Name: Joanna "Jo" English
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Role: Girl 2
Romantic Interest:
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 120lb
Nationality: Caucasian- Mostly Irish and Dutch, as far as specific places go.
"Shocker, eh? I have a more Asian-looking coloring than many of the others, despite not having, to my knowledge, a drop of Asian blood!"
Job: She works at a car wash.
Grade: Junior
Oddities:
Joanna often appears to have a bottomless stomach, able to consume large quantities of food at breakneck speeds. Despite her own large portions, she always seems to be taking the leftovers of others. She also tends to make strange faces when she is focusing on something, often amusing others without her actually knowing what's going on. Also, the young woman is particularly good at finding things- she calls it her superpower. On that note, she likes to call random talents superpowers.
Personality:
"You talk all the time, but you don't say anything."
Among the Group of Idiots, Jo is probably the least serious, or at least it often seems that way because she never seems to tire of clowning around. Her sense of humor ranges from sarcastic to absolutely childish, and she is definitely the most likely, among the group members, to play pranks or crack jokes during class. It often appears as though she bases everything she does around trying to get people to laugh, and the young woman doesn't mind humiliating herself if she can cheer up someone who was looking under the weather. That is one of her more redeeming characteristics, actually: Jo is constantly trying to get other people to smile or laugh, and puts a lot of energy into making others feel better when they seem to be down. She'll make fun of herself, play pranks, leave little cards, or whatever else it takes to get them to brighten up a bit. It does border on nosiness, because sometimes people genuinely don't want another person to try and make them feel better, but she seems to ignore the fact that she is invading their business, in favor of focusing on the fact that she is doing so in an attempt to help them. Most people believe that she does this because she is smiling all the time herself, and thus believes that others should do the same. In fact, she does it because seeing other people cry or be upset makes her feel uncomfortable, to the point where she begins to squirm or feel butterflies in her stomach. It just doesn't go over well with her, for whatever reason. So she plays around until they finally crack a smile.
The young woman can't seem to be serious about anything, though she has her reasons, and makes a joke in the most tense of situations because she dislikes the pressure that they bring- like the air is denser than their bodies and is trying to sink below them or something. It takes a good deal to make her finally leave her barrier of humor and general goofiness, and even then the occasion may only yield a fleeting moment of her being somber, before she cracks under the tension and does something uncalled for in an attempt to distract people from whatever the matter at hand is. In this way, she can be something of a nuisance from time to time, but she does try to minimize this by simply distracting herself from whatever the problem is. Because if Jo is a master of anything, it is of denial, a word that wasn't always in her vocabulary. As she grew older, Jo began to be less stubborn about proving herself, losing hope and becoming the sort of person who hides their insecurities behind a joke and a smile, like a clown hiding a frown behind their harlequin's mask.
Not to say that her optimism can't be real, of course. She has a sincerely goofy humor and desire to help others: it's just killing birds with two stones to also deflect attention from herself. It's funny how, if you talk enough, people stop really paying attention to you. It's like how, when a quiet person speaks, everyone stops to listen as though they are going to impart sagely wisdom, because it is a strange occurrence. But it is easy to tune out a person who speaks a lot, isn't it? Somehow, Jo began to subconsciously use this to her advantage when she was younger, and can easily deflect attention towards others. That's probably the reason that she is so focused on making others smile and such, as well. She'd rather focus on resolving the problems of others than resolving her own, acting like a parasite who uses the problems of others to ignore her own. She's incredibly insecure about her future and her intelligence, and has completely resigned herself to the belief that she will work a dead end, minimum wage job for the rest of her life because she isn't good enough to do any better than that. She's had pressure from her parents to be the best ever since she was a child, after all, and when a person spends their whole life putting everything they have into meeting expectations, and failing nearly every time, they eventually get tired. So Jo, who seems to have endless energy, grew tired and gave up, allowing herself to mentally beat herself up as she jokes about being an idiot so that people won't think that she needs help.
