Band-Aids 1a/?
anonymous
April 25 2011, 23:57:59 UTC
Tino Väinämöinen looked over his desk, out to his students and frowned. Class was ending in ten minutes and the kids were milling around, chatting and giggling amongst themselves as they grabbed backpacks and coats. There was one thing that had been bothering Tino ever since he noticed it. Looking around, he quickly located Peter Kirkland, and yes - he had another band-aid on him! That brought the total up to three, and that was only this week. The week before it had been five band-aids and the week before that it had been two. He suspected that Peter had been wearing band-aids as far as a month back but he had only noticed after they kept appearing over and over again.
Sighing, Tino reflected back on what he knew about Peter Kirkland. Unfortunately, not much beyond the fact that he was British. Normally teachers met with the parents of students and there was a lot of communication between everyone but Tino was a brand new teacher and he hadn’t be able to meet all the parents of his students. He had moved from Russia to Malmö, Sweden over the break for the job and this was his first year. He had always wanted to be a primary school teacher and now that he’d gotten a job as a 6th year instructor, he did not want to make a serious mistake like overlooking a case of abuse. And wearing band-aids week after week screamed abuse to him. He could barely stand to think that one of his students might be getting beaten. Or worse.
The afternoon bell rang and the kids started a mad dash for the door. Tino seized his chance and called out “Peter! Could I talk to you for a moment please?”
Peter said something to one of his friends who nodded and he turned back to walk up to front of the classroom. “Yeah, Mr. Väinämöinen?”
Forcing a calm expression on to his face. “Peter, I‘m worried about something I’ve noticed. You have been wearing band-aids every day for almost three weeks. Are you alright? Is there something wrong at school or home?”
Peter burst out laughing. “No way! I’m fine. My band-aids are pretty great right?” He nodded enthusiastically and held out his arms to show off.
Tino laughed distractedly. “Well, they’re definitely unique.” Peter currently had a Spongebob band-aid across his cheek, a SpiderMan band-aid on his wrist and a zebra striped one on his ankle.
“There’s nothing wrong at all. I’ve got great friends at school and my family is really quiet.”
Peter looked back towards the door and Tino could tell he wanted to go and join his friends.
“Well, you know you can always talk to me if you have any problems alright?” Tino said, smiling. Peter nodded cheerfully and turned to leave. “Bye Mr. Väinämöinen! See ya tomorrow!” And he was gone.
Tino turned back to his desk and sat. He wasn’t very comforted. He needed to know more about Peter and his family life. But he didn’t want to do anything too drastic and if it was a family member who was causing issues, then Tino calling them might make things worse. He needed more information but the question was how to get it?
Tuesday arrived and before class let out, Tino made an announcement. “I need everyone’s attention please! Due to scheduling issues, we’re switching around our science units. Instead of starting weather, we’re going to move onto genetics instead. So I want everyone to bring in a family photograph by Thursday or Friday so we can look at Punnet squares and family trees. Please ask your parents for a family photograph. The more people in it, the better. You don’t need to bring in the original. Okay?”
“Yes, Mr. Väinämöinen!” everyone called and then Tino dismissed the class. It had gone perfectly. It wasn’t a problem to move the units around since the order of the science units had more flexibility. And now, Peter would bring in a photo and Tino could ask him a little more about his family without causing suspicion. Brilliant.
Band-Aids 1b/?
anonymous
April 26 2011, 00:00:15 UTC
Friday quickly arrived and Tino started the genetics unit and talked all about Gregory Mendel and his sweet pea plants. After explaining the differences between phenotypes, and genotypes and how to draw Punnet squares and family tree, he told all the students to choose one trait like hair color or eye color and draw punnet squares using their family photo to see if traits were recessive or dominant. Afterward, they were to move onto family trees and graph how the traits were expressed.
The students were all working on their squares and Tino walked around, helping pick good traits, correcting details or talking to students about their families. It was very entertaining and great to see the students examine their photos to see just how much they did or didn’t look like their parents and other family members.
Looking around to see if anyone needed help or for raised hands, he noticed that Peter was frowning a little over at his desk. Walking over quickly, Tino leaned over and asked “Peter, is everything alright?”
Peter scrunched his face in annoyance. “No. I’m sorta having trouble with my square. I don’t think my family is very good for the assignment.”
That surprised Tino quite a bit.
“May I see your photo?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure!” Peter handed his photo over and Tino’s eyes widened.
In Peter’s picture, there were no women. Instead there were four men. The green eyed man with his arm on Peter’s shoulder, had to be his father judging by the eyebrows; a pair of young men, twins by the look of it and then another younger man wearing all khaki and a band-aid across his nose?
