Daren Keith Jones

14 December 1995

Baptist

Daren is a tall, handsome, and thoughtful young man.  He attended a different local elementary school from Lauren and many of her friends, but he met Sarah during fourth grade and became fast friends with her and during fifth grade he met and became friends with Lauren.

He has attended Immaculate Conception since sixth grade, and as a result has become friends — if not quite as close — with many of Sarah and Lauren’s other friends.

At IC he joined the baseball team as a pitcher, something he’s fair at, but not good enough to ever start with.  His batting average is atrocious.  His true sport is boxing, he takes lessons at the local Y and competes often, and he’s quite accomplished, bringing home more than a few trophies.  He hopes to get a college scholarship on his boxing, even possibly become pro for a short time.

He’d always had a bit of a crush on Lauren, having seen her even before he’d met her; at the end of seventh grade he finally worked up the nerve to ask her out, and the two seemed a perfect couple from there on.

The perfection was only on the surface, though.  The two grew to be less close friends while dating, until Lauren started to notice their lack of compatibility.  Both were determined to try to make it work out, partially out of a stubborn nature on both their parts, and because neither one had much stomach for casual dating — preferring to take all relationships quite seriously.

Despite his reaction when Lauren tells him she’s met someone else, he does care for her — as a valued friend, and as someone he really did have genuine feelings for — but he’s never been the most expressive young man where his feelings are concerned (something, he realises, might have helped him keep Lauren if he’d been better about) and as such takes a rather long time to renew his friendship with her.

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