A Lovesick Family Dinner
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 AF

At the Lovesick household Norman was the first to return. Overall his tenure at Deltarune Middle School was okay but everyone kept nagging him about the whole Golden Ticket winner deal. Like okay Saikou Times publicized it on Sunday and of course there would be some serious activity on Monday (and on Monday Norman did gladly indulge and even gave promises on some of his lifetime chocolate supply) but on Tuesday it was just unacceptable and he just wanted to be a normal kid again. He was literally conceived to be a normal kid it was literally in his name so why couldn't he be the one thing that his parents wanted to be.

So he sighed and looked through the closet of his house and found the hexafield ball and brought it outside and began doing kicks in the backyard. Normally he would have friends over but right now he didn't have friends he only had people who wanted to snatch some of the fame from him. And he kept telling himself that the tour will happen and then the attention will literally die and he will go back to normal but right now he just had to be alone for some time. And luckily no one from his school knew where he lived so he could do that in peace.

This happened for an hour or two and then suddenly both Beatrice and Matthew came into the household with their bags from their respective workplaces. As far as Norman knew Beatrice worked somewhere in the textiles industry and Matthew worked somewhere in the technology industry that is not Saikou Corp dunno why Saikou Corp had become such a big deal to Norman. Just because they published the newspaper that made him the watercooler chat topic? There were better reasons to suddenly get all suspicious.

But anyway return Beatrice and Matthew did and Beatrice immediately got to work on the dinner while Matthew went out to the backyard and approached Norman. "Seems like you're really putting in the energy just like professional hexafield players you should really see a real game one day those school games have nothing compared to a real game."

"Well sorry dad my schedule is packed first I'm going to see a real chocolate factory together with mom and this really is just a once-in-a-generation opportunity." and Matthew got confused. "Don't you mean once-in-a-lifetime?" and Norman "Well everybody describes it as that but there already was a chocolate factory tour thirty-three years ago that was mentioned in the original Saikou Times announcement but somehow everyone overlooks that when talking to me."

"You're quite the one to be attentive to detail, aren't you? You would make a great detective. You could potentially even figure out why, except for Beatrice, every single girl who talked to me suddenly disappeared over the years." and Norman laughed. "Yeah sorry dad that kind of mystery is airtight unless Beatrice wrote something about it in her diary but I don't go into girls' business sorry about that."

But then Matthew got serious. "If this diary exists, I want access to it as soon as possible." and Norman was so distracted that he kicked the hexafield ball so hard that it flew straight into the backyard two houses over. "Alright I'll see what can be done but I gotta get the hexafield ball first and you and your provoking thoughts did this to me." and Norman ran off. But while he was out visiting the neighbors' neighbors Beatrice suddenly called for dinner and Matthew went inside and when Norman returned he was confused like why dad wasn't here but then Beatrice saw Norman in the backyard and called for dinner again and he went.

And just as he went someone rang the bell to the Lovesick household and Beatrice immediately stood up to answer. "Sorry I don't let in Saikou Times reporters. There was one interview but after that you gotta respect our privacy." she scolded whoever was on the other side but then the voice "It's me, your mother!" and Beatrice "That's exactly what a Saikou Times reporter would say to let my guard down. Literally. Word-for-word. They wouldn't even know my mother's name." and the voice "Oh. Sorry. It's me, Rose! Rose Lovesick!" and Beatrice got all shocked and opened the door.

Rose Lovesick had messy hair and wore a messy sweater and jogging pants and walked with a slight swerve. And while any other guest when they saw dinner would immediately call the family out for not preparing dinner for them Rose got used to it and instead walked over to the fruit basket, grabbed a fruit, walked over to the musical keyboard, grabbed the chair right by it and placed it by the dinner table. Then she realized she dropped the fruit, grabbed it from the floor and started eating it while the rest of the Lovesick family dined properly.

Rose was the first to speak up, briefly stopping munching on her fruit. "So, Norman, how does being a Golden Ticket winner go? Are you feeling more famous already?" and Norman "It's transient, grandma. It will literally pass." and Beatrice "You know what will not pass, though? Memories of a wonderful chocolate factory! A lot of kids at that time, including myself, dreamed of visiting the enigmatic Willy Wonka..."

Rose though was confused and needed clarification. "Wait, I thought this was happening for the first time." and Norman was the first to correct her. "No, because the winner of the first time is the host of the second time. Charlie Bucket. That name ring a bell?" and Rose suddenly "Oh, yeah! The announcement! It was signed as Charlie Bucket and Riley Andersen wasn't it? Where does Riley come into the picture, though?" and everyone got confused by that name and Rose "Oh, well, it's a mystery for later!" and continued eating the fruit.

Then she gave one glance over the family. Then another. Then one more, and that was enough to get Norman suspicious. "What's wrong?" he asked and Rose slammed the half-eaten fruit straight onto the dinner table and spoke up. "You know, I'm pretty sure that this family had a daughter. At some point. Might be just me. A real shame, since I wanted to speak with her."