“This is your family?” asked Tino in surprise. “Where is your mother?”
“Oh, I don’t have a mother” Peter said bluntly.
Tino thought about this for a moment before saying “Everyone has a mother somewhere, Peter.”
“Well yeah... I’ve got one somewhere. But I don’t know much about her. She gave me to my father when I was little and never came back. I don’t remember her at all, and there aren’t any pictures.”
Tino stood there stunned, not sure what to say.
But Peter started to point out people in the photo. “That’s my father Arthur. He’s British. And the other guys are his brothers but not really. My father has two related brothers but he doesn’t see them much. These other guys are like his family. And he’s got some funny friends.”
He pointed to the twin men standing behind his picture self. One was wearing something that looked like an old bomber jacket and he was beaming for the camera. The other twin had curlier hair and he was dressed in a hoodie, smiling slightly. “The one with the bomber jacket is Alfred. He’s American and the other one is his twin Matthew. He’s Canadian. And this is Cody who’s Australian.” Peter pointed out the guy in khaki, whom also had rather thick eyebrows.
“They’re my father’s family. They don’t live in the UK but they come around for holidays and stuff. My dad doesn’t really have any family photos.”
Tino’s head was spinning. What did he mean by father’s or dad’s family?
“I”m sorry Peter but I don’t understand. What do you mean by father and dad?”
“Oh you don’t know?” Peter laughed and reached into his desk for another photo. “I’m adopted! This is my dad and me. See?”
He offered up and photo of himself and a very tall man, standing in a yard in front of a small house.
“O-oh wow! This is your fath- dad, this is your dad then?”
“Yup! He’s awesome. He adopted me from my father three years ago, when I was nine. I’ve been with him in Sweden since. But I still see my father and everyone else. I go back to Britain once or twice a month...”
But Tino was barely listening. He was staring at the photo because the man standing next to Peter with his arm around his neck was absolutely terrifying. He was huge, his face frozen in a scowl and he was glaring at the camera as though it had done him a personal wrong. Peter was living with this man!?
Band-Aids 1c/?
anonymous
April 26 2011, 00:02:33 UTC
“Anyways, what should I do about my square?” asked Peter.
Tino suddenly remembered the assignment and that he was in the middle of a class. “Ah. Well, how about you put in a trait that your father has and that you have and work backwards. It’s a bit more difficult but I can help if you want.”
Peter bent back over his punnet square and looked at it carefully. “I think I got it actually. I’ll use my eyebrows!” He looked up and tried to see his eyebrows but only managed to roll his eyes back in his head a little. “I’m sure that my mom didn’t have eyebrow like me and my dad so that should work great right?”
“My dad and I” corrected Tino. “And yes, that is a good idea. Try that and I’ll check back with you again later.”
“Okay” Peter replied and Tino moved towards another student, a girl who’d been waving her hand in the air for a few minutes. But his mind was far from science and Punnet squares. So Peter was adopted? At age nine he’d been adopted by a terrifying Swedish man and now for almost one month he was coming to school covered in band-aids.
He was determined to get to the bottom of this.
AuthorAnon:
Hi! This is the second filler filling. I hope that OP likes it so far. I’m not very experience when it comes to writing so any feedback or critique on how to improve, whatever or anything is greatly appreciated. I’m a bit wordy and a bit slow at writing. But I’ve got the whole thing pretty much out lined unless sudden inspiration hits and I change stuff. All mistakes ect are my own because I'm greedy like that. XD
Re: Band-Aids 1c/?
anonymous
April 26 2011, 01:01:39 UTC
I find this fill simply adorable so far. Tino's earnestness shows well and I like how you have handled the progression from simple curiosity to something more serious. It was a clever way to include genetics and punnet squares, too! Nice start, I can't wait for the next part.
Oh, I'm soooooooooo glad that someone else is picking this up! I was so sad when the other anon stopped updating and thought that the prompt had been forgotten, so thank you. You seem to be off to a good start so far. Everyone looks to be in character, and I'm so grateful for that because characterization either makes or breaks a fic for me. I also like the creative approach you took to exposing Finland to Sweden.
As for critiques, since you asked for it: I think the way that Sealand replied to Finland's question about his bandaids would have reassured Finland. Granted, I have never met an abused child, at least not that I was aware of, but I would think their reply to that kind of question would be a little more nervous if there was in fact something going on. An older child might be able to hide behind a smile, but I would think that there would be something that would be at least a little suspicious, like maybe their smile is a bit strained/forced or they go a little pale or don't make eye contact. I just would have made Sealand's reply a bit more ambiguous.
