HICKS, francesca

[FRANKIE HICKS]

FRANCESCA LOUISE HICKS

nineteen, female, fledgling

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TWO PM ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE HICKS HOUSEHOLD

Frankie sighed, completely exasperated. Despite all of her complaints, excuses, and constant moaning, her mother was still making her go through with this, no matter how much she disliked divulging her life to a complete stranger. Not to mention that she was missing vital hours of sleep just to be here. But, her mother had insisted, saying that it was ‘treat’ and she should have been honoured. Frankie’s mother was an author, and a damn good one at that, and one of her friends was an author also, although she was far less successful, and she was currently plotting for a new novel which she planned to be her big break and seeing her potential, Dacey - Frankie’s mother – had offered to assist. The main character in the book was in fact, a fledgling, which is where Frankie came in. The idea was to base the main character on Frankie herself and it had in fact been her own mother’s idea. The idea of being the basis of a character was sort of exciting yet, quite bizarre and she could not decide whether she was happy about it or not. Nonetheless, it appeared she didn’t have a choice any more as the door bell rang and Dacey sprung to her feet instantly to go and welcome in her friend.

Frankie pulled her legs up onto her chair, like a protective wall, hugging them to her chest. It was a nervous habit that she had developed at such a young age that she couldn’t seem to shake it nowadays. She heard the faint sounds of laughing and speech that grew gradually louder as Dacey re-entered the room but this time with a petite woman in tow. Peering over her knee’s Frankie began evaluating the woman; first appearances were everything to Frankie and she was very harsh and judgemental in them. She was a tiny woman, with long glossy, dark hair and a thick full fringe that covered her eyebrows. Her face was dotted with freckles, and she didn’t appear to be wearing any heavy make-up, going for alight natural look. She reminded Frankie of a fragile china doll, as she was also dressed in a pastel pink dress, pale grey cardigan, and matching grey heels. Overall, she appeared perfect, and there was an air about her that simply radiated perfection and she looked like the type who would be overly proud of such a thing. Compared to her own grungey casual attire, and her mother’s typical boho white maxi dress, this woman did look terribly overdressed.

“Frankie, this is Hannah Ward, Hannah, this is my daughter Francesca Hicks, more commonly known as Frankie.” Dacey introduced the two, interrupting Frankie’s inspection of Hannah. Dropping her knees down, she swung her legs to the floor again, sitting up properly. “Nice to meet you.” She said politely, her British accent shining through, as it always did when she spoke correctly. Her usual speech was a strange muddle of British accent and an Okie one, which was indeed an odd combination, plus with her overuse of British slang terms it often throws people off, leaving them confused as to where exactly she comes from. When she was at her politest and most formal though, Frankie is British through and through as her Okie accent seemed to dissipate into nothing. By no means does that mean she sounds posh however, she is constantly stalked by the posh ‘tea and biscuits’ stereotype that most have of English people and to put it frankly, it pisses her off.

After Hannah merely smiled nervously in reply to Frankie’s greeting, Dacey stepped in before an awkward silence ensued, “Right, well, Frankie knows what’s going on. Don’t be afraid to ask her anything and everything! She doesn’t bite. So, I’ll give you two some privacy, I need to go and cook the Sunday roast anyway.” Dacey nudged Hannah forwards slightly before she swept from the room in her usual over dramatic nature. Frankie’s mind wandered off, back to Britain in fact, Sunday roasts were a tradition there and when they had moved to Oklahoma her mother had stuck with it as it had turned into Frankie’s personal favourite meal. Distracted by her thoughts, Frankie didn’t see Hannah take a seat on the sofa opposite her and when she finally snapped back to reality she was shocked to see that Hannah was sitting, notepad out and pen in hand, already prepared to interview her. Damn, this lady’s seriously prepared she thought, suddenly realising that she was under prepared. Frankie had no idea what questions she would be asked, and what the hell was she going to answer? She began feeling rather uneasy, fidgeting in her seat, praying that Hannah’s questions would be simple.

