Hi Everyone! Thank you for the follows/reviews; I appreciate them all!
Bit of a background, but it must be done. Some foreshadowing in the beginning, background in the middle and some drama at the end. There will be minimal background after this one!
Chapter One: Phone Calls
"After the French Revolution, what was the general expectation?"
"No more fighting?"
"Food!"
"No kings."
"Peace!"
"Okay, okay, one at a time." Éponine Jondrette laughed, raising her hands to quiet her classroom. It was only the third day of their unit on Post Revolution French History, and the fifth graders were eager to learn. "Evan, you said there should be no more fighting, why do you think so?"
"Well…" Evan trailed off uncertainty, clearly hesitant about being put on the spot. "I just think that after all the fighting, once they got rid of the cause, there should be no more war?" He phrased it as a question.
"In a perfect world, Evan, that would be exactly what would happen. You say the 'cause' of the fighting was removed, are you speaking of the heads of the monarchs?" Evan said nothing, just nodded. "What we need to do is get down to the root cause of the unrest in France, specifically Paris, in the late 1700s."
The fifth graders shifted in their seats; wasn't Marie Antoinette really the cause of the Revolution?
"Jessica," Éponine said, pointing a girl in the third row. "What do you do when you get home from school?"
Jessica looked uneasy; was this a trick question? "Um…my mom makes me a snack."
"And then?"
"I watch television for an hour and do some homework. When daddy comes home from work we eat dinner."
"Where do you sleep at night?"
"In a bed…" Jessica said slowly, her brows furrowed.
"Exactly. The rest of you as well, I'm sure, have dinners at night and sleep in beds, am I right?" Twenty two heads nodded in unison. Éponine smiled to herself, coming to stand in front of her desk.
"Unfortunately, this was not the case for most Parisians in the years before the French Revolution. People, to put it mildly, were starving. We've covered the plagues – " Éponine paused, smirking at the look of utter disgust on several student's faces. "- and how they affected the growth and population of Europe. Poverty, however, was the real disease in those times; it killed people more than any plague ever could."
The students were silent, undoubtedly thinking of what it would be like to be that poor. Éponine taught in a wealthy section of Paris at a private school; most of these children had more money in their trust funds than Éponine had to her name after years of work.
"So people were mad because they were poor?" A boy named Henry asked timidly. Éponine nodded.
"If you were poor in today's society, you would be able to seek aid through our government in the form of soup kitchens, or cheaper housing. If something happened to your parents and you had no other family, the government would not allow you to wander the streets, you would be put into foster care."
Éponine said this with gritted teeth; it was the hardest thing to teach her students. Foster care in many situations was ideal, but not for herself and her siblings, who were placed into the system after their parent's incarceration. Gavroche was only six, and Azelma was ten. Éponine was fifteen at the time, and was put into a different foster home than her two siblings. Azelma was sent to the suburbs of Paris, for which Éponine was eternally grateful; getting away from "home" was the best thing for her. Gavroche and Éponine, however, were both still in the city.
Éponine would meet up with Gavroche weekly, desperately trying to prove that he was being mistreated at his home; every time she saw him, the child was covered in bruises. The social workers, however, had little regard for a fifteen year old girl that had already spent a year in a juvenile detention center for stealing.
For years, Éponine balanced high school with multiple jobs, trying to get together enough money to win custody of Gavroche. When she turned seventeen and told her foster parents she wasn't going to college yet, they kicked her out, leaving her to fend for herself on the streets. She barely finished high school, scraping by just enough to graduate. That summer, she met Marius Pontmercy, a naïve and earnest college sophomore. He let her crash on his suite couch several nights a week when school started.
Through the influence of Marius and his friends, Éponine was able to apply for a scholarship to college, to study education. Her interview was what got her the full ride; she cited her life experiences, and her desire to provide a better life for her young brother as her motivations for going to school.
Between school, three jobs, and a nasty custody battle, Éponine was able, at the age of eighteen, to buy a small apartment with two bedrooms: one for herself, and one for the nine year old Gavroche. At the end, she was broke, exhausted, but extremely proud. For the past five years, Éponine and her brother had been living together; he was fourteen, and went to high school every day, while she had been teaching fifth grade for the almost two years since her college graduation.
