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Description
Here's my entry for the contest by PrincessCallyie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Zuri Load

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Birthday (Zodiac): October 23 (Scorpio)

Species: Human

Ethnicity: Black

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Appearance: Zuri has black shoulder-length hair pushed back by a red headband and her dark skin has freckles on each cheek. She wears a red cheerleading jacket with a cream top, grey leggings and white sneakers with grey decals. She also wears gold earrings that double as communicators.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alignment: Civilian leaning towards Villain (Evil)

Powers/Abilities: She has an innate talent for gathering information about people, locations, and projects. Along with basic hacking skills, great social skills, and agility from being a cheerleader, Zuri is slowly but surely becoming a formidable opponent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personality: Zuri is an affectionate social butterfly that thrives in groups, although her love of technology tends to turn some people away. She can come off as an airhead to those not close to her, but those close know her her as a nerd who enjoys both causing and watching drama. She also has a bit of mean streak which is more apparent to people that she believed wronged her. She's a firm believer in revenge. If someone gets on her, or anyone she cares about, bad side, then by the next day, their private messages will be aired to the public for all to see. Mercy is not a word in her dictionary when this occurs. She has ruined relationships and reputations by releasing private messages.

~~~

Backstory: Zuri is the 16 year old eldest daughter of Wade and Monique. Her parents had an on again, off again relationship, but when they discovered that Monique was pregnant, they decided to stick together in order to support their child. When Zuri was 5, she went to her father’s workplace (Monique didn’t want Wade to stay secluded in his room forever) for ‘bring your child to work day’ she was exposed to the online world, and it changed her life. She would often times seclude herself in order to use the computers and was once caught trying to code her mother’s phone to instantly delete any messages from her teachers. In response to this, her mother stuck her in multiple classes at the local gym to at least get her to improve her social skills as well as balancing her interests. And because of that shove, Zuri grew interested in yoga and gymnastics.

In middle school, she met Gigi. Because of their shared love of technology, the two were drawn to each other and a friendship was quickly formed. While Gigi began to transition, Zuri acted as her temple of outside support. Anyone she caught bad mouthing her friend would soon find themselves the center of an embarrassing scandal.

Now as a highschooler, Zuri is currently using her position as a cheerleader to discover… interesting information about the other people in the area. She has slightly improved her experience with hacking, but she'd rather use those skills to discover dirt on others then to help others like her father’s job as a penetration tester. She’s great at gathering intel and sells small gadgets that she makes on the side for spending money. A representative for the YBA has approached and tried to recruit her, although she was on the fence about the offer. She's contemplated about joining, but she hasn’t given her answer… yet.

