Post by ELENI CHRISANTHI VRETTOS on May 15, 2013 7:31:15 GMT -8
| [atrb=style,width: 420px; background-color: efefef; background-image: url(http://i.imgur.com/6jh1H.png); padding: 5px, bTable] ELENI C. VRETTOS 27 | HETEROSEXUAL | CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER | LOCAL | LILY ALDRIDGE “I AM STILL SO NAÏVE; I KNOW PRETTY MUCH WHAT I LIKE AND DISLIKE; BUT PLEASE DON’T ASK ME WHO I AM. A PASSIONATE, FRAGMENTARY GIRL, MAYBE?” PERSONALITY PERSONALITY PERSONALITY PERSONALITY PERSONALITY PERSONALITY It would be easy to take one look at Leni and dismiss her as a complete and total bitch. You wouldn’t be far off in making this assumption – the woman certainly isn’t a saint – but she has come a long way from the complete nightmare she used to be. If you’d known Eleni Vrettos in high school, you would have known a selfish, stuck up bully. She was beautiful and rich, clever and an expert manipulator, the darling of every teacher, the envy of every other girl in the student body and the wet dream of every boy she swanned past in the hallway each morning. At least that was how she saw herself, and to be fair to her, it wasn’t far from the truth. Leni has always had it all. The complete package of beauty, brains and brawn – but for a lot of her life, she certainly missed out on that all important fourth ‘b’: benevolence. Thankfully, she’s grown up a lot since high school. Leni is still a well-rounded individual. She is still beautiful and rich and clever. She will always be just a touch entitled and a little conceited, but on the whole she’s improved. Leni is an ambitious girl who expects and often receives the best. She learnt the hard way sometime towards the end of her undergrad years that the things she wanted apparently weren’t going to continue falling into her lap indefinitely, and that she might have to actually start working for them. So she’s a hard worker, dedicated and devoted to every task she puts her mind to. A perfectionist who will accept nothing but the best from herself and from everyone around her, she can sometimes come across as manic and cruel when things aren’t going her way, but at least she judges herself with the same harshness as she does everybody else. It’s so difficult to live up to her standards that even she doesn’t manage to do that half the time. Leni is a fairly intelligent woman. She’s very accomplished – she graduated fourth in her class from Harvard law, is licensed to practice law in most of New England, is fluent in three different languages in addition to her mother tongue, and has a rather useless but certainly impressive gift when it comes to memorising basically everything she’s ever read. This intellectual competency, a cutting wit, her demanding work ethic and the kind of entitled attitude that only really comes from growing up exceptionally wealthy all combine to make her a rather intimidating figure. She doesn’t suffer fools and won’t hesitate when it comes to knocking someone’s ego down a few pegs, no matter who they are. She’s fearless that way. Headstrong isn’t a strong enough word for Leni – she will not take any shit, she will not let other people make her decisions for her, and she won’t back down from a challenge. She’s almost frighteningly intuitive and knows when she’s being bullshitted, so most of the time it’s not worth even trying to lie to her. Some people make the mistake of walking on egg shells around her so as not to set her off, but that won’t help. If there is one thing Leni hates more than being challenged, it’s not being challenged. She’s fickle and demanding, wants everything at once, and bounces back between one mutually exclusive thing and the next in such a restless way you have to wonder for her sanity sometimes. One thing is certain, and that’s that you can’t ignore Leni. She has a large, forceful personality and tends to dominate any room she walks into – but she isn’t brash. Leni isn’t loud or crude, doesn’t draw the eye with elaborate gestures or raised voices. She is, by all accounts, utterly charming. The epitome of superficial class in most social situations. She has a good sense of control over her wilder emotions and knows when it is and is not appropriate to unleash her confrontational side. To the outside world, Eleni Christanthi Vrettos comes across as a classy, put together, level headed young woman with the whole world as her oyster. It’s only if you persist in peeling back this glossy veneer that you might get a glimpse of the tangled jumble of manic perfectionism and occasional, well-guarded spot of tender vulnerability that’s underneath. “I THOUGHT HOW STRANGE IT HAD NEVER OCCURRED TO ME BEFORE THAT I WAS ONLY PURELY HAPPY UNTIL I WAS NINE YEARS OLD.” CHILDHOOD CHILDHOOD CHILDHOOD CHILDHOOD CHILDHOOD CHILDHOOD CHILDHOOD Eleni Chrisanthi Vrettos was born on a blustery September morning twenty seven years ago. Her mother and father had only been in America for a grand total of just under six weeks, having moved from Athens to Brunswick for the sake of one of her wealthy father’s business ventures. Dimitri Vrettos had no problem adjusting – he was an accomplished businessman, used to dealing with Americans, familiar with the fast-paced industry of the Western world. Hera Vrettos was less comfortable in their new life – she was a poor girl from a very small island who’d been uncomfortable enough in moving to mainland Greece, let alone a whole other country. The woman spoke only garbled English she’d picked up here and there from listening to tourists back home, or eavesdropping on her husband’s conversations with foreign investors. When she went into labour that unusually windy day in September 1985, it took her so long to be able to communicate with the hospital staff that by the time her husband could be notified and had the opportunity to drive back