Character Development

 I don't know if I can put the text into a readmore, so I'll just... leave this like this.....

Backstory:

Andrea Flowers is a 73-years-old widowed lady who lives alone in an apartment in the big city.  She keeps pots of peace lilies, snake plants, aloe veras, and other low-maintenance plants in her cozy apartment because the greenery comforts her, it’s good for the environment, and they don’t die so easily.  She goes through a routine of waking up at 6 AM, brushing her teeth, preparing and consuming tea and breakfast while watching her favorite morning shows, watering her plants, taking a walk out to the park, going grocery shopping, going home, napping, cleaning, watching her favorite afternoon shows, eating dinner, writing, napping, showering, trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle (which is 1/5ths done after several months of trying), and sleeping at 8 PM.  She has more or less been following this routine ever since her retirement at age 65 from her job at the pharmaceutical company.

Andrea likes to be prepared whenever she leaves the house; she likes to carry at least a first-aid kit, a small baggy of grapes, a piece of bread, keys, an old cell phone, a note pad and a pencil, a water bottle, a glasses case, tissues, and a Swiss army knife in her purse.  Due to her frail nature and the weight of her purse, she takes frequent breaks while she’s out and about.  She rarely ever turns around to return home before she finishes her walk because she likes to stick to routine.

Her home life when she was child was peaceful, living with a family of her parents, her brother, and her.  She looked up to her older brother Dyllan (who was older than her by five years) and wanted to be tough and strong like him, so she often imitated him as a child, by acting tough, up till her middle school years.   It didn’t work so well because she was physically weak and had low stamina.  She was a literary girl who still tried to act tough, but was putting up a front emotionally by holding back her tears.  Then in high school, she went through a rebellious phase in her teenage years where she rejected everything she was and tried to be a cool, edgy high school student to try to fit in.  Upon graduating high school and entering college, Andrea realized that it was silly to try to act a certain way to be accepted and spent the next few years finding who she really was.  She found out that it was ok to cry and be weak.  Her love for botany and for the environment started in college and changed her major from general education to horticulture.

She met her soon-to-be-husband Marko Flowers at the pharmaceutical company in her late 20s and didn’t connect with him immediately.  She had just transferred to his department in HR and found his behavior to be cold, so she kept her interactions with him sparse.  However, as she got to know him through shared coffee breaks and conversing with each other, she found that the both of them had many things in common.  Then after dating for a couple years, they got engaged and moved in together.  They lived happily together, more or less, until he died of sickness at age 64 (Andrea was 68 years old at the time).

Attributes:

·         Environmentally conscious

·         Optimistic

·         Physically weak

·         Considerate

·         Caring

·         Persistent

·         Low endurance

·         Boring (in conversation)

·         Motivated

·         Follows routine

·         Prepared

·         Tidy

·         Tired

·         Loving

·         Panicky

·         Clumsy

·         Prone to failure

·         Cries easily

·         Slow

·         Solitary

Toll Booth:

                Andrea hadn’t driven in years.  She hadn’t driven in years and knew that she shouldn’t be driving, due to her age, but she figured she would drive to her brother’s house for once instead of having him come to her, breaking routine.  Even though she was usually prepared, she found herself without money at an automated tollbooth.  She then tried to find any change in the car and purse in a hurry.  A car honked at her, so she started to panic and started messing up the organization in the car.  Some more cars started to honk a cacophonous melody, which started making her cry and panic even more.  Then, she looked through her wallet again and found some cash.  The rush and panic from before made her disorganize her purse and wallet, obscuring the money she had securely hid in her wallet.  Andrea calmed down and slipped what she had into the automated machine, raising its bar to let her drive through.