Maya Ishii-Peters

Living… in the suburbs of the mid-90s. Most of the time she’s with her mom while Dad is out on the road with his Steely Dan cover band. She also lives her brother who teaches her self-defense after the jerks at school become too much to handle.

Profession… middle school student looking for her place on the social ladder. Maya desperately wants to fit in with the cool kids. She wants to do everything with her best friend Anna. Anna and Maya are inseparable; in fact, a lot of their arguments start when one of them decides to do something without the other one.

Interests... ever-changing. She’ll be totally obsessed with something one second, and the next realize it’s “for babies.” Maya likes hitting up AOL chat rooms and posing as an older woman. Maya desperately wants a solo in the school band so she can impress her dad while he’s home on tour to see her performance.

Relationship status... an ever-changing fantasy that consumes her very existence. The worst day of Maya’s life arguably was when she was labeled UGIS by her school crushes Brandt and Dustin. She has a real sensitive streak; the wrong comment by the wrong person can send her reeling for days. She is desperate to make out for the first time and hates that only the most random guys develop crushes on her.

Challenge... navigating adolescence. Maya can show her lack of maturity at times, lashing out at her peers and elders and generally throwing emotional fits when things don’t go her way. She isn’t above changing her personality in order to please others. That’s the thing about Maya – she’s still forming her personality, looking for cues from others to learn what the right way to be is. She has a silly streak that half the time pays off socially and the other time causes her to be even more ostracized than before.

Personality... shy and eccentric. She’s fundamentally introverted – the worst thing that could happen to her is for everyone’s eyes to be on her. Yet she has these occasional spaz moments that wipe away any social goodwill she’s built. She is desperate to be worth noticing and liking, and she is willing to change anything about herself just to momentarily gain the cooler kids’ approval. But there are still lines she won’t cross, because deep down, she does know she was raised better.