Penni Guin

Penelope 'Penni' Guin is a main protagonist in Freshmen!.

Personality
Penni is the voice of reason in the trio. As the oldest, she prides herself in knowing almost everything, as her knowledge isn't as extensive as Jessie's. She is sweet, caring, short-tempered, and takes after her mother Rosa, in personality, height, and looks.

She also assumes quite often, as the first instance of this is in Freshmen! #6, 'Thick', when she assumes Kyle is looking at porn. Though she is short of height, she is tall of fight, and will defend anyone she loves whether it be with violence or pacifism.

As the voice-of-reason, she often has to halt Calliope's hairbrained schemes, and has to stop Parinaaz from beating someone to a pulp. And for this reason, she is often reading or meditating, using pacifism as a virtue.

Background
Penni was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on February 3rd, 2003, which makes her the oldest in the trio. Her native language is Spanish, and is fluent in English as well. When she was 6, her family suffered a tragedy that still lives on to this day. Her (now deceased) brother, Miguel, was hit by a drunk driver as the two were crossing the road to go to school. After that, the Guins moved from Puerto Rico to America.

Once arriving in America, the Guins settled in Byoak and Penni went to St. Lincoln Byoak Elementary, starting with the third grade. There, she was picked on by the other kids for only being able to speak Spanish, and was put into the school's ESL program to learn English.

She then met the Cover Girl Clique, which, at the time, included Calliope as well. Andrea, being able to speak Spanish herself, was the only one who was able to talk to Penni and used this advantage for making fun of her.

Around January of the 3rd grade year, Calliope branched away from the CGC, and became Penni's best friend. Their friendship annieversary date is January 17th.

In highschool, the two remain best friends as they were integrated into St. Lincoln Byoak High School (SLBHS/LBHS) and meet Parinaaz Patel, who also becomes the target of the CGC's ridicule, as well as the rest of the school because she mainly spoke Indian.

Appearance
Penni has short dark brown hair, with bangs that are left facing. She has a thick hair flick that faces left, as do her bangs. She also has olive-tanned skin, and brown eyes, despite her initial 2015 design showing her with blue eyes. She wears a striped sweater that consists of the colours (in order): blue, white, and grey. She also wears black leggings, white socks, and short brown boots. Her signature color is blue, (not to be confused with Jessie's signature color, cobalt blue) as it is the color she wears the most.

Other outfits include the outfit she is introduced into the webcomic: a short flapper-style dress with an ombre shade of blue to grey, and blue go-go boots. She can also be seen wearing a santa-like outfit in a drawing titled 'Christmas Penni' which also serves as the Winter icon for the Freshmen! Tumblr. Her santa outfit is a long-sleeved red shirt with a wide neck-hole, a black belt/band (similar to that of the band on the PowerPuff Girls' outfits) a red skirt with white cotton at the bottom, green stockings, a santa hat black go-go boots and a brown sack.

Relationships
Penni's relationships stem from her family first, then friendships, and ultimately enemies.

Friends and Family

 * Rosa Torres-Guin: Rosa is Penni's mother, and usually the first person Penni turns to when she needs advice. Though Rosa gives her daughter tough love most of the time, she is caring and looks out for the well being of her daughter, especially after what happened to Miguel. Despite this, she and Penni don't have the strongest relationship, as that title belongs to Penni's relationship with her best friend, Calliope Smith-O'Sullivan. Rosa can be described as forgiving, sweet, generous, short-tempered, determined, and serious when she needs to be. Rosa is a translator.
 * Pedro Guin: Pedro is Penni's father, and admittedly, the two do not have the best relationship. Pedro often tries too hard to satisfy Penni, and ends up embarrassing his daughter, despite his wife telling him that he doesn't need to try as hard as he does. Pedro works as a screenplay writer for Broadway shows, despite the fact that his wife and child live in Byoak. He can be described as embarrassing, tough, naiive, caring, and all-around a good father.
 * Miguel Guin: Though their relationship was short-lived, Miguel and Penni always got along. They almost never fought, and when they did, it was resolved quickly as to not make Rosa or Pedro worry. Miguel was two years older than Penni, being born in 2001, making him around 8 when he passed. On the day that he did (May 7th, 2009) he pushed Penni out of the way of an oncoming vehicle as to save her. Unfortunately, it ended in Miguel losing his life as he rolled over the car, and hit the pavement face-first, shattering his skull. Penni blames herself for his death.
 * Calliope Smith-O'Sullivan: Calliope and Penni have the strongest bond. In the third grade, Penni barely knew a lick of English, and went into ESL teaching. Andrea Pedrosa used this as an advantage to lie to the students and faculty at what Penni was actually saying, almost getting her expelled once Penni learned enough English to tell everyone that everything was not what it seemed. After months of secretly (or not-so-secretly) being sick of the constant torment to Penni, she ended her friendship with Andrea and became best friends with Penni, making their friendship stronger than Gorilla glue.
 * Parinaaz Patel: Parinaaz and Penni first and formally met when Penni was recruited to show Parinaaz around the school. Being from India and being rich, Pari was both made fun of and feared for both things. Penni neglected to tell her about the CGC, fearing that she would freak out. Instead, Calliope quickly made friends with Parinaaz, "saving" her from the grasp of the CGC. Ever since then, the three have stuck together, rebranding themselves as the Freshmen Trio.
 * Kyle Williams: Kyle is Penni's Canadian pen pal, and visits America frequently. Interestingly enough, he is also apart of his own group, CKTD (literally: Chris, Kyle, Theo, Drake). Kyle and Penni are good friends, and have a lot of things in common, like their favorite foods being Hot Pockets. Kyle, when paired up with Penni, is usually more of a smart-alec than a voice of reason, and it makes for a more calculating duo than Calliope and Penni, who create a dynamic duo. A prototype design for Kyle can be seen in the first Freshmen! animation.
 * Pepper McMilian: Pepper and Penni are on good terms, as Pepper often tasks Penni with getting the "scoop" as she always delivers. Penni also tutors Pepper on occassion, usually when Nadia can't tutor her herself. Overall, Pepper and Penni are neutral, and haven't appeared in any strips together.
 * Nadia Stevens: Nadia and Penni are usually neutral, and rarely enemies. The only time Nadia feels threatened by anyone would be if anyone else was the photographer for the school paper. Nadia's best relationship is with Pepper, as the two are a duo and best friends at that, forming the Newspaper Girls. Nadia and Penni team up when either Calliope or Pepper are in trouble, or when it's completely necessary. Because the two aren't contrasting personalities as well as Nadia being stoic, but lively behind the camera, and Penni being more of a voice-of-reason. This forms a connecting duo that acts more like not-so-different twins.
 * Theo Kwan: Theo and Penni get along, but aren't on very close terms. Theo is mostly stoic, and Penni avoids him like she does with Kiara, but the two are on good terms. Penni usually goes to Theo when she needs details on a hot scoop, and interviews him in certain situations.

