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Main Characters
Misty
Misty Foster
The narrator of Misty. She's an upper-middle class girl from Beverly Hills with a lot of issues stemming from her parents' nasty divorce.- Abusive Parents: Though they're mostly guilty of being neglectful and self-absorbed, one could make a case for her mother being emotionally abusive.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Part of the reason she’s attracted to Lloyd.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Justified and deconstructed. She starts acting like one to get back at her parents and cope with the emotional distress they put her through. She’s actually quite a nice person. It’s also worth noting neither of her parents are very mature either and she acknowledges her behaviour is unacceptable.
- Broken Pedestal: She used to idolise her parents, believing they were the perfect couple and dreaming of having a wonderful marriage just like them. Then her parents’ marriage problems became more obvious and she gets to see what they’re really like…Needless to say, she outright states she hates her parents now.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Calls both her parents out on their immature and spiteful behaviour. It doesn’t do much good.
- Cartwright Curse: Downplayed. She dumped Charles Allen after finding out he lied to her and used her, and she and Lloyd are no longer together due to him going into juvenile detention for armed robbery.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Part of the reason she dates Lloyd is because she knows how much her parents – especially her mother – would hate her dating a boy like him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Can be one at times.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: She’s blonde and reasonably pretty. Neither of her relationships worked out very well though.
- Fallen Princess: Becomes something of one after her parents get divorced. She was originally part of a clique known as ‘the Beverlies’ due them all living in Beverly Hills and got good grades. After word of her parents’ divorce gets out, however, her friends judge her for it and for her attraction to outcast Lloyd, causing her to become increasingly alienated from them. This culminates in her running away from home and then getting arrested for armed robbery, after which she’s court ordered to start therapy.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine. Compassionate and funny, but also impulsive and prone to mood swings.
- Good Girl Gone Bad: Downplayed, but she started out as a sensible, popular, straight-A student, who eventually ditches her friends, neglects her schooling and hangs around with the school’s resident delinquent due to her parents’ messy divorce. She’s started getting better after going to therapy, though she’s clearly still bitter about it all.
- I Am Not Pretty: Misty is apparently quite pretty, but doesn't think she is, unfavourably comparing her looks to her mother's and focusing on her physical flaws (most of which are common teenage afflictions such as acne). It's implied this is because of her feelings of insecurity and worthlessness during her parents' divorce; being used by her first boyfriend and living with a mother who is constantly obsessed with physical beauty doesn't help her, either.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: It's hinted she was one in the past, before her social life fell apart.
- Morality Pet: Seems to be a bit of one to Lloyd. Whilst he's not really a bad person, he's clearly got issues and is prone to violent and anti-social behaviour. However, he treats Misty very kindly and tries to help her in his own way. Unfortunately, he winds up getting them both arrested for armed robbery, though his intentions were good.
- The Nicknamer: Downplayed. But she’s the one who starts calling Cathy Cat, which sticks. She also comes up with the term OWP – Orphans with Parents – to describe herself and the other girls.
- Plucky Comic Relief: The most prone to cracking jokes. She often tries to use humour to lift the mood or make light of the subject matter.
- Rebellious Spirit: She starts acting out due to the strain of her parents’ divorce, including dating a bad boy, lying to her parents about where she’s been, stealing from them and even running away. On the lower end of the scale, she wears T-shirts with slogans she knows irritate her mother just to mess with her.
- Team Mom: She is the friendliest of the four girls and often expresses concern for the others, as well as mediating if the others (mainly Star and Jade) get into disagreements.
- Troubled, but Cute: She’s a Nice Girl and good-looking, but pretty messed up mentally.
- Uptown Girl: For Lloyd.
- Used to Be More Social: She was once quite popular and states she always had people calling her, to the point where her parents got her a landline of her own for her bedroom note . However, by the present day events of the series, she has become rather withdrawn and lonesome.
Star
Star Fisher
The narrator of Star. She's from the poorer part of town and lives with her grandmother and younger brother after being abandoned by her parents.- Abusive Parents: Her alcoholic mother was verbally abusive and very neglectful, and becomes physically abusive towards her as well.
- Aerith and Bob: Her brother’s name is Rodney.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Can be at times, though she gradually opens up and becomes friendlier.
- Driven to Suicide: Possibly. After seeing her boyfriend flatline in hospital she blindly ran into the road and was hit by a car. Onlookers claim she did it deliberately, though Star herself has no memory of the incident.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric. Headstrong and practical, but also stubborn and hot-headed.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: She has a short fuse and is easily irritated. It’s strongly implied that her anger issues are a result of her abusive childhood and she admits she needs to work on them.
