Post by Lori on Apr 26, 2016 13:10:50 GMT -5
BASICS
Name
Ophelia Carter Smithsonson
Nicknames
She goes by Lia to just about everyone. Her best friends Jackie and Mai sometimes refer to her as Lia Bo Bia and LiLi respectively.
Age/Birthday
turning 17 on September 10
Job
Student/Flirt/BFF
SCHOOL
Class
Senior at Salem High School
Grades
Good grades? Good grades are for smart people and goody two shoes. Lia has better things to do than worry about a couple of D's.
Friends
Her BFF is Mai Yamashita who she's known since third grade. It's basically a story of opposites attract; the girls balance each other out. Lia is determined to help Mai let loose a little and maybe even hook her up with a guy.
Lia's BGFF is Jackson "Jackie" Krantz who moved to Salem in middle school. She envies him a lot for having some supportive family members and is the only person who knows Lia's bi. She won't hesitate to help him hook up with a cute guy either...even though her 'gaydar' is just going up to a guy and asking if he likes boys or girls!
Enemies
Anyone who disses her or messes with her BFFs
Orientation
Closeted bisexual
Status
In flirting
APPEARANCE
Body
For someone with a young face and can get mistaken for a 14-year-old or possibly younger, Lia stands pretty tall at 5'8 1/2. Her body type in general probably doesn't help her look much older either, since she is a bit flat-chested. Sometimes she'll try to make it look like she has bigger boobs by putting tissues or bubble wrap in her bra. Her skin is fairly pale and she sunburns extremely easily; Lia hates she can never get a good tan as a result.
Eye Color
Brown
Hair
She likes to grow her hair out, typically keeping it past shoulder level or at chest level. Her locks are naturally thin, though they do have a natural wave; the waviness is much more apparent when her hair is drying after a shower. The rest of the time it's pretty much pin straight. She loves to take a strand of hair and twist it in her fingers, especially when she's flirting.
Style
A girlie girl through and through. She likes skirts, outfits that are cute and stylish, and sometimes something that might make her look older. 99% of the time anything Lia wears will be accompanied by heels and, 100% of the time, she'll be wearing makeup.
Play by
Bailee Madison
PERSONALITY
Positives
Charming; Relaxed; Determined; Honest; Sarcastic; Flirtatious; Romantic; Speaks her mind
Negatives
Insecure; Selfish; Gossipy; Superficial; Sarcastic; Materialistic; Selfish; Critical [more so of others than self but will put herself down when rejected]
Likes
Makeup; Hot dates; Gossip magazines; Heels; Her dog; Jewelry; Her BFFs; Demi Lovato; Hot hookups/relations; Mani/Pedis; Taking selfies; Hot cocoa/chocolate; Dressing up; Knowing everything; Playing matchmaker for her BFFs
Dislikes
Loud noises; Parent/teacher conferences; Burping; Homophobes; Being alone on V-Day; Heights; Not looking her best; Actually getting in trouble; Church; Long nails; Gym class; Ugly sweaters; Rain; Anyone messing with Jackie or Mai; Rumors [about her]
Nervous Habits
Whenever something bad happens in Lia's life (rejection, feeling bad about herself, Jackie and Mai leaving her for Metric) she picks at her eyebrows. It's almost never noticeable, as she's very good with makeup and making everything look natural. It's a constant battle for her not to reach towards her forehead whenever she gets a bad feelings or questions herself. Only Jackie and Mai know about her condition, as she's insisted they don't say anything. Though once in a while they will try to suggest an alternative habit for her, nothing else sticks.
HISTORY
Family
Raymond Norris Smithsonson, Food Service - Although Raymond has a very good college education, for whatever reason he'd never been able to secure a job in his chosen field. As a result he started with a couple of part time jobs, one in fast food and one in retail. He steadily transferred from one part time job to another until he had enough experience to apply for an assistant manager. It worked in his favor and, although he is now a manager full time in food service his hours still change every week. Sometimes he may be working all day, other times he may only get the minimal hours. Still, the discount he receives helps the family eat and he does it all for his family. Raymond is a typical man's man. He loves food, sports and drinking. As a result, when it was revealed his third child would be a girl, Raymond had no idea how to deal with that. He didn't know anything about dresses or boy advice or...lady parts. As a result he's not as close with Lia like he is with his boys, but it doesn't mean he cares about her any less. He's the typical tough parent who tries to do what's best for his kids. Overall he's very good with people and very tolerant of everyone that comes in through the store. He tries to show the same tolerance with his own kids, whether they get a bad grade, get in trouble or whatever. As far as Lia's concerned, what Raymond doesn't know can't hurt him.
