Some people say that certain people shouldn't ever have children and there are always various reasons as to why it's said. When Andrew McCartney was growing up it was likely said a thousand times if it was said once that he should never, ever reproduce. It wasn't that Andrew McCartney was a bad guy; he wasn't. Andrew was just the type of guy who marched to the beat of his own drummer and never ended up conforming to what most people - especially not his family - expected of him. As a young boy growing up among the upper crust of the Charleston elite, Andrew was always getting himself into trouble. As far as black sheep of families went Andrew was the epitome of that when it came to the McCartney's. Later in life when all of his siblings were studying law or medicine to further themselves in careers that their parents found acceptable.
Andrew, on the other hand, had a dream that didn't involve law or medicine. Instead when he strode towards his goal of opening up a music store. A store that would one day sell musical instruments, sheet music and equipment for musicians as well as have a place for the local bands to record demos for a reasonable price. But most importantly the shop would sell great music on the only medium that Andrew felt should exist. Vinyl. In college Andrew worked hard on a business degree so that he would one day end up with a successful business and in college is where he met the woman that would one day become his wife and the mother of his two children.
Analiese Sforza was a young English Literature major when she and Andrew first met. At first the two of them didn't get along, Analiese was a bit more dedicated to her work than Andrew was but eventually the two of them ended up realizing just how much they had in common with one another. After the two of them graduated from college they ended up in Charleston where they were married and working towards their goals. Analiese was working toward her Master's and PhD when she found out she was pregnant with her first child. A blessing, but at the same time a surprise that the couple was in no way prepared for when they received the news.
In the fall of 1985, after three years of marriage Andrew and Analiese welcomed their first child, Jude, into the world. When naming Jude there had been no issue from Analiese when Andrew suggested Jude. He had proposed this idea while rather stoned and brought up an obscure relative who had been named Judas. He wanted to pay homage to that particular relative and in the haze of pain medication from her delivery Analiese agreed. Little did she know that the ninth of October was John Lennon's birthday and Andrew had picked Jude because of the song
Hey Jude by The Beatles. He had thought it to be amusing that his own last name was McCartney and had decided that Beatles related names were a very, very good idea.
Six years later, on the eighteenth of August, Analiese and Andrew welcomed their second and final child. Once again a stoned Andrew had suggested a Beatles related name. This time, however, he was able to bring up the instance of his wife's nephew
Lennon having been born not long before their daughter and that another Beatles related name would be perfect. Before she had time to debate the issue Andrew had filled out the birth certificate forms to say Penny Lane McCartney after one of his other favorite songs by The Beatles. It wasn't until he insisted on the name Penny Lane that Analiese had finally realized that her son had been named after a song and not one of their obscure relatives.
Penny Lane McCartney was a happy child right from the start. She was always all smile and once she was old enough to talk and walk she was a personality to be reckoned with. Penny had a tendency to want to be the center of attention from a young age. She would often dance around the house in the tutus that she had from her dance classes and sing songs from her father's record collection at the top of her lungs. With her parent's hippy sort of lifestyle all forms of expression were accepted so Penny had never been deterred from the things that she enjoyed. Even if it meant that she was at dance lessons more often than she was at home; at least when she was at the elementary and middle school levels.
Penny's childhood was a relatively normal one. It wasn't uncommon for a young Penny to be sitting behind the counter at her father's store doing her homework while he worked or helping her father give change out of the register. Aside from the hippiesque nature of her parents and their openness about drugs and alcohol once she was in high school, everything else was pretty standard. She participated in sports and dance and was a pretty well adjusted child and teenager. She had started ballet lessons at the age of three, piano lessons by kindergarten and once she was further in elementary school the cello and clarinet came next. Music came naturally to Penny like it had for her father and when he saw how well his daughter was excelling in the area he ended up sending her to a half a day summer music center for six weeks every summer.
In Penny's first two years of high school in Charleston things could not have been more normal. Penny was still an active dancer and musician, she was on the cheerleading team with a few of her friends and had even started dating one of her best friends,
Josiah Jacobson toward the beginning of her freshman year of high school. Things could not have been going better in Penny's eyes but after her sophomore year came to an end her mother announced that they would be moving to Key West. They weren't selling the house or the store so Jude was able to remain in Charleston while he went to college but seeing as Penny was only in high school she was forced to move along with them.
With her mother's new job at St. Leo University being so important to her Penny couldn't really complain about moving and leaving her friends and boyfriend behind. The biggest saving grace about the move was that her cousin, Lennon, lived in Key West and the two of them were as close as best friends despite the fact that they lived hours away from each other. Penny was excited to be closer to Lennon and was also pretty happy about still being close to a beach. She was also happy with the new location for the second McCartney's Music & Records and the job that her father had promised her. Due to the move Penny's activities in school cut themselves in half. She was still involved in music but she was no longer on the school cheerleading team and stopped going to vigorous ballet lessons. She had realized that ballet wasn't for her in the long run but she still went every now and then.
Her last two years of high school were very different than her first. Key West was certainly not Charleson and the people there were very different. She had her group of friends but it was much smaller in comparison to her old group. At times Penny felt as if she was completely invisible as she walked through the halls of her new high school and she found that she couldn't wait to graduate and leave. Before the move she had never felt the need to find herself but as high school came to an end Penny ended up choosing to not go to any of the colleges she had applied to despite the fact that she was supposed to go with her cousin to UCLA if they were both accepted.
Upon graduation from high school in the spring of 2009 Penny ended up being a bit on the flighty side. She ended up traveling, going on various road trips and even lived in Los Angeles for about a month and a half before she realized that she wasn't in a place she truly wanted to be. It took some time throughout the year after high school ended for her to realize where she truly needed to be and by the end of 2010 Penny found herself moving back into her family home in Charleston and working as a manager at her father's store there.
When she was back in Charleston everything seemed to fall back into place. Penny no longer felt the urge to find herself because she no longer felt lost. She found most of her old friends in the area and was happy to rekindle her much missed friendship with Josiah. It had almost felt like no time had passed between their relationships despite the fact that they had both seen other people in the rather large gap of space between their relationships. It felt natural to be with Josiah and when she had finally decided to continue her education it wasn't a surprise that Josiah ended up going with her to New York when she was accepted to Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry.
As far as her personality goes Penny is more on the quirky goofball side. She doesn't take herself too seriously and she is happier being in relaxed situations rather than high stress ones. When it comes to quirky habits, Penny has several. She collects weird things that no one should collect, movie ticket stubs, bottle caps, money from different countries, carousel horse figurines, music boxes, stuffed animals and t-shirts... to name some of her favorites. Her mother often says that one day Penny is going to end up being on an episode of Hoarders because she can only keep things organized for so long before it all goes to hell. Penny loves to scrapbook everything. She sings randomly for no reason at all except for the fact that there is a song stuck in her head or one fits the situation. She also has a tendency to quote movies when they fit the situation as well.
As of the Spring of 2013 Penny ended up moving to Texas. After her last semester at Mercy, and her relationship, ended she ended up throwing darts at a map. One of them landed in the middle of the ocean, one of them in Alaska and the third in Texas. She opted for Texas, considering her family would likely shoot her if they had to travel to Alaska to visit her; and living in the ocean was never a good idea for anyone. With financial help from her parents she is now situated in the little town of Summerash, Texas and figuring out, once again, what she wants to do with her life.