Dawna Velasquez

Dawna Heath was born into the weirdest little family unit ever. Her mother, Brenna, had been in a relationship with both her childhood best friend, Analessa (who had a boyfriend named Danny) for nearly eight months when she got the news that she'd gotten a scholarship to attend college in New York City. It took her no time at all to decide to go, but though Lessa agreed, Danny wanted nothing to do with New York. Both girls begged and pleaded with him, but he gave them both his blessing to go on without him. The girls left, and a few months later, Bren went back to Saint Louis to ask Danny one more time, since both she and Lessa missed him (for completely different reasons). During the trip, Bren and Danny finally hooked up. Though Bren went back to NYC still sans Danny, she was carrying a piece of him along with her. Of course, she didn't know that at the time.

A month later, Bren realized she was pregnant, and a long series of events led to Lessa leaving her life, Danny moving to NYC, and a lot of new relationships all around. Danny met Fallon, made her seduction stew, and the two of them fell head over heels in love. Lessa met... well, everyone, and started screwing her way around town. And Bren met Antonia, who was also pregnant. The two of them shared coffee, and sob stories about their pregnancies, and then a bed.

Antonia had her son, Collin, and then, just a month later, came Dawna.

Dawna Antoinette Heath was named to honor both her father, and her mother's girlfriend. It was a strange situation. But that was okay, because strange and wonderful situations happen all around us. Situations like two brand new babies that both cry and frustrate their mothers, who in turn frustrate each other, and then break up only to realize they make better friends anyway. Situations like a two month old baby girl whose daddy whispered amazing things into her ear about how she was going to be a big sister. Situations like a lost woman finding her way back home and learning how to bake cookies and refer to herself as "Auntie Lessa".

Dawna was not even a year old when her "Irish Twin" sister Ashton was born. The first time Fallon and Bren held them up to each other and Dawna reached out to touch Ash, Ash let out a little happy baby sound and Dawna laughed, and the adults all gave each other a look and immediately coined the term "Double Trouble". Little did they know how right they were, and how they had just set themselves up for a world of fun and frustration. The girls were immediate friends. And both of them discovered very quickly which buttons to push to get exactly what they wanted. Smiles and flirting for Daddy, singing for Fallon, happy little smiles for Brenna, tears for Auntie Lessa, more flirting for Grandpa Tony, precious pouts for Uncle Liam and Auntie Cori (sometimes family friends not having kids makes them almost too easy to manipulate).

When Dawna was two years old, Bren met Antonia's brother Alejandro (Alex), and within six months, Dawna had a step-father and a new way of living. Alex wasn't necessarily cold, but he wasn't overly demonstrative toward his step-daughter, and Dawna had never known an adult in her young life that wasn't madly in love with her. Alex also changed the dynamics in the house in another very fundamental way. He had been raised Catholic his entire life, and he asked that his family be a part of the faith. Brenna agreed, and Dawna began attending Mass whenever she wasn't with Danny and Fallon on the weekends.

At age five, Dawna was enrolled in Catholic school. Though she argued every year to be sent to public school, Alex's influence left her in the hands of the nuns. It wasn't necessarily bad, but she hated that Ash got to go to regular school while she was off in her own little corner of the world, stuck with strict rules and unimaginative classes. It almost physically pained her to know she wasn't getting to do things like creative writing and specialty art courses, since those things seemed to be what everyone who went to real schools seemed to brag about all the time. But she attended school like she was told, and she even did well at it. That is-until she was sixteen.

Collin Velasquez, who had been like a brother to her for a very brief moment in time, grew up as Dawna's cousin instead. Though both of them knew of their mothers' involvement with each other (the story was, after all, well known and talked about at family dinners where Antonia sat with her husband, and Bren sat with Alex, all of them laughing about the way life worked out), it didn't seem to matter so much when they were alone. In fact, nothing but the way they felt for each other did. And they weren't blood related, so it didn't seem to matter much when they crossed the line and started kissing each other. After all, they were both fifteen years old, and Dawna didn't really have much chance to hang out with boys her own age outside of the family... So it wasn't really a surprise that they went from kissing to having sex, either.

What was a surprise was when Dawna wound up missing a period. Frantic, she went to Alex and Antonia's big sister Jordy and explained what was going on. Jordy took her to get a test, and when it came back positive, Dawna shut down. She didn't speak to anyone for an entire weekend, and when she finally called Collin, he shut down too, refusing to speak to her for almost two weeks. Those two weeks were the longest of her entire life, as she had no idea what she was going to do to make things okay between the two of them again. She sat both her mother and Collin's down to tell them she was pregnant, and offered to have an abortion, but Antonia refused to even hear the word. She talked with Collin, and that was the deciding factor. The two would raise their child, and the family would help to support them. The only good that came out of the pregnancy, especially in those first bitter days, was that Dawna was taken from her school and sent immediately to public school, where she would continue her education.

