User:Russell29/Sandbox 2

Rachel Gatina
Danneel Harris portrays Rachel Gatina, who moves to Tree Hill at the beginning of senior year. She joins the cheerleading squad, becomming a fast rival to Brooke—engaging in a physical fight—when Brooke accidently sets her up with Lucas. She releases the school's time capsule recorded the previous school semester, hoping to create drama, which results in tragedy when a student takes a hand gun into school with them. A more sensitive side to Rachel is seen when Brooke discovers that she suffers from low self esteem, resorting to plastic surgery to attain the body she desired. She enters a relationship with Nathan’s Uncle Cooper, lying about her age, which he later discovers. He ends the relationship however the two have sex one final time. Disappointed with herself, she smashes a shop mirror with Cooper not taking her calls. When Cooper returns for Nathan and Haley’s wedding, Rachel gets drunk and the two take a limo to talk in. The two drive off a bridge after Rachel lies that she is pregnant and grabs the steering wheel, being saved by Nathan. Cooper leaves town upon learning that she lied about being pregnant.

Putting an end to their dispute, Rachel invites Brooke to live with her. Having lost Cooper, she sets her sights on Nathan, however he is not interested. She learns that Brooke is failing calculus causing the two to steel past test papers from the school’s archives. When the school discovers that the tests have been stolen, they make all the suspects complete another test, to which Rachel places her name on Brooke’s test, taking full blame for the cheating. This causes her to be expelled, go on a road trip with mouth and eventually leave him during their travels. She graduates in absence of being at the ceremony after Brooke confesses that she was the one who cheated. Rachel returns in season five, having been fired as a model by Brooke after becoming difficult to work with. When Brooke visits New York she finds Rachel in her apartment having overdosed on drugs. She returns to Tree Hill with Brooke who tries to rehabilitate her, however she leaves —stealing money—after Brooke’s mother Victoria tells her that she is incapable of overcoming her problems.

Anna Taggaro
Daniella Alonso portrays Anna Taggaro, who moves to Tree Hill to escape rumors that she has been having a relationship with another girl. She is first introduced in season two’s "I Will Dare", when she helps Lucas escape the security guards at the local mall. The two then go to a pizzeria together. She and Lucas watch a meteor shower which her brother Felix disapproves of. They decide to take things slow becoming ‘friends with potential’, however she offers him sex after a formal dance, which he turns down due to not being in love with her. Lucas ends the relationship after realizing that he has feelings for Brooke, however the two remain friends as she confides her sexuality to him. Anna forms a strong relationship with Peyton and kisses her after misreading the signs. When she discovers that Felix wrote ‘dyke’ on Peyton’s locker she turns him in getting him expelled. She comes out to him and states how hurt she is by his use of the word. Anna decides that she should stop running from who she is and comes out to her parents, and eventually leaves Tree Hill to re-join her previous school.

When creating characters for the second season, Mark Schwahn had wanted to add a family, which the addition of Anna and Felix allowed him to do. Once casting Daniella Alonso, he refrained from telling her that the rumors were true, however once informing her on her character’s back story it was like “flipping a switch” as she knew what to play. The character was made bisexual as opposed to a lesbian so that her past could be kept secret. Anna was presented as a romantic interest for Lucas, “[Schwahn] thought if she was strictly a lesbian character, that would be really out of nature for her, and a little disingenuous to lesbians," and they needed to hide what her journey was going to be. Alonso feels that the audience was not receptive to the character initially—especially with a large portion of the audience wanting Brooke and Lucas to be together—however over the course of her arc they began to accept Anna.