Jessica Rowe Smithsonson, Advice Columnist - Jessica is very much like Lia. She thinks she knows everything and what's best for everyone. Even if it really isn't right she'll stand by her decision. Making a living of writing an advice column, and occasionally fills in for the gossip columnist on the website, Jessica very much believes in everything she says. She has a tendency to talk down to people and be very pushy. That includes her religion; she very much pushes her beliefs on people even if it's not welcome or they don't care. That is exactly the reason why, although Jessica very much spoils Lia, Lia is afraid to come out as possibly bisexual. She doesn't want to disappoint her mother in any way or be looked at differently. It makes it even harder when one of her brothers has a similar mindset. Even though Jessica is not close with any of the boys (save for Damon who's training to become a pastor), she is very much a helicopter parent to all of her children and doesn't want to see any of them turn out the 'wrong' way. She does not approve of Lia being friends with Jackie at all, so much so she won't even allow him in the house.
John Cole Smithsonson, Yoga/Zumba instructor, Lacrosse coach - Obviously the parents had to go classic for their oldest son's name. John is 24 and a recent college graduate. When he's not coaching lacrosse to elementary school kids, he's working as a yoga and zumba instructor. He is very active, tall and fit. Being the oldest, John basically acts like he's in charge when the parents aren't around . As of four months ago he proposed to his girlfriend Kayla and they are in the process of planning a wedding as well as moving to LA, closer to where her family is located.
Damon Curtis Smithsonson, College Student, Pastor-in-training - Damon is almost 21 and a sophomore in college. He's the closest out of the boys to Jessica, sharing her sense of religion and, to an extent, her pushiness. He wants to spread the word of God and whatever and condemn those who have sinned. He hopes to officially become a pastor upon graduation in a couple of years. He very much looks down on his siblings when he thinks they did something wrong and always reminds them that as long as they apologize, God will forgive them. He, much like Jessica, shares a disdain for Jackie and thinks Lia should find better friends. When he's not preaching he's focusing on his studies. He also goes to the gym twice a week to stay in shape.
Fallon Cane Smithsonson, Student - The second youngest at 12 years old. He's in sixth grade and very much into sports. He loves watching multiple games with Raymond and mostly plays soccer and football. He's at the age where he's starting to get into girls and hopes that him being a jock will help get him a lot of girlfriends. Being kind of a cocky kid, Fallon tends to get into trouble but is often off the hook because he's an important asset to his teams. He also manages to stay out of trouble at home despite the fact that he sneaks online to message girls. Fallon wants to be a pro athlete when he grows up and believes he has what it takes to do that even though he's not invincible.
Messiah Clark Smithsonson, Student - Also known as Sai, he is the youngest member of the family at 8 years old and is a second grader. Obviously named because of his mother's love of the Church, though Raymond did have a say in the middle name. He does suffer from asthma so sports are not completely his thing. He prefers to sit in front of the computer playing Minecraft. Sai also likes Minions, lollipops and giraffes. He hates sharing and has a habit of being a bit too rough with the dog.
Vehicle: Lia drives John's old car, a 2006 punch buggy. She has a number of bumper stickers on the back as well as an air freshener and fuzzy dice on the rearview mirror. She'd love to paint it pink or add some sort of color to it, but apparently she needs to spend her money on better things...like makeup!
History
In a family of mostly boys, the only girl could either turn out to be a complete tomboy or a major girlie girl. Lia has always been the latter. She never liked having to put up with her brothers, watch sports, listen to their opinions or possibly have to wrestle with them. If they could just tone down their opinions and stop being so gross, Lia might like them a little more. But in reality the only boy in the house she can really stand is her dog Jonas.
Lia is essentially the princess in the house. She is completely spoiled by Jessica and occasionally by Raymond as well, though he has always remained the stricter parent. Lia didn't have to compete with her brothers over toys or boy things so she's pretty much used to getting anything she wants. The other advantage of being the only girl? While the boys are so busy having all their activities and being, well, boys, Lia could get away with just about anything. Broken vase in the living room? It was probably her brothers wrestling. No more cold cuts in the fridge for lunch? No, it wasn't Lia taking any extras the day before so her brothers wouldn't get their hands on it; one of the boys probably snuck a midnight snack. TV on all the time? Probably one game after another.
