Gabriella Parker

Name: Gabriella “Gabby” Parker Gender: Female Age: 18 Grade: 12th School: Aurora High School Hobbies and Interests: Singing, performing, music, playing the piano, acting (Drama club member), chess (Chess club member)

Appearance: Gabriella has no easy means of blending into a crowd: at 6’2” and 154 lbs with an average build, her height often causes her to tower over most of her peers. She possesses an olive complexion, a result of her Israeli heritage.

Her dark brown wavy hair hangs down to her shoulders in the front and back and is usually kept hanging loose. She has an average sized forehead and thin eyebrows that match her hair in colour. Her hazel eyes are sharp in shape, and her nose protrudes slightly more than usual from her face, possessing a straight bridge as well as thin nostrils. She has a thin, narrow mouth, her lips normally damaged by a chewing habit, though she goes out of her way to hide this with lipstick and lip balm, and she works hard to maintain a white set of teeth. She has a thin jawline, giving her a sharp chin and an overall pointed shape to her face. The few traces of blemishes and acne on her skin are hidden by makeup when necessary.

On the day of the abduction, Gabriella was wearing an apple green short sleeved tunic top and a pair of bootcut dark blue jeans, with a pair of dark brown flat soles on her feet. For jewellery, she was wearing a pair of silver studs in her ears and a trio of silver bracelets on her right arm.

Biography: Jerold Parker and Ayala Parker née Hamutal met in college. Both were architecture students, Ayala an overseas student from Israel, and the two bonded over mutual interests and a shared religion in Conservative Judaism. The two married shortly after graduating, Ayala taking on US citizenship. When the two were in their early thirties, Ayala gave birth to Gabriella Nava Jennifer Parker.

Thanks to the two’s high paying careers, Gabriella grew up in a wealthy household in the suburbs of Seattle. From a young age her parents tried to instill a range of skills in their daughter, as their parents had tried to when they were young, but the only one that stuck with Gabriella was the piano lessons her parents signed her up for when she was five. From a young age Gabriella loved the sound of music, and getting to create it herself became a way for her to immerse herself in it.

The only other hobby that Gabriella gained thanks to her parents was chess. Jerold was an avid player of the game and made sure to teach his daughter the rules when she was old enough. She only had her dad to play with, however, and his uncompromising style of play, despite him still trying to make it fun, made for an unappealing opponent. Though she never pursued the game intensely, she would play games against other kids when the opportunity arose, enjoying the competitive nature of the game and getting to outwit opponents.

When she began school, Gabriella did well both academically and socially: she was quick to make new friends and adept at picking up new topics. However, she suffered from a lack of motivation, more interested in playing with her classmates than paying attention in class, her academic skill largely a result of natural intelligence. When her parents became aware of these discipline issues, they cracked down hard on Gabriella, responding to each sign of laziness or disobedience with harsh discipline, namely banning her from her favourite activities for days at a time, be it from watching her favourite cartoons, reading books she was enjoying, playing chess, or going to friends’ parties. However, her punishments never extended to her music lessons, her parents recognising it as more than just a hobby and appreciating how it could benefit her when school applications came around.

As a result of her parents’ strict attitude to her schooling, Gabriella picked up a disciplined work ethic. However, it was one that resulted from a fear of failure rather than a desire to succeed, and her extroverted nature in classes receded from fear of punishment. Whilst her parents were informed of their daughter’s shift in personality by her teacher, they considered it an acceptable compromise for the sake of Gabriella’s education.

As her piano lessons continued, her true passion became evident at the age of seven as she began to sing along with her pieces. Her natural talent at singing was noticed by her teacher and parents and it led to her taking private singing lessons alongside her learning the piano.

Her parents, both committed to their faith, also did their part to teach Gabriella the ways of Judaism. Synagogue was a regular event in the family and Gabriella was enrolled in Hebrew school, and to this day Gabriella considers her faith an important part of her life. However, whilst she makes no efforts to hide her beliefs or how it affects her opinions on matters, she tries to maintain discretion about it to avoid being mistaken for an evangelist.

She regarded her Israeli heritage in a similar way, often learning about her country from her mother as she grew up, and throughout her life she would visit Israel on a number of occasions to meet and spend time with her mother's family. When asked about her background she would happily share her origins, but she would never hide the fact that she is an American.

