Penny's Story
Penelope 'Penny' Mai was born in 28 February 1996 in Hong Kong and moved to the UK in 2000 with her father. Her mother decided not to join them and stayed behind with Penny's little brother, Andy.
Penny's aunt and uncle also moved to the UK. So, she ended up locked in a seemingly never-ending competition with her terrifyingly perfect cousin, Binying, who, of course, would never have done anything as embarrassing as read an essay praising pirates in class.
Whenever any of their classmates complained about Binying, Penny always defended her cousin. However, she had to admit that her extreme competence at everything could be a little annoying. Worse, Binying sometimes seemed to only barely tolerate Penny.
With her parents going through a divorce, Penny was in desperate need of a friend. This led her to pursue a friendship with Binying even harder. Every American teen movie Penny had seen told her her cousin just needed to loosen up a little. So, Maggie got them tickets for her sister's big screen debut, Elfs and Goblins VIII: Revenge of the Accursed Trolls. Binying's parents, who were themselves a little bit scared of their driven, single-minded daughter, were delighted with Penny's plan, and encouraged her to go, hoping that engaging in some regular activity like going to the movies would be good for her. It did not go well...
That day, Penny finally gave up on her cousin, who kept on being scarily good at everything. She got some popcorn and enjoyed two hours of schlocky special effects, hammy acting (except Cathy, whom reviewers called 'Shakespearean'), and cheesy oneliners.
The year she turned 16, Penny's life changed. Binying went back to Hong Kong with her parents and Penny's father married his British girlfriend. Coincidentally (or maybe not), later that year, Penny's mother sent her younger child, Andy, to live with his father. So, after living as a single child for years, Penny now had a little brother.
Maggie decided to start a feminist organization with some schoolmates, including Penny. At a meeting of this newly founded feminist group, Penny met Nina. She was happy to have someone with whom to talk about those bits of her life which, for all her valiant efforts, Maggie could never fully understand.
After Penny and Maggie joined an online forum dedicated to George R R Martin's grimdark fantasy series, A Song Of Ice And Fire, they quickly clashed with a poster going by Tyrion Rules_You All Drool, who wrote very long posts in defence of Tyrion Lannister, their most hated character.
Penny is the proud human mama of two Turkish Angoras, Al and Ziggy. Because Turkish Angoras are known to be playful and energetic cats, she decided to get two of them so they'd keep each other entertained. Now, she has two adorable, kinetic furballs running around the house.
Penny is an X-Men fan who's tired of Wolverine. She, Maggie, and Nina attend several conventions every year. In fact, Penny met her current boyfriend, Alan, a couple of years ago, at Comic Con.
The year she turned 20 was a big year for Penny. That was when she and Maggie went to Romania to protest against the current portrayals of vampires in fiction.
Penny's life would never be the same after that...
