Skaters & Folks
Lyndsay Porter 12
Our Hero
At the onset of adolescence, Lyndsay is confronting new feelings and a desire to change herself. She finds that her older neighbor Michael, who’s always been like a big brother to her, is now the object of her first big crush. This is a bit overwhelming and very confusing. She’s taken up skateboarding in order to be around Michael.
Lyndsay is bright, intuitive, and compassionate. Though loyal to her friends, she’s always had a hard time acting on behalf of others being bullied or teased—out of a lack of her own self-confidence. Lyndsay realizes she doesn’t like that about herself, but she doesn’t know how to change it. Lyndsay thinks her father, Max, doesn’t care about her, and that he favors her younger brother, Griffin. Max seems to relate much better with his son than his daughter: i.e. playing baseball with Griffin and not being supportive of Lyndsay’s skateboarding. She can’t help but get into arguments with her Dad. Lyndsay likes to color her hair and currently dresses in skateboard/athletic wear. She’s in the 7th grade.
Cadence Stabler 12
Lyndsay’s best friend
Cadence is whip-smart and loves to talk—sometimes her mouth gets ahead of her brain. She’s a bit more mature than Lyndsay—able to keep romantic notions in perspective. This may be due to her preference to watch more grown-up fare on tv like “The View.” She is vivacious and funny. Cadence is nobody’s fool. Lyndsay and Cadence have grown up together since pre-k and are each other’s confidants. Cadence helps Lyndsay with the peace campaign out of friendship and loyalty. Cadence is African-American and fashionable. She’s in the 7th grade.
Hugo Sanchez 12
Lyndsay’s classmate
Hugo is a tech wiz and an excellent gamer. He has a fanciful imagination that inadvertently both entertains and annoys his friends—he is quite un-self-conscious. Hugo is the son of a single mother. He excels at computer science/coding and filmmaking, he is diffident about his other academics. Hugo skateboards and wear jeans and hoodies. He especially joins the campaign because of its subversive nature towards adults. Hugo is Puerto Rican-American and in the 7th grade.
Sandi Porter 41
Lyndsay’s mother
Sandi is an adjunct professor of Marketing at Essex County Community College. She and Max met while in Graduate School at NYU. She likes to work but enjoys being a mother to her two kids—taking care of them, overseeing their schedules, etc. Sandi would rather that her family didn’t need her to work, financially speaking, while her kids are young, but she supports Max’s dreams of creating something that hasn’t been done before. She is the “lead parent” in this family: inter-facing with school, doctors, activities etc. She does her best to maintain harmony between Max and Lyndsay. She supports the Oath out of a mother’s affinity for kindness over violence. Pleasant personality. Sandi’s attractive in a smart, nerdy girl way. Strawberry blond, Caucasian.
Max Porter 42
Lyndsay’s father
Max is a mathematician working at an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) start-up. He wants to provide for his family and is stressed about money. Max is socially conventional—he’s unable to appreciate Lyndsay for who she is as a contemporary young person/woman. He is awkward with his daughter and tries to overcompensate by being critical. Max relates with his son much more easily, a truth that Lyndsay is aware of and hurt by. Max refuses to sign the Oath based on his world view that war is sometimes necessary to protect who he loves—his family. His heart is good—he just needs a new perspective to shift it into the right place. He’s a tall, slender, Caucasian with light brown hair.
Kumiko (nee Ueyama) Pope 50
Michael’s mom
Born and raised in Japan, she met her husband, Ben, in Okinawa, Japan and moved to the United States at the age of 28. She was homesick for several years: suffering from culture shock and loneliness. These dark feelings began to change as she improved her English, learned to drive, and after her first son was born. She is a homemaker and active in her Buddhist community devoted to peace, culture, and education. Kumiko supports Lyndsay at her most crucial moment relating her own family’s tragic history during World War II. She’s really short and very polite, but with a back bone of absolute steel.
Michael Pope 18
Lyndsay’s Neighbor
Michael is graduating high school and enlisting in the Marines. He does so to fulfill his family’s tradition of military service. His departure from Southwood is the inciting incident of “Peace Kid.” Lyndsay is so fearful for his life, that she tries to end all war in order to bring him home. Michael is attractive both inside and out—charismatic, a natural leader. He’s energetic and empathetic. He is an incredible skateboarder—a hero at the local skateboard park. He runs skateboard clinics to teach younger kids. He is a motivator and mentor to Lyndsay. His mother is a Japanese immigrant and his father is African-American. He wears blue streaks in his brown hair.
Josh Feiglebaum 13
Lyndsay’s classmate
Josh is tall and confident. He has a great sense of humor. He joins the campaign out of an understanding of history—he’d like to stop the seeming inevitability of war after war after war. He may have a crush on Lyndsay, as well. Josh is an athlete and wears sports jerseys, jeans, and hoodies. He longs for independence from his parents. Josh is Jewish and in the 7th grade.
Griffin Porter 8
Lyndsay’s brother
Griffin is an enthusiastic ball of energy. Loves baseball and playing with his friends. Idolizes his Dad, loving and playful with his mother. He supports the Oath, as soon as Lyndsay asks him, out of an innate sense of right and wrong. He represents the purity of youth—an inner sense of truth, uninhibited by mitigating fears and sedentary pragmatism. Griffin is hope and optimism personified. He has dark brown hair and some freckles.
Eli Pope 8
Griffin’s best friend
Eli is a sweet little guy. He idolizes his older brother, Michael. Living just a few doors down from the Porter’s, he’s often over at their house as Griffin is often at the Pope’s. Loves to play baseball and watching the skaters.
Ben Pope 55
Michael’s father