- Happy Place: Developed a habit of going to these places to escape the abuse and neglect she suffers.
- Harmful to Minors: Seeing her parents constantly fighting and hitting each other, and being raised (or more accurately, raising herself) in near-poverty.
- Heroic BSoD: Has these from time to time, going into a near-catatonic state, to cope with her trauma.
- Hope Spot: After being taken in by her grandmother, she meets a nice boy named Steve who understands exactly what she’s going through and treats her lovingly and with respect. For the first time in her life, it seems she can stop worrying and be a normal teenager. Needless to say, it doesn’t last.
- Parental Abandonment: Her father abandoned her when she was a child. Later, her mother does as well, though fortunately she and Rodney are taken in by their grandmother.
- Parental Neglect: She’s been fending for herself for most of her life (until her grandmother took her in).
- Promoted to Parent: She’s more of a mother to her brother Rodney than their mother ever was, especially after their father took off.
- Raised by Grandparents: Not quite raised, but she ends up living with her grandmother in her late teens and she is currently her primary caregiver after her parents took off.
- Second Love: In "Into The Garden," Star falls in love with Larry and eventually marries him.
- Token Minority: She’s the only black girl in the group (though manages to avoid being a stereotype and gets as much character development as all the others).
- Tomboy: Generally comes across as one, being abrasive, tough and street-smart. However, she tries to glam herself up when she dates Steve and is a decent cook (seeing as she had to feed herself and her brother somehow).
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: She doesn’t remember running into traffic (possibly on purpose) shortly after seeing Steve die in hospital.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Eventually with Jade.
Jade
Jade Lester
The narrator of Jade. She's a wealthy girl caught in the middle of her parents' divorce and custody battle.- Berserk Button: Suggesting she only has First-World Problems because she's rich, or judging her based on her wealth at all.
- Bound and Gagged: When Craig kidnapped her.
- Break the Haughty: Her parents’ divorce drama and being kidnapped did this for her. She still acts somewhat haughty in the therapy sessions, until the time comes for her to tell her own story and the mask comes off.
- Brutal Honesty: Near the end of her story, when the judge presiding over her parents' divorce asks her which parent she would prefer to live with, she straight up admits she doesn't care because she hates them both.
- Cool Big Sis: Comes across as one to the others, especially Cat and Misty, eventually.
- Damsel out of Distress: She manages to escape her kidnapper singlehandedly (which is just as well as no one actually realised she was missing).
- Dating Service Disaster: Played for Drama. She meets a guy called Craig online who seems nice and after talking with him for a while, agrees to meet him. He turns out to be a delusional older guy who holds her captive in his house and strips her naked against her will, until she manages to escape.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Soon becomes one.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Due to being ignored by her parents, having no real friends and having to cope with her parents’ ugly divorce, she becomes so desperate to be loved by someone she begins chatting to boys online, eventually agreeing to meet up with one guy named Craig. It goes about as well as you’d expect.
- Driven to Suicide: After returning home from being kidnapped and finding out her parents never even noticed she was gone, she swallowed an entire bottle of sleeping tablets, saying she just wanted to sleep and "never wake up".
- The Fashionista: Downplayed in that fashion isn’t really one of the main focuses of her character, but she’s always dressed in the latest designer fashions.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. Intelligent and self-possessed, but also condescending and aloof.
- Informed Attractiveness: The first thing everyone generally notices about her is that she's stunningly beautiful - Misty even wonders briefly if she's had cosmetic surgery.
- Insufferable Genius: She’s very intelligent and well-read, but can be inadvertently patronising or rude when displaying this.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be somewhat aloof, confrontational and condescending, but isn’t a truly bad person and she becomes nicer. She also easily empathises with the others after hearing their stories
- Lonely Rich Kid: Pretty much epitomizes this trope. She's never wanted for anything financially, but her parents barely interact with her and treat her like a prize to be won rather than a person during their divorce, she doesn't appear to have any real friends and even her servants overlook her. This is lampshaded by Star, who realises that the reason Jade acts so cold most of the time is because she has no one to turn to.
- Meaningful Name: Has green eyes.
- Parental Neglect: Her parents pay very little attention to her, to the point where they didn’t even notice she’d been missing from the house for nearly two days.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Has green eyes and red hair.
- Troubled, but Cute: Very beautiful, but hoo boy, does she have issues.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Star eventually.
