Won't Hurt to Try NaNoWriMo Prep

Setting

Reducio image This is just a rough visual of the setting. It's not perfect, and not to scale in terms of the buildings and the houses, but this is my visual representation of my explanation below.

There is a large river, whom the nearby people call the Mother River, that splits and goes around what used to be a large and pleasant meadow. The two rivers that branched off of it, Daughter River to the West and Son River to the East, hit what is now called the Auapax Cliffs that marked the end of the meadow and split into waterfalls cascading down the cliffs into the land below, splitting into many rivers and creeks and providing water to all of the land around it.

In this meadow surrounded by rivers, a Kingdom was born. The kingdom was composed only of the one town, which grew into a city. It was named Auapax, and the cliffs were named after it. The city was circular, with tall sand-colored walls around it, not to keep the people in or out, but to protect the city from the flooding of the rivers around it. There were three gates to exit the city- one to the west, one to the east, and one to the south, large and sturdy dark wood in the strong walls. They were closed only when there were dangers of the rivers flooding. Right outside of the eastern and western gates were two identical bridges, beautifully crafted and a light gray stone in color. A winding path had been carved out of the cliffs to the south so that if one wanted to exit it that way, they would be able to do so safely.

This is not relatively in the world that we live in, but the world that it belongs to does not have a name, since the people living there are not aware that there are other worlds. All they have is their own existence, and they have not been given the chance to discover other worlds yet. Because of this, they have not created a name for that world.

The houses were all relatively similar in size and design, though there were clear differences between some houses if compared side by side. They were made out of light wood, a tan color, framed by black wood. Occasionally, white brick could be seen in the sides of houses, though it was rare, and a sign of wealth.

Wynola (our main character) lived in a house between the Eastern and Southern Gate, right between the Main Street and the Market Street. The house looked much like any other, though it had a flowerbed with orange and yellow flowers growing in it in the warmer seasons, in evergreen bushes. On the inside, it almost always smelled like something was baking- cookies, pies, pastries, you name it, thanks to Wynola's grandmother, named Meira. The main room was the kitchen, which had a table for eating in it. Each of them had a room in the house, and there was an extra guest room. Wynola's room had potted plants in every corner, and lining the window. Her bed was made of dark wood, with white sheets and a thick quilt that was a conglomerate of honey yellows, and oranges. Her room was cozy and most of the time warm, with sunshine shining through the window and the tulle orange curtains. The walls are painted honey yellow and the floors are a dark wood.

Auapax had one big school in which the children from age 10 to 16 went to learn things like math, reading, communicating, customs, cultures, and history. The school was made of light stone that matched the walls and was decorated by the school colors, white and pine green. It was also several stories tall. Auapax School's curriculum was very focused on what a person would need to know to be successful in life, and each student was treated differently based on their needs. Because of this, there were two classes of approximately fifteen students for every age group. School started On the day of the Autumn Equinox, so age groups were sorted by your age on the day of the Autumn Equinox. The small classes enabled for more personal and individual education. School was held six days a week for six hours every day. It was held early in the morning, giving students plenty of time to do things like be interns, have side jobs, and explore their interests after school ended for the day. Teachers were depended on to help students find a job, a way of life that they wanted to follow, and nurture a passion for that job that would lead to them being successful in their lives. Whether it was farming, constructing, or a job that required higher forms of education.

From there, if a child aspired to pursue a job that would need higher education, they could choose to go to the other school housed in the walls of Auapax, called Ryrn School, named after the King who had set it up. This was a school of prestige, of scholars, who learned about how to become teachers, philosophers, authors, and political powers. They could learn about math and biology more extensively, or pursue art forms professionally, like visual arts, dance, and martial arts. This school, however, required a small amount of tuition money for each class, meaning that families with less money could afford it more than other schools of higher learning, but most likely only one class. The students who took more than four classes were considered very rich, because their parents most likely were. The school was largely made of gray and black stone, with light blues decorating the halls. It was incredibly tall, filled with rooms that were specifically made for their purposes.

There was a single library that was accessible to all of the citizens of Auapax. It was made of dark wood and filled to the brim with knowledge. There had been rumors that once it had held all of the knowledge in the world, and the people building it just kept building up in an attempt to house it all. It was known widely as an extremely good library, and you could sometimes see somebody from the castle getting a book for one of the members of the royal family.

