Character Analysis
Mrs. Stone
Mrs. Stone is Nikki and Jack's English teacher at Park City High. She seems to be a pretty engaging teacher, based on how she "spoke animatedly about the role of the hero in mythology" and then "asked the class for their favorite stories or figures from myth" (1.42). She also offers to help Nikki "catch up since I'd started school almost a month later than everyone" (5.1). While everyone else is looking at Nikki like she's a weirdo, Mrs. Stone offers to help the girl out.
She's also game to help when Jack and Nikki ask for her aid in figuring out the glyphs on the bracelet from Mary. Jack talks a good game about having a bet going about whether he could figure it out first, and Mrs. Stone makes a deal to help, if he promises "to turn in your scholarship applications by next week" (30.69). So Mrs. Stone keeps her eye on the prize, which in this case is helping one of her students get ahead in college applications, while also helping her students accomplish their own goals.
Professor Spears
This guy teaches anthropology at a local university. He was one of Mrs. Stone's professors while she was in college, and she thinks he might be able to help with the hieroglyphs on the bracelet.
Even though Mrs. Stone cautions Nikki and Jack that he's probably too busy to get in touch, he requests that Jack call him pronto. Then, on the phone, Professor Spears launches into a rant about the potential meanings of the hieroglyphs:
The entire picture represents those humans who have discovered the key to eternal life, by giving up their own kas, or life forces, and stealing the kas of others. So the bracelet has to do with the royalty of the Ring of the Dead. The Akh ghosts. Or Everlivings, as some more contemporary studies have deemed them. Of course, these are all fringe theories. (30.108)
This dude knows his stuff. His presentation is kind of expository and academic, but he seems genuinely excited about the bracelet. He asks Nikki and Jack to let him know exactly where the bracelet comes from, in case it's authentic, and he also indirectly tells them to try to get to Cole's heart if they want to kill them. So thanks, Prof, for the info dump, as well as the advice.
Christopher
This guy is the manager of the soup kitchen where Nikki's dad sends her for community service after her disappearance. Nikki immediately takes a liking to the guy whose "breath smelled like peppermint and tobacco, and tattoos of vines and wire crept out from underneath the collar of his shirt and snaked along his neck" (4.7). He encourages Nikki to ignore the photographer who's there to capture evidence of her doing good deeds—you know, so that she can focus on actually doing some good.
Nikki, Jack, and Jules run into Christopher while flyering for Nikki's dad's reelection campaign, and Christopher asks if they'd like to volunteer: "You know, we're always looking for more help if either of you would like to do some good" (19.53). A guy who spends his time helping, and invites others to join him without any pressure? Sounds like a good guy all-around to us.
Braid Girl
This girl is one of the other volunteers at the soup kitchen. Nikki characterizes her as "a girl maybe a few years older than me, with two French braids on the sides of her head" (4.23). She's talked to Mary enough times to conclude that she has "Dementia or something" (4.26), but she still helps Nikki out by telling her that Mary's looking for the Daughters of Persephone, whatever that might be.
Brent Paxton
This kid is a linebacker for the Park City Miners. Becks runs into him when she crashes the football camp looking for Jack, and he steps in front of her, telling her "You're not supposed to be here" (21.75) when she arrives.
Jules also tells Nikki that during her absence, Brent, who was friends with Jack, "said something about you being a crackhead and Jack just flipped out. He threw Brent to the floor and started whaling on him" (15.21). So even though Brent and Jack were friends, it looks like Nikki's disappearance ruined their friendship.
Carl Volker
This guy is "the prosecuting attorney for the case against the drunk driver" (10.95) who killed Nikki's mom. Nikki sees him out at a bar before the case has been decided.
Carson Smith
This guy is a bartender at Mulligan's Saloon. He calls Jack to come pick up his brother, Will, when Jack is walking by with Nikki (16.36). He seems sympathetic, but clearly needs to get the belligerent drunk guy out of his bar.
Claire White
This girl attends the Christmas dance when Cole distorts people's emotions. She was dancing with someone, but then starts having a "heated discussion" (17.101), which leads to a fight.
Gavin
This dude is the drummer in Cole's band, the Dead Elvises. We don't hear much from him, except during a dangerous rafting expedition, when he remarks about the upcoming rapids: "No way out, dude […] Sounds like a song" (14.137).
