Nickname(s):    Jesse

 

Age: 17

 

Grade: Senior

 

Birthday: October 5th

 

Appearance: Jesse is pretty tall (5'11") and with a medium build (167 lbs). He's not insanely buff, but he keeps toned and in shape through sports. He has natural honey blond hair and bright blue eyes. He's pretty good looking by nature and while he isn't vain about his appearance or anything, he does make an effort to look well groomed every day. He wears pretty conservative clothing- sweaters. polos, and button up shirts, all buttoned up pretty high on his neck. His pants will always be comfortably loose fitting- not so loose he's showing off his boxers, but not skin tight and showing off his rear end either.

 

Personality: Jesse is the sort of kid that adults look at and say 'his parents raised him right.' He's soft-spoken, well-mannered, polite, respectful, and an all around nice guy. He'd happily give a stranger the shirt off his back. This all comes from the fact that he's a very big believer in living the values of his religion as a Christian.

 

The trade off for this is that he can be very judgemental; he tend to look down on people who dont live as clean a life as he tries to. He also tends to preach what he practices. While he won't start just randomly quoting scripture for no reason, that stranger who gets the shirt off of his back will probably get a sermon along with it. So in spite of the fact that he's considered as nice a guy as you'd want to meet, people tend to be freaked out a little just by talking to him. This kind of puts some distance between himself and his classmates.

 

He's aware of this and tries not to be too up on his pedestal, but sometimes he just can't help it. Privately, he's also maybe a little jealous of people who live their lives without as many rules, and curious what it would be like. Not that he'd ever admit that to himself.

 

Family: His mother Gail (39) works as a secretary in an insurance office, ever since being divorced from his father, Daniel (40), a real estate broker. Daniel is remarried to his second wife Marianne (28). The children live with their mother, with occasional weekends at their father's house. Jesse has five siblings: his older brother Terry (21) is a junior in college, while his younger siblings all go to Richmond- his brother Greg (16) is a junior, the twin girls Anna and Lauren (15) are sophomores, and his youngest brother Mark (13) is a freshman.

 

History: Daniel and Gail Shapiro were high school sweethearts who grew up in the area, and married soon out of school. Both of them had come from religious families, but the two of them took that to new lengths when they joined an Evangelical church outside of town and were born again in the name of Christ. They raised all six of their children in the same manner, teaching them to be strong into their faith and above temptation.  While their kids attended public school for a few years, by the time Jesse was in 2nd grade both parents decided it would be better for them to be home schooled, at which point Gail quit her job and stayed at home to be a primary caregiver.

 

Things went on like that for the next six or seven years, until it was revealed that Daniel was having an affair with a co-worker. Ultimately he chose to leave both his family and the church behind to marry his girlfriend Marianne. The family took this hard; Jesse, for one, resents his father to this day for this and hasn't yet forgiven him. Without Daniel's income supporting the family, Gail had to go back to work to make ends meet, which meant the children had to return to the public schooling they'd been taken out of years ago. (Or never experienced at all, in Mark's case.) Thus at the age of 14 (Sophomore year) Jesse found himself going back to school with people he barely remembered or knew from years ago. Still, he handled it pretty well, doing his best to fit in.

 

Unfortunately, he handled it much better than some people in his family. While his oldest brother only had one year of school before graduation, and was fine, and his sisters had each other to help through the transition, and his youngest brother was still young enough to take it all in stride, his younger brother Greg had a hard time adjusting. He was already messed up a bit by the divorce; once he was back in school he began acting out and befriending the wrong crowd. Now that Jesse's the oldest man in the house, he feels it's somehow his responsibility to take care of his siblings, and the fact that he knows Greg's hanging out with the wrong people and probably experimenting with drugs makes him feel like he's failing him. There's not too much he can do, but he tries to keep an eye on his brother during school hours.

 

Neighborhood: Kensington, # 125 St. James Road- the Shapiros live in a large, roomy house with a comfortable front porch. The top floor has four bedrooms, one master and the others three which are shared by two of the children each, but since his oldest brother is in college, Jesse has had his room to himself for the past few school years, though there are still two beds. The house is well equipped, with two full bathrooms on the top floor (one off of the master bedroom) and a half bath on the first. There is a kitchen w/ breakfast nook and a separate dining room, as well as a family room and a parlor. The backyard has a swimming pool and deck. Still, as nice as it is, the house is sliding a bit- the roof could use some reshingling, the gutters leak and need replacing, and the carpeting is a bit worn. The house was bought and paid for by Daniel's successful work at a real estate office; Gail won it in the divorce settlement, but even with his alimony payments she's having a hard time keeping the house in top condition. But she doesn't want to sell the home and upset the children by moving.

 

Job: Croft House (Volunteer) & Nursing Home

 

Vehicle: None. The Shapiro children all take the bus to school or get dropped off by their mother. Jesse has his license and will usually drive his mother's minivan if he needs to go anywhere outside of school hours.

 

Best Friend(s): To be determined

 

Dating Status: Currently single. He'll usually have dates for school dances, but they're one off experiencces that have never ended with anything mkore than a kiss on the cheek.

 

Social Status: Semi-popular- He's a nice guy, very outgoing and active in school activites, but a lot of people still think of him as 'that home schooled kid'.

 

Class Schedule:

 

1st Period- English Language
2nd Period- Computer Science
3rd Period- Geometry
Morning Break
4th Period- Biology
5th Period- Creative Writing

Lunch
6th Period- Italian

7th Period- Physical Education

8th Period- American History

 

Activities:

 

- Clubs: Peer Mediation, Key Club & S.A.D.D.

- Sports: Soccer, Skiing & Track

 

Other Information: None.

 

Likes: Ice skating & rollerblades; Mexican food; the theory of intelligent design; classic English lit- romantic poets are a personal fave; the smell of line-dried laundry; Christian rock; citrus fruit; frogs.

 

Dislikes: Rainy weather; skateboarders; people who make out in public; pro-choice lobbyists; modernist poetry; heavy mateal and/or rap.

 

Quote: " 'I am half sick of shadows', said the lady of Shallot."- Tennyson

 

Any extra-curricular non-school activity: He's involved with his church youth group, has metings once a week, and many weekends can be found on picnics or other outings with them.