Ella "Cheater" Hollander

[Cheater Hollander]

ELLA "CHEATER" HOLLANDER

NAME: Ella Marie Hollander
NICKNAME: Cheater
AGE: Seventeen
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PERSONALITY

Cheater has a problem staying in one place for long periods of time. This can be said for sitting still or standing in one spot, but it can also be applied on a much larger scale. She enjoys travel, and so spending more than a few months in one location is difficult. That being said, Cheater is known for appearing and vanishing from lodging houses, staying months at a time before running off on yet another adventure.

That isn’t to say that Cheater doesn’t make friends or enjoy lasting relationships. She is friendly, bubbly and energetic, always in motion and trusting (but only to a point—she’s friendly, not stupid), keeping a few close friends and many acquaintances . Mostly, Cheater enjoys having people with whom she can talk when she returns to a location. She likes coming to a town knowing that she can see a familiar face.

Cheater enjoys gambling, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s the best at it. Her name stems from her unfortunate habit of cheating at games of chance, often resulting in her getting caught. While she has yet to get into any real problem spots, there have been a few instances wherein she has feared for her life. Fortunately, she is quick enough to get away (usually).

Although Cheater is a fairly happy, optimistic individual, she has her moments just like any other person. When in a bad mood, whether because of a bad day selling papers or because she has been provoked by someone, Cheater is vicious. Her words tend to be her weapon of choice in this case, although she will fight if she is pushed far enough. While her insults have been effective in several instances, she is not the best fighter, giving her a good reason to avoid confrontation (even though that isn’t always possible).

HISTORY

Ella Hollander never knew her father. The man had died prior to her birth, leaving her mother who worked as a maid for several well-to-do families to support herself and her daughter. Upon her mother’s insistence, Ella began to attend school while her mother worked to keep them in a small apartment with at least enough food to feed her daughter.

In school, Ella flourished. She was surprisingly proficient in math, although her reading comprehension was not quite as good as one would have hoped for someone at her age. Nevertheless, she carried on in the hopes that one day school would lead her to something special, something special enough that she could use it to get herself and her mother into a better life.

Whether or not Ella would have learned that special skill will remain unknown, as Ella’s mother passed away when she was ten years old. This was an expected occurrence—Ms. Hollander had been sick for quite some time—but it did not mean that Ella was entirely prepared for it when it happened. When the families her mother worked for refused to hire her, she lived out the remainder of her time in the apartment building before heading to the streets, selling flowers until she was discovered by a nun and taken to an orphanage.

To say that Ella enjoyed her time in the orphanage would be an exaggeration. At first she was given enough attention that she was happy in her environment. The nuns were kind, and she was able to continue her schooling. However, as new children came into the orphanage the focus of the nuns drifted. This would not have been a problem, had it not been for the strictness of the older nuns with whom she was placed and Ella, not used to these new rules, withdrew. After her thirteenth birthday, unable to put up with the nuns, she left the orphanage in favor of the street.

Cheater became a newsie at fourteen years old. She spent a year or so working before running off to travel, claiming that she needed a breath of fresh air. This set her off on her cycle of selling papers, then up and leaving without so much as a word to anyone.

Who are you?

Madeleine
Seventeen
Mountain time
I would prefer the Bronx, but you could put me anywhere, I don’t mind.