On a lighter note, the young woman is something of a tomboy, not the sort to spend time dress shopping or doing makeup or anything like that. In fact, outside of school, her fashion is either abysmal or just shorts and a T-shirt, often with a superhero logo on it. Regardless of how she dresses, Jo's mischievous behavior and general tendency to goof off does give the impression of the sort of girl who doesn't fit stereotypical images of femininity, even if she isn't quite as boyish as, say, Ryoko is. She can be very childish, planning elaborate treasure hunts and challenging people to impromptu competitions, but also has a graveness about her whenever she slips a bit or cracks slightly. Anyway, whether it be her endless appetite, love for running around, obsession with superheroes, or general playfulness, the young woman seems to be a bit of a tomboy. She does love adventure, the sort who will jump off of a cliff into the lake below without a second thought, or go exploring in woods without thinking about the presence of bugs or animals or anything like that. Jo has the bad habit of acting before thinking things through, and has narrowly missed a good amount of trouble several times before, aided by her friends and a knack for making things up on the spot.
Impulsive || Cheerful || Insecure || Resigned || Loud || Goofy || Adventurous || Childish || Mischievous || Loyal || Non Serious || Resourceful || Kind
Likes:
Food
Candy
Free Food
Making People Laugh
Corny Jokes
Small Pranks
Video Games
Basketball
Soccer
High Jumping
Her Cat
Company
Juice
Free time
When others smile
Belonging
Treasure Hunts/Finding Things
Cartoons
Superheroes/Superpowers
Dislikes:
Crying
Seeing Others Cry
Making People Worry
Soft Drinks
School Work
Failing
Tense Situations
Broccoli
Insults (Though she pretends to laugh them off)
Being looked down on
Trying her hardest and failing anyway
Spiders
Dyslexia
Nagging
Thinking About The Future
Report Cards
Disappointing her Parents
Talents:
Jo is a young woman of many talents, though several of them are so useless that they are hardly worth mentioning. For example, she can wiggle her ears and make her eyebrows due to the wave. She can also touch her nose with her tongue easily, and is quite gifted when it comes to making mazes with paper, or planning treasure hunts, Peter Pan-style.
On top of those things, the girl is also able to consume large quantities of food without passing out, and is actually quite athletic, despite her gluttonous appetite. She can dunk a basketball and juggle a soccer ball quite well, being more the sporty sort than the academic type. Her best sport, however, is high jumping: she was the champ in her old middle school, in fact. Not that that is saying much, because it wasn't super popular at her middle school, and that was a few years ago anyway. She can hide any negativity behind a grin and a joke, or make people laugh in even the worst of situations. Jo can brighten a room while simultaneously irritating the hell out of everyone in it, and can forgive almost everything, though she is unlikely to forget. She can make the most ridiculous of silly faces, and has a gift for getting small children to flock to her as though she were a giant lollipop.
Jo can also ignore a report card, or hide it where no one will find it. She can quietly stress herself into a pit of undetectable despair, but pretend to pluck herself out in an over dramatic jump with a smile. Jo is quite gifted, isn't she? Too bad most of her superpowers aren't super productive, huh? One useful thing, though, is the fact that she is a particularly good finder. "Yeah, I was sorted into Hufflepuff. We're particularly good finders!"
Flaws:
When it comes to academics, Joanna really isn't the best, often placing towards the bottom of her class and grade. Studying doesn't come easily to her, and the dyslexia hardly helps the issue. She used to put a lot of pressure on herself to do well, because she didn't want to disappoint her parents, and would study relentlessly. But, eventually, she just grew tired of it all. She was tired of having to study twice as hard as her friends just to get the grades that they earned without putting in any effort at all. She was tired of working towards a goal that she stopped believing she could reach, like a bird flying further and further away from her hand. So she stopped trying. Now, she jokes about her grades as if it isn't a big deal, and acts like she doesn't care about it. But the thing is, just because she stopped trying doesn't mean she stopped caring. When she jokingly calls herself an idiot, she means it. Jo thinks of herself as a fool, doesn't believe that she is smart, and refuses to see it any other way. Because pretending to accept something is a hell of a lot easier than actually dealing with it.