Cat
Cathy 'Cat' Carson
The narrator of Cat and Into the Garden. She's a middle class girl raised in a very sheltered manner by her overly-strict, religious mother, whilst her father is largely absent from her life.- Abusive Parents: Her mother's close to being a younger version of an Evil Matriarch and very controlling, whilst her father is headed down the Dirty Old Man route and rapes her.
- Adoption Angst: When her father first revealed she was adopted, Cat had a nervous breakdown and had to stay in hospital. This wasn't just from the shock of learning she was adopted, but also because her father had been sexually abusing her and claimed her not 'really' being his daughter made it fine. Cat starts feeling better about it after attending therapy and begins seeking answers about her adoption.
- Affectionate Nickname: The girls call her Cat. Eventually, she adopts this name herself.
- Alliterative Name
- Break the Cutie: Good god. She's the sweetest, kindest and most naive of the girls, but is utterly broken by all the crap she's been through.
- Broken Pedestal: Towards her father, after he raped her.
- Daddy's Girl: Used to be one, adoring her father for being more kind and lenient compared to her mother and feeling he was the only one who understood her. Her father exploited this to manipulate and sexually abuse her.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic. Kind-hearted and gentle, but also naive and deeply introverted.
- Extreme Doormat: Comes across as one, due to living under her authoritarian mother's thumb all her life. She slowly starts becoming more confident in herself.
- Naïve Everygirl: Played with (mostly for drama). She was sheltered by her overprotective, fanatically religious mother, to the point where as a teenager she had no clue about things like sex, save for the fact it was BAD. As well as making her feel very awkward and out-of-place amongst her peers, her naivety also allowed her to be easily taken advantage of by others. She's now a Broken Bird after being groomed and abused by her father.
- The Quiet One: She says very little in the sessions, until the time comes for her to tell her own story.
- Rape as Backstory: One of the main reasons (though by no means the only reason) she's in therapy is due to be raped by her father. He later tries it again, though fortunately she is rescued by her friends and Dr Marlowe.
- Rape Leads to Insanity: Downplayed. After being raped by her father, she had a psychological breakdown that landed her in hospital and eventually therapy. She's not insane anymore, though she's obviously got PTSD and other related mental problems as a result of the assault.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: She is noted to be much prettier when she gets a better haircut and wears more flattering clothes.
- She Is All Grown Up: Played for Drama. Cat went through puberty early, in particular developing large breasts. Her religious mother freaked out in response, forcing her to attend an all-girls school and to wear very bulky, unflattering clothing, whilst lecturing her on the evils of sex and temptation. Poor Cat grows up feeling extremely self-concious about her looks and dresses in a very scruffy manner with a bad haircut to downplay her attractiveness. The fact her breasts were made fun of and groped by her 'friends' at a party and that she was raped by her own father does not help her any.
- Shrinking Violet: She's very timid and shy, with poor self-esteem. It's not surprising, considering how she was raised and the trauma she's suffered.
- With Friends Like These...: Her friend Kelly let her be molested at a party and merely laughed at her distress, treating it like a big joke.
Supporting Characters
Gloria
Gloria Foster
Misty’s mother.- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Especially when Misty brings Charles Allen over to meet her.
- Berserk Button: She completely flips out when Misty brings up her aversion to sex.
- Does Not Like Men: To an extent, constantly deriding them and mocking them amongst her friends, although she’ll still happily date them.
- Drama Queen: She tends to overreact to things, one of the most extreme examples being accusing her daughter of having an Oedipus Complex when she wants to hang out with her father instead of her.
- I Just Want to Be Beautiful: She’s already attractive, but is obsessed with maintaining her looks, spending a lot of money on expensive beauty products and clothes.
- It's All About Me: She’s extremely self-absorbed with a victim complex.
- Manipulative Bitch: She emotionally manipulates her daughter (or tries to) to get her to take her side in the divorce, often resorting to guilt-tripping tactics.
- Never My Fault: She refuses to accept any responsibility for the breakdown of her marriage, insisting it’s all her ex-husband’s fault, even though she is clearly partly to blame.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Possibly. Her ex claims that she finds sex painful and so won’t engage in it (which was one of the reasons her marriage broke down). Her ex claims the doctors didn’t find anything physically wrong, so it’s most likely psychological. Her reaction to Misty accusing of her being afraid of sex certainly suggests it is true.
