Mark James

“	It's surprisingly tough to go from being the guy who knows everything that's going on school to some dumb jock who didn't even realize there was a war going on around him. I can fix that. I just have to gather info.	”
	-Return to Paradise

Mark James
Biographical Information
Physical Traits
Appearance	Black Hair, Meticulously Trimmed Sideburns
Other
Appearances
Actors/Actresses
Portrayed by (In Film)	Jake Abel

Mark James is the ex-boyfriend of Sarah Hart. He was a Senior, and the star quarterback, at Paradise High School at the time that John (Number Four) attended and was instantly jealous of the relationship he formed with Sarah. Mark later redeems himself by fighting along side Number Four and Number Six during Battle of Paradise High School and remains in Paradise when they leave. After the battle Mark becomes involved with online alien conspiracies and investigates the intentions of the FBI which have swarmed the town.

Appearance

Mark is described as the school's tough guy. He has black hair, usually full of hair gel and styled carefully with meticulously trimmed sideburns. He has bushy eyebrows and dark eyes.

At school he wears a letterman jacket with his name written in gold letters across the back. He is tall and loves lacrosse

Biography

Paradise High School

Mark was a popular student at Paradise and was a talented football player. His activities gained many rewards and attention from the Paradise Gazette, something the Principle, Mr. Harris, was very proud of and favoured him as a result.

At an unknown time Mark began dating Sarah, a cheerleader at the time. They were together for two years before Sarah realised that she was becoming like Mark, drinking at parties and being nasty to people. She broke up with him after her trip to her Aunt's in Colorado and he couldn't get over it, believing that she would come back to him.

When John Smith joins Paradise and becomes friendly with Sarah, Mark grows jealous and taunts him. On separate occasions he steals John's phone, throws meatballs at him and Sam and puts manure in their lockers.

Shepard Falls Incident

Mark plots to attack John during haunted tractor ride at the Halloween fair. Mark and his friends, equipped with night vision goggles borrowed from the Police Department, kidnap Sarah. Meanwhile, John is assaulted by members of the Football team, and forced to defend himself with his Legacies.

When confronted by John himself, Mark tries to fight him, but is beaten easily. John threatens him into giving up his vendetta and forces him to apologise to Sarah, who slaps him, before throwing him into the water of Shepard Falls.

House Fire

Mark invites John, Sam and Sarah to his house party, where he greets them both cordially. When a fire breaks out in the basement, he attempts to fight it, before being told by John that it is too late, and to start evacuating the house. Once everyone is outside, he is left to watch his house burn down in a daze. John returns to the burning building and rescues Sarah and Marks dogs.

Mark, his Parents and the dogs move to his Nana's house in the country.

Battle of Paradise High School

When the YouTube video of John rescuing Sarah and his dogs is released on the internet, Mark goes to John's house in order to warn him. He is present for the ensuing arguement between John and Henri and witnesses John's Telekinesis.

After John leaves for the school, he follows with Henri who gives him John's Loric Chest to hold. When the group converge in the kitchens, he, along with Sarah, arms himself with various kitchen supplies, including several knives. When they are ambushed outside, he saves Henri's life by tackling a Mogadorian attempting to sneak up on him. John then orders him to take Sarah and hide inside the school. After this he takes part in the battle alongside Sarah, at some point he is almost crushed by the Piken and says that Sarah almost died beside him. He later tells Four that Six had saved his life on three separate occasions.

As John watches Bernie Kosar fighting with the Piken, Mark appears and tries to get John away. John refuses, and attacks the Piken in order to save Bernie Kosar. Later, when John asks Henri where Mark is, he says he didn't see him.

After John slips into unconsciousness following Henri's death, Mark carries John to the truck and later into the motel. When John prepares to leave he shakes Mark's hand and tells him that he owes Mark for saving his life.

Life after the Battle and Aliens Anonymous

Mark adamantly denies that Four had anything to do with his house fire, even though blaming him would have got him off the hook completely.

