HARROW, Jackson Jerome

[Deleted]

JACKSON JEROME HARROW

FULL NAME: Jackson Jerome Harrow.
NICKNAMES: JJ
AGE: Twenty-six
GENDER: Male
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Citizen.
GRADE: N/A.
MAJOR: N/A.
JOB OCCUPATION: Hal’s Diner Cook.

HAIR: Brown, and kept short enough that he doesn’t have to worry about styling it in the mornings, though to be honest he wears a beanie most days anyway.
EYES: Blue.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: There are a few on his hands from kitchen accidents and old bar fights. He had a nasty habit of picking the scabs from his busted knuckles.
TATTOOS: “No half measures” on his right bicep. He has a mockingbird in flight tattooed on his shoulder blade to represent freedom. A solitary stick figure on his left wrist for how he was alone growing up, and underneath it the word ‘solus’ (the Latin for alone).
PIERCINGS: None.
PLAY-BY: Aaron Paul!

LIKES: Keeping life simple, reptiles, birds, driving, hot weather, lazy days, relaxing, philosophy, tattoos, strong coffee, burgers, finding people he can trust, dive bars, energy drinks, sleeping in late, action movies, Netflix, city life, thrift stores, old things, chocolate shakes, pretzels, Hal’s, loud rock music, Southpark.
DISLIKES: Feeling alone, being let down, being made to look stupid, rich snobs, screwing up relationships, grape soda, being looked down upon, burning a meal, expensive drinks, security lights, gossip, fire, scratch cards, cold custard, romantic comedies, Disney movies, medication, doctors, losing a hat, anger.
FEARS: Being alone forever, fire, being homeless.
SECRETS: When JJ was in high school he used to sell prescription drugs to classmates for a friend because he honestly thought that was all he would ever be good for in life.
PERSONALITY: JJ is the type of guy who feels stuck in life. He's never really known where he's going or what he wants. He just sort of bumbles along and goes with what comes his way. He's a dreamer who wishes on stars for greater things to come his way since he's never really had much, but JJ doesn't know how to reach for those dreams. He's kind of pessimistic because he's always been told that he's useless and capable of very little, even if it's not entirely true of him. He's tough because he's had to be over the years, and JJ can hold his own and throw a decent punch - scrapping used to be his way of getting attention when he was a kid. He's quiet, but only because he's used to being laughed at or shouted at when he did speak up when he was younger. Mentally, he's a mess, vulnerable though he'd never let anyone close enough for them to see it. He'd rather play the tough scary guy and push people away. Being defensive is what he knows best, and JJ hasn't learnt how to change that yet. He spends a great deal of time feeling sorry for himself, or angry at everything life has thrown at him. He's troubled and because of this has never been lucky in love. He's never met anyone willing to put up with his short temper, or his reluctance to open up about himself. So, JJ only indulges in meaningless flings and casual relationships that go nowhere. He wants more, but has come to believe that he can never have that because he is so damaged.

MOTHER: Cady Luna Warren, 42.
FATHER: Lucas Perry James, 48.
SIBLINGS: If he has them he doesn't know.
OTHERS: There were countless foster families and homes, but JJ deliberately tries to forget them all.
PETS: He has a white retriever named Ghost!
HOMETOWN: Queens, New York City.
HISTORY: Cady was fifteen when she fell pregnant, "knocked up by that older kid from the trailer park", as her father so eloquently put it. Lucas was twenty-one, arrested for hooking up with a girl who had lied about her age to attend a college party. The one night stand after drinking cheap beer had ruined both of their lives, but at least Cady could escape her mistake, whereas Lucas ended up serving jail time and with the type of criminal record that he couldn't explain away so easily. It was three days after what should have been Cady's sweet sixteenth that she found herself giving birth to her son in the backroom of their family home. He was snatched away before she could even hold him. Her father handed the newborn over to the care services without a name and it was the lady who collected him who gave him the name he grew up with. Cady's dad did everything to ensure that the baby couldn't be traced back to them, and paid the services handsomely to ensure that the baby couldn't be traced back to their family.