I also admit I'm not too fond of FrUk or RusFin, but so long as I get my SuFin in the end, I suppose I can deal
I feel like a jerk for making such a nitpicky correction, but I'm an English major and simply can't help myself: in the context in which it was used, "my dad and me" would be correct and Finland made what linguistic nerds call a hypercorrection. If you have trouble deciding when it's correct to use me or I, just take the other person out of the sentence and see if it makes sense to say "My mom didn't have eyebrows like I". Ahh, I'm sorry. I'll shut up now.
I love where you're going with this fill and can't wait to see how it develops ♥
Re: Band-Aids 1c/?
anonymous
April 26 2011, 08:29:28 UTC
The fill is great! Love it!
Terribly sorry for this nitpicking (ignore it if you want, it's just minor details about Sweden): In Sweden, we don't call our teachers by their last names (unless the school is an international one with English as the only language used). We call them by their first names. Same with the teachers, they call their students by their first names. There would be no use of last names between Tino and Berwald as well (as a general rule - using last names are viewed as old-fashioned and strange). Calling someone Fru (Mrs) Andersson or Herr (Mr) Jansson is really strange to Swedes. Also, no school bell = up to teacher when students can leave (if the class is running out of time, the teacher might hold students for a couple of minutes and if the class-material has been covered quicker than anticipated, the teacher let's the students leave early). Once again, terribly sorry for nitpicking and it's just minor details that really doesn't matter in the end. =(
Random anon passing by
anonymous
April 26 2011, 19:16:50 UTC
I read your notes with the name thing... it's the same where I came from, but that's because we have super informal mentality... I didn't know it's also in Sweden. I wonder why? Well, good to know, anyway!
Oh, and the story seems great so far. Keep it up, a!a!
Re: Random anon passing by
anonymous
April 26 2011, 19:29:20 UTC
It really is quite strange that Swedes are so informal when it comes to names - seeing as how we value distance from each other. We seem to have the same mentality as the Japanese when it comes to other people - don't talk to strangers, don't disturb others, keep quiet and be orderly. You should see our bus-stops or subway trains. No one speaks to strangers. We're standing around talking to our friends (quietly), talking on the phone (quietly) or if we're alone - just standing there daydreaming. I've heard that it's quite different in other countries where people are always ready to have a chat with the stranger sitting next to you. We're very reserved for some reason and tourists always freak out. :D
Re: Random anon passing by
anonymous
April 28 2011, 20:51:07 UTC
Oh, I'm from Israel. Pretty much everything is extremely informal here, and it is reflected in many ways. I heard the Swedes are a bit repressed, so it surprised me that the teachers are called by their first name. :D Here, yes, we definitly start chats with the strangers next to us. People feel quite comfortable talking to each other and even ask personal questions and express their opinions on your choices in life even though you never saw them before in your life - and bluntly so, too. It has pros and cons, you know, but that's how it is. XD
Over the weekend Tino researched adoption in Sweden and was interested by what he found. Apparently there weren’t too many adoption in Sweden yearly, only about a thousand or so. A citizen had to be at least twenty five years old to adopt and of course, they were investigated by the local social welfare committee before being allowed to adopt. So that meant that no matter how Peter’s dad looked, he had been approved for the adoption.
Tino hmm’d at his computer. In the end, he still didn’t have much information and from what he could see, adoption was treated very carefully in Sweden. But that didn’t mean anything, since Peter was coming to school covered with band-aids. What should he do now? Talk to a more experienced teacher or the Principal?
There was certainly no way he was just going to ignore the problem.
A funny gurgle noise from his computer distracted him and Tino looked back to see that Skype was lighting up. He smiled when he saw the name that was lighting up. Quickly activating his webcam, he turned back to his screen eager to talk.
A young looking man flickered onto the screen. He had very blond hair; bangs held to the side with a silver cross, blue eyes and a rather deadpan stare.
“Neils!”
Niels nodded in acknowledgement. “How was your week?”
“Oh it was pretty good. I had to redo my math lesson plans though. Apparently I was being a bit to abstract with fraction multiplication. I need to find a better way to explain it. And I’m still worried about one of my kids.”
“The boy with the bandages, Peter?”
Tino nodded and sighed. “He left on Friday with four band-aids on him. I’m not sure what I should do. I’ve looked into organizations but I don’t actually have any proof of anything going on.”
“Well did you ask him if something was wrong?” asked Niels.
“Oh of course I did! And he seemed perfectly happy and normal.”
