¹On This Spring Day.

000.

               Violet had no idea who her father was. She'd never met him, never heard his voice, never even received a letter or phone call from the mysterious man. Violet didn't even know his name. All she knew was that he was a handsome man with a lot of ambition—whatever the fuck that meant. Apparently, as the story goes according to Dahlia, the two met and a whirlwind romance happened that ended with Violet.

               Violet wanted to gag at the thought. Not the romance part, just the part of Violet being the result. ( Violet would rather lay down and die than ever hear her mother allude to having sex ever again. ) No, Violet loved romance; loved seeing it on the streets, loved seeing it in the media, loved hearing stories about people falling in love, and loved the thought of being in love.

               She had never been in love herself; she was only twelve, after all.

               However, Violet wasn't sure her parents were truly ever in love. If her father loved Dahlia, wouldn't he have loved Violet? Dahlia said she never kept her pregnancy a secret from him. Violet was his own flesh and blood; a part of him and apparently even had some of his characteristics. But Violet's elusive father had never once shown his face. That was a feeling that stung sharper than love ever could in Violet's heart.

               That feeling of being unwanted and unloved by her father was something that had been following Violet since the moment her father decided it was best to run rather than face her.

🌷

Violet kept a sharp eye on the circular clock hung on the wall, counting down the minutes until her spring break started.

               It was the last class of the day and Violet couldn't wait to get out of prison called Lakeshore Middle School for a week. The school year so far hadn't been horrible. Not that it had been amazing, just not as bad as the previous school year. And Violet was feeling pretty great about herself as she had managed to make it nearly two whole semesters at Lakeshore without getting expelled ( that was also another record nearly broken ).

               Violet had been expelled from the majority of the schools she had gone to. The ones she hadn't been dismissed from were only because she and Dahlia moved before the school's administrators could bring down the hammer.

               And perhaps her talent for getting expelled was another reason she and her mother had to move so often. Dahlia didn't have the luxury of homeschooling Violet and it was against the law to keep Violet from getting an education. ( The word 'education' was being used liberally; the teachers spent more time teaching kids how to tie shoes or to not hit other classmates than actually teaching the curriculum. )

               A sigh of relief traveled throughout the kids in the rectangular room as the bell rang loudly. The last bell of the day for one whole week. The students sagged with relief as they picked up their bags and started heading for the door.

               Parts of their schedules would change for the next quarter, the electives changing but not the core classes. Violet's classmates were talking excitedly about their next quarter's schedules, to see if any classes aligned with one another.

               Violet was excited to get out and celebrate her twelfth birthday soon after the break. She swung her bag over her shoulder, one of the last kids to escape the classroom.