Stuck at the Galleria/Characters

Stuck, a novel in three episodes by Lyle Terry (aka User:Tre), has quite a few characters. Here's all the important ones.

Tre Listman


Appears in all three episodes.

The protagonist of the book, Tre Listman is a semi-nerdy junior high student with a slight lack of common sense and a tendency to land himself in odd situations. Despite this, he somehow always manages to come up with a quick plan to work his way out, even if it takes him a few times to get it right.


 * Author Avatar: Started off as one, but became less and less so until the only similarities were that they're black nerds.
 * Audience Surrogate: He, just like the reader, is thrown right into the group at the beginning of Galleria.
 * Black Eyes: Yeah...
 * After he finds out who The Messenger is.
 * Butt Monkey: Oh, lord, for an Author Avatar Lyle puts himself through a lot of flak. The frakking book starts off with Tre getting embarassed for laughs at a school dance and then it just goes on and on and on and on...
 * Classical Antihero / Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: He's snarky enough to count as the latter, but isn't terribly unsympathetic most of the time, so he's in the middle.
 * Cock Fight: With Todd over Nora during the second episode.
 * Ditzy Genius: Very much so.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Subverted at most points, as he's pretty bad at not laughing at what he says.
 * Geek Physique: The skinny type.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason why
 * Le Parkour: His preferred method of getting around later in the book.
 * Meta Guy: Becomes very versed in knowledge about his universe and its not being real by the end of the book.
 * Ordinary Junior High School Student
 * The Slacker: A semi-teen example.
 * : After He got better.
 * Where the White Women At: He's black. Nora's white.

Nora Irving


Appears in all three episodes.

The second lead of our story, Nora is the de facto leader of the group, and a very snarky young female. She may seem hard on the outside, but she's really a smart, if slightly nerdy girl that's just trying to figure out who she is. Until then, though, she deals with the weird world of Greyson City by secretly tearing its logic apart via snide comments (not all of which are mean-spirited).

Oh, and she's Tre's girlfriend too, but things get a bit complicated on that front.


 * Action Girl
 * Cool Loser: Not just a cool loser. The Cool Loser.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Stuck's largest and most notable example.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: She grows to be less irritable as the book goes on, though the snark is always to be found.
 * Knight in Sour Armor
 * Little Miss Badass: Not very little, but she still counts.
 * Little Miss Snarker
 * Meta Girl
 * Stepford Snarker: To a T.
 * The Snark Knight
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Type two with Grassy.
 * Violently Protective Girlfriend: Not a huge example, but if you try to hurt Tre in front of her, she will flip her lid.
 * Where the White Women At: She's white. Tre's black.

Gordon "Grassy" Scott


Appears in all three episodes.

The Smart Guy of the main group, Grassy is a guy who's sort of in between Nora and Tre in terms of snarkiness. He shares a fierce and highly active love/hate relationship with his "sister" Nora, and, judging by how they met (and an at first Embarrassing Nickname), it continues even after they leave the mall. In addition, he's also quite talented with a QWERTY and a terminal.

"Grassy: Just because I'm a lover doesn't mean I can't fight."
 * Adorkable
 * Brilliant but Lazy, but when he gets down to business it's probably a good idea to run. Or duck and cover.
 * Beware the Nice Ones

"Grassy: If I did any real hacking, there'd be problems on a whole 'nother level."
 * Cool Loser
 * Genius Bruiser: He's the biggest member of The Crew in terms of size, but he hates fighting.
 * Hollywood Hacker


 * Like Brother and Sister: With Nora.
 * Medium Awareness
 * Non Action Guy:
 * Playful Hacker
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Type two with both Nora and Max, Nora moreso.

Maximilian P. "Max" Cromwell


Appears in all three episodes.

The ying to Grassy's yang, Max is, for lack of a better term, loud. Unafraid and boisterous, Max seems like he's the kind of guy who's really just trying to make himself look good, but when things get serious, so does he. Mass awesomeness ensues.

He's also a huge softie, but don't tell him that.

"Max: I've seen enough movies like this to know how this ends. Badly."
 * Boisterous Bruiser
 * Berserk Button: Don't call him a softie or anything near it or he will tear you a new one.
 * Also, don't try to hurt Mal.
 * The Big Guy
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Deadpan Snarker: He gets shades of this during Episode Three.
 * Genre Savvy

"Tre: As it turns out, Cromwell actually has feelings!"
 * Knight in Sour Armor: EVEN MORESO THAN NORA.
 * Large Ham: At times.
 * Not So Stoic: Yeah.


 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Type two with Grassy.

Cari "Cici" Benz
Appears in all three episodes.

She was rich, popular and had a life every teen dreams of... and she hated it. So Cici, a girl branded as a jerk by her peers because of some of her past actions, is on a mission to redeem herself by giving up her past and trying to start over. The question is, will she be able to?


 * Rich Bitch: Apparently she was this before she escaped to the Galleria.
 * Spoiled Sweet: By Episode Three she really softens up and becomes this.

Piper Hougan
Appears in all three episodes.