And she is absolutely terrified of her parents finding out, to the point that she hides her report cards and avoids them whenever they seem to be in a 'grades' kind of mood. She is the only child of a highly intelligent family, after all, and expectations weigh her down like cement blocks on the feet of someone sent to 'sleep with the fishes.' She fears the future almost as much as she fears her parents, because she doesn't believe that she will accomplish anything. Jo genuinely believes that she will work at the carwash for the rest of her life, because her parents certainly aren't going to support her if she can't make it into a good college, that much she is sure of. She tries to push away everything with a joke and a smile, focusing more on others because she is too cowardly to face her own issues. She isn't as brave or hopeful as she had been as a child, despite her constant smiles and playfulness. Jo refuses to take things seriously because she's already drowning beneath an ocean of expectations and failures and her own insecurities, and can't bear to add another layer to that. So she focuses on making people laugh and smile, not for their sake but for hers. Because it's a distraction that people don't call her out on.
Her love of superheroes and belief in superpowers is probably her trying to make herself feel better about herself, because how can she expect to be fantastic anyway, if she doesn't have powers or a tragic back story? It's escapism, honestly.
Poor Academics || Has Given Up || Afraid of the Future || Afraid of her Parents || Insecure || Cowardly || Pressures Herself || Avoids Seriousness
Hobbies:
What does Miss Jo like to do? Well. There's eating and climbing and making people laugh and telling jokes and playing pranks and eating and sleeping and swimming and jumping and playing basketball and eating and playing video games and watching marathons of shows and, oh, did I mention eating? Seriously, never offer to treat the girl to a meal, because she will most certainly take advantage of the invitation, and will drain your pocketbook with her bottomless stomach. She seems to be constantly moving, and claims that all of her energy comes from her stomach.
Oh, and she also likes to watch/read anything to do with superheroes. It's a bit of an obsession. She goes to local conventions in costume, and forces her friends to go to movie premiers. She's had this love of superheroes ever since she was a child, and watched the really terrible nineties live-action superhero TV shows. One of her favorite activities, however, is planning treasure hunts. She has a knack for finding things, but also likes to hide things and then leave weird, oddly specific hints around for people to find them. She was really into geocaching when she was a kid, and did it with her parents, but that stopped when she started being a disappointment of sorts.
Bio:
Theodore and Gretta English were both geniuses in their own right, representing the forefront of their respective fields. This had been the case ever since they were children, and nothing had ever been incredibly difficult for the two, who somehow were gifted with both high intellects, above average looks, and social skills. With their combination of talents, they were both destined for success throughout their lives. The two met while working for a prestigious engineering company in Japan, while Theodore worked on a project that Gretta was the team leader for. The project was to be incredibly successful, gaining them both further prestige among their peers. The pair were a power couple from the get go, and when they finally decided to have a child, great things were expected of the tiny, pink infant that they held in their arms on November 11th. She grew up speaking both English and Japanese, the language of her family and the language of her country, and at the age of three was put into piano classes. It was then discovered, though at the time it was dismissed based upon her youth, that Joanna English had no musical talent whatsoever. Theodore and Gretta decided that they were fine at this- their daughter didn't have to be a musical prodigy; they hadn't been, after all. They kept her in piano, but were somewhat lenient about it, as long as she attended all of her lessons and practiced for an hour a day. The definition of lenient, for the record, is not insulting her poor playing. Gradually, the child grew more talented, although she was never as good as one would think she would be based on the intensity of her practicing, but this correlated with a directly downward trend in how much she liked to play the piano. Still, little Joanna trooped on, because she didn't want to disappoint mommy and daddy.
This continued to be a trend throughout Joanna's childhood: her parents would put her in something or tell her to focus on something, but most of the time she would end up trying ridiculously hard only be be, at best, slightly above mediocrity. One of Joanna's most cherished memories is of a piano competition that they put her in. She won first place, probably due to practicing hours every night just for that one day, and it was the last time she had ever seen her parents to be proud of her. After that, she proved to be less than the expectations which had been set for her from before her birth. When it came to school, she was found to have dyslexia in the second grade. Her parents insisted that if she tried harder, she could still be top of her class. So she did. Joanna put all of her energy into studying, suppressing the normal desires of childhood to go outside and run around and play in favor of focusing on the curriculum material in order to try and make her parents proud again. That piano competition remained a distant light of hope that it could be done, although she never won another competition in regards to what her parents put her in. She surrendered her childhood to a desperate search for approval, thinking herself an idiot who could never do anything right. Her parents would never outright insult her, of course, but she could hear their whispered conversations and read the expressions on their faces. The Englishes were not sentimental folks, and did not accept failure. It grew to a point at which Joanna was terrified of lower grades, and would cry if she got anything less than an A. In elementary school, Joanna cried a good deal.
