Saraya Marquez

Saraya Marquez was a poor teenage girl from the swamps of Twinbrook, with a head full of dreams and the drive to succeed. She had always excelled in sports through the years and that carried on after school was over and her career began. She worked part time as a clerk at the Snack and Save Supermarket and lived with her mom and sister and trained nearly every day to push her own endurance to the limits. 

At nineteen she and a young man named Antonio Valdez were chosen by the Twinbrook town council to represent the city and all of SimNation in the Olympic Games. Antonio was handsome, friendly and very charismatic and soon became the face of Twinbrook as he smiled and waved for the camera, posed for pictures with adoring female fans, reveling in the adulation and generally spending more time in front of the media then in front of the spectators competing. Saraya continued training between events, undaunted and relatively unnoticed by the media, who couldn’t seem to see past her relatively plain façade to the talent within, even after numerous interviews. She soon grew resentful at the focus on Antonio, especially when the media would ask her about him and his performances while interviewing her. She hungered for that recognition and it forged her spirit to an iron-hard core and gave her the drive to dominate in track and field, women’s wrestling and seven other events; netting her a total of six gold medals; even surpassing Antonio’s four.

Saraya returned to her warm but slightly disheveled home in Twinbrook after a tour, stopping at schools in Al-Simhara for a public relations or stadiums for giving out medals to disabled children for speed reading or wheelchair races. She tried to endure stoically, but grew even more resentful of the daily snubbing from children and adults alike; who always gravitated towards Antonio and showered him with praise and idol-worship and left her standing in the background. In her loneliness, she started talking to herself to keep her mind off the constant buzz of conversation around her, mostly about Antonio.

He was always like that, and was born blessed with a physique that needed very little training to keep him fit, she remembers many times seeing him at the gym and him spending more time schmoozing with people and trying to impress the ladies then with actually using his muscles for anything; all the while she was sweating and straining hers to the max to get into shape.

When the tour ended and she returned home, she was so relieved when she pulled up in front of her slightly disheveled, but very cozy house that she shared with her Mom and Sister. Eremina Marquez has been caring for her and her sister Patricia since their father died when Patricia was still a baby and always had pushed them hard to succeed; some of the reason Saraya had excelled in sports.

She had just arrived in the taxi and saw her mom out front, apparently taking out the trash and the woman stopped when she saw her daughter and ran over; having not seen her for over a After a long hug from her mom, she asked if everything was okay, that she seemed to be angry all the time during interviews on television. Saraya has become more reserved and deflects her by asking about Patricia. No sooner than she asked, then the girl herself appears, and seemed taller, a teenager in truth finally; having outgrown that preteen clumsiness and boyish figure.

After a short period of stunned silence at seeing her elder sister and a long tender hug, she started rambling on and on about school, her friends, a boy at school that she liked, and grew exciting over having seen her big sister on world-wide television.

Of course things got sour quickly, when Patricia started raving about Antonio’s performances, interviews and how handsome he was. She could handle this from perfect strangers, but not her own flesh and blood. What’s worse is that Patricia informs her of the parade being held in his honor at City Hall; with all the bigwigs of the town council present.

Saraya is infuriated and rightfully so; having done better than that pompous, arrogant Antonio and in more events. Also, Patricia mentioned a yearly stipend from the city going to Antonio in the sum of twenty thousand simoleons and the deed to a house in his name being filed at City Hall.

Driving across town, she confronted Crevin Small; the mayor of Twinbrook at his palatial home and adamantly demanded recognition for her efforts in the Olympics. Crevin was a life-long politician to his core and knows a sure thing for good public relations in Antonio, so just as adamantly refused to even consider giving her a small part in the parade, going on about how she should be grateful to even be chosen for the Olympics in the first place. 

Tempers flared quickly and she is only a breath away from pounding him into the dirt, so she wisely left, but instead of going home, she drove aimlessly for a while, not really knowing where she was going until she looked up. The sun had set and she climbed out of the car, walking through the gate and into the cemetery.

She needed no guidance to find what she was searching for, and in that lonely graveyard she cried for the first time in years, silently pleading for help between sobs. Her father had died when she was young, but she still remembered his deep voice giving advice when she was having trouble with a girl at school, or when Tommy Kincaid had stolen her bike. She fell asleep at the cemetery, there on her daddy’s grave.

When she woke up she glanced over at another gravestone: one for a woman who had died three years earlier, in the annual Last Sim Standing competition. She had nearly forgotten about Marta Smart; who had more fame for being dead than Antonio had alive and breathing. She talked to herself for a long while; as had become the norm until she realized that if she actually won the tournament, she’d be more famous still; far above and beyond the temporary fame of the vile Antonio.