SPOTTED: Is that CARMEN REYES that I see over there? You know they have quite the reputation of being the GOLDEN GIRL around town. The 30 year old has been around these parts for 6 YEARS and within that timeframe has landed themselves a job as a/an ENGLISH TEACHER while living in SYCAMORE APARTMENTS. I overheard that they can be quite INSECURE but their saving grace is that they are VIVACIOUS. Rumor has it they’ve been keeping a secret, and it’s only a matter of time before everyone knows. [theo, 31 /, they/she/he, cst]
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BASICS
FULL NAME: Carmen Soledad Reyes
NICKNAME(S): Carmita, Carm, Cece
AGE: 30
DATE OF BIRTH: March 13th, 1992
PLACE OF BIRTH: Chicago, Illinois
CURRENT LOCATION:. Sycamore Apartments, Juniper, Wa
ETHNICITY: Guatemalan, Puerto Rican
GENDER: Cis Woman
PRONOUNS: she/her
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual
RELIGION: practicing roman catholic
OCCUPATION: english teacher
FACECLAIM: Adria Arjona
HEADCANONS
Carmen’’s favorite colors are pink, and glitter.
Carmen has a new Shiba Inu puppy named Papaya
Carmen is a hopeless romantic who loves reading romance books.
Carmen leans heavy into a “soft life”
Can be found at Social Oak or the school interchangeably.
BIOGRAPHY
tw bullying, tw body image issues, tw death, tw car crash
Being perfect isn’t easy, and yet Graciana De Leon managed to pretend she was for years. Being the only child of Mateo and Xiomara De Leon, a fairly simple upper middle class Chicago family, her father owning a business and her mother being a the prime stay at home mom, expectations were high, she never stood a chance against what her mother wanted of her. At a young age, she was pushed into a lot of things, pageants and piano, but the big one was ballet.
She was carted around Illinois, her mom pulling her from the public school in Chicago to attend an all-girls school just outside of town that offered ballet lessons in their curriculum. She was told to keep good grades if she wanted to keep dancing, and as the De Leon family’s shiny little star, ballet was the only thing she had that was just for her. She could get lost in the feeling of her body moving, and she truly lived up to her name, as graceful as ever when she was dancing.
As she got older,she lived a life of being the perfect daughter to the world, smiling on stage, going to parties her parents threw, getting good grades at her all-girls private school, and being a shining example for her classmates. She was shy, but she did what her parents asked. But Little Graciana’s shy personality, the way she tiptoed the line of teachers pet, made her an outcast to her peers.
In November of 2003, when Graciana was just eleven years old, her parents were taken from her in a fatal car crash. After the funeral, she was ushered into move in with her abuela, because her parents had left her some money, it was to be used for school until she turned twenty five, Gracie ended up going to the same private school she had been attending for so long. She went back two weeks after her parents death.
If Graciana was the outcast before, for being the “golden girl”, she certaintly was pushed further agains the walls by her peers, who would tease her for not having the latest fashions, things her mother would gift her with, or for not speaking up in class, or even so, when she did, for being too much. Gracie couldn’t win, and it felt like she was just going through the motions. She stayed mostly friendless, having aquantinces, but in a small, private school, the mean girls would tease anyone who hung out with her. Gracie focused on her studies, and on moving on with her life. She managed to skirt by without it getting too bad, just teasing, and keeping her on the edges of anything fun. She once again reverted to only having dance, and now as she grew old, she found a love for romance novels, she’d sit in the back of the class room after finishing her work, reading something that she knew mostly wasn’t realistic, but allowed herself to dream about.
As Gracie got older, her body began to change, and so did her love for dance, she felt like she didn’t look like the other girls, and, since most of the other girls were made up of her classmates, they were sucking the fun out of it anyway. Gracie ended up the girl would keep even more to herself, reading her books, doing her work, going home to help her abuela cook. Her life was simple, and lonely, and she prayed for the day she could disappear.
