Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. Some quotes are from Chris Colfer's An Author's Odyssey.
Yellow
Mrs. Peters knew something was wrong.
She looked at her class, and then at Alex and Conner Bailey. Alex's eyes were puffy and she looked like she had been crying all night, but Conner's face was devoid of emotion as he stared straight ahead.
Thunder rumbled outside the school as Mrs. Peters greeted the class. She noticed the aura was a bit off. Normally, Conner was a bright ray of sunshine, laughing and talking loudly. But there he was, dull, silent and gloomy.
She knew something was seriously wrong.
Later, she found out from gossiping students that Mr. Bailey had died in an unfortunate car accident. That explained the twins' different behavior; their father's death must have been hard on them.
Mrs. Peters might have been stern, but she wasn't mean. Conner looked like he hadn't been getting much sleep so Mrs. Peters tried to be less strict about sleeping in lessons. She also wanted to be as understanding as possible and observed the twins carefully to see if she could do something to help them.
Alex was even more quiet than usual, but she continued to study and do her homework, and talked to her teachers and peers in the same polite way. Alex was the type to console herself when she was alone.
Conner was different. While he was outgoing and social, sometimes he actually hid his emotions, scared of what the others would think. Judging by the blank expression on his face, he still hadn't come to terms with the loss of his father. Mrs. Peters saw him try to hide his grief by pretending to be happy when he was with his friends, but he was bad liar. She saw right through him. She saw the lonely, scared child under his mask.
"I watched you struggle after your father died- but you didn't let yourself struggle for long."
For the first few days, Conner was in a state of shock. Numb. Blank. He found himself subconsciously choosing darker clothes to wear. The solemn faces on Alex and his mother, plus people coming by in black clothes, murmuring their consolations. The weather was also bad, with promise of heavy showers and the clouds covering the sky.
Everything was dark, grey and dreary. Conner, a bright spirit, felt suffocated, so suffocated by all the sadness. And slowly, the realization dawned on him.
His father was gone. Gone forever.
The next stage was grief. He couldn't think about his father without choking up. Whenever he tried to smile, it came out as more of a grimace. His room was a dark mess, clothes flung everywhere and textbooks strewn on the floor. He spent a lot of time huddled up in his blankets, sobbing quietly.
But then he saw his sister and his mother took it even worse than he did. Conner remembered how his mom used to say he radiated positive energy, and was so good at cheering other people up. Conner knew his family needed some time alone, but the atmosphere was so depressing, it was difficult to stay happy.
So for the sake of Alex and his mother, Conner decided he would try to be positive. He started by making other people laugh. It wasn't that hard really, Conner just had to be blunt and a bit sarcastic, and soon everyone was laughing along with him. Even Alex showed a small smile.
"Rather than wallowing in grief, you developed a strong sense of humor. Soon I was constantly condemning your clown antics in class."
Mrs. Peters watched as Conner's fake smiles become genuine, wide smiles. He was a natural jokester, capable of sending people into hysterics. Because of that, he was well-liked in class, and slowly recovered from his father's death.
Mrs. Peters even saw Conner's happy personality affecting Alex, and ever since, the two siblings faced their problems together. Despite the fact that she didn't approve of Conner's antics, Mrs. Peters had to admit they were funny. Sometimes it was so hilarious she almost stopped being mad at Conner. Almost.
The sun peeked out from the dark clouds, shining its beams on everyone, brightening everything up. Like a small dot of yellow slowly expanding in a huge canvas of black, gradually turning all the black to yellow.
Mrs. Peters greatly admired Conner's optimism, cheerfulness and ability to make people happy, mainly because she would never let herself out like he did. When everyone was depressed, he would manage to cheer them up. It was particularly impressive to know he had experienced his father's death at a young age, and still be optimistic about life.
"You chose to grow from tragedy- and it takes a very strong person to do that."
A/N: Here's a random question: would you rather me write drabble/ oneshots or longer multi chap stories?
And please read and review!