A/N: I do not own Arthur or the characters, all Arthur characters belong to Marc Brown
Story Introduction:
This story takes place about fifteen years after Arthur and his friends wee in Mr. Ratburn's class. Arthur and his friends, Buster, Francine, Brain, Binky, George, Muffy, Sue Ellen, etc, are now twenty-three years old (except Binky, who is twenty-four). All of these students have graduated college and are back living in Elwood City but are now, for the most part, living out of their parents' houses. Some of them are roommates and share apartments with each other: Arthur shares an apartment with Buster, Francine shares with Muffy, and Brain shares with Binky. Some other characters moved back home with their parents, Carl being one of them, and some live completely by themselves. It is currently summer and this story does take place in Elwood City.
Chapter 1: The Basic Problems of George
George Lundgren lives in a one bedroom apartment by himself, and doesn't wish to live with anyone, not even his friend Carl. His apartment isn't very fancy and is relatively cheap, but at least it's not in the projects or in a very bad neighborhood. None of his friends live in his apartment complex. George also has a car that he doesn't always drive, sometimes he just walks or takes the bus. He also works at a fast-food restaurant for minimum wage. Sometimes his parents help him out financially and help pay for the living expenses.
Right now George is having personal issues and has had them for quite some time now. George is suffering from severe depression and has very limited enjoyment of his life and has lost a lot of his interests. Mornings are especially tough for him when he wakes up, and much of those times he just doesn't want to get out of bed, even staying in bed long after waking up. When he wakes up, he feels like he has this weight in his brain, or like he has a heavy boulder inside his brain, and it's very uncomfortable for him, and some times are worse than others for him. He is also constantly reminded, in waking up, that he does not feel very good and feels like his whole day is going to be that way although he does get a little better as the day progresses, but every morning he has to start all over again.
Thankfully right now George doesn't have to work until noon and he works six-hour shifts at his job. Sometimes he doesn't even get out of bed until 11:00 a.m. but he knows he has to in order to keep his job and in order to keep his apartment and utilities. There have even been a few times he has been almost late for work. Sometimes he would over sleep, or wake up and fall back to sleep and then when it was close to time to go to work, he'd quickly get dressed without showering and run out the door and rush to work, which isn't too far from where he lives. There have been a couple of times where he really was late for work and it made him ashamed and embarrassed. Thankfully for him his supervisor wasn't too hard on him and is very understanding but none-the-less he takes his job very seriously and sometimes has to reprimand George and his other employees.
George's mental and emotional issues have affected roughly much of his life, including his work, which he can do well but he does lose focus at times.
What is more, his issues have also affected his social life as you will see, and George doesn't enjoy virtually much anything. He still does things like watch T.V., listen to music, go for walks, read books, visiting his relatives, hanging with his friends, whether at his apartment, or at their homes, or wherever, but alas, he cannot completely enjoy doing any of these things and sometimes it even hurts his brain just doing, or even thinking of doing these and other things. Some things are harder for him to do than others. His depression doesn't stop him from doing things, but it does hinder him and limit his concentration and joy in his activities.
And recently, he's even stopped eating so much, that is, he's been eating less than usual. Sometimes he would make something like a bowl of cereal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to name a couple, or order food, even from his job, in which he gets an employee discount, and either he would hesitate to eat it until later, or eat some of it but either but either not finish it until later or let it go to waste. And sadly he has let a lot of his food go to waste, buying food but not eating it and letting it go bad. Very rarely will George actually eat something and finish it without waiting. And George has lost a tremendous amount of weight, and his friends are eventually going to notice this. There were even days he fasted altogether and sadly his appetite has dwindled and is really low, but he does make sure he at least drinks water.
George does try to maintain a clean apartment, at least sometimes, because when he sees that his place is dirty, it really drives him crazy and adds to his depression. But even when his house is clean, it still doesn't take away his mental-emotional pain. Nothing seems to help George. Sometimes he's too lazy to clean up his apartment and lets it stay dirty but once it drives him crazy enough, he cleans it and then gets a little happy to see his apartment clean.
Another thing that doesn't help George is cloudy weather. He still has depression even when the sun is shining, but when it's a cloudy day, whether it is raining or not, it only adds to his depression and makes it harder for him to go about his day. Cloudy days and rainy days, sometimes, didn't used to be a problem for him but now they are, whether he's at home or out somewhere.
In addition to his depression, George also suffers from low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness. He even thinks back on horrible memories of his life, like the times he'd been bullied and pushed around, or felt like he was unwanted and he's even been isolated from others. And sadly he still has dyslexia, but that's not what's troubling him, he knows he has to live with that and that'll never change. Either way, he's still disturbed and troubled. And nobody knows about his condition, not even his friends or family, he's kept it a secret, and it is taking a toll on him mentally and emotionally. He's not even seeing anybody for it or taking any medications for it. And he's too ashamed to talk about his problems to anyone, including his friends and family.
And when he's alone and no one is looking, he has moments when he lets himself cry. He hides his tears from everyone, but cries when he's alone, especially when he's at home. And even some of the dreams he has make him cry after waking up from them, even if the dreams are not about something sad, but make him sad. And his crying times vary, sometimes it's two minutes, sometimes it's five minutes, ten minutes, or even last for more than twenty minutes, even more than an hour. Sometimes he'll cry twice or more in a day, even have some hours between crying. And he's so mentally hurt he even wants to hit something or hit his head against something. There are even times he's been tempted to slit or slash himself with something sharp, but thankfully he never did, at least not now.
And that's the thing, George really has a lot going for him. He not only has a home, a job, and a car, but he also has family and friends, even Binky, who love and care about him. And both of his parents are still alive and love him too. Albeit George is fully aware of all of this, low and behold it still doesn't help his depression or other personal issues.
A/N The next chapters will talk more about George and what he goes through and what he's going through and there will be some dialogue in one of the future chapters. And hopefully this story will get more epic, but not too epic. It's not exciting now but hopefully it will later.
The original title was going to be "What's Eating George?" but that didn't seem exciting enough. Then I had other titles for this story (I think), and I was going to make it "George's Major Crisis and Suicide Plan, but I decided to leave out the word "major," because it may not be major, but if any of you think it is, I'll put that word back in.