[History] Pleasantville
Pavel A. Chekov was born in Russia. Specifically, in Leningrad, as it's known these days. For the first nine years of his life, he knew nothing more than famine, and then the hell of war that came with starvation, death, cannibals, and the nightly symphony of mortar fire. He's lucky to be alive and he knows it. He's luckier to have his father alive with him when most people are dead or lost their family entirely.
After the war, before lines were drawn, the Iron Curtain, and the overwhelming return of hatred of Communists and Russians, Andrei and Pavel Chekov packed their things and left Russia. Pavel was too young to remember much about life before the siege, barely old enough to remember his mother before she died in the second year, when he was six, but he remembers Russia, even now, at sixteen. Slowly, through a combination of flight and the trade of information about the Communists in Russia, Pavel and his father made their way to America.
It hasn't been easy since they moved here, subjected to the daily challenges of their legitimacy. Both Pavel and Andrei have been naturalized as American citizens and live almost normal lives. They don't talk about Leningrad and they barely acknowledge Russia at all, with the exception of shouted arguments in Russian and the few keepsakes they preserved after their flight from what had once been home. Pavel became so accustomed to the teasing and sneers, the suspicion and outright hatred in America that he acted out however he could. He developed a sullen temperament, a caustic attitude toward everyone who didn't prove themselves otherwise, and an unhealthy obsession with his schoolwork.
By his freshman year of high school, at thirteen years old, Pavel was toughened and the nightmare of every teacher he encountered. He was happy to do his homework, destroy any curve on an exam, but couldn't be bothered to come to class some days, and often skipped to smoke behind the bleachers with Jim Kirk, his best friend... but only after Pavel set him straight on exactly what an angry Ruski would do when provoked enough.
A junior and easily the youngest student in the grade, Pavel's attitude hasn't improved. He figures that everyone will think the worst of him, no matter what he says or does; whether he's a good boy or the bad boy he's made himself into. If it doesn't matter--why not? Despite this, he's found that flirting with girls (a skill he picked up from Jim) is a good pastime, and girls seem to think he's charming and adorable--he certainly knows how to pull it off when he wants to.
The problem is that he's just not interested in them.
After the war, before lines were drawn, the Iron Curtain, and the overwhelming return of hatred of Communists and Russians, Andrei and Pavel Chekov packed their things and left Russia. Pavel was too young to remember much about life before the siege, barely old enough to remember his mother before she died in the second year, when he was six, but he remembers Russia, even now, at sixteen. Slowly, through a combination of flight and the trade of information about the Communists in Russia, Pavel and his father made their way to America.
It hasn't been easy since they moved here, subjected to the daily challenges of their legitimacy. Both Pavel and Andrei have been naturalized as American citizens and live almost normal lives. They don't talk about Leningrad and they barely acknowledge Russia at all, with the exception of shouted arguments in Russian and the few keepsakes they preserved after their flight from what had once been home. Pavel became so accustomed to the teasing and sneers, the suspicion and outright hatred in America that he acted out however he could. He developed a sullen temperament, a caustic attitude toward everyone who didn't prove themselves otherwise, and an unhealthy obsession with his schoolwork.
By his freshman year of high school, at thirteen years old, Pavel was toughened and the nightmare of every teacher he encountered. He was happy to do his homework, destroy any curve on an exam, but couldn't be bothered to come to class some days, and often skipped to smoke behind the bleachers with Jim Kirk, his best friend... but only after Pavel set him straight on exactly what an angry Ruski would do when provoked enough.
A junior and easily the youngest student in the grade, Pavel's attitude hasn't improved. He figures that everyone will think the worst of him, no matter what he says or does; whether he's a good boy or the bad boy he's made himself into. If it doesn't matter--why not? Despite this, he's found that flirting with girls (a skill he picked up from Jim) is a good pastime, and girls seem to think he's charming and adorable--he certainly knows how to pull it off when he wants to.
The problem is that he's just not interested in them.