Towards the end of elementary school when Gabriella was eleven years old, her parents gave birth to her two unplanned fraternal twin siblings, Kenneth Even Lester Parker and Joseph Hagai Charles Parker, the two arriving safely despite Ayala’s relatively older age for childbirth. Gabriella was very jealous of her two new siblings when they first arrived, due to her parents' attention suddenly shifting dramatically away from her after years of being an only child. This continued for a number of years, though she learned to tolerate the two, until her two brothers were old enough to start pursuing the activities her parents had pushed her into when she was a kid. Though she was still the main focus of her parents’ expectations, being the oldest child and therefore closest to college, their attention was now split between her performance and that of her younger brothers’. She greatly appreciated the fact that she was no longer under as much pressure, though her relationship with her younger brothers’ continued to be ambivalent at best.

Going into middle school was the signal for Gabriella’s unpleasant bout of puberty to begin. Already tall for her age in spite of her parent’s average height, the additional growth, in addition to a bad case of greasy skin and a need for braces, made her a merciless target for bullies. As a result, she became a frequent victim of name calling and insults. Whilst she tried to keep the problem to herself, unfaithful that her parents would intervene, Ayala and Jerold soon noticed the effect it had on their daughter as she began coming home close to tears.

Whilst the school was contacted over the issue, the incidents of harassment were never really dealt with. There would be punishment for the obvious bullies, but the fact that name calling could be easily missed by authority figures, combined with Gabriella’s reluctance to identify her aggressors for fear of making the problem worse, led to Gabriella’s status as a victim continuing. Unsure of what action to take, having never been long term victims of bullying themselves, Gabriella’s parents contemplated sending her to a different school. Gabriella, however, did not want to have to adjust to an entirely new school, even if it meant having to put up with her bullies.

Instead, she took matters into her own hands and started insulting her bullies back just as much, at times more. However, these only served to aggravate the bullies, and in response her comebacks became sharper and sharper. Whilst on a few occasions Gabriella was the one in trouble for her insults, instead of her bullies, her parents accepted that it was helping her to cope with her problems, though they still reprimanded her for the marks on her record. Whilst the school continued to try to resolve the issue, Gabriella’s retaliations provoked the bullies further and made the situation less clear as to who was at fault, and so the administration was never able to truly put a stop to things.

The situation lasted until Gabriella reached her stride in her development, her skin clearing up and her teeth corrected, making her height her bullies last remaining favourite target. With only one thing left to pick on, and Gabriella now fighting back hard all the way, the bullies eventually lost interest. To this day she remains very insecure about her height, but she has also learned to mask it with a strong verbal retaliation against anyone who mocks her. She responds in a similar way when she sees others bullying, stepping in and taking on the bully with a slew of insults out of sympathy for the victims.

It was in middle school that Gabriella would have her first taste of performing. Gabriella took part in her school’s talent show, despite insecurities about looking bad that were instilled by her tormentors, and did a piano and vocals cover of Galileo by The Indigo Girls, a personal favourite of hers. Placing well overall, Gabriella loved the praise she received by some her peers for her performance and the satisfaction of coming high in the rankings.

It was also in middle school that Gabriella met her best friend, Cho, a guitar player. Meeting each other in a music class, they bonded over their love of sound and became fast friends. The next year they entered the talent show together and since then they have been almost always playing as a duo.

Working with Cho’s guitar playing, Gabriella switched her own focus from both pianos and vocals to just her voice. Whilst she still took piano lessons until she was fifteen, she eventually dropped them to focus purely on her voice, leaving her piano skills largely for writing her own music. Later, when she was seventeen, she dropped her singing lessons as well, considering herself skilled enough to practice on her own. Her parents were displeased with her dropping two of her routines, but tolerated it as Gabriella continued to work at her music on her own.

As she grew older, Gabriella began to really understand why music was such a passion of hers: the emotions it evoked and the power of the melodies appealed to her greatly. Alone with her music, she could feel things that her parents’ expectations and her problems at school had denied her and finally relax. Singing and playing the piano became an outlet for her frustrations, though she never realised that this was the case, and a way for her to enjoy the feelings of the music personally. Due to this being the cause of her passion, she developed a fondness for songs that possessed strong vocals and powerful rhythms, performing them being a better way to release her pent up anger than if she had chosen a softer song.

