HARPER, dakota // 16 // junior

[` dakota harper]

DAKOTAABIGAILHARPER

gender; female
age; sixteen
student/teacher; student
year of high school; junior/eleventh
sexual preference; straight ( mostly ;] )
place of birth; darien, connecticut
nickname(s); kota, kotie, ko


appearance;

Dakota is not particularly tall, nor is she short. She stands at an acceptable five-foot-five, with decent curves that are existent but not obnoxious. Her dark chocolate-brown hair is typical in her family, and falls in long waves. Typically she'll leave it down, though on occasion she'll pull it back into a tie to get it out of her face. Her eyes are a dark shade of hazel, and nothing particularly special, though Kota is quite fond of them. Her skin is naturally fair, with a peaches and cream complexion she adores. Overall she looks quite like her mother, a fact Kota has always been very proud of. Since her mother past away when Kota was young, she had clung to whatever pieces of her mother that she can. Hearing that she resembles the woman whose memories she so much admires is something that can always put a smile on Dakota's face.

When it comes to clothes, Dakota cares greatly about her appearance. She'll only wear things she thinks look good, and she won't settle for that "I just want to be comfortable thing." Sure, she won't wear things that are uncomfortable, but she's not about to dress like all those kids who will wear baggy, unattractive clothes because they're "comfortable." Shoes are amazing to Kota, and she has a huge collection of varius styles and colors. She also loves skirts and dresses, though isn't opposed to wearing a cute pair of jeans and top. But she's not a huge wearer of jewelry and prefers to keep it to simple pieces instead of flashy ones.


personality;

Dakota’s exterior is very tough; she has a hard outer shell that she’s grown over several years of emotional trauma. She’s learned to hide many parts of her life and keep them bottled up, particularly when it comes to her life at home. Kota is actually very embarrassed by her situation, and she’s not one to get embarrassed often. The girl has a bit of a fear of people finding out information on her, because then they might see how broken she really is. Kota despises feeling weak, and so rarely cries (at least not in front of people) and only admits when she’s upset to her closest friends. Instead of getting sad, she gets angry, and Kota is quite short-tempered. If someone manages to annoy her or get under her skin, she won’t stop until she’s done so to the other people, though preferably to a high degree. When Kota is upset, she wants other people to feel the same way. She’ll be rude and a bully just to make sure the people around her aren’t happy if she’s unhappy. Her targets tend to be those who are “too happy” or are “perfect little good-two-shoes.” And people with a good home life and a complete family? They are her prime targets for abuse. Though she’d never comment on the families themselves, Kota just finds herself being extra rude to these types of people. She wouldn’t admit it, and frankly doesn’t even realize it. But envy drives her to be cruel.

Fortunately Kota has a good side as well. The girl doesn’t hate everyone, and actually is pretty good about making friends, with the right people of course. To people she likes or doesn’t find annoying, she’s charming and even nice. Though she isn’t a very trusting person, Kota is extremely loyal to her friends and will stick by their side no matter what. As depressing as she sounded in the first paragraph, she actually loves having fun and loving, and has a great sense of humor. She’s witty and a bit sarcastic, and loves to have totally random conversations. She’s not the kind of girl that talks a lot and never shuts up, nor is she quiet. She’s found a happy medium, and she’s not prone to saying stupid, annoying things that tend to drive people away. If she’s not being a total b*itch she’s actually a real joy to be around. Then again, she tends to have a lot of friends that act the same way or dislike the same people, so often they join in on the fun. She enjoys getting into verbal spats, and always likes it when people fight back; it’s more fun that way. When in these spats, or if someone is trying to insult her even if playfully, Dakota is very feisty and quick to retort. Never the girl to just sit back and take abuse, you won’t find Kota running away from a fight. In fact, she really doesn’t even know when to stop. When she sets her mind on something she’s very persistent and doesn’t always think about the consequences.

Dakota is daring and brave (or stupid on occasion, depending on how you look at it) and not afraid to try new things. When challenged she always rises to the occasion, never wanting to seem too weak to do it. She likes being manipulative and getting her way, and gets annoyed if she doesn’t. She hates being told what to do, and will stubbornly avoid listening as long as possible. Kota hates to lose and despises being outsmarted, and holds grudges against the people that manage those things. Though a lazy student, Dakota is still intelligent and a quick-leaner. She likes puzzles and mind-games, and is a good problem solver. Intuition is another strong point, though often she finds herself battling between gut-feeling and fact. Due to her having to learn to fend for herself at an early age, Kota is very independent and good at taking care of herself. It’s actually gotten to the point where she hates not being able to do so; she’s bitter about needing help of any kind and always very reluctant to accept it. She can be fairly egotistical and is always under the impression she can handle everything and do it right. Any situation where she finds this is not the case is a situation that gets her annoyed.


atleast 5 positive traits;

• outgoing.
  
