Alexis Peterson

## Lex Peterson

* 2015
* 2018
* 2013
* 2011
* 2006

**Alexis Belle Peterson** (born September 27th, 1993) is one of the primary characters in *Blank Earth*, *The Rain of April*, *The Melancholy of Separation* and *One More Night*, as well as the protagonist and central narrator of *Snow In Summer*.

## Biography

### Early Life

Alexis Peterson was born and raised in Bend, Oregon. At the age of three, her and her parents travelled to her grandfather: Donald Williams' house in Jarrell, Texas when the home was unfortunately grazed by an EF5 tornado that completely levelled the neighborhood, sweeping the house off its foundation, killing both of her parents, as well as costing her grandfather his right leg as he struggled to protect her from the storm. Escaping with only a couple scrapes, bruises and the loss of her left pinky toe.

    Shortly after the tornado, she remained in a disaster relief camp and later a shelter in Georgetown with her grandfather. As he would not be able to look after Alexis on his own (being physically and financially crippled by the disaster), Donald struggled in court to relinquish his guardianship to Greg Winters (Alexis' first cousin, once removed), whom had been listed in the parents' will as her appointed guardian in case of emergency as this transfer was contested by the state due to Winters being a homosexual male in a civil union (with no explicit prohibition barring discrimination against gay parents recognized by Texas law) his prospective guardianship was challenged under the belief that a female guardian was mandatory to raise a child and sought instead to place Alexis in the public foster care system.

Nevertheless, the case was swiftly resolved, due to laws regarding home states in child custody, the resolution of any such conflict was outside of Texas jurisdiction. Within a week, an Oregon judge quickly appointed Winters as guardian on behalf of the will and Alexis was relocated to the small town of Aurora Creek, where she began her new life with Greg and his partner Josh Hamilton. Alexis remained in close contact with her grandfather over the phone and visited him shortly before his death in November of 2005.

As a child, even though Alexis could only barely recall the traumatic event, she remained petrified of thunderstorms and loud noises, including having frequent nightmares relating to tornadoes. Josh attempted to remedy this by getting her into music, playing his acoustic guitar to aid in distracting and calming her whenever inclement weather occurred. On her seventh birthday, Josh gifted her a portable disc player which she could listen to whenever she felt scared. Alexis grew up listening to a mixture of mix CDs including '70s classic rock, outlaw country and early-2000s pop-rock. Likewise, she would often happily watch Josh play his guitar in public at community festivals and local fundraisers, eventually learning to play the guitar herself.

In third grade, Alexis shared her first kiss with her close friend and crush, Emily St. Pierre. However, soon after word about the kiss spread among her classmates and reached the school faculty, Alexis found herself in trouble, ostracized by many of her classmates and upon learning of the incident, Emily’s parents contacted the school and forced the two to end their friendship and sever any further communication.

Several months later, Alexis would attend a class trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, where she would fall in love with both the ocean and marine life and dream of becoming a marine biologist, spending much of her childhood further reading about aquatic flora and fauna.

### Snow In Summer

Over the years, Alexis came to see the quaint town of Aurora Creek as her only home, becoming familiar with the locales and residents that made up the small community. She would become close friends with fellow classmates Jason Cho and Alyssa Johnson, who had been similarly bullied and ostracized at school for their differences. Starting in fifth grade, Alexis became a member of the Aurora Creek Soccer League which she would remain an active player until high school.

In 2004, Alexis would receive her first personal computer granting her access to the internet, where she would spend much of her time over the next several months making scripted *The Sims 2* machinima videos, joining and frequently updating her *MySpace* account, as well as posting on a variety of message boards, thus expanding her virtual friend circle, whom she frequently communicated with over *AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)*. Over the summer of 2006, Alexis would begin "dating" Jason, with the intention of side-stepping the judgemental accusations of being gay by other students, nevertheless, the relationship was platonic and their shared intimacy never extended beyond holding hands in public.

    Alexis’ life would remain peaceful albeit monotonous until her first day of eighth grade with the meeting of Ariel Reitman, a transfer student from Oceanside who struggled to adapt to life outside the city. Immediately, the shy and soft-spoken Alexis was spurred with insatiable curiosity and an unfamiliar attraction; the two quickly sparked a friendship that developed into Alexis’ first intimate romance and solidified her identity as a lesbian. Unfortunately, the less-than-approving attitudes of some of their classmates and the hectic lifestyle of Ariel’s parents made their relationship turbulent at-best, and inevitably short-lived.

### The Rain of April

Five years later, Alexis and her parents would move away from their childhood home, relocating north to the shabby harbor town of Aberdeen, Washington. Out of touch with the foreign and conservative town, she soon met Justin Miller, a fellow migrant to the town with a similar disillusionment and a weighted attachment to his own past. Alexis found Justin in severe grief over the recent death of his mother and connected to him much in the same way that Ariel once had to her, offering him support and comfort, their shared feelings and understandings soon budded into a strange star-crossed romance that continuously opposed Alexis’ own beliefs, experiences, and expectations.