- Pet the Dog: When Misty is getting ready for her date with Charles Allen, Gloria is genuinely excited for her daughter and takes her out for a day of shopping and pampering in preparation. Misty even seems to have enjoyed spending some actual quality time with her mother.
- Rich Bitch: She’s extremely vain, materialistic, selfish, petty and looks down on Misty dating Lloyd due to his poorer background.
- Screaming Birth: Claimed to have had one that possibly lasted days when she gave birth to Misty, though Misty herself takes it with a grain of salt due to her mother’s tendency to exaggerate and the inconsistency between the stories.
- Shipper on Deck: An embarrassingly obvious one for Misty and Charles Allen.
- Unreliable Narrator: Every time she tells Misty the story of her birth, the amount of time she was in labor changes.
- Womanchild: Some of her behaviour makes her come across as a Bratty Teenage Daughter rather than a grown woman.
Jeffrey
Jeffrey Foster
Misty’s father.- Age-Gap Romance: With his new girlfriend Ariel; he’s close to 40 whilst she’s in her twenties.
- Hypocrite: He gets mad at Misty for lying to him about where she was going to be when he catches her in his apartment with her boyfriend, to which Misty points out he had also lied to her about being away that weekend with his girlfriend.
- Never My Fault: Blames his ex-wife solely for their divorce, even though he’s also to blame.
Charles Allen
Charles Allen Fitch
A popular classmate of Misty’s and her first boyfriend.- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A male version. He seems like a Nice Guy who is supportive and understanding of Misty, but turns out to be a self-centered asshole.
- Blatant Lies: As it turns out, his claim that his parents are getting divorced.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul" / Full-Name Basis: He hates having his name shortened and prefers to be called Charles Allen.
- First Love: For Misty. Unfortunately for Misty, it turns out he never much cared for her.
- Jerkass: He’s a pretentious snob who manipulates Misty into sleeping with him and then has the gall to bitch about how terrible she was in bed, though he knows full well it was her first time and how nervous she was. He then promptly discards her when she calls him out on it.
- Manipulative Bastard: He takes advantage of Misty’s vulnerable emotional state and loneliness during her parents’ divorce to get her to sleep with him, even claiming that his parents are divorcing too in order to make her empathize with him.
- Preppy Name: Charles Allen is his full first name and what he insists on being called.
Lloyd
Lloyd Kimble
A rebellious classmate of Misty's who becomes her second boyfriend.- Delinquent: A classic example. He's an abrasive, rebellious outsider at school, gets into fights, rides a motorbike, gets kicked out of school, runs away from home and ends up in juvenile detention for armed robbery.
- Didn't Think This Through: His plan to drive all the way to Seattle with Misty is clearly a very spur-of-the-moment decision. Due to lack of money or proper arrangements, they spend the night under a bridge and he resorts to robbery to get cash for them.
- Freudian Excuse: His parents had a messy divorce, his father isn't around and considering his mother kicks him out when he gets expelled they don't seem to have the best relationship.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Mostly shows this towards Misty.
- Rebellious Spirit: He's got a big chip on his shoulder, with a reputation for being tough, aggressive and defiant. He winds up being suspended for getting into one fight too many and runs away from home.
- Second Love: For Misty. Unlike Charles Allen (whom he is the complete opposite of) he seems to genuinely care for her.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: His violent tendencies. Also, robbing an elderly store clerk at knifepoint, though he seems to regret that.
Aretha
Aretha Fisher
Star and Rodney's mother.- Abusive Parents / Parental Neglect: Towards her children. Her drinking has a lot to do with it - on one occasion, she left Rodney home alone to buy booze and didn't notice he'd fallen and cut his head open. Her own mother, in contrast, seems to have been a good and loving parent.
- Awful Wedded Life: She spends most of her time browbeating and mocking Kenny for his perceived failures as a husband and father, and outright physically attacks him on occasion.
- Freudian Excuse: Her mother suggests she has unresolved issues which she covers up with drinking instead of facing. Given that Star's grandmother seems to be a loving and sensible woman, it's unlikely she's responsible for Aretha's obnoxious behaviour, though she doesn't seem to like her much (mostly because Star's grandmother lectures her on cleaning up her act and actually looking after her kids).
- Jerkass: Especially when she's drunk. She isn't afraid to Kick the Dog with her nasty remarks towards Kenny and the kids and seems to care about no one but herself.
- Lady Drunk: She spends most of her time drinking at the local bar or hung-over, and is rarely sober. Star recalls having to toddle down to the pub to retrieve her mother to make them dinner before she figured it out herself.
