• School was terrible for Dani, if only for the fact that she had to stay there. All day. And listen to people drone on about things that barely interested her. It wasn't until she reached high school that she would find something that struck a chord. Biology was hands down her favourite class. The human anatomy was fascinating, all the road mapped nerves and blood pipelines that spread out from tip to toes. Her toying with the idea of a medical career began there and after riding along on a few calls with the paramedics that had worked with her father, she was hooked. While in the back of her mind, she wondered about a career of a doctor or maybe a surgeon, the adrenaline rush of being a paramedic would ultimately pull her in.
• If she were to ever fall in the Hollywood trap, Dani would be a scream queen. Horror movies are were her passion lies, though she loves all movies. She's a self-proclaimed cinephiliac. But it's horror movies that have a permanent hold on her. She has watched enough of them that very few manage to surprise her anymore. She can call the ending within the first five minutes. Luckily she's still entertained by the onscreen shenanigans, and jumps even when she knows the scares are coming.
• Daniella was fifteen when her father was killed in an apartment fire. She went through a bit of a rebellious phase after the fact, raging against her family because she wasn't capable of processing the loss at the time. When her mother was at her wits end, Emily contacted the chief of the fire hall Adam had worked in, hoping the man could help her out. He'd offered his support, promising her that he'd help her with whatever she needed. And help her he did. Over the summer, he put Daniella through his own version of boot camp. She cleaned the fire hall from top to bottom every day, washed the trucks (with supervision and help from the candidates), washed their gear (again, supervised), cooked their lunches and dinners (breakfasts were just too early for the teenage Dani to be on time for), and did any general grunt work the firefighters asked her to do. She hated it. She hated them. She hated her mother for signing her up for this whole mess. She hated her family for not helping her like she needed. And then she realized that this was the help she needed. She had been washing the truck for the millionth time with one of the lieutenants there make sure she didn't break anything. Conversation had started light, the usual about what she got up to when she wasn't at the fire hall, and then the subject of her father was brought up. One minute she was trying to seethe silently, and the next she was curled up on the wet, sudsy ground, feeling like she was being ripped apart from the inside out but a lot lighter than she'd felt since he died. It wasn't a complete fix. She still felt hollow when she thought about the hole left in her family. But she got better. Dani kept volunteering at the fire hall until she graduated high school.
• There is a game that Dani has taken to playing with some of the people at work. She started playing it in high school with some of her friends, and it's been something she keeps in the back of her mind when boredom strikes. It may be morbid and they are all probably in the wrong line of work to be thinking along these lines, but often keeps them entertained or distracted if they need it. The game is called "What's The Worst That Could Happen?". It's pretty straight forward. In whatever setting they're in, the people that are playing have to come up with what they think would be the absolutely worst thing that could happen in that moment, no matter how ridiculous and/or fantastical it is. Once everyone's said their scenario, the group chooses what is, indeed, the worst that could happen. So far, the only banned scenario is zombies, as it has been determined to be the worst thing that could happen of all time. While there are not usually prizes attached to the game, on occasion chores have been traded off as a result.
• Dani grew up with art being a major part of her life. She wasn't theatrically talented like her mother, but she wasn't not creative. Sure, her passion was more geared for a sure thing like medicine and biology, but there was a beauty to it all as well. She started painting when she was in elementary school, tried her hand at expressive arts when she was in high school, but it wasn't until she was in her early 20s that she would take a proper art class in her spare time. Character studies are her favourite, capturing the gestures of a live model and highlighting the good, the bad and the ugly that could be found on any human body.
• There is nothing like sitting in a sweaty, body and other odour filled room for 45 minutes with 19 other strangers to really make a girl relax. When Dani first heard about Hot Yoga, she thought her friend was insane. The conditions alone would make a person feel light headed, but adding on the strenuous poses and they were asking to face plant their yoga mats. But somehow, someone got her to join them in a class and that was it. She was hooked. The selling factor wasn't the shock to her system when she went from the insane heat to the average temperature outside or the extremely satisfying shower that followed. It was the colossal calorie burn that kept her going. She still works out, but if she can be lazy every once in a while and just lean on yoga as an enabler, she will do it with no shame.
• Dani never had a high school romance. She was always the single friend that would hear how wonderful or terrible relationships were, how messy sex made things and how wretched a person felt after the relationship. It was enough to deter her from following down any relationship rabbit holes that were presented to her. But once she hit university, and academia seemed to go hand in hand with sexual awakenings, Dani jumped on board the band wagon. And went full tilt. She had a significant other or two for some amounts of time, but when she was single, she enjoyed being single. And she is damn well proud of it.
• Dani's taste in music can be downright embarrassing for someone her age. She really likes cheesy pop music, and often dances around her room to Spotify. She tries to get people to join in when she plays it in the kitchen, the fire hall or anywhere in a public setting if the mood strikes her, but they like to sit back and watch her go more often than not.
Dani hates when life is at a standstill, always wanting to be going and doing something. This has been her nature since birth, was encouraged by her father and will likely never change. That being said, she can be very indecisive. If the decisions will ultimately affect more than just her, she will more often throw her hands up and refuse to give her opinion, in case what she decides might upset someone else in one form or another.
Her humour is a lot of the time sarcastic and very much a defence mechanism. She tends to throw sarcasm into her everyday conversation, which confuses the general population if they take everything she says to heart. The most random things can make her laugh, and sometimes the laughter comes for no reason. Daniella is, in general, a very happy person. She loves meeting new people, and when she clicks with someone, she makes an effort to see how far that goes. When she's angry, she's a fire cracker. She'll often warn a person when she's getting angry, sometime plead with them to just go away, but once she snaps, there's no going back. She rarely takes to disliking a person so strongly that she cuts them from his life, but if they really are no good for her, she will.
brooklyn heights, new york
