I wanted to do 100 word drabbles, until it convinced me, that this is meant for elementary schoolers -_- Shall I try 500 someday? Pray my brain gives me an idea?
This IS A IDEA. At least, I can let my creativity flow differently. Half of the points of WHY they have no father are headcanons.
Fred Hapréle, the janitor of the Françoise Dupont collège sat on a chair along with a few other students around in a circle with their chairs reunited for a support group session, that had been called up by the demand of a few teachers. Today's topic was to discuss along with other students, what had been going through their heads lately. Fred held in his hand a tennis ball and watched all students from different ages and ethnicities sit there waiting for the beginning of the session.
„Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the first session of our support group. My name is Fred Hapréle and I'm going to be today's teacher. I have seen, most of you have really shown up as registered. Many students around your age fear to come here to ask for help or witness how others are doing in life. The point of all this is to do the opposite. You should not fear to ask people for help or assistance. Sometimes that's the best way for you to move on and deal with your issue," Fred explained looking at the students sitting around, which listened to the teacher. „Some of you I do know, but you don't have to worry. I won't tell anything, what will be said here to anyone. The same goes for each of you. We all are here to open our hearts to foreign people, who experienced similar to alike situations. Before I start, I will explain to you in short, how we're doing this. I will throw the ball at one of you. The one will catch the ball and say his name, age, and eventually the origin….that's sufficient for now….of course, state your story. Tell a brief introduction about, what happened between you and your father. How are you dealing with it at the moment. You're allowed to open your heart, pour it out, cry, yell, complain, compliment, or anything you want. You're free to speak," Fred commented having eye contact with almost all students. „Are we ready to start?" Asked the brunette man making the group nod, afterward, Fred threw his ball at the redheaded boy, which failed at catching the ball, afterward picked it up from the ground and sat up again.
„Sorry," Apologized Nathaniel earning a nod from the teacher. „Hey everyone. My name is Nathaniel Kurtzberg," The redhead began seeing all students in the room greet him by his name. „I'm 13 years old and I'm originally from France. I also have German blood from my father's side, but as I have never met him, I don't really have any connection to Germany or anything,"
„How does it come, that you have never met your father? Did something happen before, that prevented your meeting?" Questioned the brunette adult watching Nathaniel shake his head.
„Actually we had met, just…..I don't remember shit about him," Responded Nathaniel watching Fred furrow his eyebrows serious at him from hearing him use the S-word. „I'm sorry….I….according to my mother I had know him, just I was very young to be able to remember him. I was around a year according to my mother. My father and my mother took me by car and we were going together on vacation to Germany to see his parents, my paternal grandparents I have never met before. During the ride, my mother didn't notice anything strange about him. She just assumed he was a little absent-minded near the arrival of a service area by a place in Belgium. My mom had asked my father to stop there, so she could take the baby-me to change diapers. My mom just heard from my father, that he was going to put fuel in our car, so we wouldn't need to stop for refueling. I don't remember, if that was the reason or if it really was a way to lure my mother away. All I know is, my mother took me to the restroom to take care of my issues. Later about 5 minutes or more, we got out and she wanted to get back into the car and saw it wasn't around the gas station nor the parking spots behind the building. She carried me in her arms all over the place, trying to find our car, but she couldn't find it anywhere. Upon hearing from a trucker, that had stopped to refuel as well, she figured out, that he had left without even putting any fuel and this we could confirm back at the surveillance room with the authorization of the head chief. When things were cleared out my grandfather made all his way over from Paris up to the gas station to take us home and look over us for a couple of days. We never heard anything from him after all this. All we know is, he wasn't quite open about the fact he was a dad now. He seemed like he felt, he was forced to be with my mother, because of me. He saw he couldn't hold it any longer with the new responsibility and…...left,"
„That's a terrible way of beginning a life. I gotta admit that. Over all these years, from what you can remember, are there points, where you believe, that you could really need your father somehow? Do you even miss him at all? Is there anything specific?"
„During elementary school sometimes, when it was father's day…..We would create something at the school to gift our dads on said day. I would just make it for my grandfather, sometimes even my mother, despite it not being her day. At the elementary school, nobody knew I hadn't a father or where he is. Luka, the brother of one of my classmates heard from his sister, that I had no dad and he came to offer me a hand, if I would ever need. His sister and best friend also accompanied me at the start, making sure as well, that they would keep this for themselves. I got so used to living with my mother only, that I don't really care about my father at all," Added Nathaniel making Fred nod.
„If you think, that's all for now, feel free to pass it to the next person," Fred foretold the blue-eyed boy, which nodded and glimpsed at Luka, then threw the ball at the boy, which caught it.