The social workers hoped that a baby like JJ might be adopted by a nice family, but he was a problem child from the moment he was born. He cried a lot, managed to catch a lot of illnesses from other children, and families who came always wanted an easy child who wouldn't be too much bother for them. It meant JJ always came back to the care homes time and time again after being fostered a short while. It was disappointing, and as he grew up and became old enough to understand his situation, JJ started to see the other children go home with families and never come back because they had captured the hearts of those parents. He would try to do the same, but he never could. He was always too loud, too rough, or just not what they wanted in their child.

So, JJ was handed from pillar to post over and over. The nice families would try to change him, teach him manner or show him where he went wrong, but JJ grew frustrated when they favoured another child or when he couldn't understand something they were trying to show him. He'd lash out and then it was straight back to the children's home -do not pass go, do not collect $200. Other foster families weren't so nice and they didn't mince their words when they set about telling JJ that he wasn't good enough or wouldn't amount to anything in his life. They were the families who were in the game solely for the cash benefits of temporarily housing the kids, and they didn't care one iota about the tykes in their care. JJ heard horrible things from those so-called parents, and was subjected to lashing of verbal and emotional abuse from them. In those instances, running away was met with physical punishment and calls from the cops who always seemed to side with the parents no matter what, and spoke of how common this behaviour was with 'troublesome kids from broken homes'.

JJ grew up with very little. In fact, there was nothing but shared toys, hand me down clothes, and no clue as to who he really was. No one would tell him anything, and if he asked he was only ever told that he was given up at birth and in state care from that moment. At school he was ridiculed for how he looked, and how he wasn't able to afford things other classmates had. JJ was an outcast who only had his temper and his dreams to grow up and get away from this world of being a kid for hire. He would fight whenever someone made him snap, cut class, and generally act like the troublemaker people expected him to be because by this point when he was a teenager he figured he wouldn't amount to anything else. An older kid got him to peddle pills to the high school junkies for him, and though JJ never got caught, he was still toeing that line of crime like it was all he was good for. He had heard plenty of failure stories from others who had grown up in the home with him, got out when they hit eighteen and were now serving time or on the streets because they had nothing, and could make nothing of their lives once they had found their freedom.

He didn't want that to be his life, but he didn't know how else to avoid it. There wasn't anything he was great at, and growing up in care meant he wasn't really given the support he needed for school. College basically wasn't an option for him, as much as he would've liked to make it there. JJ thought about maybe finding his birth parents, but when he was able to find his birth record everyone on it was listed as unknown, and the crumpled bit of paper just proved how unwanted he had been all of his life. JJ managed to keep some of his money from his illegal dealing to rent a dump of an apartment for when he was old enough to look after himself in the eyes of the system. He continued to push the pills until he got a job as a dish washer in some Chinese restaurant two blocks away. The pay was lousy, but it was enough. He just got by and had a tiny bit left to save up each month. JJ worked there for three years, until he was offered another job in Hal's, helping in the kitchen. It wasn't much more, but he ate breakfast in there most days and when they had been short staffed one morning he had offered to lend a hand. He couldn't do much, but he learnt fast.

It wasn't like they made complicated dishes or gourmet meals, but JJ learnt to cook what was on the menu and soon was one of the cooks there after about a year of working alongside another. It wasn't the fanciest of jobs, but he felt like he belonged at the diner and the staff became like a family he had never had. They didn't bully him or tease him in a nasty way, and they defended him if a customer criticised the dish he sent out. It was something JJ had never had before. Hal's was simple, but it was more than JJ had ever experienced. He got himself a nicer place to call home, earned a better wage there and found friends for the first time, though he was still a very long way from being fixed after all those years of suffering in the system.

JJ is still there now, slogging it out, and making it work. He's no five star chef, but flipping burgers is something he's praised for, and people seem to like him there. It's a small start, he's got miles still to go, but JJ just takes it one day at a time.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: Under the Brooklyn Bridge.
SAMPLE:

A plate sample?

[kim]