from his Portland office, Leni had already been born. Her father has spent her whole life guiltily atoning for the accidental mistake of missing her birth by spoiling her absolutely rotten. For this reason and a few others – like the fact that her family was filthy rich and her parents endlessly devoted to her – Leni grew up a very happy child. But all good things come to an end. Although Leni’s parents were united in their love for their daughter, that was about the only thing on which they could agree. Dimitri could often be cruel to the submissive and permanently out-of-place Hera, who seemed to sink further and further inside herself every time he viciously demeaned her. Dimitri was a successful man and – though Leni wouldn’t learn this until much, much later in life – had fringe connections with the Irish mafia. He moved in high circles, and he felt that his awkward wife with her disinterest in appearances and her stilted English, held him back from advancing even further up the social ranks. Leni didn’t often see this side of him when she was a child. She only saw the adoring, affectionate side of him. Whenever she was in the room, he would light up, sweep her up his arms and call her his lígo póno (little pain). How could she ever associate that with an abusive asshole? It’s only with a mature adult perspective that Leni remembers the way her mother slunk from room to room and all the careful attempts to cover bruises. Hera finally packed her bags and left when Leni was nine years old. She had the gall to attempt to take Leni with her, to which her father responded by wiping the floor with her in a swift but awful custody battle, and then getting her immediately deported back to Greece. Leni still talks with her mother on the phone and via email, but she hasn’t seen her face to face in eighteen years. With her mother out of the picture, her father was free to pursue a wife who’d be more appropriate to his social standing. When Leni was eleven years old, Dimitri gifted her with a stepmother – a twenty one year old heiress called Julianna. Leni hated her. Despised her. The woman was vapid and shallow. Clueless and pointless in every way. Every time Leni watched her totter from room to room in her stupid designer heels or lounge out by the pool with next to nothing on, she wanted to hurt something. Her mother – she had been a woman of substance; a gentle, intelligent woman who Leni felt she really could have aspired to be like when she grew up. Julianna was a vapid bimbo, and Leni despised her for it. She was, however, apparently everything her father required in a mate, and it quickly became law that Leni was not allowed to badmouth her in his presence, or he would get very sharp with her indeed. Once, twelve years old, Leni voiced the opinion that Julianna was a waste of silicone and hairspray, and her father responded by slapping her. It was the only time he ever hit her – both of them were shocked by it. He immediately apologised and spent the next several months lavishing her with gifts and affection, but it took Leni a very long time to forgive him. Sometimes she still wonders if she ever actually managed to do so. “LIFE HAS BEEN SOME COMBINATION OF FAIRY TALE COINCIDENCE AND JOIE DE VIVRE AND SHOCKS OF BEAUTY TOGETHER WITH SOME HURTFUL SELF-QUESTIONING.” ADULTHOOD ADULTHOOD ADULTHOOD ADULTHOOD ADULTHOOD ADULTHOOD ADULTHOOD By the time Leni got to high school, her familial frustrations had made her cold. Her Greek blood, however, had made her hot. Mediterranean women blossom very fast, and by the time she was twelve, she had breasts and hips and curves to rival her stepmother. At fourteen, as a freshman, she’d grown used to them. While the other girls still fussed around with stuffing their training bras or seemed awkwardly surprised by their changing bodies, Leni was body confident. The cold inside, hot outside combination was a bad one. She ruled high school, there was no question of that. By the time she waltzed out of those high school doors as a senior, she had a glowing career of accomplishment under her belt: prom queen, student body president, debate club president, 4.0 GPA, a brief stint as a cheerleader… But she wasn’t a good Queen Bee. She didn’t rule with any great magnanimity. She didn’t reign over the student body with any grace or kindness. No, Leni was a selfish bitch who took what she wanted and put others down to make herself look and feel better. The absolute worst kind of bully. The stereotypical girl villain in every high school movie ever made, except she graduated without ever being dethroned and learning her lesson. College wasn’t much different. At least at first. She attended Cornell as an undergraduate and quickly fell back into her old bad high school habits of trying to crawl to the top of the social heap to make herself feel worth something. She joined a sorority, but after being a big fish in a small pond for four years, being the little fish in the great wide ocean didn’t suit her. She didn’t like being the insignificant little freshman, didn’t like being hazed and picked apart in the same way that she’d spent all of high school doing to others. The taste of her own medicine was exceptionally bitter, and definitely helped her to grow up a little. As did a handful of other things. An incident with her high school sweetheart Mike and another boy, and a life-altering medical diagnosis helped Leni to mature even further. By the time she was an upperclassmen, she was beginning to mellow out of her old bitchiness and interact with the world in a much healthier way. An improved attitude and her natural brightness and ambition lead to her being accepted to Harvard Law. Graduate school was even more taxing, and the hard work she suddenly had to put in definitely helped to wring out the worst traces of ‘cruel, ungrateful