In high school, the awkward appearance caused by puberty no longer an issue, Gabriella stopped being a favourite target of bullies and started opening up to others. Though not quite as extroverted as when she was a kid, Gabriella still grew into something of a social butterfly as she made friends with a number of students, most of whom were classmates who shared an interest or were just likeable. The only person she truly opened up to was Cho, however; though another close friend, Joe Carrasco, would become a reserve confidant in times of particular annoyance. Over time she picked up the skills of being a shrewd conversationalist, utilising her fast learning pace and her natural wit, and developed from her withdrawn and cutting adolescent self to a much smoother talker. However, she still retained her venomous tongue for people who get on her bad side and bullies.

She also joined the chess club in her freshman year of high school. After playing most of her matches online in middle school, not wanting to add to her bully’s arsenal by joining her middle school’s club, she enjoyed the opportunity to play face to face again. Her relaxed attitude to the game placed her skills at a good level, but only as a result of her experience. Though she went out of her way to conceal her participation at first, as she grew in confidence she stopped trying to hide that she enjoyed the game, though she still avoids bringing it up herself in conversation.

As she continued working on her and Cho’s performances the thoughts of a music career started to appear in Gabriella’s mind, an idea that Cho was also on board with. As a duo of a guitarist and vocalist, they found folk rock to be the most accessible form of music to them as well as one they both enjoyed. Gabriella used The Indigo Girls as her private inspiration, considering them proof that the music scene didn’t have to be dominated by pop and rock, and the two started working regularly towards their goal through a mixture of covers and their own pieces. Gabriella always pushed the two towards perfection in their work, rather than risk appearing sloppy.

Her parents did not approve. They considered the music industry a frivolous waste of time, one that Gabriella would get into only by luck rather than skill, and started voicing their opinion whenever the topic was brought up. Though they didn’t stop her and Cho from playing together, they insisted that she keep working on her studies rather than her music. Her brothers were too young to really understand what the problem was and the fact that Gabriella maintained a somewhat distant relationship from the two did nothing to help, so the conflict remained between Gabriella and her parents.

As high school progressed, Gabriella grew bored of going home right after school almost every day and decided to join another club in her sophomore year, settling on the drama club. Though she wasn’t a natural actor, only playing supporting characters at best, she enjoyed playing the roles and the presence on stage enough that she stuck with the club. Her constant performances in both drama and music boosted Gabriella’s confidence greatly.

Academically, Gabriella maintained high grades through her inherent smarts and her parents’ pressure, though her general disinterest in most subjects kept her average lower than it could have been. Whilst she performed well generally, her performance in creative subjects often outdid the more logical fields, though she also took to language classes well after spending her childhood learning Hebrew. Her goal was still to join the music industry, but her parents fought it at every turn and went out of their way to make sure she’d have other options available to her through her grades.

Gabriella was never a physically fit girl. As a sensible eater, she was able to maintain her slender figure, but a natural awkwardness, exacerbated by her height, as well as a consistent disinterest in anything physical kept her from ever working on keeping in shape. As a result she possesses little in the way of strength or stamina.

Although she has a wide circle of friends, Gabriella has never been in an intimate relationship, nor does she have any interest in entering one. Whilst she can appreciate why some people go for a relationship, she is simply not inclined towards pursuing a romance and never has been.

Now nearing the end of high school, Gabriella possesses a range of friends and a good GPA to get by on. However, her interest in joining the music industry has not waned and her parents have lost their patience, as they’ve started threatening to cut her off if she does not go to college. Worried about her ability to support herself, never having had a job in her life, she has begun to apply for language courses at different schools to satisfy her parents. Though she knows she can pursue music on the side whilst still learning, she’d much rather make it her main focus and play every day with Cho.

Advantages: Gabriella is a skilled conversationalist who is able to easily talk to most people, which could enable her to negotiate her way out of trouble, and her wide range of friends gives her many potential allies to fall back on. Her high intellect could also help her to survive if she can outsmart any dangers. Her experience in the drama club may prove useful should she try to deceive anyone. Disadvantages: Gabriella is in poor physical shape, so she would have difficulty keeping pace on the island. Living a life of comfort and dependence on her parents also means that supporting herself in the harsh island conditions may prove overwhelming. Her venomous tongue may cause her trouble if she’s properly provoked, as it could earn her dangerous enemies.

Designated Number: Female student No. 028

Designated Weapon: Single-Headed Meteor Hammer Conclusion: Another girl who'll coast for a ways on her social skills only to realize that in the end she's only been stalling for time. I doubt G028 has the charm to coax anyone into dying for her, and she'd be more likely to hurt herself than anyone else with that weapon. - Christina Stockton

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Collected Weapons: Single-Headed Meteor Hammer (Assigned Weapon)

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Threads
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