Autumn would describe her friendship with Vanessa as water crashing upon a rock, where Vanessa was the water and she was the rock. Autumn enjoyed Vanessa’s company and they could even be considered close friends, but Vanessa put more energy into their friendship than Autumn did. Vanessa constantly adapted herself to Autumn’s unmoving, stagnant self. Secretly, Autumn was jealous of Vanessa and spent a lot of their time together bitter and irritable. Still, Vanessa molded to Autumn’s jealousy and tried to become who Autumn needed – except, Autumn didn’t know what she needed, so how could Vanessa. Maybe it was because of her confusion, her lack of self, that Autumn sought Vanessa’s affection and Vanessa tried to bend to Autumn’s whims. It started with innocent touches, became stolen kisses behind bookshelves and fumbling in the dark. Autumn doesn’t know why she did it, why she initiated this kind of relationship with Vanessa, but she knew it was unhealthy the way she relied on Vanessa’s touches without giving herself completely to Vanessa. She kept herself steely, vulnerable only physically and never letting Vanessa see her when she was out of control. Her death left Autumn reeling. It was selfish, her first thought, that Vanessa would no longer be there to kiss her when she felt alone and angry. This left Autumn even angrier, more confused, and her emotions spilled out of her control. [hr] At first, Eddy knew her no more than any of the other schmucks he runs booze for, connected by a friend-of-a-friend or whatever other arbitrary connections get a highschooler their liquor hookup. To Eddy, she was just another smiling face mumbling pleasantries and handing him a wad of twenties in exchange for a few handles of Tito's Vodka. Eventually, booze running became idle chatter became real talks became drunken nights around Crestwood Hollow, forming inebriated half-memories with Vanessa and her friends that Eddy wouldn't trade for the world. And then, as quickly as it had started, it was gone. She was gone. Eddy finds himself spending a lot of time in the local Magic Shop lately, looking for that one secret trick, covered in cobwebs and tucked behind all the other boxes, the one thing oozing with real magic. The one trick that could cheat Death himself. [hr] Andy knew Vanessa through gym class, history class, and from the girl's after school track and field. The two bonded during these classes and often met each other halfway between their neighborhoods to jog throughout the town together. After hearing of Vanessa's death, Andy was devastated. She's been missing track practice since. [hr] While sharing classes for a large part of their lives, the two hadn't interacted much until Sophmore year where Joanie found herself quickly falling for Vanessa after an incident. They grew somewhat close, with Joanie kissing Vanessa at a party a week before her death. [hr] They were biology lab partners Sophomore year. Their relationship was strained at best. Vanessa had never liked Erica and made no attempt on being anything more than partners. The went to class together, split the report work in half, then complained about each-other to their respective friend groups. Dislike didn't dull the shock of Vanessa's death for Erica though. Instead it made her rethink her own life over the summer, and in an effort to come to terms with her new priorities, she opted to join the counseling offered to those affected by Vanessa's death. [hr] Jennifer first met Vanessa at 3 years old after the Vandermeyers moved to Crestwood following her father receiving a promotion, sent to the city to run the new branch the bank had just opened there. The Bordeaux's were their new neighbours, and little Jennifer was delighted to have a new friend so quickly after what little life she'd gotten a grip on had been so rapidly uprooted. Vanessa and Jennifer quickly became the firmest of friends in the way only growing little girls can manage, and their bond blossomed further as they entered education, being the two best friends either girl had had in their short lives thusfar. As they grew, so did their parents; while the Bordeaux's were a well-respected family in Crestwood, Jennifer's parents picked up a reputation for being overly preachy and judgmental; while Jennifer herself had stopped attending church since she turned 10, her parents were still devout, perhaps even zealous believers at times, and in their deepening age relied more and more on their faith as a cornerstone of their values, and their daughter as the cornerstone of their future. Jennifer began to slowly realize her life was being planned and curated for her, and the seed of resentment found root in her core. Jennifer turned to music, as did so many young girls and boys; the