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Player nickname: Awbrey
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Current Characters: --

Character: Claire Bennet
Fandom: Heroes
Character Notes:
History: (( her canon point is season 3, episode 18, 'exposed' ))

The Heroes universe itself is, essentially, modern day Earth. At its core, that is all it is. However, evolution has begun to take a different turn here. There are people who are born with genetic alterations that give them a special power; in the Heroes universe, this is called having an ability. (It's similar {{ READ: BASICALLY IDENTICAL }} to X-Men in the way powers manifest, though there is more relation to the moon and lunar cycles involved as well. ) There are also a few cases where a formula was developed to inject and alter a person's DNA to give them abilities medically. There are people who want to support those with abilities, those who want to end them, and the in-betweens – those who seek to study them, use them for their advantage, etc.

Now that you've got the basic backdrop for the universe itself, let's have some magical fun explaining Claire's personal history. If the history… isn't serious enough, I'll rewrite it but I WAS TOLD BEING NON-SERIOUS TL;DR IN HISTORY SECTIONS IS GENERALLY OKAY. SO UH. HERE GOES.

➲ Born an illegitimate child to Nathan Petrelli and Meredith Gordon. Nathan didn't want anything to do with it.
➲ At 18 months, Claire and Meredith were in a fire. Meredith thought Claire died in this fire.
➲ Claire was picked up by The Company (under the name of Primatech) and handed off to Noah Bennet for safekeeping until her ability presented itself, at which point the plans were to train her up to be a Company girl.
➲ Noah and his wife Sandra became attached to the child and adopted her, never handing her over to the company.
➲ Normal life. Noah & Sandra adopted Claire's little brother Lyle, she grew up in the suburbs.
➲ At the age of about fifteen/sixteen (her exact age is seriously a question-raiser in canon), she got into a tussle with her friend Jackie over a cheerleading uniform and she injured her hand on some glass. She got stitches at the hospital but within days her hand had healed completely.
➲ She was curious and asked a boy named Zach to film her experimenting with this new ability. She attempted suicide several different times, failing each attempt, as well as walking through fire and not getting burned.
➲ Claire dies many times and comes back. Or attempts to die.
➲ Claire self-harms a lot.
➲ It's an experiment but she just keeps self-harming.
➲ A boy named Brody Mitchum, the quarterback, showed interest in Claire after she showed her interest in him, but that quickly derailed when he attempted to force himself on her at a school bonfire. Without intending to, he actually did kill her – by shoving her body and forcing it to land in a way that stabbed a stick into the base of her spinal cord/brain stem.
➲ Claire dies.
➲ She woke up on the autopsy table after the stick was removed and left the coroner thoroughly freaked by putting herself together and leaving.
➲ Attempted to murder Brody by crashing his car purposefully into a building after learning she wasn't the first girl he did this to.
➲ Noah had Renee, the Haitian, remove all of Brody's memories. Every single one. Including his name. He covered up for his daughter.
➲ Hunted down by both the Company and a serial killer stealing powers named Sylar who would effectively become unstoppable with her ability.
➲ Sylar shows up at her school homecoming and tries to kill her.
➲ Claire almost dies.
➲ But she's saved by Peter Petrelli – who she dubs her hero, not knowing that he's actually her biological uncle.
➲ Claire tells her dad all about her abilities (not knowing he's already wise to it) after this horrific happening.
➲ Shit gets extremely real and her dad erases everyone's fucking memories of Claire being a special panda. Claire mad.
➲ The Haitian who her dad's been sicing on all of her friends and family members' memories of her healing shows up and they start becoming friends; he agrees to not erase Claire's memories so long as she keeps her mouth shut.
➲ More shit gets real as she finds out who her birth parents are and meets her mom who is pyrokinetic – and hey now the fire is explained yaaaaay.
➲ People after her dad (who works for the Company that's causing so much trouble for specials like her) show up and she saves her family from Ted the nuclear explosive man.
➲ Again, shit? It's getting pretty real. Peter shows up again and is going to destroy the entire world – which apparently Claire's bio-grandma wants to happen so that her bio-dad can bring the world together for his political campaign (SHADY RIGHT???) – And since he's Claire's hero she wants to save his life but she can't.
