What's in a Name?

Alicia Morales

Alicia Morales- Mexican (mother); Salvadorian (father);  Alicia Morales is a bright, intellectually curious girl with a love of history and architecture, desiring to build a lasting monument in years to come. She is Jorge Ortega's best friend and frequent confidant, harboring something of a sibling-like relationship with him. She uses both the right and left side of her brain and comes across as a bit cold, aloof, and hard to get to know during her initial interactions with others, as well as potentially harsh and judgmental upon first meeting. She can seem somewhat prideful on occasion, boasting on her intellect and acting as though her vast array of knowledge is superior to that of others, but can also be passionate and emotional. Studious and driven, Alicia is very dedicated to her studies and aspires to study architecture at a good university in California, where many of her relatives live. She is often embarrassed by her own failings and can feel ashamed if she hasn't been able to accomplish a task to her standards, as she tries to be a good, responsible daughter. Although seeming distant and unapproachable at first glance, she proves to be much more open and kindhearted once you have earned her trust, during which she will prove herself to be a loyal and consistent friend. She typically appears to have a serious, academic persona that seems implacable, but will loosen up when exposed to the right people. Alicia's parents own a trucking company in Valley Stream, a suburb in Long Island, New York and are also in the laundromat business. She tries to come across as the voice of reason among herself and her older sister Itzel, whom was creative and rebellious, yet laid back and aborted her unborn child at 15 years old. She is close to her niece Genesis and often interacts with her, although she seeks to achieve higher accomplishments in her life and reach her goals independently, with little desire of becoming a mother at first. 

She describes herself as a pet lover whom would like to be a fur mom, although she wouldn't mind having one child in the distant future of it ever happens. Alicia is mature and quite ingenious, as she tends to stick to herself, has only a few close friends, uses big words, and according to Itzel, all she cares about is her computer. She doesn't necessarily like forming strong opinions on a subject matter unless it directly challenges or interferes with her personal values, which can lead her to appear relatively calm and collected until someone pushes her too far. She is multitalented and has shown a wide number of interests and skills, showing exceptional abilities in science and some degree of talent with history and foreign languages. She is also a mathlete and plays the clarinet for and is a member of the high school band alongside her crush, Connor Tran, and she can be sociable and even friendly on some occasions. Alicia tends to be rather quiet and bookish, often retreating into her own mind and spending her leisure time in libraries, and her favorite novel is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. According to Jorge, she unconsciously develops a "resting sad face" without even realizing it and once fled her own surprise party in a state of panic over being everyone's focus. She tends to escape to quiet areas to stargaze, regularly looking up at the sky to check the position of the moon and commenting on it afterward. She has a strong sense of others' emotions, as constantly bumping into and being around large amounts of people, as well as standing in such close proximity to them can be draining for her. Like much of her family, Alicia has immense arachnophobia, freezing up just when she sees a spider or anything bearing a close resemblance to one. 

This fear is caused by her mother's bad history with them, the "mother of spiders" who was challenged by a Gothic college friend to see who could make the best tapestry. Both works were equal in terms of beauty, but she couldn't stand the insult towards her creation, so she destroyed her friend's tapestry in a fit of anger. Ever since then, her children have been paranoid that every spider they see is out to get them, which is largely true as spiders are unusually aggressive to them. Alicia secretly envies Daniela Nichols and her close bond with Connor and tries to compete with her for his affection, although she shares some similarities with her, including a love of travel and learning about different cultures and new languages. Although their relationship was initially somewhat strained, they have since become better, closer friends. Besides her love for her family's native Mexico and its rich cultural history, she is interested in Asian culture, with dreams of visiting and working as an architect in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo. She has a geeky side as well that is deeply fascinated by K-Pop culture and has a fondness for many Korean celebrities, an interest she claims many people fail to understand. Alicia has more recently begun getting into Korean dramas in her downtime, which she finds to have a soft, wispy dreamlike quality that a lot of Western soaps lack. She also honors her Mexican heritage by annually celebrating the Day of the Dead, otherwise known as El Día De Los Muertos, bringing remembrance to her late Abuelita Paquita each year. She wears glasses and is small and childlike in appearance with long dark brown hair that is often styled in a side braid, almond-shaped dark brown eyes, a short, wide face, and a medium tan complexion. She formerly lived in apartment 3A in New Rochelle and attended Henry Barnard School, which was located 25.1 miles from Valley Stream. 

Alicia was formerly a bluebell scout growing up, in addition to being a regular at The Fruit Bowl, a new restaurant in her area and shopping at Hudkins department store. Regardless of their momentary quarrels and misunderstandings, she and Jorge are incredibly close to and very supportive of one another. They offer each other encouragement during new, unfamiliar situations and are the first person that the other goes to with positive news. While Jorge can count on Yvonne's rational outlook to offer him sound, direct advice and provide him with the truth at whichever cost, her critical demeanor is often softened up by his compassion and sensitivity, allowing her to become more vulnerable and empathetic. Alicia can be highly cunning, but also has a great deal of love for her family and friends and is willing to stick up for them at all costs. While generally respectful of authority figures and rules, she is not above defying them should they get in the way of her personal principles or goals, or even her curiosity. She proves to be an amazing discus thrower and leads her school to their first ever track meet victories, yet she ultimately leaves the track and field team to focus on her academics instead. Furthermore, she has a strong sense of civic pride, as she is the only student who is interested in taking a summer job at Valley Stream Village Hall. Alicia learns more about filmmaking when she co-writes and directs the film Found in Ambiguity, and she helps her class in their production of their original musical My Fair Helen. She is an avid collector and maintains a dedicated "collectorium" in her bedroom, in addition to being a huge fan of action movie star Keanu Reeves. She states that "Kiff" is actually a nickname given to her during infancy by her parents, who derived the nickname from the sound of her "little toots".

She attends his and Daniela's wedding, with their remaining lifelong friends, and her favorite foods are menudo, grape popsicles, hot wings, watermelon, tamales and grilled cheese. Despite years of feeling overshadowed by Daniela, she wins Connor's heart and they begin a relationship their senior year of high school. She later attends college in California alongside Connor for a couple of years and they form a small family once Alicia makes a compromise with him. She remains a successful career woman for much of her life and continues to pursue her work as an architect along the West Coast. She agrees to give birth to one child, a young daughter named Miranda and considers herself to be more of a dog person overall. Alicia and Jorge call themselves "identicals tentacles" and are very proud of the equal balance of their friendship, and she is willing to go to great lengths to preserve this equality. She is known to be a loud and messy eater and likes massage chairs, seeing as she will protest at being asked to get off them. It is strongly implied that she is very responsible for the use of her phone, since she spent days in Montreal with her phone still being at full battery. According to a psychic, she will eventually die of natural causes in roughly 78 years, meaning she has a natural life-span of about 91 years. Alicia owns a Leo shirt and mentions that her username on Quora, a website that she often posts questions and responses on is "bananner811". She accompanies her husband on occasion throughout his continuous travels around the world as he works as a consultant. After marrying her husband, she became very loyal to him and even refused to leave his side while she was pregnant with their daughter Miranda. She raises their daughter on her own due to Connor's being away on a mission for many years, and she frequently reassures Miranda that he loves them both and will return home once his mission is over. INTJ 8w9