After John leaves, Mark struggles to go back to his old life. Since Paradise High School was destroyed he and Sarah attend Helena High School in the next town. Mark is still in love with Sarah, and sometimes becomes angry with Four, believing he would find a way to keep both Sarah and the world safe and happy.

After dropping Sarah off he drives by Paradise High School. When he sees an officer he knows from school. He asks whether he could sneak in to school since he left his Letterman jacket in his locker. Todd refuses and tells him even he is not allowed beyond this point.  When Mark returns home he finds that his Father is in a terrible mood, partly because the FBI had taken over his office and partly because Mark's mother had called to say that she was staying with her family in Cleveland for a few more weeks.

Mark spends his afternoons on a blog named 'Aliens Anonymous' instead of partying with his friends. He befriends the editor, going by the name GUARD and shares what he knows about the destruction of the school. Flicking through news stories, they discover that people, with the same description as John, Six and Sam, were stopped by police in Tennessee a day or two after they left Paradise. They also find a story from Miami, a girl admitted to hospital after claiming that a boy used "mind powers" against her boyfriend.Another story tells of a boy in India who is suspected to be Number Eight.

Agent Walker and the FBI

Mark and Sarah meet for lunch; She tells him that she is being followed by the redheaded woman sitting behind her. Agent Walker, introduces herself and her associate, Agent Noto, and sits with them, asking questions about John. She tries to bribe Mark with the reward money and gives him her contact number. Both of them leave and Walker gives him a number and tells him not to let Sarah drag him down. After Sarah leaves Mark calls the number and doesn't get a reply. He sends the number to GUARD who rings and speaks to an Agent called Purdy and gets his attention by mentioning the Mogadorians.

Having agreed to go to Alex Davis' house party, Mark takes his Father's truck. He leaves the party early and notices that he has his Father's office keys as well as the truck keys. He sneaks into his office and look through files to find out about the High school destruction. His father catches him, deletes the photos that he took and reads his messages from Sarah that tell him that John has returned to Paradise. He orders Todd to take Mark home. Mark frantically contacts Sarah, telling her that his father is calling the FBI and coming for John.

Mark is dropped off at home and he listens for updates on the police scanner. He discovers that John and Sam were taken to the Dumont Facility. He sneaks out early morning next day and parks infront of the police station waiting for Sarah. When she finally comes out she tells him that she was interrogated by Walker, Noto and Purdy. Sheriff James tells Mark that two detainees had escaped Dumont and that "weird stuff" was happening over there, referring to John and Sam being broken out by Six.

Mark and Sarah sneak out of school and go to Goode's house, to investigate the explosion/"electrical fire". No one is home and they see evidence of the battle the previous night. When they leave Sarah notices a black car. When they drive away the car follows and nearly drives them off the road. That night Mark gets a text from an unknown number asking whether he has heard of any sightings of John. He assumes it is Sarah and asks her to call him back since he has stuff to talk about. But she doesn't. He then types eveything he can remember about mogs in his computer and saves it as a draft on Aliens Anonymous thinking it might come in handy one day.

Sarah's Disappearance

Following the events of recent days, Walker and Noto comes to Mark's house, unexpected, tells him that Sarah hasn't returned home from school and asks whether he knows where she is. Mark wonders who texted him last night. He thinks that he failed to protect Sarah and failed to keep his promise to John.

Days goes by without a word from Sarah. He goes back to Sam's house, breaks in and looks through his room for more information. He comes across 'They Walk Among Us' magazine with the article about Mogadorians taking over Earth. He sends pictures of the magazine to GUARD who gives him phone numbers to contact the editors. After some failed attempts he manages to reach a man who is distraught, telling him that the Mogadorians "took everything". Mark suggests that they should change the blog's name to "They Walk Among Us' making it easier for true believers to find them. GUARD agrees and sends him an encrypted file with information about Purdy.