„My name's Luka. I'm 16 years old French and live along with my sister and mom at the houseboat down at the Seine. My dad, I don't really have much info about. My mother really doesn't want to talk about it. She's been angry at him since ever he abandoned us when I was around 3 years old. According to her, he left, because he was getting really far in his career and he couldn't at said moment not stop to help her out. I haven't asked her much about him. I knew he was off and didn't plan to reveal himself to us at any point for now,"
„You're pretty good off without him or do you have anything, you would love to be able to discuss with your father?"
„Well…..perhaps in terms of love, he could be another factor about, where I could get help from, if my mother or any of my friends wouldn't be able to clear it out for me. He doesn't need to be an expert, but at least I'd like to get to know his version of how he had fallen in love with my mom or anyone else, for that matter. I didn't suffer…...well, the one difference about my father's absence was, that I matured slightly early due to being alone with my mom and my sister. I helped with a lot of things my mom often as my dad wasn't around for us. Sure his help would have made it easier for all of us and Juleka and I could move on a calmer life, avoiding taking care earlier of our responsibilities. My mom adores us for our help and for a single mom, she's pretty chill compared to other women,"
„Yes, I think I have met your mom. I actually doubt a bit about her lifestyle, but that won't always mean it's automatically bad. I know stories about students, that went the wrong path due to strict parentship," Explained Fred making Luka nod and throw his hand at brunette with medium-sized hair, which caught the ball from the older student.
„Good afternoon. I'm River McIrish from the 10th grade. I am from Ireland, originally, but grew up the major part of my life here in France. I'm 16 years old and I don't have a father, because he died years ago when I was still 7 years old," River introduced herself earning a nod from the teacher.
„And your father, what happened to him?" Questioned the teacher watching River move the ball from one hand to the other while pondering about answering the question.
„It's a…...quite a little traumatic topic," Responded the brunette. „He wasn't from what I can remember a decent father. He was rather…...imbecile. He had begun to change upon losing his job, because of his own mistake and he began to drink more often. My mother firstly didn't really do anything about it. She assumed, the loss of his job did hurt him and eventually, his way to get over it was to drown himself in alcohol," River mentioned making Fred nod. „He….."
„Was your father an…...alcoholic?" Questioned Fred a little quiet making River shrug her shoulders unsure about, if it was the correct expression for the late father.
„I have never questioned that in the past years. I believe he was one. I experienced days, when he yelled at my mother, when the beer at home would come to an end and no one brought more home. He constantly showed aggression toward my mother and it happened more than once, that he hurt her physically. When my father was in such a mood, I feared him. I really feared him and I avoided him quite often. I sometimes was afraid to talk to him. He hasn't gone with me so far as he's done with my mother. The fact, he hasn't ever done to me anything before, which kind of was strange. He only slapped me one time as…...he had putten my mom's life in danger and tried to strangle her during a discussion. I feared, that all this would turn out badly and I hit him on his knee with my foot. In rage my father clapped his full hand against my face and my mother hid me in my bedroom to avoid me from getting hurt by him again. He threatened me, upon my disappearance into my room and I… I can't explain how I have felt at that moment. It's like my heart raised up into my throat, beating frenzied. Later into the night, my mom woke me up and told me, we were leaving home forever without my father knowing something. The worst part was, that he happened to figure it out somehow and he came after us. We happened to split and I found a person, that could help us and we had called the police and saw, that we lost sight of him. In the end, due to his amount of alcohol consume from that day, he had been slightly altered in terms of constancy. He was found by the police and it was stated, that he had choked to death on his own vomit, caused due to….the amount of drinking," River finished, leaving the students around the room astonished by the dark past of the girl.
„River, it takes a lot of courage to be able to tell such a…..devastating event in front of people, you're not familiar with. This probably means you're not really missing your father in any way or at least the negative aspects of him. So far it didn't sound to me, as if you remember anything positive about him. Was there something about him, you could consider a plus?"
„Perhaps before he lost his job?" Responded River unsure. „I mainly spent the major time with my mother and my father would return in the evening after the work. I would sometimes watch TV beside him on the couch otherwise, I was somewhere drawing something. He would act normal back then. I didn't really focus on those moments…..What I happen to notice, mostly during special occasions or meal times is, that I do miss the moments to be around the table together as a family. I can't explain it, but it was such an important moment of the day for all of us. You would be eating there in peace, talking about the day with each other, laughing, joking…...It was memorable,"
„There's nothing more iconic, than being surrounded together on the day's important meals. This I have to agree with you," Confessed Fred making River nod, which looked around the class and threw the ball at the hands of the blue-haired girl in the school uniform, which caught the ball single-handly.