Cici's partner in crime and one of the saner members of the group, Piper is a quiet but levelheaded girl, though when she does talk, the results are often either hilarious or awesome. She


 * Beware the Quiet Ones
 * Distressed Damsel: During Episode One.
 * The Quiet One
 * The Silent Bob

Freddy and Marty Leighton-Yeval
Appear in all three episodes.

A. K. A. "the twins", Freddy and Marty, despite looking somewhat similar, could not be any more different. While Freddy's a huge nerd, is kind of a killjoy sometimes, and has a larger IQ, Marty is a lazy, laid-back guy who lives by a mantra of "go with the flow". Despite this, the two share a close bond and have a tendency to finish each other's sentences.

Carl Ollins "Cow" Weisgerber
Appears in all three episodes.

A somewhat recently hired security guard at the Westland Galleria Mall, Cow is literally the only person on their force to pose a threat to the seven kids "squatting" there (said kids being Nora, Grassy, Max, the twins, Cici, and Piper), and even then he's only somewhat effective in his job, mainly because the dude is pretty deluded. As a result of the kids' chaos getting him in trouble with his boss,

Layla Lune
''Appears in all three episodes. ''

A girl who joins the group after an altercation she had with the security guards at "The Third Pillar", Layla is a goth-turned-hipster who constantly reinvents herself (about once a week or so). As a result, seeing her as a freaky demon chick one week and completely normal the next is a pretty normal sight for everyone.

Allison "Allie" Silverburgh
Appears in Episodes 1 and 3.

One of Tre's other friends along with Cale, Allison is a very loud, wild, slightly crazy and very outgoing girl who, despite being incredibly bombastic and hammy, has a good heart and loves to joke around. She also has a lot of common sense despite what her outside persona may suggest.

Cale McMillen
Appears in Episodes 1 and 3.

Another one of Tre's friends outside of the main group, Cale is a genius with an identity crisis. He has a tendency to inadvertently blather huge words into his normal conversations, much to his own chagrin, but he secretly, way-mega-superly deep down wants to embrace his nerdiness. His only problem is convincing the rest of himself that's a good idea.

Marceline "Marcy" Hughes


Appears in Episodes 2 and 3.

The daughter of one of Tre's teachers, Marcy is a little... cuckoo. A loose (VERY loose) cannon with no real clue as to what kind of personality she wants to adopt, she just plays with most of the ones she can pull off (most of which appear slightly insane on the surface but less so afterward). Most of the time she adopts a very cheerful and talkative manner, though she does pull off a couple of others.


 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Deliberately Cute Child: She is quite the schemer thanks to this.
 * Genki Girl
 * Little Miss Con Artist
 * Motor Mouth: She is very hard to get quiet.
 * Talkative Loon
 * What Could Have Been: Orignally Tre's feelings of apathy toward her were mutual.

Todd Levesque
Appears in Episodes 2 and 3.

A smooth, smug and slick young man, Todd is a tall, somewhat dark and snarky guy with one thing on his mind: making Nora Irving his girl. The only thing in his way is Tre, whom he dislikes as a result of an incident that happened in their 6th grade year involving crayons. As a result, he'll do anything to make Tre's girl his, and his lengths are pretty drastic...


 * Cock Fight: With Tre, over Nora.
 * : His main modus operandi after the events of Episode 2.
 * Knight of Cerebus
 * : Oh, yes.
 * Tall Dark and Snarky
 * The Trickster
 * Romantic False Lead
 * The Trickster
 * Romantic False Lead

Jake L
Appears in Episodes 1 and 3.

The (adopted) older brother of Tre, Jake is a guy who everybody sees as pretty near perfect. He's smart, funny, largely considered hot by Tre's friends... and pretty full of himself. As a result, his bro's got a problem living up to his shadow and thinks of himself as "not as great", but that might not stay that way...

Quanell "Q" Carver
Appears in Episodes 2 and 3. A bully of Tre's during elementary school, Q hates Tre's guts, all because he thinks Tre's full of himself in terms of intelligence. As a result of this misconception he tries to make up for it by giving Tre heck, and boy, does it work...

Shaniqua Peirce
Appears in Episodes 2 and 3.

Q's girlfriend and partner in crime, Shaniqua is, to be blunt, a jerk. More specifically, a jerk with a bit of a problem punching people in various places. Oh, and she's quite the manipulative type too, but soon enough she gets put into her place.

Damon Pyle


A former bully of Max's before he moved into the Galleria, Damon is rather irritating, to say the least. He becomes Q's lackey at the start of Episode 2.

Mallory "Mal" McFadden


One of the school's elite, Mal seems to be very narcissistic and selfish at first, but under that shell lies a very nice girl wondering how to let herself open up to the world. She also gains a fondness for Max after he asks her out in Episode 2.

November Inman


Todd's best friend, November is kind of silent about her motives, or anything for that matter. All that we really do figure out about her at first is that she HATES Nora. Eventually, though, everything she wants is revealed, and it might not be so great for the gang...

The Shadow
A guy who  Nobody knows who he is or what he's up to, just that he's got some bad blood with The Crew.

Everything gets clearer about him later on, and eventually it is revealed that


 * Black Knight: Very enigmatic. Not covered in armor, but still, everything he wears and does is black. Everything.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Tre.
 * The Faceless: Appears so because of his hoodie.
 * The Men in Black: And we mean this literally.