( FLORENCE PUGH . CIS - WOMAN . SHE/HER ) - the chicago resident , ( ELIZABETH “LIZA” LEVIN ) , was heard blaring ( THE PROPHECY / TAYLOR SWIFT ) this morning . the ( TWENTY FOUR ) year old is a ( BAKER ) in the city & has lived the ( WEST ) tower for ( ONE MONTH ) . since being here , they have been told to be ( - SELF-DEPRECIATIVE ) , but also ( + SOFT ) , i guess we’ll find out soon !
Liza was the first-born daughter of James and Agnes Levin, and even though she was only two years older than her sister, Liza took the role of big sister very, very seriously. She always wanted to help take care of her sister, from changing and feeding her to walking with her to school as they got older. According to their mom, the girls were inseparable, always trusted each other above all else, it was the first formative relationship Liza had ever had. They grew up in a sleepy little beach town in California, the Levin family very well off, and even though that in turn meant Liza was, well, rich, she never flaunted it. She wasn't a boastful person, wasn't showy. Even from a young age, Liza had always been kind, always been soft (sometimes even to a fault) and it's an attribute Liza has kept with her into adulthood.
While her father, James, was a popular restauranteur, Liza's mother was who she took after more. Agnes was a baker, a love she'd gotten from her mother, and it was a love that had been passed down to Liza as well. Since childhood, Liza loved baking, loved making cakes and cookies and pastries, always excited to try new things--so of course when she was 18, she began working in her mother's bakery as well, eager to really hone her skills.
Life after that was good--great even. James and Agnes never seemed to leave their honeymoon phase, her little sister was doing well in her own classes and her own life, having given birth to a beautiful little boy named Jamie, and Liza was poised to (eventually) take over her mother's bakery. Things were perfect.
So of course, that's when the universe decided to swing in.
Liza found out her boyfriend of over a year was cheating on her, tilting her world off its perfectly-cultivated axis. And then mere weeks later, the universe showed her that was just the tip of the iceberg and shattered what was left of her. Liza's mother, father, and her sister were all killed in a car accident one rainy evening, essentially leaving Liza (and Jamie) alone in the world and changing life as she knew it forever . How was she supposed to go on when, in the blink of an eye, her whole family was gone? Liza kind of shut down a bit. She chopped her long blonde hair off, stopped answering (smothering) texts from friends (and outright blocked her ex). She couldn't go to work anymore, couldn't bear the ghost of her mother in every nook and cranny of the place. In fact, she couldn't quite bear being at home anymore either.
Liza had always been a selfless person, had always put her family and her loved ones first--but for once, she needed to put herself first. So Liza decided she needed a fresh start. And that start entailed moving across the country with her nephew. Her mother had been from the east coast after all, and she had a cousin with whom she was incredibly close to who prodded her to come and stay with her, so she figured maybe it'd be a good thing for her to now do.
It's been two months since her family was killed, and only about a month since Liza essentially became a parent and moved to Chicago, where her mother was from. She's settling in with her cousin and got a job, suitably, at a bakery in town. Everything is still new (and scary, and overwhelming) but Liza finally feels like she can breathe again. And if she tries hard enough, she can maybe keep her mother's memory alive in this new place to call home.
