Draven Atreides, Teenage FBI Series
NEW NAME NEW LIFE…COOL JOB
Hey. My name name is Draven Atreides, I’m 16-yrs-old. And I’m a spy. Yeah, okay, not really. I’m more of a snitch. I mean, I dont travel to exotic places, I dont wear disguises, I dont handle or carry weapons (unless you count my Canon AE1), and I dont work for a top secret agency. Well, three out of four isn’t bad. Let me explain.
You see, I was abandoned by my biological parents as a baby and I’ve spent all my life in the foster care system. I graduated from high school at the age of 13 (Yay for homeschooling). At 15, I ended up with the Foster Couple From Hell. I discovered their dirty little secret–the bastards–so I called them out to the local authorities. Lucky me, when I decided to play tattletale, an agency with three letters had been investigating the FCFH for years. So, being the good citizen that I am, I decided to help them out. The agency with the three letters, that is. I cashed in my Get Out of Hell Free card. Three months later, I got a new name, a new life…and a paying gig as an informant for that agency with the three letters.
Be sure to visit my blog, 1-800-SNITCH.
The Girl
Draven Atreides (pronounced Dray-ven Uh-tray-deez)
Nickname: Dray
Height: 5′ 6″
Eyes: green
Hair: brown
Likes: reading, hangin’ out with friends, her job (Charlotte Ruse), and her other job (that other place with the three letters)
Dislikes: social workers, doing homework. Again.
The Sitch
Apparently, Phoenix is a hotbed of illegal activity (sort of like the Hellmouth in Sunnydale, but it’s criminals instead of demons), so it looks like I’m going to be here a while. Welcome to my life.
The Story
Ever since the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I’ve been a huge fan of butt-kicking females. When Alias came on the scene, I was immediately hooked. These shows were the embodiment of all that is female-empowerment and it got my creative juices flowing. Although there are a few teenage espionage series out there, I wanted mine to be different: no teams, no international travel, no special weapons training or expertise, very down-low, behind the scenes…and African-American heroine (very light-skinned as you can see). I got her name from two different movies. In The Crow, Brandon Lee portrayed tortured musician Eric Draven. That name always stuck in my head, so I decided I was going to use it some day. Watching the sci-fi miniseries Children of Dune a couple years back re-introduced me to House Atreides. I liked the way names sounded together and how it looked written on a page. Even though her life won’t be as exciting as slaying vampires or traveling to exotic countries in disguise, she’s still going to have a really cool-sounding name.