Character Basics

FULL NAME: Ashleigh Elizabeth Barton
NICKNAMES: her closest friends call her Ash
AGE: 17
BIRTHDATE: January 13, 1993
YEAR: 12th grade
GRADE POINT AVERAGE: A's. Occasionally, she'll make a B in one of her more difficult subjects.
CLASSES ENROLLED IN: Core Classes + Technology Studies (1), Drawing & Painting (2), Music Appreciation(3)
ACTIVITIES: Cheerleading
BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood. Her ancestors on both sides have been pure for hundreds of years.
POLITICAL VIEWS: Ashleigh a mix of liberal and conservative. She is not a purist. She believes it is horribly wrong to hate someone for something they cannot control. However, she has an insatiable desire to please her mother and would never voice her opinion. She strives to be the proper pureblood daughter in all ways.



Family/Relationships

PARENTS:

MOTHER: Alexandra Barton née Hamilton
FATHER: Matthew Barton

SIBLINGS: N/A
EXTENDED FAMILY: While Ashleigh is an only child, her parents have several siblings. Therefore, Ashleigh has a number of cousins. I wouldn't be opposed to having some of them played.

AMP Status: Yes. Her mother would have insisted. Ashleigh would have agreed. Her father would have compromised by making absolutely certain that she was betrothed to a kind, considerate boy who would have treated her well.



Appearance

Ashleigh is average in height and has a slender build. She has long, blonde hair and blue eyes. Though she tans quite easily, she spends a lot of her time indoors, focusing on her school work. Therefore, she keeps a fair complexion most of the year. You may occasionally find her hair thrown up into some sort of messy ponytail, but it usually hangs loosely around her shoulders. When in thought, you will find her worrying her bottom lip or the inside of her cheek between her teeth. Her clothes are always neatly pressed and in perfect place. She may spend a lot of her time with her nose in the books but she has an eye for fashion and normally follows whatever is in style. In a room crowded with people she doesn't know, Ashleigh would appear shy. Approach her, though, and you'll find a bubbly, kind, outgoing, person with a constant smile on her face.

PREFERRED PB: Aimee Teegarden



Personality

LIKES:
- Cookies. Ashleigh is hopelessly addicted to cookies. She carries a small bag of them where ever she goes. Luckily, she has a high enough metabolism to not be as big as a house. That doesn't keep her mother from constantly criticizing her love of junk food, though.
- Charms. Out of all her subjects, this one comes naturally. Not to mention, she enjoys the work.
- Reading. She loves to read and spends a lot of time doing it. Honestly, she can read and remember almost anything. As such, she has quite a bit of book knowledge and random quotes from stories and novels floating around in her head. When curious about anything she will find a book (or ten) and read until she's learned everything that she wants to know about the subject.
To be honest, she doesn't have many hobbies or talents. She doesn't have a lot of time for them. She focuses on her school work in an effort to earn the grades her mother wants her to have.

DISLIKES:
- Heights. Ashleigh is absolutely terrified of heights and hates flying.
- Liver. That is the one food she absolutely cannot stand. Which means, of course, her mother makes sure it is served once a week when she is at home.
- News. It might seem odd to hate the news, but Ashleigh does. There are so many depressing things in the media, and she hates being reminded of the bad things in the world.

STRENGTHS:
- Charms. As stated, Ashleigh is a natural when it comes to Charms. She's exceptionally good at it without really trying.
- Cheerful. She is exceptionally cheerful. She always tries to look for the silver lining in every cloud.
- Hardworking. Ashleigh is willing to sacrifice fun in order to do what needs to be done.
- Loyal. Ashleigh is painfully loyal to those she loves. She'll stand behind them no matter what.

WEAKNESSES:
- Transfiguration. Unlike Charms, Transfiguration is extremely difficult for Ashleigh. She understands the written, but has trouble with the application. She works diligently to earn the marks she needs to satisfy her mother, though.
- Potions. Yet another difficult subject. Ashleigh can pass a written test very easily. She really has to work to brew a potion, though. She actually melted her cauldron in her freshmen year.
- Cooking. This goes hand in hand with her difficulty in Potions. Her mother makes her take cooking classes over the summer, though. She's slowly improving. Luckily, the house elves will do the majority of the cooking once she is married.
- Naive. She has a tendency to believe that everyone has good intentions. She rarely sees the bad in a person.
- Loyal. Ashleigh is loyal to a fault.

DETAILED PERSONALITY:
Ashleigh is an exceptionally friendly person.

Most people would label her as innocent or naive, and honestly, they wouldn't be far off. Under the constant coddling of her father, she's led a very sheltered life. She's not stupid by any means. She's simply trusting and believes that there is good in even the worst people.

