Kira Rose

Kira Rose has always been a bit of a handful. In her youth, she would draw on the walls, climb on the counters, jump on the couch, and throw tantrums whenever she didn’t get her way. As she got older, she still clung to art and recklessness. She would steal sheets of printer paper from her mother’s office to draw and color on. And although running out of printer paper so fast only slightly annoyed her mother, her father scolded her for it every time. Eventually, Kira’s mother surprised her with a brand new sketchbook and a variety of art supplies she could use to experiment with.

When she wasn’t making art, she was off climbing trees as high as she could go. In fact, she liked to get herself into some pretty dangerous situations just for the thrill of it. And it didn’t help that her friends Katrina and Phoenix egged her on and even joined her on her dangerous adventures. Things weren’t any better at school. She would climb on top of the playground and misbehave in class. Despite all this, her mother was still so kind to her. She would of course discipline Kira, but she would also sometimes encourage the unruly behavior. Kira’s father, though, always believed her mother was going too easy on her. He believed that she would grow into a delinquent as a teenager because they didn’t discipline her well enough.

Teen Years

As Kira grew into a teen, she did have some delinquent tendencies. She started off skipping a couple classes in middle school. She’d spend the time skateboarding or goofing off with Katrina and Phoenix. And by the time high school hit, she was skipping classes and tagging abandoned buildings (or otherwise just goofing off) with Katrina and Phoenix almost daily. Her father had grown quite disappointed in her. But he had long since given up on disciplining her; because her mother would always defend her. She figured they should just let Kira live her life, as long as she wasn’t doing anything terribly wrong or illegal. But to Kira’s father, anything that wasn’t logical was wrong.

Outside of skipping school, Kira loved to bake with her mother. They would make all kinds of delicious treats that she’d share with all her friends. And Kira also discovered her favorite form of art; watercolor. She spent some time every morning working on one painting or another - most of them were done with watercolors. Her favorite part was always adding in the extra details with colored pencils or pens at the end. And during the few times she actually went to class, she managed to make friends with Jupiter, and by extension Neptune. They had all been in the same classes since kindergarten, but they never really talked enough to become friends.

Disaster struck during her freshman year. Her mother fatally fell down the stairs: hitting her head in such a way she had no chance of surviving. Unfortunately, Kira was the first to come home that day, and found her mother laying in a pool of her own blood at the foot of the stairs. Kira panicked and dialed 911, but of course it was too late. Ever since then, Kira hasn’t truly been the same. She may have had some small mental issues before, but this plunged her into a dark depressive episode. She lost all motivation to do anything besides lay in bed all day; she barely even moved. Even though her father was struggling to deal with it all, he did his best to take care of Kira and make sure she was at least eating something.

She spent a lot of her days drifting in and out of sleep. Stuck somewhere between bawling her eyes out and never wanting to wake up again. Hoping that maybe this was the dream, and she would wake up to her mother’s cheerful smile. For months she existed like this. She refused to talk to anyone, and if she did get up out of bed, she walked around like a zombie, with a dead look in her eyes.

It took many months for her to start dragging herself out of bed and forcing herself to eat. A part of her finally figured out her mother wouldn’t want her to live the way she was. But she still had that dead look. And that empty feeling inside, that terrible emptiness that never went away and could never be filled. She started attending school regularly, and couldn’t find it in her to skip classes anymore. All four of her friends were happy to see her back, but were very worried about her. Katrina and Phoenix even stopped skipping school for a while so they could be there for Kira.

As time went on, it became easier for Kira to force smiles and laughter. She started becoming her old self again. But she was missing a large part of herself; her mother. And nothing could replace her, nothing could fill that empty void in her heart. All she could do was try to pretend it wasn’t there, try to pretend the hurt was gone, stuff away all the emptiness into the deepest parts of her heart so maybe she could know what it feels like to be happy again.

Present Day

Now Kira is back to doing crazy things with Phoenix and Katrina, and sometimes Jupiter and Neptune even join in. She ends up hanging out with the four of them almost every day and it’s almost easy to feel ok. But every day she comes home and sees that staircase, it sends a pang of pain through her chest. And some days she really struggles to navigate the rocky relationship she has with her father.

She’s picked up gardening as a new hobby and has researched a lot into herbology. Since she wants to be an artist for a career, she decided she should find a new hobby and that seemed like the best choice. All she really wants is to live a happy life, one that her mother would be proud of.