Chaya's Character Descriptions

Olivia Harrison-Long

Olivia Harrison was born on April 11th, 1980. She had a tough childhood-- her parents were rather disadvantaged in terms of money, and she was a frequent target of bullying at school because she was one of the few African-American students in a school of racist white hicks. She didn't have very many friends until the sixth grade when she met Daria Muniz, who preferred to go by Deja.

Olivia admired Deja's fearlessness and rebellion towards authority, although she wouldn't know where it came from until many years into the future. The two were the best of friends; they frequented the playground that sat aside the police station in their town, the convenience store that they spent all their pocket change at, and the school playground after hours when nobody was in the building and they had it all to themselves. 

Despite being best friends with such a rebellious person, Olivia managed to stay out of trouble. She rarely missed school, got straight A's, graduated in the top of her class, never got suspended, and only got detention once. Or, she stayed out of trouble until she knew she couldn't anymore.

Her best friend was arrested in February of 1998.

By this point in time, Olivia was fully aware of the horrors that went on in the Muniz home. She felt her friend was fully justified in what she did, and she spent four long years gathering together witnesses and evidence to prove that her friend was innocent. 

In this four year timespan, not only did Olivia meet her now-husband Ryan Long, but she had her daughter, Angelina, in September of 2000. Angelina was only three-and-a-half years old when Daria had finally gotten released from prison, so she didn't know then exactly what her mother had done for her friend. Currently, Angelina is eighteen years old, and she regards her mother as a hero for saving her friend and freeing her from prison. 

Olivia works on small projects at home for extra money, such as knitting, painting, mending clothes for friends, and photographing people in the neighborhood who are not able to afford a fancy portrait studio but would still like nice pictures. Her husband is an engineer at Air Products. Her daughter, Angelina, is a senior in the local technical high school. She's majoring in masonry. 

Overall, Olivia feels she's had a rather nice life. She's proud of the person she's become, and incredibly grateful to her parents, her best friend, her husband, and her daughter for supporting her all these years. She's currently thirty-eight years old.