THE PHYSICAL:

Hair: Straight. Medium blonde. Fairly thin. Long (just shy of long enough to sit on). Worn with bangs that are usually a bit shaggy, often multiple-braided or pigtailed or adorned with silly ornaments.

Eyes: Wide-set. Upslanted. Too big for her face by a fair margin. Granny-Smith-apple-green. Downward-angled fairly thick eyebrows that give her a severe expression most of the time.

Nose: Small and turned up.

Mouth: Thin lips. Full set of baby teeth—never got adult teeth—fairly straight and in good condition.

Skin: Pale, smooth and unblemished. Doesn’t tan well, but rarely burns.

Face: Sharp chin. High cheekbones. Pointed ears.

Age: By book 5, 18 years old.

Height: Tall (by book 5, height is 5’11”)

Weight: Very skinny (about 95 pounds)

Body: Bony and child-like, fragile appearance, long arms and legs. No pinkie fingers or pinkie toes. Bitten-off fingernails. Right-handed.

Ethnicity: Most would say she looks mainly Caucasian, but definitely like she has some trace of Asian heritage based on her bone structure and her eyelids—this turns out to be true, as her mother is Chinese and her father is a light-skinned American mutt.

Distinguishing features: Spindly hands and feet with no pinkie fingers or toes, bitten-off fingernails, lack of secondary sex characteristics, and her pointed ears and oversized eyes.

Voice: High and childish. New York accent. High, cackly laugh.

Gestures: Mischievous smile, biting lip or fingernails when nervous, a chilling glare with narrowed eyes or an “intimidation stare” with wide-open eyes and a thrust-out chin, crossed arms when she’s feeling obstinate (which is often), easy blushing, and possibly an overuse of her middle finger as an answer.

Clothing and style: Wears little skirts or jeans made for slim people with creative belts (scarves, ropes), little-boy shirts or cute girlie tops, and lots of plastic jewelry and bangles. Avoids wearing socks, but often wears high-top basketball sneakers if wearing shoes at all. Likes painted fingernails. Has no tattoos or piercings.

THE PERSONAL:

General mood: Variable—as a default Ivy is carefree and a bit naïve, but that turns to mischief easily and she has a short fuse which is dangerous to light.

Talents and abilities: Her most obvious talent is her ability to move things without touching them: Telekinetic powers with very few limits. (She can lift herself to fly, and lift other people and things of virtually any weight or size, as well as influence water and air.) Related to this, she also has a talent for making artistic winds, though few understand what it means to her. The energy she uses for this ability also has a feedback aspect, enabling her to gather tactile feedback on any object she handles remotely. She has unusually good distance vision and better-than-average hearing, but no other enhanced senses. Mundanely, she’s a decent singer and has a natural resourcefulness and quick reflexes. She plays basketball fairly well and can swim marginally (learned how in Book 4). She has a good sense of direction.

Weaknesses and shortcomings: Her manual dexterity and balance, math and writing abilities, handwriting, and culinary skills are abysmal, and very close-up her vision is not very good. She has a short attention span and is often impatient, and easy to anger. Because of the feedback aspect of her power, she can’t levitate electrically-charged or very hot or cold things without being negatively affected.

Interests: She likes singing, learning new sports and skills, eating, flying, making wind, creating sandcastles, being with her friends, and teasing/taunting others.

Pet peeves: Being disrespected, being left out, feeling out of the loop, having people afraid of her, being teased about her appearance, having to conform to standards she doesn’t respect.

Phobias: She is claustrophobic but rarely in a situation in which it manifests.

Eating habits: Likes to eat often, is a very big fan of snacks. Generally small meals. Has very few dislikes, but tends to distrust food she’s never seen before or that looks suspicious to her. Really likes cheese, sweets, ham, sweet pickles, and french fries.

Education: She has been given a meager education of basic skills and knowledge by her foster mother, Adele, and is of average to slightly above-average intelligence, just sometimes seems lower because of her vast ignorance of culture.

Language abilities: Speaks one language, English. Speaks forcefully in short sentences but also has a tendency to rant. Her vocabulary is fairly large but liberally sprinkled with foul language.

Occupation: No “real” job, obviously, but balances her time between counseling less secure friends, doing errands others want her to do, engaging in social events, and helping Ruben with his workshops. Depending on her mood, sometimes she’ll go teach criminals a lesson, too.