Niels shrugged lightly. “Well, if all you have are band-aids and normal child then there isn’t much you can do.”
“No! There must be something I can do, maybe if I saw something happen or...” Tino looked thoughtfully at his computer.
“Tino,” Niels frowned hard. “Don’t do anything stupid. You could get into incredible amounts of trouble. Let’s not have a repeat of Russia.”
Tino looked rather hurt. It was unfair to bring up his time in Russia. That hadn’t been - well, it was complicated. But this was different.
“I can’t just leave him alone!” argued Tino.
“You’ve got no proof,” countered Neils. “And getting some may require you to break laws. Let it go or talk to another teacher. I think you’re worrying over nothing and that you’re seeing something because you want to see it.”
“Going to a teacher without something is a waste of time. His father being terrifying isn’t enough.”
“Tino, you can’t fix everything by yourself.“
“If I could just get some evidence then I could go to someone. Besides, can you imagine me going to the police now and then dragging Peter and his dad through the mud only to find out it was nothing after all?” He looked pleadingly at Niels.
Niels just shook his head, frustrated. “Well, I can’t stop you. But if you do try to follow him or something, you’re going to have to be incredibly careful or else you’ll be arrested for stalking. And I don’t think your Principal would be happy to find out his newest teacher was stalking the family of one of his students.”
“I’ll be very careful. Um, is Eirikur listening to this conversation too?” Tino squinted at the screen to see behind Niels.
“Yeah.” A muffled voice came from behind the camera.
“Am I ever going to have a private conversation with just you Niels?” asked Tino, rolling his eyes a little.
Niels shrugged. “Probably not.”
“Well, I’ll leave you two alone. Talk to you later, alright?”
“Don’t get arrested please.”
Tino winced, imagining having to explain to his Principal about being arrested and why. “I’ll try not to. I promise.”
Skype gurgled again and the video window went blank.
Turning away from his computer, Tino leaned back in his chair. Could he be worrying over nothing? It was possible but why would any child be wearing band-aids week after week? And how did he keep getting so many of them? Either Peter had a hidden stash or someone was buying them for him. Why would any parent go around buying boxes and boxes of band-aids unless they were needed?
But on the other hand, Niels had a good point. Between the two of them, Niels had always been the good one at being calm and objective and Tino had always valued his opinion.
The Norwegian was one of his closest and oldest friends. When Tino was in primary school, there had been some sort of Nordic Pen Pal exchange thing at his school where students from one country wrote to students of another. He ended up with a Norwegian boy one year ahead of him and they had exchanged letters and just kept going after the program stopped. Letters became phone calls which eventually became e-mails and Skype. It would seem strange to many that the two had only met in person ten times but they had known each other for the greater portion of both their lives.
Tino didn’t know Eirikur quite as long. He vividly remembered the scandal in Neils’ family when it came out that his father had had an affair and that Niels had a half-brother in Iceland. But once the two boys had met each other, they became inseparable. Eirikur had come over to Norway every summer from then on to live with Niels’ family and was now attending college in Norway and sharing an apartment with Niels year round. It had taken a bit for Tino to get to know Eirikur but over time the two of them had become good friends as well.
But right now, there wasn’t much he could do right now. He might as well go and walk Hanatamago and get some work done for tomorrow.
Monday arrived and Tino waited, nervous for what he would see when Peter walked in the classroom. But as his class filed in and he saw Peter; there were no obvious band-aids that he could see. Tino released the breath he’d been holding and started to take attendance.
The day went smoothly and the class moved through math, lit and discussion, recess, science, music with the music instructor then lunch and the second longer recess. It was as the second recess was ending that Tino finally was able to talk to Peter. As the class moved back into the classroom, Tino saw something bright red going up the inside of Peter’s arm.
“Peter! Wait for a second please.” Tino pulled Peter to the side of the hall and looked at his arm in horror. Peter had five band-aids on his arm starting at his wrist and moving up, completely covering the inside of his wrist.
“What happened to your wrist?” Tino asked in alarm, taking Peter’s hand and turning it over so he could see the underside of his arm clearly.
“Nothing” Peter said, looking a little surprised at Tino’s tone of voice. “Aren’t they great? They have ninjas on them!”
It was true. The band-aids were red with little black ninjas on them. But Tino was too distressed to take much notice. How had he missed these earlier?
“Peter, I don’t understand. Did you hurt yourself?”
“No, of course not,” Peter said, rolling his eyes a little.
“Well, if you don’t need them could you please take the band-aids off and -”
“No!” Peter yanked his hand out of Tino’s and jerked away from him.
