A is for Absence.
Absence. It's something Puck, Kurt, Finn and Santana all have in common.
Finn probably got the best deal out of the four of them; after all, he was just a baby when his Dad died a hero. He doesn't really remember the man; he just recognises the absence of one.
Kurt, arguably, has the second best deal. His Mother was a kind, loving woman who died tragically, but whose memory is still held so dear. Kurt may not have a Mother, but he has love, and a guardian angel all of his own. It's more than either Puck or Santana can boast.
Puck comes third with his the rock 'n' Roll hero Father. He doesn't have the cherished memories or the comfort of knowing his Father died a hero. Instead he has a drunken dead beat who ran out on them when Noah was just a boy. His Mother adores him for his resemblance to the man she loves, which is funny, really, because it's the thing Puck most hates about himself. But as much as he hates himself he hates his Father more, and that can do terrible things to a child, but mostly it just causes them pain.
Finally there is Santana, whose parents are the worst kind of absent; the present kind. While her club mates are haunted by the memories of those who have passed, Santana is taunted with periodic, if irregular, images of phantom parents passing though their house, leaving presents, notes, money. There's always a lot of money, they think it makes up for a lack of love.
Finn grew up with stories of the bravest and most loving man in the world, Kurt lives his live for the porcelain angel who gave him his smile and Puck grew bold in his desire to be a better man than his Father, and a better Father than he knew how to be, even if that meant letting his baby go. But Santana never really had parents to begin with, just the working lawyer who gave birth to her, and the busy doctor who named her. This is worse, in its way, than the collective tragedies of her peers because, really, the ghostly parents that taunt Santana are indifferent, but still so real it hurts.
You can't defy death, but Finn and Kurt got a brand new family out of each other anyway, and Puck's family was better off without his Father if everybody's honest. Santana wishes she could say the same, but she doesn't know. Her parents are MIA in their own house. Everyone says that she's spoilt, and this may be true, but it wasn't everything they gave her that ruined Santana, it was everything they didn't.
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