Ashley (Ash) Cooper Race: Human Age: 17 Personality: Ashley is a glass half-full type of person. Despite growing up in an orphanage and watching all of her friends get adopted into loving families while she herself remained behind, she still has hope for a better future. Background: All Ashley knows about her mother is that the woman was fourteen years old when she gave birth to her, and that she gave her away to the orphanage because she was too young to raise her properly. Ashley tries to tell herself that she understands why her mother did what she did, but the feeling of being unloved always persists at the back of her mind. She grew up in the orphanage for as long as she could remember, always being tossed around between different foster families who could never truly love her. Most of them tried, but there was always an unspoken distance between Ashley and her foster parents. Everyone knew she would just go back to the orphanage after their time together was up, so they could never fully bond. Years went by and all of Ashley’s friends were adopted into permanent families. She was happy for them —they could finally have the parents every orphan dreamed of— but she felt an increasing sense of despair in her heart. Why did everyone else get to have a family? What was wrong with her? Why did no one want her? Was she really so unlovable? Her condition spiraled down towards depression. Ashley’s outlook on life changed on her fifteenth birthday. She was sitting by herself when a small group of orphan kids approached her with a portion of bread. They made a semi-circle in front of her and sang Happy Birthday, then offered her the food. The sight of the children’s consideration hit Ashley like a slap in the face. How could she be so conceited? They were all in this mess together. From that day forward, Ashley took it upon herself to take care of all the younger kids at the orphanage.