GILLESPIE, Elara Nicole

[elara nicole gillespie]

ELARA NICOLE GILLESPIE

FULL NAME: Elara Nicole Gillespie.
NICKNAMES: None
AGE: 25
GENDER: Female
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Citizen.
GRADE: N/A.
MAJOR: N/A.
JOB OCCUPATION: Art Therapist.

HAIR: Dark brown, long. She tends to keep it down with looser curls in the lower lengths. If it’s up it’s messy and just being kept out of her way for some kind of practical reason – be it heat, cleaning or art.
EYES: Dark Brown.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: Any she has are covered in ink.
TATTOOS: Elara has tattoos from her head to her toes. She sees her skin as a canvas to add to, and all of her pieces are original designs she’s come up with and added to with the artists who ink her.
PIERCINGS: Two in each ear.
PLAY-BY: Cleo Wattenstrom!

LIKES: grey and black tattoos, repainting dolls, old toys, make up, hot chocolate, running, horror games, cats, winter (but only if it’s freezing cold), mixing scented candles for a unique fragrance, heavy books, old furniture, bars with live music, DIY decorating, garlic bread, spiced rum, Leonardo DiCaprio movies, the colour black, ice cream sundaes, music playing constantly.
DISLIKES: Noisy neighbours, forgetting there’s a window open, ill fitting clothes, mobile games, breaking a pencil mid sketch, red roses, blood tests, pebble beaches, people who interrupt conversations (deliberately), fruit juice, cold showers, headaches, checking her bank balance, pastel shades, fairytale endings, tequila shots, rice cakes.
FEARS: Losing her sketchpads, vomiting in public, failing herself.
SECRETS: She hasn’t spoken Connor’s name aloud since she walked away from him. .
PERSONALITY: Elara is strong minded and stubborn. She’s wary of anyone who appears to be doing well in their life as her past as left her somewhat jaded about people. It makes her hard to take good intentions at face value. She’s kind and always ready to help those in need. An artistic soul, it’s common for Elara to be wearing paint or pencil smudges as an extra accessory. She likes to be kept busy, and always has some project or plan to keep her moving. She can be defensive, sometimes without cause, but she’s still hurting even after all this time. She tries her best to hide it, even forget it, but there are moments when it’s as plain as day to those around her. She’s a scrappy thing, especially after a few drinks when her friends (or herself!) are being hassled in bars. She’s confident in her plans, but not always in herself and who she is. There are still people out there who can make her doubt herself. Connor was the last time Elara was truly in love, but she tries to tell herself that it was just some silly teenage romance. She’s wildly flirtatious when she wants to be, but nothing has ever gone further than a few months at most. She’s never felt serious about them. She’s not even sure at this point what she wants or expects from romance, but she knows that one night stands and short lived flings are soon to be outlived.

MOTHER: Rose Desiree Gillespie, 55
FATHER: Stefan Benjamin Gillespie, deceased.
SIBLINGS: Noah Harley Gillespie, 31.
OTHERS: Connor Elswood, 28.
PETS: Leto, Ragdoll kitten of four months!
HOMETOWN: Bronx, New York Ciry.
HISTORY: Rose and Stefan both came from very poor, struggling families. Each had their own tale of difficulties; stories of hand-me-downs and poverty lines. However, when they met they wanted to change the world for themselves. Big dreams amounted to very little though. Stefan was a handyman, having been forced out of college after his father took ill and passed away when he was just twenty-one. Stefan gave his savings to the funeral costs. Some petty crime followed to put food on the table and he was only ever cautioned and released since he had no priors. Rose was his light in the dark nights. She was wild, but sweet. She danced through their crumbling apartment, and worked the night shift in a roadside diner that probably wasn’t the best place for anyone to work. Her and Stefan took their time to get serious, but soon they were expecting a baby; they had a son and called him Noah. They married sometime between his arrival and Rose’s second pregnancy.

