What's in a Name?

Hannah Abigail Quigley

Hannah Abigail Quigley- Irish-American ancestry; Hannah Quigley is a very sweet and caring, if slightly scatterbrained young girl who quickly becomes Mia Vasquez-Rivera's best friend when her family first moves to New York. She is characteristically dreamy, fairly intelligent, and curious, but is often misunderstood due to her quirky and sometimes awkward personality. Her greatest passion is helping others and creating art, as indicated by the pervasive amount of drawing she used to do on her bedroom walls when she was a child. She is considered to be a bit of a misfit by her classmates and tends to stick close to Mia's side whenever she is at school, with many of the people claiming that they are both attached at the hip. Good-natured and unassuming, Hannah is a loving and sincere girl at heart who has a pure, childlike quality to her demeanor. She can usually be seen acting goofily during her playful exchanges with her super best friend, whom she has come to refer to as "the SpongeBob to her Patrick". She didn't have a lot of close friends prior to meeting Mia and had a similarly difficult time relating to other people of her own, which caused her to greatly value their deep friendship. She was seen as clumsy and nervous, but friendly and secretly yearned for a sense of belonging among her peers, as well as increased popularity. Although she was usually quiet and low-key while at school, Hannah often felt conflicted between her desires to blend in and stand out among her classmates. She tried navigating the world around her and spent a lot of her time wanting to find her true place in life, seeking to figure out "the rules". Despite her attempts at fitting in, she had a vivid imagination and an unparalleled sense of morality that set her apart from her peers.

Her self-conscious demeanor made her appear increasingly socially timid however and earned her a reputation of being something of an ungainly klutz, although she would always pop back up again with a good-humored, but rueful smile. Hannah's well-meaning attempts at being personable while befriending some of the other kids led to her being labeled as "weird" and "annoying" by those who did not quite understand her, bringing about periods of rejection when all she wanted deep down was a meaningful connection. She had a habit of taking things personally, which caused her to begin seeing other people's mistreatment of her as a reflection of who she actually was as a person. With her strong dislike for feeling left out, this resulted in her being rather isolated among her peer group during her early years, never quite knowing what it felt like to have a true friend. She most notably befriended Kirsten Lundgren, a pretty, freckled blonde who was about a year older than her and snidely disregarded their friendship upon bonding with two other girls who had similarly rhyming names. Hannah slightly envied Kirsten's sociability and good looks, admiring her long white-blonde hair and describing it as "the color of corn silk", along with her ski jump nose and heavy black mascara. She revealed herself to be impressionable and tenderhearted, with a painful, innate desire to love and be loved by others. Being unaware and thinking it was her own blunders that caused her situation, she would retreat inward, trying to escape what was happening by living inside her inner world. She became something of an outsider by the time she reached first grade, as her mistake of mispronouncing Kirsten's name would cost her much of her popularity with her peers. Hannah's innocently mischievous personality could lead her to feel alienated at times from her fellow children, especially in the light of her mother's death. 

Even as an infant, she was eager to get into paints, pens, keys, or any other grown-up objects that seemed unattainable and therefore deeply compelling to her. She enjoyed playing outside and never wore shoes, feeling genuinely surprised by the fact that everyone was looking for her after she had wandered off and become lost. She had trouble thinking things through and was often more determined to gain the approval of her peers than she was heedful of her father's advice. Hannah tried practicing the multiplication tables up to 12 and memorizing all of the presidents on her own, as well as the state capitals and time zones. She had volunteered to look after Gus, the classroom's pet gerbil, who actually lived to be three years old, and the campus' motto was "the world is our province". She learned all about the Lewis and Clark expedition near the end of the school year and always had geography lessons in the mornings but spent a lot more time attempting to solve the word problems during math. She was the first person in Room One to ever have a loose upper tooth, which her teacher politely returned to her with an attached note the following day, and she wanted to be the wake up fairy. Hannah also has some deep emotional scars left over from the loss of her mother at an early age and became a bit of a "floater" as she found different ways to partake in social groups. She tended to feel alone at times when her classmates chose to pursue certain activities with their other friends, including parties and similar events that would take place outside of school. The girls at her school were not always nice to her, as she would sometimes begin to cry unexpectedly whenever she felt angry, frustrated, or upset. This led her to develop some escapist tendencies as she became more preoccupied with her own thoughts and doodled upon her worksheets in place of note-taking.