Buck Meltsner
Earlier known as Buck Oliver
Buck Meltsner is a highly intelligent, smooth-talking teenager who spends his early years being raised in scams by the con man Jebidiah Skint, and first comes to Odyssey as a spy for Skint's counterfeiting ring. The genuine kindness he finds at Whit's End turns him around, and he is taken in by Eugene and Katrina Meltsner, the first real family the orphaned boy has ever known. Deceptive by training but longing to be liked and to belong, Buck works constantly to prove he has changed, and his insider's knowledge of con games often helps expose swindles around town - though old tricks still tempt him. His closest bond outside the Meltsners is with Jules Kendall, Connie's half-sister, a friendship that grows into something more.