InsaneJournal

Personal Background: As the baby of the family one would think Jax would have been the spoiled one, the doted upon one... however in the Collins family that was certainly not the case. Jax was born into a unhappy family, a broken family. The man that was her father, a man that Jax never knew, had left somewhere around her mother’s seventh month of pregnancy with Jax, moving to California. With her older sister already in school it had been hard on all of them. Understandably so.

While it likely should have been harder for the others, harder for those that knew the man than for Jax who’d never seen him... it turned out to be quite the opposite. With her mother, Jax bore the burden of that loss. The words didn’t need to be said outright (although years later they would be in anger) but it was clear from looks alone that if it hadn’t been for Jax... their family would still be whole.

At first she was hurt. Not understanding as a child why the things she did weren’t right. Why she often ended up in the time out corner and her sister didn’t. So she tried, she tried so hard to be more like her older sister. She remembers clearly being at the public pool one summer afternoon. Their mother seated along side. She jumped up and down and waved at her, trying to get her to watch while she raced as quick as she could across the pool. She surfaced only to find her mother gone, helping Emily with something. She hadn’t been very fast anyway. Not nearly as fast as Emily would have been.

They weren’t a wealthy family, not with their mother’s income and haphazard child support payments from their father. That fact just seemed to exacerbate things... made tensions higher. More blame to be shoveled around. By the time Jax reached middle school she knew that things were never going to change. She was never going to be good enough in her mother’s eyes. Told so more times than she could count. “Do you have to be so messy.” “Can’t you just sit quietly like your sister.” “Take that off you’ll just stretch out your sister’s shirt.”

Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you.

They did though. If you let them. So Jax set about taking that power away. She would never be her sister so she wasn’t going to try anymore. In fact she’d likely do just the opposite. She defined herself by liking whatever her sister hated, by being everything that her sister was not. She was always heavier and maybe if she’d stopped feeding her anger and frustration with her family she could have slimmed down naturally. Instead... every time she caught a disapproving look or watched her sister succeed she found a meal that loved her. She fought against everything her mother said, fought against her sister. She told them she didn’t give a shit and she’d do what she fucking wanted. Which she did... when she wasn’t grounded.

Her grades failed and she found her way to more tattoo’s, a tongue piercing that made her mother nearly faint. All the while her sister was graduating with honors and going off to college and even law school. Well pin a rose on her fucking nose. Didn’t need to be a brainiac to be a worthwhile person.

Jax’s sophomore year of high school brought about a new tattoo on her shoulder and word that her father, the esteemed man, had been killed in a car accident. Jax felt no sorrow. Hard to feel grief over someone you never knew. All she did grieve was getting to know why... the one question she’d never been able to ask him in the few letters that had been sent. Why had he left? Had he really not wanted to have another kid? Was it her... questions that she’d never know the answer to now. Buried with him, across the country.

Jax had thought... for a brief moment that when her sister left for school in Boston that things would be better. That maybe her mom would lay off her back for a while. Didn’t really work that way. Instead without the angel child in the house, put all the focus on her. It was in that brief moment that she had an inkling of what it was like for her sister.

Didn’t change her opinion though. Too long set and too much hurt had come her way.

Her sister came home for the summer after her first year of law school. Jax couldn’t have been more excited... right. The summer seemed normal. Jax constantly fighting with her mother, her sister... One such fight had been had and Jax stormed out to... what had her mother said... ‘go to the graveyard and hang out with her freak friends.’ Right. Or to the 7-11 for a slurpee, same difference. A few hours later and a cop car was pulling up to the 7-11 where she was still hanging out with her usual group of miscreants. She nearly ran. But she was never very good at that. The cops weren’t there to bust them for possession of everyone’s favorite vegetable matter or loitering, rather they wanted to talk to her. Something about an animal attack... and that they needed to get her to the hospital, her sister was there.

It was in that one moment that she remembered that she did love her sister. Hated her for a lot of things but loved her just the same. They were blood. They’d said that her mom and her sister had been out an older highway. Had stopped for a flat tire... when it happened. A vicious animal attack. One that had left her mother dead and her sister badly injured. She sat at the hospital numb, sat next to her sister’s bed until she woke up and told her exactly what the police had told her.

She didn’t know what to think. Jax didn't know how to feel about the loss of her mother. She'd spent most of her life hating the woman... but she had been her mom, the only one she was going to get. She did what she did best and buried away any feelings of sorrow or confusion. There was enough going on with the fact that it was only the two of them now. Whatever that meant. She didn’t know how to look at her sister without their mother there to provide the proper lens for viewing. They came home from the hospital and was par for her sister... the girl threw herself into every aspect of the funeral. Always the responsible one. So Jax did the only thing she knew how to do. Fell back into her familiar role as well. The only thing she knew to do.

It had been about a month, something like that, since Jax had been picked up from in front of that 7-11. Life had gone one... harder but it was still going as it always did. They were both at home, that first full moon after her sister's attack. Jax was watching a movie, probably one that her sister hated, but those details were lost. As the moon came out though Jax watched as all those horror movies she’d adored over the years came to life before her very eyes.

Way more fucked up than any director could ever really manage.

She’d hadn’t know what to do. What are you supposed to do when your sister turns into... a werewolf before your very eyes. All she’d managed to do was a whole lot of swearing, screaming and kicking. Maybe it was karma coming back to kick her ass for all those years of Jax telling Emily to bite her.

She finally took it literally.

It wasn’t bad. Not enough to send Jax to the hospital. Although stitches probably would have helped it heal better than it did. But as good a liar as she was she didn’t think she’d do well to come up with an explanation for what had happened that night. It was just too fucked up. It was clear though for both of them that something they’d only thought to be in horror movies was quite real.

Was them.

Her sister set about figuring it out. Jax... Jax was curious in her own right but couldn’t help but smirk about it all. For once she was just the same as her sister. Funny how that worked. Her sister’s search for knowledge brought about the interest of a Scout for Halcyon who contacted them both, bringing them into the fold at the school.

Jax is optimistic about it all, as optimistic as she gets that is. She doesn’t tend to see her new life as hindering. It wasn't like she had some big life plan going on before. Her life was just day to day, waiting to get the hell out of dodge. That's what was happening now. Seemed to work out pretty good. And... Hell if she doesn’t fit in at this school of freaks, she knows she won’t fit in anywhere.

Family:
- David Collins – Father (deceased, car accident)
- Jeanette Collins – Mother (deceased, werewolf attack)
- Samantha Collins – Sister (bitch is still alive unfortunately) fatebites
Weakness: Aversion to silver, hurts, leaves scars and is much harder to heal. Decapitation. Rejection. Her sister. Skinny boys with tight jeans.
Magical Abilities: N/A
Any Training: Barely passing grades in regular high school. Plenty of training in being a smart ass.
Special Skills: Heals faster and is stronger by moonlight. Air guitar champ but learning the real thing. Can cook fucking amazing quesadilla’s.
House: House of Fire
Number of years in Halcyon: Late August 2006
Classes:
Magical Creatures: Study and Handling (mid morning)
Super natural feeding habits (late morning)
Inner beast control (late afternoon)
AIM Name: Cellar28door06
Rooming with: ALONE now