Dawna and Collin were sixteen when their son, Nathaniel James, was born. With a lot of help and support, they both managed to graduate from school a semester early, and they were married the next month. Five months later, their second son, Anthony Michael, was born. Collin started college, and Dawna started her life as a stay-at-home mother to two children. It was a strangely fulfilling life, and when she found herself once again pregnant, she was actually happy about it. There was none of the fear of the first two times. Even better was the ultrasound that told the little family they were having twins. And the best thing of all, the twins were girls. Dawna began getting together things for the babies, decorating the nursery in pinks and white, picking out dresses and bows, and looking forward to the day they would bring their little girls home, completing their family.

At 39 weeks pregnant, Dawna went into labor. They did all of the normal things-taking the boys to their Grandma Bren's, taking a slow walk around the neighborhood, and finally getting in the car and going to the hospital. The nurses strapped the fetal monitor on her and then everything went to hell all at once. The doctor came in and confirmed that there was no heartbeat from either twin, and gave them the horrible news. Dawna gave birth to two perfect little girls, who were both stillborn. Once again, at her worst moment, she turned off her emotions, and some part of her refused to turn back on again.

For over two years, Dawna lived in a haze of pain, unable to come back to herself for any reason, even the things that used to give her joy. She did the most basic things for her still-living children, but couldn't bring herself to do more. It changed the day she met Oliver James, who took one look at her and asked her why she was so sad. It was that one question that made her realize her pain had become so overwhelming that she had stopped functioning. Three days later, she and Oliver began an affair that lasted for one week. Every time they had sex, she cried, and finally she broke it off, but at least she'd proven she could feel something again.

The next two years, she fought herself to stay present, though it was far too easy to slip back into the non-feeling non-functioning part of her life. Surprisingly, she found herself once again pregnant, and though she waited the entire time for something to go wrong, Gemma Inez was born healthy and happy. Dawna felt happy, at last, but the happiness faded into the same dull ache again far too quickly.

And then came the day her father came to her house, and she was curled up on the floor next to Gemma's bed, watching her daughter sleep without looking at her at all. He sat down beside her, pulled her into his lap, and held her. Then he told her she had to get help. When she answered, her voice was almost robotic, and he told her again she had to get help, or he was going to get it for her. She started to cry and buried her face in his chest, something in her breaking into a thousand pieces. And then she begged for his help. He did the best thing he could have, calling Fallon to come get the baby, and as soon as she arrived, taking Dawna to the hospital.

She was in inpatient care for 22 days, and at the end of it all, she walked out with a prescription for an antidepressant, a shorter hair cut, and paperwork to sign for a divorce. She didn't blame Collin, not after her affair with Oliver had come to light, and doubly so after they'd talked about where things had gone wrong. Both of them blamed themselves, but she also blamed him, considering he'd watched her withdraw for four years without ever even seeming to consider helping in any real way. Her anger at him was intense, and all-encompassing, and she knew that it was completely unfair. He deserved better, and she had grown to understand that she would never be that for him.

In the next several years, she relied on her family intensely as she got herself on her feet and began college. By the time Gemma was in school, she was moving into her Master's Program in Educational Psychology with a specialization in School Counseling. Two and a half years later, she got her first job. She was terrified the first few weeks, but she somehow managed it. By the time she had a year's experience in, she finally felt like she'd moved beyond her past, and could finally start to live a life that included strange things like dating and going out for weird things like fun.

Life is mysterious and funny and odd. It took less than a month for Dawna to fall hard for a teacher at the school, Harry, once they'd been on a date or two. And not even a month after that that she realized she was once again late for her period. Shakily, she took a pregnancy test, completely unsurprised when it came back positive. What did surprise her was Harry's response when she told him. He claimed he never wanted children, and that he was merely tolerating the children she already had. Another, he insisted, would be too much to deal with. He pressed for her to have an abortion.

It became quite difficult for her to continue working at the school with Harry, as he grew increasingly angry with her over her refusal to have an abortion. She finally met with the family lawyer, and allowed him to sign off on all rights to his child. He did so happily, and once he had, he seemed to think it was ideal to not speak to her at all. Though she had support from others at the school, she felt it would never be "okay" enough there again, and at the end of the school year, she left. Three months later she gave birth to Melissa Agnes, and saddled the poor thing with the last name Velasquez so she'd match her siblings.