Political affiliation: No understanding of politics.

Religious beliefs: No real understanding of religion. Undecided.

Sexual orientation: Has no interest in sex (no adult hormones, apparently), but has the capacity to love deeply.

Marital status: Single and unattached, by choice. Zeke tried to change that once. She said no.

Family information: Has a blood-relative family—immediate family is father (Fred Fisher), mother (Meri Lin Ling), and brother (Ben Fisher-Ling). Hasn’t known them most of her life. Considers herself to have “8 families” based on various “beyond-friendship” feelings.

Friend information: Weaver has been her best friend since childhood. Later Ruben is in the running for this position. Very close with Nina, Bailey, Nicholas, and Max. Ivy has MANY friends, some of whom she considers family.

Other information: She likes very cold temperatures, but doesn’t much like the heat. Can easily latch onto ideas and fixate; in the past, has had obsessions with her friend Nina, her wind art, pretending to be normal, and trying to help others. Analyzes herself too much. Often enters into new relationships cringing inside at their possible reaction to her while paradoxically wanting them to make something of it.

THE STORY:

Born in New York City. Raised by parents who had no clue what to do with her for two years, then escaped and lived on the streets scrounging and using her abilities to help provide for herself. Sometimes accepted hospitality from various good citizens. Found by Adele and taken home to the beach to be raised there with role models Alix, Dax, Weaver, and sometimes Neptune. Eventually helped Adele with divinations and participated in a mission which led to their acquiring a house—The house that Ivy built. Spent years as the diplomat, recruiting likely candidates for the house. Met Nina in Book 1 and became more aware of and interested in the human world. Throughout the other books, has been gathering information and having experiences related to the outside, and finding herself more and more comfortable there. Her main purpose in the books is to explore herself in relation to the world, providing interesting “stranger in a strange land” observations of the familiar world and going through specialized but practically archetypal coming-of-age scenarios to find herself. Has explored the meaning of society, religion, love (and how it compares to romantic relations), art, family, friendship, being extraordinary, being normal, and being herself.

FAVORITE IVY QUOTES:

“The outside world? With all those humans running the show? They can keep it.” –Book 1, chapter 2

“I’m really a magical elf from a mirror world, but you found me out, so I’ll have to go back home now or else I’ll be required to grant you three wishes.” –Book 1, chapter 4

I smiled at her trust. She was jumping off roofs for me, I really had her now. –Book 1, chapter 6

“You think you’re hot shit, picking on people who’re just minding their own business?” . . . “How about I mind your business for a while, huh?” –Book 1, chapter 8

“You better quit messing with me. I could kick your ass without getting up off of this bed. So watch yourself.” –Book 1, chapter 12

“And the worst of it is, I was sitting there at the table, and every time someone called my name and I looked up, it wasn’t to ask me a question or to include me or whatever, it was to say, ‘Would you pass the salt?’” –Book 1, chapter 12

I expected people to like me for who I was, but what side of me was I showing them? I realized how much I tended to make fools out of people, pissing them off and tricking them, intriguing them and then flying away, waving my butt in their faces. How could I expect people to like me if that was all I ever did? –Book 1, chapter 12

There is nothing in the world like flying at night. –Book 1, chapter 12

“What does being tall have to do with basketball, anyway?” –Book 1, chapter 13

People just didn’t understand that my having telekinetic abilities did not mean that I should automatically want to use them for the greater good. Or to commit crimes, for God’s sake. I didn’t want to rob a bank with my powers, I wanted to use them to pour my cereal. I wanted to live, period, and have people stop bothering me. –Book 1, chapter 15

“I’m not human. Therefore, your rules don’t apply to me.” –Book 1, chapter 15

“Fine, be a skeptic if you want to, I don’t give a shit.” . . . “You can believe whatever you feel like believing, but it hardly stops me from doing this.” My angry wind blew quite a few papers off his desk. –Book 1, chapter 15

For some reason I kept waking up with butterflies in my stomach. I couldn’t help thinking that this feeling was very uncharacteristic of me. Then I realized that it was only uncharacteristic of the Ivy everyone knew: The confident, cocky, I-can-do-anything Ivy; the real me was a whole different story. –Book 2, chapter 4

