Childhood:
Tess was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 2, 1990 to an unwed mother named Lisa Winslow. Lisa had had a short affair with Kain Zarek, one that ended before she realized that she was pregnant. She chose not to tell Kain that he was going to be a father, deciding instead to raise the little girl on her own. It meant that things were tight when Tess was growing up, though she never doubted she was loved. Her mother worked as a secretary during the day, and an exotic dancer at night. Often Tess would be left with a babysitter, but a few times no one was around to watch the little girl, and Tess would spend the evenings in the dressing room or kitchen of the club her mother danced at. Luckily, she was too young to really understand what was going on in the main room.
She was a smart girl, and a talented one. She wasn't smart enough to make her stand out in school, and she was a solid B student. But she was a popular girl. She made friends easily, though keeping them wasn't always quite so simple for her. Even as a kid she was impulsive and tended to say what she meant, which led to a bit of trouble in school, though nothing serious.
Adolescence:
When she got older, Tess asked her mom about her dad. Lisa refused to tell her anything about Kain, not even his name, which was part of why she started getting into more trouble in school. She was angry at her mom for not telling her, and angry at her father for not being there. She, of course, had no idea that Kain didn't know she existed. So there was the occasional fight, skipping school, mouthing off. Yet she managed to keep her grades above passing, but often just barely. She became one of the bad crowd, though she was more on the fringes than anything else.
She was 16 when the bomb went off. Though it was hundreds of miles away, it affected her deeply. Even more so than Hurricane Katrina. Not so much the bomb itself, though she liked people enough to feel sympathy for everyone killed or affected. No, it was the fact that the evolved came out afterwards that fascinated her. And she soon managed to convince herself that she was evolved in some way. An empath, she thought, since she believed that she could read people so well. She believed it so completely that when it became law to Register, she went down to be tested. When the test came back positive, she was absolutely thrilled. It was proof! Except, she wasn't an empath. She was unmanifested. That's even what was put on her Registration papers when she couldn't prove Empathy to the tester's satisfaction. But her belief was so great, that no one could convinced her otherwise. Only real manifestation would do that.
Adulthood:
As soon as she graduated high school, Tess took eagerly to the New Orleans workforce. First she worked as a clerk in one of the city's many occult shops. Being evolved, it just made sense to her, and the people were another kind of fascinating. After that she tried tour guide through the city or cities of the dead, tarot reader, dancing on the sidewalk for tips, waitress…She often worked multiple jobs at once, and rarely kept one for long, but she loved each one in it's own way. But she never took a standard 9-5 type job. They were too tame for her.
Unfortunately, when she had just turned 20, her mother died, and it led to some life changing events for her. Unknown to her, when Tess was younger, her mother succumbed to drugs once in a while, as her way of coping with being a single mother who had occasional trouble making ends meet. One of those needles wasn't as clean as she expected, and she contracted HIV. It was undiagnosed for several years, and even when it was, Lisa hid it from Tess. Right up until the last hospital stay where she ultimately died of the disease, her daughter holding holding her hand. Tess, of course, was crushed. She'd loved her mother deeply, as most of her emotions were strong ones. Tame things just didn't suit her. Even emotions.
In her mother's will, she left the name of her father, but not the circumstances that led to her growing up not knowing him. She even gave the last known address for Kain, and did mention that Kain had no idea that he had a daughter. From that moment on, Tess started saving every penny she could, in order to fund a move from New Orleans up to New York.
It took several months, since she also had to take care of her mother's burial and estate (though Lisa's life insurance couldn't pay for all of the hospital bills, only about half of the hefty amount), on top of paying bills, but finally she had enough money. Enough to pay for the trip and a few months rent. At least, she hoped so. She sold or gave away everything she didn't need, and packed everything up into her secondhand SUV, and started driving. Just her and her stuffed bear (complete with spiked collar and little earring in his fuzzy ear).