Jack was born in North Korea to George and Chio Erdmann on a Saturday, August 23rd. Jack was the second youngest out of six children, his younger brother and sister, Kyan and Marlene, being the youngest. As the second youngest he had many older siblings to look up too, yet none of them seemed to take interest to much in helping their little brother. The oldest, Georgie (short for Georgina), named after her father, was especially ignorant to Jack. Often she pretended he didn't exist, as well with the rest of her siblings but it was more severe with Jack.
The second oldest, Park, didn't bother to pay attention to Jack either, this is one of the few things that led out to the development of Jack's shyness. The third oldest, Melanie, seemed to be the only one that noticed Jack's... "problems". At the time, Jack had become extremely quiet and often hid in his room most of the time, finally, Melanie put a stop to it, doing something his parents nor Georgie, and Park had dared to do.
Ask him what's wrong.
Throughout that time period, Melanie and Jack formed a strong bond, the started to break when The Move happened. The Move, is what Jack titles, "The Worst Time Period of his Life". Once Georgie and Park had turned 12, they immediately packed up and moved to Aliquid (Central of Elementrium), their parents hoping they'd be accepted into the Academy. Like they wished, Georgie and Park we're indeed accepted into Academy.
After that, each child was accepted into the Academy each year, when it was Melanie's turn, Jack became even more silent, it appeared as if he was mute. The moment she stepped unto that train, his life spiraled downwards. Precipitously, his parents started paying attention to him, but in the worse way possible. The started expecting things from him.
They gave him books on elemental creatures, different elements and their abilities, histories of the world of Elementrium, and expected him to read it all. At first, Jack refused, but as time went on, he slowly realized that he would have nothing to do until summer rolled around and Melanie returned. So, naturally he picked up a book and read it.
The books greatly intrigued him, everyday, he couldn't help but pick up a book and start reading. Soon he began to crave the sensation of gaining knowledge, knowing that he was a more intelligent person then he was yesterday. Before he knew it, the end of the year had arrived and Melanie and the others had returned home. When the family reached home, Jack immediately burst into a lecture to Melanie about the history of Elementrium. Partly amazed and partly annoyed, Melanie listened to it all.
"Where'd you learn that?" she asked, ruffling his hair. Feeling proud, he went off to tell his parents, something he hadn't done in the whole of his life. After hearing his acquired wisdom, his parents gave him a look that could only be true satisfaction and genuine approval. The next school year, he attended the Academy with a renewed heart and new found strength.
Quickly, his first year ended and he returned home, but to the greatest disaster ever. Two weeks into the summer, Melanie and her "arch-enemy" Nagria had been terribly injured in a duel, leaving Melanie unconscious for the rest of the summer. Due to this, Jack locked himself in his room and didn't dare come out.
Each night, Jack would cry himself to sleep, praying Melanie would be okay. Sometimes he would be found hiding under the staircase, shaking uncomfortably, marks of tears on his cheeks.
It wasn't until several weeks after, that it was reported Melanie was alive and well, but it was too late.
He was already broken.
Scared and depressed, Jack started to isolate himself from his family completely. Now he wouldn't even come down to eat, they had to bring food upstairs to him and force feed him. Soon all Jack could rely on was his books. Books couldn't get injured, books couldn't hurt him, books did nothing but lie around for you to read.
Finally agreeing to come out of his room, Jack has been sent off to his second year at the Academy. However, it isn't rare to find him huddled up in a corner, quietly crying to himself, it is still said he does it to this very day. Now, as the days past, he often hides behind a shell to keep anyone from knowing the past. He's extremely closed up and doesn't share much about himself unless he truly trusts the person. Jack still suffers with some depression problems, and his random absences from school are often caused by this.