The calendar system used in Auapax is quite simple. They measure each season by their equinoxes or solstices. What we would call the Spring Equinox is known formally as the Unus Equinox, the Summer Solstice as the Unus Solstice, the Autumn Equinox as the Duo Equinox, and the Winter Solstice as the Duo Solstice. In their world, there are exactly 90 days between the Equinox and its next Solstice, and vice versa. They use these as their points of reference, almost the way we use our months. But, as it would be exhausting to say "Unus Solstice" every time they wanted to refer to it, the people of Auapax have coined nicknames for each, referring to them as Unanox, Unice, Duonox, and Dunice. Each of these days are celebrated as the main holidays for the people of Auapax, each with their own distinct traditions and customs to go along with them.

Against the north of the circular wall was the castle in which the royal family lived. It was quite small as castles go, and seemed more like a mansion in size. It was just enough for what the Kingdom needed, from a formal meeting dining hall to bedrooms, they always had just enough and no more, and that was a theme commonly shown in Auapax. Most of the castle was made of the same tan stone as the walls surrounding the Kingdom, humble in appearance. It was quite pretty, however, accented by darker and cooler colors, most commonly dark blues and greens.

The royal family ruled with justice and peace in mind, choosing compassion. It was probably very lucky to all the people in and around Auapax that they did, because having access to the source of the water that supplied most of the land around them, Auapax could easily rule with terror and threats to other countries to block off their supplies. Queen Nirvae, King Ivess, and their only son and heir to the throne, Prince Dariann, were a close knit family concerned only by how they could help their Kingdom. The King and Queen had a team of hand-picked advisors, each with their own distinct personalities and strong opinions. They ranged

The most breathtaking and the only arguably too flashy space in the castle was the ballroom. This ballroom held the Great Ball annually, so of course it had to be huge, taking up a good portion of the overall space in the castle. It was a hall at the front of the castle, very fancy and adorned with windows on almost every side, wide and long with a white marble floor with veins of gold and blue and green snaking through it.

This is where the royal family held their annual ball, taking place every Unanox. This ball is formally referred to as the Annual Auapax Ball, but fondly referred to as the "Celebration of Coming Life" among the people that live in Auapax, referring to the beginning of the Unanox season, with life blooming all around them. There is an old wives tale that is quite controversial- either you believe in it fully, or you think it's only a silly rumor. The rumor goes that the first Ball a girl goes to that she is sixteen years old, if she does not have a date, she is destined to be alone forever. Some people take this in the romantic sense, and some take it in all senses of your life. It is expected for the male date to supply the female date with a ball dress, if they end up going together (This gets complicated with homosexual relationships, but they figure it out).

The Town Square is a large square set in the exact middle of the city, with a pine green fountain in the middle, circular It is a common place for getting together with friends and is almost always bustling with life. You could often hear street performers there, weaving through the crowd or finding a spot at the edge of the square. Inns and restaurants overlooked the Square.

Market Street was a street that held almost all of the shops, street carts, and vendors in all of Auapax. You could barely ever walk through the entirety of Market Street and not buy something. It was near impossible. There were more official shops that lined the street, and then there were people with carts, stands, small tents, all selling their own products, from jewelry to fabrics to delicacies. Wynola's grandmother, Meira, makes a living by selling her pastries there. She is widely known and many people enjoy her bakes. The air is full of sharp and distinct smells of the products that they are selling.

Outside of the Eastern gate, across the Eastern Bridge, a humble dirt path weaves through the forest and northeastward. It leads up to an orange orchard, long rows of orange trees, one after another, evenly spaced out in beautiful rows. Near the orchard was a wooden cabin, with a slanted roof. It was a humble cabin, with a kitchen and a bathroom downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs, each largely furnished with quilts and wood. Both the cabin and the orchard were owned by Beck Wall, though Wynola was only ever allowed to call him Beck.

