Grace Jackson

Grace Jackson is the protagonist of the 2020/2021 novel Blinded By The Light. She is the damaged daughter of her abusive father, Irving and victimized mother Abbie. She has aspirations to become a renowned baseball player. Currently at age seventeen, her skills are extremely refined and makes her a star player on her local high school team. She does struggle with consistently having to lie to her friends about her injuries and late comings to school.

Early Life
Grace Ivey Jackson was born on December 18, 2006, to Irving and Abbie Jackson. She was born in the massive coastal city of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her parents adored her, though Grace would be their second attempt at a child, as Abbie miscarried in 2005. Despite initial concerns, Grace was healthy baby girl and she was raised in the family home just outside the main town. Abbie after Grace turned five became a licensed psychologist, opening her own practice in Atlantic City.

Finding Her Passion
When Grace was five, she saw her father watching a baseball game on the television and became entranced. Irving, a lover of baseball brought her to a little league game in town and Grace was even more attached to the game. For her birthday and Christmas that year, the parents got her a mitt, a tee and a bat and that spring and summer she began practicing endlessly.

This passion would overtake her and drive her and she dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player.

Elementary School
When Grace entered elementary school she was very shy and quiet, though not antisocial. She had the tendency to blabber on once she opened up to somebody. Starting her education in Atlantic City, the family soon fell into financial issues and was forced to sell their home and Abbie's practice and move to Fenwick Island, Delaware. This town was a major downgrade, though Abbie was able to open another practice. This moved hampered Grace's social development and she did not adapt quickly. However she soon met somebody that completely flipped this behavior on its back and changed her personality. This first somebody was Vivienne Casson, another student who also loved to talk. The two girls hit it off and by the end of second grade they considered each other best friends.

In the fourth grade they connected with new boy from Hampton Roads, Virginia, named Hunter VanCain. The three friends became tightly knit and no other friends were added to the group until they were deep into their high school years.

The Colton Marius Crisis
Starting also around fourth grade, a boy named Colton began romantically pursuing Grace, though she wasn't interested by any means. In fact, she was very, very repelled by the young man and saw his advances as rather creepy. Colton though, was persistent and didn't appear to be aware of Grace's attempts to rebuff him. This pursuit would not just be an elementary phase for Colton, though it would consider deep into their high school years.

Irving's Terrible Habit
In 2016, when she was nine and ten, her father Irving began developing a terrible drinking problem. Grace and Abbie quickly realized they couldn't stop the problem and so they set a scale for how to monitor the collapse into drunkness.

1-2 drinks was fine, as not much happened.

3-4 drinks was where he began getting drunk and agitated towards small things.

5-6 drinks was where Irving became totally drunk and aggressive.

6-7 drinks and Irving is totally smashed, violent and abusive.

As her father spiraled into alcoholism, he began regularly beating her and Abbie over the littlest things which horrified Grace who thought she had become a terrible daughter. However when Irving was sober, he was the classic American father and family man, treating his wife and daughter with respect and kindness and showering them with love.

High School
As Grace, Vivienne and Hunter entered high school, they were tighter then ever and tackled high school together. They didn't share too many classes, and as such Grace searched for minor friends to accompany her throughout the day. This endeavor was pretty unsuccessful, as Grace was known to chatter a lot.

However, she did meet another freshman, Amy Redmont, who was another baseball enthusiast, though she was more connected to the Washington Nationals, and so she and Grace began a playful rivalry in which they'd compete over who's team was better. In early spring, Amy learned that Grace had been playing softball for nine years or so and asked her to tryout for the Fenwick Falcon's softball team.