She’s an accomplished artist, a history buff, has a particular and unique taste in music, a style all her own, and she can burp the alphabet. She chopped off ten inches of her hair last year on a whim, and has friends in four states. She likes manga and Cosplaying, and knows the entire Canadian national anthem. She took up bass lessons and is likely to be found running around the house like a child. She loves her dog, Dixie, and will often yell “I LOVE YOU!” in an angry voice, which seems contradicting.
She’s Julia, and she’s fourteen. She’s a freshman at Turpin High School and a new resident of Ohio. She’s 5 feet, 4 inches tall. Her hair is not quite shoulder-length, dark blonde, and up (as much as it can be) in a short ponytail with a ribbon tied around it. She’s wearing dark skinny jeans, Target-brand Converse with a music note drawn on the left shoe and piano keys on the right in smeared purple ink, and a blue graphic T-shirt that says Italia across the Italian flag.
Today she’s listening to the Beatles. Yesterday it was the Killers. She’s always begging me to take her shopping, but I’ve learned to refuse since she ends up letting me buy everything. On the ride home from school today she tells me stories from her Latin class. She made her teacher a Roman hat out of duct tape and red tissue paper for his birthday.
We get home and she takes forever to get her massive book bag from the car, in addition to her Death Cab for Cutie tote bag. “He’s so beautiful…” she breathes, gazing at the insert of a Motion City Soundtrack CD. Justin Pierre is one of the great loves of her life, along with Brandon Flowers, Elvis Presley, and Julius Caesar. She used to love Patrick Stump, but he’s no longer the coolest thing ever, apparently.
Cosplaying, which is when you dress up like your favorite anime character at an anime convention, is a hobby of Julia’s. She likes to dress up like characters from Hetalia, which are all countries with their own personalities and stories. This ties into her interest in history, since she relates it all to the anime. She’s also really good at drawing, and can often be found doodling faces on napkins. She took private painting lessons last year, and some of her work actually looks professional.
At Warped Tour a few months ago she signed a petition for animal rights and vowed to never go to a circus again. PETA just sent her a reminder postcard, causing her to exclaim, “Come to think of it… I’ve never been to a circus to begin with! Oh god! I’m depriving myself of something that could be amazing… IT COULD BE AMAZING! Ahh!” She giggles, sniffs, wipes her wrist across her nose, and continues, “Anyways. Whatever. It probably just smells like elephant crap anyway.”
These outbursts are typical of Julia, who often spits out comments that, if taken out of context, sound completely inappropriate. She slips on her red headphones, turns on her matching red Zune, makes a face at me, and then says, “Megan. Why are you so ugly? Just kidding! I love you! Do you hear me? I LOVE YOU! Ohh... I love my dog… I LOVE her. Do you hear me? I LOVE HER.” She stares directly at me, burps so loud it would make a 3rd grade boy proud, smiles, and says, “Wow, that was a good one!”
After a two-minute pause, she continues with, “What’s that thing called where you think some other country is better than yours? Well anyway. It’s true. America sucks. I want to give up my citizenship and move to Italy, but my mom won’t let me. Hey guess what: I’M GOING TO ITALY! Ahh!” She’s going on a trip with her Latin club next summer.
She leaves, practices playing her bass guitar for a while, and returns half an hour later wearing her brand new Roman hat purchased from the Halloween store, yelling, “Argh! I’m going to pillage you!” as she takes some cereal bowls from the counter.
She doesn’t feel the need to take life so seriously. She can occasionally get moody, like when her brother is late to pick her up from school and she refuses to let it go, or when her mother slips the dog some unhealthy food from the dinner table. Her conflicts seem to be quickly resolved for the most part though.
It’s tough on her being the new kid. She’s been at the same tiny private school with the same kids her whole life, and now she has to start all over. She sees it as an adventure though, because how often in life does one get this opportunity? Her optimism is contagious, which is likely how she’s been making new friends here. It’s tough to resist a Julia hug… usually because it involves brute force and a bear-like grip.
She’s a genuinely kind person who, yes, has her off days, but everyone who knows her knows they can count on her for a smile. Her erratic behavior is sometimes a mask for how she’s really feeling. She wants to make people happy, and so she gives them a happy person. When she’s alone though, it’s just her and the headphones (if we’re lucky), blaring with all the emotions she keeps bottled inside.
She’s been missing her dad a lot lately, since he’s still working in Missouri. She loves to bond with him when he comes to visit. The two of them watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus for hours on end; she always hates to see him go.
“Daddy-Monster,” she whines, crawling into his arms, “Don’t go.”
“I have to, Jules; I’ve gotta go to work. But I’ll be back in two weeks, I promise.”
“Stupid humans,” she says as her way of resolving the issue.
That seems to be how Julia makes peace with the world. She calmly (okay, not usually so calmly) just accepts things for the way they are.
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