• witty & intelligent.
  
• creative.
  
• intuitive.
  
• strong-willed.
  
• independent/not “needy”.
  
• fiesty.
  
• confident.
  
• charming & nice to people she likes.
  
• loyal to her friends.
  

atleast 5 negative traits;

• cruel & rude to those she dislikes.
  
• doesn’t know when to quit.
  
• afraid of deep water.
  
• gets nervous/afraid/uneasy when people throw things.
  
• short-tempered.
  
• doesn’t take well to being given orders.
  
• egotistical.
  
• wants people to suffer as much as she suffers; targets those with complete families.
  
• stubborn & hard-headed.
  
• tends to refuse help even when she needs it.
  

atleast 5 likes;

• the colors red & teal.
  
• being right.
  
• reading.
  
• action movies.
  
• sex, boys, flirting, all that.
  
• crocodiles.
  
• chocolate-covered strawberries.
  
• roses.
  
• getting her way.
  
• mystery & adventure.
  

atleast 5 dislikes;

• being told what to do.
  
• authority.
  
• seeming weak or overemotional.
  
• people who cry too much.
  
• her dad.
  
• not having a mother.
  
• talking about her family/past.
  
• being outsmarted.
  
• cats.
  
• overly happy people & people with good home lives.
  

history;

Edward and Rosemary Harper always seemed like the perfect couple. He was a doctor, she was a pre-school teacher, and together they had quite a bit of wealth.They lived in a lovely suburban neighborhood, in a lovely surburban house, with lovely suburban hedges. Outside the house they were sweet and kind, always attending neighborhood get-togethers with a smile. But behind the curtains this dream-couple was not nearly as perfect as they seemed. Edward had taken to drinking, and typically was a violent drunk, usually throwing things at walls and swearing a lot. Rosemary, a truly sweet woman, was quiet and timid, and put up with all Edward's antics. Though she did start getting more defensive when she found out she was pregnant. Rosemary did not tell her husband at first, because she wanted to see if she could teach him how to manage his anger before she went through with the pregnancy. But Edward did not take well to suddenly being schooled. There was one particular night when he lost it altogether, causing his wife to "fall" down the stairs. When Rosemary was told in the hospital that she'd lost the baby, she kept the secret from her husband. But Edward had learned his lesson. He began attending support group meetings to try and get himself under control, and became a much better person towards his wife. Rosemary on the other hand was more quiet and morose, left emotionally scarred by the loss of her child. Her emotions perked up slightly, however, when she conceived a second child. By this point Edward had gotten his drinking problem under control, and so Rosemary told him right away. The man was overjoyed, and Rosemary was relieved to see things had turned around.

Their baby girl was born on Halloween night, October 31st, and was named Dakota Abigail Harper. From a young age, Dakota proved to be a quick learner. Her parents constantly bragged about how she was putting together puzzles at a young age, how she was running while the other kids were still crawling. Needless to say they were very proud of their daughter. Dakota was quiet and shy at a young age, but a sweet and loving girl. She got along well with other children at school and was praised by her teachers. She never caused trouble and always had manners. This all changed, however, when another tragedy struck the family. It was the marriage anniversary of Rosemary and Edward, and the couple went out to a dinner at a nice restaurant followed by a love-story movie. Sometime between the theater and the car, they ran into a couple they had been very good friends with. They were old neighbors, and Rosemary had been very close to the other wife… and so had told the woman all about the pregnancy before Dakota. Unfortunately the other woman did not know that Edward hadn’t yet been told, and the subject came out in the conversation. The moment they were back in the car, a fight erupted. It lasted all the way until Edward ran a red light. The car was promptly struck by a large farm truck on the passenger side. Rosemary died almost instantly.

After the loss of the mother and wife, the lives of the remaining two Harpers went into turmoil. Edward of course blamed himself, and went straight back into his old drinking habits. He was drunk most of the time, and became increasingly violent. He never hit his daughter or anyone else, but many of the things in the house were broken as he through them across the room or at a wall. Due to this constant violence, Dakota learned to be very afraid when things started flying. She made a habit out of hiding in a corner or under a coffee table, and the fear stayed with her into her older years, even after Edward had stopped throwing things. After losing her mother and spending years being the victim of her father’s rage, Dakota stopped being the nice, sweet girls she’d always been. She began to get into fights at school, constantly shouting or hitting kids who made fun of her for having no mother. By the time Dakota was going into junior high school, she’d been expelled from three elementary schools, been moved to four different towns, and had stopped talking to her father. Edward had been fired from his job in the medical field and was still drinking. To top it off he wouldn’t even look at his daughter, who was looking more and more like her mother every day.