“I was thinking that we could start with just a bit of background history, it usually helps to get a feel of how you turned out to be who you are today, if that makes sense. Don’t worry though; I’m obviously going to change a lot of this. I’m sort of just looking for the fundamentals so that I can work off of that.” She spoke rather sheepishly but, there was an underlying seriousness to her tone now. She was taking this very sincerely. “Perhaps we could start with your birth?” she prompted.
“Sure, uhm, here goes.” Hannah readied her pen to take notes on what Frankie was saying, the whole situation was very unusual. Although, it was very like her mother to put Frankie in a situation like this, she was pretty peculiar at the best of times

“I was born in Cambridge - England, not Massachusetts – to Dacey and Russell Hicks. My mum was twenty six when I was born, and my dad was twenty nine which was quite young I suppose. My parents had actually met here in Tulsa only two years before; my dad was here on a holiday staying with friends who were also friends with my mum and the two were introduced at a barbeque and sort of... hit it off. They became so infatuated with each other that my dad cancelled his flight and stayed another four weeks and during those weeks he managed to persuade my mum to move from Oklahoma all the way to England with him. She had dreamed of being an author but, she hadn’t made a break yet and she wasn’t in a steady job so she agreed. Dad was a writer himself, but, a different type. He wrote reviews mainly on hotels and boutique bed and breakfasts around the whole of the UK. He was highly paid so; my mum wasn’t in a rush to find a new job in England and instead she focused on her writing which helped a lot as dad would often be gone for days at a time.” Frankie paused to think for a moment, listening to the constant scratch of Hannah’s pen on paper. “After about, a year, mum got a deal and had the first book in her series published and it did really well – as you know – then she continued writing the second book and in that time she became pregnant with me. I was eventually born on the twenty fifth of July 1991 making me now nineteen. Nothing too eventful happened in my childhood, other than my mum becoming slightly famous –“she chuckled slightly, her mother was rather well known by name but no one ever recognised her which was quite nice “but, everything changed when I was ten. My dad got a promotion - one of hell of a promotion - instead of just reviewing hotels in the UK he was now going global thanks to his popularity. It was insane, in the good way. My mum was thrilled, you know what she’s like, and she got over excited because my dad was allowed to bring his family with him. That did present a problem in my education though, they didn’t want to pull me out of school and my dad was going to decline the job until his company introduced us to Antonia Delrio who was a teacher but, a specialised one who worked with children at home or in my case, she became my personal teacher as we travelled the world together. She was quite young and she became my idol, she was tall, beautiful and had the most amazing Spanish accent – did I mention she was from Spain? - and she taught me in everything from math to geography which was her specialist subject, especially about cultures. Everywhere we went she would teach me about how the locals lived, about what they ate, how they danced, their religion, their celebrations, she knew so much about everything.

My mum continued to write, and we did still have the house in England of course and we returned home often which gave her better opportunities to do business instead of having to keep e-mailing her work back to her editor in England. When I was fourteen, my parents told me I was going to have a little brother and I was thrilled, I’d felt like the spoilt only child for too long and I had always wanted a baby brother. After my little brother, Mackenzie, was born though, my mum got really stressed, and she and my dad argued a lot. My mum wanted to settle down somewhere but, my dad wasn’t willing to give up his job. So, eventually they split up and after all the legal stuff me and Mac moved back to Tulsa with mum. It’s weird; I have a British accent whereas my mum and little brother have Okie accents.” Realizing that she had been talking nonstop for nearly ten minutes, Frankie was shocked at how much she was actually telling this woman. “Wow. Sorry, apparently I talk too much.”
“No, this is brilliant! Please, keep going. Fourteen seems a painful age to find out your parents were getting a divorce, how did you cope with that?” Hannah gave her yet another prompt.
“Oh, they were never actually married. They didn’t really see the need, I mean come on, could you see my mum playing the blushing bride? They were never the marriage type.” Hannah laughed at Frankie’s comment; she seemed a lot more comfortable with the situation now.
“I must admit, your mom does not seem like the sort of woman who would enjoy being someone’s wife. I can imagine she would have been known as his partner, and his equal?” Hannah’s statement somehow managed to develop into a question.
“Yes, they were always equal. My mum is a bit of a feminist after all. Anyway, I should probably answer your question. Yes, it was a painful age because I understood it more but, I was pretty tough, and I knew I would miss my dad a lot but, he’s stayed friends with my mum and they don’t resent each other at all and he comes and stays with us whenever he can actually. Which is pretty cool.”
“Ah I see. Anyway, after you settled in Tulsa you must have been marked really soon afterwards, because you get marked at sixteen, right?” Hannah asked, as she seemed to be appraising her notes.
“I was sixteen when we got here, because I remember Mac turning two in August of that year. I was due to join Broken Arrow high school after the summer holidays were over but, this happened.” She pointed up towards her crescent mark on her forehead. “I was marked right in the middle of grocery shopping, I turned round the corner pushing the trolley like I always do and then the tracker was standing there looking half dead. I’d heard of the tracker obviously, and I felt my stomach flip in excitement thinking that I would witness something that most people don’t get to. Quite a few people had noticed him then and the tension was building, it didn’t help in the slightest that it was incredibly busy at the store that day, and then the tracker pointed at me and spoke the traditional ‘you’ve been marked’ speech.”
“You’ve been marked speech?” Hannah asked, perplexed.
“You’ve never heard it? Well, a lot of people get it mixed up anyway. It goes,

