Christine
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Christine Hale |
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Dorley girl |
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| Gender | Female |
| Year of intake | 2017 |
| Year of graduation | 2020 (projected) |
| Sponsor | Indira |
| Gender at intake | Cis male |
| Date of birth | unknown |
| Name at intake | unknown |
| First appearance | Chapter 1 |
| Chapters with POV scenes | |
| edit this box | |
Christine Hale (sometimes called Tina or Chrissy) is a third year girl in the 2017 intake. She was sponsored by Indira (who affectionately calls her Teenie). She is currently employed by the Hall as Head of Network Security [SD 17] and as an operational security specialist. She is in a relationship with Paige.
Christine is 177 cm (5'9.5") tall [LL][SD 6] and has auburn hair [SD 1] and pale lips. [SD 19] Lorna considers her "pretty" and "sweet" and notes that she talks with her hands "a lot". [SD 20] Yasmin states that she is "neurotic" and "nervous" [SD 29] but also that she is "a natural mother hen" with strong maternal instincts. [SD 35] She seems to be a bit clumsy.
Abby considers her to be "very independent, but in a good way"; [SD 9] Indira sarcastically complains that she is "precocious". [SD 26] She is naturally forgiving and is "terrible" at holding personal grudges. [SD 21] Despite still being in the programme, she has a habit of taking on extra responsibilities around the Hall, often to her own detriment; Julia states that "she can't help herself"; [SD 39] this is an intentional part of her reformation, in direct opposition to her behavior before entering the Hall.
[...] now she’s left with a need to help, to place herself into people’s lives in a constructive fashion, to be someone who can face herself in the mirror every morning and confront those old memories with everything she’s done since. She’s become someone who can be trusted. Perhaps more vitally, she’s become someone who trusts. [SD 42]
She is generally well-liked by everyone at the Hall but is particularly close with Paige, Indira, Abby, and Vicky. Indira remarks to Lorna that Christine "might well be the future" of the Hall. [SD 22]
Christine had Indira pick her name for her, her only specification being that it shared no syllables and no initials with her deadname. [SD 12] She wears a beaded bracelet she made with Indira as part of a matched set. [SD 7]
She is currently in her first year of studies in the Linguistics program at Saints. [SD 10] She plans to stay at the Hall until she finishes her degree. [SD 11]
Pre-transition
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Christine is originally from Brighton. [SD 26] She looks back fondly on her early childhood and has warm memories of spending winter days in the garden with her mother, [SD 30] going to pubs with her family and eating chips, [SD 19] and playing fantasy-themed real-time strategy computer games "before everything went to shit". [SD 27]
When Christine's father's investments began making "real money", the family moved to a larger, more extravagant house in a wealthy neighborhood. [SD 30] At some point, Christine's father became violent towards her mother. She habitually recalls an incident where she stood up for her mother and intercepted a blow meant for her; to her dismay, her mother defended her father against her. [SD 20] Years later, Christine still feels pain and clicking in her left wrist, presumably from this incident. [SD 3] At school, she kept to herself to avoid confrontation and skipped meals to stay out of the house and away from others. [SD 23]
Christine describes herself pre-transition as "angry, afraid" and “capable of acts of great cruelty" when she felt trapped and lonely; [SD 5] she confesses to Lorna that she was lonely and isolated, and was "cruel, vindictive, and barely functional" before being brought to the Hall. [SD 20] It is alluded that Christine engaged in self-harm as a teen, resulting in scars on her hip. [SD 27]
With no healthy ways of processing her emotional pain, she began lashing out by tormenting women, using her computer skills to "threaten" them. [SD 21] It is alluded that she was extorting money from her victims despite not needing or "even wanting" the money; at the time, she considered it a way of "keeping score" against the world. [SD 29] Christine shares her backstory with Beth:
And then Christine took her hands and told her a story. Told her about a boy mired in misery and loneliness, a boy who was too bloody clever by half and essentially unsupervised, a boy with access to too much money and too many toys and too much time, a boy who allowed himself to become poisoned. Told her of the women he hurt. Told her of the brief, insolent sparks of pleasure such pain brought. [SD 33]
Christine was accepted into St. Almsworth "entirely by accident". Around the time she left for university, her mother was sent to a hospice facility in Surrey to separate her from her father and presumably heal from her injuries. [SD 29]
Despite having reformed her behavior, Christine still struggles to reconcile her old and new selves and carries significant guilt over her past actions, [SD 5] only beginning to be ready to heal and forgive her younger self in her third year at the Hall.