However, she learned rather soon that crying is of no use, and that tears will not make things easier. Even without the dyslexia, she hadn't the mind for academics, having difficulty concentrating and simply being unable to wrap her head around the lessons unless she worked hard at it. While teacher's admired her effort, other classmates would tease and call her an idiot for trying so hard only to get average grades. They didn't care if she cried, and it only alienated her more when she did so. In order to end this, Joanna learned to automatically smile whenever she felt that she was about to cry, because it made holding the tears back easier. Finding this to be successful, she started to stop letting on about any difficulties she was having, becoming a class clown of sorts. She would still go home and study furiously, of course, but at least she could have approval from her peers, even when they said that she was too loud or kind of annoying. Anything was fine, if she could be accepted by somebody at least. When Joanna was in middle school, her parents allowed her to quit piano in order to join the track and field team. She was an excellent jumper, and because the best high jumper on the team. While this did help to boost her self esteem to some extent, her parents didn't really care, for they found athletics to be nothing more than a healthy distraction. She continued to be a failure in all that they cared about, leading them to, in a whispered conversation that she was unfortunate enough to overhear, wonder if something had gone wrong during the pregnancy, to produce a daughter so unlike themselves. After hearing that, Joanna pretended to be sick and didn't leave her room for three days.
When she finally left, it was with a new philosophy, though perhaps not a better one. She still berated herself and thought of herself as an idiot who would never amount to anything, but at the same time simply gave up. As a thirteen year old girl, she gave up on the future. Rather than spending all of her time studying religiously Joanna would play outside or watch cartoons, or draw intricate treasure maps. Years of desperately searching for things just out of reach had given her gift for finding things, even if they were never the important sort of things. She pretended that the angry red marks, glaring up at her from the stark white test paper, didn't crush her a little bit, and would merely grin and call herself an idiot in a joking tone. Her peers would laugh, and so would she, only adding to the weight on her shoulders. Teachers noticed the change, but also thought that she was happier, unable to see past the superficial expressions, and remained silent in what they believed to be her best interests. People thought that she had gotten better, not realizing that it was a thin wallpaper over the cold hard truth: she had simply given up.
Joanna threw away tests and began to avoid her parents, not wanting to see the looks on their faces when the saw their daughter, who could barely pass classes and had gone from a studious, eager-to-please girl to the sort who wasted her time with things they considered nonsense, such as treasure hunts and superheroes. Her head was thoroughly in the clouds, as far as they were concerned, and that disappointed and worried her parents. At first there were confrontations, often running bitter, but they gave up as well, quietly submitting to the fact that there daughter was not going to be an intellectual as they were, quietly believing that she would be in a deadend job. There is nothing so sad as parents who have given up on their children- it only encourages those children to lose hope even further, after all. And Joanna did. Fearing that college would never be an option, she got a job as a first year, working at a Car Wash run by a kindly, if slightly prickly at first, old man who wore a ball cap regardless of the weather. She made friends who didn't seem, she hoped, to notice that she was useless, an idiot who was destined for nothing more than making a pittance and living paycheck to paycheck. At least they didn't look at her with those disappointed eyes that her parents did--they didn't chip away at her with their eyes alone. With those friends, she could be happy. And she was, to an extent.
But that little voice in the back of her head never went away. "You're an idiot. You will never amount to anything. Why aren't you good at anything useful? Don't you realize that you are disappointing your parents? You're disappointing everyone- just a waste of space. Yeah, go ahead and make a joke. It's all your good for, anyway. Focus on others so that you don't have to deal with yourself- how selfish."
Other:
She actually still knows how to play the piano, and is decent at it due to a childhood of obsessive practicing, but she doesn't really like to play the instrument, to be honest.
Her parents go on business trips to America a lot, because their English is first-language level and such, and as thus, Joanna is often home alone. This is a double edged sword, for while it does mean that she doesn't have to avoid them, the young woman dislikes empty houses.
Joanna has always wanted a pet, but her parents have pet allergies, and otherwise don't like the mess. She tends to dote excessively on animals, however.
