Venice Carlton

Venice Carlton is one of the main antagonists in ''How to Survive High School. ''She is the self-proclaimed "richest and most popular girl in school," a title no one disputes (not even Kendall). As the daughter of a billionaire real estate agent and hotel chain tycoon, Venice has had an extremely privileged life, and is used to being spoiled in every single way imaginable. She despises Leo Smith, who she sees as an upstart, and tends to hang out with her two best friends Natalie and Charlene, although she treats them more like sidekicks and is insanely jealous of both of them. She is starting her sophomore year of high school in Book 1.

Personality
Venice is spoiled rotten and likes to have everything her way. She hates unpopular kids and tends to actually treat them badly, while also expecting herself (and her friends, who are not quite as popular as her but popular enough) to gain unfair advantages in everything. She can be immoral and is not above bribing people to get what she wants. That, coupled with her stubbornness, makes her a frequent antagonist of the series. She is arrogant, and considers herself much better than both Natalie and Charlene in every aspect. Thus, she is insanely jealous whenever boys drool over Natalie and ignore Venice.

Venice is not totally cruel, however, and is more than capable of compensating those who help her out. She is also very stylish, although at times she can be gaudy and tacky. One example of this is the fact that she has a solid gold car.

Appearance
Venice claims to be the second prettiest girl in school, and although this hasn't really been confirmed by anyone, she has been referred to as quite good-looking before, and many of the nerds have crushes on her (albeit not as intense as their crushes on Natalie), so this may very well be true. Venice has long black hair that she pulls back with a headband and brown eyes. She has tanned skin, a round nose, and wears heavy makeup. According to her lineage in Book 3, Venice is half English, half Italian, which probably explains her complexion. She usually wears an expensive blouse (described as being Gucci in Book 1), a Chanel necklace, large diamond earrings, skinny jeans, and high heels. She is almost always carrying some kind of purse, the brand of which changes regularly. She is also very thin, probably a result of her constant dieting.

Book 1: The New Kid
Venice is one of the first people Leo meets at Mangrove Cove High School on his first day. When Ms. Periwinkle lets the class just hang out for the hour, Venice somehow finds out Leo is new and approaches him, since she feels it's her duty as "the richest and most popular girl in school" to welcome newcomers, although throughout his encounter with her, Leo quickly realizes she really doesn't want to talk to him and is only doing this for her own image. Eventually, Venice tells him that, as the most popular girl in school, she has friends to attend to; Venice refuses to shake Leo's hand and then walks away to rejoin her group of friends. Leo dislikes her from the get-go.

During lunch, Leo is pranked by Marco, and it ends with him vomiting into Venice's Louis Vuitton handbag. She is disgusted with him for it, insults him, hits him with the bag, and then throws it away. When Leo meets Kendall and Valentine, they confirm what Venice said about being the most popular girl in school, mentioning that it's a two-way tie between her and Natalie Bestick. Leo then notices Natalie, who is sitting with Venice, and falls in love with her, but stares at her so long that Venice and her friends notice. Leo approaches their table to flirt with Natalie, and Venice tries to get in the way by insulting him and laughing at the pickup lines he uses on Natalie. When Ace appears, threatening to beat Leo up, Venice looks viciously overjoyed at the prospect of all this drama. She giggles gleefully when Natalie breaks up with Ace, too, and leaves with her, overjoyed at all the "drama" she just witnessed.

Later, Venice pulls Natalie away from Leo, saying the fight's about to start. When Natalie says it's terrible that two guys are about to fight over her, Venice says, "Oh, don't act like you don't like it!" She watches the fight, cheering for Leo. Her most significant story arc in this book is the disappearance of her priceless Louis Antoinette necklace, which it is revealed Venice stole herself to garner attention, since she was a bit attention-starved that day.

Venice then appears again after Leo decides to try out for the football team, mentioning that she heard he was trying out. By now, she has dropped the facade and openly mocks Leo, calling him a fat loser and saying she looks forward to watching him humiliate himself the night of the tryouts. Later, when Leo goes to the gym, he tries to impress her and Natalie by working out in front of them, but this only causes Venice and Natalie to laugh at him. During Arthur's investigation of Spencer's missing PLPZ, Venice is interviewed, although she isn't very willing to help and is disgusted by Spencer drooling over her. During Leo's tryouts, she is sitting in the bleachers. When Kendall and Valentine start a chant for Leo, she complains and says he isn't popular enough to have a cheer. Jeff shuts her up, and she sits, fuming. Later, she is seen while Ace tries to kiss Natalie, complimenting him on his muscles. He ignores her to continue molesting Natalie, until Leo comes in and stops him. Venice leaves with Natalie.

She is not seen again until after the locker room fiasco. Although she is not a cheerleader, she finds out about what happens and berates Leo the next day, saying, "You're sick!" She is mentioned in Kendall's notebook recounting the tale of her and Natalie, where Kendall mentions that Venice would rather "befriend" people than compete with them, as she did with Natalie. She mentions that Venice has no friends, nor does she need them, but she does need allies and associates, which is what Natalie and Charlene and most of the cheerleaders are to her. She is seen again the night of the homecoming game, fleeing the disaster, and for the last time at the very end of the novel, calling to Ace and then Natalie when each of them stops to speak to Leo, Kendall, and Valentine. Her last words in the book are "Come on, stop talking to the losers, Nat! You're better than that!"

Book 2: Social Studies
The preview at the end of the first book hints that Venice will play a large role in this book and may help make Leo popular somehow.

Trivia

 * Like most characters, Venice's personality is derived from her name. Her name, Venice Carlton, is a reference to socialite and heiress Paris Hilton. Both girls' first names are famous European cities (Paris and Venice) and Carlton comes from the Ritz Carlton, a luxurious hotel chain (just as Hilton is a hotel chain).
 * Venice is the second named character Leo meets at Mangrove Cove High School, after Ace (Leo met Martin, Wyatt, and Jeff prior to Venice, but did not learn their names). This makes Venice his second encounter at Mangrove Cove, which was also a negative one.
 * Venice appears to have a crush on Ace, but she berates him whenever Natalie is around. This could mean that she is just manipulating him, or that she doesn't want Natalie to know.
 * It is heavily implied that the only reason she likes Ace is because he is Natalie's ex-boyfriend.
 * Venice seems to be the only popular girl who isn't a cheerleader.
 * Venice may know about Natalie's habit of flirting with guys and reveling in their attention, because when Natalie mentions she doesn't want two guys fighting over her, Venice says, "Oh, don't act like you don't like it!"
 * She has over 200 purses, all designer, as well as seven different cars, one of which does not work because it's made of solid gold (she knew this would make it useless, but wanted it made of gold anyway so she could show it off). Because she does not have her license yet, she cannot even drive the cars she owns.