Maria Landstand, an Introduction
April 29, 2004. A dreary Thursday afternoon in Warden's Crossing, Ontario, and the birth date of twins, Maria Louise Landstand and Laura Margaret Landstand. Two girls, twenty minutes apart, very different in appearance. Born to Daniel Landstand, a young black lawyer, and Tiffany Landstand, a white supply teacher.
Young Maria took after her father in skin tone, whereas the younger Laura was as pale as their mother. Although older, Maria was smaller than Laura, from birth to present day. Her hair was lighter, their mother's caramel brown, and her eyes as dark as spruce wood. She was quieter than her sister, but still not an angel.
She met her best friend in kindergarten, in the office. Maria was anemic, and often fainted in class, getting sent to the office to rest. One day, a young Cameron Buckley was also there, and they clicked instantly. The years wore on and they remained friends, little spats and fights along the way. She was never lonely, but Maria preferred having one close friend over lots of distant friends.
Maria has a strong sense of loyalty and an in tune moral compass. She isn't very book smart, and is decent at street smarts. She enjoys reading fiction, and hopes to write one day herself. She enjoys stories with female leads and good representation, and sci fi. She enjoys humour, but is more of a follower than a leader. Cameron often organizes pranks for them, and she goes along willingly.
She's firm in her beliefs, and has attended protests before. She wants to live in a world where both she and her sister get equal opportunities, despite how different they look, and wishes the best for all. Her biggest thing is the treatment of black people, with LGBT related things a close second.
Maria has been an out bisexual girl of colour since she was fourteen, but she'd been contemplating since she was twelve and felt things for many characters in her books, regardless of gender. She came out to her twin sister Laura first, who also admitted to being a lesbian, and had been waiting for the perfect time to reveal it.
She has a preference for strong willed people, and gets flustered easily, especially by women. She's easy to tease, but not afraid to return it. She dreams of settling down one day with a loving partner, a dog, and maybe kids, but she's got time to decide.
She's big on family and enjoys spending time with all her family members, minus her racist Aunt Maribelle, her mother's younger sister. Her favourite aunt/uncle is her Uncle Patrick, her mother's younger brother, because he he's a journalist, and he inspired her to write.
Her sense of style is rather simplistic and repetitive, usually featuring dark graphic t-shirts, dark blue or black jeans, and her favourite red windbreaker. She likes high rise shoes, and enjoys wearing clunky boots in the colder months. She likes bundling up in the winter, and owns many scarves.
In context of the story, she's newly turned seventeen and in the eleventh grade at Stone River High School, the second largest in Warden's Crossing. She took Chemistry, English, French and Ancient History, with English as her best and Chemistry as her worst. She shares English with Cameron and French with Laura, and has no steady friends in her other two classes.
To sum it up, Maria Landstand is a young black, bisexual Canadian girl who loves to read and write, has a sense of humour, and fights for human rights. She's a girl of action, and will do as much as she can to achieve her goals.
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Like Maria? Catch her in future posts about Warden's Guardians, my new written series. Chapter Schedule is not set, but will be around every two weeks, so keep and eye out. Part 1 should be dropping later this week. Also, if anyone would prefer a visual along with the character descriptions in this series, I can add little avatars I made online, as I'm not artist.