This Too Shall Pass

Chapter 3

"Daddy! I'm home!" I yell. He emerges from his recording room and gives me a hug.

"How was school?" He asks cheerfully.

"Good! Sarah and I don't have any classes together, but other wise I have one class with Shannon and Carson and at minimum 3 classes and maximum of 5 with Myah." I reply.

He nods and I set my bag down. "I still need headphones and another notebook." I add. He nods and hands me some old headphones. I smile at the neon green headphones and go to change my clothes into some sweatpants and a comfortable t-shirt and meet Daddy in the car. I know the drill, we get ice cream the first and last day of every school year, Signe is already in the car, I give her a hug and a kiss and jump in the back.

-Timeskip brought to you by the Melanie Martinez playlist I'm listening to as I write this-

I get a Cake Batter Shake, Signe gets cookie dough, and Daddy gets cotton candy on my recommendation. We choose a seat outside and start to talk until Daddy cracks a joke. We laugh and Daddy vlogs as I get on an extreme sugar high and start running around.

Signe talks to the camera about our PAX experience. Lucky for me, this year PAX West was the last weekend of Summer vacation for my school so I didn't have to stress about making up school work, although I know that will happen this April when PAX East rolls around. but I never mind because I get to see Mark and Ethan again since I've always been pretty close to them and I watched their videos before I ever met them. Felix is pretty cool, but he likes to tease me, I assume because he teases Daddy so much I just inherited it.

Daddy props up the camera and calls me back over to the table. He looks a lot more serious now.

I sit in my chair, confused.

"I don't know how to put this simply. But Signe and I have been talking about this for a while now." He says.

Signe puts her head in her hands.

"I applied for the recent draft the UK called for."

I look at him, stunned.

"And we just got word yesterday that I'm being deployed." He finishes, tears streaking his cheeks.

I look at him shocked and then it hits me and silent tears escape my eyes and fall down my face before I finally start bawling. I'm not alone in this, Signe is sobbing aswell, and Daddy just sits there with silent tears.

He shuts the camera off and we leave. When we get home I make a break for my room to process what he just told me. Then I pull out my phone and make a group skype call to Shannon, Myah, Carson and Sarah. They all pick up to see my red, puffy face and worry spreads across each of their faces.

"Claire what's wrong?"

"Claire! What happened?"

"Are you okay?"

"Oh my god Claire!"

The all say at the same time.

"My dad is being deployed..." I mumble.

"WHAT!?" Screams Myah.

"Oh my god Claire, I'm so sorry!"

"How? He's not in the military!"

"The draft..." mutters Sarah and looks up at me through the screen. "Claire, I'm sorry you have to go through this." Sarah's dad was deployed a few years ago, and it took a toll on her. She's crying for me.

They all try to console me before Sarah perks up.

"Claire, I'm coming over In 10 minutes, mint, I assume?" Sarah announces.

I nod my head and she leaves the call, one by one everyone else does too.

I hear a knock at the door and soon Sarah walks into my room with a carton of mint ice cream and some plastic spoons.

She sits on my bed and rubs my back. I sob and she soon shoves a spoonful of ice cream in my face playfully. I can't help it, I giggle.

She gives a half-laugh also and we break into the ice cream, Signe joins us in my room and sits with us. We all cry for a while, Sarah is crying because I'm upset and because this meant Daddy is taking a long break from YouTube and she watches him and he got her through bad times. Signe and I are crying for the same reason. Because he is leaving us. Sarah calls her mom to ask if she can sleep over and her mom let's her skip dance practice to stay with me overnight.

We are all soon singing to music and dancing around, completely trashing my room. Daddy joins us for a long time and Sarah and I make him lots of food, burning most of it because we suck at cooking, but Signe and Daddy eat it anyway, we laugh at the disgust on their faces and forced smiles they put on quickly as they put the food into their mouths. We take the barely-touched plates from them and then just hang out the whole night. We Skype Shannon, Myah, and Carson for a few hours as well.

We collapse and sleep at around 2am. My eyelids heavy from exhaustion and stress and I'm out like a light as soon as my head hits the pillow.