VAN BUREN, POPPY VANITY

[POPPY VAN BUREN]

Player's Name: Scandalacious
Other Characters: Poppy happens to be my only character.
Contacts: PM and c-box is fine, and if needed, the admins have my email address.
Random Fact: My world revolves around musical theater and opera. Now that you know that, figure out where 'Scandalacious' is from. <3

Name: Poppy Vanity Van Buren
Alias: Poppy
Age: Fifteen
Birthday: February Nineteenth
Gender: Female
Sexual Preference: Straight
Occupation: Student

Grade: Freshman
Concentration: Performance Arts - Dance
Class List: English Nine, Practical Mathematics, Biology, History of Art, Voice, Acting, Ballet, Jazz dance

Hair: Naturally blonde, Poppy's hair is of average length, down to her shoulders. She has a tendency to experiment with her locks, occasionally pinning it up in a faux bob, curling it as required, and of course, tying it in two thick braids, two low pigtails, or a simple ponytail if she is lacking in time.

Eyes: Depending on what Poppy happens to we wearing at the moment, her eyes can appear a rather light blue or green. If you look closely, however, you'll see that her eyes are an unusual gray color, with the tendency to take on a blue or green depending on what Poppy is wearing.

Height: Poppy has always been taller than her peers, and currently stands at five feet eight inches. She hasn't stopped growing yet, however, and although she doesn't grow as quickly as she used to, she is still expected to grow at least two, if not three more inches.

Weight: Although she keeps on a healthy diet, Poppy has always been underweight. Whether it is because of her constantly increasing height, or her demanding dance regime, Poppy has never been one to gain weight, despite what she eats.

To understand Poppy Van Buren, one only need to know two things. The first one being that Poppy and her mother barely made ends meet for a good portion of her life, and she was not used to having fine things. If one were being kind, they would call Poppy and her mother lower middle class, and if being realistic, they would have said that she was in the lower class. The second thing that one must understand about Poppy is her insatiable want and drive to dance. With a dancer as a mother, some might say that Poppy was born with the drive and, quite luckily, born with the talent as well. For although many people want to do something, not many actually have the talent to carry it out. Dance was also seen as a method by Poppy and, more importantly, her mother to push Poppy out of the slums of New York city. Most, if not all her personality traits can be traced back to these two facts for whatever reason.

Seeing as Poppy has always been recognized for her dancing, it would be natural for her to feel proud about her dancing. Having attending an elementary arts school, Poppy had always been let out of school earlier than her classmates to give her enough time to train. Even as a child, her schedule was tight and created to help Poppy become the best dancer that she could be. Used to dancing three and a half hours each day, even as a little girl, her hours have only grown since then to include classes taken at Lux Lucis during class hours. As well, after winning in the interstate invitational for both categories, Poppy soon realized that she really was the best. And after being offered a place at Lux Lucis at a full scholarship, well, Poppy soon had no doubts left. Narcissism soon took it's place, and now, Poppy is pretty sure that nothing could touch her, especially with talent like hers.

Despite beating girls who were four five years her senior, Poppy is still determined to improve herself, and is quite driven to do so. After living in The Bronx for twelve of her fourteen years, Poppy became determined to never move back once she got out. Now that her mother had managed to rent an apartment in Greenwich with her sponsership money, Poppy realized that dancing was her way out. Her sponsership money enabled her to do all sorts of things that she had previously believed to be impossible, and if helping her mother move into a better apartment was doable by dancing, Poppy was only happy to help. Even with her natural talent, Poppy works very hard to improve herself and dancing. With her ability to learn choreography quickly, Poppy spends hours upon hours in the dance studio each day perfecting moves to a normally unattainable degree.

Despite her achievements in dance, Poppy is still rather self conscious about her own appearance. At her elementary school, her peers mostly came from well do families with plenty of money to spend. Compared to their couture clothing, Poppy always felt like the odd one out, despite her ability to dance circles around the other girls. Quite easily the poorest girl at the school, Poppy soon realized that purchasing second hand clothing and redesigning them to fit her own body was quite easy, and upon being sponsored, Poppy soon had enough money to begin shopping at second hand stores for nicer clothing. Compiled with the substantial birthday money that she received from her father every year, which was the only contact that Poppy ever had with her father, her closet has quite a few items that are rather nice now. Even so, Poppy is still quite aware that other girls judge on appearance, and as a result, spends time on her own appearance each morning.

Born on a cold winter's eve to Madeline Parker, Poppy never knew her father. With a family of his own, William Van Buren was only looking for a distraction from his real family, and upon Madeline's pregnancy, he immediately severed all ties with his former paramour. Of course, Madeline would have none of it. As a former dancer, her only source of income was severed when she became pregnant with Poppy, and was soon reduced to teaching classes at a upscale dance studio in downtown New York. Barely surviving between her weekly wages and child support payment, Madeline often brought Poppy with her to the dance studios to keep her occupied while she taught lessons. At first, Poppy was instructed to sit in with her mother and occupied with toys, but once Madeline realized that her daughter was more interested in what was happening, she made a deal with the owner of the studio to sign Poppy up for lessons.