First year
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Christine describes the 2017 intake as originally being mainly a group of "introverts" who had been selected due to "social rather than physical" violence. [SD 17] After Craig washed out, the intake gradually split into "two-and-a-half cliques" -- Christine, Paige, and Vicky in one, Julia and Yasmin in another, and Jodie and her sponsor alone. Yasmin later speculates that they were all too alike to stand each other's company. [SD 29]
Vicky caught on early to the true nature of the programme and "immediately started evangelising girlhood to the rest of them". [SD 17]
At intake
Paige recalls Christine being "broken", "wounded", and "defensively crass and instinctively aggressive" at intake. [SD 21] Indira's early days of sponsoring Christine were handled with her trademark approach of "weaponising niceness" [SD 19] and "leaned hard" on shame as a tool in handling Christine. [SD 22] As Christine gradually started opening up, she once shouted at her and then, regretful and scared of damaging their developing relationship, apologized the next day. Indira once confided in Paige that she had a clear vision of the woman Christine would become and that she knew that they would one day be sisters. [SD 21]
Christine had trouble adopting Vicky's new pronouns early on; Vicky would apparently retaliate by kicking her. Christine later learned that Paige asked Vicky to stop kicking her under the reassurance that she was not malicious, just "slow". [SD 14]
Christine alludes to Steph that she experienced a depressive episode following her orchi; [SD 19] she tells Lorna that she was "catatonic" following the procedure. [SD 20] Looking back, Maria believes the experience was a necessary "clean break" for her development. [SD 23] Christine states that she "found" herself afterward, when Paige came to visit her in her room and asked her to kiss her.
“Paige found me,” Christine says. “So did Dira and so did Vicky. But that was the moment for me. Not at the point where all my other options got cut off—”
“Literally,” Paige says.
“—but in the weeks after, when I realised that I was still there, still changing bit by bit, and I could either go along with it or I could follow Craig.” [SD 32]
Aunt Bea considers Christine's progress through the programme as having been "typical". [SD 8] Abby believes that Indira had the "easiest sponsorship" with Christine. [SD 9]
Second year
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In Christine's second year, Indira would often wake her in the mornings with a tray of breakfast and the details of her training that day. [SD 11] Christine once spent a week trying to learn to walk with a book balanced on her head; this was her idea and not part of her official training. [SD 26] Later, in her third year, she admits that she "didn't put in the work" in her second year to learn makeup and now practices and washes off a full look every morning. [SD 44]
Early in her second year, Christine developed an app that grants her control of all of the electronic locks in the Hall, allowing her to cycle them silently from her phone. [SD 5]
For Aunt Bea's birthday dinner, she cooked a casserole that was "cold in the middle and crunchy at the edge". [SD 9]
As the two grew closer, Indira "wasn’t great" at pushing Christine to do difficult things and often "forgot to act like a sponsor" with her, resulting in Christine being unaccustomed to life outside of the Hall. [SD 12] Melissa recalls Christine from her time at the Hall as "terribly nervous". [SD 23] Christine recalls being a "basket case" after ten minutes on her first trip outside of the Hall and had to be dragged around campus by Indira. [SD 23] Christine's first trip off-campus as a woman was to accompany Indira to be reunited with her family. The trip to London was disastrous -- on the train a drunk man clocked her, shouted at her, and pursued her, Indira, and their friends through two carriages before they could find a member of staff to intervene, an experience which left Christine shaken. [SD 10]
At some point, Christine broke things off with Paige, [SD 16] her close friend and a member of her intake with whom she previously had a physical relationship while early in transition. [SD 11] Maria recalls that they were both "in flux, as personalities". [SD 32]
Third year
