CIVILIAN . WRIGHT, ANDREW

Andrew Wright

Cynical. Anxious. Clumsy.

Drew

Seventeen

February 17, 1995

Male

Pansexual

Civilian

High School Student

Personality

Drew tries really hard to put up a cool front, but it often crumbles to tiny pieces because of how easy it is to fluster him. Merely talking to someone for long periods of time makes him uncomfortable and since he's so easy to embarrass, something usually comes up in the conversation that makes him stutter over every syllable he tries to get out. That's why he starts to get fidgety not long into a conversation, trying to find a way out of it before he makes a fool of himself.

He isn't one to give someone the benefit of the doubt, and he doesn't really believe in the kindness of others. He's quite negative on the matter, expecting them to want something in return or for the act of kindness to turn into some kind of cruel joke. He'd much rather people ignore him, like they have for most of his life. He tries not to draw attention to himself in any sort of situation.

Despite the cold attitude that he thinks he has, he's a huge worrier. Over everything. Himself, his family, random kids on the street. Everything. He tries to hide it, he really does, but it eats at him until he does something to make the situation better. Like, when he was younger, he used to worry over his sister staying out too late. And he just wouldn't be able to sleep because he was so worried, and wouldn't settle down until he called her to check up on her. Or, when children play too close to the street or a sharp object or even near the edge of something moderately high off the ground. His heart begins to race and he becomes jumpy, and he won't leave the area until the kids move to a safer location. His sister used to joke around, calling him a mother hen.

He also worries about himself a lot, not only with his image (physical or how other people view him, both of which he cares about a lot) but with his health as well. He's extremely clumsy, often getting into accidents over the simplest of things. It's gotten to the point where workers at the aquarium have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't run into a pole or fall into a pool. He couldn't even get into sports because he would trip over himself (or other players) or drop the ball. He also gets sick very easily, which turned him into a tiny bit of a germaphobe.

Lineage

While both of his parents were born in the United States, Drew does have family in Spain on his mother's side. His grandmother had moved to the United States and had gotten married and had children and all that, and his mother never showed any interest in going back to Spain, and thus married and had children. Drew has been to visit his relatives twice in his life, though both times he became extremely uncomfortable so he doesn't show an interest in going again. His sister has every intention of moving there, though.

Despite his Hispanic roots, Drew doesn't know a word of Spanish. His mother, being fluent in the language for the sake of her grandparents, tried really hard to get him to learn. But seeing as he still stuttered over English words, she quickly gave up. So in the end, the only language he knows is English.

History

Drew is the second child of a pair of marine biologists, so he practically grew up around the aquarium. (And the beach.) It hadn't been his parents' intentions, bringing him by their work so often. It had seemed really convenient at the time, since both were so busy and couldn't watch over him, and there were plenty of safe places to keep him busy at the aquarium. And they hadn't expected anything to go wrong with his social development, considering his older sister turned out fine. (She turned into quite the little social butterfly, almost always having friends over.) But as it came time for him to go to school, he had next to no experience dealing with other kids his age, and in the end most of them left him alone to play all by himself.

This led to all kinds of self esteem issues, as well as a rather nasty bought of social anxiety. Which then led to a stutter that his parents had no idea how to handle. They tried really hard to fix it on their own, hoping that maybe he would outgrow it, or even overcome it with enough social interaction. They tried desperately to get him involved in things, like sports or even something music related. They even made extra play dates with the children of their friends and coworkers, but that only seemed to make things worse.

Finally they put him into therapy, to see if they could at least cure the stutter. Maybe if the stutter went away, he wouldn't have so much trouble with talking to other kids? It was worth a shot, and they were running out of options.

When he entered junior high, Drew began to show great improvement in just about every area of his life. He seemed a lot happier, stuttered much less, and even seemed to have little trouble speaking with his fellow classmates. (According to the reports his sister made to their parents, considering Drew didn't like speaking about his own affairs at the dinner table.) His mother couldn't tell if the therapy was actually working, or if he had just grown out of it like they had previously hoped. His father didn't worry over it as much as she did, assuring her that it was better if they didn't try to press him for information he didn't want to give.

It actually wasn't the therapy at all, not that they would ever know that. It was just one really friendly transfer student who wouldn't leave him alone. She seemed to have taken an interest in him, and chattered away to him whenever she got the chance. (And even when they were silenced by the inner workings of a classroom, she passed notes to him.) He warmed up to her quickly, and soon they became inseparable friends. It was the confidence boost he needed to get involved with his peers, though it didn't take him and his new best friend long to realize that sports were a really, really bad idea.

(His parents agreed after he came home with a broken leg after the first soccer practice.)

He had never really been good when it came to school, only making good grades when it came to sciences. (Something that horrified him.) Thankfully, his friend was a very good student and helped him with his homework and studies. (In exchange, he helped her with the admittedly elementary biology they were forced to go through, something she was absolutely horrible with.) His scores really improved over the handful of years during junior high, which gave him a lot of hope for his future--something he hadn't had before.

But then it came time for high school, and everything went down hill from there. Over the summer, he had gone to Spain to be with his family after the death of his great grandfather, and when he returned his friend had become an entirely different person. She started wearing make up, and way too much of it, and she started hanging out with girls who were older than her. She also became very critical of him whenever they were together, as though she were trying to change him into one of the boys in her magazines. It made him extremely uncomfortable, and he started stuttering again whenever she criticized him, which only made her angrier.

By winter break of freshman year, she broke off their friendship, claiming that he was "hopeless" and that she "couldn't deal with" him.

He still had people who liked him, thanks to her influence during junior high, but he never really became close with anyone after that. His grades began to drop again, and he started spending most of his time at the aquarium. He was still able to mostly control his stutter, but his previously friendly words turned lifeless and bored sounding. Occasionally he was invited to things by old soccer buddies, but if he went he rarely stayed long. And because those old friends didn't know how to help him, they usually just left him alone.

In the end, the only thing he kept a good relationship with was his grades in biology. So now he's mostly trying to get through one more year of school before going to college and studying biology further.

Roleplayer Information

REN;; Also plays Josie Porter

PREFERENCE;; Yes~

FACE CLAIM;; Pokemon – Touya