Avril Franklin

Avril Franklin is a student at St. Hopes High School, being one of the earliest characters and a prominent one.

She was an important plot device in the series premiere Oscar Gets An Avril Probe, where she sneaked into Oscar's bedroom and made love to him, as he is convinced it is a nightmare. She is generally agreed to be a damaged individual.

She is friends with Oscar occasionally, as well as being friends with the other three boys. She has a knack for inducing carnage, however. In 'Spy For A Day', she decapitates and mutilates the Grand Mistress after she attempted to lock her, Davina Berry and Scoop Doggy into a cage when they became M.I.9 agents for a day.

When Oscar was running through the school during the race to save the world from the Breakfast Club, Avril stops him and tells him that she dug into his family history and found some interesting stuff, but he passes as he is in a set-in-stone rush. She persists on him seeing it until Oscar snaps and yells "Drop it!". However, Avril gives him an almost deadly swift kick in the groin and drags him. He winds up coming back to the mission just as Allison Reynolds is violently destroyed.

In S01E05 'Bad Luck, Psycho!', she cuffs herself to a heater to protest the visit of Jane Asher, who she believes to be a 'fascist bitch'. However, the school has a leak, and she becomes trapped as the water level rises, eventually breaking out the window and crushing Jane, killing her. The one and only Paul McCartney, Jane's ex-boyfriend, arrives to congratulate her and the two share lines of cocaine together.

In S01E06, she releases an album entitled 'New Wave Goth Electropunk--Songs Of Art' which cements her status as a premier underground music artist, despite the quite negative reaction from half of the school. The release of the album brings her to meeting her favorite band, DarkMinister, who loved it.

Exactly a season later in S02E06, she is dragged into participating in a football match during the school. When opponent Carrie Stewart makes a joke about her dead grandmother, she loses her temper and beats Carrie into a decade-long coma, ending the game effectively and leading her to make a run for it.

In S03E11, 'Ghosts', Avril finds a 1970s low budget Mexican horror film homemade by a family with a Super 8 camera and horridly transferred to a blank DVD that contains demonic messages in it. She is possessed by this and later goes on a rampage across the school, turning the world gray.

In S04E04, 'King Of Hell', Avril is yelled at by Mrs. King over perceived disorderly behavior. As King yells, Avril begins to sob, but the sobs turn into angry crying and she beats King to death, stomping on her head. She is charged with manslaughter and goes to jail, but Stewart devises a plan for the Boys to break her out.

In Season 6, the St. Hopes' students graduate and move onto St. Hopes University, across the street from St. Hopes High. Avril and Oscar share a dorm room together. The two develop their relationship more until they decide to marry in the Season 9 series finale.

She becomes part of the M.I. High project briefly in St. Hopes: The Face-Off Against KORPS. She had previous experience due to her participation in the MI9 Spy For A Day program in the series.

Personality
Avril is a gothic girl who is usually happy. However, her temper can get the best of her, as shown in Spy For A Day when she murders the Grand Mistress, in "King Of Hell" when she murders Mrs. King, and in "Smear Campaign" when she murders Leslie Brixton. She has a political side to herself, she cares about civil rights, animal rights, and is an environmentalist. She notably spearheads multiple protests within St. Hopes High, and led three violent riots; one because the lunch lady began serving only cabbage, one because Mrs. King proposed mandatory school uniform, and one because Oscar Cole was facing expulsion for being blamed for a crime he didn't commit. She once ordered a forceful military coup on the UK government, overthrowing the monarchy and replacing it with a regular government system and disbanding the Commonwealth, but failed to get the public's support, except Johnny Rotten, whom she attempts the coup with.

She is generally liked by her classmates, but like everyone else in the school, was opposed by Fifty Pence. He once shoved her head into a metal locker, needing stitches, and picked her up and slammed her into a trash can, and multiple other horrifying things until she lost her temper towards him and compacted his skull to which it took six whole months to recover. It is known that Blane Whittaker has a crush on her and places her as his second bet if he doesn't get with Daisy Millar.

When she dislikes someone, she makes it very clear, and she frequently discusses plans of murdering other students openly. She made various threats of stabbing Mrs. King to death when she was yelled at by her. When pushed to the absolute brink, she bursts into a violent sobbing fit, curling up in a fetal position and being taken away by the school counselor. This happened once in S03E08, when she is convinced Oscar had rejected her and slighted her, when really he didn't feel like a conversation.

In Season 4, Avril was discovered by law enforcement during her second trial for Mrs. King's murder as having been living in a terrifyingly abusive household, explaining her erratic behavior and pining for Oscar. The judge changes his mind and the judge declares her not guilty by way of insanity. King's niece, Aneisha Jones, tells Avril: "Don't feel bad Avril. You see, King was quite a cruel abusive bitch to me and my mother. She was a piece of shit, and she won't be missed. You did us a favor, really.".

