𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 — 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏

❝ 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩 ❞

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

FORGIVENESS.

"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," Matthews told his class, "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, I forgive you."

"What did I do," the boy asked his teacher.

"I forgive you, too."

"What did I do," Farkle repeated to Zay.

"You know what you do."

Matthews shrugged, "I feel better now that I've forgiven you. How do you feel?"

"I'm sorry for every time I've hurt you! What did I do?!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we are 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 glanced around the room, "we're in," she smiled, "what do we do?"

"Everyone take out a piece of paper," while the children were doing what was instructed, Matthews continued his lesson, "So this isn't your cell phone or your laptop. 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," once everything was passed around, he gave them their assignment, "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, Mr. Uncle?"

"It gives you a chance to change it," Matthews answered his niece.

"Like when I forgave Auggie for biting the face off of Beary the Bear Bear."

"That wasn't forgiveness, honey."

"Why not?"

"Because you haven't gotten over it," he stressed to his daughter. He looked toward the class again, "so is there anyone in your life you want to forgive? Change history. Go."

While everyone was writing down their forgiveness, Amanda's mind drew a blank. She couldn't think about anyone she could forgive. And apparently, she wasn't the only one.

"Maya? No one in your life you want to forgive?"

"No," she answered her teacher.

"Don't you think now would be a good time," Andrew spoke softly from behind the blonde.

Riley sighed, "you and your mom are in a good place, Maya, You're strong. Don't you want to forgive him one day? Why not now?"

After a few seconds, Maya started to write on her paper, earning a satisfied chuckle from her best friend. Maya handed Riley the note, the brunette cleared her throat, "'dear Riley... butt out. I mean it, butt your butt out,'" she turned toward the blonde, "I forgive you."

"Amanda?"

The girl in question picked her head up to look at her Uncle as he continued, "no one in your life you want to forgive?"

"Uh... No, I don't think so."

"Not even your—"

"I can't forgive someone I've never met. Not in my opinion," she cut off her cousin.

"Why do you think that," her boyfriend asked.

"Because, my mom has never mentioned him," Amanda shrugged, "I'm fine with not knowing my dad. I don't wanna ruin that."

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

Amanda and Lucas found themselves studying in the girl's room after school. It still amazed the couple that her Uncle would let the boy into her room without question, seeing that he was very protective with Riley regarding Andrew. Throughout their study session, Lucas couldn't help but stare at his girlfriend, trying to figure her out, and she noticed, "you're staring."

"I'm gazing."

"It's creepy."

"It's romantic."

The girl rolled her eyes with a scoff, looking up from her homework, "right, okay, Bubba, what's up? You have that look in your eyes."

"Do you really not have anyone you want to forgive?"

After a beat of silence she responded, "I've never met my father. And I don't know anything about him. Only the fact that he left when my mom told him she was pregnant with me. But, I didn't learn that from my mom, directly. I caught her on the phone with my Uncle one night, and she was talking about how I was getting antsy about where my father was. But, I'm not mad at her for wanting to keep that from me. I would rather be completely clueless over how I feel now," her boyfriend slipped his hand into her's for support.

"What about those kids at your old school?"

"What am I forgiving them for," Mandy shook her head, "I deserved everything I got back at my old school. It doesn't seem right."

"... You know what I think you should do?"

"What?"

"Forgive yourself."

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

Maya's father was in town. And things couldn't be more of a mess for everyone when it came to their assignments.

"How's the forgiveness project going?"

"You killed us, Matthews," Maya told her teacher the next day during class.

"I gotta say, Matthews, I don't know what you were thinking," Riley added.

"You think forgiveness leads to peace," Andrew asked.

"It leads to war in a movie theatre."

"Lights go down, the movie starts, I make Farkle sit on the other side of theatre so he can't ruin anything," Andrew explained.

"Sounds like good strategy.."

"Yeah. Then a cowboy comes on the screen, Farkle yells—"

"Dead!"

Zay continued after Andrew, "an old prospector comes on the screen—"

"Alien! Looking for a time portal!"

"Next comes a cheerleader—"

"How is there a cheerleader in this movie?"

"No kidding!"

Matthews walked around his desk, "well, I'm sure some of you had a better experience," he was met with silence in the room.

