Bold and Simful

Orion Bay is an exclusive, affluent neighborhood with strict residential policies. Only those who meet the income requirements are allowed to enter into the gates of the hallowed community, currently only two families have been approved for residence in Orion Bay.

Mendenhall Family - Francis X. , wife Catherine, son F. Xavier and daughter Elizabeth -

First rising to distinction during the Second Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s, the Mendenhall Family was among the glittering social elite that gilded the Gilded Age. Unlike other prominent families of this era, the Vanderbilts, the Astors and the DuPonts, the Mendenhall’s managed to maintain their wealth and status through the intervening century by never forgetting the hard work and ingenuity that placed them among American aristocracy.

Francis Xavier, a fourth generation Mendenhall, married Catherine Wingate of the Wingate Shipping empire after graduating from law school and inheriting the family home on Mendenhall Place in Orion Bay. Just like his father, Francis is a hard man, serious to a fault with little time for play, who wakes early to go into the office every morning where he represents the interests of the family and oversees the philanthropic efforts of the Mendenhall Foundation. He will tolerate no less than the same intensity of work ethic from his wife and from his children, who will one day inherit the family fortune.

Catherine (Wingate) Mendenhall, daughter of shipping magnate William Wingate & Jane (Astor) Wingate, has used her social connections to increase the visibility and financial health of the Mendenhall Foundation. Her latest endowment to Hunter College allowed for the construction of a new state of the art, dormitory for incoming freshmen. It is likely not an accident that the timing of the donation coincided with the application of both of her children to the college.

Francis Xavier, called Xavier to eliminate confusion with his father, has fallen far short of his father’s aspirations for him. Most of young Xavier’s life is spent in the pursuit of pleasure, communing with nature, playing music or more often than not, convincing someone to make him a grilled cheese. His slovenly appearance and refusal to buckle to familial pressure to achieve has often led to late night disagreements between his father, who sees him as a slacker, and his mother, who prefers to think that he will grow out of this rebellious, angst-filled phase.

Elizabeth is the child Francis wishes Xavier would be. Though she often has her nose in a book, academics come easy to her and she has never fallen below an A average even with her after school job taking up much of her study time. She is social like her mother, a hard-worker like her father and nothing like her slightly older brother.

Bettencourt Family - Robert, wife Maxine, and daughters Maleena (left) and Veronica (right)-

Having come into their money 100 years after their neighbors, the Bettencourts are considered nouveau riche and lack the finesse, experience and taste necessary to pass in Old Money society, though their wealth has bought them invitations to even the most exclusive soirees. Their home, newly renamed Bettencourt Manor, was once owned by the publishing magnus Bennet Cerf, co-founder of Random House Publishing and founder of the Orion Bay Herald Examiner.

Robert, who grew up in a small nondescript Mid-western town and married his high school sweetheart, cashed in during the Technology Revolution of the 1990s by selling his small start up to a major company at the first offer, then starting a second company to sell off and so on until he had amassed the fortune he had always dreamed of. Now, with money to burn and his wife and children safely ensconced in a mansion he can hardly find his way around, outgoing, active Robert has determined to pursue the pleasures of the idle rich and shower his family with luxuries.

Maxine (Carter) Bettencourt began to pour her money into etiquette classes the moment she read a rather scathing remark about her in a society column written by a rather catty matron. Formerly, Maxine would have socked the old biddy one, but with a newly polished veneer covering her wrong-side of the tracks upbringing, she merely retaliated by mounting a campaign to oust the crone from her circle’s invite lists. Success achieved, Maxine has found new power in her husband’s wealth and has not even a twinge of misgiving about flashing money to achieve her desired ends.

Maleena, with her fresh faced California surfer girl looks, has found that the only difficulty in being popular is being too popular. Too solve her dilemma, she has determined to weight her friends by a wealth grading system she created, so as not to confuse herself she has only two grades. Those whose bank balances equal her own are rated A for Affluent and warrant a place in her fav 5, invitations to parties and immediate call backs. Those who rank B for Beggarly often fall below her social radar, if not the poverty line.

Veronica inherited her mother’s dark good looks and has already discovered how this genetic happenstance can help her avoid the tedious chores associated with daily life though she does enjoy cooking, which she considers an art rather than a mundane duty, as long as she isn’t asked to do it too often. Despite her predisposition toward laziness, Veronica has managed to pull the grades necessary to join her sister at Hunter College next semester.

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 under Orion Bay. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.