When her senior year rolled around, things began to look up, she would count down the days until she was off in college, perhaps being able to break out of her shell and become a new person.
After the prank that was pulled on her during prom, she took that quite literally. After the girls had her stood up, then mocked at the prom, she decided to opt out of finishing her school year in school. Her grades were good enough, and she had already gotten into the University of Washingto. She didn’t need to walk across stage, not when the only one who would celebrate with here was her abuela, anyway. Graduation came and passed, and with her trust frund from her parents, Gracie De Leon moved to Seattle, and became Carmen Reyes, opting too legally change it so her degree wouldn’t show any deficiencies. Carmen deleted all of her social media, and basically disappeared, her abuela flying out to see her for holidays rather than the other way around. No one in Chicago would see her again, she could embrace her new self, and start fresh.
Carmen got a degree in education, and taught in Seattle for a few months before an offer came from a small town in the Olympic Peninsula, Juniper. Carmen, after losing her abuela a year before, knew that nothing was truly tying her down anymore, and so she packed her small studio apartment and made the move.
PRESENT.
Carmen has been living in Juniper for six years, working as a high school english teacher. She is a changed person, completely different from the shy, wall flower she used to be. She is an outspoken activist, a community volunteer, a dog mom and she has a core group of friends who she adores. It took her many years to get to this point, but she’s pretty sure this is what happiness feels like. Although, she still has that hope above all hopes that her life might fall in track with one of her romance novels.
If you could relive any day over and over again for the rest of your life which would you pick and why?
"I think maybe it was the day I moved to Juniper. I had never felt truly at home anywhere else until I stepped foot here. It was like I could finally exhale."
what kind of music do you listen to when you need to hype yourself up?
Carmen laughs and pulls out her phone, scrolling through it "Right now? Kill Bill is at the top of the list, but I have a pretty decent workout playlist that gets me going!"
You know what members? There’s nothing that I like more than a little honesty on a mellow Friday evening. Honesty hour is open from now until Sunday night! Please be sure to reblog this post on any blog that you wish to participate from (don’t worry you are free to delete it once the Honesty Hour has commenced). Please remember that if you wish to participate in this activity you must ask a question, anonymously or not, to each participating member to ensure that everyone who wants to be included gets to be! Be sure to tag all answers with #juniper.honesty… be careful what you fess up to, you never know who might be watching.
The farmer's market in Juniper reminded Nate of home, yet, this time, the memories were positive. He could just pretend that this is what life at home, in Texas, was like, rather than the memories he carried with himself. Besides, now that he was a father, he wanted to show Savannah the kind of life that she hadn't really experienced in New York. Then again, she hadn't experienced much, being two and all.
So, letting Rylan have some time to herself, he packed it up and went with his daughter to the farmer's market. It was nice and chilly outside, just the kind of spring weather that he was expecting. Making sure that Savannah was comfortably tucked away in her pushchair, he wandered around the market, pausing whenever the girl wanted something, or just to check something and show it to her. It was all fun as long as she was in a good mood, and as she sat in her pushchair, covered up in a warm blanket and munching on a newly bought banana, he could count on it to last at least a little bit longer.
Spotting a flower stand, Nate wondered whether it would be cheesy to go home with flowers and coffee for Rylan. Maybe it would be, but when did he ever care about cheesy? So as Savannah spotted the pretty flowers, immediately asking her father for them, Nate made his way over, pausing by another person who was doing something that Savannah clearly wanted to do. "Something like that." He agreed with a smile as he crouched down to his daughter's level to help her pick one flower out of the many that were displayed. "I'm with you on that, it's almost like the flowers during the winter are fake. Kinda like strawberries, you know? Strawberries during summer and strawberries during winter are two different things, seriously."
How much time had she spent walking this same path since moving here? Familiarizing herself with it, making it a routine. She needed that, routine, normalcy, and consistency that made her feel like she was home, a place where she felt not just wanted but welcomed. Walking to the farmers market every warm enough weekend in the past six years had become something that would replace the lonely walks home back in Chicago. Slowly one would phase out the other.
