Sonoran, Pecari, 2nd Year
From: Sundance, Wyoming

Crazy kid. Uses weird combinations of words that only make sense to his buddy Brett and can usually be found in the vicinity of Elly Eriksson and Meredith Lail.

Started up some kind of writing group at Sonora.



Relationships:

Best Friends: Elly Eriksson and Meredith Lail
Other Friends at Sonora: Saul Pierce, Brett Hodges, Hyana Kamiya, Irene Liddowe
Secret Crush: Elly Eriksson
Roommate: Matt Santoro
People who make him nervous: Leonardo Idoya (bad first impression), Caedence Redoak (she so unpredictable!), Adam Brockert (no matter what anyone says it's the wrong thing, better just to avoid him).
Biggest Fear: Someone finding out his phobia.



Academics:

Favorite Subject to Attend: Potions
Favorite Teacher: Professor O'Leary
Most Admired Subject: Transfigurations

Echo can often be found in his dorm or the common area doing homework -- often to the detriment of his relationships. When his mom pulled him out of Crook County Elementary School to homeschool him, Echo quickly bought into the idea that education was an endless project that went far beyond the classroom. He doesn't like that Sonora has classes -- he thinks they get in the way -- and would prefer to do his entire education as one massive independent study project. This view is fading quickly, however, and he is starting to prefer having a social life to spending solitary hours reading textbooks.

Tranfigurations is Echo's nemisis. It is the subject he doesn't understand and is constantly in danger of failing -- and not for lack of effort. When all other homework tasks are done, Echo does extra reading and studying for the wiley subject. It maddens him that there is something that he cannot grasp when he is usually so go in academics. And because he finds it so difficult, he has more respect and interest for Transfigurations than he has any other subject, save Chemistry which is another subject he finds impossible.



Echo's Second Year at Sonora:

Novelling Fury!

Novelling Furty got bigger this year, thanks to Echo's hard work and the help of the previous years' members. Still, Echo found himself doing most of the work because Fury is his pet project. He didn't finish his novel this year because he was too busy planning an End of Fury Fest for his loyal members. When all was said and done, Echo vowed to do some delegating next year.


The Sundance Kids

As it turned out, Echo's Sundance buddy, Brett Hodges, moved to California with his dad because the Hodges is a Squib family, not a muggle family. Brett busted out of the mold, to the joy of his dad's parents, and shipped off to California to get some shopping done for his new life at Sonora. The boys were rather surprised to see each other in Cascade Hall a few weeks later. Echo and Brett hung out all over Sonora... in class, at the Quidditch games, and even had a big argument in the middle of Pecari Commons after Echo let slip to his parents (who told Brett's parents) about how the new First Year was doing.


New Friends

Second year was another big year for Echo in the friends department. He still hangs out with the suspects: Elly, Meredith, and Saul--but he's added a few more names to his list from the incoming firsties. Brett, of course, is one. Another is Hyana Kamiya. Echo met Hyana during Astronomy class and when she joined Novelling Fury! and started hanging out with Echo and Brett at the Quidditch games, friendship was assured. Brett thinks Echo and Hyana would make a good match, but he didn't push it this year. Brett's crush, Irene Liddowe, had the good fortune of being an the Quidditch team with Elly Eriksson, pulling her into larger gatherings (more than the core trio) with Echo and the girls. Oliver Abbott made an entrance onto the scene as well.

Then there is Caedence Redoak. After spending most of first year avoiding her, Echo tolerated her fairly well second year until he came to a disconcerting realization that he enjoyed being afraid of her. He hasn't quite figured that one out.


Glasses, Quidditch & Haphephobia

Echo's goal for this year was to join Quidditch team with Elly and Meredith. That didn't quite work out. He had thought that once he got up the courage to see the mediwitch and confess he had a phobia (fear of physical contact), that she'd be able to wave her wand and make it go away. It wasn't that simple and this year his symptoms did not improve--though his ability to avoid situations he finds awkward has. Because of this, Echo didn't end up trying out for Quidditch.

What did improve for Echo this year was his vision. Over Christmas break, Echo's mom took him to the eye doctor and he came away with two new pairs of specs: one for everyday wear and one for reading. They look good on him--if you're into the hipster look--because he let one of the more fashion savvy Sundance kids do his frame selection.



Echo's First Year at Sonora:


Novelling Fury!

In his first year at Sonora, Echo began a one month book writing escapade he called Novelling Fury. It took place in February and he tried to enlist as many fellow students into his upstart club as he could find. Though his closest friends Elly and Meredith didn't participate, Echo found an ally in his lab partner, Saul Pierce, who was always up for doing something positively ridiculous. Organizing the project broke Echo out of his awkward shell and he was able to stop being afraid of people so much, because he now figured if people knew him they knew him as "that kid who went on a novelling rampage" rather than "that crazy weirdo." Echo knows he's a crazy weirdo, but he doesn't like to have people thinking it behind his back and, with Saul's support, is much happier now that it's all out in the open.


Elly's Swing

In their first year, Elly Eriksson built a swing in Labyrinth Gardens. It was the source of much entertainment for the Elly, Meredith, and Echo trio, who could occasionally be found holding contests to see who could jump the furthest.


Fear of Girls, Fear of Bullies, and Haphephobia

Echo's social awkwardness at the beginning of first year is a rather embarrassing memory for him. He was so settled in his isolated world at home that when he came to Sonora his biggest obstacle was being afraid of other kids -- who, in his experience, would torment him in the ways his classmates did in the early part of grade school. The thing he was most afraid of was rumors and he made every effort to not give the girls any reason to question his newly acquired good hygiene. Once Elly and Meredith gained his friendship, Echo became much more willing to let others do the same. Over the course of the year, he became almost socially adept -- enough so that he began to notice that his haphephobia (fear of physical contact) was not disappearing as neatly as his other fears.


Brett and Brandon: The Sundance Boys

By winter break Echo was a much more social person than he had been just a few months before and, upon returning home for Christmas Break, he realized that he had not seen his former best friend Brett Hodges in almost a year. He called him up and the boys started hanging out like they hadn't since they'd been bullied together at Crook County Elementary. In the intervening time, Brett had become friends with their former adversaries, including the boy who'd messed up Echo's nose and it was only a matter of time before Brett invited Echo to play hockey with them. Echo was cautious at first, but soon warmed up to the boys enough to feel comfortable hanging around them. He even managed, a few months later in letters to Brett, to convince some of them to join his Novelling Fury project, and over the summer inbetween first and second year, they played so much soccer together that the Sundance boys became, of necessity, the first people to learn about Echo's haphephobia. Shortly thereafter, Brett Hodges moved to California to live with his father.