Charlene Charleston

Charlene Charleston is a major character in ''How to Survive high School. ''She is a cheerleader, and thus is often seen with the other cheerleaders (including Natalie Bestick) or her two BFFs: Natalie and Venice. Charlene is ditsy and naive. She is in a relationship with Jeff Jefferson, who seems to be almost the complete opposite of her. Charlene is one of the nicest of the popular kids, but this is probably because she isn't very intelligent. She is starting her sophomore year of high school in Book 1.

Personality
Charlene is very childish and naive. She is excitable, cute, and friendly, and is probably the nicest one of the popular kids, but she is also very absent-minded. Because of her stupidity, she also lacks tact, making her very transparent. She also seems to really like butterflies.

As she is a cheerleader, Charlene is excitable, spirited, and full of energy. Venice and Natalie both use her to run errands, although Charlene isn't exactly efficient (and is very easily distracted). She is also not very independent, and is almost always following the lead of whomever she likes most in the room (usually Venice, Natalie, or Jeff).

Appearance
Being a cheerleader, Charlene is very skinny and pretty. She has a round nose, blue eyes, and blonde hair that she usually keeps tied up in a ponytail, and is usually seen wearing a yellow-green tank top with dark gray yoga pants. She is also wears pearl bud earrings.

Book 1: The New Kid
Charlene is first seen sitting at lunch with Venice and Natalie at "the popular girls' table." She laughs at Venice's joke about Leo's weight and at Leo's cheesy pickup lines. Later, when Venice's Louis Antoinette necklace is stolen, her character is established as that of the dumb blonde. She is considered one of the prime suspects, since Venice treated her badly throughout that day and the previous one, although Arthur quickly realizes she barely knows where she is, and in the end it's obvious she didn't take the necklace. It's also established that she and Jeff are "a thing," and that Charlene has a crush on Brian Narcissus, despite the fact that she has a boyfriend.

Later on, she is seen hanging out with Natalie and Venice, both of whom seem annoyed by her occasional outbursts. She doesn't really comment on Venice's snide remarks on Leo joining the football team, but does seem to adapt her personality to whomever she is around (being a bit nicer to Leo once Venice leaves). Jeff confirms their relationship when he mentions Charlene to Leo during their workouts, and implies that she was "hurt" by Ace at some point. Charlene reappears during Arthur's investigation of the Spencer's missing PLPZ as one of Venice's friends as the three compare cosmetics. When Leo imagines the popularity ladder, Charlene is confirmed as one of the most popular kids in the school, up on the same level as Natalie, Venice, and Brian.

During Leo's football tryouts, Charlene forms part of the cheerleading squad that, despite the fact that both she and Natalie are on it, decides to cheer for Ace instead of Leo, probably because Ace is much more popular and athletic. After Jeff takes up the chant for Leo, Charlene notices him and, since she likes him, decides to adapt her chant to support Leo instead of Ace. Thus, she is one of the most important characters for Leo's brief bout of popularity, since this ultimately causes the other cheerleaders to start chanting his name since they assume it'll be easier to just adapt to Charlene's cheer than to expect her to catch up. Once the cheerleaders are all cheering for Leo, the entire audience decides to cheer for him. According to Marco, she was also the one who drew all the girly pictures for him.

In her most important role in Book 1, Charlene stumbles onto Leo as he tries to hide in the shower room after breaking into the girls' locker room to get a bag of chips for Martin and Wyatt. She strips down to her underwear and starts showering, unaware that Leo is a boy (partly because she's dumb, partly because he's shirtless and has man boobs). She tells him that she's glad she's not the only one who showers without a shirt, but advises Leo to wear a bra, since he'll get saggy if he doesn't. Leo defensively says he isn't a girl, causing Charlene to look at him more carefully and recognize him suddenly. She is not, however, troubled by his presence, as she appears to be too stupid to realize the repercussions of a boy sneaking into the girls' locker room. Despite this, she gets excited at recognizing him and calls the other girls into the shower room, at which point Leo is finally in huge trouble.

After the locker room fiasco, Charlene is treated as a victim, since she was the one stuck in the actual shower room with Leo. She is present at the homecoming game participating on the cheerleading squad, and appears for the final time in the book doing her cheering routine. She is not seen again afterwards, but it is assumed she either escaped the collapse of the field or else went to the locker room on her break and was not even there during the field's collapse.

Trivia

 * Like Jeff, her name is supposed to be alliterative: Charlene Charleston the Cheerleader.
 * Charlene may be a good artist, as she was able to draw several "girly" images for Marco to put on Leo's jersey that are actually quite good.