Constance Baendegaard, character in Paradise Two

from *The Essential Paradise*, series sourcebook

#### **Constance ‘Connie’ Baendegaard** is a Paradisian schoolgirl, featured in stories set in the Two Paradises fantasy/fiction realm, as devised by author Jonnie Comet.

She is noted as an associate of Darby St Claire and as a gymnastics teammate of Gwendolyn Dahl.

## Personal information

* Full name: Constance Frances Baendegaard
* Nickname: Connie
* Birthdate: January 1982 (Capricorn)
* Birthplace: Mercy Hospital, Hurricane Hole
* Nationality: Paradisian citizen, belonger
* Residence: 1 Linden Terrace, Vienna, Hurricane Hole Township, Eden Island
* Height: 160 cm [5 ft 3 in]
* Weight: 49 kg [108 lb]
* Figure: slight, slender
* Hair: medium brown, wavy
* Eyes: blue
* Complexion: fair/Nordic, well-tanned
* Ethnic background: Dutch/English, Austrian
* Religion: Anglican
* School: Hurricane Hole Regional High School, Eden I.; O-levels: 1998
* Sport: artistic gymnastics

Story arcs: Paradise Two; *The Love of Gwendolyn Dahl*; 1994-2000

## Early life and education

Connie’s father is an administrative attaché with the Dutch embassy in Governor’s Harbour. Though he is often abroad, most often in Holland, he and all of the household, however, are Paradise-born and have belonger status. Connie’s mother is a homemaker who gives sewing lessons in her own home, teaching both Connie and her (orphaned) cousin Angela, who lives with them, dressmaking, needlepoint and knitting from a young age. Both Angela, two years ahead, and Connie attend Hurricane Hole High School, each achieving average marks.

## Gymnastics

Trained in ballet since a child, she takes up tumbling in elementary and earns a place on the Hurricane High school competition gymnastics roster in 1994. Her best events are vault and floor exercises; she claims to intensely dislike the high bar and beam, and her scores on both are respectable but only average. Her closest friends on the team are Cathy Drury and Ellen Wofford. She is typically aloof towards the younger members, including Heather Tewce and Gwendolyn.

She is briefly considered for a place on the BPIOC team, to attend the XVI Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, but falls on both the beam and the uneven bars during the principal tryouts and is passed over for Heather.

## Dance

Connie has declared an intention to pursue musical theatre and from age ten takes lessons in dance at a private studio in Cook Landing. She does not land a chorus-line role till the HHHS production of *Anything Goes* in her fourth-form year. Her first singing/speaking role is as Bette in *Oliver!* at HHHS in April-May 1998.

## Post-HHHS

Following her O-levels, she enrols at Paradise College of Business & Industry, taking a flat in Governor’s Harbour with two fellow HHHS alumni and having a go at acting and dancing. She attends a few parties at which Darby St Claire is present but it is not known if the two have any further contact as friends.

She is interviewed by Alis Johnson for the *Teatime* programme in 2000, in reference to her having participated on the HHHS team with Gwendolyn, who is by then an Olympic gymnast. The segment does not provide any further insight into Gwendolyn’s character or accomplishments and is not used on-air.

## Personality

Connie carries a reputation for being blunt, even brusque, with friends and schoolmates, as though unable to suppress an urge to inform everyone of her opinions and to critique the opinions and actions of others. At the same time she can be petulant and particular with herself, frequently fussing over her hair and wardrobe even though neither is very remarkable. She prefers the company of her cousin and mother and to be at home rather than out; but as her family are financially comfortable she has an affection for shopping and spends almost lavishly on herself.

## Relationships

Connie is not known to be socially active and has no known beaus, either male or female. She associates mainly with her elder cousin and with those of Angela’s class at HHHS, who tend to accept her as one of their own and host a somewhat adult party for her 13th birthday.

## Appearances in the stories

Connie is first mentioned in *The Seduction of Susie* (introductory instalment of Paradise Two) at her own 13th birthday party, which Lady Susie attends and then prematurely leaves. She is described as trite and self-centred, ripe fodder for Darby’s attraction, constant attention and self-centred schemes; though it is never revealed whether or not Connie reciprocates Darby’s lesbian interests.

Connie later appears frequently in The Love of Gwendolyn Dahl arc as Gwendolyn Dahl’s teammate on the HHHS gymnastics team’s competition roster, notable mainly for whiny whinging and chronic excuse-making. She complains later that coach Rebecca Daily has made Gwendolyn a favourite and threatens to quit the team, but remains till her last season in 1997-1998, when, though she is relegated to second bench, she helps assistant coaches with the younger members.

She is one of the only characters, other than those of the family of Camelot estate, to appear in stories featuring the Cavaliere siblings and in Gwendolyn Dahl's world, essentially three to four years apart in characters' ages.

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Doc. 6.63.01. b. 2015.1018. ©Jonnie Comet Productions Ltd. All rights reserved