Rex

REX EDISON JOSEPH RILEY aka "StringBean", "Stretch", "HighPockets"

24 year old Rex Riley was raised by both his grandfathers - Joe Riley and Eddie Camden, two lifelong best friends and session musicians -  when their own children, Rex's parents: Joe Riley, Jr., and Wenonah Camden-Riley, split.

   When the divorce was finalized, neither parent (both hotshot lawyers) really wanted custody of their only child, and thus, signed papers to make their respective fathers co-legal-guardians of toddler Rex. Being brought up by two old-school jazz-funk-and-blues men has given Rex a rather unique manner of speech in these modern times. Despite being hard-partying musicians, Eddie and Joe worked hard to teach Rex maturity ("cool"), responsibility, dedication and loyalty from a young age.

Rex spent his formative years on the road, touring with his grandfathers and the musicians and rock stars they played for. He was an official roadie by the time he was a (rather tall) ten year old. He gained his education by way of the same professional tutors who taught the rock stars' kids and child star actors they sometimes travelled with, and was taught to play the trumpet, guitar and bass by bona fide rock stars and Hollywood actors. By the time he was 13, Rex was rather an odd duck. A strong and wiry, yet laid-back, necktie wearing, beatnik-slang-spouting, philosophically zen artist and musician in his own right.  He started public high school at the normal age of 14, after his grandads stopped touring. His proud bisexuality, lingo peppered with beatnik-speak and all manner of colloquialism, as well as a penchant for dark suits, neckties and porkpie hats in high school, made Rex a target for small minds. He took it all in stride.

   Dubbed the "Mayor of Freak City" by the local high school bullies as an insult, Instead of letting that bring him down, Rex embraced his own oddball nature and wore the title with pride as he was rather popular with those who were 'unpopular', as well as a favorite of many of the school's faculty. He was a free spirit, a surprisingly good student and made a point of putting all his effort into protecting the mistreated and outcast among not only his teen peers in high school, but, all over town.

   Taking pride in his self-appointed role as protector of the down-trodden and misunderstood, Rex has had many a confrontation with bullies, haters and hard-hearted authority figures over the years, and always came out the other side, smelling like a rose. He diffused many a situation with his odd smooth talk, and whatever he couldn't talk his way out of, he knuckled up and fought his way out of, as he was much tougher than his thin frame would suggest, having been raised by rockers, hell-raisers, roadies, bikers and urban revolutionaries in cities across the country and around the world.

   His life was further enriched on the third day of his sophomore year in high school, when he met Felix Long and Camilla Gonzales - in detention.

He had faced off against one of his school's more hard-nosed, disciplinary teachers, Mrs. Pickett, who 's favorite bit of tyranny was to proclaim that "The bell doesn't dismiss you, I DO! Sit down!", to all and sundry at the end of just about every class.

   After the first two days of this, with Rex and almost every other student in her class either being late, or being busted for running in the halls while trying to get to the next class on time, Rex decided that he wasn't going to be bullied and manipulated in such a manner and gathered his things to leave, anyway. Facing off against Pickett, he laid all this out to her in front of the whole class, stating that, either way, he was going to get into trouble, and he'd rather piss off a teacher he wasn't fond of - Pickett - than disappoint the next teacher, Ms. Shannara (a rather attractive, jovial and curvy teacher, fresh out of college), whom he liked very much. Rex received detention that day and the rest of that week before Pickett changed tactics. That was how he met his two favorite people.

   The three misfits became very close and have been at each others' sides ever since, with Felix Long and Camilla Gonzales even picking up some of Rex's own speech patterns, which enriched their own individual penchants for colloquialism. Late in his 16th year, his granddads were personally asked by a slew of classic jazz, funk and blues superstars to join them on one last tour. Rex, having grown to like "normal" life, high school and quickly falling deeply in love with both Felix and Camilla, opted not to join the men who raised him. Eddie and Joe sold the house they lived in, signed emancipation papers for their grandson and helped to set him up in a loft apartment over a converted warehouse owned by a friend of theirs from the old days, Jasper "Cosmo" Coswell. In short order, Rex moved Felix, who, at that point, had become a homeless runaway, yet still attending school, in with him, and soonafter, came Camilla, when her family life was becoming literally depressing.

   Now, years later, after many trials and tribulations, Rex, Felix and Camilla are still protecting their stomping grounds, not just from bullies, thugs and corruption, but, also from things unseen and, perhaps, best LEFT unseen, by anyone not off-kilter enough to properly deal with them.