Spencer Harris

Spencer Harris is a secondary protagonist in the 2021 novel Ella's Storm. Spencer is Ella's friend and love interest towards the end of the novel.

Early Life
Spencer Harris was born on April 11, 2005 to Gerry Harris and an unnamed mother, who died in childbirth. Gerry was a beat cop, serving in the Medford City Police Department (MCPD) and raised Spencer harshly. He was known to employ strict discipline, which made Spencer into a very hardened boy. Spencer learned to read and write by the age of four and he soon started kindergarten. In kindergarten he met his soon to be best friends, Ella Westmore and Morgan Freeman. Gerry was infuriated by this, the fact that his son was friends with two girls, but seeing as he was five years old, Gerry opted to let it slide, because his son was socializing with other kids his age.

Elementary School
Spencer, Ella and Morgan remained tightly knit throughout elementary school, often being in the same classes. Sometimes the three of them would get in trouble for whispering in class or passing notes, which only enraged Gerry further. He became convinced that the two girls were corrupting his son, but he was too young to see it. It was also during his elementary years when Spencer discovered, along with Ella, an amateur love for weather.

He would pick out books in the library about the subject and became fascinated by it. This was a love that he kept hidden, as he believed his father wouldn't approve. By time Spencer was moving onto middle school, he was absolutely entranced with meteorology as a whole. He also began to see his friend Ella in a different light.

Middle School
Still best friends in middle school, Spencer remained close with Morgan, though he began to drift away from Ella as he developed a crush on her. He was far too afraid to admit such a thing, fearing their strong friendship would be ruined over the knowledge. However, he kept up his secret love of weather. Throughout sixth grade, his crush on Ella only heightened and more difficult to contain.

Seventh Grade
As seventh grade dawned, the teenage Spencer forced himself to pry away from Ella and Morgan and began searching for a new friend group, or social group in general to join as he would get picked on for hanging out with two girls over other guys. As this was happening, Ella was developing her own crush on Spencer, and she began to fear she had done something to drive him away and this terrified her. Morgan made sure that she knew that Spencer was just being a big dumb idiot who had no idea what he was missing out on.

Eighth Grade
By eighth grade, Spencer had practically completely detached from Ella and Morgan, only involving himself with them if he had a lab assignment or other activities where he had to. This hurt him brutally, not being able to express himself to his friend. He began hanging out with the likes of Elijah Fox and Robert Carnell who were parts of the baseball and football team. Spencer did have the physique and strength to play sports, but he had never been interested. When we was outside with his new gang after school he exhibited immense talent in this field, something Gerry took key notes in.

High School
As Spencer entered high school, he learned Gerry had signed Spencer up for the football team, to his dismay. Though this made his clique extremely excited and during his tryout, he blew the coach out of the water with his immense skills. After being confirmed onto the team, Ella confronted Spencer behind the school and demanded the truth from him, if he didn't want to be friends with her or Morgan anymore.

Spencer reluctantly said that he didn't, that he had moved on and even dropped the potentially insulting phrase that he had 'grown up'. This enraged Ella, who began trying to force herself not to crush on Spencer, and that's when her eyes fell on Elijah Fox.

The Truth About The Football Clique
It didn't take long for Spencer to realize that the football team wasn't all glory and might. He was dragged out to parties by his 'friends', where he was expected to get regularly trashed on both alcohols and in some cases, drugs. He was also encouraged to pursue promiscuous sexual adventures, which the likes of Eli and Robert dabbled in extensively. He tried to avoid this, though sometimes he would get pressured into drinking, though he always avoided sleeping with other girls as he wanted to wait until he was married. He made up an excuse that there was this one girl he had his eyes set on, and one that would never take him. This was Ella, though he only gave a vague description of what she looked like to avoid casting suspicion.

Spencer hated being in the football team, and despite performing well and getting into great physical shape, he felt as though he was just obeying his father's wishes and not being able to pursue what he loved to do.

Eleventh Grade
Throughout high school, Spencer's crush on Ella never went away and only grew stronger due to the obvious tension between them. It was early in eleventh grade when he began to consider the fact that he might just be in love with her, a fact that frightened him. He decided to bunk with Robert on the upcoming trip to the Republic of Fiji, and hoped that the trip could be the breath of fresh air he so desperately craved.