask, with washed-out blue eyes, white-blond hair and pale, near-translucent skin. Nearly awkward in her height—5' 9"—and her shoe size—11—Brett can occasionally be found tripping into and over things in quick succession, but when there's nothing in her way she's fairly graceful.

Her lips and nose are small and delicate, but her eyes are large, heavy-lidded, and somewhat outweigh the rest of her face. Brett's hair is thin and cut manageably short, to somewhere around jaw level, so that it almost floats around her equally thin face in wisps. She wears make-up, but only a minimal amount—mostly to cover up pimples and such things, and occasionally a light layer of lip gloss or blush.

Brett puts work into looking put-together. She dresses well, if a little too old for her—her only real concession to teenage fashion is a penchant for scarves. Most of the rest of her wardrobe is professional and mature, featuring white button-down shirts, unadorned dress pants, and variations thereof.

Biography: Brett is the second oldest of five children. With that many people in a relatively small house, money is tight, but they're still out of debt by a comfortable margin. Brett's siblings include Miranda, Tyler, Joshua, and Connie, 21, 16, 13 and 12 respectively—the age gap is only one of the reasons they tend to fight, but also because all her siblings turned out very differently. The role of mediator is normally fulfilled by Brett's father, John, who is a constantly smiling man, an elementary school teacher near where they live. Her mother, Shannon, an electrician, spends more time sitting back and cleaning up the aftermaths of the fights.

They have all lived in Bayview all their lives, and Brett has known many of the kids she goes to school with since she was tiny. Her life has been uneventful; upon being asked what the greatest thing she ever did was, Brett can't answer. This doesn't bother her in the slightest. She's present-orientated and as far as she's concerned the past and the future are of little import. Whatever she does now is all she cares about, which may influence her viciously strict conscience.

Both her parents are very sporty people, very active, and have kept their kids active in turn since they were born. Brett took to this with the greatest enthusiasm, and still loves team sports, although she's not nearly competitive or ambitious enough to play anywhere near professionally—she plays to have fun, not to win, which is why she still isn't in any sports teams. Her approach to the game stopped being accepted on official sports teams when she was in about tenth grade. Brett is the kind of person who asks whether someone is okay after she knocks them to the ground, or elbows them in the face trying, regardless of whether or not the assault is coach-sanctioned.

Although she isn't incredibly outgoing, she is cheerful and sweet, and will talk easily to someone if they approach her first. Brett gives everyone the benefit of the doubt upon meeting them. Her family is lenient Protestant, and she was raised to tolerate everybody, but she still can't help occasionally getting flustered when talking with gays, lesbians, party people, and other known sinners. This same rule applies to people she really likes and wants to impress. If Brett wants to get to know somebody, she tends to pine away in a corner for them for about two weeks before she can bring herself to talk to them.

Once she's close to somebody, however, the optimistic and enthusiastic side of Brett gets dialled up to eleven. Around familiar people she's giddy, loud, and very easily amused. Although in a strange environment she tries to keep herself together, alone with friends Brett regularly drifts off in the middle of sentences, is distracted by butterflies and daydreams about anything that crosses her path.

However, even when first meeting someone she's often a little spacey. A person could mistake this for lack of intelligence or a bad memory. They'd be right on both counts. Brett is neither book smart nor street smart. She maintains a C average, and often barely passes her courses, especially those which require memorization of facts, like science or social studies. She gas no idea what she wants to do with her life and, besides, rarely plans for anything beyond a couple of months in the future. Anything after that is only a dim possibility.

Brett is easygoing, laid-back to the point of fault, and doesn't get involved in debates that don't have anything to do with her. When she does have ideas on something, she's not much better—she hates conflict and arguments, so she won't usually stand up for her opinions and prefers to just go along with whatever everybody else decides. Brett thinks it's very important that everyone get along, and will sacrifice a lot to that end. She will do the same for her family and friends without much thought.

She loves working with her hands, and plays around with a lot of different crafts and hobbies to that end-- everything from card houses to woodworking. When she's nervous, or stressed, she picks up her knitting needles to keep herself busy. Brett has a guilty fascination with first-person shooter games, which she doesn't usually indulge, partly because all her friends are better at them than her and partly because she is convinced they're terrible for her. The same goes for Survival of the Fittest, which several of her acquaintances follow. The reason she hasn't given in to these guilty pleasures? Her conscience is a far worse disciplinarian than her parents could ever be—she's very easy to guilt into things. Brett never swears, and tries very, very hard never to lie.

Advantages: Brett has no real enemies in the school, and she's in the right middle ground not to be a target either for those looking to pick off the strong or those looking to pick off the weak. She works well in a group and is always willing to help others out. She is fairly quick and agile. With luck, the side of her that loves the first-person shooter will come to the forefront when forced to protect herself or others.
Disadvantages: Too skinny to be strong, clumsy in a crowded environment like a forest, and has no fighting skills whatsoever; physically, Brett isn't in the best shape for the game. She's not competitive, even in these conditions, and will probably defend herself only if she or someone else near her is attacked. Brett is far too trusting. She's unfocused and doesn't know where she's going or what she wants to do next at any given point. And it's just as likely that her conscience will override all survival instincts as the other way around, if not likelier.