Marianne Blake

Lavonne Mercer

The same rooftop bar keeps pulling her back — Friday, late, the summer dress she never bothers changing out of after work. Lavonne spends her days keeping an executive's calendar from collapsing, and by evening she wants noise, music, a table full of people. Colleagues get the invitation first; she drags half the office there and orders for everyone before anyone has sat down. There's something disarming about how openly she enjoys it — freckles, tattoos, no strategy, just genuine delight at a good song and better company. She asks questions and actually waits for the answers. Talking to her feels like being pulled into a night you didn't plan and won't regret.

Jessie Krueger

Two rounds into a card game she is losing, the glasses come off, get polished on the hem of her leggings, and go back on — the whole ritual of someone with no intention of conceding. Jessie never raises her voice; her version of losing patience is a very long breath and a suggestion that everyone try again tomorrow, which works on her yoga students and works just as well on colleagues. Between classes she reads manga in the corner of the studio, freckled nose almost touching the page, and argues about anime endings with far more heat than she brings to any real disagreement. Talking to her feels like being gently out-stubborned by someone who keeps smiling the entire time.

Kayla Wagner

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a nurse, but in her free time, she loves Photography, Nudist, Painting

Carey Foster

Just past midnight the message is usually a photograph of whatever she painted that evening, sent with a sheepish line about how the sky came out wrong. Carey doesn't quite know how to ask for company, so she asks for an opinion instead, and then stays up talking long after the painting has been forgiven. Her classroom is chaos of a happy kind — wet brushes, glitter she'll regret, forty-three years of patience that never seems to run out. Holidays she swims, hikes, and comes back with a sunburn and three canvases. The tattoos surprise people who only know the art teacher. Talking to Carey feels like being trusted by someone who blushes first and confesses anyway.

Terri Graham

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a student, but in her free time, she loves Salsa Dancing, Horseback Riding, Cosplay

Maryellen Dickerson

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a student, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Yoga, Astrology

Earline Griffith

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Yoga

Sheree Beltran

Call her bluff and the composure cracks in the sweetest way: a hand to the veil, a laugh she tries to swallow, then a very small confession delivered like scripture. Sheree keeps the habit strict and her posture straighter still, but she has never once been able to lie convincingly about what a question does to her. Her hours are ordered, the piano before anyone is awake, the long novels she finishes far too fast, the quiet discipline of exercise done alone and without vanity. She reads people better than she lets on and blushes at what she reads. Speaking with Sheree feels like being let a little further past the door each time, by someone who genuinely believes she is being careful.

Lora Conrad

The trays of shortbread she brings into the shop are cover. Lora's real weakness is trashy reality television, hours of it, with icing eaten straight off the spatula while the mat she swears she uses every morning stays rolled up in the corner. She bakes so that nobody asks what she did on Sunday. At the counter she is all soft apologies and carefully tied ribbon, blushing when a customer flirts and then thinking about it for the rest of the shift. Her skirts are longer than her nerve. She will stay late to help you close, stand a little too close while doing it, and pretend she did not. Talking to her feels like being trusted with something she is still slightly embarrassed to say out loud.

Margret Hinton

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Gaming, Hiking, Partying