To the North of Auapax, there are hills that grow into mountains as you go farther North, named the Praesi Mountains. To the East, most of the land is forested areas, except for the area that held the Orchard. There is a small vein of water that branches off from the Son River and crosses the river, a small bridge going over that. To the west of Auapax, it is mostly filled with meadows. All around Auapax, extensive wildlife lives, flora and fauna.

The story is set during Duostice, during the harvest season of the oranges in the Orchard, leading up to the Annual Auapax Ball.

Word Count: 2010/1000

Protagonist

Moodboard

Her name is Wynola Dawn Bridges. She lives in Auapax, and is around the Middle Class in the city. She lives with only her grandmother, and doesn't remember anything about her parents. All her grandmother seems to know is that one day, they left and never came back. She always made it sound like they had died, but Wynola doesn't always know how true that is. She's always lived in the house that she lives in now, and can't remember anything else.

Wynola is headstrong and hotheaded, and often makes quick decisions without thinking, instead using her gut and her feelings. She usually does first and thinks later, does first, and apologizes later. Most of the time, if she makes a rash decision, she doesn't always know why she made that decision, and almost never is able to explain those rash decisions. If she is in a bad mood, it is almost impossible to get her out of that bad mood unless she wants to. If she gets mad, she can go too far in her arguments, much much farther than she would ever go if she was in a calm state.

Wynola has soft features and long, blonde hair, with many waves in it. It reaches down to her waist, and is almost always pulled away from her face with a cloth tied around it, almost like a bandanna, covering some of the top of her hair. Her curls always seemed to escape the cloth, however, baby hairs framing her face, or, often, falling in her face. Her eyes are a dark chocolate brown. She's about average height, though maybe a little bit taller. She has more of a thicker body type, and always loves wearing yellows, whites, and oranges. Her brown leather knee lace-up boots are always a must in every outfit she wears.

Wynola is often called Wynn by her friends and most everybody who knows her, though her grandmother calls her Wynnie, which is more of a pet name for her.

She enjoys being out in nature, which is why her room is lined with potted plants that she cares for. She enjoys walks in the forest, picnics in the meadow, and spending time in the Orchard. After school during the harvest season for oranges, she goes to pick oranges in the Orchard. As payment for helping Beck, she is allowed to keep a portion of what she picks to provide oranges for her grandmother to cook and bake into all kinds of foods, desserts, and pastries. Her times picking oranges in the Orchard are the times where she feels most calm, most at peace, and the times that she thinks over things. Nature always had a way of making Wynola more thoughtful.

Though she is not a bad student, Wynola does not enjoy school. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, and because of the career-driven curriculum and the fact that she gets bored easily, she often does not like being at school or what they have for her to learn. If she was actually interested in school, she could excel in every area of it, but because she is against it, school work only is given a portion of her effort, and she is more of an average student. She looks forward to not having to go to school anymore.

Wynola is a loud person. She lives freely and expressively around those she trusts, not afraid to share her opinion. She does not give out sincere apologies easily, and if she does, it means that she really wants to conserve the relationship with that person. It is next to impossible to force her to do anything. If she knows that somebody is attempting to manipulate or force her to do something, she won't want to do it, because she doesn't want to be pushed around.

Wynola is not welcoming of big change in her life unless she asks for it. She doesn't like new people, big changes, or sharing things she didn't used to share. She likes living comfortably in the life she has, and wants it to stay put while she chases after all the other things that she wants to change in her life, like the specific kinds of relationship she years for- one with her parents, and one that she is marked as special and his one and only.

Wynola is also not afraid of anything (or so she says). She will dive headfirst into any situation without a second thought, whether it's climbing a tree, running away, stomping on a terrifying (and probably terrified) spider to "save" her friends, or saying something controversial. She isn't afraid of bugs or heights or the creatures that are rumored to lurk in the rivers around Auapax.

Although she would never ever admit it, the one thing Wynola is scared of is being alone. She doesn't want to loose the friends she has, and she wants, more than anything, a romantic relationship. She doesn't want one because she thinks that she can't survive by herself, but she really wants the closeness of a partner and is scared of the lack of companionship. She's scared of being alone forever, with nobody to understand her or keep her company. She makes rash decisions out of this fear through the story, desperately trying to find the people that will keep her safe from this fear, building a fortress of companions around her, but the more she tries to do that, the more truly alone she feels on the inside. At the end of the story, it takes letting go of her fear and facing it to realize that she isn't alone, and no matter how scared she is of being alone, she won't ever be. She's always been with the people who love her and care for her, even if they show it in different ways than she would be able to recognize at first. Along the way, she learns the value of true friendship, forgiveness, and accepting somebody for who they are instead of who she wanted them to be.

