Editing August Casso (section)

== Early Life & Background (1999-2016, Ages 2-18) ==

=== Single Monmother of Red Headed Stepchild (1999-2002) ===
August grew up in rural western Illinois, their memories beginning around the age of 2 years old. Initially living alone with their single mother in an apartment in Monmouth, Illinois - August would primarily socialize with other children through Lutheran Daycare, Sunday School at the Church (ran by his Great Grandmother Shirley), Daycare at Carl Sandburg College where his mother attended, and various interactions from around the apartment complex. They would be babysat by their neighbor across the hall, a heavyset older woman (now deceased). During this period they would have three pets: a turtle named Stinky and two goldfish named Scooby and Shaggy. August would watch the former murder the pair one day, and then be informed the turtle died during the families move in with his future step father. 

August would meet his step father the day they moved in with him, much to August's chagrin. While initially upset at the abrupt upheaval of their life; that anger would be replaced primarily with fear as with this also came the introduction of physical harm as a form of punishment and with haphazard implementation. The house, now demolished, was located at Rural Route 1 Box 85 in Maquon, Illinois along the highway by itself atop a hill. It would be a home his step father had occupied a significant portion of his adult and child life himself, however the love it instilled in country living for him did not translate to August - who would grow up resenting rural residency.

Being left home alone initially around the age of 4, August would be intimidated to stay indoors by his mother who would say he would trip and fall down the hill in their front yard, barreling into the highway and being subsequently hit by a car if he were to venture outside without either parent present. He would also be instructed not to answer the telephone; one instance in doing so resulting in a minutes long fake conversation with themself and their mother, pretending to be one of her associates, only to reveal her trickery and that they would be paying for their error upon her arrival home. The interior of their first house was largely what they would have to experience in these years - technically 3 levels, though the basement level was only accessible via cellar door on the side of the house. The ground floor would have two entry points - a backdoor (used as a main entry), which opened into a large foyer that functioned as their living room. The middle of the abode was a kitchen with a pantry/laundry parrel to the far wall, a curtain functioning as the door to it. Opting to go instead along the opposite side of the kitchen's wall/windowed counter would lead to a staircase, which would go up to the attic level where August's room would be. The area initially had no barrier around it, leading a misstep to open air and plumeting down to the aforementioned living room area or foyer. Going through the kitchen or under the stairs would lead to the 'dining room' space, often a cluttered table with furniture all around making 4 narrow walkways around it to actually navigate the space. On the wall closest to the kitchen entry, an immediate right would put one in the bathroom, while further forward on the right was the computer room/den. Going just straight from the kitchen would lead to the often inaccessible front porch space, which was the other entry point for the home though rarely unlocked at all. Opposite the den on the other wall was a double wide two door entry to August's parent's room, which itself had a spare room for storage to the immediate left of it.

=== Elementary School Daze (2003-2011) ===
August would enroll in Yates' City Elementary School upon turning 6 years old (his birthday being on the cutoff, his mother elected to wait a year due to, her words, his being too short)for Kindergarten in Mrs. Dooley's 2003 Kindergarten Class. This would be the final year Yates CIty would operate the elementary as it and several other local elementary schools would combine their student bodies to form Farmington Elementary/J/HS the following year. While August would initially react poorly to school and being seperated from his parents due to increased isolation from anyone outside them or his grandmother, he would form a few friendships during his one year at Yates which would blossom into several strong bonds at Farmington throughout the 1st-4th grades he attended there.

Following the fourth grade, his parents would purchase a home a few miles closer to Maquon and move counties from Peoria to Knox, and school districts from Farmington to Spoon River. SRV was their step father's childhood school, which also had their cousins from their step dad's side in attendance, but August would not adapt well to the sudden change and struggled with being bullied and making connections for their first few years there (5th through 8th grades). This is not to say they had none, however, but it would be their Freshman year of Highschool that they really came into their own.

=== The Rise of Kenny Case (2012-2016) ===
While August had not dabbled much in sports or extra-curricular anything in their early education - 8th grade they tried Track and all of JHS they had done scholastic bowl team, student council, and volunteered for food stands at HS games as ways to extend their access to socialization with other kids. So upon hitting HS, while they missed Freshman football due to ignorance on how that all worked in a schedule - they were able to sign up for and join the basketball team. While not good at all; this socially opened them up a rapid ladder of social climbing, being dubbed 'Kenny', their first initial alias for long term use by Sam Nelson (then a senior). By the end of the year, they were involved in most clubs, now in sports year-round, and would be one of the most active students in their student body as far as any activity was concerned. Which made their having a license and vehicle, with nigh unlimited gas thanks to their step father's career in the oil and gas field, a perfect recipe for ascending to the pinnacle of picturesque highschool experiences.

Those who knew them then would describe August, then Kenny, as someone who told it like it was, very confident, funny, and smart as a whip. The truth of the matter was August would often feign narcicism initially as a defense mechanism, doing so pseudo-ironically until it just was reality for them after so many years of it. Their confidence was a glass canon, and they were callous and cruel to those socially beneath them who caught their ire as it bolstered their own place in the chain while portraying them as a brutally honest comedian. The intellifence was certainly there, if anything squandered due to laziness, and comedy acting as a crutch in place of actual pleasantness or decency. August had worked out how to be charming over years of trial and error and watching other's reactions to their own and other's input; so while not understood on an emotional level it was easy enough to mostly replicate with success.

Tied into their social status was their start with substance abuse. The inciting incident, when asked to hangout with two upperclassmen and try beer and weed one weekend, centered around the sin. By the time they would graduate, they would be nursing an infant alcoholism and have tried a handful of drugs; though the real hard knocks wouldn't hit until 19/20. Despite it all, they never allowed it to affect their schooling near absolutely separate - and would stay consistently with near perfect if not actually so attendance and in the top of the classes students in terms of GPA. They would be the highest ACT score of the grade, though it was still not a satisfactory mark for August's liking. They would attempt to get into an Ivy League college at the encouragement and example of their friend from Speech, Tayven. 

Due to increased tensions over rebelion, philosophy, etc. - August would in essence leave home early. The summer they turned 18, but while still 17, they would get their own room at the Canton Traphouse with their best friend Dakota Hook and co. and throughout the year bounce between primary home bases of friend's homes, parties, or just their car's backseat if necessary. For many, many years this was what August considered their golden age. It also did not impact their schooling negatively at all, as they would still get into a college (albeit not Ivy), graduate a Sophomore in College while still in HS thanks to dual credit and weighted courseload, and both semesters have only 1-2 hs courses total at all while the rest were higher education. Their future bright, they raced toward their young adulthood hopeful after years of having had built it up in their head