Christine's transition progress is stalling out a couple months into her third year in the programme: she is simultaneously chafing under the pressure of Aunt Bea's standards and expectations, has become isolated from the other members of her intake, and is facing an identity crisis. [SD 7] She is struggling to find a healthy balance between her studies at Saints and the programme and is often sleep deprived. She has made a habit of hiding out in her room on the second floor eating meals by herself [SD 7] and she has begun to suspect that the other girls think she is antisocial. [SD 6] Christine is also dealing with Vicky's increased absence in her life after moving in with her girlfriend; she misses Vicky but does not want to intrude on her relationship and her desire to maintain distance from the Hall. She is also holding off making a decision on whether to take a cis or trans NPH. [SD 22]
Noticing her recent flailing, Aunt Bea breaks protocol, confiding in Christine that the women she tormented before entering the programme have not only been reimbursed but that she believes that they have healed from the experience and "moved on" and would likely forgive her, given her reformation. Christine expresses relief and confesses that she has had guilty dreams about them for years. [SD 8]
With prodding from Vicky and Lorna, Christine begins reconnecting with Paige and they eventually rekindle their relationship as girlfriends by the end of October; [SD 12] along the way, Paige's insistence on taking Christine out on dates improves her confidence in going out in public as a woman. [SD 18]
Stephanie's intake
At Paige's insistence, [SD 7] Christine attends a party at a dorm on campus and meets a young man named Stefan; the two hit it off and abscond to the rooftop to talk. When Stefan offers to walk her home, Christine demurs; she lives close by at Dorley Hall. Inebriated, Stefan reveals that he knows "a funny thing about Dorley Hall..." [SD 1]
Panicked, Christine manoeuvers the inebriated boy into the bushes outside Pippa's window, then screams and runs away; [SD 3] she then edits Saints' file on Stefan, sealing his record and adding comments to suggest that he was dangerous in some way, leaving Pippa to draw her own conclusions and bring Stefan into the basement. [SD 5]
Christine visits Stefan in secret and presses him for information; after Stefan reveals what he believes to be happening at Dorley Hall and the motivations for his search, a guilt-ridden Christine decides to break him out of the basement. In her effort to convince Stefan to leave before it's too late, she reveals the true nature of the programme at Dorley Hall and also that she is a participant in it. Stefan is slow to believe her, but once it becomes clear that Christine is telling the truth, Stefan confesses that she is trans and tells Christine that she wants to stay -- she has no other viable pathways to transition. Christine is conflicted but is eventually convinced to go along with her request, agreeing to help Steph survive the programme while playing the part of one of Dorley's usual subjects. [SD 6]
Christine sets Steph up with a secure Consensus channel [SD 7] and modifies her cellphone, [SD 18] letting her communicate with herself and Abby so they can provide her with useful information on the programme and the other members of her intake. [SD 7] On October 16th, Christine attends a protest at the Anthill against Katherine Frost with Indira, Vicky, and Vicky's girlfriend Lorna, who believes her to be a cis woman. [SD 8] (At the time, Christine has already introduced herself to Indira's family as a trans woman; she ruefully chalks the situation up to "poor planning".) [SD 9] Christine asks Lorna, in a veiled way, for advice on helping Steph. Lorna invites Christine to join the Trans Youth UK Consensus server where she asks for advice on Steph's behalf, posing as a cis ally. [SD 8] She tries to help Steph get comfortable with pronouns other than he / him, which she initially refuses, to Christine's chagrin. [SD 9]
Christine spends the next two weeks juggling her various responsibilities and increasing social obligations while covertly keeping an eye on Steph's wellbeing and also trying to manage Pippa, who is conflicted and confused by Steph's innocent, friendly behavior. Feeling guilty, she also tries to extend a hand of friendship to Pippa, who she realizes is lonely and isolated from her cohort. [SD 9] Christine also finds herself manipulating Abby, who has realized Steph's connection to Melissa; [SD 5] Christine convinces her to help by telling her the truth regarding Steph's investigation and transgender identity while omitting her own role in her intake. [SD 6]