Word Count: 1018/1000

Main Plot

Our story opens on our main character, Wynola, riding her horse through the woods. She is making her way towards her job, where she picks oranges. The horse, whom she does not get along with, ends up bucking her off, due to her own actions, and she ends up in a creek, all wet and muddy. Here she is met by Zena, whom she does not know. Zena comes across as annoying and too innocent and imaginative for Wynola, and follows Wynola all the way to the Orchard, following her around despite Wynola's threats and snappy attitude. This puts Wynola in an especially bad mood, and she leaves early from the Orchard, to a sleepover with her best friends.

While she is having dinner with her friends, the subject of the ball and the old wives' tale about being alone forever comes up and Wynola experiences a feeling of fear, that she will be alone forever. Her and her friends make a pact that they will all find dates to the ball before the ball, in thirty days. This introduces the conflict and the drive of the entire story. Wynola is fueled by fear that she won't be able to keep her pact with her friends, and worse, be alone forever. When telling her friends about Zena, they have the same reaction as Wynola had, and Wynola talks bad about Zena behind her back.

Wynola goes through her days at school, annoyed by Zena after school and desperately trying to get a date to the ball each day at school. The boys in her class, however, do not seem to be complying. One day, however, Wynola is asked out, by a boy named Rook. She is relieved that a half-decent guy asked her out, and that she will have a date to the ball. Wrapped in this security, Wynola has lunch with her friends the next day, only to learn that he only asked her because he had nobody else to ask. Although the old wives' tale about being alone forever didn't extend to boys, Rook's parents are very concerned with him having a date to the ball to keep up their reputation. Wynola's friends break the truth to her, telling her that he doesn't actually love her and is only using her to please his parents. Wynola's heart sinks, but she continues to date him, so that she'll have a date to the ball. She slowly becomes more and more lonely on the inside, though, because their love isn't real. When she tells this to Zena, Zena encourages Wynola to break up with Rook, but Wynola won't have it.

But the guy that Wynola really, really likes is named Alarik. He's tall and dark and handsome and she wants more than anything to go to the ball with him. Wynola's logic, however faulty, is that Rook will leave her the moment the ball is over, and tell her the truth- that he never really liked her in the first place. She then concludes that he isn't trustworthy enough to go to the ball with, and might ditch her at the last second. But she knows that Alarik would never do that, so she confesses her feelings to him.

Two-timing in this world is very similar to two-timing in our own. Alarik accepts and takes her out, too. Wynola is praised by her friends for being able to do this, keeping it secret from both of her partners, though Zena is largely against it.

Wynola feels guilt, however. She is growing closer to Zena and always lies to her and to her friends, telling both sides they are her best friends. She is two-timing both boys, and though she is surrounded by everything she could ever ask for, she feels more alone than she ever has before. She goes to her grandmother for advice about this, and her grandmother encourages her to come clean. It is two before the ball, and Wynola is scared to come clean, because then she could be without a date at the ball. But she decides for it, and calls all her friends and partners to meet her in a place at the same time.

Everybody shows up. Wynola comes clean, telling them the truth about how she had two-timed the boys and told both of her friends that they were her best friends. She refuses to apologize, however, thinking that it was the best course of action for her situation and she doesn't owe anybody an apology. The boys are broken, especially Rook, and leave. The girls, however, are not only heartbroken, but all but Zena force her to tell them who was actually their best friend. Wynola looks back and forth between her friends, saying that it was her friends and not Zena, and she had been lying to Zena. She tells Zena that she never liked her, and ditches her as a friend. Thinking she might have saved her relationship with her other friends, Wynola turns to them. Her remaining friends, however, are not happy with her, even though she chose them. All of her friends leave, including Zena, and Wynola is left utterly and completely alone.