~~~

Relatives: Monique(Mother) Wade(Father) Jaxson(Younger brother)[10] Aaliyah(Younger sister)[7]

~~~

Relationships:

She has an okay relationship with her parents, but she's closer to her mother than her father. Without her mother, Zuri would have been a hermit like her father was at her age. Zuri loves spending with her mom at her boutique. Her favorite thing to do with her dad is playing video games for hours on end. While her parents have varying opinions about Zuri using technology, they both disprove of her side business of selling tech. So she struck a deal. As
long as she doesn't blow up the house with her “tools”, or they don't get swatted, they'll look the other way. And in return, Zuri gives a percentage of the money she makes to them. Recently Wade and Monique are also trying to push her into using her talents for the Vanguard League, which Zuri doesn’t appreciate. She wants to choose for herself and not have her parents dictate her life. This caused a drift in Zuri's relationship with her parents that is slowly increasing. Of course, they don't know about her intel gathering side business or her contemplating villainy.

Her younger siblings love to mess with her. They tease about her bad luck with dating, but they are the first to defend her when she gets taken advantage of. They don't really understand how she thinks, but they try to support her the best that they can. They have dubbed her as “The coolest weirdo that you'll ever meet.” In turn, Zuri acts as their guard dog and screens their teachers in order to assure that they are in good hands. She also tends to edit grade reports so they don't come home with mediocre grades.

Since their parents are besties, Zuri and Stacy grew up around each other. Zuri obtained her mischievousness from hanging around the older girl. She sees Stacy as an older sister figure and admires Stacy's adventurous nature and her closeness to friends.

Zuri sees Gigi as her best friend. Gigi was the only person to approach Zuri on the first day of middle school. Students avoided Zuri because of her interest in computers. Gigi wanted a friend while Zuri didn’t want to spend the entire school year alone, so a mutual relationship was struck. Their love of technology brought them closer together. Gigi is the reason why Zuri joined cheerleading. She was hesitant at first, but Zuri couldn't say no to Gigi’s begging. They both also enjoy finding out about juicy details about other people. Mutual teasing is very common between the two and while Gigi joins the YBA, Zuri tries to support her friend the best she can outside the group.

Zuri hasn't met Charles yet, but from what she heard from Stacy, she thinks that he's really cool. She plans on having a deep discussion about having expectations forced on them by their parents if or when she meets him.

Zuri doesn't know much about Victor, but she thinks that he's a bum. A good looking bum. She's still irritated that he woke her up early, so she's willing to be petty by planning on disturbing his sleeping time when they meet again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quotes:

After retelling her day, Gigi looked up at her friend who was furiously typing on her laptop. They were supposed to be having a sleepover, but Zuri appeared busy with something on her laptop.

"Wait... Are you seriously attempting to find dirt on Drake because he reprimanded me?” She shook her head with a small smile. “Good luck with that, techno geek.” Zuri looked up from the screen.

“Thanks for the encouragement, gears for brains.” After a few minutes, a pillow was quickly thrown at Gigi’s face. Confused, Gigi looked first at the pillow and then at Zuri closing her laptop.

"I know what will cheer you up. Let's watch a Ghost Explorers marathon and gorge on as much popcorn as we want!" Zuri exclaimed while grabbing the remote.

"You know we can't eat a lot of junk food, right?" Gigi explained with a giggle.

"...We can go jogging afterwards! I even brought a track suit so I can match with yours!" Gigi began to crack up as Zuri went to change. Living with the rest of 'Charles's Girls allowed her to have many new experiences, but she missed this.

~~~

"Thanks sis! Now mom won't yell at us at home!” Jax and Aaliyah smiled as they both held their report cards up for their sister to see. Zuri winked.

“Actually, I didnt change a thing. You guys improved a lot! Good job!" She open her hands for some high-fives. Said action was performed by the two beaming kids. "And about the hacking. Mom and dad don't know about it. They'd be super pissed if they found out."

