Cheryl Cohen

## Cheryl West Cohen

**Cheryl Cohen** is one of the main characters of The Orchard House. She is the second member to join the eponymous team of superheroes, together with her fraternal twin sister Jeannine Cohen.

## Appearance

Cheryl is pale, thin and of average height. She has dark red hair that feathers outward, which is adorned by a prominent cowlick. Her face is wider than the other characters, with her red eyes also being sharper and more rectangular than the rest of the cast. She is almost never seen without her silver half-rimmed glasses.

## Personality

In general, Cheryl enthusiastically swats away the notion of social graces and always speaks her mind without sugarcoating what she perceives as truth. With her mischievous personality and repitoire of wisecracks (which are more often than not politically incorrect or crass), Cheryl is a source of comic relief in the series. She is quick to diffuse tense situations with quippy dialogue and occasions where she is serious don't tend to last long, which her teammates tend to find irritating. Besides this, she has a reputation for being hot-tempered and foulmouthed, which results in her getting in trouble at school or within her team, and she has a hard time making friends as a result. Indeed, she upbraids Layla on a constant basis, considering the veteran Stone Architect a hated enemy unworthy of respect, and Wynonna's first introduction in the story is ushered in by way of a fist fight Cheryl starts against her during a school baseball game. She is also known for making perverted jokes and sexual innuendos very frequently and with little provocation; however, she later admits that she "[has] to draw a line somewhere". Despite her flippant and irascible nature, she is extremely devoted towards her family, always looking out for her younger siblings and addressing her mother almost exclusively as "ma'am". However, she acknowledges her father's mental health struggles and related suicide with a great deal of levity. Not without a gentle side, she is extremely fond of animals of all kinds, enjoys drinking tea on quiet days and is a respected babysitter in her neighborhood due to her kindness toward children. She suffers from intense social anxiety, which is mitigated when in the company of her younger sister, who she is almost never seen without. Interestingly, Cheryl decidedly has no pursuits or goals for her future, operating on a philosophy that life is only meant to be coasted through. Apart from scrapbooking, bookbinding and cooking, she has no hobbies or lasting interests.

## Character Development

In the very first draft of the story (*The Super Spies*), Cheryl was named Francine, going by the nickname Fran. Subsequent versions of *Supernatural Spies* established Cheryl as her canon name, although her surname was Clarks rather than Cohen. Her laid-back personality is almost identical to the current Cheryl's, although the *Supernatural Spies* version is more cowardly and reluctant, whereas her Orchard House counterpart has a reckless devil-may-care attitude. In later versions (*Blood and Gemstones*), Cheryl is depicted as an otaku who collects Japanese PVC figures and aspires to write her own manga and light novels, a goal that Jeannine is highly cynical she'll ever achieve. She takes insults to her fandoms very personally and often shoehorns topics pertaining to anime and Japanese culture in casual conversation. Her salty personality is carried over from *Blood and Gemstones*, although the earlier incarnation of Cheryl is much more violent, and she frequently sexually harasses her peers, most notably Kayla. In *Across the Ebony*, Cheryl is much more cerebral and sullen, with a romantic personality. In this canon, she and her immediate family members are devout Jews, while in *The Orchard House*, they are secular humanists and atheists.