Stephanie Maber, character in Janine, of Paradise

from *The Essential Paradise*, series sourcebook

## Personal information

* Full name: Stephanie Jean Maber
* Nicknames: ‘Steph’ (*steff*)
* Birthdate: 28 March 1988 (Aries)
* Birthplace: Mercy Hospital, Hurricane Hole
* Parents: Mr & Mrs Maber
* Nationality: Paradisian citizen, belonger
* Residence: 10 Valley Lane, Somerset Township, Eden I.
* Height: 157 cm [5 ft 2 in]
* Weight: 47 kg [104 lb]
* Figure: slender, modestly shapely
* Hair: blonde, bushy, thick, shoulder-length
* Eyes: blue
* Complexion: fair, English; well-tanned
* Ethnic background: English, Austrian, French
* Religion: Anglican
* School: North Eden High School, Eden I.; O-levels: 2004
* Sport: rounders, swimming, 2001-2004

Story arcs: *Janine, of Paradise*; 2001-2005

## Family life

Stephanie’s paternal grandfather was an Austrian who served in the territory during the 1939-1945 and was later granted belonger status. Her father is a manager at Heidel and Sons, importers, in Hurricane Hole. Her mother works part time as a bookkeeper for a small business in Devon and keeps the home.

Stephanie has an older sister, Marjorie, who finishes NEHS in 1999 and leaves to attend university at Cambridge. (By coincidence the two girls have the same names as Marjorie and Stephanie Bailey, elder and younger sisters and cousins of Jonathan Cavaliere.)

Stephanie plays rounders and swims on the NEHS competition team in 2nd through 5th form. With Ginnie Petter, she also takes up cheerleading in 3rd form.

## Personality and appearance

Stephanie is known for childlike exuberance and innocence that endears her to all the other Devon Girls and to other peers and to adults. She is a keen and diligent student who likes to read and consistently scores in the upper 80s to lower 90s of percentile. Her favourite subjects are German, history and PE. Her disciplinary record is exemplary; she has never been assigned detention.

Outwardly she is petite, though pleasantly proportioned, and accepted as being strikingly pretty, having large blue eyes and wavy blonde hair. She is remarkably well-tanned, typically eager to shed her top for sunbathing or for physical activity. Of all the Devon Girls Stephanie has the naturally highest-pitched voice, often sounding like a smaller child, especially over the telephone. She is prone to laughing and giggling but can become quickly serious, often before any of the others grasp the gravity of the situation, due to an innate sensitivity about romantic matters and intense friendships.

She enjoys cards games, being a crack player at bridge, which she has played with her mother and sister since an early age. She and the other Devon Girls often enjoy the swings behind the Mabers’ house for both fun and solace.

## Home

As do the Hewletts, the Mabers have a Treat model in the Holiday Park section of Devon. The house is of four bedrooms, with Stephanie having the room above the garage as Janine does in her own house. The Mabers have added an enclosed verandah across the back of the house, forming additional living space especially for during parties. Both the Hewlett and Maber houses, though a block apart, face the dense, humid woods of Green Garden Park, causing Janine’s and Stephanie’s rooms to seem airless and hot.

## Relationships

Stephanie is characteristically outgoing, friendly and amusing, well-liked amongst boys and girls. She appears to be closest to Barbie French, as the two are neighbours by only two doors, but is an open admirer of Janine whom she consults on increasing mature matters as the girls all grow up. Several of the boys of the Holiday Park neighbourhood, notably Bobby Ryan, Tommy Heidelbraun and Mark Hannigan, take particular interest in her, though she does not date anyone seriously till she is nearly done 5th form. At school her other friends include Samantha Lowndes, Jean Wilkes, Elise Morton and Clarice Howe.

Of the Devon Girls, Stephanie is closest to Ginnie Petter, who once lived across the way before the Petters' move to Surfside, where Ginnie finishes elementary, in 1998. By the time they are reunited at NEHS, Stephanie has become a closer friend of Janine.

## Appearances in the stories

Stephanie makes her first substantive appearance in *Janine’s First Date*, playing in the playground with the other Devon Girls. She takes off her top and allows Mark to fondle her, only innocently, whilst Janine and Barbie escort Anne’s younger sister Carol away. Later she and Jill Manning meet Janine at Savee’s, where the two express their disbelief at the news that Janine has actually popped out of a cake at Charlie Richardson’s party. Stephanie appears almost hurt to discover the news is true, fearing that Janine, her idol, has become corrupted. Janine comforts her with a cuddle, demonstrating the close, sisterly relationship common amongst all the Devon Girls but particularly between herself and Stephanie.

Whilst shopping in *Janine’s Night to Remember* Stephanie is first to lead discouraged Anne off to the bargain racks where she can find an appropriate and affordable frock; subsequently she is first to suggest that all the girls chip in to buy it for Anne. Of the Devon Girls Stephanie and Jill are most outgoing; but whilst Jill is more cynical, even brash, Stephanie is only artless and open, often making honest, heartfelt statements before being aware of how palatable they may seem to others. She teases Janine about having an older boy as an escort for the dance-- a sensitive matter for them all to come to terms with-- and questions the maturity of their buying and sending each other Valentines’ cards even whilst the others appear all for it. After Ava Kane she is also probably the most morally-conservative of the Devon Girls, often standing up to debate for her friends’ good reputations and balking at anything too outré or of questionable taste.

In *The Sins of Saint Janine*, Anne, Barbie and Janine attend a sleepover party for Stephanie’s 13th birthday at which Anne and Barbie fall asleep on the sofa-bed in the television room leaving Janine to share a bed with Stephanie, which they do, without clothes. They discuss each other’s beauty, with each siding for the other, till Stephanie is in tears from feeling so keenly the admiration they share for each other.

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Doc. 6.79.24. b. 2015.1010. ©Jonnie Comet Productions Ltd. All rights reserved