“Peter!”
Tino was stunned as Peter hid his arm behind his back and scooted even farther away from him.
“I don’t want to take them off,” Peter muttered and refused to meet Tino’s eyes. “I won’t take them off. It’s my arm. You can’t make me.”
“Alright. Okay. I won’t make you take them off. Calm down.” Tino spoke softly, trying not upset Peter any more than he already had. “I just wanted to know why you still had so many band-aids on. That’s all.”
“I already told you on Friday,” Peter grumbled.
“Yes you did,” agreed Tino. “I was just double checking.”
Peter scowled. “Can I go back inside the class now please?”
Author Notes: I’m going to make some small adjustments so the school is more Swedish so Tino will be called Tino by his students and no more bells. Just a small little tweak. Feel free to critique if you want.
C1: Thanks! Hehe, I love biology so I suspect most the lessons written will be science related.
OP: Characterization is so important so I’m glad to see that I’m doing well. Definitely let me know if my characterization starts to wobble. I took into account your comment about reassuring Finland and made a few adjustments for it. I can easily remove the FrUK but the RusFin must stay or my plot dies. But this is definitely SuFin. ^_^ Haha, and don’t worry about correcting my English. I’m just a biology major who screws up English on a regular basis. I really happy that you like it so far.
C2: Thanks! Yes, this prompt is adorable so I’m happy to try and give it a shot.
C3: Believe me, I am so grateful for this information! I looked all over the net but I couldn’t find much about actual teachers and students in Sweden. I heard that school was like that in Finland but I wasn’t sure if Sweden was the same. It makes me wish I could have gone to school in Sweden. Ah well...
Random!anon: Wow, you’re from Israel? This meme is more international than I thought.
Hurray~ An update♥ It's always nice to see Finland interacting with other Nordics, so I'm glad that you had him going to Norway for advice. It was also nice to see Sealand acting a bit more suspiciously in this chapter; thanks for considering my feedback ^^ It looks like things are going to start heating up. I can't wait to read on♥
Sighing, Tino reflected back on what he knew about Peter Kirkland. Unfortunately, not much beyond the fact that he was British. Normally teachers met with the parents of students and there was a lot of communication between everyone but Tino was a brand new teacher and he hadn’t be able to meet all the parents of his students. He had moved from Russia to Malmö, Sweden over the break for the job and this was his first year. He had always wanted to be a primary school teacher and now that he’d gotten a job as a 6th year instructor, he did not want to make a serious mistake like overlooking a case of abuse. And wearing band-aids week after week screamed abuse to him. He could barely stand to think that one of his students might be getting beaten. Or worse.
The afternoon bell rang and the kids started a mad dash for the door. Tino seized his chance and called out “Peter! Could I talk to you for a moment please?”
Peter said something to one of his friends who nodded and he turned back to walk up to front of the classroom. “Yeah, Mr. Väinämöinen?”
Forcing a calm expression on to his face. “Peter, I‘m worried about something I’ve noticed. You have been wearing band-aids every day for almost three weeks. Are you alright? Is there something wrong at school or home?”
Peter burst out laughing. “No way! I’m fine. My band-aids are pretty great right?” He nodded enthusiastically and held out his arms to show off.
Tino laughed distractedly. “Well, they’re definitely unique.” Peter currently had a Spongebob band-aid across his cheek, a SpiderMan band-aid on his wrist and a zebra striped one on his ankle.
“There’s nothing wrong at all. I’ve got great friends at school and my family is really quiet.”
Peter looked back towards the door and Tino could tell he wanted to go and join his friends.
“Well, you know you can always talk to me if you have any problems alright?” Tino said, smiling. Peter nodded cheerfully and turned to leave. “Bye Mr. Väinämöinen! See ya tomorrow!”
And he was gone.
Tino turned back to his desk and sat. He wasn’t very comforted. He needed to know more about Peter and his family life. But he didn’t want to do anything too drastic and if it was a family member who was causing issues, then Tino calling them might make things worse. He needed more information but the question was how to get it?
Tuesday arrived and before class let out, Tino made an announcement. “I need everyone’s attention please! Due to scheduling issues, we’re switching around our science units. Instead of starting weather, we’re going to move onto genetics instead. So I want everyone to bring in a family photograph by Thursday or Friday so we can look at Punnet squares and family trees. Please ask your parents for a family photograph. The more people in it, the better. You don’t need to bring in the original. Okay?”
“Yes, Mr. Väinämöinen!” everyone called and then Tino dismissed the class. It had gone perfectly. It wasn’t a problem to move the units around since the order of the science units had more flexibility. And now, Peter would bring in a photo and Tino could ask him a little more about his family without causing suspicion. Brilliant.
