Character Development - Shaylan Lagace

Shaylan Reid Lagace | Twenty-Five

It's My Life

Shaylan was the oldest child of Jon and Danielle Lagace. When she was three, Shay's little sister was born. Everything was great. Jon traveled for work every now and then, but every time he came home, he would bring his girls each a little something from where he'd been. For Shay, he always brought a tee-shirt that was too big for her; for her sister, a teddy bear; and for her mother, a necklace. Compared to some of her classmates, Shaylan had the perfect family. They were happy, they loved each other, no one was sick or dying or anything like that. Everything was just normal, and Shaylan would always take that for granted, never really realizing how great her family life had been. When Shaylan turned twenty-two, she got a phone call from her mother. It was her birthday-- it was supposed to be happy. Her father was in the hospital. He had had a heart attack. Shaylan's world was flipped on its head. She began to panic, wondering what she would do if her father didn't make it. She was at the hospital in five minutes, sitting at her father's bedside. For the first time since she was five, she prayed. Prayed that her father would recover, that he would live a long and healthy life. There were tears streaming from her eyes the day her father walked out of the hospital.

One of the Boys

Shaylan has been a tomboy from the start. She was never too interested in Barbie or tea parties or anything like that. She preferred running around outside and pretending to sword fight with sticks. As she got older, things started to change a bit, though. She found herself at least caring whether or not she showered and looked nice and all that, but she still held onto her old self. Shay loved sci-fi, Star Wars being one of her all-time favorite things. Not to mention video games, comic books, and other "nerdy" things that a lot of the other girls never seemed to be into. Or maybe they simply weren't as open and willing to admit it as Shay was. Whatever the case, she found herself getting along much better with guys than with girls at least eighty-five percent of the time. There were exceptions, of course, but not many. With few female friends, Shaylan latched onto guys, making herself one of their group, letting them be her best friends. Besides, so long as they all got along, who cared if her best friends were guys or girls? Shaylan liked hanging out with the guys, liked being the one to tell them they were idiots, liked laughing at their lame jokes and making her own. Telling them that jumping off the roof onto the trampoline in the neighbors backyard was a bad idea made her feel special, needed. She was the voice of reason-- even if she sometimes got out-talked and joined them in their stupid ideas.

Everybody Talks

Always hanging out with guys had the occasional downside. It wasn't really a problem until sometime in the eighth grade. That was when kids got curious and started asking if Shaylan was dating all of the guys she tended to hang out with. She denied it again and again, but with little to show for it. The fact that it bothered her wasn't something she would openly admit to. In fact, she only ever told her mother about it once when she'd had a particularly awful day. Sure, every now and again she would cry about it-- she did have feelings, after all, but she would get over it by getting a few headshots in Halo. The fact that it bothered her was one of the few things she never told her friends. They didn't need to know that it bothered her so much. The truth was, she'd never been like the other kids around her. She had never really found herself attracted to anyone. They were just...people. She never knew what having a crush on someone was like, not yet, anyways.

We Are Young

She was dead. Shaylan was, to say the least, shocked. Sure, she knew the stories and had seen the news before, but it had never been someone she had actually known before. Well, it had been, but not like this. This was a girl she had been friends with-- one of the few. The whole thing had really shaken her up. Despite never being the closest to her little sister, that night, Shaylan hurried home and hugged her, thankful that it wasn't her sister that had been found dead in the swamps.

This is a Suitable Valedictory

High School was over. It was time to decide where she was headed in life. Shaylan had no idea what she wanted to do. She considered the life of a starving artist, but she didn't much like the sound of "starving." She considered becoming a teacher. Maybe a high school English teacher where she could teach all about Star Wars and its transmedia presence. Or maybe kindergarten because the kids would be so dang cute. Then she had the idea that she should open her own pastry shop. That was before she realized that baking was way too much work. Video games seemed like a pretty awesome life path, but she wasn't really sure she wanted to leave the area, and the local college didn't offer much in the way of game design classes. Then it struck her-- be one of those mystery shoppers. But that was probably the worst idea she had ever had. So she decided to take classes at the local college as a liberal arts student. Four years later, she had BA in Liberal Arts. In the mean time, she had gotten a job at Penny's Pet and Supply Shop. Over the years, she went from being a simple cashier to the store manager. It wasn't necessarily the best job in the world, but it wasn't the worst, either. Besides, she could always go back to school if she found something she wanted to do more than manage a pet store.