➲ Season two begins with Claire and her family essentially going into witness protection from the Company (Primatech).
➲ She's going by Claire Butler as she heads into her junior year of high school, no longer in Odessa, TX, but in Costa Verde, California.
➲ She meets a boy named West at school who can fly like her bio-dad. They start dating.
➲ Meanwhile, the Company people are rude and conniving as usual and are all after Claire and her blood because of this virus that's killing specials.
➲ Claire wants to join the cheerleading squad but Debbie, the captain, is a complete bitchbiscuit about it. So West and Claire cook up something to get her kicked off the squad (she swears she saw a flying man pick up and drop Claire, killing her, and has booze on her breath when the cops show up. And then Claire is fine. And there's no flying man. Best prank ever?)
➲ One day, West sees Noah and freaks out – he was abducted by the man with the horn-rimmed glasses when he was younger. Claire tells him it's her dad and West freaks out again thinking that IT'S A TRAAAAAAAAAAAP.
➲ Life sucks because Noah finds out about Claire's stunt and tells her they have to pick up and move. Claire doesn't want to. B(
➲ On her last day at school (because she loses this battle), a guy named Bob shows up. He calls her Miss Bennet (instead of Miss Butler, her alias) by accident so she runs home.
➲ All the time they've been here Claire's been trying to tell her mom that Noah was still involved with the Company. She sees his computer with images and tells her mom I told you so and that they have to leave and leave NOW
➲ Bob shows up and Sandra remembers him from Noah's old Primatech job. Unfortunately for Sandra, he's not working with a paper company at all. And he takes Claire with him and talks a big spiel about how she's pretty damn important. And then he takes her blood. COOL.
➲ In the meantime Noah kidnaps Bob's daughter Elle and there's a trade of kidnapped daughters at which time Claire witnesses her father being shot in the eye and dying.
➲ Life sucks for Claire as usual.
➲ Claire is the one who scatters Noah's ashes after Bob brings them in an urn. She sees Elle spying on them from a car and threatens her with exposure because the company are monsters, all of them.
➲ Life sucks again when she's plotting to threaten exposure to the company but West shows up and whines about not being exposed so she breaks up with him.
➲ Shit Gets Real XIV : Noah shows up and isn't dead because Claire's blood brought him back to life, COOL. But he tells Claire not to expose the company which pisses her off.
➲ But apparently Shit Gets Real XV comes out really soon after that because Noah's all "hey Claire, I made a deal with the Company, and I'm working for them again and they're gonna stop bugging us. DON'T FUCK IT UP."
➲ Claire's life sucks and she pouts about all of this because it's complete and utter bullshit in her opinion. Yup.
➲ And then Season Three begins with Claire finding out her bio-dad (Nathan) got shot and wanting to go help. But she can't leave because…
➲ SHIT GETS REAL/CLAIRE'S LIFE SUCKS : MLXVI and Sylar shows up at their house, and cuts Claire's head open, examining her brain and stealing her ability.
➲ She asks him if he's going to eat it and he says that's gross but she was right to be scared about a Syzombie, right? I mean, seriously. Serial Killing zombie. No bueno. But he's not.
➲ Sylar tells her she's different than the others – even other specials. That she's special among them. He couldn't kill her even if he wanted to because she'll never die. It's cryptic and stupid and…
➲ CLAIRE'S LIFE SUCKS VOL. 312845624. Because not only has she been extremely violated by this freak but now she knows she can't die. Who wouldn't freak out?
➲ Oh and let's just make that VOL. 312845625, because now Claire can't feel pain! Thanks, Sylar! As if she weren't already suffering enough from feeling like a freak now she feels TOTALLY inhuman! YAY!
➲ So she goes to be a dumbass and stands in front of a moving train to make another video but Peter saves her, says something super cryptic about not helping her find her way, then teleports away. She walks home and finds out from her dad that a bunch of really horrible scary dangerous people with abilities have escaped and Meredith is brought back into the picture. Shit is dangerous for everyone.
➲ Claire trains with her biomommy on how to fight bad guys and insists to Sandra that she wants to help people instead of going back to school. Luckily she is a rebel and also old enough to make the decision for herself whether or not to drop out. Good Job Claire.
➲ But then she tells Meredith that she actually wants to train to hurt Sylar so she stops training her.
