Arenda
Arenda is a friend of August Casso, a fellow TikToker, and the reason August moved to Wisconsin in the autumn of 2023.
The Reason for Wisconsin
August's move from Illinois to Wisconsin was not for work, school, or family. It was for Arenda. As August later explained to their grandmother, the plan was simple: stay with August's parents for two weeks, get the money together for rent, and go from there. It did not work out that way.
Darkest Hour
When Arenda reached out facing immediate homelessness with nowhere safe to turn, August took her in and secretly kept her housed for about a month to keep her off the street. When August's mother and step-father found out, they turned on August over it rather than backing them — and August cut ties and headed north.
Snapchat Purge
In the first week after arriving in Wisconsin, August deleted all but seven people from their Snapchat list and abandoned Facebook after one final parting shot at their parents. Arenda was one of the seven who stayed.
October 2023
By late October, August was worried about her. A diary entry from the 21st records Arenda describing a fight with her mother as "having a falling out," and seeming more guarded and standoffish than she had in a long time. August speculated about how much of it was stimulant use and how much was circumstance, and suspected Minecraft was an escape from a living situation that distressed her. August gave her their phone to keep her as comfortable as possible, and hoped she would end up joining the same staff — so they could at least spend more time together.