What We've Missed Without You

chapter 9

*sorry for mistakes*

Airi sat down at a table in the corner of the game room, the butler told her to call for him if she needed anything before literally disappearing in thin air. She didn't think much of it, the only thing on her mind at the moment was how can she pass the time while Momoi was talking to her 'someone'. The pale blonde unzipped her 'Rilu Rilu Fairilu' backpack and dumped the contents out on the wooden table, immediately going for her beloved stuffed rabbit and hugging it close to her chest.

"Were you uncomfortable, Bonnie? Airi is sorry, you can stay out here with Airi while we wait for Onee-chan! Now  " Her lilac-colored eyes scanned over the now cluttered wooden table, picking up Bonnie so she could 'see' and pick along with her, "  Should we color a picture? Airi brought her coloring book! But we can also draw a picture for Onee-chan and Mommy! Or...Should we continue our scrapbooking? Airi wasn't able to attend last week's scrapbooking meeting at the church because Mommy got sick and we couldn't go...And Airi isn't hungry yet, so we can put the animal crackers to the side for now...What do you think, Bonnie?"

Airi placed the stuffed rabbit's mouth to her ear, as if the inanimate object was actually talking to her and then nodded, a cute smile appeared on her face.

"Okay! We'll scrapbook! Miss Hanamura will be proud that Airi caught up since she couldn't attend!" Airi carefully placed her precious rabbit next to her while she placed the other items back into her backpack until it was only a clear tub filled with supplies and a scrapbook in a purple-colored binder, on the front had 'My Family' scribbled on as legible a seven-year-old could make. She opened the scrapbook to the last place she left off, which was Justin's birthday party in October, and opened the clear tub of supplies before she got to work. She carefully cut out pieces of patterned paper and glued them behind the actual photos of the event, then peeled the paper behind some stickers and spaced them on the page before actually sticking them on the colored paper. Airi stuck golden star stickers around a picture of Justin blowing out the candles and placed a pumpkin sticker and a bat stick on the edges of a picture of Melissa and Christina giving Justin a headache even on his birthday. It was pretty funny, they dunked his head in the birthday cake and got chased around by Harue. It was a good think Yui had a spare birthday cake! It was like she knew something like this would happen. Airi also remembered some other funny things; like how Chiaki tripped on her shoelaces while giving Justin her gift to him and the box fell out of her hands, revealing that her gift was a giant green frog she found with Asahi and Hanami when they went to the river near the diner. Or how Hayato cried because he literally thought Fumuki pulled off his nose when she did a 'got your nose' trick, or when Yuuta was playing hide and seek with the quadruplets and the triplets and the couldn't find him, then they found him an hour later asleep in the closet. And there was also when Kei and Minato gave a forced makeover on Reika with their mother's products while Kana and Kousuke held her down. It was a fun day...It made Airi wish that she could have fun days with her family like that every day, then again she had to consider school and her mother's weaken health. Airi could count all of the times the school children would make fun of her because during any event where parents could come, Yui would always come in a wheelchair because of how hard she worked that day...The other times are when the children would make fun of the fact Airi didn't have a present father or that she looked like none of her other siblings. Actually, she could recall some of the parents talk about her mother in hushed whispers:

"That woman...Did she really give birth to those children?"

"They look nothing like each other..."

"A modern-day harlot."

"Where are all of the fathers of those children?"

"Probably ran off after paying her."

"I feel bad for them, they have to live with a woman like that..."