➲ She's a class act liar and tells both moms she's going to a slumber party but really she's going after a scary special! He can create black holes – cool huh?Best at life, good job Claire!
➲ She finds out the guy was falsely imprisoned in the first place and he just can't control his ability so she helps him contact his wife, but Noah shows up and ruins everything.
➲ By the way he's working with Sylar which makes Claire want to literally punch everyone in the face. Okay, maybe that's not entirely canon, but it's pretty obvious by her actions – it's extremely upsetting to her.
➲ Claire tells Noah where this guy is meeting his wife but makes him promise not to hurt him because he's innocent. Noah wants proof he's a good guy so he tells the accused criminal to suck Sylar into a black hole and he's off the hook, but since said criminal doesn't want to be a murderer, he opens a black hole and sucks himself in. TRAUMATIZING. Or at least shocking at first, because Claire was trying to help.
➲ More damage to Claire and Noah's relationship happens. This is becoming a theme. Okay, it's been a theme.
➲ A creepery bad special (the ones her dad told her about previously) named Doyle kidnaps Meredith, and then when Sandra and Claire try to help her, he kidnaps them too! He's a puppet master – of people too – and it's all sorts of creepy good fun when Sandra is forced to shoot Claire!
➲ But Claire is a sneaky bitch and when Doyle thinks she's dead she's actually healing and then she gets up and knocks him out. Problem solved. Good job, Claire! This time legitimately.
➲ Noah praises Claire's efforts but she still doesn't trust him right now because he was working with the freak who cut open her head.
➲ Elle is at their house when Claire and Sandra get back and is totally spazzing out because she can't control her ability. Good fun is had. If fun means a scuffle and then being begged by a former foe for help.
➲ So Claire goes with Elle to a place called Pinehearst – which Elle got a card from, with a message that they'd be able to help. Claire is going for selfish reasons – to help her with the whole not pain-feeling thing. This is a good choice, however, because if Claire hadn't been with Elle she would've caused a plane crash with her lack of control over her ability.
➲ Peter falls from the building when they show up and his abilities are gone – he's not healing, but he's not completely injured, either. Elle abandons them both even as Claire gets him to the car. She says sorry for it, though.
➲ Nathan and Tracy show up while Claire is trying to help Peter. Claire tells him (Nathan) about Pinehearst.
➲ Peter is in some real trouble with some of the escaped dangerous specials and Claire wants to save him like he saved her since he doesn't have his powers anymore.
➲ CLAIRE'S LIFE SUCKS/SHIT GETS REAL VOL. 234852639823649561924861: she's captured! Again! YAY!
➲ She finds out after this that Pinehearst is after her - entirely her – for some reason, so she has to get the hell out and away as fast as possible.
➲ There's a formula which can give abilities to people who aren't born with them. Arthur Petrelli (Nathan & Peter's father) and Kaito Nakamura (another member of the original Company generation) hid part of this – and the hidden part is actually in the form of someone's blood.
➲ Claire is pretty much convinced that it's her blood because she's always the center of everything and she knows they want her for something anyway.
➲ Noah is told to protect Claire and is trying to help train her in some basic self defensive fighting when Sylar and Elle show up to take her. Elle tries to shoot Noah but Claire takes the bullet.
➲ This is a problem. The Eclipse has stopped powers from working and Claire can't heal. Noah doesn't want to risk her suddenly healing at the hospital so he takes her home to nurse her.
➲ Unfortunately that doesn't work either because the wound is worse than they thought.
➲ She's taken to the emergency room where Sandra is told that Claire's never been sick so she's never built up an immune system that works against diseases and now has a really horrible infection.
➲ Claire dies again. This time, she doesn't come back. Claire's pronounced dead after many failed attempts at revival. But then the eclipse ends and she revives literally moments later. Sandra takes her home as fast as she can before anybody can notice her amazing and miraculous Lazarus act.
➲ Noah comes home later and talks to Claire and she tells him she died. Now, during the eclipse when powers weren't working, Noah found and killed Sylar – but learning that once the eclipse ended, Claire came back to life, he worries the same thing happened with Sylar.
➲ And guess what? IT DID! Because Sylar and Elle both show up and have Sandra hostage when Claire and Noah come downstairs. After both of her parents lives are threatened very gravely, Claire says she'll go with them.