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The students were all working on their squares and Tino walked around, helping pick good traits, correcting details or talking to students about their families. It was very entertaining and great to see the students examine their photos to see just how much they did or didn’t look like their parents and other family members.
Looking around to see if anyone needed help or for raised hands, he noticed that Peter was frowning a little over at his desk. Walking over quickly, Tino leaned over and asked “Peter, is everything alright?”
Peter scrunched his face in annoyance. “No. I’m sorta having trouble with my square. I don’t think my family is very good for the assignment.”
That surprised Tino quite a bit.
“May I see your photo?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure!” Peter handed his photo over and Tino’s eyes widened.
In Peter’s picture, there were no women. Instead there were four men. The green eyed man with his arm on Peter’s shoulder, had to be his father judging by the eyebrows; a pair of young men, twins by the look of it and then another younger man wearing all khaki and a band-aid across his nose?
“This is your family?” asked Tino in surprise. “Where is your mother?”
“Oh, I don’t have a mother” Peter said bluntly.
Tino thought about this for a moment before saying “Everyone has a mother somewhere, Peter.”
“Well yeah... I’ve got one somewhere. But I don’t know much about her. She gave me to my father when I was little and never came back. I don’t remember her at all, and there aren’t any pictures.”
Tino stood there stunned, not sure what to say.
But Peter started to point out people in the photo. “That’s my father Arthur. He’s British. And the other guys are his brothers but not really. My father has two related brothers but he doesn’t see them much. These other guys are like his family. And he’s got some funny friends.”
He pointed to the twin men standing behind his picture self. One was wearing something that looked like an old bomber jacket and he was beaming for the camera. The other twin had curlier hair and he was dressed in a hoodie, smiling slightly. “The one with the bomber jacket is Alfred. He’s American and the other one is his twin Matthew. He’s Canadian. And this is Cody who’s Australian.” Peter pointed out the guy in khaki, whom also had rather thick eyebrows.
“They’re my father’s family. They don’t live in the UK but they come around for holidays and stuff. My dad doesn’t really have any family photos.”
Tino’s head was spinning. What did he mean by father’s or dad’s family?
“I”m sorry Peter but I don’t understand. What do you mean by father and dad?”
“Oh you don’t know?” Peter laughed and reached into his desk for another photo. “I’m adopted! This is my dad and me. See?”
He offered up and photo of himself and a very tall man, standing in a yard in front of a small house.
“O-oh wow! This is your fath- dad, this is your dad then?”
“Yup! He’s awesome. He adopted me from my father three years ago, when I was nine. I’ve been with him in Sweden since. But I still see my father and everyone else. I go back to Britain once or twice a month...”
But Tino was barely listening. He was staring at the photo because the man standing next to Peter with his arm around his neck was absolutely terrifying. He was huge, his face frozen in a scowl and he was glaring at the camera as though it had done him a personal wrong. Peter was living with this man!?
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Tino suddenly remembered the assignment and that he was in the middle of a class. “Ah. Well, how about you put in a trait that your father has and that you have and work backwards. It’s a bit more difficult but I can help if you want.”
Peter bent back over his punnet square and looked at it carefully. “I think I got it actually. I’ll use my eyebrows!” He looked up and tried to see his eyebrows but only managed to roll his eyes back in his head a little. “I’m sure that my mom didn’t have eyebrow like me and my dad so that should work great right?”
“My dad and I” corrected Tino. “And yes, that is a good idea. Try that and I’ll check back with you again later.”
“Okay” Peter replied and Tino moved towards another student, a girl who’d been waving her hand in the air for a few minutes. But his mind was far from science and Punnet squares. So Peter was adopted? At age nine he’d been adopted by a terrifying Swedish man and now for almost one month he was coming to school covered in band-aids.
He was determined to get to the bottom of this.
AuthorAnon:
Hi! This is the second filler filling. I hope that OP likes it so far. I’m not very experience when it comes to writing so any feedback or critique on how to improve, whatever or anything is greatly appreciated. I’m a bit wordy and a bit slow at writing. But I’ve got the whole thing pretty much out lined unless sudden inspiration hits and I change stuff. All mistakes ect are my own because I'm greedy like that. XD
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As for critiques, since you asked for it: I think the way that Sealand replied to Finland's question about his bandaids would have reassured Finland. Granted, I have never met an abused child, at least not that I was aware of, but I would think their reply to that kind of question would be a little more nervous if there was in fact something going on. An older child might be able to hide behind a smile, but I would think that there would be something that would be at least a little suspicious, like maybe their smile is a bit strained/forced or they go a little pale or don't make eye contact. I just would have made Sealand's reply a bit more ambiguous.