world around her was alive with all kinds of new sounds, but where Vanessa, her best friend, fell in love with Disco and the elating, motivating sounds found therein, Jennifer was drawn to the messy, defiant catharsis of the still-young Punk Rock movement. Punk reveled in sticking two fingers up and damn the consequences, a philosophy Jennifer adopted with frightening speed and ease; everything became about rebellion. Jennifer forged a new identity in punk: Vandermeyer no longer, she was Jenny Venom, and she used this persona to divorce herself from her family's reputation, and her parent's plans for her. As Jennifer and Vanessa approached high school, they had drifted apart significantly; Jennifer had fallen in with her new spiky-haired, leather-wearing clique, and had derided Vanessa's love of Disco, spurning Vanessa's attempts to reconnect and rekindle the friendship. Vanessa kept herself graceful enough to never retaliate, allowing Jennifer the space to explore this new self she had constructed. Vanessa's death shattered Jenny's world, despite the distance she had deliberately made between her and her once-closest friend. The tragedy cast into harsh light exactly what life is and can be, and what it means when it is taken away; but these revelations have only triggered a further retreat into the persona. Jennifer was a little girl, her life being lived for her, path forcibly laid out ahead of her, naive and foolish. Jenny Venom is fearless, and tough, and survives everything. [hr] RJ and Vanessa first met in kindergarten but due to his lack of actual class participation through most of elementary school, the pair rarely interacted. It wasn't until high school the pair formed an unconventional friendship. Ever the recluse, RJ had been reading on the bleachers when Vanessa's protests reached his ears between songs. Investigating, RJ quickly discovered one of the jocks pressuring Vanessa behind the bleachers. Though the altercation ended with RJ having his ass handed to him, it was enough to get the jock to lay off of Vanessa, starting the odd friendship. The pair enjoyed reading together beneath the Hanging Tree, and RJ often excitedly introduced Vanessa to any new music he enjoyed. It was also RJ who unfortunately introduced Vanessa to cigarettes, a habit that deemed him a bad influence in the eyes of her parents and siblings. [hr] Victor is 14 minutes older than Vanessa. And while as twins, that's arbitrary, it's something he always has taken seriously. He's an introvert who always had a hard time making friends, Vanessa was a social butterfly, forcing him into the social scene by 'protecting' her. Even though Vanessa's thrown more punches than Victor has in order to defend the other. They shared everything growing up, baths to toys. They had their joint bike that Vanessa broke one summer and Victor had to fix. They started theater together in their freshmen year, a hobby that both of the twins truly enjoyed which gave Vanessa a starring roll in a local commercial, and Victor the sporty nickname 'faggot'. During the freshman year, Vanessa gravitated towards the social circles while Victor would rather stay in the artistic side of things. He did music, did his homework, and wrote poetry, only dragging her brother out to parties so he'd 'keep an eye on her' as their parents always told him to. The sibling rivalry was strong in other aspects, though. Vanessa was better at track and field, Victor was better at baseball. Vanessa beat him in Super Mario and she was far better at social studies than him, but he had better grades in math and literature. Their father wanted Victor to become a rocket scientist like him, and Vanessa to pursue a career in acting. Their father died when the twins were 14. The trauma and pain of losing their dad's something they bonded over and it made them far closer. Relying on each other for the really nasty shit life throws at them. He hated his sister at times because things always went her way. How she'd have fun and he'd clean up her mess. And when she was gone, he'd give anything to clean up another one of her messes. [hr] Life has a way of raising you up just to drop you back down again. Dexter and Vanessa were close for a long time, going so far as to have dated during the early years of high school, but when Dexter lost his father and sister he dealt with it poorly. This meant that the two ended up parting ways and for a long time they did not directly speak with one another, only interacting secondhand and when necessary. The path to mending their once solid friendship is recovering though, or, was recovering. The loss of someone so prevalent in his life has been hard on Dexter, who had thought he had already experienced the worst life could deal him.