She runs home, and curls up in her bed, defeated. Now, she is truly, truly alone. She has no friends, no partners, nothing. She has nothing and nobody. She doesn't even have any parents. Wynola cries herself to sleep.

She is wakened by her grandmother, who tries to get her to eat. Wynola only lashes out at her grandmother, telling her to leave her alone. Her grandmother does leave her alone for most of the day, in which Wynola stays in her room, pitying herself. It was the day of Unanox, and she had nobody to go to the Ball with. She would be alone forever. Wynola comes to terms with this fear, taking it on as pure truth. She will be alone forever, she decides. She faces her fear and resides in it, letting it simmer in her heart.

Later in the night, right when Wynola knows the ball is about to start, her grandmother enters her room. Wynola tells her to go away and hides her face under her covers, but her grandmother doesn't say anything, and leaves soon after. Wynola, confused, sits up, and sees what is hanging on her dresser door. A gown. A honey-gold ballgown is hanging on her dresser. Wynola then realizes that she isn't alone. She isn't alone at all. She has always had her grandmother.

Her grandmother takes her to the ball, and Wynola apologizes to her grandmother, and is prompted to apologize to her friends. Wynola thinks over it, and decides that she is going to apologize to Rook and Alarik at the ball. However hard it was, she does it, and earns forgiveness from Rook, but not from Alarik. Wynola has a blast at the ball, even though she doesn't have a date. Suddenly, she's not afraid of being alone anymore, now that she's faced that fear.

Suddenly, she isn't alone anymore.

Word Count: 1177/1000

Subplot 1

Though the main plot heavily relies on the conflict between Wynola and herself, and Wynola finding a date to the ball, this subplot is heavily entwined with the main plot. This one is about Zena.

Zena is the niece of the man who owns the farm (Beck).

Zena comes off as very annoying to Wynola. Wynola constantly compares her with her friends, and Zena always seems to come up short. Zena plays in the woods, and doesn't think the same way that Wynola's friends do. She is a daydreamer, and her heads are always up in the clouds, thinking about what could be, what might have been. Overall, Wynola just thinks of her as strange and tries to distance herself from the girl. Zena, however, is not having this. She seems to ignore Wynola's clear efforts and explanations that she doesn't like Zena. Zena follows Wynola to the Orchard each day, always chatty and trying to get to know Wynola.

Usually when Wynola's grandmother (Meira) goes out of town, Wynola stays in the guest room at Beck's cabin. But this time, when Meira leaves town on her own, Wynola has a roommate, since Zena has been staying in this room. Her visit starts with festering jealousy, but over time, she learns to like Zena, if only a little bit. This becomes a turning point in their relationship, and Zena and Wynola become very good friends, Wynola finally giving in to Zena's friendship and enjoying her company. Zena makes her feel a little bit less alone.

Wynola confides in Zena even more than her own friends. Zena is largely against Wynola two-timing, and seems to know Wynola's true motives more than Wynola knows them herself. The two girls stay close, though they disagree on Wynola's actions.

Wynola takes Zena dress shopping for a dress for the ball a couple weeks before, and they have a wonderful time picking out a dress for Zena, since the girl is very against going with a date, as she has yet to be asked out yet. Wynola, however, bumps into her friends while there. She nervously introduces them to each other, and though Zena is perfectly friendly to Wynola's friends, her friends seem to dislike Zena as much as Wynola did, at first. Wynola ends the encounter as soon as possible, thinking nothing of it until the next day at school.

Her friends confront her at lunch, asking her about Zena. Wynola brushes it off, saying that she's just a friend of hers. Wynola's friends, however, are suspicious that Zena is her best friend. Wynola quickly denies this, and talks bad about Zena behind her back to make her friends happy. She goes a little bit farther than she meant to, and is filled with guilt. Why did she say that about her friend?

For a while, she ends up "two-timing" with her own friends, telling both sides that they are truly her best friends. Her guilt grows to the point where she has to come clean to them (This happens at the same time she comes clean to her boyfriends). Wynola's friends are shocked that she would do this, and force her to choose between them and Zena. Zena only seems heartbroken. Wynola chooses her friends over Zena, telling Zena that she never liked her in the first place, thinking that this will repair her relationship with her friends. It backfires in her face, and now she is unfriended by all of her friends, including Zena. Wynola is mad at herself. Why did she do that? Zena would have forgiven her. And plus, Zena wasn't the one making her choose between them in the first place.