„I'm Kagami Tsurugi from the fencing class. I used to go to a private school back in Japan, from where I'm from and I'm currently 14 years old. My dad was the only one to stay back in Japan because of his work and I would only be able to see him on my holidays. Last year I was there on holiday and he happened to be quite often away at the work and barely saw me or my mother. It's actually a year ago, that my father passed away, but what I'm sometimes struggling to accept is, that my last conversation with my dad was an argument. I was angry, that he barely spent any time with us as we were by him. Later in the night, I got off from bed, because I couldn't fall asleep and sought for my father around the house to still find him sitting in the living room reading some book about…..I don't remember, what it was exactly. Usually, it would be something from work, but I felt like that was an issue's book. I saw he was asleep and tried to wake him up….he did not wake up at all and he just dropped his head back against the lean of the chair. I wasn't believing, what was going on and called my grandfather to come along, which confirmed he wasn't alive, then called the ambulance…..he just passed away hours after our dispute and I couldn't even apologize to him nor confess, how much he meant to me," Kagami explained monotonously. River along with a raven-haired Asian girl felt sad about Kagami's experience, while Luka and a raven-haired boy in a red shirt glimpsed at the girl slightly uncomfortable due to her rather serious nature making the story sound way different, than what it is like.
„Well I don't know you well as a person, but you sound to me like you're practically over about, what happened in the past. Am I right or am I misunderstanding something?"
„According to my mother, I should never show people any emotion. That would make me look weak," Commented Kagami watching Luka move his hand up.
„I think, that if you feel sad mostly when dead is wrapped up in it, you should be able to show emotion. It's worse to keep all your feelings inside yourself. That just makes things worse. If you can't cry at home, hide somewhere or make up an excuse like you're doing homework with someone else," Suggested Luka. „Does your mother notice, when you have cried?"
„This sounds now a little rude, but luckily she can't see me like that. She can top me when I try to make up excuses or lies, but she can't see me. She's actually blind. Blind in she can't really see,"
„Oh….uh…..that's a lot of strange consequences, that came into your life," Mentioned Luka a little shocked.
„My mother was already blind before. I just got earlier used to handling those extra issues in my family. She's still very independent despite that,"
„Mr. D'Argencourt had sent me you into the class and I have to admit he's right about you being a tough girl," Fred complimented. „Keep up your head, always," Kagami nodded, then looked at the raven-haired in the red shirt and threw the ball at him, which he caught and held it closer to him, wondering where to start.
„I have no idea, why I got here, but it doesn't seem as bad as I have expected," The boy began talking with a notably Hispanic accent in his voice. „Hola…..I'm Rollan from another school from the other side of Paris. Lakanal, perhaps you've heard of it," Rollan explained earning a nod from the students. „Good, so I was born in Spain and moved to France, when I was 9. My father died, when I was 10 on an accident at the work. He used to be a construction worker and somehow on top of an unfinished building he had somehow lost his balance and fallen off the framework. When I heard, that my dad died I couldn't understand why it had happened. I still was a child. I was still going to elementary school and…..one day the police came home to tell my mother that and she cried. I heard it and ran into my room to cry….My mother later, when the police had cleared things out went to my room and found me on my bed crying…..she knew immediately I had gotten the info somehow and questioned about it. She tried to soothe me down, despite she didn't know well how she was supposed to do so…...I didn't know, what to do at that time and just hugged my mom. One of the policemen comforted me as well and asked me, if I could look for my mom alone now. I felt not ready for it, but I knew for one thing, that my father would or could have wanted me to look for my mom as well. He used to phone every day with my grandmother and he would tell me every day, that mothers are the most important people in the world and I should always cherish my mom. That sentence was one of the few I remember from my dad and to work on it to solve them," Rollan explained. „I have tried when young to be there for my mother and help her out in anything. Sometimes she would remind me, that I didn't need to help her, because I was still a child and I should appreciate my childhood, despite the circumstancas,"
„You sound like the dream boy of any girl around here. You sure must have a lot of girls after you, right?" Questioned Fred watching Rollan shrug his shoulders.
„I haven't seen anyone after me," Commented Rollan making the teacher nod.
„Too bad, I'm sure any of the available girls here would find you dashing, right girls?" Asked Fred looking at the present girls. The girl in the red shirt shrugged her shoulders, River stood there a little bewildered at the comment and Kagami just shook her head.
„Isn't this supposed to be a therapy session of some sort?" Questioned the Japanese girl making the teacher nod, then look at Rollan, which analyzed the available students and threw the ball at the last person, which was the raven-haired girl in a red t-shirt.
„You're the last girl for now. Tell me your story," Commented the brunette man making the girl nod.
