Selene A. Cross. No nicknames, please.

Female

14

Ninth

Apparently disinterested (aka asexual)

Single, but open

Selene prefers to keep her black curly hair in either curly pigtails or a bun. When in pigtails, it reaches just a bit past her shoulder blades - not terribly long. While relatively broad in the shoulders, particularly compared to the rest of her body, she’s not particularly imposing. She’s a bit tall, standing at 5’8”, but her slender build undercuts any intimidation factor. It doesn’t seem to bother her. Her skin is dark, and she prefers to wear pastel-tinted or even white dresses for contrast. For similar reasons, she prefers light-colored makeup when possible, though mostly when she has the time for it. Otherwise, she sticks with mascara and lipstick. Her nails are usually painted with french tips - a bit amateurishly, but painted nonetheless. To complete her outfit, she likes dark stockings and a purple bow pinned in her hair.

And, of course, she always wears black sunglasses.

In the event that they are knocked off or, more unlikely, she is persuaded to take them off, her left eye is dark brown. Her right eye is a fogged-over white, with the sclera looking an angry shade of red.

Cheerful. Sensitive. Polite. Kind. Meticulous. Artful. Good listener.

Selene tries her best to come across as a good person. She’ll take extra notes for a sick peer, offer assistance in classes to a floundering student, be willing to ask questions on someone else’s behalf, carry extra sanitary pads, and bring in baked goods as a present for peers or teachers. She’s unfazed by the idea of illness or blood, so she’s usually the first to volunteer to escort a fellow student to the nurse’s office if they need help. She tries to offer advice to other students, but only if asked - some people would just rather be left alone, and it’s better to let them be than to force your way into their life, you know? Can’t win over everyone, especially by being pushy.

The next most important thing in Selene’s life is her love for swimming. She almost swears she was born a mermaid and made human - except, in her mind, that clashes with the impression of a good person, so she’ll only ever say such a thing in jest. She’s rather good at it too, and is largely hindered only by her difficulty in judging the distance to the edge of the pool. As such, any competitive swimming event that requires laps is one she cannot participate in, unless she’s overly familiar with the pool. If you’re willing to swim with her - and even warn her about the walls - odds are good she’ll like you immediately.

Selene attempts to deflect questions about herself - her family, her background, her sunglasses. If pressed, she will reveal she has a doctor’s note for her sunglasses so it’s ok to wear them all the time. The reason for the note? A terrible infection as an eye child that has discolored her right eye and rendered it blind. She’s quite sensitive to this, as well as the accompanying problems a loss of depth perception can generate. If she feels like she’s being teased for it, even in jest, she will start crying and asking why you’re being so mean to her. It’s bad enough she has to struggle to see well and is limited in what she can do, but now she has to put up with her classmates teasing her over something that can’t be fixed? And with everything she does to try to help people too.

● When thinking ahead, she fiddles with the temples of her sunglasses.
● Always has a bathing suit in her bookbag and purse. ALWAYS.
● She can get completely immersed in something, even ignoring people touching her. It takes a hard shove or her own decision to end it.
● She believes in mermaids.
● Off the top of her head, she’s pretty good at identifying what phase the moon will be in. She occasionally jokes that it’s because of her name.
● She wears sunglasses indoors.
● She’s a fan of text emojis - e.g. :D

● Swimming. Due to her condition, she can’t participate in most pool-based competitions, but has participated in some open water swimming races and placed well.
● Photography. The world just looks different through a camera. Very casual quality.
● Visual novel games.
● Shopping. She scoffs at those who claim it’s not a hobby, citing that being able to spend hours at various malls and able to successfully haggle at independent stores should qualify it.
● Socializing. She’ll go to parties and mostly hang out by the food, chatting with those who come by, and keeping an eye out for anyone who seems to be having a bad time.

+ Water. It’s almost like she was made for it.
+ Chatting with people/social activities. Stereotypical, huh?
+ Fish. Both as pets and as food. Despite the biology errors in the film, she did like Finding Nemo.
+ Pastel colors. They’re just so pretty in her opinion, and easy on the eye.
+ Her sunglasses. Obviously.
+ Dresses. Easy to wear, easy to accessorize, and almost always look good. She blames social stereotypes for why more people don’t wear them all the time.
+ Audiobooks. Really good ones are great to fall asleep to.
+Waterproof makeup. Thank god for that invention.

- Baking. Despite her love for giving gifts, she is just terrible at it.
- Sparta. He always hisses at her.
- Being mocked, especially when it comes to her failures in depth perception. Not exactly something she can fix.
- Basic grammar and spelling mistakes, especially on professional items. Many a bakery she won’t return to because they couldn’t spell ‘congratulations’.

Mother - Chika Cross - Cashier at a supermarket
Father - Silas G. Cross - Small Animal Veterinarian
Little brother - Nikolaos “Nikki” N. Cross - Will be entering 7th grade
Maine coon cat - Sparta - Sleeping on Nikki’s bed

The family lives in a simple two-story three-bedroom townhouse. Upon entering the first floor, there is a hallway that runs all the way back to the living room, and a door to your immediate left containing a small kitchen area, with a washer and dryer behind a large set of closet doors. The kitchen connects to the dining room, which connects to the living room. To the right upon entering the first floor is a stairwell heading up to the second floor. There is an open area at the top of the stairs, with five doors in a circular arrangement. Starting with the door closest to the top of the stairs, you have Nikolaos’ bedroom, Selene’s bedroom, the bathroom, her parents’ bedroom, and a linen closet. (Note: got layout from here) Selene’s mother favors wooden furniture, adding cushions where needed and knitting covers.

No car yet, but she’s got her eye on the Acura ILX models.

Selene doesn’t have much to say about her past. Sure, she got an eye infection when she was 4 that rendered her right eye useless and blind, and there were a few insensitive kids who bullied her over it. One of them was even her little brother - though he stopped picking on her once something similar happened to him. Thankfully, such incidents began to fade away as Selene progressed through elementary school. The summer after Selene finished elementary school, between her bullying and the desire for a shorter commute, the Cross family moved from St. Francis to Arrowsmith, South Dakota. Middle school was a bit of an adjustment for her, but she developed the strategy of gift-giving - and very few kids could turn down free cookies. Some resisted, but Selene just went to work figuring out what else she could give them. She joined the swimming team, but could not participate in competitions not held in a body of water or in the school’s pool due to her vision issues. The time spent waiting at those matches, she took upon herself to find new ways to amuse herself - photographing the swimmers, learning how to apply makeup, chatting with people.

Of course, she did manage to befriend some people - unfortunately, not everyone in her class applied for Arrowsmith High School, due to moving away or simply wishing for a more specialized high school or even some who have simply dropped contact altogether over the summer. She’s not worried, though - she’s fine making a new fresh start and doing well. Right now, her major goals are pretty simple, since she feels she knows who she is and what she’s going to do once she graduates - moving to the west coast, getting her own boat, and training to become an offshore saturation diver. For now, she feels she’ll be satisfied if she does well her freshman year and makes more friends.

Thank you for this!