Ashton West

Ash West, a popular cheerleader that tends to be indecisive in, well, everything.

## Backstory

Growing up, Ash never needed everything thanks to her rich mom running a family company, and her police chief father. This meant that Ash was, well, kind of spoiled which led to her being distant from classmates sometimes.

Similar to her brother, Ash's mother tried to live her dreams through her daughter but instead of pushing her to play musical instruments, her mother instead pushed Ash into plays. Acting, singing, and dancing almost every night, and cheerleading on top of it while also trying to keep her grades up.

Along with this, Ash's mother became obsessed with how her daughter looked, often calling her fat and encouraging her to diet and exercise when she wasn't busy with practice. Because of this, Ash has always been uncomfortable about her body, and often keeps herself covered up, particularly her stomach, even years past her mother's influence. Her mother also tended to make decisions for Ash, pushing her own opinions to the point that Ash still has trouble making decisions for herself, and will usually grow upset.

Ash hated it, which caused a huge divide between her and her mother. So when their mother disappeared when Ash was just a freshman, she was both relieved, and also hurt that her mother hadn't said good bye, and yet gave Jace a beanie.

But after their mother left, Ash was soon able to do what she wanted and quit everything except cheerleading, and focused on her academics more. Still, she's uncomfortable with her body, and will still try to push all attention away from it and herself in general, while also trying to avoid eating lunch to keep her weight down. Ash also found herself more indecisive than ever without her mother's opinions to drive her, so now she can hardly ever make final decisions about anything. Topped with this, both of Ash's serious boyfriends cheated on her, which pretty much just ruined her self-esteem even more. So the way Ash sees it, if both of them and her mother never wanted her, who would?

## Season 1

The year started off really with lunch. Ash was sitting with her fellow cheerleaders, Grace and Melody, when Kanen came up and started talking with them. This caused some tension, and then Sawyer and Ryan also approached to flirt with Grace and Ash, respectively. And then Tera approached, insulting Kanen's deceased father, so Kanen filled his mouth with alcohol and milk and spit it at her. Ryan grabbed Kanen and the two started to get in a fight when Ash stood up, loudly yelling at both of the boys, then Tera, before storming out. Melody chased after her, and the two headed into the gym to relax for a while with Bjorn, a new foreign exchange student.

That afternoon, Ash asks Sawyer if she knows where Ryan went so she can apologize for what she said. Sawyer admits that she has no idea, he just took off. Ash and Sawyer agree to go find Ryan after tryouts, but neither have a car at the moment. Grace overhears and offers that they all take her car. She then ends cheerleading tryouts, saying that Melody and Bjorn made the team. They then wait for Sawyer to finish her tryouts, and then the three head off to look for Ryan. Sawyer is finally able to get a hold of Ryan, and they find out that he's in a small town three hours away. So a few hours later, they find Ryan, and Ash manages to apologize. The group then gets McDonald's and heads home.

The following Friday, Ash holds a party at her house. The first person to arrive is Kanen, who she hired to bring all the alcohol for the party. She forces him to stay and soon, a group gathers around the island and they start up with some good ol' Truth or Dare. Ryan, who was dared by Sawyer to dress down to just his underwear and one sock, then dares Ash to jump in the pool -- which she does, despite how cold it is. The Truth or Dare game continues until Stu asks Kanen why he pushes people away, and then a yelling fight starts between Mason and Kanen. Kanen then storms away, and the entire group disbands.

Ash heads upstairs to her room to change out of the wet clothes and while in the middle of changing, Ryan barges in accidentally looking for the bathroom. She lets him use her bathroom to change in, and then the two lay down on her bed and just talk and drink some alcohol. They discuss simple things, like their parents and family, and eventually return to the party where Ash hunts down Grace and tells her what happened before heading off to party more.

The next morning, Ash is woken up by Jace yelling for her. She goes downstairs to find Jim Richards, Kane, and Lewis, all cops, asking to come in after finding Stu drunk with alcohol poisoning. Ash refuses and starts arguing with them until her dad, Chief Steve West, shows up. He lets the cops in and sends them to gather the kids passed out, which include June, Grace, Sawyer, and Ryan. Ryan and Grace come out of the same room together, so everyone assumes that they ended up sleeping together. Before the police come back, Steve finds some more contraband and Jace loudly announces that it was Kanen who brought everything, but Ash asks him to keep it secret. Which Steve agrees to. After all the cops are back together, Steve sends them all to go get Kanen, and then sends the other kids home.

The next Monday, Ash is still kind of upset about the whole thing, but she finds Grace and the two make up over what happened, and Ash accepts that nothing happened. While the two are talking, Ryan comes up to Ash and tells her that they need to talk. The talk is basically just him apologizing, telling her that nothing happened, and asking her to go on a date, which Ash agrees to.

That Saturday, Ryder, Alaska, and Chase are throwing a bonfire down by the beach. Ash and Ryan go to the party as their first date. Right away, Ryder picks Ash up and throws her in the water in revenge for calling him Minuteman earlier that week, and also picks up Nova and does the same because, well, she was on the way. Ash returns to Ryan, telling him not to worry about Ryder because they're just friends, and then continues the date. A few minutes later, she asks Alaska to help her get revenge and the two throw Ryder into the water before Ash goes back to her date with Ryan. Shortly after this, Ryan stands up and leaves without saying anything, and Ash assumes it's because she messed up the date.

Upset, Ash waits around while the party ends, and then Ryder and Alaska invite her back to their place for a sleepover with Raven and June. Ash agrees, and starts drinking more once they get there. Ryder asks her if she wants to go to his room to talk, which she agrees to and the two end up sleeping together.

The following day, Ash finds out that Ryan was actual in a car crash and is currently in a coma. Feeling guilty about the Ryder thing, Ash doesn't end up going to visit him. At school on Monday, Principal Nona calls a few of the students (literally all of the roleplayers' peeps) down to the auditorium to tell them about a new plan that she has: a musical. Kanen stands up and says he refuses to help out, and Ash starts yelling at him. Nova comes up to try and stop the two, and Ash turns on her, calling her some not so nice things, and then exits the auditorium. Grace follows her out and asks Ash what's wrong with her, and she admits to sleeping with Ryder. June just so happens to hear, as does Alaska.

At the end of the week, everyone is gathered for practice when Kanen storms in, demanding to know where Ryder is. After some not so calm conversation, Ash realizes that it's because somehow he heard about her sleeping with Ryder, and thinks that he took advantage of her. Ryder then walks in, and Kanen attacks him. To try and get the fight to stop, Ash loudly announces in front of everyone that she slept with Ryder and it was consensual. Kanen doesn't hear her the first time, so she has to announced it again, and Alaska comes in and gets Kanen to stop. Ash then helps Ryder out of the auditorium and to his car, and the two awkwardly admit to having feelings for each other.

Ash then gets a text that Ryan is awake. She goes to visit him and rather stupidly also tells Ryan, who just woke up from a coma with a leg missing, that she slept with Ryder. He says he hates her and she leaves, feeling worse than ever.

A month later, Ryan returns to school. He leaves a note for Ash, asking her to meet him in the newspaper room after school. Ash shows up, and the two discuss what happened, apologizing to one another, but otherwise nothing major happens.