Armando Reyes*

[BenZenE7811†]

Name: Armando Reyes
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Baseball Team, Gay-Straight Alliance, Mathletes, Fashion Club

Appearance: Armando stands at 5'9 and weighs in at 185 pounds. His buzzed haircut is bordering on cleanly shaven which leaves him with a fuzz that covers his entire head. He has black eyebrows that are always freshly done, dark brown eyes, and a cleanly barbered five o'clock shadow that results in a scruffy look. Both of his ears are pierced with small silver hoops that he cleans meticulously. He has medium broad shoulders which are less than of that of a seasoned high school football player but more prominent than your average 18 year old due to his involvement in baseball. His arms are what people notice the most about him. Because he works on his swinging and throwing during the off season his arms have defined muscle. They can definitely be seen through his clothes and uniform. His chest is not as defined as his arms but he figures he will wait until college to properly define his pecs which are covered with a generous amount of hair for an 18 year old. Armando has no qualms about showing this off to exude the "manly" look. His stomach is the least defined portion of his upper body showing no signs of abs/muscle. His features give him an overall stocky baseball player look. He has tan skin due to where he grew up and also because of his Mexican ancestry. His skin lightens during the rainy and cold Washington winters but returns once baseball season starts in the spring (or he hits up the tanning bed). His legs are solid but nothing like what he dreams of one day becoming when he plays college ball.

Armando's fashion sense is from both sides of the spectrum. For every sleeveless basketball jersey he has Armando also has a designer tank top, which both show off his arms and upper body. For every baseball jersey he owns (practically every team in MLB) he also owns a fashionable button-down shirt with matching tie and slacks of all colors and patterns. He loves shoes, everything from a nice clean pair of black low-top converse to his prized pair of Louboutin men's dress shoes with the famous red sole. Last but not least two accessories he could not live without are a watch and a nice pair of sunglasses both of which he is never seen not wearing.

Biography: Armando (or 'Mando as his teammates have called him) was born on the outskirts of Waco, Texas. His father owned a successful welding business and his mother was a professor of Anthropology at Baylor University specializing in the folklore of modern and historic Latin America. Throughout his childhood both of his parents instilled a bit of their interests in him. His father would take him to help on metal working projects and his mother would take him to lectures about how certain modern groups of people in Latin America still carried their polytheistic views even in our advanced age.

He loved being exposed to both interests but he felt as if his parents were competing with each other to see who he was going to favor. Secretly he favored the academics more than metal working but he would never tell his father that because he did not want to hurt his father's feelings. Armando's father always felt subpar to his wife because she was well educated and respected in her field while he was a normal blue collar worker who happened to turn what he loved into a business. Long story short they met while his mother was waitressing at a diner to support herself through graduate school that his father used to go to on his lunch breaks.

This always wore on Armando but somehow the family stayed together. He remembers hearing his parents fight with one another and most of the time it was about him. They always attempted to compete for his attention and tried to play down the other's methods of parenting. His father would want to take him to do one activity on the weekend and his mother wanted him to tag along with her to do something else. Armando eventually developed a method where he would mentally flip a coin on his head and go with that rather than trying to please either parent. Armando has two older sisters, Patricia, 37 and Veronica 32 but they moved out when he was young. He used to have a strong relationship with them but once they eventually moved out their relationship calmed down. He remembers once in a while his sisters would take him to get lunch or go to the movies when he was a kid. Armando always looked forward to these sibling bonding moments since it meant he did not have to choose between mom and dad. Veronica mentioned once that their parents waited a while to have Armando because they wanted to try for a boy once his mother's career was settled. Armando always brushed this aside and believed he was a huge accident.

In order to keep the quiet in the family he chose an activity that both his parents had no expertise in, baseball. He played everything from T-Ball up to travel ball. Unfortunately because of his parent's busy careers, Armando usually ended up hitching along with one of his teammates and their parents. Due to his involvement in baseball and living in Texas he developed a pretty prominent tan which stayed year round, in part due to him being Mexican.  

