What's in a Name?

Dahlia Buckley

Dahlia Buckley- Indian-Canadian (Tamil ancestry); Dahlia Buckley is the adoptive younger sister of Alec Buckley and best friend of Maja Stojanovic, who attends the middle school as a 7th grader. She is presented to be among the most quiet and mellow within her friend group, while also being supportive of them and always having their back. Despite being deadpan and stoic most of the time, she tends to act just as excitably as the rest of her friends and desires to find social acceptance. She is interested in anything that is macabre and often seen reading vampire romance novels, making poses such as crossing her arms when she is lying down and admitting that she "always wanted a tail". Dahlia is a fun-loving, yet sometimes wild and chaotic preteen who can be quite aggressive, as shown when she confidently punched Maja when she requested for it. She isn't the brightest in terms of intelligence, as she occasionally gives misinformation by remembering things wrongly, although she likes to help others. She loves to her cuddle her sister pet gerbil Rufus because she considers him "very fluffy", and she genuinely cares about her best friend, which makes her decide to give up her Sza tickets to her. She is easygoing, loyal, a bit of a tomboy, and can make people laugh when they need it most, and she is also very nurturing and kind. Dahlia's first language is Hindi, causing her to speak English with a bit of an accent, and she is originally from Chennai, India, where she lived in an orphanage before being adopted by a Canadian family. It was revealed that her parents initially thought they were adopting a baby due to a typo on her adoption records saying he was born in 2021, rather than 2011. 

She is eager to learn about American culture and loves exploring the city, and she seems to get pranked a lot by her older brothers. Her favorite food is Hawaiian barbecue chicken pizza, although she also likes to eat biryani and has looked up the recipe to make it at home. Dahlia is a precocious kid who enjoys playing video games, although she is against violence and is not considered good in a crisis. She worries about other people and tends to think with her heart, which can potentially cloud her judgment and cause her to struggle when making rational decisions. She will often scream in Hindi when she is angry or scared, and she has often made references to India, claiming that Shah Rukh Khan is her favorite actor. She has been known to be very smart in some ways but often does poorly in sports, as seen when she doesn't make the cheerleading squad when both she and Maja try out. Dahlia is an idealistic, optimistic, well-rounded starry-eyed girl who does her best to aim high, and while she is somewhat naive, she is almost never moody. She describes her romantic life to be very embarrassing and sad and states that she has never been on a date where something hasn't gone wrong. Even though she tends to get extremely jealous and annoyed at times, she always does her best to make things right at the end. She is a straight B student who has a squeaky clean record and according to her peers, has a square, plump face, full lips, and a curvy body. Unlike Maja, Dahlia tends to go with the flow and is perfectly content with simply being a kid, showing little interest in makeup or fashion. She tends to consider her perfect Saturday morning to be watching cartoon shows on television and can often be found drawing pictures in her bedroom in her spare time. 

She approaches Kirsten Lundgren and her clique in a neutral way and often questions Maja's desires to associate with them, encouraging her to be authentic to herself. She nevertheless joins her in participating in the Pleases and Sparkles club and helps create list with everyone else, in addition to having fun listening to Bruno Mars. Dahlia is very much a homebody and prefers to do calmer activities in her free time, finding enjoyment in sitting down in a library and reading for hours. She can also be responsible and very mature for her age, showing a desire to be hired to work at a local restaurant selling hot dogs to save some money. She tends to plan ahead and is always thinking about the future, hoping to attend college at NYU in order to major in business. She also cares about pleasing her father and tends to be hard on herself when she has been punished for something, particularly when it is beyond her control. Dahlia is also a Directioner, as she tends to bring the band up in random conversations or dreams and has a poster of them in her bedroom. She has a very good sisterly bond with Alec, but she usually fights with and occasionally develops a bit of a sibling rivalry with him. She has still proven to be a typical rebellious teen on occasion, as seen when she was being wrongfully influenced by her friends and wore too much makeup while dying her hair purple. The second time was when she went through a phase and had a bad attitude towards and her siblings, wearing inappropriate clothing for school, and standing in front of Estella with her arms crossed in a rude gesture. Dahlia appears to be very likable among her peers and can easily make friends, which is partially why she is accepted among the most popular kids at her school. 

There are times in which she can appear a bit nervous however, most notably when she finds herself in an unfamiliar situation or surrounded by people she doesn't know too well. Throughout her life, her family had hired many nannies, but the kids misbehaved so much due to wanting their parents' attention that they all quit until her family hired a their most recent one, a 21 year old woman named Estella. Although she gets mad at Estella often for not understanding her, she loves her very much and treats her as though she were her sister. Dahlia is into online games, specifically MMORPGs, as she was once seen playing a game about Camelot on the BAU network, constantly virtually meeting with "Sir Kneighf", an online alter ego who turns out to be an older woman. She is also quite skilled when it comes to computers, a trait she shares with her brother, and tends to be very tech savvy and knowledgeable of the latest IPhone brands. She likes to watch YouTube clips and often plays music on her laptop computer while working on an assignment for a class. She also plays ASMR videos and claims that they help her relax after a long day of being outside or attending school, which her brother will often poke fun at. Dahlia's family also goes to the Unitarian Universalist Church every Sunday, and she also attends bible studies every Wednesday evening and sings in a choir. She has previously gone to a spiritual retreat to a camp site with the kids from her church and realized she had a love for nature during this time. She admits that she doesn't pray very often however and has yet to go through the water communion, despite regularly going to her church's youth service since she was 12 years old. 

She is not very interested in the concept of angels either and tells Maja that she believes in God in her own way, claiming that shouldn't need to go to church constantly to prove her faith. Dahlia is an average height, Indian-Canadian 12-year-old girl with brown eyes, thick eyebrows, deeply tanned skin, and curly, wavy dark brown hair that falls right past her shoulders. She wears navy glasses with black frames, along with shiny mini gold hoop earrings placed on her ear holes and a gold nose piercing as nose jewelry. Her usual clothing consists of a quarter stripy yellow shirt with a small zipper on the top of it, baggy ochre cargo pants that feature pockets and grey sneakers that have blue lacings. She also wears black nail polish, a grayish-yellow watch on her left arm and a rainbow friendship bracelet on the right arm, and her bangs are parted and slightly curled. Dahlia's gothic interests are further displayed at Kirsten's party when she acts out mortality for a charades game and when she utters the phrase "Thank Cthulhu," after Meygan Davis arrived at the party. She uses her technological skills to photoshop an image of Maja that instantly boosts her popularity at school, although there is a wedge that comes between them when her best friend suddenly develops a big ego. She reconciles with her when she helps her realize that the attention she was receiving was disingenuous, after which she reverts back to her former self. She likewise develops a close friendship with Priya Rayapati, a fellow South Asian student and treats her in a sympathetic way. Dahlia grows up to be a hardworking, levelheaded woman who is career-oriented and largely successful, although she retains a few of her childhood quirks. She is shown to have studied economics at NYU and mentions that she is working as an actuary, enjoying life as a single, independent woman in the city. ENFP 6w7