School Girls' Stories - New Generation

Chapter 21 – The Memeshii Household Dinner

Unlike most dinners, the family seemed to be in even more of a disarray. Harmony was moodier than her name gave welcome to, and sat near Shu. Bliss and Darrke sat at the opposite end, both brooding for whatever reason. Shai and Kyoei were stuck somewhere in the middle and looking from one side of the table to the other. They did not miss the daggers that Bliss was shooting at Shu, nor did they miss his nonchalance towards her attitude. The problem was: what did you say to your children when they were behaving like, well, children?

Shai was biting her lip, unsure on how to breach the subject, when her husband took over. He placed down his dinner utensils, and at the sudden clatter of his silverware hitting the table everyone else seemed to take the hint and stop eating, or picking at their food, as well. Everyone looked towards the figurehead and waited.

“Did anyone die?” he suddenly asked.

“What?” Harmony asked surprised by the bluntness of her father’s question.

“At this party last night, did anyone die?”

“No,” the four said in unison, not understanding where this was going.

“Did anyone get raped?” Everyone shook their head. “Is anyone pregnant?” Another shake of the children’s heads. “Is anyone dying? Are you failing out of high school?” No, no. “All right, is it heart break?” Random nods. “Friends giving you trouble?” More reassured nods. “Get over it.” The widened eyes at the table nearly popped out, but the four managed to just shift in their seats and glare at their father.

Kyoei, impatient with the attitudes of the children, sat back away from his plate. This was an indication that no one else was to go back to their food. The first person to try to take a bite would ultimately have no food for the rest of the night. If their mother or father stopped eating it meant it was time to talk, and they also knew their parents were serious about punishments.

Kyoei remained silent for ten minutes, just watching everyone around the table. Bliss had barely started her meal, the same with Harmony and Darrke. Shu was almost finished, but he wanted those last few bites. Bliss was hungrier now that she was being denied her dinner, it was odd how that worked.

Shai just sat and let her husband do what he thought was right. If this didn’t work she would try again another day. They always allowed one another to do what they thought was right, unless it failed.

“What is the most important thing in life?” Kyoei asked of the table.

“Dad, we’re not in school,” Darrke griped.

“Every day is a lesson, and until you four become disciplined, you will learn a lesson every day of your life,” Kyoei snapped, losing his temper enough that his face nearly matched the flaming red hair on his head. “You four have been allowed to be too free too long. I’m sorry it came down to this. Tonight you answer my questions, or you starve for the rest of the night. Sure, you think one night won’t be so bad, but then the question is, is Shai going to make you breakfast in the morning, or will you fend for yourselves? Will you have money for lunch tomorrow? Is starving tonight going to mean we might make you starve until dinner tomorrow? Right now my patience is broken enough with the four of you that I just might do it. You think Shai and I don’t know what you four do in the basement, it is all going to end, you hear me? Now WHAT is the most important thing in your life?” Silence strained. “Fine, until you answer you sit in those chairs.”

“Mom,” Bliss said, breaking the silence. “Mom is the most important thing and person in my life, because without her I would be living with those horrid, horrid…” she could not finish her sentence. Just thinking of her real mother and father, though her father… no, she had not told them she had met with her father, and she would not tell them now. And though she had met him, would he have been a good father to her? Probably not.

“All right Bliss,” Kyoei said, smiling at his daughter. “You may bring your dinner to your room and finish eating it. But no television tonight. Tonight you are going to think about that most important person and realize the heart you are breaking by being a pothead and seeming ungrateful.”

That was not the reaction she had been hoping for, she had been absurdly honest and she felt, though approved to eat, that she was being punished. She was not going to question the decision. She took her meal upstairs and left the rest of the family to continue bickering.

“Anyone else want to answer?” Kyoei asked, folding his fingers together and templing the pointer fingers together.

“Why? So we can be punished for our answer?” Harmony asked bitingly.

“She’s eating, isn’t she?” Darrke shot back at his sister.

“Dad, you don’t get it,” Harmony snapped at him. “You don’t understand what it’s like being a teenager these days.”