Boys outside of the family were a different story for Lia. She never had any problems flirting with them nor was there ever a time when she was uninterested in them. She had her first kiss in second grade with a boy named Grant and her first 'boyfriend' was a kid named Ryder. Lia liked pushing her luck with these different boys, whether it was flirting with them, trying to get their attention or 'going on a date with them' under the monkey bars. Girls were another story. Lia never considered herself interested in girls when she was younger because she couldn't stand them. They were annoying, catty and caused way too much drama. Not to mention they could possibly take one of her boys from her. They'd probably find some way to show her up or make her look bad. Lia was too good and too mature to deal with their crap.
The only girl Lia ever got along with was Mai, probably because they were so different and Lia never really felt threatened by her (brains aside). They met in third grade and were paired together for an assignment at one point. That was how Lia learned how bad Mai was around people and how much the girl needed help. Not enough help for her to actually be a threat to Lia or to get all the guys' attention, but enough help so she could come out of her shell and be less of a wet sponge. Lia decided that she'd take Mai under her wing. It was weird at first because they were so different and Lia would push Mai to her limits; so much so that they did get in trouble a few times. Or, at least they would have had it not been for Mai being such a good and trustworthy girl. La knew she could use someone like that, but she also knew that Mai needed someone like her in her life. The fact that they were so different pretty much canceled each other out. Even though Mai's parents never liked Lia and told Mai to stop hanging around her, Lia was never bothered by it. It just meant that Lia needed her help even more.
As confident as comfortable as Lia can come across, every person has their insecurities. Lia's, like most, started in middle school. In seventh grade she had a boyfriend named Ken. The two were pretty serious (by middle school standards) and did a lot together. Lia really liked Ken and wanted to spend a lot of time with him. The only problem was Mai. Mai didn't like Ken at all and didn't think he was good with Lia. She never really gave a good reason other than that, as far as Lia was considered. So it could only mean one thing - Mai was jealous. Why wouldn't she be anyway? Deciding she didn't have time for that, she started spending all of her time with Ken, essentially dumping Mai as a friend. That must have been around the time Jackie moved to Salem. He and Lia had a couple of classes together, sitting next to each other in one of them. They didn't associate much until towards the end of seventh grade; that was when Lia and Ken broke up. Lia thought she and Ken would at least be together until high school and they did share intimacies. But they broke up when it was revealed Ken cheated on her through most of their relationship until Lia would give him some.
Lia constantly questioned what she did wrong. Was she not pretty enough? Wasn't she a good girlfriend? Was she too dumb for him? What was wrong with her that Ken had to go off with any other girl? Lia did try going to her mother for advice, but only got the gossipy advice columnist; she said Ken was the one with the problem but somehow Lia didn't believe her. She took out her frustrations and self doubt on herself. It started with scratching her forehead; at some point her hand always found its way to her eyebrows. And then she started picking. It wasn't too bad at first; just a nervous habit whenever she thought about her insecurities or Ken. And then whenever she saw him in the hallway, especially with another girl, the urge got stronger. Although Lia did wear makeup most of the time, she started wearing it more and learning how to use it to cover up what she was doing. The only thing that helped her get through that tough time and to calm down her urges was Jackie. He found her upset and vulnerable one day, something Lia hated guys seeing about her. But he was still there. Lia leaned on Jackie a lot during that time and has no idea where she would be or how bad she could have gotten without him. She wanted to help make him happy just like he was able to do with her (although her matchmaking skill weren't quite developed at that point). She had to admit though, some of the girls she thought would work with Jackie really were cute and actually friendly.
But something was still missing. Lia didn't have her best girl friend. She never admitted it to Jackie that she had a best friend before him. What she didn't know was that Jackie had also made friends with Mai. Over the summer before eighth grade, Jackie brought the girls back together. He invited them over to his house and, although it was awkward at first, things did get better. It wasn't until Mai noticed something different about Lia that things really turned around. Of course Lia couldn't hide anything from her best friend of almost four years. She tried to make it better by making it seem like it was nothing but Mai knew better. And Jackie questioned why Lia would do something like that to herself; she was so much better than that. Lia apologized for ditching Mai and that she was right. That was also the day Jackie came out to them. Being raised under her roof, most people would automatically ditch Jackie as a friend and go all Christian on him. But Lia wasn't like her family, her mother or brother in that way specifically. Jackie had been such an amazing friend to her and there was no way she could look at him different just because he liked guys. And, if she was being completely honest, she was relieved to find out she wasn't a horrible matchmaker! The three of them had been best friends from that point on.
