YEAR ONE

[riledup]

GENERAL

NAME: Riley Mae Stamper
NICKNAMES: Ri, Riley Mae, Ri-Ri, Hurricane Riley
AGE/DOB/ZODIAC: 16 / August 1, 1997 / Leo
BLOOD STATUS: Halfblood of some sort. She has no direct Muggle relatives in her life, but everyone says they’re half this or half that or whatever.
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Female, she/her
SEXUALITY: Currently identifies as lesbian, but that has fluctuated in the past and will continue to fluctuate in the future.
HOMETOWN: Nikolaevsk, AK. She's one of, like, seven non-Russian people there, and the other six are just in her family.

Nikolaevsk is a mostly Wizarding village, tucked away on the Kenai Peninsula, built up in the late sixties by a group of Russian witches and wizards masquerading as adherents to a centuries old religion. It’s main Muggle deterrents aren’t spells and sorcery (though there are a few creative spells on the general store, the only place to stock your potions stores without going to Anchorage or the Lower 48), but isolation and snide looks. You don’t want a strange Russian witch dressed like an Old Believer giving you a snide look. It’ll scare you right back to a civilized city.

CONCEPT: Tiny terror from the tundra back from a rough year abroad.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE: Dyes her hair a bunch. Pink, blue, orange, red, sometimes a rainbow of colors. Not green, though. Green sticks. Wears too much lipstick and too many earrings. Doesn’t know when enough is enough with the accessorizing, basically. She pushes it with the dress code, too; unbuttons the shirt one button too far (don’t worry, she has a tank top underneath), rolls her skirt up and rips holes in her tights, wears heels when she should really just be wearing sneakers. She loses a lot of House points for her clothes. And she draws on herself (and friends) a lot, so she has fake doodle-tattoos on her left arm and legs.

HEIGHT: 4’11”

PB: Amanda Arcuri

PERSONALITY

LIKES: Parties. Music. Wine coolers. Attention. Drama. Doodling. Butts. All the cute butts. Kissing games at parties always.

DISLIKES: The COLD. Rules. Being told “no” because, um, excuse me? Boys taking their stupid shirts off. Monogamy, lol sry girls.

PERSONALITY:

Riley likes to be the center of attention. She has a hard time stepping back and saying, “Okay, your turn now!” It makes it hard for her to be purely happy for friends when they do well, because she wants to be doing well. Don't be surprised if your BEST FRIEND RILEY MAE suddenly gets jealous and passive aggressive when you succeed at something she's failed. She's not petty, you're petty! But she won't get actively aggressive toward you--that she saves for people who don't know when to stop. People who try to push her buttons just a little bit will get the full force of Hurricane Riley. Not that it's hard to push Riley's buttons, she's a prickly kid with a short temper. If you are a friend larger than her (read: all of her friends), then you have probably had to hold her back from trying to rip someone's face off.

Riley is contrary to the point where it doesn't even make sense. It goes against any and all common sense. When she was four and put her shoes on the wrong feet, she would loudly insist, "THAT'S THE WAY I LIKE THEM. THEY'RE COMFIER THAT WAY." If you imply she needs you or likes having you around, she pushes you away and goes, "Yeah no, OBVIOUSLY NOT." She needs to be right, because that's how you win arguments, and practically the only way Riley knows how to communicate is through arguments.

This is especially true in regards to authority figures. Riley is always spoiling for a fight, but adults make her feel edgy and likely to snap back. Yesenia was Riley's mother and headmistress, and any time an adult or a Person In Charge talks to her, she feels like it's coming down from her mother. She looks for the hidden bite in any conversation, even if it's complimentary and innocuous, even if there's nothing there, and a lot of the times she finds it.

