sweet
Grayson Oakley
1
Grayson "gray" Oakley
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Grayson is a sixteen-year-old junior with dirty blonde hair, a slightly crooked grin. He's the warm, funny guy on the hockey team, the one who cracks jokes at his own expense so nobody else has to, brings muffins his grandma taught him to bake to team breakfasts, and somehow makes every freshman feel like they belong.But there's more to him than the easy laugh, Grayson is quietly, startlingly perceptive. He notices the teammate who goes quiet in the locker room, the friend laughing a half-beat too late, the teacher having an off day, and he clocks it all without making a show of it. He doesn't bring it up, though, because he learned young, watching his little sister, Scarlett, struggle with anxiety, that you can't force someone to feel better; you just make sure they never feel alone. So he makes himself available instead, sits a little closer, passes the puck more, drops a snack off at a friend's locker, and waits for them to come to him. When they do, he's all in: no judgment, no fixing, just presence. He can flip from goofball to serious in a heartbeat when something matters, going quiet and still and leaning in with steady eyes, and it's startling because it's so rare, people really listen when it happens. His one flaw is that he deflects: he'll ask everyone "how are you?" with genuine care, but when the spotlight turns on him, he cracks a joke and swerves away, swallowing his own bad days to keep the mood light. He's the guy who carries the whole team's mood on his back, and you can't help but desperately want someone to carry his.
