InsaneJournal

zombiephile

• Father: Phillip Louis King - b. September 18, 1960, oncologist
  
• Mother: Marie Isabel King née Duval - b. November 6, 1963, housewife
  ♥ Married: June 12, 1987

• Sister: Caroline Lucille King - b. April 30, 1989, univeristy student in New Orleans

The King family is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. Both Phillip King and Marie Duval grew up in the New Orleans area. They met in 1984 -- when Marie was still a college student and Philip was just about to start medical school -- and dated for three years before getting married in June of 1987. Marie was happy to support Phillip's goal of becoming an oncologist, and equally happy to be the trophy wife of a doctor. She didn't mind Phillip's long hours, or the broken dates when he was called into the hospital. She either didn't know about, or chose to ignore, Phillip's occasional "indiscretions" with the nurses.

In 1989, their first child, a daughter they named Caroline, was born. Phillip was disappointed, because he wanted a son, but Marie cherished her little girl and doted upon her. Two years later, in 1991, the son that Phillip wanted was born, Alexander. Phillip essentially ignored Caroline and focused his attentions on Alexander instead. Whenever he was home from work, he would teach his son about sports, particularly football and basketball, but also playing games of catch occasionally. Alex's earliest memories are of watching sports on TV with his dad, and even of going to the occasional game with him, too. Marie loved both of her children equally, but she found herself lavishing her daughter with more attention, to make up for Phillip's neglect, though she was always careful to never neglect Alex, either.

In the summer of 2001, when Caroline was twelve and Alex was nine, Phillip decided to move the family to Bon Chance (though he kept a place in New Orleans for himself, near the hospital, so he could stay there while he was working), into one of the new mansions that had been built on the lake. Their home in New Orleans had been perfectly fine, size-wise, for the small family, but he wanted the prestige of living in a mansion, such that he didn't even mind the hour-and-a-half commute to work (which he could always shorten through liberal use of speeding). That fall, Caroline and Alex started the new school year in the Bon Chance school district (seventh grade for Caroline, fourth for Alex).

After the family moved to Bon Chance, Phillip was seen around the house even less. With the commute, he often spent the night in New Orleans if he was working late or had to be at the hospital again early in the morning. His condo in New Orleans also made it easier for him to have affairs without his wife (and especially his kids) finding out about it. But when Alex did see his father, it was the same old thing: watching sports together, playing sports together, talking about sports together. Marie was the biggest influence on the kids, though, so Alex was schooled in the ways of being a nice young man. Once he reached junior high school, he started getting involved in the basketball team, a sport he'd loved all his life. At his father's urging, he also joined the football team, but basketball was his passion.

When Alex reached high school, he continued with the basketball and football teams, adding track to the list so that he was involved in some sport each season. It helped keep him in shape, and gave him something to do. The home life of the King family had started deteriorating, with Phillip gone more and more often (and spending most of his time when he was home just watching sports with his son), and Caroline starting to rebel (she'd dyed her light brown hair black, pierced several body parts, and taken to wearing nothing but black, red, and grey), and Marie had started hitting the wine bottle a bit hard. It was just easier to stay busy.

His grades throughout high school have been barely passable. Phillip has made it quite clear that he won't tolerate anything lower than a C from his son, and Alex knows that he has to maintain at least a 1.5 GPA to stay on the teams, so he makes sure to at least do well enough to maintain a C average. Despite his constant involvement in the sports teams, it's not too hard to do a bit of homework and a bit of studying here and there, since his parents have made it clear that he doesn't have to worry about getting an after-school job, they can pay for anything he wants or needs. He's really excited to be the Co-Captain of the varsity basketball team this year, and hopes to be Captain in his senior year.

Admittedly, Alex is a bit of a simple guy. There really isn't much to him other than sports. He's just a nice guy who seems to only ever have sports on the brain. He's a member of the popular crowd, but only by virtue of being a jock: he's just too nice and polite and brainless to make it into the popular crowd any other way. Basketball is his favorite topic of conversation (followed by sports in general), but he can hold his own in just about any conversation, unless it's about school or anything too educational-like or political or anything, he's just not good at that kind of thing. But people seem to enjoy his company nonetheless.

Despite being Mr. Niceguy, Mr. Calm and Cool, Mr. Even Temperament, he can hold a grudge like nobody's business. When he gets mad enough (which is pretty hard, but not impossible), he can hold a grudge for ages. He still hasn't forgiven the boy who pushed him on the playground in the fourth grade, when he'd first moved to Bon Chance. He has a few buttons that, when pushed just right, will get him angry. These buttons tend to include being called an idiot (he knows he's not entirely bright, but he's not stupid), people implying that his family has problems, and people who think that sports are a waste of time. He doesn't exactly do anything straight-out mean to grudgees, just steadfastly ignores them and snubs them, and, well ... when one of the nicest guys around thinks your scum, that's saying something, so it has a tendency to spread.

He's a bit superstitious, too. He does the knocking on wood thing, he has a pair of lucky socks, and a whole routine he has to go through the morning of a game: getting up on the left side of the bed, taking a shower, getting dressed in a very specific order, and even walking down the stairs starting with his left foot on the first step down. He doesn't walk under ladders or open umbrellas indoors; he stays away from black cats, and he has a rabbit's foot on his keychain for good luck. He has a pet golden retriever, Michael (after Michael Jordan, of course), and he loves to go for runs with him, and play fetch. Michael is another one of Alex's good luck charms: Alex always pats him on the head three times the day of a game: no more, no less (throughout the entire day, even, but all three pats don't necessarily have to have been at the same time).

1. He knows that there's something going on between his parents. He's not blind, after all; he sees that they're cold to each other whenever his dad is home, and he hears their fights. But he doesn't really want to know exactly what's going on. He thinks his dad might be having an affair, but if he is, he doesn't want to know about it.
   
2. He knows he's not the brightest crayon in the box, and sometimes he wishes he was smarter, but by now, he feels like everyone just expects him to be a bit dim.
   
3. He actually kind of likes theatre classes. He tells everyone that he just keeps taking it for the easy grades, but he does like it. Not the acting, so much, but the behind-the-scenes type stuff.

1. I'd love it if someone could find out about his dad's infidelity and plaster it all over the school. And maybe his mom's drinking problems, too.
   
2. I'd also love to play out him forming a grudge against someone, or having to interact closely with someone he already has a grudge against.
   
3. I'd love to do something with his parents' rocky marriage, either the whole family having to do counseling, or just the parents, or the parents separate, or something. I want to see how he'd deal with that.

king_of_hoops

Team USA is going to make the quarterfinals at the Olympics. I just know it. We have been dominating the preliminaries. The Gold Medal is practically a given by now. And I just knocked on my desk, because there's no sense in jinxing our boys, though I have complete confidence in them. Man, it must be so awesome to play on the American team at the Olympics. I don't know if I'd want to go to China, though. I don't really like Chinese food. Maybe if the Olympics were in Mexico, because tacos are awesome. Burritos are, too. Man, I want to go get some Mexican food now. Anyone in?