➲ BUT THEN HIRO NAKAMURA, THE AMAZING TELEPORTING MAN, SHOWS UP AND TELEPORTS SYLAR AND ELLE AWAY AND THEN TAKES CLAIRE…
➲ Back in time. Sixteen years back, in fact, where Claire sees herself being handed from Kaito Nakamura to Noah for the first time. As a baby.
➲ CLAIRE'S LIFE SUCKS: THE RECKONING.
➲ Claire tells Hiro to find her later and follows Noah and herself as baby, meeting past Sandra. She gives an alias and spends time with her tiny baby self and her mom young and her dad young – and she is actually the one who convinces Noah not to surrender the baby to the Company.
➲ After she meets up with Hiro she finds out that he's the catalyst instead of her now – they altered the course of things.
➲ SHIT GETS REAL. Arthur Petrellie shows up and throws Claire to the side before tossing Hiro to fall to his death (which he doesn't actually, he's saved later, but that's after…) Arthur tells Claire to send Angela a message, that he wins, and then he sends her back to the present time/her current era.
➲ Everybody's getting ready to leave but Sylar screws it all up and locks Meredith, Noah, Angela, and herself into the Primatech building. He essentially becomes Jigsaw – he wants to show them that they can call be monsters like him because he's a freaking psychopath.
➲ Meredith dies; Claire loses her biological mother. CLAIRES LIFE SUCKS 3 : THE RETURN OF PAIN AND SADNESS.
➲ Claire's chilling and looking at college stuff when she overhears a conversation between Nathan and Angela talking about taking Peter and Matt down. Angela catches her eavesdropping, and Claire leaves the house as fast as possible.
➲ Claire is a Big Damn Hero and warns Peter about what's going to happen, then goes to warn Matt – but then this asshole named Danko and his team of genocidal special-hunters show up and take Matt and Claire both in and drug them.
➲ Lucky for her (sort of…???), both of her dads are involved in this stupid organization and give her a free pass, but she's determined to stop what's happening and she frees a bunch of the other specials she's met in her life, as well as others she's never met, and hijacks the plane they're being transported to prison camp (let's not even pretend that isn't what it is), causing it to crash.
➲ CLAIRE'S RELATIONSHIP WITH NOAH SUFFERS AGAIN BECAUSE SHE BUSTS INTO THE COCKPIT AND WHO IS COPILOTING BUT NOAH??? LIFE SUCKS FOR CLAIRE!!!!!!
➲ Claire tries to escape with Peter but Nathan shows up and takes Claire, the tries to shoot Peter but since Peter's his brother he can't bring himself to be that much of an asshole.
➲ She is to be sent home but isn't happy about the treatment of her friends and explodes into fury at both of her dads.
➲ So Claire is put in shackles but Daphne is a badass and rescues her. And then there's a little group of escapee fugitives trying to make plans and then suddenly Daphne is shot, which sends Matt into a murderous rage, using his power to make the men turn on each other while everyone else runs away. Claire takes all the rest of the shots for their little group and buys them time and keeps Daphne from being shot anymore.
➲ Danko takes Claire back to camp and threatens her with permadeath via headbullets. Her dads show up and tell Danko off and Noah gets Claire to go home finally and warns her that she'll pretty much be Big Brothered now. Sucks to be Claire.
➲ Sandra has no idea what's going on and thinks that Noah and Claire have been looking at colleges and stuff. Claire takes after her dad and does the lying thing about her actual plans.
➲ Claire starts getting texts about helping other specials from someone called Rebel – telling her not to give up.
➲ She gets another Rebel tip with a name – Alex, at Sam's Comics. She finds Alex and he's mocking her and being rude to her even after she warns him about what's going to happen.
➲ Noah shows up to take Alex in but Claire calls him to distract him and then Alex bashes him over the head and they run. Seriously run. On foot.
➲ Claire tells Noah she can't be controlled. CAN'T BE TAMED FUCK THE POLICE, etc.
➲ They get back to Claire's house (where Alex is now hiding) and she tells Sandra about what happened.
➲ Noah and Sandra separate – he's moving out on Sandra's orders, until he becomes a better person and stops being a horrible liar and all that crap that he does.
➲ After Noah leaves, Claire gives Alex – who is hiding in her abnormally large closet – a sleeping bag.
➲ Sandra catches Claire with Alex in her closet. Sandra wants to help them. They're trying to formulate a plan when the government decides it's time to SEARCH THEIR HOUSE.
➲ Claire's life sucks. Perpetually.
➲ THIS IS WHEN THE DUCKS TAKE OVER AND SHIT GETS REAL ON HER COMPUTER AND PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEP.