Enemies

 * Andrea Pedrosa: Penni's biggest enemy, Andrea. Andrea, from the start, detested Penni because she got the most attention. And because Penni didn't speak English as well as Andrea did, she took this as an opportunity to relentlessly bully her, and purposely misinterpret everything Penni said, as Andrea became Penni's translator until she spoke English fluently. Andrea is coniving, stealthy, bratty, selfish, and most of all, evil. Especially towards Penni. She treats Calliope somewhat differently, though Calliope tussles with her the most, wanting to defend Penni at all costs. If Andrea and Penni ever teamed up, they'd create a negative-negative duo.
 * Deidre Ramos: Deidre and Penni are almost opposites. Deidre also relentlessly bullied Penni, as Kiara followed. Though Deidre puts on a devilish facade, she is actually sickeningly positive, sometimes to the point where Penni rests her hand on her shoulder, saying, "Stop." Deidre is also part of the CGC, Andrea's clique, which gives Penni another reason to loathe her in general. If Penni and Deidre ever teamed up, they'd create a positive-negative dynamic duo.
 * Jessica 'Jessie' James: Jessie and Penni don't get along, as Jessie often hacks the grading system and uses it as a crutch to insult Penni for her less-than-impressive grades. Jessie also purposely marks down Penni's grades as well, almost threatening her chance of making it into the 9th grade in general. Under that layer of devilish evilness, Jessie is actually a sweet, sarcastic, and nerdy person, that, if ever teamed up with Penni, would create the same type of duo she'd get with Kyle: a calculating-voice duo.
 * Kiara Yao: Kiara and Penni don't get along as well, as Penni is often intimidated by Kiara's stature and menacing glares. Kiara also threatens to bang-up Penni as well, mostly when Penni steps up from staying in the background. Under her Clique facade, Kiara is stoic and usually keeps to herself, which is another factor in making her intimidating. If Kiara and Penni ever teamed up, they'd be a silent-but-voice duo.
 * Drake Myers: Drake is Penni's one-and-only-ex as the two briefly dated before freshmen year. This is briefly brought up in the first Freshmen! animation, as Drake is shown. Drake also appears in Freshmen! #2, where he tries to get Jessie to give him a BJ. Drake is more of a player, and frequently tries to pick up ladies, more often or not trying to get them to engage in coitus. He is also jealous of Theo, who gets numerous ladies flirting with and even kissing him by not trying. He and Penni hate each other, and the same is with Jessie.
 * Christopher Adams: Christopher and Andrea's relationship is often rubbed in Penni's face, as Penni used to have a crush on Christopher when the two were in fourth grade. Pepper made her crush public by accident, and Andrea swooped in for the kill, the two being in a "serious" relationship. Chris often makes fun of Penni, calling her "stress ball" because of her breast size compared to Andrea's "volleyballs".

Apperances in Strips and Other Art

 * Freshmen! #1: 'Boots'
 * Freshmen! #6: 'Thick'
 * Christmas Penni

Trivia

 * Penni's name is a pun on the word penguin. This is because the original concept of Freshmen! in general was Penni being a hybrid of a penguin and a human girl that went to a school for hybrids. Another concept that included Calliope was the two being ghosts.
 * In Penni's 2015 design, she has blue eyes.
 * Penni's signature color is standard blue.
 * Penni has B-Cup breasts.
 * In Penni's original design, she has spiky ombre brown-to-blue hair, a two-tone blue and purple hoodie, black tights, and sneakers.
 * Penni is bisexual.
 * Penni's name is based on Penelope Torres from the Awkward graphic novel, written and illustrated by Svetlana Chmakova.
 * Penni, like the other main Freshmen! Girls have character inspirations. Her only and main inspiration is Dipper Pines, from the Disney series Gravity Falls (2012-2016)