Wynola runs home, heartbroken.

When she ends up going to the ball because of her grandmother, she searches the ball for Zena, wanting to apologize. Zena is nowhere to be found. Wynola realizes that she wouldn't be coming to the ball. She runs out of the ball and mounts her horse, going as fast as she could to the Orchard. Beck reports that he hasn't seen Zena. Wynola knows exactly where her friend is- in the woods. She takes her horse back to the bridge, where the woods are, and calls out to Zena. There is no response from the girl. Wynola apologizes, even though she isn't sure if Zena is there, explaining everything. She is truly, truly sorry for what she has done and wants to be friends with Zena again.

Zena peeks out of the forest, and accepts her apology, forgiving her. Wynola takes her back to Beck's cabin to get her in her gown, and then they both go to the ball together, having the time of their lives.

Zena is a vital part in Wynola's journey towards facing and overcoming her fear, and the plot she holds on her shoulders is critical to the story.

Word Count: 811/500

Subplot 2

Wynola's father was not a good man. Not only was he an alcoholic and, just overall, a jerk, he was without a job the majority of his life. Wynola's father didn't go by his given name. He went only by Cripp. He only had one child, and she was an accident. Wynola's mother died in childbirth, and Cripp was left an only father. He tried being a father for about a month, but failed horribly. He ended up dumping Wynola at his mother's house and disappearing. Wynola and Meira never saw him ever again. Nobody really knows what happened to him after that.

Wynola is sixteen years old and she has never ever met her parents. Not only does she feel alone in general, but she also feels like her parents abandoned her because they didn't want her. She wants to find her parents, to know what happened to them. Where did they go, and why? She asks her grandmother on several occasions, but Meira won't tell her, causing conflict between the two of them. Wynola really wants to know what happened to her parents, but Meira just can't bring herself to explain. Wynola knows this is very unfair to her, and expresses this to her friends and to her grandmother.

She struggles with this through the story, wanting desperately to know her parents. She is jealous of others' parents and the relationship they have, whether negative or positive. She feels cheated out of this. She watches her friends and their parents interact, and sometimes expresses to her friends that they should be lucky to have parents. They scoff at her, telling Wynola that she was lucky to not have parents. Wynola feels more and more alone, because they can't ever understand the feeling of not having a relationship everyone else does. Doesn't she deserve parents that will love her like parents should?

When Wynola is prompted by Meira to come clean to her friends, she doesn't want to in the slightest. But Meira makes a deal with her. If Wynola promises to come clean to her friends, Meira will tell her what happened to her parents.

Meira tells her, explaining that her father left her here, and she doesn't know what happened to him. Wynola feels defeated and disappointed. She had been hoping for a much more fantastical journey in which her parents had died bravely for her, instead of her just being... dumped with her grandmother. Wynola is frustrated and disappointed, and she takes it out on her grandmother, accusing her of never wanting her in the first place. She then marches off, refusing to talk to her grandmother.

But a promise is a promise, and she promised to tell her friends and boyfriends the truth. Wynola does, though it goes wrong, and though she tells them the truth, she refuses to apologize.

When her grandmother gets her the dress, there is redemption between the two. Meira xplains to Wynola that though she didn't want her at first, she is her whole life now.

Through her grandmother, Wynola realizes she isn't alone.

Word Count: 514/500

Side Character 1

Moodboard (TBA)

Meira Bridges is Wynola's grandmother. At first, she didn't want Wynola. She had been done with kids after raising one of her own, and was heartbroken over the fact that though he had grown up promising, he had taken a dark turn and had left her life completely. At first, she was scared that the same would happen with Wynola. She distanced herself from Wynola at first, but was then convicted by her good friend Beck Wall. He told her that she was the only person that Wynola had, and she had to be there for her. Meira complied, trying her very best to be the best guardian she could.

She slowly fell in love with the girl, and loved her like her own. She got over her fear of Wynola becoming like her father, and decided that even if she did, she would continue to love her.