Personality: (( note; I use this personality for pretty much every app I write for her. It was ground-up created back on Livejournal.))

If you asked Claire Bennet to describe herself in one sentence, she'd probably look at you like you were out of your mind. It's kind of impossible. She's a very complicated individual with a lot of layers and facets deeper than what she chooses to show on the surface that can be a teensie bit difficult to get her to put on display. That's not to say that she's unlike other teenage girls who sometimes wear their emotions on their sleeves – she can be this way sometimes and she's done it plenty, but she's been through enough that she's recognized both her desire and ability to be a little bit more guarded than she was before she found out she was more than just an ordinary teenage girl.

Possibly the most noticeable surface layer of Claire's character is the fact that she's incredibly social and outgoing. She's spunky and friendly and has a lot of zest. Even with her life taking a three hundred and sixty degree spin on its heel, she still manages to come across as a really sweet person. This has been heightened by the fact that she's gotten in touch with the fact that she can't just be one of the popular kids anymore, because there's an aspect of her that puts her at eye level with the freaks. She doesn't usually treat someone with kindness for the sheer sake of doing so, usually it's laced with some level of self-serving purpose, but sometimes she's just plain old genuine and she can be a really kind girl.

Speaking of self-serving. Claire isn't self-serving to the degree where she's dangerously manipulative, but she is a very egocentric, selfish person. She finds ways to constantly make everything about her, her, her, and she can be bratty, petulant, and… kind of obnoxiously pouty if everything isn't going her way. She's used to being the oldest child and the only daughter, so she's always been daddy's little princess and the one to bond the most with her mom over girly stuff. She's a spotlight hog a lot of the time, even so much so that the baby of the family (Lyle) is overshadowed by her. All life clearly needs to be the Claire show. It's perpetuated by the fact that she winds up being someone special, of course; her ability humbles her to a degree, but it also really opens her eyes to the fact that she is special. She's not just some cheerleader. Her belief that Claire-spotlights must always be focused and present is only amplified by the fact that, apparently, saving her life is the most important key to saving the entire world.

But, her ability does also humble her. She realizes that she can't just be this normal girl anymore. She can't just bake cupcakes and go to pep rallies and run for insert-event-here-queen and chill out. Even without exposure, everything is different. She recognizes the fact that she's kind of a freak. As she grows, she even recognizes the fact that, because of her abilities, she can do things to help people.

