𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter twenty six.

Claudia had asked Ben if they could hang out on Friday. It was currently the start of the week and she had children to teach before they took their final exams. The bell rang and in came the still tired teenagers. She knew they were still tired and wanted to spend the rest of the day at home in their bed, but their final exams were right around the corner and she didn't want them to fail. She appreciated how many of them still showed up to her class even though if they spent most of their time reviewing.

She handed out flyers for the end of the year dance the school always had. Last year, she had chaperoned with the rest of the English department. Somehow she ended up photo bombing most of her past students' pictures.

"My brother went to this once and ended up at McDonald's with his gym teacher and his friends." Michael said.

"Cool." Lily commented.

"All right, my children, we're going to go back to the start," she heard the whole class groan. "i know, i know, but you guys are so smart so this will be easy. And I did promise to make this fun so it sticks to your heads."

And that's how her day went. Teaching, teaching, lunch break, and even more teaching. But she loved being with her kids. She loved seeing their faces, answering their questions, laughing with them. She truly loved her job.

By the time she got home, Janis was also arriving from the veterinary clinic.
"One of these days, I'm going to smuggle one of those dogs or cats out to come live with me."

Both women entered their house exhausted from their work day. They threw their bags to the floor and threw themselves on the couch. "We can make lasagna for dinner." suggested Claudia.

But all she heard from Janis was snoring.

"Oh my god," Claudia whispered as she got up, being careful not to disrupt her sleeping mom. She grabbed her bag from the floor and walked upstairs to her room. Her room had been messy for the past weeks since she had been busy working on packets for the kids so they could take home to study. She wasn't the biggest fan of giving students packets, but it was a school policy that she hated.

In her room, Claudia checked her wall calendar. The month of May was practically filled with many important things, one of them being her birthday on the fourth of May.

Turning twenty nine was a bit scary for her. Growing up in general was scary.

Janis was just twenty two when Claudia was born. She didn't have a job, barely graduated high school and didn't have a place to stay. That was until Lara saw her friend struggling and stepped in when Claudia's dad decided to leave when Janis needed him the most.

Claudia never met Lara now that she was older. Janis told her Lara had some business to deal with in Arizona or Illinois, Claudia couldn't remember. And that was the last thing Janis remembered of her friend. Janis tried many times to contact Lara, but she failed every time.

As for Claudia's dad, he was never mentioned in their house. Janis refused to acknowledge him. He left and she stayed. She took care of her baby girl and whenever she saw how happy her daughter was, all she could think of was how great of a job she did raising Claudia.

Claudia looked at the stack of paperwork on her desk. She sighed, sat in her chair and started to get to work. When her signature blue glitter pen stopped working, she looked through her desk drawers in search of another pen. In the very back of the top drawer, Claudia found several pens and paperclips. When she reached for the pen, she felt paper hit her skin.

Curious to know what it was, Claudia took the paper out of the drawer. Expecting it to be a note in her handwriting, she was proven wrong when she pulled out an old photograph. It had burnt edges and faded handwriting, but she could still make out the words.

Claudia and Nate's first Christmas, 1986

In the picture a sixth month old baby girl was being held by a young man, who had a big smile on his face. He sat infront of a Christmas tree surrounded by presents.

She hasn't told her mom that she had found the photo in an old shoebox along with photos of a young Janis at Woodstock. Claudia took the picture and pinned it to her cork board. She grabbed her pen and began to grade assignments. She didn't know if the man in the picture was her actual dad, but she liked to think he was. She looked up at the picture, staring at her baby self and the man. Part of her felt like her dad wouldn't want her to be happy. So she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Once she opened them, a random burst of energy hit her as she began to grade papers.

An:

Me: I guess I'm too tough to cry

*mr loverman plays*

Claudia: finds a picture of her dad and uses it for motivation

Me: 👁💧👄💧👁