Frequently at odds with their already turbulent familial lives, the couple soon made plans to hit the ‘reset’ buttons on their lives, this time free from the rose-tinted longing of nostalgia that had shackled them. This dream was soon actualized with the help of a mutual friend in Hayley Anderson, offering them emancipation in the emerald city of Seattle, Washington. Alex and Justin (now assuming the pseudonym of *Jacob Delsin*) left their former lives behind them and found free boarding with the free-spirited Dawn Anderson (Hayley’s elder sister).

### Seattle & Political Activism

Alex and Jacob found themselves untethered and liberated to challenge or explore their identities and personal philosophies, often following in the footsteps of their older, more-experienced roommate; Dawn: a politically-active, self-identified hippie who eventually adopted a role in the couples’ relationship as a fountain of wisdom, a gateway to new ideas, illicit substance experimentation, and most notably, a welcome but infrequent third-wheel in their sexual and romantic relationship. The trio would take part in several large local events before the year was out, such as the annual *Rainbow Gathering* and *Occupy Seattle*.

### The Melancholy of Separation

Unfortunately, Jacob and Alex’s relationship was an inevitable time-bomb, while Alex became more invigorated with her life and identity than she ever had been, Jacob’s mental state only worsened and he fell down a rabbit hole of alcoholism and opiate abuse. Slowly and coldly recoiling himself from Alex and Dawn in fear of indirectly harming them in his antisocial downward spiral, the two called quits on their relationship after two years, acknowledging it as a miraculous oddity of circumstance. Affected deeply by the turn of events, Alex went on vacation away from Seattle, train-hopping down the coast with a notebook, reminiscing on events in both Aberdeen and Aurora Creek, reconnecting with her parents and friends along the way, and eventually reaching Oceanside.

## Personality

Alex is a soft-spoken intellectual; reserved, friendly and open-minded. While she has a love for risky adventures and punk rock music she also shows a heavy appreciation for the arts and is most likely to be caught spending most of her time nose-deep in a book than anything else.

Unlike those she is frequently surrounded by, Alex is much less vocal with her opinions and prefers to avoid conflict, believing that everyone is entitled to their own thoughts.

## Physical Appearance

In Blank Earth, Alex sports a spiked pixie cut dyed in a faded pastel purple, various piercings including a tongue piercing and two nipple piercings and ocean-themed tribal tattoos that begin at her left wrist and continue up her to her breastplate and neck.

## Bibliography

### Memoirs

* *Snow In Summer* (2014)
* *The Rain of April* (2020)

## Appearances

* Snow In Summer (2006)
* Nihilist Apathy
	+ *The Rain of April*
	+ *The Melancholy of Separation*
* Blank Earth (first appearance)
* Of Cigarettes & Copulation (mentioned)
* Snow In Summer (2018)
* Nihilist Apathy
	+ *One More Night*
	+ *Saudade*

## Relationships

Family
* Lucas Peterson † - Father
* Melinda Williams † - Mother
* Josh Hamilton - Adoptive father, first cousin once-removed
* Gregory Winters - Adoptive father
* Ariel Reitman - Wife
* Unnamed Grandfather † - Grandfather
* Unnamed Grandmother † - Grandmother
* Edward Reitman - Father-in-law
* Melissa Reitman - Mother-in-law

Romances
* Jacob Delsin † - Ex-Boyfriend
* Ryley Summers - Ex-Girlfriend
* Kim Min-Ji - Fling
* Jason Cho - Platonic ex-boyfriend

Friends
* Dawn Anderson † - Close friend, roommate, partner
* Alice Johnson - Former best friend
* Stacy Harper - Close friend, publishing agent
* Isaac Tompkins - Former English teacher
* Hayley Anderson - Friend
* Jay Sanders - Friend, former roommate
* Ami Richards † - Friend, roommate
* Emily Kaufman - Former roommate
* Zachary Richards † - Close friend
* Cassie Patton † - Friend, former classmate
* Kathryn Williams -
* Leonard Trivasono
* Mike Hewitt -
* Liam Kendall -

Enemies
* Emily Winstead - Former love interest turned bully
* Haley Solverson - Former bully
* Craig Milligan - Former bully turned friend

## Further Notes

* Alex was one of the first characters created for the (then-untitled) *Blank Earth*, alongside Ryley Summers and Jay Sanders all of whom were intentionally given androgynous first names.
	+ Very early into development, the name "Alex Peterson" belonged to the character of Ryley Summers, whilst the character that would become *Alexis Peterson* was two individual characters named "Sam Davis" (or Davidson, depending on the draft) and "Clarissa Belle". The two were eventually merged into one singular character, and the names of Sam and Alex were swapped.