Everyone else just shook their heads though. Beatrice was like "I would remember giving birth to her, and I don't." and Norman "Yeah, probably just you." and Matthew "Are you alright? Do you need a glass of water?" and Rose shook her head. "No. I need the truth. Golden Tickets, yeah, whatever, they're transient, but this is my personal legacy."

She stood up and scoured the photos on every wall of every room of the Lovesick household. They all clearly showed Beatrice, her Senpai and their son (or some combination thereof) but never a girl. And with each one Rose got progressively more angry and almost wanted to tear down the photos but then she chanced upon a room.

Beatrice was following Rose around and when Rose discovered the room she suddenly "Oh, lookie! Does our guest want a really early night's sleep? This is, indeed, our guest room! I just haven't cleaned up the entirety of it..." and Rose "If I'm on a quest for truth, I never sleep." and she flipped the nightstand by the bed and a notebook fell out of of one of the nightstand's drawers and Rose picked it up and glanced at the title: So I guess I'm passionate now: poems by Madeline Lovesick.

Rose's angry expression was once again replaced with a smile. "Oh, yeah! Didn't she get the surgery and start feeling feelings? You know, it's a shame that your Senpai had to push it with the surgery idea, instead of waiting for her Senpai to appear and fix things just like in every Lovesick generation, but it's a step towards a Lovesick adulthood nevertheless!" and as she was spouting nonsense Norman and Matthew joined Beatrice in listening. Rose suddenly turned to all of them, got a bit shocked due to having so many eyes on her, and spoke up: "Or is all that just another vivid hallucination that I had? You take this notebook and read its title to me. Maybe it has nothing to do with what I thought it was!" She threw the notebook straight at Beatrice and she caught it and let out a deep sigh.

"Madeline... ran away. I'm sorry. I knew it was going to happen and could do nothing to prevent it..." Beatrice started crying and Norman with all his hexafield instincts snatched the notebook before any tears could get onto it and started explaining. "Yes, that happened. She got the surgery and she started feeling feelings, but a few months later, it all reversed. She went back to how she usually was. But she learned something. She knew how much feelings matter to people like us, and how even letting on that you don't have feelings makes you threatening, and she didn't want to do this to us anymore. So, she got more and more distant, and she, well, ran away."

And Beatrice spoke up through the tears. "And in her last note, she made it very clear. The words still pierce through my heart every time I remember them. And I... don't remember them. I'm such an awful mother." and she quickly marched to her own room to pick up a thing. One could hear paper rustling and even paper tearing from Beatrice's room but eventually she came back and started reading: "I just want you all to forget about me and please carry on as though I never existed. I will try to keep a diary of objective observations for my own sake but if you're reading it please just stop and forget that I ever existed. It's what I would have wanted."

"Well, it's what I don't want!" Rose defiantly spoke. "Even if Madeline doesn't know what happy is, and even if a Senpai doesn't fix it, I still want her to have a life others would consider happy and perhaps even one that is objectively impressive!'' but all she was met with were empty glances and head-shakes of disapproval.

"Yeah, you're still alone on this one." Norman countered. "She ran away, we have no idea where she is, she very well could have committed sewiside already - I mean, that's what I would do if I suddenly stopped seeing colors and hearing music - and the sooner you get out, the sooner we can go back to pretending she doesn't exist and never has." And Beatrice definitely wanted to hit him with a "yeah, actually..." but she didn't it was all just in the facial expressions.

Then Matthew continued. "Rose Lovesick, you truly are... an air-headed girl who just doesn't know what she knows and an embarrassment to the family. I don't exactly have the power to tell you to go away - that's up to Beatrice, and maybe she'll let you stay a little longer - but I sincerely hope that we don't have to speak again, or if we do, that it's about inconsequential topics."

Rose still had one glimmer of hope though and it was that Beatrice didn't say anything yet. She just tightly squeezed the ripped-out paper and cried and wouldn't let anyone snatch this one out of her with their hexafield skills. "Honestly, I didn't even know just how much pain there could be within me from losing my precious daughter. And... if I hide this pain, if I say to myself that I've never had a daughter in the first place, it doesn't go away, but at least I can live with myself. So, it's not just what she wants, but what I want, too. You may stay - you'll probably want to crash for the night, anyway - but please don't bring up Madeline Lovesick in this household ever again."

Rose sat down on the bed and looked down. But then Beatrice "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a priceless memoir to fix." and she went off to her room. Matthew and Norman just returned to having dinner and Rose was left all alone with various sounds that she couldn't even piece together. And she really did feel like having a nap so she lay down.

But before she could fall asleep Beatrice came into her room again and this time she had the poems notebook and placed it on the nightstand. "This one's all yours." and Rose lazily looked over the poems notebook and smiled knowing that she had at least a little piece of what she was originally looking for.