Lea die Birke

"Is this satire?"

Lea die Birke is Icarus' stepsister and Mark's cousin, who became part of the Juniper family once her mother Lindsay married Icarus' father Macintosh.

As Icarus' stepsister, she was meant to replace Mark as the next Marlinchen in the Juniper Tree, but Mark ended up retaining his role. Appears in mainly in Branches, Birches and Junipers.

She does not attend Ever After High, but rather a small public school near BookEnd.

Personality
Lea, at first, appears to be a sweetie, who cares about nothing more than the comfort of others, and who wants to make everyone happy. She's admirable in how affectionate and caring she is towards others, and is in every way hospitable.

In private, Lea is idealistic and romantic. She's obsessed with the idea of sentimentalisme, and is a girl completely driven by her emotions. Lea is also prone to overromanticising things. Her idea of love is a twisted one, moulded from classic novels and operas and musicals where the main characters all die. Lea is truly unaware of the true gravity of love, or obsession, in the real world. Her innocence in that aspect is her downfall, and Lea's escapism into novels and art is her destruction.

Lea's obsession for the arts leads her to want to become a more cultured, a more sophiscated person. Lea wants to be someone who knows of famous plays and can recite monologues off the bat, someone who paints in watercolours and knows of Impressionist paintings and of the Pre-Raphaelites. Her obsession for culture is a strong one, and that only drives her romanticism. She is a girl stuck in the past, with a pre-concieved idea that it is somehow better, more sophiscated, more intelligent and enlightened, than the present. If she wasn't marked off as an absolute sweetie, Lea would come off as a touch pretentious.

Appearance
Lea is tall and awkward, with squishy cheeks.

On being a part of The Juniper Tree
it's a tree-ifying prospect, to be frank.

At the beginning of Branches, Birches and Junipers, Lea was a simple, non-legacy, teenager who had nothing on her mind except pretty girl and school grades. Her mother had recently gotten married into the Juniper Tree family, and Lea toyed with the idea that her mother might be sacrificied in order to fulfill some destinies. But, in Lea's mind, that was the way things happened, and she thought best not to question it.

What Lea had never done was read the actual story of the Juniper Tree. She didn't know, with her mother marrying the previous brother in the Juniper Tree, that she was perfectly liable to become the next Marlinchen and take the legacy away from her new cousin, Mark. Therefore, she thinks Mark's "overreactions" to her are because he actually hates her, rather than Mark being understandably paranoid and anxious about his legacy being taken away.

Over the course of Branches, Lea starts to notice how the Junipers are treating her more like family, but their emotional conditions are steadily growing worse. She decides not to prod into their personal lives, because that would be rude.

However, everything changes when the Junipers confront her about it, and she is furious. Lea insists that the two cousins are selfish - not talking to her before, when it's a family matter that circulates around her as well.

Due to this negative experience, Lea has a bad association with the Juniper Tree and the Marlinchen destiny. Hence, she's completely put off by the notion, and refuses to have anything to do with it.

Parents
Lea's biological father and her mother divorced a while ago, which Lea was relatively chill about.

Then her mum got remarried to Icarus' dad, because her mother is a huge golddigger and the Junipers are (relatively) rich. From her previously average middle-class situation, Lea rose to a more comfortable upper-middle class situation, and things became slightly better.

Or so she thinks.

Icarus Juniper
During Branches: Lea thinks Icarus is weird and awkward. The guy has come off as nothing but avoidant and standoff-ish to her, so Lea simply evades talking to him, thinking that she bothers Icarus, as no one else thinks of him as odd as she does.

Post Branches: Strained and awkward.

Mark Juniper
During Branches: Lea knows that she somehow irritated Mark since he yelled at her and feels rather guilty. However, she has no idea whatever kind of insult or hurt she had given him, so she is a little peeved that he never elaborated or directly stated why he seems so annoyed.

She realises that he had since felt guilty himself for yelling and tried to throw her an apology party. However, Lea is still at unease with talking to either of the Junipers since she doesn't feel like she's been accepted as part of the family by either. Despite that, she and Mark have gotten on the most.

The thing is, Mark only acts so nice and approachable towards her is because he's afraid of losing the Marlinchen destiny for not being "Marlinchen-like" enough. Unfortunately, Lea hasn't been able to pick up on that.

Post Branches: Also strained and awkward. Difficult because he's her girlfriend's best friend.

Friends
Lea has many friends in the small public school she goes to. Most of her friends are relatives or siblings of future fairytale characters.

Tenley Rosewood
Lea and Tenley met when Tenley rescued Lea from a bunch of angry ducks at the park. Since then, Lea held an admiration for the next Bird in the Rose-Tree, and made her affections known. The two soon became dating.

Trivia

 * Lea is a pun on "leaf", which are on trees, while "die Birke" means "the birch", which is a tree pun (say it aloud).
 * She's kinda a 'birch', but like, it's understandable why she acts that way.

Quotes
"I know you're angry for some reason. It's making you act like a total dick now. But you're not your emotions, so I forgive you"

- she said, through gritted teeth.

"Here was an innocent girl who did community service, who read books like Wuthering Heights and listened to the Carmen soundtrack, now swept into a family where things like child abuse and murder was common."

- Icarus talking about Lea, Icarus Juniper's diary