ZARINA HENDRICKS. // TWENTY-ONE. // MAGICAL. // CHEMISTRY STUDENT. // DOCK WORKER.
From the moment Zarina could talk - she was pretty much constantly asking questions. She had an inquisitive nature about her that seemed to only grow with the more things she was introduced to as she grew up. It was something her mother always encouraged, even if she rarely had any of the answers that her daughter was searching for, but Zarina’s father was a different story. He grew tired of constantly being asked why and was quick to shut her down and tell her to just focus on what they already did know and whatever task may be at hand. This never bothered Zarina though. She knew her father loved her, he just… didn’t understand her. Which was okay - not many people really did.
She spent the majority of her childhood in her room working on her little experiments by herself, only occasionally hanging out with anyone else her own age. It wasn’t until her early years of high school that Zarina really found a friend in one Tessa Bell. The two met in the school’s science labs and hit it off almost right away, which was a new experience for Zarina. She thought she had finally found a best friend but then Tessa started making other friends and suddenly it was like Zarina never existed… Or at least, that was what it felt like to her. As far as she was concerned, Tessa had abandoned her for a new and improved group of friends.
It also didn’t help that around the same time Zarina had a falling out with her father. An experiment gone wrong at home burnt half of the Hendrick’s house to the ground. For obvious reasons, her father was livid and forbade her from doing any more experiments ever again.
It was that night that Zarina ran away - leaving Walt Grove behind with no intention of ever looking back. She only lasted for about a week on her own, staying in a nearby town’s rundown motel, unable to get a job anywhere considering she didn’t have a high school degree nor did she have any experience or references she could rely on. So with her tail between her legs, she returned to her hometown.
Though she didn’t go back to her parents. Instead taking the small amount of money she’d inherited from her long dead grandmother and had recently received access to and using it to get a small apartment on her own. In reality her father would have taken her back in easily, but Zarina was too stubborn and upset to go back. She finished high school then enrolled in Walt University - her grades strong enough to earn her a free ride - and was on the hunt for a job when she met James.
Perhaps one could argue that Zarina’s drinking and almost nightly visits to the Snuggly Ducklings were an issue, but she never saw it as going quite that far. Plus it was because of those visits that she even met the man. It was almost like fate. Zarina was indeed of a job, a friend, and some kind of just… direction for her life. And in her eyes, James was just as in need for the two latter things in his own life as well. They needed each other, of that Zarina is certain.
It’s probably kind of pathetic that the person she considers to be her best friend now is a grown man - but she and James have a connection that she’s never felt before. He understands her, he listens to her, and he genuinely enjoys spending time with her. Or at least, that’s what she thinks, of course.
When James offered her a job at the docks, Zarina was slightly hesitant but after he explained that it would also be the perfect place to build her own little miniature lab, she agreed right away. Though she has far less experience working on the actual docks than any of the other employees, with James connections she jumped right up to being one of the managers. Rarely does she do the manual labor work herself, even though she’s perfectly capable of it, and instead mostly helps with all the paperwork that goes into running the docks themselves. Even then, her workload is far smaller than the other managers and mostly she spends the majority of her time in the lab that James helped her set up on the docks.
Even though she only ran away for about a week and it has been three years since the day of the accident that left her childhood home in flames, Zarina has yet to so much as speak to her father since returning to Walt Grove. For the first few months he continuously attempted to reach out, but she blocked his number and refused to return any letters. Until it was finally too much and she snapped, sending him a voice memo essentially saying that he’s dead to her and to just leave her alone. Though she’s always had a better relationship with her mother, she doesn’t spend much time with her either. Never reaching out to the woman and only ever speaking briefly if they happen to run into each other. Zarina blames her for not sticking up for her that day so many years ago.
Hates Tessa and all of her friends. Wants nothing to do with them at all. Or at least, that’s how she acts. In reality she misses Tessa deeply and just wants to be a part of the group. But she doesn’t think that’ll ever be possible so instead she holds on to her hurt and has turned bitter.
Most of the dock workers hate her and she’s fully aware of it. But she doesn’t care - or at least she tells herself she doesn’t. She knows it’s not fully fair that she jumped up the ranks so quickly without ever really lifting a finger - but in the end it’s going to be beneficial for them all. When she finally perfects how to extract magic from someone to pass it off to another, they’ll be singing her praise and thankful that she had the chance to take the time with her experiments rather than being stuck lifting boxes all day like them.
Despite knowing that most of said dock workers hate her, she does consider many of them to be like family. Mostly because… well, she doesn’t really have anyone else.
It has taken her about two years to finally get her “pixie dust” to work right. And even then it only works for a few minutes, but still - it works. It’s a long and hefty process to make the dust, it includes a lot of different ingredients and a bit of her own blood to create the finished product, but it has proven to be worth it so far. She knows that chances are high if she adds more blood that the magic will last longer on other people, since she only uses a few drops per batch of dust - but she doesn’t want to push it too far yet. As much as she believes everyone should have a taste of magic, she doesn’t want to potentially harm herself in the journey of getting there. Also, she’s content with the dust she’s made so far and wants to focus on seeing if she can replicate the same results with other people’s magic. Only problem is… she doesn’t really know anyone with magic that she trusts enough anymore to bring in on the experiments.
Favorite colors are blue and yellow.
Bisexual as hell.
Doesn’t really care about her appearance much. Doesn’t know anything about makeup, is almost always wearing just casual clothes, can’t walk in heels. None of that kind of stuff. Always has her hair up in a messy bun.
Doesn’t care about the fact that magic is forbidden, she is very open about the fact that she has a special ability. She’ll talk aobut it easily and is often floating around town, though usually just an inch or two off the ground so it’s not ridiculously noticable.
