Completed. Still will accept constructive criticism.

[s]Post saved for CS. Hopeful I will get it up sometime today/tonight.[/s]

[s]My CS is not complete, but this is what I have so far. Any constructive criticism is welcomed.[/s]

[hider=The Leader]
[b]What's your name?:[/b] Why do I need to tell you my name? It’s right there on the application, Mario Russo. Yes, like the plumber, but I’m not a plumber.

[b]How old are you?: [/b] You must be bad at guesstimating how old people are. I’m a junior in high school and am 17 years old, turning 18 by the end of the school year.

[b]What do you look like?: [/b] You have eyes, right? I’m Italian-American. Well, I am sort of Italian-American. My dad has Italian heritage (he even owns the local pizzeria, I know, stereotypical to the max, right?), but my mom (although she does have an Italianesque name, Maria) is English, or, well, her family has been in the United States for a couple generations, but she has English roots. 

Unfortunately, I have the worst name for any Italian-American: Mario. I mean, you already hinted at it after you asked my name. I am compared to that video game Mario so many times (or rather Luigi, since apparently I look more the younger brother) that I make sure I don’t wear green or red, ever, nor do I allow my facial hair to grow out. I mean, if I came to school with a mustache, I wouldn’t hear the end of it. However, that is not the worst of it. Once, someone even asked me if I was related to the Mario Brothers! How in the world could I be related to a video game character! People these days...

Oh, back to my appearance. I am about average height for a guy, about five-ten. Since I have two different ethic heritages, I have some mixed traits. I have dark hair, like my father; however, my skin is quite pale for an Italian, probably due to my mother. I also somehow inherited blue eyes, even though brown are supposed to be dominate. But whatever. My dad still tries to tell me that he also has Northern Italian blood in him, which includes blue eyes and blonde hair, but who knows. I’m just glad that no one as of yet has accused of my mom sleeping around...

[b]Do you have any hobbies? [/b] Running would be the one activity on which I would spend my free time over anything else. Running is just so natural: you don’t need to be able to toss a ball accurately into the arms of your teammate, you don’t need to be able to kick a ball into a rectangular goal, you don’t need to be able to sink a ball into a circular hoop. All you need to do is run, and pace yourself. The worst thing to do while running is to exhaust yourself before you have run a significant portion of the race.

Of course, you could have already guested in what sports activity I participate. You have, have you? If you guessed track, you would be 100% correct. If you didn’t, well...I don’t know what. Anyways, since I love to run, obviously I would run track. I mean, all the other sports segregate the sexes. It’s either all guys or all girls. But in track, we’re all intermingled. Sure, we have our own events, but we still practice together. I am surprised that other guys haven’t caught onto this fact. Who wants to hang out in a sweaty, stinking locker room?

Another activity that I enjoy is Boy Scouts. In fact, I just earned the Eagle Scout rank, the highest honor in Boy Scouts. My Boy Scout career, however, is coming to a close since I am turning 18 by the end of this school year, and when a scout turns 18, he can no longer participate as a “scout”, but only as an adult volunteer. But until that day, I will be the Senior Patrol Leader of our troop. I mean, I cannot imagine what will happen to the troop when I leave. It seems like when I am unable to attend something, chaos breaks out because apparently they cannot run without me. Hopefully someone will step up, but who knows.

[b]Any dislikes?: [/b] Dislikes? Well, one pet peeve of mine is when someone promises to do something or go somewhere and never holds up their side of the bargain. I just cannot stand this. If you say you are going to do something, by God, you better do it! Take for example the guy who is transcribing this interview. He said that he would have this completed by yesterday. Did he do it? NOOOOO. It drives me nuts! Laziness also drives me crazy. If I am not doing something, either running or working on something else, like schoolwork, I feel like I am wasting time. I mean, I cannot sleep in on weekends because I feel like I am wasting daylight when I sleep in past eight o’ clock. You already heard about another one of my pet peeves, the whole “Mario” shenanigans. God, why did my parents called me Mario? Couldn’t they have thought of some other name?

[b]Tell me, what are your goals for the future? Both immediate and long-term.: [/b] My long term goals? Well, immediately, I want to finish my junior year with a bang, grade wise so that I will be more competitive in college applications. Neither of my parents have a bachelor’s degree, so I would be the first in our immediate family. My dad runs the family pizzeria, which has been in the family for generations, while my mom only was in college for two years to get her nursing degree. I think it would be a great accomplishment to be the first to go to college and get a bachelor’s degree.

Oh, also there is this one girl. Her name is Melissa and I kind of really want to ask her out. She has been and still is in a few of my classes and she even is on the track team (see what I was saying about way people should join track. ;D ). So, she actually knows who I am and we are kind of friends. Not BFF’s or anything, but more than acquaintances. The only problem is that I am kind of afraid that she will “friend-zone” me. Furthermore, I would rather our friendship stay how it is currently than make everything awkward by committing my feelings to her. No one knows about this “crush” because once in, like, elementary school, I mentioned to my parents that I had a crush a girl and they made such a big deal out of it that as a result I never mentioned such things to anyone ever again.