On October 25th, Christine meets Faye, a second-year girl who is struggling under a harsh sponsorship by Nell. She comforts the girl, offers her reassurance, introduces her to Paige, [SD 9] and successfully advocates to Aunt Bea for Nell's replacement. In doing so, Indira is reassigned, leaving Christine without a sponsor. [SD 10] Nell and Christine later make up. [SD 20]
On November 9th, she comes clean to Paige about the deception and demonstrates her ability to hack the Hall's security cameras. [SD 13]
Lorna
Christine and Paige are watching on the security feeds when Pippa realizes Steph has been deceiving her. After Steph comes clean, admitting she's trans and that she knows the true nature of the programme, Christine confesses to her part in the subterfuge. Pippa and Christine meet on the roof of the Hall to plan next steps, inadvertently drawing the attention of Maria and Aunt Bea who become aware of the situation and step in. Christine finds herself in less trouble than she expected -- having exposed a multitude of vulnerabilities in the Hall's systems, Maria offers Christine a job as Head of Network Security. [SD 14] Christine mulls over the offer until Maria is attacked by Leigh on November 27th; accompanying Maria to the hospital, she introduces herself to Rabia with the new title. After Maria regains consciousness in the hospital, Christine informs her that she is taking the job. [SD 17]
The next day, when Christine muses aloud about the Hall allowing Maria to reconnect with her parents, Abby explains that would be impossible -- Maria's parents were both killed by Grandmother. She informs Christine of Indira's "pilot programme" for reuniting Dorley girls with their parents after a five-year monitoring period. [SD 18] When Aunt Bea arrives at the hospital, she relieves Christine to return to the Hall; Vicky and Lorna arrive to pick her up. In the car, exhaustion causes Christine to slip up and ask Vicky for pills (her estrogen), which raises Lorna's suspicions. Stopping by at Café One on campus, Lorna corners Christine and presses her for information; Christine improvises a lie that she and Vicky are both on the same SNRI. Back at the Hall, Christine messages Vicky on Consensus to apologize and get their story straight. Vicky confesses that she is tired of hiding her true history from Lorna, who believes she is cis. [SD 18]
Back in her room, Christine decides to open the latest report on her family, which she has been avoiding for the last nine months after learning that her parents had stopped searching for her. The latest report reveals that her father has fallen seriously ill, requiring professional in-home care; he is bedridden and unable to feed himself. Christine is distressed to see that her mother has not taken the opportunity to leave the man who abused her, and is instead "wasting away" by his side. Abby discovers Christine and consoles her, suggesting she go visit her mother. Abby apologizes for not being around recently and asks Christine to meet her in secret the following Saturday. [SD 18]
That Saturday, Christine is approached by Julia and Yasmin, who reveal that they are unable to leave the Hall until they have proven to have sufficiently socialized with their Sisters. Christine suggests they start taking meals downstairs more often. When Yasmin starts venting her criticisms of the Hall, Christine promises not to report her and makes a show of scrambling the security footage and offers to make an official argument to Bea, via Indira, regarding the girls' release. The two girls assure Christine they are not security risks and confess that they especially wouldn't want to expose the Hall if it meant harming Steph. Later, Christine is present in the basement for the 2019 intake's first round of disclosure and operates the slideshow detailing Aaron's personal history and list of victims. Afterward, Christine goes to meet Abby at The Fallen General pub in Almsworth; Abby reveals that she has contacted her family and the two are meeting them for lunch. The reunion goes well and Abby again encourages Christine to go see her mom. [SD 19] Christine reveals the secret to Paige shortly after. [SD 23] Back at the Hall, Christine is present when Steph comes upstairs after confessing her feelings to Aaron; she reassures Steph that Aaron will get better eventually. [SD 19] The next day, she gives Steph her first voice training lesson. [SD 20]