’Francesca Hicks!
Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth.
Night calls to thee; harken to her sweet voice,
Your destiny awaits you at the house of night.’

But, the name obviously changes for each different person. Your forehead then sets on fire, and you end up with a killer migraine and you have your crescent mark plus, you start coughing, a lot seeing as fledglings aren’t supposed to be away from vampyres as they begin to reject the change.”
“Wait, you’re not around a vampyre at the moment and you look perfectly healthy.” Hannah remarked
“Yes, I’m fine, don’t panic. That only happens after an extended period of time not many people know that though because they think we don’t ever leave the house of night. You don’t see many fledglings wandering around Tulsa do you?”
“Well, no, I assumed that was because fledglings had to be around vampyres at all times. Hang on, am I missing something?” Hannah truly was confused now, she never saw fledglings outside of the house of night, and she just thought they weren’t permitted to leave because of the risk of rejecting the change. Frankie reached forward, to the small coffee table that sat in-between the sofa and the armchair that she was sitting in, and picked up her hand bag that was sitting on top of it. Rummaging in it, she found what she was looking for and pulled out a small compact, opening it and showing Hannah the inside.

“Make-up?” Hannah arched her eyebrows, beginning to catch on. Looking into the small mirror that the compact also held Frankie dabbed some of the skin coloured make up onto her mark, making it disappear instantly.
“It’s the most incredible make-up ever. I look like just another human now. Fledglings aren’t allowed to leave the house of night without it on. But, seeing as I was only driving here I didn’t see the point so, I just left.” She shrugged her shoulders dropping the make-up back into her bag.
“Well, that makes a lot more sense more.” Hannah giggled lightly, adding further to her doll like appearance “So, back on topic, you’re a sixth form, which is your last year, how have your previous years been?” she inquired.
“They’ve been fun, I’m so glad I was marked. But, it’s damn hard work though. You have to keep in shape, they are such health maniacs and they hate you falling behind on your work. I’m getting straight A’s though thanks to them pushing me so hard though. The worst part has to be the ... deaths.” Frankie struggled to speak the word; her past three years were tinged with death from fledglings rejecting the change. “Quite a few fledglings never make it through the change, and we’re expected to brush off their deaths with ease but, I don’t know why I can’t. Every time one of my friends died it was as if I carried a little piece of them on with me. I’m usually quite tough and unbothered by such things but, death is the one and only thing that really gets to me.” By the end of her sentence Frankie was practically whispering and staring off into space, not willing to meet Hannah’s gaze after speaking of such a personal topic.