Claire struggles with how she feels about people and how she handles trusting them. Noah is her hero, has always been, but after she finds out the truth about what he's been doing, what he's done to her family and friends… And this is the person that she's always trusted most in the world. She can't help the fact that her heart tells her to trust him still, even when her mind has doubts, but it's made her less trusting of people in general. It takes more work to get close to her, and she's more guarded with how open she is with her more vulnerable aspects and emotions. She's also become less honest through trying to keep her own secret, thereby becoming a huge hypocrite

Because of this, Claire has… relationship issues. She has feelings just like any other teenage girl, crushes just like any other teenage girl, but because of the nature of her life and the way things have changed from what she thought was real, it's harder for her to get close to people. This is especially true because of what happened with Brody. Boys aren't really in the forefront of her mind, even if she does notice them (as any hot-blooded teenage girl would). She's had bad experiences with them, and her life isn't simple enough to just giggle and paint nails and go to a drive-in movie anymore. She knows that getting into something involving feelings is dangerous for both herself, and whoever she might date. She also knows that not all boys are decent human beings because of that aforementioned Brody incident, which makes it further difficult for her. That doesn't stop her from feeling like she would be happier if she had a boyfriend, but there's that part of her that also is constantly telling her that she knows better. Her heart wins out over her mind sometimes, just like any other girl, but she does know that it's a risk. Being flirtatious is one thing, but actually getting close is another, and she realizes that.

Claire Bennet is not afraid to tell you what for. If she has a problem, she'll state it – loudly, and blatantly. She's an openly opinionated person, and she doesn't hesitate to let herself be heard. She's also incredibly stubborn. She fights back when she thinks something isn't being done right, and a lot of the time (because of her Magical Claire Bennet Is a Sparkly Unicorn Perfect Princess egocentrism), she simply thinks that anything not going her way is just that: not right. Claire's way or the highway; that goes for beliefs, too. If she thinks something and it's disagreed with, she'll argue herself blue in the face to get the point across that she really thinks the other person is in the wrong. Because of this attitude, and the fact that she's extremely headstrong, she tends to get herself into more trouble than she's already in simply by existing. She runs into things blind because she thinks she's a big tough grown-up superhero and it gets her noticed and puts her in danger, but when people try to warn her of that very thing, she just tells them they need to stop treating her like a child, or reacts even more rebelliously than her initial venture was in the first place.

More important than anything, perhaps, is the fact that Claire wants to find out who she really is. She has a desire to be true to herself, but at this point in her life, she's still in the figuring it out stage. She wants to figure out what part she has to play in life, where her puzzle piece fits in among all the other puzzle pieces; she just wants to know who she is and where she's meant to be. She wants to find her place in the world, where she belongs… It's a struggle for her, especially now that just being "the cheerleader" isn't enough. Just being a peppy girl in a cute uniform can't be all there is to it, now that she knows she's so much more than that.

She really isn't a bad person, just… has an obnoxious personality type. She's headstrong and stubborn and bratty, and she tends to think (not that she's always wrong) that everything comes back to her. But deep down, she is a kind person, with good intentions the majority of the time. She really does want to help people, but she goes about it in wrong ways sometimes. A lot of that can be explained by the fact that, quite simply, she's still just a teenager. She likes to think she's adult and grown-up and mature, but deep down, even with all of the turmoil in her life, she's still very much a young, teenage girl. She has grown a lot in the recent months of her life, dealing with the rapidly changing environment she has to handle, but she's nowhere near as adult as she thinks she is. Still… She wants to do things for the sake of the greater good. She wants to be a hero. She wants to use her ability to help people.

Other:

Claire has an ability. To put it simply, she heals. She has rapid cellular regeneration. She heals instantly from any wound, cannot get sick at all, and the only way to kill her is by beheading her, a bullet straight to the back of her head, or by lodging something into the back of her neck at the base of her skull. At her canon point, she's been cracked open by Sylar; at some point when that was happening, she stopped being able to feel pain, so she has a lack of nerve endings at present, as well.

She's also known for being "the cheerleader". What this really means as far as a skill-set goes is the fact that she's pretty agile and flexible. She's good at a few gymnastic stunts that cheerleading sometimes entails. Everything else is pretty much covered by her history and personality sections!