Joy O'Leary
This girl is unfortunately at the Christmas dance with the messed-up emotions. Nikki observes as she "walked by me, stunned, one sleeve of her dress torn and hanging off her shoulder" (17.116). Yup—she's one of the kids who gets caught in the fray.
Ky Wilson
This is one of the kids on Jack's football team. He's there when Nikki drives up to the football camp and asks where Jack is. Ky points her in the right direction, leaving Nikki to wonder if he'll "get in trouble for helping the girlfriend" (21.81). We never find out, though.
Lacey's Lackeys
Lacey Greene is so popular that she has a posse of girls backing her up. At the Christmas Dance before the Feed, Nikki overhears them reassuring Lacey that Nikki is unworthy of Jack's attention. They say things like "You're seriously, like, a hundred times prettier than she is" (5.86), and "I mean, if her dress didn't have those straps, she'd have nothing to hold it up" (5.87). They sound real nice, eh? Just like the Plastics.
Matt Despain
This kid is at the Christmas dance when Cole manipulates the crowd's emotions. He argues with the girl he's dancing with, Claire, and her brother Noah beats up poor Matt.
Mr. Tanner
The art teacher at Nikki's high school, this guy is fooled by Neal/Cole, just like everyone else. He praises Neal's paintings, saying: "Now, this is what I mean when I talk about brushstrokes" (25.5). Nikki privately thinks that Mr. Tanner is kind of dumb, since he smiles at Cole's cryptic jokes as though he understands them—which, since he doesn't know Cole is an Everliving, he obviously doesn't.
Mrs. Ellingson
This is a "woman in a gray suit" (2.53) who comes to Nikki's house at her dad's request shortly after Nikki's reappearance. Mrs. Ellingson is there to drug-test Nikki, and so she comes over again after the Christmas Dance fiasco, too, just in case drugs were involved.
Mrs. Caputo
This is Jack's mom. According to Nikki, "Mrs. Caputo had liked me well enough as Jack's friend, but I don't think she'd ever accepted me as his girlfriend" (25.99). But when Nikki shows up after the Feed looking for Jack, Mrs. Caputo sounds downright hostile: "Nikki, please leave my boy alone. He's been through enough" (25.111). Ouch. But we can see why she'd be acting this way as a concerned mother—after all, her son who was super heart-broken when Nikki disappeared.
Noah White
At the Christmas dance with wonky emotions, Noah beats up Matt, who was dancing with Claire, Noah's sister. Nikki watches this and is perplexed because "I'd never known Noah to be violent" (17.112). His behavior is a clue that something else is afoot.
Oliver
Oliver is the bass player for Cole's band, the Dead Elvises. He's also an Everliving.
Percy Jones
This dude is Nikki's dad's campaign manager (for his reelection as mayor of Park City). He sure seems to have his act together, since he constantly is organizing people to do things for the campaign. He calls up Jules and Jack, for example, to help distribute flyers.
The Shop-n-Go Clerk
The kid who works at the convenience store where Nikki emerges from the Everneath seems to not notice or care about much. Nikki notices that he "looked like he was a couple of years older than me. He didn't even glance up from the paper he was reading" (6.61). His nametag says Ezra on it, though he seems too annoyed with Nikki's questions about people's comings and goings to have a friendly chat with her or properly introduce himself.
The Woman Who Goes to the Everneath
When Nikki is trying to spy on Cole and figure out what's really going on in the Shop-n-Go, she sees Maxwell lead in this woman:
The woman was blond, with a bad dye job and a few inches of regrowth. She wore a short skirt, a tight, sequined tube top that was missing every other sequin, and an overcoat was a few sizes too big, as if it were made for a man.
She had black smudges below her eyes and streaks of mascara running down her cheeks. (14.36-14.37)
Okay, so in addition to being an apparent fashion victim, she doesn't look happy (hence the streak of mascara). Maxwell gives her a pill, which she takes—and then something weird happens:
Her skin developed a glossy sheen, as if she were suddenly covered in liquid. Her eyes shot open, and her mouth contorted into a silent scream… then she dropped through the ground. (14.51)
As Cole explains to Nikki, the woman was a sacrifice to the Tunnels, a victim who went willingly to have her pain taken away. We have to say, though, that this doesn't look like the most pleasant thing to go through, so we feel badly for this woman no matter how much her life apparently stunk beforehand.