Sensing that Frankie had no more to say, Hannah briskly moved on “I think I have all I need there. How about talking about the real you, your personality, hobbies, things like that. How about starting with some favourite things, likes movies, books?”
“Well, I’m a complete sucker for a good film, especially thrillers; I adore The Silence of The Lambs, no matter how sick that makes me sound. My favourite film has to be The Dark Knight though; I mean Heath Ledgers performance as the joker was so unbelievable. Oh, I can’t forget about The Big Lebowski as well, you’ll find that I have a shirt saying ‘The Dude Abides’. The Coen brothers are completely mad, but they sure as hell make a good film. When it comes to books, my favourites would be The tales of the Otori trilogy, by Lian Hearn, mainly because I have an obsession with ancient cultures, and the books are based on ancient Japanese culture but, with the twist of a bit of fantasy being involved. I should probably mention my mum’s books as well, they’re pretty good. I like Phillip Pullman as well, he’s an incredible story teller. Also, I love music, but I’m not really sure how I would describe the music I listen to, I suppose it’s indie rock, or just rock, I honestly have no idea but, anyway a few of my favourites would be Muse, Biffy Clyro, Florence and the Machine, One Republic, Mumford and Sons, Regina Spektor, Local Natives, Fouls people like that. Hmm, what else? Well, my favourite meal has to be a classic Sunday roast, my favourite colour is red, and I’m a Ps3 girl, I can’t stand any of that Xbox shit - excuse my language – and my favourite game so far is Assassins Creed two, and you know I’m dying for the third one to come out. Yeah, I’m a bit of a geek sometimes and I am definitely not a typical girl I guess. Don’t get me wrong though, I love clothes and shopping just as much as any woman should it’s just that my style varies very much from the typical ‘it’ girls at the house of night.”
“Well, how would you describe your style?” Hannah interrupted. Looking down at her typical outfit of ripped, tight, jeans, oversized tee, sandals, and not to forget her straw fedora hat, she wondered how she would describe her style.
“I’m thinking it’s like grunge meeting surfer...I’m either wearing a casual dress or jeans most of the time and they go rather well with my ‘wild child’ hair as my mum says. My obsession though, is with oversized shirts that can be worn as dresses, they’re versatile and stylish. I don’t tend to wear much make-up, I prefer a natural look plus, my facial features don’t tend to look too nice if I cake loads of make-up on. If I had to choose someone as my style icon, I would say Mary-Kate Olsen, she mixes glamour with a grungy sort of style and she looks amazing most of the time.” She laughed slightly to herself, at her lame attempt at describing her appearance.
“I see, well, it works for you.” Hannah smiled sweetly, and Frankie had to wonder if her compliment was genuine, looking at Hannah’s pristine appearance it didn’t look as if she would have accepted anything other than immaculately coordinated outfits. Frankie had to dismiss the thought, she was too judgmental. “Right, back to you. Do you have any quirky likes and dislikes perhaps?”
“Well, I really like wine -” she decided to leave out the part about it being mixed with blood “ever since I was marked really, as for fledglings it’s near impossible to actually get drunk. I also love the smell of cooking food, no matter what it is, and speaking of smells I like the smell that the ground has after it’s been raining heavily. I like big open spaces and I hate it when someone insists on filling their home with useless knick knacks that just gather dust, what is the point? I strongly dislike coffee and tea or any hot drink really. I’m a smoothie or a glass of milk sort of chick. I also like people who have a sense of responsibility, or independence seeing as I simply cannot be around someone who is going to whine about everything twenty four seven and then need someone to help them with every aspect of their lives. One thing I adore is travelling, probably because it’s what I’ve done most of my life and I like local cultures of course. My biggest pet peeve though is losing things, especially when you knew where it was not five minutes ago and then it somehow disappears and you spend the following hours searching for it again.”