"Forgiveness doesn't work, Dad," Riley started, "I forgave Auggie and he didn't thank me."

"Did you really forgive him?"

"No!"

Matthews turned to the blonde, "Maya, did you forgive your father?"

"No..."

He then turned toward his niece, who had been silent the whole lesson, "Oh, wise niece of mine, did you find someone to forgive?"

"No..."

"Why not your fa—"

"Why do you want me to forgive someone I know nothing about," Amanda was so tired of people telling her who to forgive, "I don't know him, Uncle Cory! I haven't been told anything about him! You probably know more than me! Why don't you tell me something about that man I have to call my father and I'll consider."

Her Uncle didn't say anything, he leaned against his desk with a guilty look grazed on his features.

Amanda continued after she calmed herself down, "look, I'm sorry. But I don't have anyone to forgive. I failed. Just accept that," and with that, Amanda picked up her stuff and left the classroom without a word.

Students gradually turned to Lucas, expecting him to go after her, but to everyone's surprise, he didn't. He knew she wanted to be alone. All he could do was be there for her when she needed him. All he needed to do was wait.

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

Sitting on her bed, Amanda felt extremely guilty about blowing up at her Uncle during class. Her friends had sent her many messages, but they were all ignored. When Amanda was about to call it a night, she heard a knocking on her door.

"Yes?"

The door opened, letting Cory Matthews step into the door way, "can we talk?"

After seeing her nod, he made his way over to her bed, "we have a lot to talk about, you and me."

"We do?"

"I think so," Matthews sighed, "I wanted to apologize for egging you on about forgiving your father. Especially in front of the class. That was uncalled for and inappropriate—"

"It's okay—"

"I'm not done," her Uncle interrupted, "I wanna ask you a question. What do you know about your father?"

"The only thing I know about him is that when my mom told him she was pregnant with me, he fled. I don't even know his name."

"Good," Amanda looked up from her hands to look at her Uncle, her brows furrowed. Seeing her confusion, he continued, "I don't want you to know."

"Why?"

"Because you don't need him. You have so many people here for you. You have a great life here, Mandy. But I am sorry I've kept vital information from you."

"It's okay," she paused, "am I still failing your assignment?"

"I never expected you to pass. Forgiveness is hard. Especially when someone claims they don't have anyone to forgive."

Amanda sighed, "Lucas told me that I should forgive myself."

"Can you elaborate?"

"I've done a lot of things in my past. And I don't think I should forgive the people who made my life worse last year when it was my actions that caused it," she explained, then scoffed, "I've now noticed I've always put myself under the bus whenever my situation is brought up. Maybe because I still think it's my fault. But, maybe I just need to let it go.."

"Forgiving yourself," her Uncle smiled, "that's a new one... A plus."

The girl's eyes widened, "really?"

"Yes. That was a beautiful spoken essay," he chuckled, bringing his niece into a side hug, "you'll be okay, Mandy."

"Yeah. I'll be okay."

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

"Knock. Knock."

Maya turned her head to the sound at her door, seeing Amanda Matthews with a small smile on her face, "can I come in?"

"Of course," Maya nodded, patting the seat next to her, "what are you doing here?"

As Amanda settled on her friend's bed, she continued, "I heard about what happened earlier with your dad and I wanted to check on you. I know how hard confronting someone who wronged you can be."

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Earlier you talked about not knowing your father so strongly, no tears, no nothing. How?"

Amanda sighed, thinking about her answer, "I think I have more anger towards the situation compared to the sadness. I've only known one thing about my father and I've come to terms with keeping it that way."

"What if your mom starts telling you things about him?"

"She won't. She's too stubborn," the girls shared a laugh before Mandy continued, "you okay?"

"I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that stupid letter. I guess I was hoping for something to change."

"Some things are never meant to change, whether we like it or not, Maya."

"Did you fail the assignment?"

"No, did you?"

"No," the blonde paused, "maybe, I don't know."

Amanda put her hand on Maya's shoulder, "and that's okay. Forgiveness takes a long time. You never know what the future could hold, Maya. Just promise me something."

"Anything."

"Promise me you will never give up hoping for anything. You'll always have hope, no matter what."

"... I promise."

──︒✿ཾ∘∗✽ᜒࠬ. ──

edited: 27 feb 2021