Noah Marshall

Noah is a character from the It Lives In The Woods book. He is first seen in Chapter 1.

Appearance
He has long brown hair and brown eyes. He wears a navy blue and black beanie and a denim jacket.

Personality
He is very withdrawn due to the grief of losing his sister Jane. He also seems to be vengeful because he wants to make Mr. Red pay for killing his sister. In most of the conversations, Noah is heavily sarcastic and skeptical.

He is the loner of the group, seeming to have made no new friends outside of the group. He also appears to abhor the party scene. His reluctance to make new friends could stem from him fearing losing more loved ones (and thus, prevents himself from getting closer to more people out of the fear of getting attached and losing them). Ironically, however, his conversation with you if you choose to talk to him at Brit's party indicates that he is the one member of the group dislikes being alone the most.

He hints at resentment at being left alone after Jane's death (mother blaming him and friend group falling apart) and snaps at you that you do not really know him anymore before apologizing for the unfair outburst.

He does have a softer side in that he dreams of opening up his own diner one day ("Baby Jane's"), though he is skeptical that this will ever happen due to lack of money. He is embarrassed but happy when you encourage him to not give up and find a way.

Jane
Jane is Noah's late sister whose death caused a lot of grief in him. It also strained his relationship with his friends, whom he accused of not caring about Jane's death as much as he does. If you choose to have a conversation with him during Brit's party, he will tell you that because his parents were often too busy to make them dinner and he and Jane tired of frozen dinner, he learned how to cook for the two of them. His first meal he made on the stove was grilled cheese for Jane, who said that it tasted like happiness.

Jane is still very important to Noah, as he dreams of having a diner named "Baby Jane's" one day.

Your Character
Your Character and Noah are arguably the two childhood friends most affected by Jane's death (Noah for obvious reasons but you also feel guilt for not protecting Jane). Your character is heavily implied to be on awkward, strained terms with Noah prior to the events of the book, as you awkwardly tried not to sit next to him during the assembly. Despite the awkwardness, it appears that Noah is least resentful towards your character (as well as Lily and Ava) about attempting to move on from Jane.

Having experienced the most grief from Jane's death, Noah is also the first character to believe in your character and support her in reuniting the friends against Mr. Red. He also confides in your character that he feels like Jane's death lead to him losing all of his family and friends. You can choose to empathise with him or tell him that he didn't lose you. If you did the latter, Noah regains nerve.

At Brit's party, you have the option of suggesting you take a walk together. Doing so will result in Noah confiding in you: about the reason why he came to the party ("Being in a place that you hate with your friends is still better than being alone, right?") and his dream of having a diner named "Baby Jane's". In the conversation, Noah does snap at you when you express surprise at his fondness for cooking, saying "You don't actually know much about me anymore." He apologizes for the outburst, but this implies that while he doesn't blame you about attempting to move on from Jane, he is still resentful of the deterioration of your relationship.

Later at the party, he (as well as Stacy) is upset with you when you decide to play "Are you Scared?" with Ava, Lily, Brit, Cody, and Tom. He leaves, muttering "That's messed up", and you do not speak with him afterward.

While he is currently not a love interest, he could possibly be one in the future, based on how he is most open to your character (and is mostly a loner in the group) and the common grief for Jane that is stronger than the rest of the group's.

It can also be possibly interpreted that as a kid, Noah greatly admired your character; he is upset with Jane for going to the woods without him and without telling their parents as she could get hurt, but when Jane says that your character was there with her to protect her, he backs down.

Events of It Lives In The Woods
Your character first meets Noah during a pep rally, when there was an empty seat next to him. You hesitated at first, but Cody and Jocelyn demanded that you sit down, leaving you no choice but to ask Noah whether you could sit next to him. After he allowed you to, you exchanged silent glances to each other until the pep rally finally began. After Noah commented on Lucas being student body president and Andy joining the basketball team, a blackout occurred in the school, and Noah was one of the students who could hear whispers saying, "Everyone... plays... together..."

Later at night, you and your old friends gathered around the school to discuss Dan's disappearance and the text messages he sent to them. Andy suggested that they call the police to handle the matter with Redfield, but Noah and Ava believed it would be futile, and Andy took back his words. Noah teased him by getting Redfield to testify, causing an angry Andy that he already understood what Noah meant. When the group realised they had to go to the woods to investigate Dan, some members refused to go, causing Noah to accuse them of cowardice and not grieving for Jane's death as much as he did. This leaves the group with your character, Noah, Ava, and Andy; the latter two wanted to go despite their schedule conflicts, and you could choose to bring one or both with you and Noah.

After dealing with Britney, Stacy, and Lily, you and Noah (and possibly Ava and Andy) went to Gunther's Hardware. Noah told you that after Jane's death, his parents divorced, and his mother blamed him for what happened. Afterwards, you found a baseball bat covered in barbed wire and a flashlight for sale. If you bought the latter, Noah will use it to look around the woods for Dan.

In the woods, you and some of your old friends encountered monsters resembling skeletal wolves covered in moss chasing you. After running from them, you found an unconscious Dan surrounded by more of the monsters, and a fight ensued. If Noah had the flashlight, he would use it as a makeshift weapon against the monsters.

Trivia

 * It is possible that Noah and Jane could be twins.
 * His dream is to go to culinary school and open a diner called "Baby Jane's" in memory of his sister.
 * Some people are hoping to see him become a love interest for the main character.