I felt a strange sense of futility fill me, and it hurt. Suddenly it seemed as if I shouldn’t even be breathing the same air as the two humans in the room with me. I was stupid to think I could’ve ever fit into society; I would always be on the outside, allowed to interact but never to belong. I would be the perpetual Something Else in a world of normal people, and there was no way to break in. I was dumb to have even tried. –Book 2, chapter 5

“Weaver, get off my face.” –Book 2, chapter 8

A slow smile spread across my lips as I contemplated learning to sing. Maybe everything I had been good at in my life had gone back in some way or another to my powers, but this wasn’t going to. I could show this to people, and really be good, and they would be impressed without being afraid or angry at the same time. –Book 2, chapter 9

“It’s okay to worry, really, I’m a formidable enemy!” –Book 2, chapter 9

“I just don’t want to be an exhibit. You don’t understand how often that’s happened to me. It’s not fun anymore.” –Book 2, chapter 10

“You’re hopeless, Cecily. I hope you get crabs.” --Book 2, chapter 10

“It’s kind of a long story,” I said, then glanced away from her toward the back of the bus so she’d know I didn’t want to talk about it. I’d save that for after I’d figured out my story. –Book 2, chapter 11

“Wait, run that by me again? I’m supposed to do what to my eyebrows?” –Book 2, chapter 11

Life seemed to become “normal.” All of a sudden it was so easy to be human. The people at my school had accepted me as one of them despite my differences. It seemed like that should have made me happy, since I’d been striving for exactly that. However, while it really made me happy when I was in the right mood, most of the time it made me feel like my identity had been erased, or that there was so much I hadn’t shared that they really didn’t know me. I even stopped thinking of it as “their world,” or even a separate one from the one I considered “mine.” –Book 2, chapter 19

I couldn’t go back home because I wasn’t me anymore. I wasn’t Ivy . . . or Ivy wasn’t me, or someone else was Ivy. Or Ivy was somebody else. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be someone else or if I wanted to be me and stop having to be somebody else, but it was a sure thing that I definitely wasn’t sure who I was right then, and I knew I couldn’t face anyone else if I couldn’t find myself. –Book 2, chapter 26

People were still going to act the same once they saw what I was capable of. It was human nature, and I couldn’t expect them to not be human. Any more than they could expect me to not be whatever I was. I decided that since I couldn’t change them, I would have to learn to deal with them, and get real. –Book 2, chapter 28

I skipped rocks across the surface of the pond, making it all the way across every time. That was because I was cheating, but . . . I liked to cheat. I smiled. –Book 2, chapter 30

“I don’t even know what an elf is supposed to look like, so I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult.” –Book 2, chapter 35

I was exhilarated and scared by the stage . . . but in a weird, almost demented way, I liked it. –Book 2, chapter 36

“So you’ve got a thing for weird-looking chicks who regularly pound your ass into the ground, then?” –Book 3, chapter 7

“I’m not a witch. I’m only a telekinetic girl, that’s it. I don’t even own a broom.” –Book 3, chapter 8

“Some of my best friends are human!” –Book 3, chapter 18

“Well, being me is a pain in the ass sometimes.” –Book 3, chapter 20

“I want to know how to think of myself. Am I a . . . a talking bird or a flying human? Am I one of them who’s different, or an alien who happens to be human in some ways? I just don’t understand.” –Book 3, chapter 21

I looked at myself in the mirror. I supposed I didn’t look too different from humans, even if I was a bit underdeveloped for my age. All the parts fit together about right. –Book 3, chapter 22

“Why is it that just because I’m telekinetic I gotta be something special? I didn’t ask to be this way, it just happened to me. So why should I have all this responsibility if I never signed anything?” –Book 3, chapter 22

“What am I supposed to say my qualifications are, telekinesis and a bitching degree?” –Book 3, chapter 22

I felt totally airsick. It was this freaky feeling I’d never had before of not liking the openness on all sides of me. I was so sick of it I wanted to kill something. –Book 3, chapter 24

What’s wrong with you? You’re treating me like a person. –Book 3, chapter 25

“Believe it or not, I’ve calmed down a lot.” –Book 3, chapter 27

I didn’t want to end up in a power struggle with him, because I knew I’d win and then I’d have to deal with that. –Book 3, chapter 30