“Oh cry me a river Harmony, because it is all you ever do,” his fist slammed on the table and once again everyone fell silent while Harmony stared at her father in shock. “How about this, for those of you who do not want to answer, not only are you grounded from everything but school, and I mean everything. No cell phones, no television, no video games, no friends. You come home, you go to your room, you do your homework, you eat dinner, you go back to your room and do more homework, you go to bed, you wake up, you go to school, you come home and repeat. So, who is going to answer?”

Once again the room fell silent. What happened at the party with their parents that made them even more uptight than usual? It was like some sort of veil had been removed from over their eyes and they were seeing their children for what they really were.

“Ashe,” Harmony grumbled. When she had the entire room’s attention she snapped, “Ashe is and was the most important thing to me.”

“After what that asshole did?” Shu snapped back, breaking in before his parents could say a word.

“Yes,” Harmony admitted. “He may have been an ass to me at the end, but he always listened to me. He was in love with me.”

“He was not!” Shu laughed at his baby sister. “He was in love with…” Shu looked around the room, knowing full well that his family’s eyes were all on him. “Shit,” he snapped. “Ground me, I don’t care, I’m a college student, what are you going to do, force me to come home after every class? I pay for my cell phone, you can’t take that away. Do whatever you want, I’m going to my room.”

“You are not leaving this table,” Kyoei snapped. “You walk away from this table and you will be finding yourself your own apartment in less than a month, because you will not remain under this roof.”

Shai’s intake of breath was quick, but Shu heard it. He looked at the back of his mom’s head and just shrugged. “Mom won’t let you throw me out,” he said. “Besides, you can act like my dad all you want, but you’re not. So, fuck this. If you have something to say, Kyoei, say it.”

Kyoei looked to his wife, a moment of weakness shown in front of their son, ubt he was not weak enough, and Shai gave him just a subtle nod that Shu did not even see. “You walk away right now, you will be moving out by the end of November. Do you understand? You four are spoiled, and you are all going to learn responsibility.”

“What did I do?” Darrke razzed. “I’ve been getting better grades than them, and I certainly go to school more often than them.”

“You are smoking weed in my basement.” Everyone turned to stare at their mother. “You are doing drugs under my roof, and you want to feign innocence. Whatever your father says, you will listen to.”

“Fine,” Shu snapped, his anger depleted, but his rage still focused. “I’m going upstairs, and I know what your warning meant. I’ll start looking for an apartment first thing in the morning.” Shu stomped off upstairs, leaving Harmony and Darrke with a now enraged father and a mother who looked drained of all energy.

“I gave my answer before Shu got huffy,” Harmony pointed out stubbornly.

Kyoei’s eye twitched. “Ashe is not an acceptable answer.”

“Why not?” Harmony asked. “It’s true.”

“Sweetie, Ashe is dead,” Kyoei said cruelly, glaring at his daughter. “How after seven months in the grave he can remain the most important thing in the world to you is beyond me.”

“Shows what you know,” Harmony huffed. She pushed away from the table and went to join her brother in solitude, without dinner.

Kyoei and Shai were left with their youngest son, who looked positively impossibly uncomfortable as he shifted left, then shifted right, then locked eyes with both parents, then looked back down at his dinner. “You still want me to answer?”
“Yes,” Kyoei told him.

Darrke sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t thought about it. There’s a lot of shi… stuff that seems important, but isn’t, and a lot of stuff that I brush off that is important. I don’t know, Dad, I mean, what do you want me to say?”

Kyoei sat down in the chair, depleted of his energy. He wished he had been more drunk last night at Rhapsody’s birthday and had not remembered what he, Amatsu, and Shinwa had discussed. There was plenty that his family, including Shai, did not know about something he had been told once, and as the three began to talk, for almost the first time since Ashe died in March, they began to learn things about their children, and themselves, that they hated.

“Go ahead, Darrke, go finish your meal,” Kyoei said. “At least you had an honest answer.” As Darrke picked up his meal to go on Kyoei looked at his son and said, “Prioritize what is the most important to you, because soon you will be forced to choose.” Darrke knew what that meant better than his own father did.

“Are you all right?” Kyoei asked Shai after all of the children’s doors were closed and they were either sulking or enjoying their meals.

“I hope what we are doing is right,” she muttered.

Kyoei could only sigh. He thought he and Shai would know what would be right by their children. It looked like they were as clueless as their own parents had been.