Brooke (Brookie) McQueen

The only child of Michael and Kelly Mcqueen. Kelly ran off with another man when Brooke was nine. Believing this traumatising event to be her fault led the young Brooke to seek perfection as a way of bringing her mother back home. The consequent eating disorder made her drop to 75lbs and to break a rib when she sneezed. Hospitalised at this point she made a good recovery, though she is still careful about her food and is prone to relapse when stressed, as after her failed campaign for student council president.

Now a perfect size two, the tall, slim, blonde, brown eyed, beautiful, immaculately dressed, head cheerleader is the queen of popularity at Kennedy High. In the first season she's a straight-A student, a member of the honors society, homecoming queen and is going out with the star quarterback, Josh Ford. She's got everything, hasn't she?

Superficially, yes, actually, no. Her childhood search for perfection has led her to construct this glossy facade to a life entirely devoid of meaning. It's all show and no go. Even her professed dislike of Sam is false. She doesn't hate her, she envies her, because Sam has a real life, real ambitions, real friends, but most of all she has a real mother who didn't abandon her.

Sam, fearing losing her mother to Brooke, found Kelly and started a chain of events she wished she hadn't. Brooke nearly left home to live with Kelly until she realised she would be repeating her mistake and hurting her father all over again.

This is an interesting decision. Brooke considers herself to be a good person, yet often hurts those around her, by thoughtless or deliberate actions. This is one time she thinks things through and changes her mind.

Her best friend is Nicole, but she seems to like Carmen quite a bit, and supports her against Nicole's objections on more than one occasion.

But back to romance, Brooke eventually forces herself to have sex with Josh but it's an empty experience for them both. The subsequent pregnancy scare produces more trauma but no closeness. 'Ken and Barbie' try hard to make it work, but it never does and eventually they break up for good.

Brooke has thought about her sexuality, but her attraction to women, if indeed she is, is not further discussed. She subsequently tries to steal George from Sam, goes out with Jaime Roth and then sleeps with Harrison. This causes yet more tension between her and Sam, who is going out with Harrison at the time, and leads to to climactic events of the season two cliffhanger.

Season three would have seen Brooke recover from a four month coma - as a brunette! She would then starting dating Harrison in earnest.

Other facts. Brooke has demonstrated some skill in photography, her mother is a photographer, but seems to have no other interests outside of shopping.

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