"Was it the king that made them poor?" Lucas, another student asked, pulling Éponine out of her reverie.
"Partially," she said slowly. "The French sent many troops and supplies to America to help with their Revolution, which was an unpopular choice at the time. This meant less money for the French, and therefore, more poverty."
The students were quiet, until Evan raised his hand again. "But…why did they start fighting?"
Éponine smiled at the innocence of the children, who couldn't understand the political events from over 200 years prior. "They didn't have many other ways to express themselves."
"It's like the other day when I punched Lucas and got in trouble, but then later we talked about it and we solved the problem, right Ms. Jondrette?" The class troublemaker, Pierre, said cheerfully. Éponine pushed down her laughter; Pierre reminded her of Gavroche.
"Kind of like that, Pierre, yes. You were caught in the moment and punched Lucas, but then you solved more when you talked about it. People in the past didn't know how to talk about things of this magnitude, and had to resort to fighting. There was no television, or even many newspapers to spread news and opinions, and most people resorted to violence."
"Such a big place, no one would have tattled on me, Marie." Pierre said, sticking his tongue out at the girl next to him.
"I couldn't just let you do it – " Marie started, before looking at Éponine, who was giving them both a sharp look.
"No fighting you two, remember what we all said the other day. If you see something, say something. Even if it's going to upset someone, it's better than feeling guilty later."
"Yes, Ms. Jondrette." Pierre and Marie both mumbled, looking down at their desks. Éponine opened her mouth to speak again, before the bell ringing cut her off.
"Walk – don't run!" She said loudly, trying to be heard over the scrapes of the chairs against the floor. It was lunch hour.
Once the classroom was clear, Éponine took a deep breath, walking around the back of her desk and taking a seat. Talking about French history could always get touchy – especially with subjects like poverty. She loved her students; they were wonderful kids. They all, however, came from such rich families, that trying to explain poverty and hardship to them was like trying to get Grantaire to stop drinking.
Éponine sat, stretching her arms over her head. She rolled her neck, reaching into her desk to retrieve her cell phone. She had four text messages.
"drinking tonight? I found a new wine I want to try." The first was from Grantaire, who often forgot that most of his friends had real jobs, and didn't work as artists that created their own hours. Éponine rolled her eyes, typing back a quick reply ("I have a job") before moving to the next message.
"School sucks" This one was from Gavroche. Éponine rolled her eyes again, flipping the phone to the side to answer. "Too bad" She typed back, smirking to herself. She didn't care if Gavroche hated school, he was going to go every single day.
"What should I get for Cosette for her birthday?" That was from Marius, of course. Éponine rolled her eyes for a third time, taking a deep breath before moving to the next message.
It wasn't that she still had feelings for Marius. She didn't hate him, nor did she love him; they were friends only. She had practically worshiped him when they first met, but as she started to get out on her own she realized that she had such strong feelings for him because he was one of the first people to ever be kind to her. After that realization, being just friends with him was easy.
Once Marius met Cosette, however, he was unbearable. Éponine couldn't have a conversation with him without hearing all about how wonderful his girlfriend was. At the time, Éponine also hated Cosette, but after she met her, she couldn't help but love her. Cosette practically exhaled sunshine, and it was good to meet such an honestly nice person.
Éponine and Cosette were close friends, but what Éponine could not stand about Marius was how he couldn't do anything on his own. Need to take Cosette on a date? Better ask Courfeyrac where to go. Need a present? Better ask Éponine what to get. Need to know what wine would be the best? Better ask Grantaire.
It was annoying.
Éponine decided to text him back later, and peered at her phone to read her last text. "Can't make it to the café tonight, don't feel well." It was a group message from Enjolras. Éponine's eyebrows raised to the sky; he couldn't make it to the café? Enjolras lived for the café. Though there was really no ABC Society anymore (once all the men had jobs, the society had sort of disbanded) they still got together at the Musain every night to share coffee, drinks and stories. They were a tight knit group, and sometimes still organized the occasional (peaceful) rally at their old college.
"You okay?" She asked, responding to just Enjolras instead of the group. Enjolras would not miss the café even if he was sick with pneumonia.
"Fine, just feeling pretty under the weather. Lots of work." His reply came seconds later. Éponine shrugged to herself, replying once more.
"Feel better, see you tomorrow."