Which makes her sound like someone no one would want to interact with. Ever. But Riley is social, Riley is fun, Riley likes bright colors and bouncy music and doodling on her friends. She doesn't like to take things seriously, okay, she so totally hates drama, you guys, and she just wants to be your friend. And, really, Riley has a sensitive side. It's buried under, like, twenty feet of concrete and she doesn't want to let anyone see it, but she is scared of being rejected, and works so hard to make sure no one rejects her first.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS:

Mother – Yesenia Puig – Headmistress of the Kenai School of Magic, grew up in San Diego, CA. She and Riley do not get along.

Father – Joe Stamper – Part-time librarian, full-time househusband. Grew up in Talkeetna, AK.

Siblings -

Shayne Tutiakoff – 30, older sister – Married and moved to San Diego

Taylor Stamper – 27, older brother

Angel Stamper – 24, older brother

Dakota Stamper – 21, older brother

Dylan Stamper – 18, older sister

HISTORY:

x. Riley Mae Stamper was the sixth child born to Joe and Yesenia. The first three children were born in the warm embrace of San Diego, California, where they met, where Yesenia grew up, where the sun shines all year long and the residents there don’t even have to worry about the economy because LA’s got that taken care of. The last three were born in the shitty, rainy, muddy arms of the Kenai Peninsula, where they only moved because, according to Joe, there are always job openings in Alaska.

“Plus,” he said, “the government gives you money just for living here!”

“They give you money to make up for having to live here,” Shayne, their eldest daughter, said with a pout. “Do you know how far away the nearest movie theater is? It’s in Canada.”

She was exaggerating, of course. The nearest movie theater was in Anchorage. Anchorage is much closer than Canada.

x. The Stamper household was loud. Shayne was 14 years old when her baby sister was born, and the shouting hasn't stopped since. There was the normal sibling fighting (the hair pulling, the toy destruction, the psychological torture), the parent-child fighting (clean your room Dakota, Angel what time did I say your curfew was?, YOU JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ME, MOM), and the constant noise that accompanied eight people just trying to live under the same roof. There was almost always someone up and doing something.

Little Riley Mae gleefully contributed to the volume of the household. When she cried, she got attention. When she shrieked, she got all the attention. Oh, yes. Yes, that was good. That was what she wanted.

x. It was easy for Riley's big brothers and sisters to get away with stuff. Shayne could sneak out because Mom and Dad had, like, a million babies to deal with, and Taylor could sneak booze because he was more subtle about it and Shayne was taking up any attention not already devoted to the kids, and Angel and Dakota slipped right in the middle there. By the time Dylan and Riley reached rebellious age, their parents were a little too wily and wary. But that didn't stop Riley from trying.

Despite how many times her mother caught her halfway out her bedroom window, or a friend's mom caught her on the roof of their house smoking stolen cigarettes, or she and a cute older high schooler got stuck in the snow past curfew and had to be dug out by one of their parents, Riley just kept trying. She wanted to push her mother's buttons, in school, out of school, everywhere she went. Even if she didn't have anything to yell at her about, she was always trying to start shit with her, as if to prove to her mother that you do not control me, and I am not you.

x. When Riley was six years old and already in trouble at school, it was pretty clear Riley and Yesenia were not going to be able to make this work. As Riley got older, angrier, more hormonal, she couldn't keep her fights with her mom from spilling over into school and Yesenia couldn't keep acting like she was no more difficult than the other kids. She suggested going to Ilvermorny, but Riley, the ultimate contrarian, balked and screamed at her for trying to send her least favorite child away forever!!

And then, without warning, Riley dropped the Gooseberry application in her mother's lap. Her friend was going, and now it was totally her own idea to abandon her mother and go to a boarding school. Plus, she couldn't say no to the chance to get away from this rain and muck and snow all the time.