When Lorna arrives at the Hall on December 2nd to investigate Vicky's unraveling lies, Christine is tasked with reading her in. Once Lorna signs an NDA, Christine reveals her true personal history and the story of her time at the Hall. When Lorna struggles to believe the truth, Christine recruits Steph, accompanied by Pippa, to come upstairs to talk to her before Paige and Vicky arrive. Later, Christine follows Steph into Vicky's room, where Lorna promises to keep the Hall's secrets for Vicky's sake. [SD 20]
On December 5th, Christine indulges Paige, allowing her to dress her and do her makeup before the two are called away to Vicky and Lorna's house to confront Lorna, who Vicky reports is working herself up to do something to release Vicky from her responsibilities at the Hall. When Lorna reveals that she is planning on blackmailing Aunt Bea, Christine attempts to warn her off by telling her the story of Karen's recent disposal to illustrate the danger she would be inviting; Lorna takes the story as an intimidation tactic and angrily compares Christine to her past self, misgendering and accusing her of continuing to threaten women, only now on Bea's behalf. Christine crumples into a dissociative state and Paige intercedes on her behalf, chastising Lorna for throwing her trauma back at her. Paige reveals Christine's close relationship with Indira, whose mother, Aasha, Lorna knows from trans rights protests, and outlines the catastrophic damage to the trans community that exposing the Hall would result in. Lorna finally relents; later, when Christine has recovered, the two share a moment alone where Lorna apologizes for her behavior. Lorna informs Christine that she has decided to think of all the Dorley girls as trans women going forward. Christine invites her back to the hall to join Steph for an electrolysis consultation and speculates that the Hall may be able to fund her GRS. The two return to the living room where Vicky and Lorna trick her into playing Bloodborne. [SD 21] Following the visit, Vicky and Christine's friendship is restored. [SD 22]
Melissa and Shahida
"Dorley’s a shambles and opsec is shit and pretty soon I’m going to have to find a way to be in five places at once or we’ll be on the cover of News From The Anthill by the end of next year." - Christine [SD 26]
Christine is in a meeting with her Professor, Marianne Dawson, regarding her chronic absences when Faye and Rebecca suddenly interrupt their conversation; the two second years have been sent outside the Hall for the first time, far ahead of schedule, to retrieve her after Shahida is seen putting up a missing persons poster for Mark Vogel, Melissa's old identity, at the Hall. Back at the Hall, Christine berates Bella, the sponsor who sent the two girls out; Rabia intervenes and calms her down, explaining that they needed Christine to get in touch with Abby, who could then get in touch with Melissa. [SD 23]
Afterward, Christine meets with Paige, who discusses her plan to take her and the second years out roller skating. The two pay a visit to the Grants' home to retrieve Abby. After Abby discusses it with Melissa over the phone, Abby enlists Christine to accompany her to meet with Shahida at the Egg Nation café outside campus to provide a cover story; on the way, she reveals to Christine that Melissa has "begged" her not to tell Shahida that she is dead, a breach of protocol. At the meeting, Shahida's suspicions are raised by Christine's panicked reaction when Abby accidentally refers to Mark as "she". [SD 23]
Christine is in the kitchen when Melissa arrives at the Hall to liberate Steph on December 12th; after putting out an alert to the sponsors, she leads the second years and Charlie in pursuit across the ground floor to the conservatory. When Christine makes a show of opening the exit doors, Steph convinces Melissa she doesn't want to leave, finally subduing her. In the aftermath, Christine stays on with Steph and Melissa until Pippa and Abby arrive; she briefly returns to the kitchen where Tabby and Paige are reading in Shahida and takes some leftovers up to the second floor kitchen for Steph and Melissa. [SD 25]
Returning home
