Tyler Irvin

[Tyler Irvin]

Tyler Irvin




CHARACTER
Male
15//Freshman
Heterosexual
The Ugly Duckling//The Ugly Duckling



PERSONALITY

• friendly
  
• sweet
  
• smart
  
• trustworthy
  
• hardworking
  

• shy
  
• sensitive
  
• sometimes depressed
  
• doesn't trust other people
  
• vulnerable
  

LOVES

• playing the oboe
  
• video games
  
• the internet
  

• music
  
• rain
  
• eating out
  
• marching band
  
• literature
  
• dogs
  
• working alone
  

HATES

• being teased
  
• sports or anything active
  
• performing in public
  

• too much sun
  
• dirt
  
• group projects
  
• not knowing the answer to something
  
• sports
  
• confrontation or being teased
  

STORY
Tyler was born on March 21, 1994. The first five years of his life were spent in bliss. He had great parents, and always gained the attention of adults through his intelligence. He had two older siblings, one brother and one sister. They gave him a little bit of a rough time, but through TV and the media, he learned that this was exactly what you should expect from older siblings.

Then, Tyler's life changed when he started kindergarten. He was immediately an outcast, from day one when Jilly Rogers wouldn't let him play with her Play-Doh. The other children saw him as unattractive and nerdy, which caused Tyler to become somewhat of an introvert. His parents noticed an immediate change in his personality, and became worried. He brushed them off, telling them it was nothing. That was how he lived the next six years of his life: hiding his true feelings from everyone around him, and silently enduring the torture of cruel elementary scholars.

When Tyler was about to start middle school, his father got a job offer across the country that he couldn't refuse, so his family packed up and moved. Tyler was thrilled; the move would mean a fresh start for him, a chance to start things new with people he didn't know. Unfortunately, the move couldn't have come at a worse time. Tyler was just hitting his awkward adolescent phase. He seemed to shoot up overnight, which made him awkward and clumsy. His face was suddenly covered in acne. His mother reassured him that all those changes ran in the family's genes. Of course, they didn't, but it made Tyler feel better, if anything. His "fresh start" was still a nightmare, though. Even though these were people he'd never met before, they still got to know him pretty quick, and what they saw, they didn't like. The only way Tyler could cope through middle school was because he joined the band. Playing the oboe was the best thing that ever happened to him. Even among the band geeks he wasn't accepted, but he used his music to get a hold of his feelings.

A couple years later, Tyler was ready to start high school. His older brother and sister had attended the public school for their area, and Tyler didn't expect to do anything different. In fact, he was quite excited about joining the school's marching band. He didn't figure that high school would be any different from middle school. Unfortunately, he was very wrong. The upperclassmen of his school quickly picked up on the fact that Tyler was the perfect person to pick on, and they made his life hell. As soon as marching season was over, Tyler begged his parents to let him transfer to a private school -- any private school -- that could get him away from this torture. His parents thought about it for a while, and decided that they could splurge for better schooling than his older siblings got. After all, Tyler put a lot more effort into his schoolwork than his brother and sister ever had. His parents seemed to be under the impression that the whole private school thing was their idea, and Tyler didn't argue. They spent several months looking at brochures, trying to decide where he should register. His mom liked the idea of a nice Catholic school, but Tyler said that he'd rather stay where he was. The family finally decided on Grimm, a boarding school about an hour away from where they lived. Tyler's mom said that the name Grimm was probably a bad omen or something, but his dad pointed out that it was spelled like the Fairy Tale writers, not the gloomy adjective. Tyler was set to transfer there in late March, right around his fifteenth birthday.

Tyler is like the Ugly Duckling because they are both outsiders looking for their place in society. They are both ostracized, mostly for their appearance, and go out in search of where they belong. In the end of The Ugly Duckling, the protagonist makes a miraculous transformation into a swan, and finds a family of his own species: where he belongs. All the ones who were mean to him suddenly have respect for the ugly duckling, and admit their wrongdoings. All in all, the ugly duckling's story ends pretty well. Will Tyler get the same happy ending?


PLAYER
Emily
None so far
About 1 1/2 years

((PS: I made Tyler play the oboe because, if played badly, it can sound somewhat like waterfowl. What do you think? ))

[Hannah Twigg]

accepted

You are finally finished! Thanks for joining, Emily.