Their daughter, Elara, was a quiet girl with an artistic gift. The family lived in a small, dilapidated house in the Bronx. It was a rough neighbourhood with condemned buildings and sirens wailing through the night. Their money covered the bills and food, afforded second hand clothes, but that was it. The kids got small presents on holidays and birthdays, but they weren’t spoilt or boasting the newest gear. Stefan eventually managed to get regulars who would call him for odd jobs, but as time went on a lot of appliances and fittings came with insurance and longer lasting warranties. It cut into his business and left the family struggling at times.

Elara was singled out at school because of her family’s status. Kids didn’t want to hang out with her, and some prejudiced parents went as far as instructing their children to stay away from her. Elara was hurt by the birthday invitations she never received and the recesses she spent being ignored, but she always had a sketchpad. She poured her feelings into it, spending hours putting pencil to paper and creating drawing after drawing of her emotions and of creatures that described how she felt, and held all the things she wished she could say to people. It was hard to pour her hear out when she was only eight though.

Her school was flooded one morning after a pipe burst. They got a call during breakfast to inform them that the school would be closed for the day, and then there was a panic. Noah was attending a different school by that point, being older, and both her parents were due to work. No one felt comfortable leaving an eight year old at home alone in their neighbourhood. Eventually, Stefan concluded that he could take Elara with him. He was doing some waste removal for an upscale home in Manhattan; emptying the gutters and clearing out the sheds, that sort of thing. It was a family he had been called back to a handful of times over the last few years and though they were stingy with payment and tipping, he was happy for the reliable work. He called ahead to check it was okay that Elara tagged along, promising that she’d stay outside or in his truck and apparently that was fine enough.

Elara was sitting on the steps, drawing as always, when she was disturbed by Connor. He was older than her by a few years, but home from school because of a training day. He bothered her at first, but soon they were laughing together, and his older sister told Elara that she could come inside the house before the rain started. Connor had sandwiches made for them both, and they watched movies and played games, and it was so strange for Elara to meet someone who wanted to hang out with her. They became friends of sorts, and whenever school wasn’t in session and Stefan had work in the house, Elara would tag along to hang out with Connor.
His parents weren’t keen on the friendship, since Elara came into their immaculate home in dirty clothes most of the time, hands smeared in pencil lead. They only tolerated Stefan because he was cheap labour, but their son spending time with someone who came from below the poverty line…it was absurd.

Elara was surprised when she was offered a prestigious place at an arts academy. It had been Connor, working in secret, who had submitted some of her sketches and paintings to the school. They were willing to offer her a scholarship for the duration of her high school education. She had been shocked, a little annoyed at him for going behind her back, but also excited. Her parents were thrilled for such an opportunity. It meant a great education and a chance for her to hone the fantastic talent she already had. Connor had come to mean a lot to her, and she to him, but they had never acted upon it – not until Elara was fifteen and sketching him for one of her classes.

He was sitting in front of her, knees touching hers, on a window seat in the study of his large home. His parents were away in The Hamptons for a long weekend and his college aged sister was in charge (which really meant no one was in charge). She was doing a study of his face, taking in all the details in charcoal, when he asked her how school had been. She rarely spoke about the academy after being so excited the summer before she had started. It was like each week took one more sentence away from her until it was just odd words here and there. That afternoon he wanted to know why. And he found out. Elara didn’t belong in a place like that. Being one of just five scholarship kids in her year she stuck out. She didn’t have the rich lifestyle the others had, or the famous connections other had used to get in there in the first place. It wasn’t as bad as her earlier school years, but Elara felt like a fraudster there. Connor reminded her of her talent, her skill, and snatched her sketchpad to see the piece she was doing. He was amazed at how she had captured all of the details of his face. Every little blemish, the asymmetry, the messy hair…it was all there. In the next moment they were kissing, the sketchpad on the floor, along with her supplies.

Their romance was giddy, stolen kisses in the gardens and against the bookcases when they were alone. It was as though they both knew Mr and Mrs Elswood would disapprove. They were teenage lovers, whispering “I love you” in those stolen moments. Elara’s family knew she was seeing someone, but they didn’t dare suggest that it was Connor. Rose and Stefan worried about a heartbreak. They had worried through the years about the friendship that had been blooming into something more. They understood the boundaries in society, but the children had grown up leaping back and forth over those fences, not caring that money mattered in this world.