When he was traveling with his baseball teams as a young kid, he spent much of his time around other boys. At age 12 he came to the conclusion that he felt more attraction towards males than females. He loved watching the older teams play and thus fell in love more with the game and with the boys who played the game. Shortly after he came to this realization he came out to his mother who was very supportive and said to always be yourself because people do not like a fake person. His father was not at all accepting until when Armando was 13 and walking home from school when some students in his grade started beating him. They had heard rumors of Armando interest in guys but acted on word of mouth rather than fact. Armando suffered a concussion, swollen face and a broken leg. His mother's students eventually rallied together and drew attention to local media. The students were trying to draw attention to the gaybashing that had occurred but also the violence that was present in their communities. The culprits were eventually charged with assault and then appropriately sentenced. After he healed his father did a complete 180 and fully accepted his son. He could not believe people could be this vicious. His father eventually came to the conclusion he only has one life and one son. He felt like the attack was his wake up call to enjoy the time he has with his son no matter who he turned out to be. After a long period of physical the doctor told him he probably would be able to play college baseball but doubted on a professional career. Armando could not take it and became very lackluster about life. His parents, noticing their son's detachment from life decided to leave Texas and move to Washington to give everyone a fresh start.

His father decided to move his business up to Washington and concentrate on metal working for ships. His mother was so well respected in her anthropology field that a university faculty position was practically made for her.

Fully accepting his professional baseball career was a small chance, his parents fully accepting his sexuality, and being in a new school made Armando flourish. The move really put his life into perspective that he needed to take life in stride and be happy with what he has. He also realized sometimes plans do not go accordingly but you have to regroup and come up with a new plan. He viewed the move as a new opportunity and did not want this to pass him by Before his freshman year started, Armando began working with a trainer to help him get into shape for baseball season the following spring. Armando played most positions but once he entered high school he became an excellent first baseman because he loved being in the game and getting the action. Because of this he is known on the baseball team pretty well and in the school when the team wins games. He had his sights set on the varsity team. Armando thought it was a win win situation; if he did not make varsity at least he would look very attractive with his tan skin from Texas. One of his backup plans is to pursue modeling for a career.

Armando also decided to concentrate on mathematics and join the mathletes in high school because he applied it to baseball so easily. Trajectories, wind resistance, and even the kinesiology of baseball players fascinated him (not to mention their bodies). He also had a secret love for everything clothing related. In fact the reason why he was beaten up at 13 was because he was reading GQ and DETAILS magazine with many handsome men gracing the covers. They noticed him reading these periodicals while he was waiting for his mother to pick him up after school.  He saw the math in the patterns, structure, and design of clothing as well. Armando slowly began introducing casual business style clothing to his wardrobe that previously solely contained sportswear.

Armando joined the fashion club in high school in hopes that maybe he could write for a fashion magazine sometime in the future as another career plan. As he grew older and put on more muscle and weight he loved showing off his arms with a Diesel tank top, or displaying his hairy chest with a button up shirt from Armani

This shaped how he acted as well. He decided ever since he moved to Washington that he wanted to show that gay males not only could have interests in fashion, theater, etc but that they could also excel in sports, math, or other subjects predominantly straight male dominated. Armando was heavily influenced by Riley on the Canadian hit show Degrassi. His involvement in the baseball team, mathletes, fashion club, and eventually the gay straight alliance helped him make many friends in many different circles. Many of the people who hung out with him would not have hung out with each other if it were not for Armando. His peers viewed him as a bridge between social circles. Armando would never coin himself as "popular" but most people do. One trait Armando did admit to was picking up on occasion a bitchy attitude compliments of watching Project Runway and RuPaul's Drag Race. It is kept to a minimum but every once in a while he diva-outs even on the baseball field. Most people view him to after one of these outbursts as unnecessarily melodramatic. While acquaintances may turn their cheek towards him during these times his true friends realize he is just letting off steam.

Armando does not like to cause trouble but he loves to know what is going on. For him it is easy since he has a diverse set of friends. If someone is spreading rumors, Armando will know what they are but won't tell anyone. He thrives on knowing what went down in Aurora High School but would never stir the pot himself. Armando just wants everyone to get along and enjoy their final year in high school. Sometimes having too many hands in too many pots can be tiresome. Last but not least Armando fantasizes about finding another athlete such as himself but as each day passes his dream slowly fizzles out.

Advantages: Very likeable and trustworthy because of his extended circle of friends. Armando also has upper body strength and is able to throw items with brute force due to his baseball training. He also has retained knowledge of tools used while working in his father's welding business.
Disadvantages: Worries too much about a group of people as a whole and not the individuals apart of the group. Due to his overlapping social circles he would rather please ten people subpar than please two people superbly. Because of this he may end up taking a bullet in the chest if he ends up stepping on too many toes at once.  The fact he hears gossip and never divulges to anyone could pinpoint him as a conspirator or "mole". Every attempt he has show himself off physically could potentially annoy the other guys at Aurora.