The next morning, Christine confesses to Tabitha that she has been sleeping poorly recently, haunted by memories of her old self. She shares her plan to visit her hometown with Paige and Indira; Tabitha encourages her to go and forgive herself. Shortly after, she is present when an exhausted Bea arrives from her annual search for Valérie, escorted by Elle Lambert and Jan Golding. Elle takes a moment to speak with Christine, informing her of the discovery of security breach at Peckinville Associates and praising her for taking the intiative as Head of Network Security at the Hall. [SD 26]
The morning of December 16th, Christine, having resolved to visit her hometown, is feeling a newfound peace with herself; she and Paige have sex before showering and separating for the day. Afterward, in the kitchen, Christine runs into Yasmin, who thanks her for putting in a word with Indira, who has successfully petitioned Bea to allow them to leave the Hall early, in March. Yasmin confesses that she wants to better know the other girls in her intake before leaving; Christine re-introduces her to Vicky and Lorna. Christine goes to the basement to help monitor Will's re-introduction. After, on the way up, she visits with Nell in the security room and catches her up on the recent developments with Melissa and Shahida. Back in the kitchen, she is present when Aunt Bea apologizes to Yasmin on behalf of the Hall for not doing a better job at socializing her and Julia to begin with. That night, Christine spends the evening watching all of the Shrek movies and eating pizza with Abby, Indira, Paige, Hasan, Naila, Ren, Pippa, Charlie, and others on the fifth floor. [SD 27]
On December 18th, Christine, Indira, and Paige drive to Brighton. On the way, Christine loses herself in a memory of her father driving her to visit her mother in hospice care. [SD 29] In Brighton, they visit the promenade and Christine recalls details of her past life. When they arrive at her parents house, Christine is supposed to stay in the car while Paige and Indira go to the door; however, Christine impulsively leaps from the car at the sight of her mother, Helen. The three girls continue with their plan to pose as adopted sisters, with Christine improvising her role, claiming to be an orphan of two parents in an abusive relationship similar to her own parents'. When Christine breaks down crying, her mother invites the three into the house. Inside, she shares the story of Christine's disappearance with the girls, admitting that she believes that her son committed suicide and that she blames herself for his death. When Helen points out Christine's resemblance, Indira improvises a story implying that Christine was the product of a sperm donor and that they have sought Helen after their family's legal research into Christine's adoption; Helen makes a logical leap, coming to the assumption that her late brother Hamish had donated sperm before his death while away in America. Before they leave, Helen reveals that her husband, Richard, does not have much time left and that she is considering fostering a child after his death. She asks Christine to visit again; the two exchange numbers. [SD 29]
In the car on the way home, Christine admits that she does not want Helen to be her mom any longer and that she is content to play the part of a long-lost relative with her. While in the house, she snuck away and got one last look at her father; she took the opportunity to "give the old bastard the finger" one last time. [SD 29]
Holidays
On Christmas eve, Christine spends a moment reflecting alone outside on a bench on top of a hill on campus before returning to the Hall to prepare for the Christmas Eve party with Indira. Aunt Bea intercepts them on their way downstairs, first mandating that Christine take two weeks off at some point in the new year ("paid, of course") to rest and catch up on school, and then asking the two girls to escort Teri and Ashley, who have just arrived, into the Hall. Back inside, Christine witnesses, bemusedly, as Aunt Bea performs an intimidating inspection of Aaron's appearance, and then is chastised by Steph. During the party, Christine has a strained text conversation with Abby, who is home with her parents, attempting to convince her to tighten up her op sec practices and to reconnect with Melissa; Abby states she will talk to Maria. [SD 30]