The three were inseparable throughout their last year of middle school and, with the three of them together, Lia was slowly starting to get better with her urges. Things took a slight turn when it came time for high school. Jackie was accepted to Metric for music. Lia was upset about it and didn't want him to leave them even though it was just a different school in the same area. The girls didn't see Jackie as much during his transition to Metric; he had a lot of classes and he was making some good friends there. Overall, things were still ok. At least, until he started dating some skank named Robby. Lia and Mai couldn't stand her. While Mai didn't want to open her mouth and cause drama, Lia did not once hold back her disdain for Robby. Fortunately they did eventually break up and Jackie came out to everyone. Lia was thrilled with him for being so comfortable in his skin and he could finally date someone worthwhile - and she could try to hook up both of her friends with cute guys! The thing was, once Lia's mom found out Jackie was gay, they refused to let him come over. They thought Jackie would give Lia ideas and that she should maintain pure values (whatever that meant). Lia never cared about Jackie's sexuality so, even though she abided by the rules to not bring him to the house, she didn't stop hanging out with him. What her family doesn't know won't hurt them. That aside, things still seemed to be looking up for the BFFs.
And then Mai was accepted to Metric. Sure, it was her parents' idea, but Mai was still going along with it. Why was Lia being ditched again? Why didn't her friends want to be around her every day? Junior year of high school was supposed to be one of the toughest years; she couldn't get through it without her friends! Even though Jackie still saw her and they could meet up on Metric's campus easy, Mai was being Mai and throwing herself into her studies. Stupid parents for making her do that. Lia's trich started acting up again and she hated every minute of it. The only comfort she had when her friends weren't around was little Jonas. Actually, Jonas was what got Lia talking to a girl in the first place. It was at the park and Lia happened to be walking him at the same time the girl was walking her dog. Lia honestly didn't remember the girl's name; she tried to push it out of her mind. But the thing was, the chick actually helped Lia feel a little better and made her forget about everything for a couple of hours. They saw each other a few times after that, although nothing ever really came out of it except a kiss on the cheek. Lia should have been disgusted with it except...she kind of liked it. She didn't feel the way her mother or Damon thought she should be feeling.
One day when it was just Jackie and Lia, Lia swallowed her pride and asked him how he knew he liked guys. Lia admitted to the kiss and at first said it didn't mean anything. It shouldn't mean anything. But she knew she could trust Jackie to tell it to her straight, that there was a chance she was interested in girls on some level. To this day Jackie is the only person who knows Lia is bisexual. Lia just couldn't bring herself to tell Mai and let her worry or to have the risk of being looked at differently. Just like she swore at one point to not say a word about Jackie being gay, Jackie promised not to say anything about Lia to anyone, not even their best friend. Lia knew it must have been hard on him, but she believed it was the right thing. And she knew that the next time she saw Mai, Mai would let her have it for going at her eyebrows again.
Although Mai did go into mothering/lecturing mode the next time, she did also compliment Lia on how much better she'd gotten at covering it up than before. That if they weren't friends for so long Mai would've never noticed a thing. Mai and Jackie agreed that Lia should go into cosmetology - which Metric happened to have a program for. Lia was immediately on bored. She had a whole plan in her mind: she would go to Metric College with her two besties; major in cosmetology and earn a license, open up a salon right next to a bakery that Mai would open and next to Jackie's future music studio. The girl dreams big, even if it may not all happen exactly like that. For now, her goal is to get through her last year of high school with good enough grades to get into Metric - and maybe practice makeup on her friends to make them look hawt so they could get a good hookup! Even though all three friends have their own problems or drama at some point, Lia knows that when they're all together they can get through anything.
OOC
More
∞Lia is closeted bisexual although she leans slightly more towards boys
∞While Mai spends a lot of time on Metric's campus after classes to focus on work or clubs, Lia will join her and Jackie to be on the hunt for hot guys
∞Lia and her brothers all share C middle names. Raymond and Jessica didn't even realize it was a theme until Lia was born. They ultimately decided to stick with it.
∞She's had her dog, Jonas, since middle school. He's a golden retriever/husky mix. Sometimes when she joins her friends, Lia will bring Jonas with her. He's like an honorary fourth member of their group.
∞Her young face is a blessing and a curse. Lia doesn't like being mistaken for a kid; however because she does appear so innocent no one will believe that Lia would get into any sort of trouble.
∞She is very good with makeup; she hides her trich very well when she feels it acting up. Lia would love to go to Metric for cosmetology next year, especially if Jackie and Mai will be staying there for college.
Playlist
∞Confident - Demi Lovato
∞Miss Movin On - Fifth Harmony
∞Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon
∞Blank Space - Taylor Swift
∞Bye Bye Bye - Backstreet Boys
∞When I Was Your Man - Bruno Mars
∞Love Story - Taylor Swift
∞Heart Attack - Demi Lovato
∞Set Fire to the Rain - Adele