They were strangers living in the same house. Edward wouldn’t, and couldn’t, take care of his daughter and so the girl was left to start fending for herself. She walked to school, started doing yard work around the neighborhood to earn money, and did most of the shopping. Whenever she hung out with friends, it was never at her house; Dakota refused to bring anyone to her home to see the lack of mother and the fat, drunk father. When she heard about nearby Pavotworth, she jumped at the opportunity to get out of that house. Leaving her friends to go to that school was hard, but Dakota decided it was worth it. She still kept in touch with them, and was outgoing enough to quickly make new friends at Pavotworth. But she never talked about her home life, or the man that was still living in her house a few towns over. Whenever it was time to leave Pavotworth, Dakota would catch a few buses in order to get home, because thanks to a few DUIs, Edward couldn’t drive to pick her up (not that either of them wanted him to do it). Dakota was good at making it seem like everything was alright, and did a good job of fitting in with the rich, “in” crowd.


rp sample;

The steady drone that was the voice of the History of Magic teacher carried through the classroom, though was acknowledged by no one. The bodies of the students may have been present, but their thoughts were elsewhere. Somewhere towards the back of the classroom, and young blonde-haired girl sat staring out the window of the classroom, dreamily watching the snow fall heavily outside the window. Skylar Nash was typically a very studious girl and enjoyed learning, but there were some classes even she could not pay attention in. History of Magic happened to be one of them; but she didn't consider it her fault. After all, who could pay attention to such a dull method of teaching? Usually Sky managed to take notes in this class for about the first ten minutes, but then she'd always find a way to get distracted -- she'd watch a small troop of ants crawl across the stone floor, try to decide what shapes the clouds outside were taking, or doodle some sort of intricate design on the parchment she'd been taking notes on. At this current point in time, there were no insects in site, the rain was preventing any guessing of cloud shapes, and her parchment had already been filled front and back with meaningless designs. So here she sat, quite bored, mouth slightly open, staring out the window at a view that was all white.

This went on for quite some time before the professor announced the end of class, which for some students was the only thing they'd heard from the ghostly educator. Sky shook herself from her trance and packed her bag before following the crowd of students filing out the door. A yawn escaped her mouth as she made her way down the corridor, deftly moving between the crowds of students rushing in every direction. For today Sky was done with classes, which meant her next stop would be to the dormitory so she could change. Somewhere on her trip up to the common room, she glances out a window and noticed the snow had stopped falling. With quick, eager steps she strode to the window and peered out. Yep, it was definitely not snowing anymore. A slow smile spread across her face and Sky bit her bottom lip as she turned away from the window. From then on to the common room her steps were quick and excited, and she practically ran up the steps to her dormitory. She reached her bed and tossed her bag and robes onto the unmade surface. She almost tripped over a stray shoe on the way to her trunk, and began to dig around the messy contents of said trunk, pulling out random articles of clothing and tossing them onto the bed. Once she'd collected all the pieces of a proper outfit, she changed out of her school uniform and into the new, more comfortable clothing. Sky grabbed her wand and stuffed it into her coat pocket, not taking anything else with her, then ran to the dormitory door and charged out and down the steps.

In no time Sky was bursting through the doors to the great castle and stampeding across the snow-covered lawn, a huge grin on her face as she occasionally jumped and tried to see how far she'd sink through the snow. Luckily she'd chosen rubber boots, which easily protected her from the wetness. Sky didn't give a d**n if she seemed childish right now, and she knew people could easily see her gallivanting around if they just looked out the castle window. But if they didn't want to join her, that was their problem. Too many people spent too much time trying to act mature, but Sky thought those people were quite boring. She'd choose childish and fun over mature and boring any day. With the grin still spread across her face, Sky continued running until she reached a tree near the edge of the lawns, and she leaped upwards, grabbing hold of a branch and swinging herself into the tree. She expertly swung herself to land straddling the branch, which in all fairness wasn't that high. But Sky had spent a long time practicing this move, and the memories of all her failed attempts at the beginning made her grin even more. The branch was lightly covered in snow and made her jeans wet, but she didn't care, not in the least. Swinging her legs contentedly, she leaned back against the trunk of tree and stared up through the leafless branches at the dark gray clouds. The grin turned to a small, content smile as she stared, and she slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket, sighing happily.

[b]minka kelly[/b] - [b]dakota harper[/b]