After Melly was old enough to be left, Dawna applied as school counselor at the high school, and was hired soon after. Her life consists of taking care of her farmhouse, raising her kids, and dealing with the problems of high school students. It's oddly peaceful, most of the time.

DAWNA ... and you're never gonna bring me down Basics NAME: Dawna Antoinette Velasquez NICKNAMES: twinkie, trouble (half of double trouble), twinkiebella AGE: 36 DOB: March 15, 1981 HAIR: Blonde EYES: Blue HEIGHT: 5'9" MARITAL STATUS: Divorced SEXUALITY: Heterosexual OCCUPATION: High School Counselor CURRENT RESIDENCE: Tarrytown, NY PARENTS: daniel heath and brenna hyde SIBLINGS: ashton elizabeth CHILDREN: nathaniel (19), anthony (17), katherine (d), marina (d), gemma (12), melissa (3) FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS: auntie lessa, auntie jordy, uncle liam and auntie cori, and about a thousand more Facts • She learned how to do construction so that she could restore her farmhouse. In fact, she even knows how to do some electrical work... even though Anthony often has to remind her to shut off the power first. Ask her why sometime. It's kind of a funny story. ZAP "ACK!" • She still calls her father "Daddy", but her mother is "Mother" or "Bren", depending on her mood. Ash's Momma is "Momma Fall". • She is fluent in Spanish, passable in French, and knows all the curse words in German. She also baby signs with Melissa. • She was excommunicated in absentia just after the divorce. It was the final straw in her finally giving up on Catholicism completely. • She's fairly certain she's given up on relationships. They're simply too much work, and she'd rather focus on her children. • She still emails Ash every day, unless they see each other. Even then, sometimes she'll email her and remind her of funny stuff that happened while they were together. • She has only ever hated three people in her life. She's disliked quite a few more. • Being a mandated reporter can sometimes be the worst thing in the world. Turning in a report has never failed to make her cry, even though she's normally pissed off when she's doing it. Storylines The Player NAME: Kelly AGE: over 30 AIM: superawkwardkelly EXPERIENCE: over 12 years of journal RPing STYLE: Third person, past tense; threading preferred. TIME ZONE: CST PB: Maggie Grace	Something has changed within me... 5'9" tall, blonde hair, brown eyes. Dawna has always been "the pretty one" of her friends (though if you ask her, she finds her sister Ashton far prettier), and she's very comfortable being seen as pretty. Her style tends to be a strange eclectic mix of military jackets, riding boots, and sundresses that can tend to look a touch insane if she takes it too far. She adores heels, but generally wears them only on boots. On the weekends, she's generally in jeans and comfortable tops so it's that much easier for her to work around the house. She rarely wears suits unless she's having a professional meeting, though occasionally she wakes up with the mad desire to put one on, and then she hides out in her office all day so the other faculty won't tease her unmercifully for it.
	Something is not the same Dawna is actually a very loyal person, though if you ask her ex-husband, you likely would get an argument about that. Though her loyalty is a huge part of her personality, it doesn't mean she's flawless in it. For instance, after Katie and Rini were stillborn, she had a very short, very intense affair with a man she met. To this day, she feels guilty about it. She is prone to flights of fancy sometimes, running off to NYC on a whim (hey, her family lives there, she has SOME excuse) or buying a horse just because it sounded like a good idea at the time. Most of the time, she can reason herself out of them-cutting herself down to a weekend in NYC here or there, or just the one horse-and she finds she's much happier when she does that. She spent most of her childhood drifting between her mother's Catholic home and her father's Agnostic one, so when she sought out a faith to call her own, Catholicism stuck. She attended Mass, went to confession, and absolved herself of sins, even though she wasn't sure she truly believed any of it. She still has a lot of the guilt that was ingrained. She used to let it control her, but she has done much in the past few years to push through it as she can. She has a tendency to allow her emotions to shut off when she's overwhelmed. That tends to get easier as time goes on, if she allows it, so she fights a hard battle every day to stay connected to the world around her. This is also a huge part of her battle with depression she has fought since the twins were lost. She has little talent for music or dance, but she uses her talents at reading people to her advantage. She has always been able to walk into a room and know what emotions were the most prevalent, even when the people were hiding it. Her mother used to teasingly call her the divining rod, as it was like watching someone finding water as she stepped near each person until she "read" the feelings coming off of them. That is something she has learned not to do anymore, though she still easily reads the emotions in the air.