On Christmas morning, Christine is caught trying to avoid cleanup duty by Monica and made to help out in the basement; when Leigh (still going by WIll at the time) has an outburst, Nell has her take Steph and Aaron upstairs for coffee. Noticing Aaron lost in thought, she shares the story of her first kiss with Paige during her depressive episode after their orchis, an experience she describes as "the moment" she found herself. [SD 32] Later that night, while hanging out in the kitchen while Monica and Tabitha make cocktails for a group of sponsors and Sisters, Beth begins feeling overwhelmed. Christine takes her outside to to get some air; the two sit on a bench by the front doors of the Hall and Christine shares her backstory of harassing women before arriving at the Hall. Christine confides that Aunt Bea had informed her that her victims were aware of her old self's death and the catharsis she felt when Bea assured her that her victims likely would have forgiven her in light of her reformation. [SD 33]
On December 30th, Christine and Paige are enlisted by Aunt Bea to assist Tabitha in dealing with the growing Melissa / Shahida / Rachel / Amy disclosure situation, which has been approaching an imminent "reckoning"; Tabitha bails soon after to take care of Leigh. Christine and Paige first speak with Melissa and Shahida and convince Melissa to go to the basement and surprise Steph with a visit. After Rachel and Amy receive disclosure from Bea and Maria, they are sent down to the first floor common room to join Christine, Paige, and Shy; as Rachel becomes more and more irate, Paige intervenes, berating her into silence. [SD 34]
On January 2nd, 2020, Christine accompanies Paige, Donna, Jodie, Yasmin, and the second years to the skating rink. Before departing, she shares a moment with Yasmin, who admits she is going to miss the Hall when she moves out and reassures her that they will all stay in touch. At the rink, Christine is reluctant but is made to skate a few laps with Faye and Rebecca. [SD 35]
Christine is present when Rachel arrives at the Hall to meet Amy on January 4th; she volunteers to escort the two to a room in the first basement to talk things over in private. [SD 35]
Stenordale
After Elle's investigation into the Peckinville security breach inadvertently uncovers Abby's secret reunion with her family, Christine volunteers to go with Paige to retrieve her so she can speak with Bea; before departing, they eat breakfast with Yasmin, Julia, and Jodie, who reveal, to Christine's chagrin, that they are all aware of the secret thanks to the Hall gossip mill. Before they can depart, the Stenordale escapees arrive at the Hall. Paige takes the initiative to leave with Christine and Pippa, shielding Christine from taking on more work. [SD 37]
At the Grants' home, Abby greets Christine warmly, allaying her fears that Abby intends to cut everyone at the Hall out of her life. Returning to the Hall, they find the chaos has lifted; Abby and Christine share another hug. While Abby meets with Bea, Christine takes Valérie around the Hall to find some shoes and clothes. They return to the dining hall to news of Ollie's suicide attempt. [SD 37] Christine, Pippa, and Valérie monitor the situation from Christine's laptop. When Pippa is called away, Christine and Valérie have tea with Monica, Harmony, Frankie, and Trevor; Frankie reports on Ollie's condition. After, Christine takes Val on a tour of the Hall before showing her to her room on the second floor. [SD 38]
On January 11th, Christine, now on the holiday promised her on Christmas Eve, rises early and encounters Steph in the dining hall. Steph is stressed out over Beth's well-being following Ollie's suicide attempt; Christine attempts to cheer her up by taking her outside to the woodshed to build a fire and suggests that Steph take Beth upstairs to see Maria, who is convalescing after experiencing a relapse in her condition when Val, Frankie, and Trevor arrived at the Hall. While everyone enjoys a lazy morning by the fire, Christine reassures Steph by monitoring Beth, who is sleeping, on her phone. Christine is present later in the morning when Monica receives a call from Declan, now Diana; at Monica's insistence, she authorizes a thousand pounds out of the emergency fund. As Monica leaves to gather supplies for her trip to Chelmsford, Christine replays the recording of the call for the assembled girls at Nadine's request. Afterward, Christine, actively trying to avoid responsibility while on holiday, departs with Paige, Jodie, Yasmin, and Julie to go dancing. [SD 39]
