𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 & 𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 ━ girl meets world²

18│FORGIVE, BUT NEVER FORGET

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❛ ʟᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ & ʟᴀᴄᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ғᴏʀɢɪᴠᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ
ғᴏʀɢᴇᴛ ꒱


❝ DEAR SHAWN. . .  ❞

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Cory couldn't wait to teach his students today's lesson. He hoped that, through osmosis, Juliet— and Shawn— would benefit from it, too. What he wanted more than anything in the world was for his friends to be happy, and for them to be happy with each other. He waited impatiently for his students to settle into their seats, not wasting a single second of class time once they had. "All through history, countries go to war. That's what we normally study in here. But today, we're going to talk about peace and forgiveness and how we get there. Every once in a while, I come up with a good idea."

"What could it possibly be that I haven't already thought of?" Farkle wondered with the kind of arrogance that Miya found endearing. As long as it wasn't directed at her, she didn't mind it when her boyfriend showed off his intelligence.

"Farkle, I forgive you," Mr. Matthews proclaimed.

The genius frowned. "What did I do?"

Zay glanced at him from his place just behind him an aisle over. "I forgive you too."

Farkle turned to him, exasperated. "What did I do?"

"You know what you do," Zay retorted. Lucas nodded emphatically.

"I feel better now that I've forgiven you," their went on, bringing the class's attention back to him. "How do you feel?"

Farkle's expression took on a frantic appearance as he burst out: "I'm sorry for every time I've hurt you! What did I do?"

Miya smiled slightly at the desperate tone of his voice and leaned forward to pat him sympathetically on the shoulder. He twisted around, giving her a pleading look to see if she had any answers for him. She simply shook her head, though she had a hunch of what the boys were getting at.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the curly-haired man announced, "today we're going to begin the Forgiveness Project. Our history isn't just about what we've done. How we grow comes from the repair of what we've done and how we forgive what was done to us."

Riley let out an interested hum. "We're in. What do we do?"

"Everyone take out a piece of paper," he instructed them. There was lots of rustling as the students did so. He went to his desk to retrieve a stack of red envelopes. As he continued to speak, he handed out enough for each row. "So this isn't your laptop or your cell phone. You've got unlimited characters here. As many words as you want. The impact will last longer than six seconds. And I guarantee you, it's never going to disappear. So pick up a pen. Express feelings. This is one of the most important things you're ever going to do. You're about to forgive someone."

"What's this got to do with history, Matthews?" Maya wanted to know.

"It gives you a chance to change it."

Riley fiddled with her pink pen, looking up from her blank paper to offer: "like when I forgave Auggie for biting the face off my Beary-the-Bear bear."

Cory sighed. "That wasn't forgiveness, honey."

"Why not?"

"Because you haven't gotten over it," he pointed out.

She held up the teddy in question, leaving her classmates to grimace at the sight of the stuffing that was coming out of its face. "This is the first thing I see every day."