Cleve Goodstaff

"Basic info you gotta know: I’m the guy they call Cleve – Cleveland Goodstaff Jr. at your service. You’d be surprised how many people tell me their secrets ‘cause they know they can trust me. Once I get private input, I mean it never gets out."Cleve Goodstaff is an 8th grade student at Whistling Pines Junior High.

Cleveland is the big-man-on-campus. Although Cleve is often overly conceited and arrogant, he is shown to have a surprisingly laid-back character, and he often plays peacemaker between The Ones and Rockett. He is one of the most popular boys in school, along with Max Diamond and Chaz Franklin.

Cleve has straight blonde hair and blue eyes. His hair is styled long and floppy, but he never lets it grow past the tops of his ears. In the art for Rockett’s New School, Cleve has a beauty mark on the left side of his lips, but later games stopped drawing him with this feature. His body is lean and athletic. He always wears jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt, occasionally adding a school letterman jacket to his outfit at colder times of the year. After Wolf DuBois, Cleve is the tallest boy in his class. Cleve's height makes him good at various sports. His handwriting is very messy, and sometimes even he can't read his own notes.

Cleve was supposed to be in high school, but he was held back a year. He is also quite a flirt, usually flirting with Rockett or Nicole, and briefly with Miko. He has an on-again, off-again relationship with an 11th grade model named Cindy Bright. Cleve sometimes hangs out with Ruben Rosales.

Cleve's parents (Cleveland Sr. and Carmella) are divorced. Although he is named after his father, the two do not see each other often and have very little in common. Cleveland Sr. travels for his job; disappointing his son when he has to break promises about spending time together in favor of business matters. Cleve sometimes uses this distance to his advantage for cutting classes - forging notes from his dad, knowing that the teachers will have a hard time contacting Cleveland Sr. for confirmation. By 8th grade, Cleve has a stepdad Bruce Blaney, a younger stepbrother named Craig, and a half-brother named Chris - born to his mom and stepdad.

His birthday is April 13th making him an Aries in the zodiac. His middle name is Arthur. Cleve was voiced by Jeff Wiesen, Eric Weinstein, and Ben Watson.

Background
Cleve was an only child of his parents’ marriage. He is named after his father, and his mother is of Italian descent. His mom’s profession is unconfirmed but possibly related to cooking; her skill with desserts is so good that Wolf’s family has placed a standing order from her for their restaurant menu. His father, Cleveland Sr., works as a businessman and travels often for his job. Even when he was home, he prioritized work over family. Because of this, Cleve is much closer to his mother. Before Cleve was 9 years old, his parents divorced.

His mother, Carmella, has since remarried. Cleve's stepdad, Bruce Blaney, is a good paternal influence and makes Carmella happy. Bruce oversees the manufacture of large appliances such as dishwashers. Bruce has a son from a previous marriage, too; Craig (age 12, 7th grade).

In addition to his stepbrother Craig, Carmella’s marriage to Bruce also gave Cleve a new half-brother, Chris (age 6). Chris looks almost exactly like Cleve, so it's assumed both of them take after their mother in family resemblance. Cleve calls Chris "squirt" and looks after him as a close older brother.

All three boys have to share a single bedroom. Cleve improved the room slightly by building a low, long bookshelf to divide his space from his brothers', although he still hopes that the family is going to get a bigger house eventually. He writes in his journal that he plans to use the house's screened-in porch as his bedroom once the cold weather is over.

Personality
Cleve is an arrogant jock and the big-man-on-campus strutting around the school. He is laid-back about most things and keeps a positive unphased attitude even in the face of Nicole’s temper or the teachers lecturing him on his academic shortcomings. Confident but not mean-spirited, Cleve can turn on the charm, flirting with girls often, and relies on his charisma to carry him through most situations.

Interests & Skills
Cleve enjoys ice skating, hockey, basketball, soccer, and tennis. He also likes hot rod cars. His favorite food is Panettone, an Italian dish made by his mother.

He is decent at woodworking and has made a bookshelf for his little brother Chris, who loves to read. Cleve also made the bookshelf as a barrier for his side of the bedroom that he has to share with Chris and Craig.