Relationships:
While Joanna doesn't have any siblings, she does have two overbearing, overachieving parents. She thinks that they are constantly disappointed in her and believe that she can't do anything right, and thus avoids them. While they are in truth a bit pushy, and have very high expectations, they do still love their daughter- they are just bad at conveying their feelings. The relationship is strained, but more of a cold war than a hostile battlefield. Both sides are afraid of pushing the other over the edge.
Joanna also has a very strong relationship with the man who runs the Car Wash she works at- he is the stereotypical prickly old man, who expects a lot of effort and admires those with a strong work ethic. Though he may appear prickly and rude at first, he does have a warm heart beneath all of those thorns. She would probably hate disappointing him nearly as much as disappointing her parents, and always works very hard at work. He disapproves of her joking about being useless and having no future, and is a grandfather figure to Joanna. She cherishes the old man very much, and is rather fond of his wife as well.
Thoughts towards Other Characters:
Female
Holly - "She may act a bit stand offish at times, but Holly's a lot better once you get to know her, you know? She doesn't really play a lot of games, though, I think."
Rebbeka - "She's so shy, but that makes her kind of adorable, doesn't it? I'm absolutely certain that she has a fan club waiting in the wings, but she doesn't believe me."
Shiro - "Meow! She's really fun, isn't she? I like Shiro, even if she tends to injure herself whenever she goes on an adventure with me. It's easy to make her laugh, too."
Ryoko - "Ryoko's so cool! It's fun to fuel her fan girls, also, and she's usually willing to go on an adventure- I just wish she would stop worrying about me."
Kaori - "I'm pretty sure it freaks her out when I eat a lot, but I don't mind. She acts tough, but it's really easy to make her blush, and I find that funny. Making her laugh is always worth it!"
Tamika - "For someone who claims to hate kids, she does act a lot like one, doesn't she? She doesn't seem to like it when I bring that up, though."
Kaya - "I want your eyes! Sleeping is to her as eating is to me, I think. It's hard to make her laugh sometimes, but I manage!"
Ana - "Ana seems to prefer a supporting role, but isn't it kind of boring to be nothing but a spectator? Well, she doesn't really express herself very often, but you can't really force people to, right? I think she's nice, even if my jokes freak her out sometimes."
Emerie - "Who? Is that the new girl? She seems very put together, I guess? She's foreign, but so am I, so that doesn't really mean anything to me, I guess. I haven't spoken to her yet, actually- she's not in my year."
-
Male
Jaemin - "Do you think he'd teach me how to fight? I could get really strong, like Black Canary or Batman! Well, maybe not that cool. Anyway, Jaemin's pretty awesome, just like everyone else. He always seems so bored, though, so I try to get him to laugh when I can- because if you make a bored face all the time, your face will get stuck that way, right?"
Akiyuki - "Isn't he cute? Just like a girl! Now, if we could only get him into a dress. . .kidding! Well, maybe another time. Anyway, his food is really delicious, and that makes him brilliant in my book!"
An-Ren - "He's pretty cheerful, and constantly bragging about us- not that I don't agree that we are a pretty awesome group, of course. I think we're kind of similar, but I don't know what that says about him."
Dalen - "He may like to argue, but isn't it kind of like a kitten hissing at you? He's pretty fun, actually, and he's really good at making clothing, which I think is really cool! Plus, his appetite nearly rivals mine. We should have an eating contest sometime."
Milo - "Did you know that he is technically a dwarf- standing beneath 4'10", that is! Anyway, Milo is really intelligent, and can get top grades without trying- it really makes me feel like an idiot...kidding! But he gives me his food sometimes, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and that's the surefire way to earn my favor!"
Kyo - "He's a bit of a flirt, but otherwise rather nice, and he is one of those who doesn't try to pry or anything. It isn't really a challenge to make him smile, but I don't know how genuine the smiles actually are. Oh well."
Ryu - "He's really calm, but still pretty interesting- plus, his music is really awesome! Almost makes me wish I still played the piano. Well, not really- I hate that instrument. He doesn't mind my jokes, and uses a few cheesy puns himself sometimes. Sometimes I get this feeling of disappointment from him, and it freaks me out...just kidding!"
