• born on february 4th, 1989 in henderson, nv, montserrat olivia pierce was seemingly doomed to be a complete and utter weirdo from the start, right when her strange name escaped her tired mother's lips for the first time. surely nobody with a name as unique as hers could be normal! despite such a theory, montse, as she'd been nicknamed, lead an almost painfully normal life. her parents remained happily married for her entire 20 years of existence and were never too strict and protective, and her now 18 year old brother mathias, though often a pain in the butt as younger brothers normally were, made no real grievances on her. in fact, she considered herself very close to her family and still continues to do so.

• normality of family life aside, it was safe to say that montse as an individual was, well, just that - distinctly herself in many ways. as a child, she had a rather overactive imagination, and some kind of fabricated story always accompanied her days on the playground. she pushed herself as high as she could possibly go on the swings because she was a galactic superhero giving a space monster a swift kick in the face, she swiftly traversed the tracks of monkey bars to prevent alligators from chomping away at her dangling feet, and she dug away in the sandbox like a pirate searching for buried treasure. even just in the pool in her backyard, she never swam without imagining she was an adventuring mermaid befriending the creatures of the sea. as she grew older, her imagination developed itself into a natural curiosity. she was the type of child who was just fascinated by absolutely everything, asked a million questions daily and simply could not shut up about anything new that she discovered. even in her early years of education in preschool, her inquisitive nature proved to have transformed into a penchant for learning. school excited her greatly, even when she had entered elementary school, and her parents' questions of "how was school?" were never met without enthusiastic and incessant blabbering about absolutely everything from fractions to learning cursive to the stories she read and every little thing in between.

• once she'd entered her preteen years, montse had veered off into the land of the socially awkward. her enthusiasm for academics was no longer cool, if it ever was, and instead was seen as nerdy and lame by her peers. she cared more about grades than most of her classmates did, and she spent most of her time with her nose buried in textbooks. her habitual studying wasn't met without reward, of course, as she found herself near the top of her class, but as consequence of her favoring school to social life, she had very few friends. the ones she had were without a doubt very close to her, but she was never popular for anything other than being too much of a smartypants. she wound up rather introverted all throughout middle school because of this, and she found it difficult to fit in or make friends. on most days she would say none of that really bothered her, as she found solace in other things like the friends she did have, conducting various scientific experiments on household items and her little brother, and playing video games.

• although she didn't grow up religious, montse chose to attend the only catholic high school in southern nevada for the academic challenges that a private school provided. the student body was largely comprised of people she didn't know, so she was faced with the task of befriending new kids, something her shy and timid personality hindered her from excelling at. she immediately found herself in the same rut that she'd fallen into in middle school, preferring to study instead of socialize. she was certainly never a complete outcast, although her peers often questioned her wide eyed stare and her odd taste in clothes and make up, when she wasn't in her school uniform anyway (but could you blame a girl going through a pop-punk/screamo/hardcore phase?). despite this, she managed to gain many acquaintances in her first years of high school, likely due to her involvement in many extra-curricular activities like volleyball, swimming, and various clubs. she was still quiet as ever unless in the classroom, and she never quite broke out of her shell until she was an upperclassman.

• the latter half of montse's high school career consisted of tackling things she'd never experienced before, like parties that didn't consist of just sitting around and watching movies or chatting about nonsensical things. she had been invited to a party by one of her volleyball teammates in the beginning of their junior year, and though she knew it was simply to up the attendance count and make the other girl look slightly more popular, she attended. her choice to go surely wasn't made without hesitance though, as she knew she wasn't close friends with too many people who would be at the party and she grew anxious knowing that she would talk about the most useless and uninteresting things possible in a nervous chatter. she even thought attending might have ended up worthless as she'd always been a careful girl with her morals, but she took her first sip of alcohol that night just to calm her nerves, and it certainly wasn't her last. of course, she still wound up acting as awkward as ever, but as the school year went on, she found herself at more parties and with more friends than she'd ever thought possible, helping her realize that she just had to be her genuine self to have genuine fun, and someone out there would like her for who she was.

• now 20 years old, montse is in her junior year at stanford university where she majors in biology. almost everything about science fascinates her, which isn't surprising because of the curious nature that was so prevalent in her as a child and continues to shine through. though she'd probably be happy doing almost anything in the biology field, her interest lies heavily in marine biology. the ocean has always been interesting to her, and to study it for the rest of her life would be a dream come true. following college, her hope is to attend grad school somewhere rich in marine life, like hawaii or australia, although if that can't happen, she'd settle for simply visiting either place to research someday. she also would love to discover new species of deep sea creatures, as well as work toward identify unresolved sea sounds like the bloop. seriously.

• she currently lives in an apartment on campus, and she sincerely believes that it is haunted as she often hears suspicious noises, loses her belongings, and experiences other bouts of what she claims is paranormal activity. seances and tiny ghost hunts are not uncommon for her, and she often like to blame just about everything that goes wrong in the place on "the ghost."

• works as a server at the cheesecake factory on university ave in palo alto. montse is incredibly uncoordinated and clumsy and always has been, with a knack for bumping into things that are clearly in her line of vision and tripping over absolutely nothing. waiting tables does not exactly seem like the best job for her, but in fact, one of her first jobs was as a server in a restaurant on the vegas strip. she took it on because the thought of tips sounded tempting, and although her first few days proved disastrous, she managed to pull herself together. nowadays, it seems as though waiting tables is the only thing she can do without falling over.

• absolutely hates driving because she's always paranoid she'll crash. she only drives when absolutely necessary (basically just when traveling long distances), but otherwise she'll take public transportation, hitch a ride from friends, ride her bike, or simply walk. spare the air! thankfully, she's left her car behind in henderson and pretty much has to rely on any of the aforementioned options to get around. it's a hassle sometimes, but she'd much rather take that inconvenience than drive. though she has never been formally diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, other seemingly trivial things often make her anxious such as phone calls with people she's never spoken to before, sleeping with closet doors open, maple syrup and gemmers.

• likes anything aquatic, learning new things even if they are completely useless and random facts, ghost hunting or at least attempting to do so, the paranormal, adventuring, kittens, writing stories, dr. seuss books, video games, anime, music of all kind, dancing like a goon to said music of all kind, horrible movies, dream journals, omgpop and food.

• dislikes driving, most bugs, watching tv (or at least she doesn't watch a lot of it regularly), the ghost in her apartment, internet ads that talk, commercials that get incredibly loud, awkward silences, wet clothing, annoying customers at work, and her mild avocado allergy.