For long term? I’m not sure. I would probably go into college as an “undecided”. I would have to explore more so that I can find what really fires my passion. For track, unfortunately, my career in that sport might end after college, if I happen to make the college team. I am not an Olympic caliber athlete, so I am going to enjoy it while it lasts.

[b]What's your home life like? Specifically, what is your relationship like with your parents?: [/b] I would say it is normal for any American household, or at least that is how I see it. I mean, I am by no means a mama’s boy, but I don’t totally despise them either. We all have our good times and our bad times. Sometimes we love each other and other times we drive each other up a wall.

[b]Siblings?: [/b] Yes, I have one younger brother. And before you say anything, no, his name is not Luigi. His name is actually George. Funny how the child who looks Italian gets the English name (or rather Greek, I have heard that George is related to the ancient Greek word for “farmer”, like in Virgil’s Georgics, which is all about farming), and the child who does not look one-hundred percent Italian gets the stereotypical name. Luck is a funny thing, isn’t it?

[b]What's your favorite animal, and why?: [/b] Favorite animal? That’s a tough one, since I never really have thought about that. I would say the lion, since it is technically the King of the Jungle, but the males of that species are sooooo lazy and I am so the opposite of that. Maybe the cheetah is my favorite.

[b]Favorite color?: [/b] Tyrian Purple. I mean, it is the one color that does not fade over time, but rather it becomes more radiant. Who wouldn’t want clothes in that color? In addition, I have to say that red and green are both out for favorite colors. While I can stand it at Christmas time, those Mario Brothers from Nintendo has really ruined those two colors for me.

[b]You wake up late one night to discover that your house is burning down. What do you do?: [/b] We follow our fire escape plan. First, I roll onto the floor so that I do not inhale as much smoke as I would have if I were standing up. Next, I go to the door. If it is hot, I pull the escape ladder out from under my bed, open the widow, and crawl out of my room and head towards a house of one of the neighbors. If the door is cool, I proceed through the door and a rally everyone in the house. I’ll even carry my mom or dad out of the house if it comes to that, just as Aeneas carried his father Anchises out of the ruins of Troy (although that might not be a good comparison because Aeneas does leave behind his wife in the chaos. What does that say about Aeneas when he exits Troy and then thinks, “Where is my wife?”).

[b]Finally, a tricky one; which came first, the chicken or the egg?: [/b] The egg, of course. According to the Biology class I took during my Freshmen year in high school, there were several types of animals that lived before birds came into being that also laid eggs, such as fish, insects, and even the dinosaurs. Therefore, the egg outdates the chicken because other animals had been laying eggs long before there was ever such a thing as a chicken.

[/hider]
[hider=Relationships]
[b]Iikka[/b]:To be honest, since this guy beat the crap out of some girl, I am pretty scared of asking how to pronounce his name? Is the “I” like a “Y” because it is followed by a vowel? I’m not physically intimidated, since I am technically ‘bigger’ than he is, but it is more because he has already lashed out at someone. I haven’t heard the whole story of what happened, and personally, I really don’t care. I don’t really want to know any of the drama that went down.

[b]Max[/b]: Oh God, not her. I mean, she’s nice and all, but once we had a group project and she just left me hanging. I had to do the project all by myself. We still got an ‘A’ on it and she’s lucky I’m not that type of person who would go to the teacher and complain that my partner didn’t do crap. Learning that her siblings got sick and her mom had work kind of cooled my anger, but seriously, why in the world was her phone anywhere near the toilet?

[b]Clay[/b]: I don't really know Clay that much. He's a little older than I am, but somehow he's a grade behind me. I only know about him because his mom and my mom both work at the hospital. I've heard stories that my mom would brag about me at work, and Mrs. Donnel would say that she wished she had a son like me. That probably put a target on my back, although nothing has come from it yet. I have nothing against him. Its just that we have totally different views on school. That's all.

[s][b]Jason[/b]: I know it is not my place to tell people what to do, but I feel he is wasting his potential by not going to college. I mean, if he really wants to build stuff, he could look into engineering. But if it makes him happy, I won’t put up a fuss about it. But I am glad he can place a metaphorical leash on “I” (yeah, I really don’t know how to pronounce his name). I personally seen one or two times where something big was going go down, but Jason stepped in. That what I call a great friend. If there is one thing I admire about Jason, it how he keeps “I” out of trouble.[/s]

[b]Theo[/b]: Theo who? No offense to the guy (I never met him before, or heard of his name), but we live in different circles of life. He's into computers and video games and indoorsy things, while I'm an athlete and more of an outdoorsman. He's a freshman, while I'm a Junior. I'm from an established local family, while he's from a rich family that just moved here. It's not like I would lose my "coolness" (if such a think existed) if I hung out with him. I just don't think we have that much in common. However, I wonder if my younger brother George has met with him? They're about the same age and do have the same interests.

[b]The Alien[/b]: TBD
[/hider]

[s]Yes, I know the irony of my character's dislikes and when I posted...[/s] ;)

[s]I'll try to finish this tomorrow.[/s]