I also admit I'm not too fond of FrUk or RusFin, but so long as I get my SuFin in the end, I suppose I can deal
I feel like a jerk for making such a nitpicky correction, but I'm an English major and simply can't help myself: in the context in which it was used, "my dad and me" would be correct and Finland made what linguistic nerds call a hypercorrection. If you have trouble deciding when it's correct to use me or I, just take the other person out of the sentence and see if it makes sense to say "My mom didn't have eyebrows like I". Ahh, I'm sorry. I'll shut up now.
I love where you're going with this fill and can't wait to see how it develops ♥
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I would really like to use
Norway - Lukas or Niels
Iceland - Eirikur
Denmark - Matthias
Netherlands - Maarten or Jan
but if you really don't like them, I can use others. I'll leave a proper response at the end of the next chapter. I'm trying to save space.
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Terribly sorry for this nitpicking (ignore it if you want, it's just minor details about Sweden): In Sweden, we don't call our teachers by their last names (unless the school is an international one with English as the only language used). We call them by their first names. Same with the teachers, they call their students by their first names. There would be no use of last names between Tino and Berwald as well (as a general rule - using last names are viewed as old-fashioned and strange). Calling someone Fru (Mrs) Andersson or Herr (Mr) Jansson is really strange to Swedes. Also, no school bell = up to teacher when students can leave (if the class is running out of time, the teacher might hold students for a couple of minutes and if the class-material has been covered quicker than anticipated, the teacher let's the students leave early). Once again, terribly sorry for nitpicking and it's just minor details that really doesn't matter in the end. =(
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Oh, and the story seems great so far. Keep it up, a!a!
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May I inquire as to where you're from?
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Tino hmm’d at his computer. In the end, he still didn’t have much information and from what he could see, adoption was treated very carefully in Sweden. But that didn’t mean anything, since Peter was coming to school covered with band-aids. What should he do now? Talk to a more experienced teacher or the Principal?
There was certainly no way he was just going to ignore the problem.
A funny gurgle noise from his computer distracted him and Tino looked back to see that Skype was lighting up. He smiled when he saw the name that was lighting up. Quickly activating his webcam, he turned back to his screen eager to talk.
A young looking man flickered onto the screen. He had very blond hair; bangs held to the side with a silver cross, blue eyes and a rather deadpan stare.
“Neils!”
Niels nodded in acknowledgement. “How was your week?”
“Oh it was pretty good. I had to redo my math lesson plans though. Apparently I was being a bit to abstract with fraction multiplication. I need to find a better way to explain it. And I’m still worried about one of my kids.”
“The boy with the bandages, Peter?”
Tino nodded and sighed. “He left on Friday with four band-aids on him. I’m not sure what I should do. I’ve looked into organizations but I don’t actually have any proof of anything going on.”
“Well did you ask him if something was wrong?” asked Niels.
“Oh of course I did! And he seemed perfectly happy and normal.”
Niels shrugged lightly. “Well, if all you have are band-aids and normal child then there isn’t much you can do.”
“No! There must be something I can do, maybe if I saw something happen or...” Tino looked thoughtfully at his computer.
“Tino,” Niels frowned hard. “Don’t do anything stupid. You could get into incredible amounts of trouble. Let’s not have a repeat of Russia.”
Tino looked rather hurt. It was unfair to bring up his time in Russia. That hadn’t been - well, it was complicated. But this was different.
“I can’t just leave him alone!” argued Tino.
“You’ve got no proof,” countered Neils. “And getting some may require you to break laws. Let it go or talk to another teacher. I think you’re worrying over nothing and that you’re seeing something because you want to see it.”
“Going to a teacher without something is a waste of time. His father being terrifying isn’t enough.”
“Tino, you can’t fix everything by yourself.“
“If I could just get some evidence then I could go to someone. Besides, can you imagine me going to the police now and then dragging Peter and his dad through the mud only to find out it was nothing after all?” He looked pleadingly at Niels.
Niels just shook his head, frustrated. “Well, I can’t stop you. But if you do try to follow him or something, you’re going to have to be incredibly careful or else you’ll be arrested for stalking. And I don’t think your Principal would be happy to find out his newest teacher was stalking the family of one of his students.”
“I’ll be very careful. Um, is Eirikur listening to this conversation too?” Tino squinted at the screen to see behind Niels.
“Yeah.” A muffled voice came from behind the camera.
