Tamara Phelps

Tamara's mother was a fairly light-skinned African American, and her father was white. She has, therefore, acquired a very pretty caramel complexion accented by black eyes and hair. She inherited her mother's curvy, slightly bottom-heavy build and dresses accordingly, wearing clothes in styles that accent and show off her figure to her advantage. However, she never sacrifices fashion for functionality and, with her cover job as an electrician and real job as a spy, doesn't even bother keeping dresses or skirts in her wardrobe. She wears dress pants to formal occasions. With her solid build and fair height - 5'8" - Tamara is the statuesque kind of woman who looks like she could beat you up. Which she can.

Tamara enjoys looking nice, and sometimes a little trendy, and wears bold make-up to go with the fashionable outfits she wears. Gold is her favorite color, as it looks wonderful on her, and she always has a bit of gold jewellery on and often a dash of gold shimmer over whatever eye shadow she is wearing. She simply keeps her hair, of the kinky African variety, cut short so it springs up off her head. A man she was dating once said she looked like an Egyptian Queen; she holds it as the highest compliment her appearance has ever been given.

Tamara always hated the name her mother put on her birth certificate. Not that she isn't proud of her heritage, she is. She just can't stand the history of the name. 'Taquinisha' and other names like it came into fashion around the turn of the century, used by black mothers to express how fully 'black' their children were. It was given to Tamara as a family name, but she had it changed after graduating Deveruax, anyway.

Tamara is very good with computers; they react to her analytical, logical manner better than people. Not that she's unemotional, she just isn't impulsive. She thinks things over. In fact, she has a tendency to over think her dealings with people and, when she first came to Deveraux, had a problem dealing with people that stopped just short of panic disorder. She has since been brought out of her shell, but she still isn't very outgoing. This can lead to problems for her in day-to-day life, as, since she dresses well, it's not uncommon for men to flirt with her, which leads to her feeling uncomfortable and escaping as quickly as possible. She can carry on quite interesting conversations with someone she knows well, however. Not to say that she can't stand up for herself. When, after thinking things over, Tamara finds that she has been wronged, rather than getting upset, she gets even.

Tamara's father was a government contractor and her mother worked in, and eventually took over, the family business. From a very young age, Tamara was always shy. She preferred reading or being on the computer to playing with other kids. Her parents, not wanting her to be unathletic, enrolled her in individual sports such as tennis and swimming, and she did well; not at the top of the pack, but near it. However, as she got older, she became more and more interested in science and technology. She won the School and Regional Science Fair in third grade, and continued competing in them, always getting at least to State Level. In sixth grade, she won the National Science Fair, which first brought her to the attention of Deveraux Selector Agents. As her exceptional intelligence and gift with computers was apparent, she was asked to attend Deveraux, and quickly accepted. She never did as well as her teammates in Martial Arts, PE, Swimming, or other overtly physical classes (and she failed the Negotiations course she took), but did very well in other classes, particularly Tactics, Tech, and anything related to computers.