Character Post ~ Natalie Ross

Natalie's likeness is based on that of singer/actress Alexz Johnson.

Natalie, a character from my "Hitchhiker" story, is a little bit of me, and a little bit of who I want to be.
I actually feel it's important to give our heroes/heroines a little bit of our personality and/or traits so that we can relate to them.  It's easier to write about someone we can relate to.

Natalie's father Adrian was a soldier in the US Army, and her mother, Ingrid, had a job at the grocery store.  Her family was never rich, but they could live reasonably comfortably most of the time.  Whenever Adrian was shipped overseas, Ingrid's true side came out: she was not the loving wife and mother that she pretended to be when Adrian was around.  She wasn't abusive, but neglectful and uncaring, hiring a babysitter to look after Nat while she went out to gamble and drink with friends.
When Adrian was reported killed in action, Ingrid felt she was free.  She dropped Natalie off at her aunt Becca's house and never came back.  Nat wasn't quite as sorry as she supposed she should be; at least Aunt Becca was rich and mostly left her to herself.  However, this attitude only came after weeks of misery.
Nat grew up pretty much alone; she didn't bother to try to make friends at school, and though there were a few people who called themselves her 'friends', Natalie, when she was older, soon figured out that they only wanted privileges from the rich aunt.  
One fateful day, when she was seventeen, Nat was driving home from the grocery store when she did exactly what the sign outside the city jail told her not to: she picked up a hitchhiker.  She'd been distracted; afraid she was lost because of a detour; then the kindness of her heart wouldn't allow her to leave the rather bedraggled looking young man to the sweltering heat of July.  Perhaps at certain moments of her life after that, she would regret having done this.  But...I'm not giving any spoilers.  Except that the young man was Cameron, who you'll remember, if you read my first post, is the very good friend of Natalie's supposedly dead father. 

  Nat's a little naive, like me, but she wouldn't have believed Cameron that her life was in danger if, the very next day,  two ruffians hadn't happened to put her car in a ditch and try to kidnap her.  It was then, when Cameron (who she hadn't expected to ever see again) saved her, that she wondered if her life of dullness would become an adventure...but did she want that adventure?  Living in The Safe House, with all the soldier boys, wasn't exactly her idea of exciting.  Thankfully Cameron provided her with her own bedroom...and her own bathroom.

Nat is thoughtful and kind, despite what the people around her have taught her to be.  She loved her father with all her heart and when Cameron told her there was hope of him being alive, she would have done anything to save him - even go to The Safe House and allow them to train her into a soldier.

  A tendency for optimism is always a wonderful thing, and the more terrible things the world piles on top of Natalie, the more she strives to find happiness or at least the strength to keep going.  She's brave (one of the qualities that I DO NOT possess!) and can be a little impulsive.  Not to mention the fact that she can get sassy, a trait that she tries not to show, but around so many boys it kind of jumps out. 

My writing account on Pinterest, Weaver of Worlds, has a board dedicated to Natalie.  

Thanks for reading! What do you think?  Tomorrow I'll post a blurb! :)
-Ashley