Additional Links: claire @ heroeswiki

First Person (entry type):

I get it, okay? You guys knew someone like me before. But I'm not the same me you knew. I don't remember anybody. I'm sorry. I don't really have time for this right now. Not the ducks, not the weird recognition by people I've never met, none of it. There's a lot of stuff going on over here and I can't waste a second.

[ There's about a five minute lull before she replies to herself in another block of text, essentially editing but really just tacking it on because editing is for people who are super computer savvy, right? And she is not this. ]

Actually, maybe you can help me with something. I'm looking for a safe place to hide an innocent fugitive. I know, it sounds stupid, but he really is innocent and he's being hunted just for who he is. He can't help it. I could really use some sort of safe location or something – does anybody know of one? Near Costa Verde, California specifically. Easy to access when you're looking for it specifically but hard to find if you're not. This is really, really important. Hurry.

Thanks.

Third Person:( note; this is also a third person sample I wrote for a different app but I was super duper proud of it and I find that it showcases her well! )

Having a new life wasn't anything she'd ever really counted on. Finding out that she had a power, learning who she really was? It was a new life, all on its own. This witness protection thing wasn't the worst way things could have gone, but it wasn't ideal, either. She'd been forced to leave her friends from Odessa (however few remained, anyway), to change her name… It wasn't that she didn't understand why it was necessary. There were just parts of it that were completely unfair. Having to uproot everything just so her dad's mistakes and their problems wouldn't follow them… It screwed up her life, it screwed up her mom's, and Lyle's… Everything was a mess, and not fair. In any fashion.

She dealt with it in the best way she knew how to. She tried to be normal, tried to play it sweet, but all the while, her dad was still lying. Lies, on top of lies, on top of still more lies. Why she was even listening to what he had to say now was beyond her. But she still loved him. He was still her dad. Claire really did believe that he just wanted to keep them safe. She knew that his intentions were good. Or, at least, she thought they were. She had to trust him on that, at the very least. It was a little repressive sometimes, and there were moments when she seriously wished he would take a chill pill. She missed cheerleading and being able to have a normal social life. It sucked having to keep her head down and lay low. She felt even more out of place than she had after her social circle made the drastic shift it did back in Odessa.

Getting the car was a win out of the situation, at least. It felt like a consolation prize, but if they were going to give it to her for her birthday anyway, who was she to complain? It was just a struggle, that's all. She got the idea to just go ahead and do things her way, several times, and she'd gone ahead and joined the cheerleading squad just because she could. Claire was good with getting her father to let her have little indulgences by way of guilt.

Funny, the things a girl could start thinking about in the middle of a Macy's, standing and looking in the mirror at a dress she couldn't afford. It fit her perfectly. The color was everything she wanted it to be. Bright blue. It brought out her eyes, looked great with her hair… The only problem was that it was wildly out of their current budget (or the budget they allowed to be noticed, anyway), and that going to prom meant being at a huge public school function with a bunch of people. Even compared to already being on the squad, that was a little too flashy and out there. That's what her dad told her, anyway. He didn't want her to go to prom. The last time she'd gone to a school dance, someone died. They were kind of in hiding. He didn't want her taking any risks.

She took the dress back off and changed into her normal clothes, reluctant in returning it to the rack. This sucked. Royally. Maybe if she found a way to pay for it on her own, she could sneak off to the dance without her dad knowing. She really, really wanted to go. She'd only have one junior prom in her entire life, and she didn't want to miss it just because the Company was out to get her. The woman at the store asked her if she'd decided on a dress. She felt completely bummed to let the clerk know that she, in fact, didn't know if she could afford it, but she'd come back later; she knew it was a lie. Another lie, just like her last name, just like how quiet her life had to become in order for them to stay out of harm's way. Her dad called it living a life as normal as they could possibly have. Claire didn't think it was normal at all. It was too secretive to be normal.

Besides, who even got to decide what normal was anymore?