Okay... Hi:)
I was doing a chalk mural advertising for my studio today, and this one girl kept bugging me while I was working. It gave me a really interesting One-Shot idea, so, you know, silver linings and crap.
Okay then.
Enjoy!
PS: sorry if it's kind of depressing.
Percy
I sat outside the principals office, waiting for my mom to come pick me up. My earphones were jammed in my head, cranked up as loud as they could possibly go. It hurt my eardrums, but it blocked out the maddening ticking coming from the wall clocks. Stupid SeaWorld. The whole catwalk falls into the shark tank and suddenly the guy next to the control panel gets expelled.
All of my stuff was packed, readily sitting next to me. I had secretly been hoping I would accidentally do something and get myself expelled for some time now. After all, this was just another school that I would get kicked out of, like the next one, or the one before. I would never have any real friends to feel bad about leaving.
Maybe if my dad hadn't been lost at sea, then we wouldn't have this problem. Maybe I would've tried harder to impress him, or Mom would have the money to write at home and homeschool me, instead of catering to Gabe's every need. Maybe I would be at home right now, my mom in the kitchen cooking up blue cookies, my dad leaning on the counter, helping me with homework. But no. I didn't have a dad. Because Gabe didn't really count.
A small hand tapped on my arm. I yanked the headphones out of my ear and turned to look at a little girl, about six years old. Her thin strawberry blonde hair was tied up in lopsided pigtails, and her frilly pink skirt was slightly turned up at the bottom. Her cheeks were rosy red from the spring chill. She dragged an empty looking Hello Kitty back pack across the floor carelessly. She looked like she had just ran over from the jungle gym.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Hi." She said nervously. her hands fumbled around, first playing with her skirt, then having what looked like a thumb war with each other. I reached to put in my earbuds again but just before I could she spoke up again.
"What's your name?" Her blue eyes looked at me with curiosity.
"Percy."
"I'm Grace."
"Cool." I wasn't really sure what else to say. "Are you looking for someone?"
"I'm waiting for Mommy to pick me up." She flopped down on the wooden bench next to me, sitting the back pack next to her feet by mine. I plugged my earbuds back in my ear. Not ten seconds later, I felt Grace tugging on my arm again. I turned off my music and turned to her.
"What?" I asked as nicely as I could. I wasn't really that good with kids.
"What are you listening to?" She plucked an earbud out of my ear and pressed it to hers. Her smile faltered when she heard no noise coming from it. A good thing, too. The music I listened to wasn't really for children.
"Just some music." Grace's eyes widened.
"I love music! Do you like Selena Gomez and Hannah Montana? Their my favorite!" She bounced off the bench like it was a trampoline and began skipping around humming some teen pop song. She bounced around for a whole five minutes before giggling and falling back on the bench. I was getting irritated. This girl was wearing away my patience like chipped paint on an old swing-set.
"Grace, when's your Mom picking you up?" I tried to ask kindly.
"Soon. She's going to take my to get my hair cut and then to a birthday party. The party's at Salto, so I can jump on trampolines and climb the rope ladder. There's even a giant pit with soft blue cubes that you can jump into. Sometimes, I pretend it's water and I'm swimming in it!" She sighed happily. "I love my Mommy. She's so nice. And she drives me everywhere!" Her big blue eyes looked up at me again. "Who's your mommy?" I fidgeted in my seat.
"Her name's Sally. She works at a candy shop!" Graces eyes got all shiny and her mouth opened in a big O.
"Woah! Do you get lot's of free candies?"
"Sometimes." She seemed satisfied.
"Who's your Daddy?" My heart stopped. I didn't know.
"He was a fisherman."
"Where is he today? Fishing?" This was so unfair. All of the little kids talk about their families, but I didn't even know who my dad was. How was that fair? Why did he decide to leave, why would he just up and go on a pointless fishing trip right after I was born? Was he trying to escape responsibility? Or was the fishing trip just some stupid made up lie that my mom told me to make me feel better. I bet he left. I'm glad he's gone. But the way my mom's eyes misted up when she saw the sea or talked about him, It wasn't a look that could be based off a lie. How she talked about him, she made him sound like some kind of god. No one like that would just run away. Then what happened? Why did he leave us! Surely he couldn't be so stupid to go boating in a torrential rainstorm! I could never find closure on the topic of my father. It was a gaping hole in my heart that I could never sew shut, never plug up. It would always cut as deep as the day it was sliced.
I looked at Grace and remembered she had asked me a question.
"I don't know. Maybe."