“Oh you get me!” she agrees because that had always been something she believed. In her home, it was blasphemous to buy strawberries out of season. They weren’t the right color, and don’t even get her started about the taste. Flowers were much the same, a nice pop of color but they always felt out of place when the popped in too early, when there was still a hint of chilliness in the air that leaned more towards winter. “I figured I’d welcome in the first sign of warmth with color, you know? It’s my favorite season,” and why she’s telling this random stranger this, she doesn’t know. Graciana would have never done this, and maybe that’s why Carmen does. “Your daughter is beautiful by the way. How old is she?”
osiris wasn't really one to to run to the farmers marker. sure the fresh veggies and fruits were better but they typically were a little out of his budget when he was planning for the week. however he had made a nice little tip this weekend and had been craving some fresh fruits and he knew the farmers market always had the best dragonfruits. making his way through the stalls he couldn't help but stop and talk to everyone who was there and look into all the products. it all was very facianting to the man asides it was a good way to put his name and business out there as he spoke to everyone.
once he had gotten the fruit he had came for he was on his way out only to notice the flowers. they were beautiful all the color had just made the rainy weather lately a little more sunny. he had leaned down himself to stop and smell the beautiful flowers in front of him when he had noticed his friend doing the same. he couldn't help bit let out a chuckle deep from his chest. "great minds think alike i think they also say." he teased tapping on the side of his head softly.
"there really is. with all the rain that we see here it is nice to see something beautiful that comes from it." iris had confessed. "i have always wanted to put a bunch of these beautiful plants at my shop but my guys would just step in them and throw their butts in them." he shook his head. "working with a bunch of animals.. what brings you out here today, carman?" he asked curiously.
She feels less embarrassed when she notices that the person who is standing next to her at the flower booth is a friend and one who is doing the exact same thing that she is. So maybe she wasn’t acting as weird as she thought she was, perhaps it was the many years of insecurity coming up. She drops the thought, and focuses back in on his words, putting forth a bright friendly smile. “I think you should still do it, you never know, it might brighten people’s day!” she shrugs a single shoulder and takes a look around the flowers “I think tulips could also be a good cigarette butt receptacle if worse comes to worst,” Carmen teases plucking a single pink tulip to hand it over to him.
What brings her out is the fear that she'll get back into old lonely habits if she left herself cooped up in her apartment for too long, but she didn't say that aloud, no. That wasn't something she shared with anyone. Instead, she picks up her chosen bouquet, pink and purple pansies, and she waves them slightly "Bringing a pop of spring to the apartment, and maybe seeing what fruits are in season, something to light things up. What about you? Here just to look?"
It was a whopping 40 degrees in Juniper today, but the sun was out and that meant Carmen was out. She would take any amount of Vitamin D she could get, even if that amount also called for her to wear a denim jacket and a beanie. Spring was coming, that much was true, and it was her favorite time of year. Sure, the area saw more rain than anything else, but the foliage that sprouted into view during this time made her feel alive, life really could be beautiful if you looked at it a certain way. For the past few years, Carmen was allowing herself to see the beauty in it, because for so long she hadn't been able to. Some people thought she was maybe a little too naive for that, but what was a tiny bit of naivete every once in a while?
there was a strawberry smoothie in her hand, even if the cold was seeping into her bones a bit, wishing she had packed some gloves. Instead, she just drank it faster, walking down the street that would lead her to the indoor/outdoor farmers market. The start of spring was the perfect time to freshen up her apartment with fresh flowers and perhaps try some new fruit.
She was running her finger along the top of a pink rose, not exactly her favorite, but it was pretty enough, when she leaned in to smell it, stopping only when she felt a presence next to her. She stood straight up, and laughed, slightly embarrassed. "Isn't life about stopping to smell the flowers, or something?" she asked, waving off her embarrassment and shrugging a single shoulder. "Besides, there's just something about spring and it's flowers that bring in something special, I think."