When Éponine had met the group of boys in college, she had picked up on several things about them. What stood out most prevalently was that Enjolras was the leader, and that everyone looked up to him. Once she got to know him better, she understood why. Not only was he extremely intelligent, he was also hard working and a genuinely caring person. He hid behind a façade of caring only for the issues that the ABC Society stood for, but Éponine saw right through him: she knew that he would kill, or die for any one of his friends.
In truth, Enjolras was one of the best people to have around Gavroche. She hoped that his intelligence, his passion and his work ethic would rub off on her brother. She knew Gavroche idolized Courfeyrac, mostly because of his moves with the ladies. Courf was smart and hard working as well, but he didn't exude power and intelligence like Enjolras did. Éponine hoped that all the best qualities of her friends would influence Gavroche throughout his life; they were the best people she knew.
Éponine's phone dinged, and she looked down to see a text from Grantaire. "I have a job too, just because I don't get a teacher's lounge, doesn't mean I don't do work."
"You drinking right now?"
"…maybe."
Éponine laughed, her shoulders shaking. "I'll see you later, fool."
"I look forward to the moment."
While she hoped Gavroche would pick up Enjolras's habits of studying, Éponine also hoped he would be able to be as carefree and fun as Grantaire. With a little less alcohol, ideally.
A glance at the clock told Éponine she had only fifteen minutes left of her lunch break before she was on recess duty. She hastily pulled out her brown bag and unwrapped her sandwich, munching on the tuna she had packed for herself that morning.
Once finished, she stood, taking her phone with her as she made her way past the desks to the door. She used the bathroom quickly, before exiting the school through the cafeteria. The sun was shining, and the children were all playing loudly in the yard.
"Hello, Éponine." Her fellow fifth grade teacher, Mr. Jones said blandly. Éponine wrinkled her nose in distaste; she really did not like Mr. Jones.
"Tom." She said curtly.
"I was wondering when you'd get out here, I'm not on duty today."
Éponine glanced at her watch; she was precisely thirty seconds late. "Sorry, Tom, I'll be out here early tomorrow."
"No matter," he said, waving a hand, before walking back toward the building. Éponine rolled her eyes, before turning her attention back to her students.
So far, so good; no fights had broken out yet. Until…
"Pierre!" Éponine shouted, marching onto the field. Movement halted at once. "Let go of Marie, now." Pierre did as he was told and dropped his hold of Marie's hair. "Inside, now." Éponine said lowly, pointing toward the building. "Go to the office, and stay there until recess is over."
Pierre started to protest, but a severe look from Éponine halted his words. He turned around and glumly walked away.
"Are you alright?" Éponine asked kindly, and Marie nodded, wiping at a tear on her face.
"I'm fine." She said quietly. "Can I sit with you for the rest of recess?"
Éponine nodded her consent, and the pair walked back to a bench. Éponine still had full view of the playground for duty purposes, and Marie started chattering on about the vacation her family would be taking to the South of France.
Éponine felt her phone buzz in her pocket about two minutes into Marie's story. She ignored it, focusing her attention on the girl and the rest of the students. It continuously buzzed for the next fifteen minutes, until the bell sounded through the playground and all the students groaned, all hesitant to go back inside.
On the walk to the door, Éponine's phone continued to vibrate, and she sent Marie in ahead of her. Éponine trailed behind her students, making sure no other teachers were around before pulling out her phone.
She had sixteen missed calls and four voicemails, all from Joly and Combeferre.
She didn't know why, but her stomach dropped, fear flooding her body. Joly and Combeferre both worked at the local hospital, so for them both to be calling…
"Don't overreact." Éponine mumbled to herself, pushing her panic down. She looked around again, holding the phone up to her ear to call her voicemail.
"Hey Ep, it's Joly. Give me a call when you get a chance."
"Ep, it's Combeferre, call me or Joly."
"Éponine, fuck, answer the phone."
"Éponine, it's Gav, you need to get down here."
When Éponine reached her classroom door, the principal was standing there, a sad look on her face. She was holding a note, but Éponine already knew.
She was running for her car before anyone could say a word.
WOAH background chapter AND depression? I felt horrible writing about who Gav should aspire to be like, because we all know what happened in the prologue. Let me know what you guys think! xoxo Brittany