clementine

From the day she was born, Clementine Hayes knew she was a burden. Growing up in a single wide in upstate New York, it wasn't easy when you had two parents were already sick of each other and you were just considered an "unpleasant surprise" (at least that's what her father called her). Even at a young age, Clem knew that her mother didn't like her much. In fact, she may have been the final straw that forced her out the door, away from an abusive husband and into a cushier life.

Most summers and weekends were spent away from that dingy old trailer and in Hell's Kitchen. Shannon Hayes wanted so badly to be mafioso like his uncle and like everything else in his life, he failed at it. Consistently.

But the city was a marvel to Clem and her brothers. It didn't matter if their clothes were threadbare and they didn't have much in the way of money. The city was her playground and she got to explore it with Cal and Cliff (although most of the time, she just wished it was her and Cal, Cliff was rarely fun). And because she was so cute and charming, much of the time they were able to score some free candy or snacks from several bodega owners (who maybe knew their uncle) and a few someones who couldn't resist her smile.

Most of all it was an escape from their father's relentless anger. It only got worse once Clem's mother left the family to be with some other man. Who could blame her for leaving? The rough bit was that she left her kids to suffer the wrath of her husband. Wrath that always seemed to be aimed directly at Clem. More than once Shannon came after her, telling her it was her fault her mother left, that she was just one more unwanted mouth to feed, that she would just grow up to be a tramp just like her mother. And almost always, Caleb was there to stop him, to step in and take those beatings for her. Afterward, Clem would always be there to try to fix him up, no matter how young she was, to promise she wouldn't do whatever it was that set Shannon off again. Because Caleb was always the one taking care of her.

Most of the time she was wearing hand-me-downs of her brother's or some donation from kindly neighbor who took pity on the pretty little girl who always seemed to have a bruise somewhere on her body.

It was clear, however, from an early age that Clem was smart. Smarter than most kids. Clever and smart. And when it came to the Hayes family, being smart usually meant trouble. From an early age, Clem was good at conning people and getting what she needed. First, it was just simply just making bets she knew how to win, then it was winning at playing cards (or rather counting cards). Gambling became a means of survival for her, a way to get clothes and food, to get the things that kept her from being bullied at school, that made her feel comfortable when she hated herself every moment of every day.

When it came to her grades, it was clear she was far and above the students at public school she was stuck at. Soon, it seems, people started paying attention. The very same year that Caleb moved out of the trailer was the year that a scholarship to a prestigious magnet school in the city came a-knocking (complete with room and board). And for a little while, life seemed to be going well for Clementine. She excelled at school, graduated from the private school with honors and got into Columbia.

It was her sophomore year at Columbia when her name was published in the paper for a mathematics award that her mother reached out to her. And that was all Clementine needed to start spiraling. It wasn't as though she wasn't on a knife's edge, years of abuse has consequences and she hadn't dealt with any of it, simply pushed it down deep. But when she met her mother at a little coffee shop and met one of her much younger half-sisters who looked whole, happy and healthy... Clementine couldn't deal. Her mother had left them all to suffer and found happiness. She'd left Clem behind and it wasn't because she didn't want children, as far as Clem was concerned, she just didn't want Clem.

Soon the gambling and drinking started. And soon, Clementine was in a hole so deep she had to have someone buy her debt. That someone being the mob, apparently. Her bookie passed her name over and they couldn't resist having a hold over a Hayes offspring, even if it was the kid of that useless fuck Shannon Hayes. And that's where she is now, dropped out of Columbia just short because she can't afford the tuition because that full-ride dissolved the moment her grades started to slip, all because she was working off her debts by acting as a honey pot for whatever jobs she was needed on. Seducing and tricking men online and in person so they'd be exactly where the needed to be for whatever reason, be it a hit or a distraction or blackmail. She was there, doing what she needed to do.