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[11 Aug 2008|04:41pm] |
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[11 Aug 2008|04:27pm] |
uno Born on October 16, 1983, Caroline Teegarden was the youngest of four children. At the age of five her mother was deemed unfit by the state and four Michaels children were taken away and separated. Caroline has tried to contact both her biological mother and siblings a few times after her eighteenth birthday, but nothing more than a short phone call has ever come of it.
due She would bounce from foster home to foster home until her mid-teens. While she refuses to go into detail about those ten years of her life, she jokingly refers to the period as her grand tour of Maryland.
tre It was also during those ten years that Caroline began to close herself off to the world. At first it was simple things like hiding under the slide during recess, but eventually she would spend days where she did not utter a word to a single soul. By the time she was ten she no longer saw the point in forming any sort of bond with someone since the relationship would only be temporary.
quattro While she only meant to deny being more or less a ward of the state, Caroline began concocting elaborate stories about her past. Some of them bordered on ridiculous, others where far too complicated to keep straight, but all did their job in keeping people from asking any more questions. It is a technique she still uses to this day and is positive that no two people who know her have heard the same story.
cinque One of the few tidbits she does share is how she loved listening to jazz records growing up. What she doesn't share is the records served as her only real escape from everything around her. Late at night when she should have been in bed fast asleep, John Lewis and Miles Davis would save her from the mundane and take her to a place where everything was okay and filled her soul with purpose and hope.
sei Because of those records, Caroline learned to play the piano. Of course, it lucked out that one of the families she lived with had a white baby grand in the middle of their living room. It had been nothing more than a showpiece when she arrived, but by her third week in the house, she had talked the family into paying for lessons in exchange for basic household chores and yard work. Despite only living with the family for about a year, she picked up enough of the basics to teach herself what she hadn't learned.
sette At the age of fifteen Caroline was finally adopted by the Teegarden family. The entire thing came as a surprise to her since she was almost certain that the day she would finally have a family to call her own would never come. There were some bumps in the road as her biological mother refused to sign over full rights despite having been in and out of Caroline's life for its entirety, but finally on December 12, 1998 Caroline moved in with a house full of people she barely knew for the final time in her life.
otto Among other changes in her life, the biggest one in Caroline's mind was that she had become the eldest of six children almost overnight. It was something that she could not wrap her head around nor knew how to handle. She has never been able to bring herself to refer to the younger Teegarden children as her siblings. Sure, she would put her life on the line for any one of them, but the bond she has with each of them leaves her feeling as if there was something missing from them.
nove She had the typical high school experience most people look back on and complain about. Outside of the small circle of friends she kept, she was seen as just another one of the weirdos that roamed the halls. Caroline did not mind people drawing that conclusion in part because she understood why they thought that. Constant lying aside, she was always doing her damn best to never be noticed. Up until her final year, there were rumors about her ranging from her being in a cult to her being a witness to murder.
dieci The fall after she graduated she attended Georgia Tech for a degree in Computational Media. It was during her time there when she met Morgan. For the first time in her life Caroline felt she had met someone to share her soul with. Every time she was around Morgan she got the same feeling of hope that Miles Davis gave her as a child. In less than three months of meting the girl, Caroline life had become completely devoted to the idea of making their relationship work. What else was expected when they were somehow able to bring out the best in one another? Still, after almost three years of dating, Morgan left her giving no reason other than the two would never make it in the real wold.
undici The second her bachelors was in her hands, Caroline left Georgia in an effort to get away from her failed relationship. The plan was to drive across the southern coast until she got close enough to any highway that would allow her to make a sharp right turn toward Vegas. Once in Vegas she hoped to finally shed her past and begin a new life as a fiery blackjack dealer with a heart of gold. She would never get that far; her old Cadillac broke down just outside of the Reno city limits.
duedici Caroline lasted a total of five months in Reno before relocating one last time to San Deigo. For the first few months in San Diego, Caroline spent her time working odd jobs around town to make a living, but after coming up short every time rent day came around she decided to search for a steady job. She tried waitressing for a while but after months of temp work, she could not stand the idea of her livelihood, and her apartment, resting solely on tips. After endless hours of skimming through trade magazines, she found something in the last place she thought she would.
tredici Since the start of the 2008 season Caroline has been working with the Padres and their minor league affiliate's promotional department. The hours are more than she could ever want and the benefits are mediocre at best, but when she considers the alternatives, working for a baseball team's front office sure beats putting up with drunken frat boys at four in the morning.
quattordici On most nights Caroline can be found turning back to her old ways. Every time she contemplates leaving her job and everyone she’s met because of it she remembers the hazy gin joints she calls her second home. The smell of whiskey and cigars, the sounds of crying saxophones and pianos, all of it calls her back in whenever she feels like straying the city. The stories they tell make her wonder if hers is really all that bad and if she should finally let go and be herself for once in her life. The answer is usually no after a few drinks, but the music is still enough to keep her from doing what she has always done when faced with a problem and close herself off from the world.
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