One afternoon, Connor and Elara had lost track of time, and sneaking out of the upstairs study in his home led them straight into the path of Connor’s father and his business associates. The pair were paint splattered and laughing, clinging to each other like they were the oxygen the other needed. An art study Elara was doing for her final junior project had spiralled wildly out of control and the canvas, protective sheets, and themselves were now rainbow coloured. No one was supposed to know she was there, that she was using Connor again for her project. She should have been gone over an hour ago. He should have had everything tidied away and have been doing his own college work.

Elara made a hasty exit and Connor was left to face the music. What happened next was shocking to everyone. The next time Stefan came to complete a job at the Elswood home, he was accused of theft. Of all things, he was accused of stealing a marble water fountain. Elara had been with him on the day the theft had apparently occurred, but her word wasn’t good enough. The Elswood’s had money, some witness in the shape of a local boy, and a solid reputation, whereas Stefan had that caution from almost twenty years ago. Power won over the pleading of an honest man. Stefan was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison.

Noah had to come home from the army to help look after his sister and mother. Elara, at seventeen, understood what this had really been about. It was about her relationship with Connor. They hadn’t been able to spend any time together during the investigation and court proceedings. They had been reduced to text messages and stolen glances. She understood now that they came from different worlds and that she would never be welcome in that blue collar circle his family came from. She arranged to meet Connor late one night, and her heart sat heavy in her chest as soon as she sent the message to him. That night, she broke up with him. She made it very clear that while she loved him with every fibre of her being there was just no way that they could be together. Their worlds were too different. At seventeen Elara was wild hair dye and her first two tattoos hidden beneath her clothes. She had a nose piecing and loved fashion that turned heads. She could never fit into a word that held charity galas and afternoon teas. She fell asleep covered in paint, and had a room of broken doll parts and unfinished art projects. She came from a part of New York City recognised for its lack of social care and funding.

She loved Connor, but they were destined to be another Romeo and Juliet; tragic and wasted.

Walking away from him made her heart sink even lower and it never came back up. Elara spent the following years with it sitting low in her chest, beating near her stomach. There was always that sense of something missing in her soul. It was there in every painting that she did, every grey sketch was melancholy in a way she didn’t intend.

Another scholarship got the heartbroken girl into college and she was grateful for the distraction. She was already working evenings at a local coffee shop, but now she worked more hours there, along with a counter in a department store. Rose struggled with Stefan incarcerated. He wasn’t handling prison too well, which made her worry so much more. Balancing two jobs with art college was tough, but Elara was happy to have her mind occupied with so damn much.

When Stefan was released after two years and ten months, he wasn’t the same man. He was soulless. He was just a husk of the man he used to be. He barely did anything, was pale, sickly and couldn’t get back into work because he lacked the strength for it. Plus, he was often run down with illnesses. He lasted only another year and a half before he suffered a heart attack and died in the middle of the night.

Elara was just going into her final year of college at the time and she was filled with sorrow and anger and reminded of the heartbreak she wanted to forget. None of her anger was towards Connor. If anything, she wanted to call him simply to seek out his comfort. She wanted him more then than in the last four years. She resisted though. She made Noah take her phone away until the feeling subsided. Elara was too strong for her own good at times. Instead, everything went into her art.

It was after graduation that she decided she wanted to go into art therapy. With funding gained from a specialist agency, she managed to obtain the training she needed to go into practice. She worked in a group home at first, but late decided that she wanted her own space. She went with other therapists who used drama and music in their therapy. They accepted anyone from all walks of life who they believed would benefit from their classes, but Elara particularly focused on those who were struggling to adapt after prison sentences, or rehab stays. She wanted to do it for her father. Of course, she took others, too, but with eight of them based in the large converted building, there was no harm in having something of a specialty as well as the general class sessions.

One year on and her heart still resides low in her chest. Elara gives her all to her therapy groups, but there’s still something missing from her own life. She tries to be honest with the people she helps, explaining that she hurts, too, but healing is slow. The only problem is, she doesn’t think time has helped her at all, at least not when it comes to Connor.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: On my laptop
SAMPLE:

BUY DEM APPLES.

[kim]