Meira Bridges is in her mid-sixties, and her kind face is wrinkled. It makes her look like she smiles a lot. Her eyes are chocolate brown, just like Wynola's, and her hair is cut short, sometimes pinned back. She's quite short, and Wynola is already taller than her.

Meira tries her best to do what's right, and is incredibly protective over Wynola. She will do whatever it takes to help her, but overall wants her to figure things out on her own. She will offer advice when she thinks it's needed, but wants Wynola to come to her. She's the kind of person to wish anybody good morning, and she always seems to understand much much more than you would expect on any given time.

Meira is a baker. Each day, she sells her bakes on Market Street. She is a quite popular baker, and is known throughout Market Street. You can always smell her bakes when walking past her humble shop, and people often just stop by to say hello to her. She often smells like fresh pastries, a comforting smell. It is because of her that her and Wynola's kitchen always smells like something is baking. She is kind and friendly, and will always lend a helping hand when needed. Her recipes, however, are top-secret, and though Wynola is always permitted to help, she would be grounded forever.

Word Count: 378/300

Side Character 2

Moodboard (TBA)

Zena Willow is Beck Wall's great-niece. She usually lives with her mother, Beck's actual niece, but she was quite lonely, as she was homeschooled by a tutor and never really saw her mother. Because of this, she moved in with Beck to make new friends with the people in Auapax and to have a friend in Beck, and maybe even have an opportunity to go to the higher school in Auapax once Beck was finished homeschooling her.

Zena has hair cropped above her shoulders but under her chin, brown and a little wavy. It always seems to be quite messy, and she can never keep it quite clean or tame. That, or maybe she just doesn't care enough. Her eyes are hazel and big, giving her an innocent and daydreamy look, like her head is always up in the clouds. She's a little smaller than Wynola, but she is the same age as her- sixteen. She is eager to become friends with Wynola, ignoring her attempts to push Zena away.

Zena likes thinking about deep things, things that are below the surface. Instead of things like your favorite color, she likes talking about beliefs, morals, ethics, things like that. She likes debating about things that are important, and sharing her opinion. She doesn't think Wynola should be two-timing, and tells her this, even though Wynola doesn't listen to her. She's blunt, never afraid to speak her mind about a subject. If she thinks somebody is pretty, she will say so. If she thinks somebody is mean, she will say so. If she thinks "that's not your color," she will say so. She knows where to stop, of course, but if she thinks something should be said, then she will say it.

But the most important thing about Zena is that she is forgiving. When she knows that Wynola really, really, is sorry, she believes her, and forgives her in the end.

Word Count: 321/300

Side Character 3

Moodboard here

Vivienne Lycus is one of Wynola's friends. She's kind of the Regina George of the friend group, the leader. Everyone follows her lead and listens to her. She isn't afraid to speak her mind. Vivienne has good intentions. She wants to help Wynola find a date to the ball so she won't be alone forever, but ends up spurring the fear in Wynola's heart.

She's also scared. Her and Wynola are supposed to be best friends, but seeing Wynola with Zena, she's scared that Wynola likes Zena better and asks Wynola to prove that she likes Vivienne more, over and over again. She puts a lot of effort into their relationship while also manipulating Wynola to stay with her and dislike Zena more.

Vivienne is tall for her age with silver eyes and angled face features that always make Wynola jealous. Her hair is pin-straight and dark, practically black. She's pretty, with your ideal model body and the clothes every girl would wish for- with curves in the exact right places.

Vivienne lives with her parents and her two big sisters, who are twins at eighteen. They always seem so much closer than her, having their own inside jokes. They are fairly middle-class, and both of her big sisters go to Rryn School. Her parents are always talking about how she has to live up to them, but Vivienne doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. She has some ideas, but all of them have been shot down by her parents, asking her if she wants to live her life homeless.

Vivienne can be quite mean when provoked. She doesn't take any mercy on her friends if they say something she doesn't like, and even complete strangers can earn a sharp snap from Vivienne if they push the wrong buttons. She is knows just about everybody, and is very popular among her schoolmates and the other people in Auapax.

Her interactions with Wynola pretty much drive the story. She is an interesting character, and I suppose you'll have to just make a decision yourself about what you think about her.

Word Count: 353/300