InsaneJournal

Carter Weiss was born in an upper middle class Californian suburb by her poor-girl-turned-new-money mother Julie and her stoic, well-connected, Ivy Leaguer turned neurosurgeon father Edward. To the neighborhood kids, while Carter had the potential to be lovely, well-mannered, and sweet, she was a bit of a bully -- emotionally speaking. She had a tongue as sharp as a pair of scissors even then, and sheered peers with it. Carter had all the makings of becoming the Queen Bee in high school save for one integral thing: Carter wasn't too invested in people her age, nor what they thought of her really, and thus came off very aloof at times. What she was invested in was adult conversation and company -- namely, her sleek, vindictive, mother Julie's.

Carter was treated like Julie's closest girlfriend and confidant despite the fact that Carter was had just started at junior high school. They traded secrets over fine wine in good glasses, the ones that Julie reserved for her and Carter alone. Julie got progressively more drunk as times got more sad -- the Weiss household became one full of infidelity, isolation, and cold wars. These continued and even escalated when Carter's mother was diagnosed with cancer. Julie's illness was a heavy drain on the Weiss finances; she died when Carter was in high school. Carter has always been under the delusion that her mother died on purpose -- to win a psychological battle with her cheating husband, even if it meant dying, and dying alone -- and lives by the rules and wisdom Julie passed down to her to the letter, so as to avoid enduring that sort of choice. Shortly after Carter brutally attacked her father's live-in girlfriend with a piece of broken glass (long story), Carter decided to leave home, for good.

She made it from meal to meal on a brief stay with her sister, a short hack-job stint as a phone-sex operator (think Paypal), and small-time schemes and cons; by making friendships with the right people, and making enemies with the rest. After a near-fatal car accident (one of Chris Vaquero's pranks) that was mentioned on the news merely because it involved two sons from the richest and most prestigious families in the US and abroad, Carter wound up in the hospital with serious injuries. She was in the hospital for approximately three weeks. While she could have sued and won, she didn't sue, and won -- one of the boys' "benevolent" families pulled some strings at Sarah Lawrence to ensure Carter got acceptance, where she has flourished thanks to the security, the people, and the chance. Despite her past records as a troublemaker (socially, at least) in school and because of genius IQ, she landed an internship with the DA, decided that her future was in high stakes litigation, and transferred to FU to pursue that.

Carter is the youngest of all her siblings, including a drugged out, in-and-out-of-rehab, screw up eldest brother Luke and an older, self-righteous, ultraconservative, Christian fashion designer sister Marin.