After leaving notes for his family and creating an automatic blog post of his draft Mark sneaks into the police office with thanks to GUARD creating a distraction. Mark sees Purdy exiting his father's office with a Mogadorian who says that they will be taking over the operations in Paradise. When they leave Mark sneaks into the office and hacks into Purdy's laptop. He sees email which mentions that Sarah is in Dulce, New Mexico. When he hears Purdy coming to the office he steals the laptop and escapes. Mark sits in a diner few hours outside of Paradise and checks the laptop. He sees a file named 'MogPro' and when he tries to open it he accidently deletes the hard drive after three failed passwords. He decides to keep the laptop thinking techsavy GUARD can recover something from it. He gets in his truck and drives to New Mexico to save Sarah.

Life as a fugitive

To be added after the release of "The Fugitive"

Relationships

Sheriff James

Mark's Father is a local Sheriff. He is a good father to Mark and is always there when he needs him. He is hard on Mark when he suddenly has no interest in going to college, despite the fact that colleges were clawing at eachother and even offering generous scholarships to have him attend.

Mr. James grows is furious when he catches Mark snooping in his office stating that the investigations there are a matter of national security, he later asks Mark not to get any bright ideas running away with his classmates (John and Sam) when they escape Dumont.

Mother

Not much is known about Mark's mother, other than the fact that she is staying with family in Cleveland after the fire at her home. Extended company with her mother-in-law is suggested to be the main reason for this. Mark says that she has been weird and distant since the fire but he hopes that she will return once everything has blown over.

Nana James

Sheriff James' mother, gives them a home since the house fire. She keeps them well fed and tries to ensure that everyone is happy and safe.

Abby and Dozer

Mark's pet dogs. Abby is a golden retriever and Dozer is his bulldog.

Sarah

Mark's ex-girlfriend. For a while Mark could not accept that the relationship was over and became overly possessive of her. After the battle and when John leaves, Mark and Sarah become friends again with their mutual experience with the Mogadorians bringing them closer. Mark is still in love with Sarah but has accepted the fact that she loves John.

GUARD

GUARD is a fellow editor of "Aliens Annonymous" blog and a friend of Mark. So far Mark is yet to meet him face to face. He has been very helpful in assisting Mark to gather information about the loric, the mogadorians and their allies.

Appearances

Novels/Novellas

• I Am Number Four First Appearance
• Return to Paradise Narrator
• The Power of Six Mentioned Only
• The Fall of Five Mentioned Only
• The Revenge of Seven Mentioned Only
• The Fugitive Narrator

Extras

• They Walk Among Us (Interactive Game)     

Trivia

• The official facebook page launched an online interactive game where the player interacts with a number of "They Walk Among Us" bloggers searching for leads and collecting information. It also follows Mark intent on trying to find Sarah after she was kidnapped. These events differ slightly from the Novella, Return to Paradise. In both, however, Mark ends up in New Mexico.
• In "I Am Number Four", after he witnesses Bernie Kosar transforming into his beast form, he disappears mysteriously.
• He's the narrator of the eighth lost file, "Return To Paradise".
• In his senior year of High School Mark won an all-conference trophy which was later used to kill a mogadorian by John Smith.
• He goes by the name 'JOLLYROGER182' on 'Aliens Anonymous' blog. He mentions that he stole the name from the skull-and-crossbones flags flown at the Paradise Pirates football games and some of his grandfather's old navy stuff.
• His grandfather was a part of the Fighting 182nd in the navy.
• He's the sixth human to learn John's identity and witness his legacies.
• In a quote released from the upcoming book "The Revenge of Seven" it is mentioned that Mark has found out some crucial information on Mogadorians and has gotten himself to trouble. This quote could be referencing to the laptop Mark stole from FBI Special Agent David Purdy. 
• Although he did not physically appear he was mentioned in "The Revenge of Seven" several times.
• He would return in the tenth lost file, "The Fugitive".