Ashleigh likes to live in happy ignorance. She knows what is going on in the world, but she doesn't like to dwell on these thoughts. She'll read anything but she wont read most newspapers. She doesn't want to think about how bad things actually are. If she dwelt on it, she wouldn't be able to focus on much else. It's not the healthiest decision but she chooses to ignore the real problems in the world until she can't. Bad events, even the larger publicized ones, literally have to be shoved under her nose for her to notice them.

Those that she cares about take top priority in her life. If you hurt them, you've hurt her. She is very dedicated and loyal to the people that she loves. She trusts them completely and is incapable of seeing their faults. She loves who she loves and nothing else matters to her... she'll stand by their side and support them through any decision, even if she doesn't exactly agree with it.

She puts her education above most everything else in the world but a part of that comes from a deep seeded desire to do something with her life… to prove to her mother that she is an amazing person. She'd never voice it but she longs for a day in which her mother is truly proud of her.

Though friendly, Ashleigh is quite shy when it comes to the opposite sex. She tends to stammer, stutter, and blush when she's attracted to a person. She tries to hide it, of course, but she rarely manages it.

As said, she's a very sweet and loving person. You have to actually do something to spark her anger but she can get angry. Like most people, if she is previously bothered, worried, aggravated, it takes a lot less to annoy her. Regardless of her normal personality, her temper is very much intact. Once it's unleashed, it's ugly and very hard to get under control.



History

CHILDHOOD:
Ashleigh was the only child born to her wealthy, pureblood parents.

Much to her dismay, Alexandria Hamilton found out that she was pregnant during her last year at the institute. Her betrothed, Benjamin Alan, had died in a tragic Quodpot accident several months before. Nearly destroyed, she sought comfort in the arms of his best friend, the only person in the world that could begin to understand how she felt. Needless to say, the pregnancy wasn't remotely planned. Unsympathetic to her pleas, Alexandria's parents forced her to marry the boy that had gotten her into this predicament. After all, that was the only way they could save the reputation of their youngest daughter.

Matthew Barton was a kind young man. He continuously fought feelings of guilt when his relationship with Alexandria evolved into something less platonic. That did not keep him from falling in love with the girl, though. He was eager to marry her when her family insisted that was his only course of action. He knew she would never love him as much as she had loved Benjamin, but he hoped that would change when they welcomed their daughter into the world. Unfortunately, he was sadly mistaken.

Alexandria saw Ashleigh as a constant reminder of the life she was forced to live and absolutely hated the girl. Always striving for her attention, Ashleigh threw herself into all the things her mother seemed to care about but the woman remained unimpressed.

Through her childhood, her mother only seemed to have one goal, to make her daughter and husband completely miserable. Due to the lack of motherly affection, Ashleigh is and will forever be a daddy's girl.

Matthew did his best to make sure that Ashleigh felt loved and had all the things she wanted and needed. As such, she can be quite spoiled. That personality trait only shows when she's with him, though. She's never let her upbringing cloud her judgment. For a spoiled girl, she's surprisingly down to earth.


AT ELIGERE.
Ashleigh is really focused on her studies. School seems to be the one thing her mother really cares about, and she hopes she can make the woman happy by earning high marks. That's not to say that she hasn't made many friends, though. Ashleigh has a small group of close friends that she couldn't imagine living without.

Aside from school, her mother has only shown interest in one other aspect of her life. When Ashleigh reached the age of thirteen, her mother insisted that she be enrolled into the Arranged Marriage Program. At first, her father refused. He wanted Ashleigh to marry for love. In the end, though, Ashleigh agreed. As usual, she wanted to please her mother more than anything else in the world, and she was willing to give up the possibility of love to achieve that. Once Ashleigh had made her intentions clear, her father stepped in and made absolutely certain that she was paired with someone who would treat her well. After all, there was always a chance she would find love in spite of an unconventional beginning.

A year later, Ashleigh was introduced to William Farley. She'd seen him around, of course, but she'd never worked up enough courage to actually speak to him. He was quite attractive, after all, and she knew that she would only babble blush. Needless to say, their first meeting was quite awkward.

After two years of engagement, she would say that they've settled into one another's company. They have the occasional uncomfortable moment, of course, but they're working through it.



OOC Info

NAME: Crystal
AIM SCREENNAME: hope31516
E-MAIL ADDRESS: hopeguidesme [at] mac [dot] com
TIMEZONE: US/ Eastern [GMT-5]

JOURNAL TO BE USED: cookiemonster.
LINK TO PUBLIC BIO: http://www.inksome.com/users/cookiemonster/505.html
HANDWRITING FONT: Angelina
BLURB: Ashleigh is a friendly, intelligent girl. When not engrossed in her school work, she tries to spend time with her friends. She's exceptionally loyal to those she loves, and will do anything to make them happy even if she makes herself miserable in the progress. While she is not shy, members of the opposite sex make her quite nervous. She tends to babble and blush when she's talking to someone she's attracted to. Luckily, that trait usually adds to her innocent air instead of making her look like a complete idiot.