Another Character Sketch

I like these. I have problems crafting stories, but I think I like focusing on small things, like a particular character :)
This is an old one...really rough, I think it's the first one I did. It was during class.

She has a strong, straight nose. Dark eyes shadowed by darker lashes, and a thin face framed by straight, dark brown hair. The styling is austere, hair cut straight across on the back. Only a few, loose strands that slip across her face unnoticed indicate that really she's still a child despite the solemness in her gaze and unsmiling, chapped, cupid's-bow lips. Sometimes, the eyes look so dark, the pupils aren't distinguishable from the iris. All these aspects don't make her look stern, however. There's something about her, perhaps it's her skinniness, that makes her look more delicate than stern.

She wears a school uniform, most times, neatly and smartly, expertly starched, crease-less perfection. She's known how to iron clothes for ages now, and the skill's embedded itself into her hands; it's an art. Putting that all aside, neatness doesn't imply form--the suit isn't flattering. It's purpose is entirely academic. All uniformity.

Anyhow, beyond the ironing, she doesn't focus on her clothes very much. But her shoes are old and kind of too small, and her skirt has gotten slightly short. Not in a miniskirt way, just awkwardly, because she's grown too big for it.

When she's nervous, her eyes flicker this way and that. She keeps looping and relooping her hair back, back, back behind her ears, or if she's standing, she stiffens up like a board, looking at hole worn into the top of her left shoe. When she feels daring at times like this, standing in front of the 62 pairs of eyes that make up her 6th grade class, she'll bring up her hand by her ears again, carefully, deliberately. And reloop her hair.

So she's quiet and reserved, keeping to herself. But she's not standoffish. She's kind--disposed to being sympathetic, and merciful when others do her wrong. And her quietness--it draws other people to her, makes them curious. Who is this child with the silent manner and the silky, solemn hair? Who is this child who seems so curled up, into herself?

She trusts herself the most. Or perhaps her dad because they're the most alike in the family. She used to trust her best friend, but then she was disappointed severely, and though they're still friends, she can't bring herself to put ultimate faith in others anymore. She doesn't quite trust her mother. She doesn't distrust her mother consciously, but inside she's aware that her brother comes first in Mother's eyes.

She doesn't really argue. But when her parents fight, she always sides with her father because she truly believes he's right, and she tries to maintain objectivity. Her older brother and younger sister side with her mother. This is how the family always divides.

Her circle of influence is rather small. She has simple hobbies. When she's bored, she loves to read. She's read just about all the books that the teachers call the "classics." She often rereads Wuthering Heights because secretly, she's a romantic, and she likes emotional stories, whether they end happily or not.

Her sadness is not so simple. She doesn't get sad about things at school, or involved in tangled reality-TV show dramas between her friends. But it makes her sad that her mother needs to work to support the house, and that her father always makes the mistake of trusting his friends with his money. It makes her sad that her father majored in politics and business when he should have been a skilled doctor or lawyer. It makes her sad that her most treasured memory is of her mother, when she came all the way to school once to bring her lunch. At the time, she was embarrassed and pretended she didn't know the woman in the gray apron, running after the school bus with her hair flying everywhich-way, in a messy ponytail.