I was the only one involved in the show who didn’t really have any talent, even though it was obvious that everyone else thought I was the one with a talent that stood out. It seemed empty next to all those people who’d worked hard on theirs. –Book 3, chapter 31

“I mean, if I seem mysterious to them, why don’t they just ask me questions or something, instead of trying to talk about me behind my back?” –Book 3, chapter 33

“I’m supposed to feel something when I kiss people, aren’t I?” . . . “I don’t understand it. I like you a lot but I don’t like kissing you. What the hell is wrong with me?” –Book 3, chapter 34

“Ruben, some of the people I live with have fur, okay? I know three people with wings. I was not strange where I come from.” –Book 3, chapter 34

“I really hate to sound rude but if you believe aliens are running around on Earth you need to get real.” –Book 4, chapter 3

“Could you please pull yourself together or get the hell out of my room?” –Book 4, chapter 8

I began to entertain myself by pondering how the airplane worked. Its wings didn’t flap or anything, so I wondered how it was staying aloft. It was like some invisible force was keeping it up, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with that. I was used to seeing things held in the air invisibly, but it was always my invisible force, not some unknown one. I felt creepy, knowing I was being transported by something I couldn’t comprehend. –Book 4, chapter 12

“That isn’t what I said. Did I say ‘beat the shit out of me’? I don’t think so. I said we’re going to have a little talk. So do what I say.” –Book 4, chapter 13

“I’m sure I have weird genes.” –Book 4, chapter 13

My eyes were nice in a Japanese cartoon kind of way. –Book 4, chapter 19

“Well, even I can’t fly away from everything. If you could fly you still couldn’t get away from yourself.” –Book 4, chapter 21

I’d had friends who were perfectly okay knowing I was telekinetic until it started to show. –Book 4, chapter 23

I’d never seen anyone faint from surprise before. I’d thought it only happened in cheesy movies. –Book 4, chapter 23

I don’t get phone calls, that’s absurd. –Book 4, chapter 27

“This is real, Max. You better believe it, too, you don’t have the imagination for it.” –Book 4, chapter 30

I wondered if anyone was thinking of me the way I was thinking of them. Then I remembered how many family members I had, and I realized the chances that someone was thinking about me were very good. –Book 4, chapter 35

“You know what? I really don’t want to go through puberty, it sounds gross. I hope it never happens to me.” –Book 4, chapter 39

“I don’t know if I’m special or not. Sometimes I just get tired of being treated ‘special’ just ’cause I’m a freak, I want people to think I’m special because of things I do on purpose, not ’cause of things that aren’t my fault.” . . . “I am tired of being special, but I want to be special. Does that make any sense?” –Book 4, chapter 39

“Ruben’s friend asked me as soon as he met me if I was ‘the same Ivy with that flying power thing.’ I wonder if Ruben even mentioned anything about me to Jesse when he talked about me? Like, saying I have telekinesis is like saying I have green eyes, it’s like so what? I can’t help it. But I can help it if I’m going to be a bitch or a nice person. I want to be a girl who happens to be telekinetic, and it just seems like too often people think I’m just a cool power that happens to be attached to some girl. I don’t want to be my power, I’m just tired of it being my whole identity.” –Book 4, chapter 39

“I bet you think you suddenly become unique when you dye your hair.” –Book 4, chapter 41

When I was trying to look human I looked like something was wrong with me, like someone who lacked good knowledge of facial proportions had done a drawing and brought me to life. –Book 4, chapter 42

We heard everyone’s opinions on the seasonal decoration idea, which faded into more discussions about sprucing up the clubhouse. I found myself getting bored and a little depressed with the subject matter. We were (probably) the first ever club for people with extraordinary abilities and we used our meetings to discuss décor? Stupid. –Book 5, chapter 1

I wished he would look at me so I could get used to being looked at by him. –Book 5, chapter 2

“Great. So I’m the chauffeur and the magic locksmith.” –Book 5, chapter 9

“I’m tired. But I feel like I can’t ever go to sleep.” –Book 5, chapter 11

I suddenly realized I couldn’t give up my former life, any aspect of it, any more than I could look the other way during a kidnapping. It was all part of who I was, even the parts where I denied other parts. How was I going to balance it all? –Book 5, chapter 11

“People living and dying is more important than your self-esteem.” –Book 5, chapter 14