	Too late to go back to sleep Dawna Heath was born into the weirdest little family unit ever. Her mother, Brenna, had been in a relationship with both her childhood best friend, Analessa (who had a boyfriend named Danny) for nearly eight months when she got the news that she'd gotten a scholarship to attend college in New York City. It took her no time at all to decide to go, but though Lessa agreed, Danny wanted nothing to do with New York. Both girls begged and pleaded with him, but he gave them both his blessing to go on without him. The girls left, and a few months later, Bren went back to Saint Louis to ask Danny one more time, since both she and Lessa missed him (for completely different reasons). During the trip, Bren and Danny finally hooked up. Though Bren went back to NYC still sans Danny, she was carrying a piece of him along with her. Of course, she didn't know that at the time. A month later, Bren realized she was pregnant, and a long series of events led to Lessa leaving her life, Danny moving to NYC, and a lot of new relationships all around. Danny met Fallon, made her seduction stew, and the two of them fell head over heels in love. Lessa met... well, everyone, and started screwing her way around town. And Bren met Antonia, who was also pregnant. The two of them shared coffee, and sob stories about their pregnancies, and then a bed. Antonia had her son, Collin, and then, just a month later, came Dawna. Dawna Antoinette Heath was named to honor both her father, and her mother's girlfriend. It was a strange situation. But that was okay, because strange and wonderful situations happen all around us. Situations like two brand new babies that both cry and frustrate their mothers, who in turn frustrate each other, and then break up only to realize they make better friends anyway. Situations like a two month old baby girl whose daddy whispered amazing things into her ear about how she was going to be a big sister. Situations like a lost woman finding her way back home and learning how to bake cookies and refer to herself as "Auntie Lessa". Dawna was not even a year old when her "Irish Twin" sister Ashton was born. The first time Fallon and Bren held them up to each other and Dawna reached out to touch Ash, Ash let out a little happy baby sound and Dawna laughed, and the adults all gave each other a look and immediately coined the term "Double Trouble". Little did they know how right they were, and how they had just set themselves up for a world of fun and frustration. The girls were immediate friends. And both of them discovered very quickly which buttons to push to get exactly what they wanted. Smiles and flirting for Daddy, singing for Fallon, happy little smiles for Brenna, tears for Auntie Lessa, more flirting for Grandpa Tony, precious pouts for Uncle Liam and Auntie Cori (sometimes family friends not having kids makes them almost too easy to manipulate). When Dawna was two years old, Bren met Antonia's brother Alejandro (Alex), and within six months, Dawna had a step-father and a new way of living. Alex wasn't necessarily cold, but he wasn't overly demonstrative toward his step-daughter, and Dawna had never known an adult in her young life that wasn't madly in love with her. Alex also changed the dynamics in the house in another very fundamental way. He had been raised Catholic his entire life, and he asked that his family be a part of the faith. Brenna agreed, and Dawna began attending Mass whenever she wasn't with Danny and Fallon on the weekends. At age five, Dawna was enrolled in Catholic school. Though she argued every year to be sent to public school, Alex's influence left her in the hands of the nuns. It wasn't necessarily bad, but she hated that Ash got to go to regular school while she was off in her own little corner of the world, stuck with strict rules and unimaginative classes. It almost physically pained her to know she wasn't getting to do things like creative writing and specialty art courses, since those things seemed to be what everyone who went to real schools seemed to brag about all the time. But she attended school like she was told, and she even did well at it. That is-until she was sixteen. Collin Velasquez, who had been like a brother to her for a very brief moment in time, grew up as Dawna's cousin instead. Though both of them knew of their mothers' involvement with each other (the story was, after all, well known and talked about at family dinners where Antonia sat with her husband, and Bren sat with Alex, all of them laughing about the way life worked out), it didn't seem to matter so much when they were alone. In fact, nothing but the way they felt for each other did. And they weren't blood related, so it didn't seem to matter much when they crossed the line and started kissing each other. After all, they were both fifteen years old, and Dawna didn't really have much chance to hang out with boys her own age outside of the family... So it wasn't really a surprise that they went from kissing to having sex, either. What was a surprise was when Dawna wound up missing a period. Frantic, she went to Alex and Antonia's big sister Jordy and explained what was going on. Jordy took her to get a test, and when it came back positive, Dawna shut down. She didn't speak to anyone for an entire weekend, and when she finally called Collin, he shut down too, refusing to speak to her for almost two weeks. Those two weeks were the longest of her entire life, as she had no idea what she was going to do to make things okay between the two of them again. She sat both her mother and Collin's down to tell them she was pregnant, and offered to have an abortion, but Antonia refused to even hear the word. She talked with Collin, and that was the deciding factor. The two would raise their child, and the family would help to support them. The only good that came out of the pregnancy, especially in those first bitter days, was that Dawna was taken from her school and sent immediately to public school, where she would continue her education. Dawna and Collin were sixteen when their son, Nathaniel James, was born. With a lot of help and support, they both managed to graduate from school a semester early, and they were married the next month. Five months later, their second son, Anthony