Sebastian Torres

Personality
A sulky, cynical teenage skateboarder trying to mind his own business and get by without trouble. He doesn't want to get involved in drama that doesn't personally involve him, which means staying away from people as much as possible. He doesn’t actually hate them, just… tolerates them to a certain degree.

If given a chance, Seb can be a very loyal friend, willing to push aside his own feelings and stand by his friend’s side—unless something makes him otherwise. Regaining his trust is not an easy task. He has a sort of harsh black-and-white view of the world that makes it a challenge for him to forgive right away. He may be a bit too serious for his age, or for his own good.

Background
Sebastian was born in Trinidad and grew up in New Jersey. He has an average family, with a mom, a real estate broker, and dad, a piano player/instructor. He had an older brother named Ernie, who was a child prodigy in piano that earned local fame for winning contests at a young age. At age 10, Sebastian began seeing his brother less after Ernie lost a regional contest. Their dad made piano practice stricter and barely gave him enough free time. He started playing basketball to keep himself busy. A week after his 13th birthday, Sebastian lost his brother to suicide. It seemed very unexpected. Ernie had tried to pretend everything was okay, but he was often bullied at school, betrayed by his own friends, and the stress from grades and piano competition became too much for him to handle.

A year after his brother’s death, Sebastian confronted a few of Ernie’s known bullies at a winter carnival. Soon, it became a physical altercation that nearly killed him and put him in a coma for one week. He spent the next several months recovering from that incident; he quit basketball to focus on physical therapy and his friends began to drift away from him. His parents forced him to go to therapy, but he was stubborn to talk to a complete stranger.

Seb started skateboarding more as his own form of mental therapy. It didn’t stop him from frequently getting into fights at school, skate parks, and almost anywhere, but he wasn’t deliberately looking for trouble. Being a recent loner, Seb was being harassed more, and he wouldn’t allow disrespectful jerks to push him around. It gave him an excuse to let out his growing repressed anger that he’s had since his brother’s death.

After a loud argument between him and his dad that didn’t end well, his parents, with the help of his grandfather, decided to transfer him to Silver Oak Academy just after spring break. This is Sebastian’s second year and he still hasn’t made personal connections with anyone, but at least he’s getting into less fights, keeping his head low—though, there was that one time when he slapped someone with a frying pan. You know, for self-defense. Recently, he has considered joining the boy’s basketball team, but is still hesitant about it after what happened at his last school.

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