Outside on the playground of the elementary school, Evan sat alone on a bench. Teachers attempted to get him to socialize but soon left him alone. Charlotte, however, went to the same school as him and would not let him be alone.
"Evan!" Charlotte called. Evan continued to stare down at the ground when she ran up to him. "Whatcha doin'?"
Without looking, Evan shyly answered, "Nothing."
"C'mon," Charlotte said while grabbing his hand. "I'll show you to my friends!"
"Charlie?!"
Charlotte dragged him over to the playset where her friends were. She introduced them as follows: Gabriel, Fritz, Suzie, Jeremy, and finally Cassidy.
"Guys, this is Evan!"
They all greeted him save for Cassidy, who just looked at him.
"H-hello," Evan stuttered. He held his head down and glanced up at them. "H-how are you?"
They all answered him, but Cassidy stared at him and said, "You sound funny." Like his father and mother, he had an exotic accent. There was a fair amount of British in Utah, but these children had never heard such an accent.
"Cassidy!" Charlotte reprimanded her because of her rudeness.
Evan tried to hold back his tears, but no matter how hard he fought, they leaked through. He began to cry and walked off quickly.
"Jeez, what a crybaby!" Fritz mocked. Both Cassidy and Fritz laughed, but Gabriel, Jeremy, and Suzie joined Charlotte and went after him.
They found next to the brick wall of the school, near the door. He was sitting on the damp concrete curled up with his arms around his knees. His eyes were red along with his nose and cheeks. Upon seeing Charlotte and the other three children approach, he hid his face in his knees.
"Evan?" Charlotte said.
Sniffling, Evan spoke up. "W-what?"
"Evan." Charlotte placed her hands on either side of his head and made him look at her. "Don't listen to Cassidy. I think you sound nice!"
Gabriel sat down beside him and said, "It's cool. Cassidy's just jealous."
Evan snuffed his nose, then turned toward him. "Really?"
"Yeah," Gabriel said. He smiled when he said, "She doesn't like you because she wants to be you."
"She doesn't like me?" Evan's eyes began to water up again.
"I...uh...I mean—"
"What Gabriel is trying to say is give her time," Suzie said. "She'll like you if she gets to know you."
"That's not what I—"
"Shut up," Jeremy whispered to Gabriel.
Evan dried his eyes on his gray striped t-shirt and thanked them.
"So, you never told me much about yourself," Henry said. The diner was now open and, with the springlock nearly complete, they now sat on a bench just outside the diner. The time was 4:08 PM.
"There's not much to tell, really," William answered. "I was born in 1935, in the middle of the Great Depression, and spent my early years poor. My father couldn't find work anywhere until we reached Salt Lake."
William held a can of beer in his hand and took a drink, then asked Henry, "What about you?"
Henry paused for a second and looked inside. He saw his daughter and Evan laugh and play. He also saw a few new faces around them. He sighed and looked back toward William.
"I was born in 1941," he began. "I never knew my father. He fought in World War Two. He died in Okinawa. My uncle, his brother, served with him and died in Normandy. In 1964 at the old age of twenty-three, I was drafted into Vietnam. Once I finally got through basic training, which lasted about two months—it was a little under three months, but they cut it—anyway, once I got through that, I was sent to Vietnam. We were stationed in Khe Sanh. The things I saw over there... I didn't know who was supposed to be the enemy. Even the civilians, we couldn't trust. Women. Children. Any number of them could be VC. I hated it. The whole war was evil. I refused to kill kids, but my platoon came across a Vietnamese child. I thought he was lost and looking for help. My supervising officer cautioned me to ignore him, but I couldn't. I took him with me. Well, we were ambushed further on down the road and it turns out that this kid was hiding a knife the whole time. Well, he pushed it through my buddy's neck and stole his gun. He blew a hole through this sixteen-year-old kid from Texas. He'd been shot through the back of the head and his brains blew out the front. The others shot the kid and burned him."
Henry took a deep breath, then continued. "In 1970, some of us were able to go home and when we did, already ashamed, we were met with protests. They called us 'baby killers', or 'murderers'. Most of us didn't even have a choice to go or not and the others signed up to defend people like their protesters. Some enlisted to defend their families. One of the protesters was my wife. We immediately fell in love and got married in 1975 and she gave birth to Charlie that same year. Sadly, she died during childbirth."
Henry paused and glanced back at his daughter and her new friend. They and the group of five now sat at a booth and talked. Cassidy and Fritz were a part of them, but Henry did not like them. They were bullies and he failed to understand why Charlotte remained their friend. Of course, he had taught her to treat others fair no matter if they treated her or other kids fair or not.
"Well, Will, my life seems to have been more interesting than yours, at least," he chuckled.
William narrowed his eyes at him. He never knew exactly what Hell Henry had been through. Of course, his life would be significantly more interesting than William's. Everything else of Henry's is significantly more, if not better than his.
A thud was heard on the glass. They looked and saw Charlotte smiling at them.
"Hi, Daddy!" she called through the glass. "Hi, Uncle Willie!"
"Hey, baby girl!" Henry said. "How're you?"
"I'm good! But Evan got scared by Mike...again..."
William sighed. "I guess I'll take care of it. Tell Evan I'm on my way!"
"Okay!" Charlotte happily said, then disappeared back into the diner.
A/N: This chapter was all about learning the characters. Most of this was not lore, but it stemmed from my imagination. It's filler, but I thought it'd be nice to get to know the characters before, well, if you know fnaf, you know what happens to every one of them. The next chapter should return to the main story. Like I said; the story will slow down for a few chapters to give us a chance to know the characters. Anyway, thank you for reading, saving, commenting, and following! God loves you!