biography
The Rockwell family is considered near royalty in Longport, New Jersey, where it has been established as an essential asset of the town for many generations. Christopher Rockwell, after a brief stint as a journalist for the Star-Ledger, was made a partner of the town's most prestigious law firm; he currently has his sights set on a position in the local government. Estella Rockwell (née Fitzgerald), the heir apparent of a relatively small but extremely lucrative family business, is busying herself for the time being by getting as involved as possible in the community: heading the PTA, running charity auctions, and helping with the planning of every major social event in the area. They have a perfect golden boy of a son, who is handsome, well-mannered, and everything else anyone would want a potential son-in-law to be.
Their daughter, however, is another story entirely.
Given her family's wealth, her brother's popularity, and her own Cover Girl looks, one would immediately assume that Kristella Rockwell is the reigning queen of the In Crowd of Longport High. This, however, could not be farther from the truth. A highly antisocial, self-proclaimed nerd, Stella has always known that she's different from most girls; while they were having tea parties with their stuffed animals, she was playing Salem Witch Trials with hers as concerned therapists looked on. Even from a very young age, it has been obvious that Stella is extremely intelligent. However, it's learning that she loves, not necessarily studying. This explains her surprisingly low GPA of 3.3, despite the hours she spends in the library and online, researching purely for pleasure. On the increasingly rare occasions that she actually shows up to class, she only seems to pay attention when called upon, always somehow managing to give the correct answer (and some sort of sarcastic comment for good measure) before going straight back to either sleep or the movie on her iPod. Her teachers will often lament that if only she applied herself, she'd be the shoo-in valedictorian of her class. However, Stella has no interest in being the valedictorian. Instead, she carefully calculates exactly how much she can slack off without getting kicked out of her extracurricular activities, disowned by her parents, or having her GPA drop so low that, when the time comes for her to start applying to colleges, not even her spectacular SAT scores can compensate.
Stella has always taken advantage of her intelligence. As a matter of fact, she used to consider it the norm, and often grew impatient with the "slower" children when they failed to keep up with her, even after being placed in an accelerated program. It was an extremely disillusioning day when she learned that most people in the world were, in fact, "slow". Now, as she had never been interested in mastering the art of tact that her politic father desperately wishes she had and instead imposed a sort of social exile on herself, one of her favorite methods of entertaining herself is mocking these people. "EVIL BITCH SET ON DESTROYING EVERYONE'S LIVES" is often a favorite exclamation to describe this brazenly outspoken girl. To be fair, this is not an entirely accurate characterization. To be completely honest, on the other hand, she never feels the least bit guilty for the things she says, and considers nothing too sacred to poke fun at. What people do not seem to understand is that Stella is not causelessly callous or cruel, but simply smart enough to know not to take everything so seriously, lest she fret her(brilliant)self to an early grave.
random
- Has lived in Longport all her life.
- Taught herself to read before the age of three.
- Hates her name. "Kristella" sounds like a cheap hooker, and the endless references to Williams and McMillan stopped being amusing long ago.
- Is left-handed. Hates gel pens. Has terrible handwriting. Started training herself to write with her right hand out of sheer boredom in class one day.
- Twirls and flips her pencils rather complicatedly while thinking, a habit that may perhaps be a result of a bygone stint as a baton twirler.
- Was dragged to cheerleading tryouts kicking and screaming because she lost a bet. Was suspended from the squad numerous times before ultimately getting kicked out for negativity, lack of professionalism, and general bitchiness.
- Used to compete in beauty pageants as a child. Thinks she burned all the pictures. Might die if she found out that her mother still has a few safely hidden away.
- Does not smoke, but always carries a lighter.
- Is a bit of a pyro, actually.
- Is classically trained in drama, ballet, cello, and opera performance. Competes in and wins awards for all four.
- Enjoys performing religious pieces of music (ex. Handel's Messiah) more than she'd like to admit, but has never been particularly religious.
- Loves La bohème. Despises Rent. Has a secret passion for Moulin Rouge! Would not admit it under torture.
- Enjoys watching medical shows and pointing out all the inaccuracies. Her favorite is, unsurprisingly, House. Scrubs is a close second. Absolutely loathes Grey's Anatomy.
- Does not, contrary to popular belief, resent her brother for being the clear favorite at all.
- Fell asleep during the SATs. Still managed to score in the 90th percentile. Retook them anyway. Was a freshman at the time.
- Is not applying to Princeton, where most of her family members went, because she believes it will confirm her fears of never getting out of New Jersey.
storylines
STAND BY ME: ( 1m ) Popular, politic, and painfully sweet, Stella's brother is possibly her opposite in every imaginable way. One thing they do have in common, though, is their unconditional love for each other. Like any siblings, they tease each other relentlessly-- or, at least, she does-- but neither can remember ever having seriously fought. She secretly looks up to him even more than everyone else does, and he blatantly dotes on her, even when she's at her brattiest.
I DON'T MIND YOU COMING HERE, WASTING ALL MY TIME: ( 1m ) It has long since been established that the back corner table in the cafeteria is the sole property of one Stella Rockwell, save for the extremely rare occasions when she is feeling generous and allows an acquaintance of hers to keep her company. One not-particularly-noteworthy day, this boy deliberately walked over to her table, sat down right next to her, and started talking to her as if they were old friends. She, of course, only glared in reply. He was more persistent than she was unwilling, however, and they now have a strange sort of friendship that seems to only exist for a few moments at a time in the hallways.
ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER: ( 1m ) There aren't many at Longport who can come even close to matching Stella's intelligence and talent, and she'd crawl to hell and back before admitting that this boy just might be among the few who can. If he's not quite as naturally intelligent or talented as she is, he makes up for it by being much more dedicated and hard-working, not to mention fanatically competitive. Though she's usually too apathetic to care about proving herself to anyone, he irritates her to the point where her somewhat psychotically competitive side is forced awake, starving from hibernation-- not that she lets this show if she can help it, of course. Some people are taking bets on which one will come out on top in the end. Still more are taking bets on how long it will be before they crack under the blatant sexual tension.
BUT I HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF YOU LATELY AT ALL: ( unlimited ) Stella has only recently become old enough to defy her parents' wishes at will, meaning that not such a long time ago, she had a rather considerable number of friends, every one the kind of perfect little angel child that her mother so longed for her to be like. These are now the members of the high school royalty: the most popular, beautiful, and wealthy in the school. They usually met through their parents and grew up together in dance classes, baby beauty pageants, and neighborhood play groups. Since at least their parents all continue to run in the same elite circle, they're still often forced into social situations together.
TIME AFTER TIME: ( 1f ) The Sharon to Stella's Angela, this is the one among the group of her former best friend who has yet to give up on her. Stella occasionally feels pangs of what humans would call conscience every time she blows her off, but she believes that they're just too different now to really be friends.
EACH DAY'S A BRAND NEW LIFE: ( unlimited ) She may have abandoned all her former friends, but despite all her efforts, it somehow seems Stella can't avoid human interaction forever. These are her mostly-recently-acquired acquaintances, and about the closest things to friends as she seems to want. How much she actually likes any of them, assuming she even likes them at all, is anyone's guess.
I'LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU: ( unlimited ) She might not be the first on your list to invite to a party, but her undeniable intelligence makes Stella one of the most sought-out tutors in the school. These are her tutees, all of varying degrees of hopelessness.
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