Avril has a unique way of insulting others, using terms such as "fagbag", "fuckweasel" and "shithouse" to describe various things. When she insults others, she doesn't hold back, for example in S01E05, Avril tells Mrs. King, the deputy head of the school: "You know what would be the best present for your birthday tomorrow? Liposuction!".

Crush on Oscar
Avril makes it clear from episode one she is madly in love with Oscar Cole, one of the main boys. She sees the Boys as her only way of escape from her abusive home life, especially Oscar. She cares about him deeply and is concerned for his home life (although his was just boring).

During an art competition in Season 2, she decides to paint a picture of Oscar; trying to paint what's on the inside.

In Season 3, she cried when she thought Oscar had insulted her (when he was merely being sarcastic but the tone of voice came out wrong). She became so distressed that she suffered a massive panic attack, curled up in a fetal position and was taken to the counselor's office. Oscar is bewildered by her overreaction but apologizes to her nonetheless, until Season 4 when he, who attended Avril's court hearing, found out her home life was abusive and Oscar was her only escape, to which he felt her reaction was more understandable.

The two share a dorm room when they go to university in Season 6, and develop their relationship heavily from there, until they ultimately marry in the series finale.

Likes

 * Oscar Cole (main crush, marries him in Season 9)
 * Ingrid Dracula (another crush)
 * Scoop Doggy (originally disliked)
 * Mrs. Templeman (Avril said she was really hot in Flatley's Rhinoplasty for no reason)
 * Davina Berry (crush)
 * Daisy Millar (crush)
 * 1960s garage rock (She seems to own the Nuggets album)
 * New Romantic bands
 * Gothic rock and post-punk bands such as Siouxsie And The Banshees
 * Fender Stratocasters
 * Australian people
 * Individuality
 * The environment
 * Killing people she hates
 * Exacting revenge at every chance she gets
 * Hershey bars
 * Dr. Pepper
 * Coca-Cola
 * Diabetes
 * Change when she inflicts it

Dislikes

 * Fifty Pence
 * Carrie Stewart (murdered)
 * Leslie Brixton (murdered)
 * The Grand Mistress (murdered)
 * Mrs. King (murdered)
 * People who commit suicide
 * People with depression
 * People with anxiety
 * People who complain about the older generation
 * People who complain about the younger generation
 * Being held back from confrontation
 * Being yelled at
 * Mindless sheep
 * Gay pride parades
 * LGBT activists (despite being LGBT herself)
 * Overly radical politics
 * Change when inflicted upon her
 * Tuberculosis
 * Internet trolls
 * The Breakfast Club

Trivia

 * Her fashion proved wildly popular with female members of the fanbase. One of the first blogs on the Internet became dedicated to her and showed tips on how to look like her. Her fashion would come to influence the goth and scene styles of the mid-late 2000s-early 2010s, when the show was extremely popular.
 * Avril's sexuality became questionable when in Flatley's Rhinoplasty, she reveals she felt Mrs. Templeman was "really hot". She later comes out as bisexual.
 * Politically, she put herself as far left, but softened her stance to center later on. She turned on the left in Season 4 after she became subject to a smear campaign for disagreeing with them stoning Donovan for making a light joke about homosexuality. She fought this smear campaign and killed the ringleader, Leslie Brixton in an alleyway.
 * Her favorite music is obscure 1960s garage rock. She hinted at actively hoarding for garage rock 45s on multiple occasions, and a copy of the 1972 Nuggets compilation can be seen in her bedroom briefly in "Avril Gets An Oscar Probe".
 * Her favorite color is black, since she is a goth. She also loves purple, which also happens to be a color on the bisexual flag. She reveals it's because of this.
 * In 'Spy For A Day', when Avril tests a secret message maker that disguises messages as barcodes, her message can be briefly seen: "I like men with big cocks". Later on, Scoop finds it out, and tells her, "Oy, I have a big cock!"
 * Her hairstyle changes frequently. In Season 1, she has a purple highlight in her hair and a significant style of fringe. In Season 2, her hair is not fringed and is parted, and by Season 3, she grew her hair out significantly. She frequently wore purple in the first two seasons until changing to black in Season 3.
 * In the 1996 unaired pilot, her name is Jenny, after her actress, Jenny Huxley-Golden. This was changed when creator Keith Brumpton stumbled across the name Avril in a book, and felt the name suited the character's goth style. Ironically enough, a few years later, a gothic-styled singer named Avril Lavigne would rise in popularity.
 * Her personality is drastically different in the unaired pilot; she is obnoxious and overtly politically charged, chanting slogans every time an issue crops up. This was changed for the series as Brumpton felt like the character should be likable. Her politically charged personality is toned down and played for laughs in the series.
 * Her favorite other bands are: The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, The Cure, Rites Of Spring, The Police, and Fugazi. She also likes avant-garde artists like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
 * The fictional album she created, New Wave Goth Electropunk--Songs Of Art, was officially released as promotional material towards the end of the first season. The show's fanzine urged fans to buy the album and get it to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, which it reached on February 24, 1998. It made international headlines.