From the age of three, Poppy began ballet lessons. Of course, nothing was serious at first, but even at such a young age, Poppy had a knack for dance. Quickly joining the tap and jazz classes as well, the owner of the dance studio was thrilled with Poppy's natural talent, and happily agreed to foster it with garnishes off of Madeline's pay checks. When Poppy began kindergarden, she couldn't understand why everything had to change. Suddenly, she was required to sit for hours at a time, practicing her reading and mathematics. She was not pleased. Realizing that her daughter would not thrive under such circumstances, she enrolled her daughter in a public elementary arts school. Every day, Poppy was escorted by her mother through the subway system from their small and cramped apartment within The Bronx to the arts school in wealthy Manhattan.

At school, it was a completely different story. Poppy disliked the school from the beginning, and simply didn't get along with the rest of the girls. Most came from wealthy families within New York, and lived in places like the swanky penthouses on fifth avenue. There were even a few students who belonged to the upper echelons of New York society. Of course, it wasn't unusual for middle class girls to attend the school, but it seemed as if it were virtually unheard of for a girl with Poppy's background to attend the school. It seemed as if she wasn't good enough, if her clothing were too plain, as if her knapsack was too cheap, that she simply didn't have the money to throw around like her classmates did. Keeping to herself, Poppy turned to dance once again, choosing to focus on that rather than what was happening around her.

For six years, Poppy's life revolved around dance. Her typical day would involve waking up at seven in the morning, and eating whatever breakfast her mother prepared for her while preparing herself for school. By eight o clock am, Poppy and her mother would be on the subway, on their way to Manhattan. By nine o'clock in the morning, Poppy was in her classroom, working on mathematics and whatever else her teacher had planned for the day. However, Poppy's school day ended much earlier than most students. By two in the afternoon, Poppy was out of school and on her way to the dance studio for her first real lesson of the day. Ballet begun promptly at three and lasted for an hour and a half. Right after a quick snack, Poppy was right back at it for another hour, this time doing jazz. Breaking for a light dinner, Poppy did a bit of tap for another hour before returning home for the night.

Usually, Poppy and her mother would return home at eight, which gave Poppy enough time to eat a proper meal, do her homework, shower, and be in bed by ten pm. It would all repeat itself the next day, something that Poppy was quite aware of. Rather than wanting to do something else, Poppy thrived under the schedule, and working unusually hard for a girl her age. By the time she was eleven years old, Poppy was making the trips around the city by herself like a seasoned commuter, only escorted home by her mother after her final dance class of the day. Aa few weeks after Poppy turned twelve, the dance studio where she had taken lessons for her whole life was sold to a new owner. Unfortunately, the new owner saw no reason to continue giving Poppy free lessons, and soon Poppy was left looking for a new studio.

Fortunately, the previous owner still had friends and after convincing a associate that Poppy was a wise investment, she was given a deal by one of the most prestigious dance studios in the city. By agreeing to teach the five to eight year old ballet class prior to her own, Poppy would be given all the free lessons she could desire. Happily grasping onto the idea, Poppy began dancing yet again. Even at such a prestigious studio, it soon became clear that Poppy stood out. She was simply better; quicker at learning the choreography, more expressive when dancing the choreography, and more graceful than the girls within her age bracket. After being pushed by her mother and new dance teachers to enter the city wide invitational for jazz and hip hop, Poppy decided that it would be worth a try. It wouldn't be like she would win, seeing how she would be up against girls as old as eighteen, but it would be good experience.

She won.

With two new trophies to add to her shelves, Poppy had also been seen by people who were interested in sponsoring the young girl. Suddenly, for the first time in her life, Poppy and her mother had enough money to move out of The Bronx and into a nicer apartment in Greenwich village. Of course, it was a far cry from the luxury penthouse apartments located up and down fifth avenue, but to Poppy, it was much nicer than she had ever seen before. And to maintain something like this, all she had to do was keep dancing. With an interview or two for the entertainment section of a few well known newspapers in New York, the attention soon went to Poppy's head. She was better than everybody else, and nobody could touch her. Dance was her turf. Upon defending her titles for a second year at the age of thirteen, Poppy was ecstatic. She had proven that she wasn't a fluke, and that she deserved to win.

After auditioning and being accepted at Firoello H. Laguardia High School, Poppy had every intention to attend. However, she was unaware that at the last invitational, Madeline had filmed her daughter's performance and sent it to the world famous Lux Lucis Academy. Two hours away from New York City, it was well known for it's stellar arts program. A month prior to her graduation, Madeline finally received a letter in the mail, an acceptance letter. Poppy had received a full scholarship to Lux Lucis, and her mother was dead set on having her go. The thing was, Poppy had never been away from her mother before in her life, and already lacking a father, Poppy was not too fond of the idea of leaving her mother. Her mother refused to listen to her arguments, however, and by the end of the summer, Poppy was packed up and sent off to Lux Lucis Academy for her freshman year of high school.

I have read and agreed to the rules of this site. I hereby recognize that my disobedience of these terms will result in punishment at the sole discretion of the admins.

Signed: scandalacious