Zuri put her pointer finger on her lips. "So shhh. It's our little secret, okay? I'll take you guys to Bueno Nacho to celebrate.” The two elementary students cheered as they boarded the SUV their sister borrowed from their mom to their favorite restaurant.

~~~

As she stared at the teen with blurry eyes before her, Zuri begrudgingly woke up. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up from her bed and glared at the intruder. "What do you want, you low budget halloween costume lookin ass..." Victor felt one of his eyes twitch before shaking his head.

"Boss says you have potential. But I don't see it. Oh well. He wanted to 'cordially invite you to join the YBA' or some shit like that." He said while air quoting.

"And you couldn't wait til later to tell me this? It's too early for this shit...." Zuri couldn't fight back a yawn.

"I could've, but I wanted to mess with you." He chuckled as she fliped him off. "Anyway, the YBA could use your talents in exchange for many things like money, fame, power, yada, yada, yada, you get the jist. I'll just leave this here if you ever want to take control of your life. Unless you want your parents to make every choice for you." Zuri was too tired to be surprised. How much did they know about her?

"...Let me think about it, okay? Maybe over some sleep?" The older teen looked annoyed before shrugging his shoulders.

"Fine. Just don't tell anyone else about this. We'll know if you do." The younger teen understood the underlying threat.

Victor placed a card on her nightstand. Giving her a final look, he exited through an opened window. After a few minutes, she reached for the card. It only had a phone number. Zuri placed the card in a small pocket in her backpack and went back to sleep, with her dreams only containing the offer and possible outcomes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Story: The Offer

It was an ordinary thursday afternoon, at least, it was ordinary for Zuri. It was lunch time at her high school, and while most students were in the cafeteria, she was in the library. The teen smiled as she refreshed the web page, watching the money in her separate bank account increase by a hefty sum. A sudden noise made her close her laptop in shock.

“Whatcha doing?” Zuri looked up to see Gigi leaning over her. Sighing a breathe of relief, the sitting teen opened her laptop to continue what she was doing.

“Nothing much, just checking to see if a transaction went through successfully.”

“Sounds boring.” Gigi sat down next to typing teen. “And bad for your eyes. Even I know that you're not supposed to be buried in your computer screen for hours, software geek.” The blonde cheerleader crossed her arms and gave a small pout. Bouts of giggles escaped Zuri’s mouth before she covered it with her palm.

“That's rich coming from you techno brain.” It was Gigi’s turn to laugh. After both girls got the laughter out of their systems, Gigi grew serious.

“So… Have you considered the offer yet, Zuzu?” Said girl closed her laptop. Zuri looked around to make sure that no one else was within hearing distance. After confirming that no one else was around, she answered with a quiet voice.

“I mean… I have thought about it. Joining would have many benefits. But I'm sure that the YBA doesn't need someone with my skills. And my parents would be so pissed if they found out. They want me to join the Vanguard League. ” The black haired teen twisted a strand of her hair with her pointer finger.

“Are you serious? The YBA don't need someone with your skills? Your talents could be put to use in the YBA! Think about it. Your intel could help a lot with mission briefings. No more jobs of stalking someone's ex and tracking social wannabes on social media. You could be doing something bigger. Something better! And are you really thinking about what your parents would say? They don’t dictate how you live your life! You should be whatever you want to be. Not what they want you to do.” It was a miracle that the librarian seemed to not hear Gigi's yelling from across the library.

“And besides,” Gigi stared intently at her friend's eyes. “I don't want to be alone there. I want you to be there with me. The only one I can truly trust there is Jocelyn, and that says a lot!”

Zuri finally responded after pondering for a couple of seconds.

“Okay, Gigi. I'll give you my answer by the end of school today.” The teen began to pack up her things as the clock approached the next period.

“An answer is all I'm asking for. Now come on, the others are probably waiting for us outside the library.”

The bell ending lunch rang as the noise of students in the hallways could be heard from inside the library. Gigi walked and joined the crowd of the other cheerleaders waiting for her. A hand motioned Zuri to join the flock. As she approached the group, she went over the options in her head. Would she join the YBA, or would she say no to the group's offer?

After contemplating the advantages and disadvantages to both choices, she finally reached a decision. Zuri knew what she was doing to choose. She was doing to say ‘yes’. And she wouldn’t care about how her parents felt about it.

~~~

Trivia

☆ Zuri tries to mediate for around an hour before she begins her day. It gets her in the right headspace to endure the upcoming drama of everyday life.

☆ This doesn't mean you can wake her up before that time. She gets very irritable when woken up by something other than her alarm.

☆ Zuri has dated before. She found out that her girlfriend only dated her for her experience with hacking. Needless to say that by the following week, her now ex-girlfriend was expelled from the school due to many demerits suddenly appearing on her record.

☆ In elementary school, Zuri was well known for instigating school fights by spreading rumors. When asked about it, she responded saying that “They were going to fight anyway. I just helped them do it quicker. No one likes to wait.”

☆ Ironically, Zuri hates being directly involved in drama. She prefers watching from the sidelines (preferably with her phone in one hand and popcorn in the other).

☆ Her favorite food is Korean fried chicken.

☆ As a child, Zuri wanted to be a banker. She currently wants to work in the cyber forensics field.

☆She admires people who can think their way out of sticky situations. Zuri tends to be easily startled and is working on improving that certain flaw through mediation.