On January 13th, Christine finds herself having intrusive, backsliding thoughts while in a seminar and leaves class early, feeling guilty. Retreating to the bench atop Almsworth Hill, she is discovered by Paige, who has come looking for her. They return to the Hall and join a briefing where Indira breaks the news of the bodies discovered at Stenordale Manor. Despite still being on sabbatical, Christine volunteers to take on some shifts in the basement to help out during the lockdown and check in with Steph; Paige offers to join her. [SD 42] The two take their first shift on the 15th. [SD 43] Christine attends Val's memorial service for the Stenordale victims with Paige on January 20th. [SD 44]
Trivia
- Christine was 21 years old as of October 15, 2019, making her the same age as Stephanie in the 2019 intake. [SD 6]
- Though she had a smoking habit before her intake, [SD 7] she no longer smokes and only seems to have cravings or think about smoking when stressed. [SD 17] Her fingers often twitch when anxious or pre-occupied, a tic linked to the emotional crutch cigarettes provided her pre-transition. [SD 10] [SD 17] Christine likes the roof of the Hall and often visits to "not smoke"; it reminds her of a place she used to hang out as a teen. [SD 25]
- Christine often retreats to a bench atop Almsworth Hill on campus when she is feeling stressed out or in a ruminative mood. [SD 3]
- Christine was the best in her intake at voice training [SD 19] and is occasionally called upon to give lessons to other girls in the Hall. She also seems to have become a skilled singer thanks to her training. [SD 19]
- She has a pink stuffed penguin named Pingu (she/her) in her room; when Paige teases her about Pingu being her favorite stuffed animal, she claims that she only says she is her favorite "for compliance purposes". When pressed, she admits that she has grown on her. [SD 34]
- Christine has playlists with a notable amount of Taylor Swift songs on them. [SD 17]
- Paige claims she spreads out and thrashes around when sleeping. [SD 39]
- She is skilled at braiding hair. [SD 19]
Pre-transition associates
This section is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
Parents
Christine's parents live in an "enormous" house [SD 18] in a rich neighborhood in Brighton. [SD 29] Her father, Richard, previously worked at a law firm. [SD 3] Physically abusive to her mother, Christine considers him a "piece of shit" [SD 18] and an "arrogant prick" with no regard for others' opinions of himself. [SD 29] Richard has recently fallen seriously ill, requiring professional in-home care. Previously, he had suffered three heart attacks. [SD 18] He does not seem to have much time left at the end of 2019. [SD 29]
Her mother, Helen, is "not even forty-five yet" and is "twenty-odd years" younger than her husband. [SD 18] Believing herself responsible for her son's death, she has yet to forgive herself for her negligence. Previously deeply concerned with others' perceptions of her, her house, and her son, she has cut herself off from the outside world in the years following Christine's disappearance and let the exterior of the house go mostly untended. She seems eager for her husband to pass away and is interested in fostering a child after his death. [SD 29] She was once an avid gardener [SD 30] and has recently been teaching herself to cook [SD 29] and helping out at a food bank; she has recently made a new friend named Pat. [SD 30] Christine is pleased to see that she seems to be thinking about moving on after losing her son. [SD 29]
After Christine makes contact in December 2019, Christine's mother is led to believe that she is a long-lost relative, the orphan progeny of a sperm donation made by her late older brother, Hamish, who died while living in America. While promising to visit, Christine has declared she has no intention of deepening their new relationship much further, [SD 29] believing it to be healthier for both of them. [SD 30] By January, Christine considers the ruse "unsustainable" and resolves that she "probably won't ever go see her again", [SD 39] but begins to question that decision later in the month. [SD 42] Christine received an official note of disapproval from Aunt Bea for her recklessness. [SD 45]
Photos
Official "intake" artwork by Emory Ahlberg.
Official "transition" artwork by Emory Ahlberg.
Official "graduation" artwork by Emory Ahlberg.
| Dorley girls (and a few non-girls) | |
|---|---|
| 2017 intake | Christine (Indira), |