- Missing Mom: She eventually becomes one to both her children, running off with her new boyfriend.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Her intial relationship with her husband is reminiscent of this, though in this case there's more emphasis on the 'slapping' and it's very much Played for Drama. It quickly devolved into Awful Wedded Life.
- Would Hurt a Child: She slaps her daughter across the face and isn't too worried about the potential risks of leaving them to fend for themselves.
Kenny
Kenny Fisher
Star and Rodney's father.- Awful Wedded Life: His marriage to Aretha was not a happy one.
- Bumbling Dad: Initially to Star and Rodney. Though he's not very effective, he makes an effort to care for them. He eventually abandons them however and makes no effort to contact them.
- Domestic Abuse: Star indicates he would use sometimes resort to violence against his wife - though she was often the instigator, Kenny wasn't much better. Star's testimony strongly implies they had a mutually abusive relationship.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Seemingly averted. Star doesn't really take one parent's side over the other and the other girls all seem equally horrified and disturbed by her account of the domestic abuse, both from and towards her father.
- Extreme Doormat: Often towards his wife. When he finally does Grow a Spine, it's only to pack his stuff and leave, which doesn't do his kids much good.
- Henpecked Husband: To Aretha, bearing the brunt of her verbal and sometimes physical abuse for his struggles to find work or live up to her demands.
- Parental Neglect: Leaving your two vulnerable children with someone you know is abusive and incapable of caring for them isn't exactly stellar parenting.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kenny eventually gets sick of Aretha's behaviour after an incident where Rodney fell and hit his head - she having left him alone to buy booze - and leaves her and the kids, never to return.
- Shotgun Wedding: He was compelled to marry Aretha after she got pregnant with Star. Their daughter says they probably shouldn't have gotten married at all.
- Would Hit a Girl: He would sometime strike Aretha back when she got violent with him or manhandle her to try and stop her.
Steve
Steve Gilmore
A classmate of Star's and her first boyfriend.- Abusive Parents: His father is both neglectful, and verbally and physically abusive to him since his mother died.
- Birds of a Feather: He and Star are both lonely and traumatised, have an abusive Alcoholic Parent and another one who isn't around.
- Cool Big Bro: Acts as one to Rodney.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He slips into a coma and dies after being brutally beaten by his father.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: He has fond memories of his dead mother, whilst his living father and stepmother are complete Jerkasses to him most of the time.
- Death by Origin Story/ Plot-Triggering Death/ Posthumous Character: His death before the beginning of the series was the trigger for Star's emotional breakdown, finally landing her in therapy.
- First Love: For Star.
- The Lost Lenore: Revealed to be one for Star.
- Nice Guy: Although he looks intimidating, he's actually very kind, sensitive and thoughtful, especially to Star and Rodney.
Howard
Howard Carson
Cat's father.- Archnemesis Dad: To Cat.
- Big Bad: He's the main villain of Cat and Into the Garden.
- Blatant Lies: It's obvious as hell that all his talk about teaching Cat how to interact with boys and such is just an excuse to abuse her, to the point that even the very naive Cat feels something is wrong about it all.
- Dirty Old Man: Headed down this route.
- Doting Parent: To Cat, at first. Then it became increasingly twisted and creepy.
- Evil All Along: At first, he seems like a genuinely good father to Cat and the only truly effective parent out of all the OWP's parents. He's not.
- Henpecked Husband: Comes across as one to Geraldine, though he's actually quite manipulative and not nearly as harmless as he first appears.
- Karma Houdini: He technically gets away with raping Cat, as her mother is unwilling to pursue a case against him, though she does divorce him and throw him out. Subverted later on, as he's arrested for murdering Geraldine and kidnapping Cat.
- Manipulative Bastard: He takes advantage of his daughter's adoration of him and naivety to sexually abuse her. It's revealed he also manipulated Geraldine's family into thinking he was a nice, religious man who would be a good husband to her.
- Parental Incest: He sexually abuses his daughter, Cat. Technically, they aren't blood related as she's adopted, (which he tries to use to excuse his actions) but she still views him as her father, so it counts. Geraldine also mentions there were rumours about him and his sister, but doesn't go into detail.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Just when it seemed he could sink no lower, he ups his game in Into the Garden by murdering Geraldine and stalking and terrorising Cat for weeks, before abducting her.
- Would Hit a Girl: He slowly poisons his ex-wife to death.
- Would Hurt a Child: He abuses and manipulates his own daughter.