Description
Here's my entry for the contest by PrincessCallyie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Zuri Load

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Birthday (Zodiac): October 23 (Scorpio)

Species: Human

Ethnicity: Black

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Appearance: Zuri has black shoulder-length hair pushed back by a red headband and her dark skin has freckles on each cheek. She wears a red cheerleading jacket with a cream top, grey leggings and white sneakers with grey decals. She also wears gold earrings that double as communicators.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alignment: Civilian leaning towards Villain (Evil)

Powers/Abilities: She has an innate talent for gathering information about people, locations, and projects. Along with basic hacking skills, great social skills, and agility from being a cheerleader, Zuri is slowly but surely becoming a formidable opponent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personality: Zuri is an affectionate social butterfly that thrives in groups, although her love of technology tends to turn some people away. She can come off as an airhead to those not close to her, but those close know her her as a nerd who enjoys both causing and watching drama. She also has a bit of mean streak which is more apparent to people that she believed wronged her. She's a firm believer in revenge. If someone gets on her, or anyone she cares about, bad side, then by the next day, their private messages will be aired to the public for all to see. Mercy is not a word in her dictionary when this occurs. She has ruined relationships and reputations by releasing private messages.

~~~

Backstory: Zuri is the 16 year old eldest daughter of Wade and Monique. Her parents had an on again, off again relationship, but when they discovered that Monique was pregnant, they decided to stick together in order to support their child. When Zuri was 5, she went to her father’s workplace (Monique didn’t want Wade to stay secluded in his room forever) for ‘bring your child to work day’ she was exposed to the online world, and it changed her life. She would often times seclude herself in order to use the computers and was once caught trying to code her mother’s phone to instantly delete any messages from her teachers. In response to this, her mother stuck her in multiple classes at the local gym to at least get her to improve her social skills as well as balancing her interests. And because of that shove, Zuri grew interested in yoga and gymnastics.

In middle school, she met Gigi. Because of their shared love of technology, the two were drawn to each other and a friendship was quickly formed. While Gigi began to transition, Zuri acted as her temple of outside support. Anyone she caught bad mouthing her friend would soon find themselves the center of an embarrassing scandal.

Now as a highschooler, Zuri is currently using her position as a cheerleader to discover… interesting information about the other people in the area. She has slightly improved her experience with hacking, but she'd rather use those skills to discover dirt on others then to help others like her father’s job as a penetration tester. She’s great at gathering intel and sells small gadgets that she makes on the side for spending money. A representative for the YBA has approached and tried to recruit her, although she was on the fence about the offer. She's contemplated about joining, but she hasn’t given her answer… yet.