Once finished, Frankie watched Hannah taking her final notes before she looked up again prepared with another question. “What would you say your main hobbies are?” she asked
“Firstly, surfing, when we were travelling we visited quite a few awesome beaches, and when I was little I was given one of those cute beginner lessons and I fell in love with it then and even since I’ve taken more lessons, gotten better and I don’t want to sound big headed but I’m incredible now. Secondly, playing the piano, mum could play and she taught me and it’s just stuck with me I guess, I’m an okay singer too so I do occasionally write my own songs but, it’s more for my enjoyment than actually performing it.” Hannah continued to write across her notepad, completely concentrated and Frankie now awaited her next question.
“This is probably going to be a bit of an awkward question, but, what would you say your flaws are?” she asked, throwing Frankie off slightly, it was not the sort of question she had been expecting.
“It’s alright. Uh, I would say that I’m too quick to judge people, and I’m so stubborn that even if they prove to be someone better than what I thought I find it hard to admit that and move on. I find it really hard to show weakness as well, and that makes me look like... well, a cold hearted bitch some of the time when I’m sort of just trying to protect myself. I’m also the jealous type, as much as past boyfriends hate that, but what’s even worse is that I like to get even so to speak so, if I saw him flirting with someone outrageously you would definitely see me hitting on some guy right in front of him the next day. I can be pretty intolerant too, ‘cause I have a set of morals or rights and wrongs in my mind. Plus, I can be confrontational, I’m not the sort of person who has a problem with someone and just lets it slip by, I like to have everyone aware of my thoughts and I have one hell of a short temper which doesn’t help in the slightest. Wow, I sound horrible.” She laughed; listing your own flaws is quite a weird experience.
“No, don’t worry, everyone has flaws, it’s just when you don’t speak about the good parts about yourself that it sounds worse than it actually is.” Hannah giggled along with Frankie, “So, what are you good personality traits?”
“I’m loyal, I’d stick up for anyone I cared about in a heartbeat and I wouldn’t mind getting hurt myself for them. I’m self-reliant too, which is good, I don’t like being looked after it fits in with my anti-weakness problem and I’ve got a good sense of stability in my life much unlike my erratic mother, and I’d like to think that people can rely on my opinions and things like that, knowing that I won’t be changing my mind in a few moments. I am decisive as well, I don’t like to hang about thinking about an answer, I like to see the solution and get to it straight away although, this could be a bit of a flaw as well if I jump into things too quickly. “Frankie felt herself growing more confident now as she listed off all of the good things that made her who she was.
“Just off of the top of your head, do you think you could list three of your strengths and three weaknesses?”Hannah continued on with her questions.
“I guess I’m hardworking, I never leave something unfinished and if I start something I’m sure as hell seeing it through to the end. Uh, I’m honest – although, perhaps a bit too honest – and I don’t particularly like lying, even if I am damn good at it. Finally, I would say that I have a good sense of humour, which doesn’t really sound like a strength yet I consider it one as plenty of people can’t take a joke and I can seeing as I do dish out the harsh jokes so it’s only right that I take them back as well. As for weaknesses, I don’t really like to forgive people and I tend to hold grudges quite often. I can also be very uncooperative and difficult to work with if I’m forced into a situation where I feel weak or totally uncomfortable and lastly, I have a tendency to react to certain situations violently, which just never ends well and it causes so much trouble but, with my short temper it kind of feels good to give someone a quick punch. That rarely happens, what is more common for me is that I break something or create a huge mess which I then have to tidy later because I have a strong dislike for disorganisation.”

“Right, this is going to be my final question, I promise. What are your dreams, and fears?” Hannah didn’t even look up from her notepad this time, she seemed to engulfed in her work.
“I would love to have a job that would involve me travelling, what that job will be I’m still unsure of but, I’m working on it. And, I dream of having a family, my own family, even if I’m way to young to even be thinking about that right now. As for fears, I have two huge ones firstly, I’m terrified that I might reject the change, especially now that I’m in sixth form I feel that I’ve been lulled into a false sense of security because I’m so close to the end but I could still drop dead at any moment really. Then there’s my weird fear of rejection. It’s hard for me to open up completely to someone and show them my real self and to be rejected after that is so painful...”
“I have everything I need now! I can’t thank you enough, Frankie.” Hannah exclaimed after she had finished writing her final notes.
“It was no bother. It was actually pretty fun really thinking about myself. Plus, my mum would have probably beaten me with a stick if I’d refused to do this. But, seriously it was no problem.” Frankie insisted. At that moment, Dacey poked her head into the room.
“Frankie, lunch is ready, are you two nearly finished? You’re welcome to stay for lunch as well Hannah, if you’d like?”
“Perfect timing, we were just finished. And, that would be lovely thanks.” Hannah beamed as she stood to follow Dacey through to the dining room. Getting slowly to her feet, Frankie trailed on behind the two, now chattering, women.
“You know, this isn’t lunch –“ she murmured
“I suppose it is quite a late lunch.” Dacey interrupted
“No, this is breakfast. Nocturnal, remember?”

(CORRECT)

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TASHA

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[MAKE IT WORK ALLIE ❤]

congratulations, your character has been accepted. ummmmmmm, so yea. i'm like speechless here. this was brilliant and fantastic and made of epic win. i love how you get into her character, with the interview, and how you described the way she talked. so yea, you're accepted and amazing and all that fun stuff. oh and not to forget, here is $25 to get you going.