The fight Riley had been expecting didn't come. Instead, Yesenia wrote a few colleagues, made a small donation, and sent her youngest daughter off to boarding school so she could get a little peace and quiet for Christ's sake.

x. The decision to be an exchange student came suddenly to Riley. Someone else had dropped out, couldn't make the grades or pony up the dough, and she jumped at the chance. Why not? It sounded fun! Adventurous. Ugh, and she had been dreading going back to Alaska that summer and seeing her mother again, but, maybe it could be more bearable if she knew she was going all the way to ~☆~ENGLAND~☆~ the next year. She filled out her application, sent it back home to get signed, and waited for the inevitable Rage Spanglish Howler to come.

Instead of yelling, Yesenia wrote a check. Seemed like she liked the idea of Riley being on another continent just as much as Riley did.

Riley was suitably impressed with Hogwarts when she got there. It was a lot bigger than either of the schools she had been to so far, and it was so old, and it felt full of magic. She was Sorted into Slytherin, and aside from the fact that she had to wear green (which, just, she did not look good in, it made her look so drab) and her natural hair color (unless she was doing it for, like, Quidditch, or it was an accident and you couldn't fix it, or whatever other excuse those other people came up with), this was going to be the best year of Riley Mae's life!

x. Dumb. That was a dumb thing to say. This was the worst year of Riley Mae's life. Turns out, Slytherin was where they put the crafty bitches, and Riley was not experienced enough in their crafty ways. She tried to step to the wrong girl, pulled the wrong kind of power move, and got smacked down. Humiliated, Riley retreated, but not enough. For the rest of the year, Riley was taunted by the others in her House or her year as rumors and jokes about her trickled out to the masses.

Riley didn't realize how great bathrooms were for crying in until she met Myrtle. Somehow, some mopey ghost became her only friend at the school, and if Riley ever needed to hide in a bathroom until she got her shit together, Myrtle would flood the toilets and make sure none of the other girls wanted to use it.

x. "Okay Riley Mae, that was a misstep, but we can come back from that!" she said to herself in the mirror two weeks after coming home to Alaska. "You're back in familiar turf, and these bitches know not to fuck with you."

So Riley got all of her shit together, she got ready for her new year at her old school, and asked her mother if her book list had come in yet, and immediately got in a huge fight. Her mother, without her permission, had signed her up for Magic Rudiments. That was the Muggleborn class. That was for people who still washed dishes with their hands or used, like, electricity. But, ugh, Yesenia said the school had contacted her about her grades, and if she wanted to continue attending Gooseberry and not go back to regular school (which was not an option) she needed to improve. And Yesenia was like, "Oh, let's put her in the lowest level classes you have," or something like that, because she did not have faith in her daughter. Or something. Ugh.

SCHOOL

YEAR: Junior.
HOUSE: Azurcrest (Slytherin at Hogwarts last year)
SORTING: Riley likes to have fun. She cannot handle a serious situation, cannot wait to change the subject, cannot wait to get past this blah blah blah, we shouldn't be doing this bullshit. Azurcrest is definitely a good fit for her. But it was a pain in the ass to convince her of this, and even when Mr. Merrill came in to ask her if she had made a decision, she was shouting at the emblems, "Maybe I don't want to be a bird! STOP TRYING TO DECIDE FOR ME."
WAND: Spruce, Graphorn horn core, 7 inches, very stubborn.
FAMILIAR: Oh no. No. She cannot be trusted to care for a pet.

CLASSES:
Core – Charms, Herbology, Outdoor Education

Electives – Aesthetic Magic, Astronomy, Magical Rudiments

SENIOR PROJECT: Oh, sweet fuck, she has not thought of this. Maybe something like, dramatic? Like a monologue? Ugh, what is the least she can get away with?
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Not doing super great. Riley is here by the grace of familial connections. She needs to be pushed into actually doing something.

EXTRACURRICULARS: Azurcrest Cheer Squad, Boating, Drama, Event Committee. Banned from Duelling & Fencing Club for getting overzealous with a foil freshman year.

OOC

NAME: Alex
EMAIL: alexandraebaldwin-at-gmail
CDJ: 24601
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: Dropbox
TIME ZONE: US Pacific