~~~

Relatives: Monique(Mother) Wade(Father) Jaxson(Younger brother)[10] Aaliyah(Younger sister)[7]

~~~

Relationships:

She has an okay relationship with her parents, but she's closer to her mother than her father. Without her mother, Zuri would have been a hermit like her father was at her age. Zuri loves spending with her mom at her boutique. Her favorite thing to do with her dad is playing video games for hours on end. While her parents have varying opinions about Zuri using technology, they both disprove of her side business of selling tech. So she struck a deal. As
long as she doesn't blow up the house with her “tools”, or they don't get swatted, they'll look the other way. And in return, Zuri gives a percentage of the money she makes to them. Recently Wade and Monique are also trying to push her into using her talents for the Vanguard League, which Zuri doesn’t appreciate. She wants to choose for herself and not have her parents dictate her life. This caused a drift in Zuri's relationship with her parents that is slowly increasing. Of course, they don't know about her intel gathering side business or her contemplating villainy.

Her younger siblings love to mess with her. They tease about her bad luck with dating, but they are the first to defend her when she gets taken advantage of. They don't really understand how she thinks, but they try to support her the best that they can. They have dubbed her as “The coolest weirdo that you'll ever meet.” In turn, Zuri acts as their guard dog and screens their teachers in order to assure that they are in good hands. She also tends to edit grade reports so they don't come home with mediocre grades.

Since their parents are besties, Zuri and Stacy grew up around each other. Zuri obtained her mischievousness from hanging around the older girl. She sees Stacy as an older sister figure and admires Stacy's adventurous nature and her closeness to friends.

Zuri sees Gigi as her best friend. Gigi was the only person to approach Zuri on the first day of middle school. Students avoided Zuri because of her interest in computers. Gigi wanted a friend while Zuri didn’t want to spend the entire school year alone, so a mutual relationship was struck. Their love of technology brought them closer together. Gigi is the reason why Zuri joined cheerleading. She was hesitant at first, but Zuri couldn't say no to Gigi’s begging. They both also enjoy finding out about juicy details about other people. Mutual teasing is very common between the two and while Gigi joins the YBA, Zuri tries to support her friend the best she can outside the group.

Zuri hasn't met Charles yet, but from what she heard from Stacy, she thinks that he's really cool. She plans on having a deep discussion about having expectations forced on them by their parents if or when she meets him.

Zuri doesn't know much about Victor, but she thinks that he's a bum. A good looking bum. She's still irritated that he woke her up early, so she's willing to be petty by planning on disturbing his sleeping time when they meet again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quotes:

After retelling her day, Gigi looked up at her friend who was furiously typing on her laptop. They were supposed to be having a sleepover, but Zuri appeared busy with something on her laptop.

"Wait... Are you seriously attempting to find dirt on Drake because he reprimanded me?” She shook her head with a small smile. “Good luck with that, techno geek.” Zuri looked up from the screen.

“Thanks for the encouragement, gears for brains.” After a few minutes, a pillow was quickly thrown at Gigi’s face. Confused, Gigi looked first at the pillow and then at Zuri closing her laptop.

"I know what will cheer you up. Let's watch a Ghost Explorers marathon and gorge on as much popcorn as we want!" Zuri exclaimed while grabbing the remote.

"You know we can't eat a lot of junk food, right?" Gigi explained with a giggle.

"...We can go jogging afterwards! I even brought a track suit so I can match with yours!" Gigi began to crack up as Zuri went to change. Living with the rest of 'Charles's Girls allowed her to have many new experiences, but she missed this.

~~~

"Thanks sis! Now mom won't yell at us at home!” Jax and Aaliyah smiled as they both held their report cards up for their sister to see. Zuri winked.

“Actually, I didnt change a thing. You guys improved a lot! Good job!" She open her hands for some high-fives. Said action was performed by the two beaming kids. "And about the hacking. Mom and dad don't know about it. They'd be super pissed if they found out."

