Name: Virginia Anne to her mother, Virginia if you're fresh
Item: Decadent slice of red velvet cake
Names of parents: Jean and Henry
Personality: Virginia is much like the cake her parents gave her at adoption; she looks sweeter than she necessarily is, rich and vivacious with the kind of eyes and flavor that draw people right to her. She's a little flashy to draw people's interest, but it's more than her looks that keep people coming back for more. The taste of her personality, the icing of her laugh, and the hints of Dutch cocoa in her eyes make it hard to escape her. Too much of any cake can make you sick; Virginia does not set out to be an attention seeker and a manipulator, but she enjoys the attention when it comes and is unwilling to give up what she already has. The red hair hides her temper, and her chin piercing accentuates the dimples that appear both when she smiles and when she pouts.
Sample:
Virginia shielded her eyes from the sun's glare as she reached blindly to take the straw sunbonnet from her mama. Her father had pulled the creaky truck to a stop shortly outside the Meta Academy, saying to let Virginia get a look at her new home, but really to let her mother compose herself. Since the day of adoption, Virginia and her parents had lived several hundred miles from the academy, in the old south, and Mama was having trouble dealing with her baby girl leaving.
"Awe, mama, you don't need to cry at all. I'm going to write to you and Dad all the time. Nothing's changing, I'm just a bit farther away than upstairs and to the left, is all."
"It's not the same, and besides, it's not decent, boys and girls living all under one roof like that."
The teenager accepted the bonnet from her mother, placing it on top of her braids. Her father was still leaning against the truck, a dog-end firmly in the left corner of his mouth and both hands in his jeans. It had been her father who sided with her when she said she wanted to move into the academy's dorms; not only that she needed friends of her own age, rare in their town, but friends who could understand her.
"I won't be rooming with no boys, right, Dad? It's all clean and decent. And it will be good for me, really. And you can spend more time with Granny and Pop, you know they need your care, Mama."
The dog end shifted to the right of her father's mouth as her mother completely broke down.
"I'm just going to miss my precious angel so much," she sobbed. "What are they going to feed you? Who's going to take care of your hair and brush it? Who'll keep me company and help me make biscuits on Sunday morning? Are you really sure you want to stay here, Virginia Anne?"
"I am, really. And I'll use your biscuit recipe to let everyone else know I have the best Mama a girl could ask for."
Virginia allowed herself to be enveloped in one of her mother's crushing hugs; unlike her father, who was tall and thick and gritty, her mother was all soft and round. Much like her biscuits, now that Virginia thought on it, although the biscuits were less likely to smother you.
"C'mon, Mama, it's time to get back in the car. You and Dad want to make sure I get settled tonight, right? And then maybe we can go see a film in the town before you head back home?"
"Anything for you, Virginia Anne."
Her dad crushed the sparks of the dog end out in the dirt, and opened the door of the truck for his wife and daughter. Jean climbed in, dabbing her eyes with her hankie. Virginia started climbing in the truck, dropping the hat on the floor as she did so.
She took one more look at the academy as her father reved the engine, and smiled
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