PERSONALITY
Andrea is tightly wound, very routine, and is the type of person who enjoys having a plan of action and seeing it through to the end. She does not like to deviate from her daily routine and is prone to perfectionism, particularly when it comes to her schoolwork. A hard worker, it is guaranteed that whatever Andrea tries her hand at, she will put her best effort into it. She's not always successful, but at least she can say that she did the best she could with the skills that she has. She tends toward introversion and is a very private person. Her friends in Manhattan know only what she chooses to tell them about her life prior to college, and there are several major events that she has glossed over in an effort to keep them a secret. Andrea despises pity and does not want to appear as though she's fishing for attention or sympathy, so she doesn't speak about them. Those who grew up with her in Oswego know, but for the most part she has cut ties with them in order to reinvent herself in New York City. Andrea is goal-oriented and stubborn about it - she will not take 'no' for an answer and believes that she can find the solution to every problem if only she gives it enough thought.

No one who knows her now would believe that Andrea was once a wild, romantic, willful girl who yearned for adventure and rebellion. As a teenager, she was a rule-breaker and a step away from a juvenile delinquent, and there is a part of her that wishes she could allow herself that freedom again. But down that path lies more trouble and possibly more heartbreak, so Andrea sticks to her rules and plans and keeps a tight rein over her emotions. This control has helped her advance through a rigorous academic schedule and three years of law school, but it has stunted her when it comes to matters of the heart. Having fallen once, Andrea is terrified of falling again because she risks hitting rock bottom. She has struggled, and she has overcome many obstacles, and she will not allow herself the distractions that come with dating and love.

BIOGRAPHY
Born in the middle of June, Andrea Marie Cooper was the second of the four Cooper children, bracketed by an older sister and two younger brothers. The daughter of a mechanic and teacher, Andrea grew up in a thoroughly blue-collar community, in a rented house that was way too small for a family of six. The Coopers didn't have much, and there were times when they ate the same thing for weeks on end just because it was all that was left in the house, but they made it work. Andrea was a bubbly, bright, outgoing child who never seemed to feel her family's lack of material wealth. Even if money was tight, her parents rarely fought in front of her and she had her siblings to keep her distracted from any bigger issues. Life wasn't blissful, but it was happy enough and Andrea loved it.

Things began to change around the time that Andrea turned thirteen. The fights between her parents were growing more frequent, and now that she was older, it seemed that her parents made less of an effort to keep their voices down. Andrea coped with this by spending as much time as she could with her friends, sleeping over at their houses and wandering around town with them so that she didn't have to go home. She felt bad for abandoning her brothers, but she figured that her sister could take care of them. Her parents tried to discipline her, but Andrea was adept at sneaking out of the house and doing exactly what she wanted anyway. This behavior carried on into high school, and Andrea soon fell into the party scene. Sure, she was only fourteen, but there wasn't anything else to do in town. So she stopped putting as much effort into schoolwork and started concentrating on how to have the most fun she could manage without getting arrested.

Around this time, Andrea met Jacob Bradford, an eighteen-year-old boy who played the lead guitar in a local band and who was known to have a reputation as a womanizer He was wild and free, a high school dropout with a fake ID and a streak of romanticism a mile wide. Andrea fell in love with him within seconds of meeting him. To a teenage girl longing for something better than the life she had, Jake was perfect. Being a rock star's girlfriend was the perfect way to get out of a town that no one cared about. And surprisingly enough, Jake fell for Andrea's wide-eyed adoration. He often said that she was his muse and that she would be the reason that his band would hit it big, because she gave him the inspiration to be a better songwriter.

The relationship, however, was rocky. When it was good, it was really good, but when it was bad, the two of them could be at one another's throats for weeks until they decided to make up. Sometimes Andrea thought about leaving him for good, but she was convinced that he was her true love and that they were meant to be together forever. Jake had other ideas, though. He cheated on Andrea repeatedly, but always came crawling back to her, partially because he knew that she would always take him back. A month after Andrea's sixteenth birthday, though, their relationship came to a bitter end. Andrea had discovered that she was pregnant, and Jake rejected both her and the child. He was twenty years old and had no time to be a father when he was trying to make it big as a musician. He also called the child's paternity into question, even though Andrea swore up and down that he was the only one she'd ever had sex with. Faced with a terrible decision, Andrea ultimately decided to have the child and then give it up for adoption.

For most of her junior year, Andrea got some strange looks, but her friends and family stood by her. After all, teenage pregnancy was fairly commonplace in their community. As the pregnancy progressed, Andrea threw herself into her schoolwork in order to keep from thinking about the heartbreak she had suffered. Her grades had faltered through her first two years of high school, but she was able to pull her grade point average up with the help of the school's guidance counselor. Andrea was still focused on getting out of Oswego, and her guidance counselor told her that college and scholarship money could help her do that. In a way, her pregnancy was a blessing. She could no longer go out and party with her friends, so Andrea stayed home and transformed herself into a good student.

On February 26, 2004, Andrea gave birth to an eight pound baby boy, who she named Aidan. The adoption was an open one, allowing Andrea to receive pictures and updates about her son. The family who adopted him lived in New York City, and sent regularly monthly photos of the boy to Andrea through the adoption agency. Andrea treasured these pictures and renewed her energy in focusing on her schoolwork. It helped her to keep her mind off the pain of giving away the child that she had come to know and love over the last nine months, and by the time her senior year rolled around, it seemed that Andrea was a completely new person. She lived for schedules and lists, planned her routines exactly, and distanced herself from her wild-child friends. In March of 2005, Andrea learned that she had been accepted to Marymount Manhattan College, and she moved to New York City in August of that year.

In college, Andrea completely shed her past. She very rarely spoke of it, or of her family back in Oswego, and she got a job that would enable her to stay in the city for most of the school breaks. It was just a waitressing job, but it helped Andrea make ends meet and she was no stranger to a bit of hard work. Besides, she felt like part of a family there, moreso than she did in her own troubled home. In 2009, Andrea graduated with a bachelor's degree in History and went on to NYU Law School to pursue her JD. She is now in her third and final year, and as a result of her hard work, she landed an internship with the governor's office. It's a fantastic addition to her resume, and will give her a lot of valuable experience that she can use once she's out in the workforce in the spring of 2012.