personality Mattias is very headstrong but introverted. He has ideas of what he expects from everything and everyone but he rarely speaks his mind. He hides behind his emotions and his younger sister's expressions. He lets her be the voice of them both, even though he is older than she is. The only time Mattias is outspoken is if someone messes with Nessa. Mess with one Randall, you get them both.
He is also very passionate about his basketball. It is the one thing that he throws himself wholeheartedly into in life.
Some people think he is too focused on his sister, though. There have been rumors about that. That doesn't phase him. He just ignores it and goes about his business. He crushes anyone who brings it up to hurt Nessa, too, which probably only makes the rumors circulate more.
Mattias does not date. He is not interested in anyone in that particular way. He likes his privacy and solitude too much to put that focus onto another human being at this point in his life. His photography is the one thing he is passionate about. He loves capturing moments in time, savoring those precious details in his life.
As for friends, well, he doesn't have any. His best friend is his sister. He has never needed anyone else in his life. He doesn't go out on weekends. He spends the time in his room, developing pictures, reading, watching CNN.
Though in the last few years he has started to notice a change in his body. He has begun to get turned on by certain people. He isn't sure that it is the right thing to feel over the said person and so he has kept it to himself. But it is starting to really confuse him.
history As the firstborn grandson and the first grandchild he was named after both of his Grandfathers, Matthew and Elias, deeming him Mattias.
From the time Mattias was born his parents knew he was different. He didn't speak or make any sounds until he was just about 11 months old. They took him to a speech therapist when he was just shy of 6 months old and still not even making any sounds. At the time was too small for anything to come of it. The doctor told his parents he would speak when he was ready.
His parents have always thought that Janessa has something to do with Mattias finally speaking. His first word at 11 1/2 months old was ba-ba, pointing at his new sister, which Blaine and Carol took to mean baby.
Mattias and Janessa were always very close as they grew up. They come from a very wealthy family, on both sides. They were born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where everyone in the family either works for the University of Michigan, or are in politics, and their lives were already semi-written before they even began. They never had to worry about anything in their entire lives. They always had the best toys growing up. Most of which never even was played with, they were just for show. Up until the point when Mattias turned five and began kindergarten, he didn't talk to anyone except his sister. People often thought he was rude, but his parents insisted that he was just shy. Kindergarten was extremely difficult for him. He didn't like being there without Janessa. He sat in his seat and hid from everyone all day. His teacher didn't do anything about it because Mattias is extremely smart and did all of his work and knew his ABC's and numbers and could spell and read long before the rest of his class and so she left him alone for the most part.
When Mattias was ten, Nessa suggested that they donate all of their unused toys. This annoyed Mattias, but he never did admit it. He did not want to give up certain things that he had grown attached to over the years.
Right around the same time that Nessa skipped a grade and joined him in the fifth grade, and donated all his toys and hers, he hid one toy, his favorite toy, one that he wasn't allowed to touch anyway, but he was sentimentally most attached to it because he received it from his grandpa. It was an old signed basketball, but he just couldn't and wouldn't part with it, and so to this day, it is hidden in his closet so that his family can not sneak it away and donate it or sell it. He still can not part with it.
That was also the same year when he and his sister began playing basketball. Mattias still keeps to himself in school and has not hung out with anyone besides Janessa. All of the past had only made him more attached to his sister. He is noticeably a little happier having his sister close by.
That same ball that he refused to give away is what got Mattias even more into the sport in the first place. He was not a sporty guy by any means, and normally hated being around so many people, but basketball just spoke to him. And with his sister playing it, too, it was something they could do together, albeit on separate teams. Both the Randall kids were very good at basketball. Mattias even was put right into the point guard position. Mattias still plays charity ball at times, when he is able, as well.
For middle school, Mattias and his sister were sent to Applewild School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. While Janessa took to art, Mattias found a darkroom and for the three years he was there he hid out in that dark room, developing his own photos. Instead of making friends, he photographed others having fun. The only friends he had were the few that Janessa had and introduced him to. But they were more her friends than his.
For high school, they were sent to New Jersey to a boarding school. Even at Blair Mattias did not make a single friend. They had a darkroom at Blair, too and he remained there whenever possible.
It was not until his sister met someone in 10th grade that Mattias pulled slightly away from her, too. That was when he found Miles, the boy who would become Mattias' first-ever best friend. Mattias felt a connection to him, and unsure if it was sexual or friendship he and Miles bonded like brothers, except that Mattias might have been a little attracted to him. Miles was gay, and so eventually Mattias was able to see his true feelings, and in the summer before junior year Mattias had his first kiss with his new best friend.
That summer the two boys spent a lot of time together, with Mattias photographing him so that he had memories of his one and only friend. But Mattias can’t see himself ever having that connection with anyone else.
They started the junior year as a closeted couple because people at Blair were not nice about such things.