Michael, was born. Collin started college, and Dawna started her life as a stay-at-home mother to two children. It was a strangely fulfilling life, and when she found herself once again pregnant, she was actually happy about it. There was none of the fear of the first two times. Even better was the ultrasound that told the little family they were having twins. And the best thing of all, the twins were girls. Dawna began getting together things for the babies, decorating the nursery in pinks and white, picking out dresses and bows, and looking forward to the day they would bring their little girls home, completing their family. At 39 weeks pregnant, Dawna went into labor. They did all of the normal things-taking the boys to their Grandma Bren's, taking a slow walk around the neighborhood, and finally getting in the car and going to the hospital. The nurses strapped the fetal monitor on her and then everything went to hell all at once. The doctor came in and confirmed that there was no heartbeat from either twin, and gave them the horrible news. Dawna gave birth to two perfect little girls, who were both stillborn. Once again, at her worst moment, she turned off her emotions, and some part of her refused to turn back on again. For over two years, Dawna lived in a haze of pain, unable to come back to herself for any reason, even the things that used to give her joy. She did the most basic things for her still-living children, but couldn't bring herself to do more. It changed the day she met Oliver James, who took one look at her and asked her why she was so sad. It was that one question that made her realize her pain had become so overwhelming that she had stopped functioning. Three days later, she and Oliver began an affair that lasted for one week. Every time they had sex, she cried, and finally she broke it off, but at least she'd proven she could feel something again. The next two years, she fought herself to stay present, though it was far too easy to slip back into the non-feeling non-functioning part of her life. Surprisingly, she found herself once again pregnant, and though she waited the entire time for something to go wrong, Gemma Inez was born healthy and happy. Dawna felt happy, at last, but the happiness faded into the same dull ache again far too quickly. And then came the day her father came to her house, and she was curled up on the floor next to Gemma's bed, watching her daughter sleep without looking at her at all. He sat down beside her, pulled her into his lap, and held her. Then he told her she had to get help. When she answered, her voice was almost robotic, and he told her again she had to get help, or he was going to get it for her. She started to cry and buried her face in his chest, something in her breaking into a thousand pieces. And then she begged for his help. He did the best thing he could have, calling Fallon to come get the baby, and as soon as she arrived, taking Dawna to the hospital. She was in inpatient care for 22 days, and at the end of it all, she walked out with a prescription for an antidepressant, a shorter hair cut, and paperwork to sign for a divorce. She didn't blame Collin, not after her affair with Oliver had come to light, and doubly so after they'd talked about where things had gone wrong. Both of them blamed themselves, but she also blamed him, considering he'd watched her withdraw for four years without ever even seeming to consider helping in any real way. Her anger at him was intense, and all-encompassing, and she knew that it was completely unfair. He deserved better, and she had grown to understand that she would never be that for him. In the next several years, she relied on her family intensely as she got herself on her feet and began college. By the time Gemma was in school, she was moving into her Master's Program in Educational Psychology with a specialization in School Counseling. Two and a half years later, she got her first job. She was terrified the first few weeks, but she somehow managed it. By the time she had a year's experience in, she finally felt like she'd moved beyond her past, and could finally start to live a life that included strange things like dating and going out for weird things like fun. Life is mysterious and funny and odd. It took less than a month for Dawna to fall hard for a teacher at the school, Harry, once they'd been on a date or two. And not even a month after that that she realized she was once again late for her period. Shakily, she took a pregnancy test, completely unsurprised when it came back positive. What did surprise her was Harry's response when she told him. He claimed he never wanted children, and that he was merely tolerating the children she already had. Another, he insisted, would be too much to deal with. He pressed for her to have an abortion. It became quite difficult for her to continue working at the school with Harry, as he grew increasingly angry with her over her refusal to have an abortion. She finally met with the family lawyer, and allowed him to sign off on all rights to his child. He did so happily, and once he had, he seemed to think it was ideal to not speak to her at all. Though she had support from others at the school, she felt it would never be "okay" enough there again, and at the end of the school year, she left. Three months later she gave birth to Melissa Agnes, and saddled the poor thing with the last name Velasquez so she'd match her siblings. After Melly was old enough to be left, Dawna applied as school counselor at the high school, and was hired soon after. Her life consists of taking care of her farmhouse, raising her kids, and dealing with the problems of high school students. It's oddly peaceful, most of the time.
Layout by Tessisamess