„I'm Yi," Responded the girl, which had caught the ball. „I'm 15 years old and I'm Chinese, originally. As I learned today, I'm not the only one here to have lost her father to death. My father passed away about 7 months ago. He happened to have a congenital heart defect, which he would treat with a specific medicament. I knew about the medicament, but I have never considered it, that some day or so early my father would pass away due to the issue. What was more frustrating for me was, that things seemed to be getting worse for my dad's side and nobody has ever said anything, nor my dad. They wanted to spare me from growing too attached to him, which would eventually worsen things only. That I would only focus on him rather than focusing on my own life like being out with my best friend or anything else. I was told that by my mother after his death and she apologized, cause she only tried to do the best for me. She as well didn't know, which option was the most suitable for me. I accepted her apology and after the funeral, I locked myself up in the room to have time for myself. My mother gave me some space to let me think about life, made sure every day I would at least try to eat a bit to not get weak. Over the weeks, I unotable to myself I had distanced myself away from my mother and my best friend to distract myself from the mourning. I wanted to show, that I was okay, that I didn't need any help,"
„And you did, right?" Questioned Fred making Yi shrug her shoulders.
„I don't know. At one point I began to take small jobs from neighbors to do things for them in exchange for money, like walking their dogs or doing their laundry. I've been doing a lot of things to distract myself, perhaps even too much, just to keep my head busy. I…..happened to feel pressured with all the things I've been doing and sat down on the outside on my own, until my old friend Jin passed by and noticed me. Upon the loss of my father we practiacally never talked to each other again and he offered me help. He read at university about the loss of people and one of the many options spoke about talking to people with similar stories. My teacher suggested me to go to a support group and heard about this one here, where I got to now,"
„I'm glad to see you're here with us along with the rest. As you see most of us do have interesting stories, about what happened to them in the past. If you don't mind, we could do a five-minute break now and in the meanwhile, I will organize us some writing utensils for a future deed, I thought about doing with you all, if anybody need to go to the toilet go on, I'll be right back," Fred announced getting up from the chair to leave the classroom, afterward Nathaniel opened up his messenger bag to take out his tablet, then took its pen to work on a sketch he had on it. Kagami took her smartphone to check it and across Nathaniel River had gotten up to take her backpack to put it on the chair to take out a water bottle. Upon taking a sip from it, she looked at Nathaniel making a drawing of the superheroine Purple Tigress.
„I have never seen anyone draw so well on a tablet," Commented River astonished glimpsing over Nathaniel's shoulders making him blush embarassed.
„Oh uh….I'm just…..you think so?" Questioned the redhead making the brunette nod. „Thanks,"
„I do draw too, but I'm more of a paper user and canvas," Commented River.
"I never met anyone, that painted on canvas. I'm practically alone on that...eventually on the tablet as well. Have you used it before?"
„I have never tried it before. I just know people out there can do it, well,"
„It's a habit. I received this as a present from my mom two years ago. She knew how well I draw and thought this was a good thing for me," Nathaniel mentioned, then Kagami eyed his drawing as well and patted him on the shoulder.
„You're pretty good," Commented Kagami. „Is it okay, if I show you a block of my drawings as well? I haven't met anyone, who's good at drawing,"
„What? You draw too?" Asked Nathaniel surprised watching Kagami open her messenger bag to take out her block and show her drawing to the duo.
„Wow!" Both complimented the Japanese girl, which smiled at their comment.
„My mom used to say, my drawings are trash, but for me, they're really good. She's just not fond of other things, that aren't…..important for my life,"
„That's not trash. That's beauty," Commented Nathaniel. „Your mother is blind,"
„Uh she actually is," Added River earning a nod from Kagami.
„Yeah, that's what I said," Nathaniel responded.
„No, I mean blind, blind,"
„What blind, blind? She's blind, because she can't see true art," Nathaniel corrected making River chuckle.
„No! Blind in like she can't see. She needs to use a cane to see. Get it? Kagami's mom is blind. She told that before,"
„Oh right…..."Nathaniel noticed slightly dumbfounded about their discussion. „Anyway, why does she judge you bad, when she can't see it?"
„I don't know. My mom is….a typical, strict Japanese mom," Kagami responded. „Don't worry, she doesn't know I still do this, so I'm save,"
„That's great. Don't let her take your joy away," River commented earning a nod from the blue-haired girl. Nathaniel saved his project on the tablet, then opened a separate page and glimpsed at the two girls. „Is anyone of you interested in giving it a try to draw on the tablet?" The redhead questioned watching River raise her hand and Nathaniel handed her out the tablet with the pen, then looked from the side at the older girl trying to sketch something on it carefully.
„I think you can also place it on a table and make your thing," Suggested Kagami making River nod, which moved her chair towards a table to position herself to work on her draft. Nathaniel stood beside the brunette along with the Japanese fencing expert seeing the girl draw a head of a character, slightly shivered and Nathaniel pointed at the top, where she could return a step, if she would need it.
„There you can go back, if you want to repeat your deed," Mentioned the blue-eyed boy earning a nod from the brunette, which pressed it to see her first lines disappear and she gave it another time, this time slightly slower than the first time, while being observed by the two foreign students.
Those three sure would make good friends from being artsy kiddos :3