Memories

Chapter 2

Summer of 1918.

In a kindergarten in the middle of Germany, 24 kids sat in a circle listening to their teacher.

"I know I'm ugly," he said to them, "so I will go away." A great big tear rolled down his cheek. But when he opened his eyes, he saw a reflection in the water. It looked just like one of those beautiful white birds. Why was it so close to him?" the kindergarten teacher read with lots of intonations and facial expressions. "He jumped back. And the reflection jumped back too."

"Such a dumb duck. Obviously, the reflection is himself," said a kid wearing a pink hat. "I don't understand why we are listening to this; everyone knows the end."

"Shut up, Berthold, let the teacher tell the story," said a little kid with beautiful green eyes, hugging the teacher's leg.

"You shut up, Ewen. Everyone knows the end. The duck becomes a swan, and then they live happily ever after," said Berthold.

"Kids, be quiet. Please calm down. I'll finish the story, and then we can all go eat some snacks," said the teacher, who then continued to tell the fairy tale.

"He wasn't an ugly grey bird with funny long legs anymore. He was a beautiful swan after all. Suddenly, all the other swans flapped their wings and took off into the sky. 'Come with us,' one called back. So he flapped his beautiful white, swanny wings as fast as they could go and joined his new friends. The end," the teacher closed the book. "So, kids, did you like the story?"

"YES!" they all yelled at the same time.

"Do they live happily forever?" asked a toddler with long blonde hair.

"Obviously they did, Armin. It's a fairy tale," said Berthold, getting up.

"Teacher, will we all become pretty swans?" asked Armin.

"You won't, Armin. You will be ugly forever," said Berthold, but he immediately felt a hand on his arm.

"Stop annoying Armin. He is already super pretty, like a princess. You look like a big monster, like the ones in fairy tales," said Eren, who was still grabbing Berthold's arm.

"No, he's ugly, ugly, ugly," said Berthold. Seconds later, his hair was being pulled by Eren.

A fight broke out, both grabbing each other's hair and calling each other ugly and monsters. Armin tried to help Eren by grabbing his arm and pulling it, but his short stature didn't help him. The young teacher tried to pull them apart but couldn't, so she called another teacher to help her.

"Eren, stop! Violence is bad. We are all friends," yelled Armin, trying to stop the fight.

Eren, ignoring everyone, finally decided to let Berthold go.

"I'm only stopping because Armin told me to, okay?" said Eren, hugging Armin. "He is really pretty, the prettiest."

The teacher returned with backup.

"Oh, they finally stopped," she said. "Eren and Berthold, you cannot act like this. You're little men, and you need to act like it. You guys cannot fight. Please say sorry to each other right now."

"I'll only say sorry if Berthold says sorry to Armin," said Eren, crossing his arms.

"I won't do it," said Berthold, turning his back to the teacher and Eren.

"Berthold, would you like to be called ugly? Or would you like one of your friends to say bad things about you?" the teacher asked.

"No."

"So why would you say this about Armin? Berthold, if you don't say sorry, I will need to tell your parents," said the teacher.

"No, no, please no. I'm sorry, Armin. I'm sorry, Eren. I won't do this again," he apologized with fear in his eyes.