Leah Bates

Leah Anna Newcombe (nee Leah Anna Bates) is the protagonist of the Mute Trilogy. She lives in Bates Manor in Portway and attends Lincoln Hill National Academy during the series.

Background
Leah Bates is the daughter of multi millionaire entrepreneur William Bates and his wife Anna Bates. She was born in the town of Ivanesco, in The Anderson at the time in which Anna and William stayed there before the burglar of Bates Manor was found. When the couple returned, Anna raised Leah herself and soon gave birth to a baby boy called Dylan, Leah's younger brother.

They were brought up close with each other and got along very well, and Anna was always around to look after the two of them. William was often working late, but he also introduced them into what became Leah's passions in the future, badminton and tennis. He also tried to buy his way to love, by getting the children lots of expensive gifts for their birthdays and for Christmas, however the children expressed that they just wanted their father to be present.

When Leah began attending Portway Preparatory School, in her early years at the lower school, she was friends with a girl called Yasmina Stratford, an English girl from Cornwall. When the two got in an argument, Yasmina started telling everyone lies about Leah's family and her money and other false ideas. This lead to Leah getting bullied, but she was too afraid that she would be a burden to everybody else to tell anyone about what was happening at school. She was taunted and physically abused by all of her classmates and she had no friends because the whole school hated her.

William had started to get suspicious of Leah's quiet attitude and sudden outbursts and took to asking her about it. Somehow he found out what had happened and he went to a meeting with the headmaster during school hours, and the headmaster put the individuals in detention and expelled some names. Leah was traumatised by the events after this however, because the rest of the school were sure that she had told tales on them, and the bullying, if anything, got more frequent, and more brutal, as described by Leah herself.

This continued into her upper school life and into her final year of preparatory school.

Appearance
Leah is a tall young lady, at about 5'7" and of an average size. She has a cross between blonde and brown hair, which she inherited from her father and emerald green eyes which she inherited from her mother. She likes to style her hair in a simple ponytail at the top of her head, which reaches her shoulder when tied up. When let down, which is normally only for bed, it reaches just above her waist.

At the beginning of Mute, Leah wears simple clothes that have arms to cover her bruises from the bullying, and she wears these even more so when she is placed in the mental health care home, because her mental instability had lead to her self-harming. This fashion style continues on into her time at Lincoln Hill National Academy.

However, after she becomes best friends with Maia Young, she starts to develop her fashion style. Towards the end of Mute, she becomes more confident and wears more popular clothes and clothes which show a bit more skin.

Personality
Leah was a very happy girl when she was little, but once she had started being bullied, she suddenly went from happy to quiet and she very quickly learned to mask her emotions with content. She very rarely spoke, and when she did, it was never normally her opinion in class because if she said the wrong thing, she would be bullied about it.

When she enters the care home, she becomes almost mute. She never talks and she shows almost no emotion, she is traumatised by the murder of her parents and the disappearance of Dylan that she caves in and hides from everyone else.

She becomes very anxious about starting a new school because she does not want to be bullied again by students, and she doesn't talk very much. But as she realises that Maia and Rhea are true friends, she starts to open up more, and gain confidence from them.