Zuri put her pointer finger on her lips. "So shhh. It's our little secret, okay? I'll take you guys to Bueno Nacho to celebrate.” The two elementary students cheered as they boarded the SUV their sister borrowed from their mom to their favorite restaurant.

~~~

As she stared at the teen with blurry eyes before her, Zuri begrudgingly woke up. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up from her bed and glared at the intruder. "What do you want, you low budget halloween costume lookin ass..." Victor felt one of his eyes twitch before shaking his head.

"Boss says you have potential. But I don't see it. Oh well. He wanted to 'cordially invite you to join the YBA' or some shit like that." He said while air quoting.

"And you couldn't wait til later to tell me this? It's too early for this shit...." Zuri couldn't fight back a yawn.

"I could've, but I wanted to mess with you." He chuckled as she fliped him off. "Anyway, the YBA could use your talents in exchange for many things like money, fame, power, yada, yada, yada, you get the jist. I'll just leave this here if you ever want to take control of your life. Unless you want your parents to make every choice for you." Zuri was too tired to be surprised. How much did they know about her?

"...Let me think about it, okay? Maybe over some sleep?" The older teen looked annoyed before shrugging his shoulders.

"Fine. Just don't tell anyone else about this. We'll know if you do." The younger teen understood the underlying threat.

Victor placed a card on her nightstand. Giving her a final look, he exited through an opened window. After a few minutes, she reached for the card. It only had a phone number. Zuri placed the card in a small pocket in her backpack and went back to sleep, with her dreams only containing the offer and possible outcomes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Story: The Offer

It was an ordinary thursday afternoon, at least, it was ordinary for Zuri. It was lunch time at her high school, and while most students were in the cafeteria, she was in the library. The teen smiled as she refreshed the web page, watching the money in her separate bank account increase by a hefty sum. A sudden noise made her close her laptop in shock.

“Whatcha doing?” Zuri looked up to see Gigi leaning over her. Sighing a breathe of relief, the sitting teen opened her laptop to continue what she was doing.

“Nothing much, just checking to see if a transaction went through successfully.”

“Sounds boring.” Gigi sat down next to typing teen. “And bad for your eyes. Even I know that you're not supposed to be buried in your computer screen for hours, software geek.” The blonde cheerleader crossed her arms and gave a small pout. Bouts of giggles escaped Zuri’s mouth before she covered it with her palm.

“That's rich coming from you techno brain.” It was Gigi’s turn to laugh. After both girls got the laughter out of their systems, Gigi grew serious.

“So… Have you considered the offer yet, Zuzu?” Said girl closed her laptop. Zuri looked around to make sure that no one else was within hearing distance. After confirming that no one else was around, she answered with a quiet voice.

“I mean… I have thought about it. Joining would have many benefits. But I'm sure that the YBA doesn't need someone with my skills. And my parents would be so pissed if they found out. They want me to join the Vanguard League. ” The black haired teen twisted a strand of her hair with her pointer finger.

“Are you serious? The YBA don't need someone with your skills? Your talents could be put to use in the YBA! Think about it. Your intel could help a lot with mission briefings. No more jobs of stalking someone's ex and tracking social wannabes on social media. You could be doing something bigger. Something better! And are you really thinking about what your parents would say? They don’t dictate how you live your life! You should be whatever you want to be. Not what they want you to do.” It was a miracle that the librarian seemed to not hear Gigi's yelling from across the library.

“And besides,” Gigi stared intently at her friend's eyes. “I don't want to be alone there. I want you to be there with me. The only one I can truly trust there is Jocelyn, and that says a lot!”

Zuri finally responded after pondering for a couple of seconds.

“Okay, Gigi. I'll give you my answer by the end of school today.” The teen began to pack up her things as the clock approached the next period.

“An answer is all I'm asking for. Now come on, the others are probably waiting for us outside the library.”

The bell ending lunch rang as the noise of students in the hallways could be heard from inside the library. Gigi walked and joined the crowd of the other cheerleaders waiting for her. A hand motioned Zuri to join the flock. As she approached the group, she went over the options in her head. Would she join the YBA, or would she say no to the group's offer?

After contemplating the advantages and disadvantages to both choices, she finally reached a decision. Zuri knew what she was doing to choose. She was doing to say ‘yes’. And she wouldn’t care about how her parents felt about it.

~~~

Trivia

☆ Zuri tries to mediate for around an hour before she begins her day. It gets her in the right headspace to endure the upcoming drama of everyday life.

☆ This doesn't mean you can wake her up before that time. She gets very irritable when woken up by something other than her alarm.

☆ Zuri has dated before. She found out that her girlfriend only dated her for her experience with hacking. Needless to say that by the following week, her now ex-girlfriend was expelled from the school due to many demerits suddenly appearing on her record.

☆ In elementary school, Zuri was well known for instigating school fights by spreading rumors. When asked about it, she responded saying that “They were going to fight anyway. I just helped them do it quicker. No one likes to wait.”

☆ Ironically, Zuri hates being directly involved in drama. She prefers watching from the sidelines (preferably with her phone in one hand and popcorn in the other).

☆ Her favorite food is Korean fried chicken.

☆ As a child, Zuri wanted to be a banker. She currently wants to work in the cyber forensics field.

☆She admires people who can think their way out of sticky situations. Zuri tends to be easily startled and is working on improving that certain flaw through mediation.