“Am I ever going to have a private conversation with just you Niels?” asked Tino, rolling his eyes a little.
Niels shrugged. “Probably not.”
“Well, I’ll leave you two alone. Talk to you later, alright?”
“Don’t get arrested please.”
Tino winced, imagining having to explain to his Principal about being arrested and why. “I’ll try not to. I promise.”
Skype gurgled again and the video window went blank.
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But on the other hand, Niels had a good point. Between the two of them, Niels had always been the good one at being calm and objective and Tino had always valued his opinion.
The Norwegian was one of his closest and oldest friends. When Tino was in primary school, there had been some sort of Nordic Pen Pal exchange thing at his school where students from one country wrote to students of another. He ended up with a Norwegian boy one year ahead of him and they had exchanged letters and just kept going after the program stopped. Letters became phone calls which eventually became e-mails and Skype. It would seem strange to many that the two had only met in person ten times but they had known each other for the greater portion of both their lives.
Tino didn’t know Eirikur quite as long. He vividly remembered the scandal in Neils’ family when it came out that his father had had an affair and that Niels had a half-brother in Iceland. But once the two boys had met each other, they became inseparable. Eirikur had come over to Norway every summer from then on to live with Niels’ family and was now attending college in Norway and sharing an apartment with Niels year round. It had taken a bit for Tino to get to know Eirikur but over time the two of them had become good friends as well.
But right now, there wasn’t much he could do right now. He might as well go and walk Hanatamago and get some work done for tomorrow.
Monday arrived and Tino waited, nervous for what he would see when Peter walked in the classroom. But as his class filed in and he saw Peter; there were no obvious band-aids that he could see. Tino released the breath he’d been holding and started to take attendance.
The day went smoothly and the class moved through math, lit and discussion, recess, science, music with the music instructor then lunch and the second longer recess. It was as the second recess was ending that Tino finally was able to talk to Peter. As the class moved back into the classroom, Tino saw something bright red going up the inside of Peter’s arm.
“Peter! Wait for a second please.” Tino pulled Peter to the side of the hall and looked at his arm in horror. Peter had five band-aids on his arm starting at his wrist and moving up, completely covering the inside of his wrist.
“What happened to your wrist?” Tino asked in alarm, taking Peter’s hand and turning it over so he could see the underside of his arm clearly.
“Nothing” Peter said, looking a little surprised at Tino’s tone of voice. “Aren’t they great? They have ninjas on them!”
It was true. The band-aids were red with little black ninjas on them. But Tino was too distressed to take much notice. How had he missed these earlier?
“Peter, I don’t understand. Did you hurt yourself?”
“No, of course not,” Peter said, rolling his eyes a little.
“Well, if you don’t need them could you please take the band-aids off and -”
“No!” Peter yanked his hand out of Tino’s and jerked away from him.
“Peter!”
Tino was stunned as Peter hid his arm behind his back and scooted even farther away from him.
“I don’t want to take them off,” Peter muttered and refused to meet Tino’s eyes. “I won’t take them off. It’s my arm. You can’t make me.”
“Alright. Okay. I won’t make you take them off. Calm down.” Tino spoke softly, trying not upset Peter any more than he already had. “I just wanted to know why you still had so many band-aids on. That’s all.”
“I already told you on Friday,” Peter grumbled.
“Yes you did,” agreed Tino. “I was just double checking.”
Peter scowled. “Can I go back inside the class now please?”
Tino nodded and Peter fled.
That was it. He would not let this continue.
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I’m going to make some small adjustments so the school is more Swedish so Tino will be called Tino by his students and no more bells. Just a small little tweak. Feel free to critique if you want.
C1: Thanks! Hehe, I love biology so I suspect most the lessons written will be science related.
OP: Characterization is so important so I’m glad to see that I’m doing well. Definitely let me know if my characterization starts to wobble. I took into account your comment about reassuring Finland and made a few adjustments for it. I can easily remove the FrUK but the RusFin must stay or my plot dies. But this is definitely SuFin. ^_^ Haha, and don’t worry about correcting my English. I’m just a biology major who screws up English on a regular basis. I really happy that you like it so far.
C2: Thanks! Yes, this prompt is adorable so I’m happy to try and give it a shot.
C3: Believe me, I am so grateful for this information! I looked all over the net but I couldn’t find much about actual teachers and students in Sweden. I heard that school was like that in Finland but I wasn’t sure if Sweden was the same. It makes me wish I could have gone to school in Sweden. Ah well...
Random!anon: Wow, you’re from Israel? This meme is more international than I thought.
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