(no subject)
OOC Information
Name: Nick
Age: 20
Time Zone: EST @ school, CST @ home
Email: wefinditinthesea@gmail.com
AIM:
IC Information
PB: Zoe Kimball
Name: Scout Ophelia Welsch
Age: 15
AIM:
Grade: Sophomore
School: William H. McKinley
Clubs/Teams: New Directions (backup band)
Personal History:
Scout Ophelia Welsch would like to blame her name entirely on her parents. She really has no idea what they intended for her life by naming her after a nine year old and a twenty something who was trapped in a castle and eventually went crazy. Then again, that’s the only remotely interesting thing they ever did in her eyes. Her dad is an accountant, and her mom is an elementary school librarian. Her older brothers have boring names; Todd, Alexander, and Philip as well as boring lives - or so she thinks. Really, it started when Elizabeth and Thomas found out the sex of their last child would be female, and they knew right away she was going to be special. Elizabeth’s stomach only grew a bit bigger than normal, she had no morning sickness, and the weirdest food she craved was pineapples and honey. This not being a usual pregnancy in her eyes freed her up for a lot of things, seeing as her husband was still paranoid something might go wrong. So, she read, and read, and read.
Finally, on March 5th, 1996, after all the snow had stopped, she was born. Her brothers aged, 4, 3, and 2 weren’t very impressed by this new addition to the family, but her parents were quite obviously thrilled. Scout grew up somewhat the hangeron when it came to her brothers. She wanted to be just like them, because that was all she knew. Elizabeth saw things a little differently, so right when Scout was just about to jump into a mud puddle, she’d be snagged and thrown into a dress for a lovely mother-daughter portrait session. This pattern continued until she got to middle school, and she’d had about enough of that.
Her mother cried and her father asked her why she couldn’t just humor her, but Scout always figured she was made for much more than the stereotype. She’d read all the same books Elizabeth had during her pregnancy, and while it vaguely annoyed her that her namesake was a nine year old, at least she was kind of a cool kid! She was set free to explore the boundaries of her life, and while she always got in trouble, she knew enough to get herself out of trouble. Modern day Scout barely knew how to do her own laundry. She figured it was time for her to learn how to do stuff and her plan backfired just a tad. Eleven years old, and not only did she break the washing machine, but she also managed to sew her pants to the couch when she was trying to fix the hole she’d made climbing a barbed fence. That didn’t account for the problems she started having at school, though.
Lima, Ohio. It’s a small town. Everybody knows you. Or more accurately, everyone knew her brothers. Todd was the McKinley quarterback, so a common line of conversation tended to be about football. Or, you know, asking her if she could hook [you] up with him. That gets traumatic after a time. Alex followed in the same steps, except with lacrosse, although less people cared about that. The point is, all anybody ever seemed to do was ask her about her brothers. Nobody cared about Scout Welsch, and it just got to her. She knew she was expected to become a Cheerio, or at least try to become a Cheerio. And she could’ve been - she was tiny and blonde and cute. But again, not for her.
This was 11. And at 13, she’d figured out how she was gonna be different. She was gonna join the marching band in high school, be on the drum line, actually. Phillip tried to warn her against this plan, told her that McKinley was living hell, and she’d have to do the socially smart thing. Still, Scout had long outgrown that stage of her life where she listened to her brothers, but on her first day of high school, she wished she had. Luckily, she didn’t get tossed into a dumpster, but she was at the receiving end of a slushie toss, and she got slammed into more lockers than she could remember. But rather than give in, she kept her head down.
She joined the Glee club, kind of as a subtle “fuck you,” but even then all she does is play the drums largely during their competitions. Sometimes she gets the chance to during rehearsals when Finn isn’t hogging HER drum set. But she’s a little too shy to tell him off - or anyone, really for that matter. The year of keeping her head down and just getting by didn’t do that much to help her confidence, and she’s still worried they’ll tell her that she’s no longer welcome. She had to quit drum line to keep up with their rehearsals, so they’re kind of all she’s got. Scout really wants to tell everyone that she doesn’t care about if she’s not being the norm, if she’s not going to have the normal high school experience - she’s trying to carve her own space out for herself. It just isn’t easy when the words get stuck.
Personality Traits:
determined: From the day she was old enough to know what she wanted, she went after it. And if she didn’t get it right away, she kept working at it. (Or in the case of her brothers playing keep-away, she just kept jumping for it.)
shy: This is a very recent development. Around her family, she has no problems making herself known, but once she steps into school, her throat just closes up. Freshman year was terrifying, so that accounts for part of it, but really, it hasn’t been that bad this year. She just can’t seem to do it.
musical: Although Scout will only confess to playing the drums, she’s also proficient on the piano. She prefers the drums mostly because it’s not what people expect, and it’s also much easier to hide behind a drum kit when the Glee drama starts.
introverted: Parties terrify the shit out of this one. She just likes to be chill and relax - work out her own stuff through her drum kit when she needs to - and if she doesn’t have to talk to anyone, that’s fine. Really, Scout is happiest when lounging on her bed with some sheet music and air-drumming.
curious: If there’s one area where she’s anything like her namesake, her curiosity might just be it. Scout has to know what’s going on at all times, or she starts digging around to figure it out. Even trying to distract her doesn’t work that well, because she’ll work out whatever you’ve given her to do that, and then get back to work on the original problem. She just kind of figures things out instinctively.
insecure: She talks a very big game, because she can’t reveal it, even around her family. They all expect her to be this wilting, shy flower that they need to protect, and while she might be that sometimes, she isn’t always that. Therefore, she pretends to have the biggest ego on the planet, and sometimes it works.
Writing Samples:
Journal Entry
Uhhh. So, hey, I’m Scout, and if you need someone to play drums for you, I’m your girl! I mean, I know I look scrawny and everything, but these arms aren’t just like, chicken wings you know. They’re like, eagle wings. Bald eagle wings, even, because bald eagles are awesome and I like to think I’m pretty awesome?
I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do with a journal. Seems kind of cliched for a fifteen year old girl to have one, but everyone was talking about this in the choir room, so I checked it out. I brought it, whatever. Is this the part where I say it’s go time?
Cause it can be. God, I’m lame.
Third Person
If New Directions ever wrote a song again in one night and handed her the sheet music three hours before they were due to go on, she was going to slap whoever had made them procrastinate this long. Then again, that person would probably be Mr. Schuester, and she couldn’t slap him. Well, she couldn’t slap anyone really, but it was nice to think about it. Out of everyone in the Glee club though, slapping him was the one that might actually get her in serious trouble. Scout had no desire to get kicked out of the club, even if she was only there to drum. Sure, Finn was better than she was, but he was going to graduate this year and then she’d be their only drummer.
It was bad enough that if anyone in the club needed her to drum, they always seemed to remember to tell her approximately three hours before. That always ended up in frantic printing of the music she needed and air-drum practice. How the rest of the band just seemed to know when they were needed - well, she hadn’t gotten that down just yet. But she was working on it, and anyway, at least she’d gotten four hours to work on this music. Waiting for Santana’s cue, she hit her drumsticks against each other, counting off in her head until ready and -- go!