bitch’ from her system. She graduated fourth in her class – naturally, she was devastated that she wasn’t first – and passed the bar in the state of Massachusetts. She continued to live there for six months, working for a small legal firm, until she’d passed the bar in Maine as well, then moved back to Brunswick. She managed to land a position with a large criminal defence firm in Portland. She has an apartment in the city for when she’s too done in to commute home to Brunswick, but otherwise lives quite contentedly – for the most part – with her fiancé Mike. “KISS ME, AND YOU WILL SEE HOW IMPORTANT I AM.” THE AFFAIR THE AFFAIR THE AFFAIR THE AFFAIR THE AFFAIR THE AFFAIR THE AFFAIR A closer look back at the incident in Leni’s sophomore year of college – or the affair, as it should really be called. She’d been dating Mike since the beginning of her senior year of high school. Casually at first. They saw other people, but it was always clear they were head over heels for each other and anyone else they fooled around with was only in an attempt to make the other jealous. By the time they went away to college, they’d agreed to be exclusive with each other, but living in different states was hard. Leni was as alluring as ever and attracted multiple men throughout her college years, but she dismissed them all with a roll of her eyes. She was in love, and could not be tempted to stray by just anyone. But Adam… well, he wasn’t just anyone. She started a relationship with him over the spring break of her sophomore year. It lasted a grand total of about four months before Mike found out, and responded to this news by beating her lover so bad he put him in the hospital. This was the first time Leni took responsibility for her own actions. She immediately broke things off with Adam, and though she was unhappy with what Mike had done, went back to him. She hadn’t realised until now the dramatic effect her actions could have on other people – she’d just drifted through life, looking out for herself and nothing more. She hadn’t realised how much she meant to Mike. Now she did. And when she found out that Mike had been cheating on her simultaneously, her rage was truly impressed to behold. She might not have put the other woman in the hospital, but with enough money, connections and brain cells, it isn’t hard to ruin somebody’s life. The stupid girl paid for it, and Mike and Leni brushed their respective indiscretions under the rug and moved on. “I HAVE THE CHOICE OF BEING CONSTANTLY ACTIVE AND HAPPY OR INTROSPECTIVELY PASSIVE AND SAD. OR I CAN GO MAD RICHOCHETING IN BETWEEN.” THE DISORDER THE DISORDER THE DISORDER THE DISORDER THE DISORDER THE DISORDER And now to Leni’s secret. As her psychiatrist recently suggested, it may well have been the stress of the Mike and Adam incident that triggered it: early into her Junior year of college, she began to have episodes. Mood swings that were more than mood swings – highs that were euphoric, and lows that were so bad she would stay in bed for days, weeks at a time. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the tender age of twenty one, and for six years has been dealing with it with varying degrees of success. She controls the symptoms of her disorder with a cocktail of lithium and antipsychotics and with regular therapy. Often she’s stable or fairly close to it, but when she’s having a manic episode it’s often fairly easy to tell. Likewise, when she’s on a low, she will retreat to her bed and refuse to get up for long periods of time. Very few people in her life know about this, and she tends to attribute her noticeable low spells to ‘chronic migraines’ because it’s too much effort having to convince people of the difference between having a mental illness and being ‘crazy’. “HERE I AM, A BUNDLE OF PAST RECOLLECTIONS AND FUTURE DREAMS, KNOTTED UP IN A REASONABLY ATTRACTIVE BUNDLE OF FLESH. I REMEMBER WHAT THIS FLESH HAS GONE THROUGH; I DREAM OF WHAT IT MAY GO THROUGH.” FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE At the moment, Leni’s life revolves entirely around planning her upcoming wedding. The stress is particularly taxing considering her disorder, so it’s exceptionally lucky that Leni is wealthy enough to afford a wedding planner to do all the hard work for her. She’s taken a month’s leave of absence from work to get everything done in time for the ceremony, but as soon as the wedding’s done and out of the way, her main focus will no doubt return to her job. Leni became a lawyer because it seemed like a good way of attracting prestige, recognition and approval, but quickly realised that she absolutely adored arguing in public, and so that a career in law was the perfect thing for her. She intends to make partner in her firm before thirty five, and what with her being so single-minded, this is all she’s currently thinking about aiming towards. “YOU STOP IN SHOCK AT THE WORDS YOU UTTER – THEY ARE SO RUSTY, SO UGLY, SO MEANINGLESS AND FEEBLE FROM BEING KEPT IN THE SMALL CRAMPED DARK INSIDE YOU SO LONG.” PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH PLATH Eleni was introduced to the works of Sylvia Plath by an English major friend in her Junior year of college. She immediately fell in love, perhaps because the poetry so closely mirrored her own just beginning struggle with mental illness. Half a decade letter she’s devoured every word Plath ever wrote and holds them close, especially so during her low spells. She frames and explains the more painful parts of her life with Plath, and that is why all the headings in this app are quotes from The Bell Jar. BEHIND THE MASK PUN | 20 | GMT | I LOOKED DEEP INSIDE MYSELF AND FOUND YOU THERE | HAHA ugh, this app. i stopped caring halfway through. you may be able to tell. anyway, the important thing is that leni finally lives! yay! XD  |