Relationships
Cleve is a member of The Ones clique so he mostly hangs out with fellow guys in the group, Max Diamond and Chaz Franklin. He is also friends with Ruben Rosales.

Because he is the boy leader of The Ones and Nicole Whittaker is the girl leader of The Ones, the two often pair up for parties or social outings. They playfully snipe at and flirt with each other, but never officially date as boyfriend/girlfriend.

Cleve has officially dated a new girl at Whistling Pines Jr. High, Felicia Ravenswood. The two went to see a scary film and kissed during the movie. Apparently Felicia was just using Cleve to annoy Nicole since Felicia was vying for the position of most popular girl in school.

He has another hot and cold relationship with a high-school girl named Cindy Bright. She is an 11th grader who works part time as a model. Cindy often sends Cleve pictures or catalog covers that feature her latest photoshoot, and she writes flirty notes telling him to keep the pictures because she’s going to be famous someday. Cleve’s journal entries go back and forth on whether he is crushing on her or if he is over her. In the Rockett’s World book Can You Keep a Secret, he skips classes by forging excuses to go see Cindy since her classes end sooner in the school day.

Cleve has no close teacher relationships or crushes.

Academics
Cleve has Mr. Baldus as his homeroom teacher. His fall report card shows him as a C average student with PE and shop being his best subjects and math and language arts being his worst. His grades were poor enough to hold him back a year in school; even on his second year in 8th grade, his grades were bad and the principal assigned him a student tutor, Miko Kajiyama, to help him improve academically.

In the book What Kind of Friend Are You? The Ones ran for student office, and Cleve was on the party ticket as Treasurer. He wins against Miko on the CSG ticket.

For the school talent show in the book Who’s Running This Show?, Max teams up with Cleve and they tell corny jokes while Stephanie’s parrot, Panama, squawks one liners in reply.

Rockett's First Dance
Cleve does not have an in-game appearance. The excuse is that his dad, Cleveland Sr., is in town for a few days and has set aside time from work to spend with Cleve. This means that Cleve is excused from school for two days and can make up his homework at a later time. A letter in Cleve’s locker says that Cleveland Sr. is planning on spending spring break with him, too, in a camping retreat where they will learn survival skills and have plenty of time to bond as father and son. Cleveland Sr. also purchased a boogie board for his son as a gift, but Cleve writes to Chaz that it isn’t much good to him in the midwest of Whistling Pines, especially in February.

Cleve also does not attend the valentine dance on Saturday night because his high school friend (sometimes girlfriend) Cindy Bright invited him somewhere else.

Can You Keep a Secret?
Cleve starts hanging out with Miko Kajiyama, sparking rumors about why shy Miko is friends with a jock like him. It turns out that the principal asked Miko to privately tutor Cleve because he’s still under-performing academically. Despite their initial bad assumptions about each other, Cleve and Miko grow to be good friends during the tutoring. Cleve’s charisma draws out Miko’s daring side, and she starts making more adventurous choices in fashion and makeup, even shopping at the mall with Cleve for his opinions on her purchases.

Although rumors are flying about Miko and Cleve dating, Cleve is actually back on again with Cindy Bright. Since Cindy is in high school, her classes end sooner in the school day than Cleve’s do, so he starts forging excused absence notes for himself. He signs the notes from his dad Cleveland Sr. knowing how hard it is to contact Sr. when business often takes him out of town. Principal Herrera is suspicious but since she can’t verify that Cleveland Sr. didn’t write the notes, Cleve continues to skip school to hang out with Cindy.

At the end of the book, the eighth graders are throwing a surprise party for Miko. Cleve was invited but he arrives hours late. Upset by all the rumors about Cleve dating Miko, Nicole Whittaker immediately cozies up to Cleve by kissing his cheek and asking him to dance. Rockett Movado gets angry at Nicole’s flirtatious antics and reveals that Cleve is dating Cindy now. Embarrassed and angry, Nicole pushes Cleve into the venue’s pool. He pulls her in by the ankle in retaliation before the chaperones end the party.