A pair of bowed eyes make the floor an object that attracts more attention than anything else. With a pair of middle-aged married couples sitting facing her, the father who was folding his arms on his chest with the mother who was looking at her only daughter with worry.
"I promises to try harder, dad."
A clap on the hands of the half-old man in the air, letting out a light chuckle that again succeeded in breaking Violin's spirit.
"How many times have you said this? Are you going to be like this forever without any improvement? Instead of increasing, your grades have plummeted. Now, what can daddy be proud of you?"
With the capital of a book in the hands of the father, it has succeeded in becoming a powerful weapon to curse his own daughter. Because yesterday, Violin was faced with a sudden daily exam from the math teacher who was not present last Sunday.
Not explaining a bit of the material, the teacher only told the student to study the material from a thick book for ten minutes. Even so, Violin didn't want to completely blame the teacher, basically the brain she had couldn't match Felix's. The man was the only student who didn't take remedy because his grades were already above average. Obviously this made Violin jealous.
"Is it possible for you to not get a remedy like this once? Do you really think that getting a remedy can make you smarter?"
Her head was lowered down, her hands clasped together and she was sweating coldly. Making long hair past the shoulders to cover part of the face.
"Vio is trying hard, dear. She can do it, we have to give her support, not keep her spirits up like this. I'm sure, Vio can do it, everything needs a process, dear." The mother issued a reassuring sentence, that was the only thing she could always do when she found Violin being interrogated with her father.
"You said it's in process? How long will the process take? She's already in the twelfth grade, you know. If she can't change now, don't expect your child to be able to go to college."
The man got up, not forgetting to throw the book with a piece of medicine paper in the middle right on the table. Making Violin jump a little and close her eyes.
"It's never wrong for me to have a boy from the start. Boys can be relied on more than girls, if it's like this, who can continue daddy's business?" His limbs slowly stepped, making Violin clenched her hands into fists while gathering the courage to let out a sarcasm.
"I can do it, dad. Give me time and stop saying that daddy needs a boy. Besides, i didn't ask to be born from the start if it's just to make daddy satisfied with my work. Everything will be in vain, dad, it doesn't matter if you want a boy or girls." A sarcasm managed to escape from her mouth, earning a glare from her father.
"Don't pretend to be a strong person if you still have me to bear all your needs. As a child, you really have to be able to repay everything by making your parents proud!" Reply his father back.
"Parents shouldn't need demands from their children. I also has other goals in life, not just being a robot that is always being demanded, I can get tired too, dad."
There was a look of disappointment on her face, her hand moved to reach for the book, taking out the long piece of paper that had been in the middle all along, the paper that had created a debate between her and her father.
"Just so you know, even though my grades are like this, at least this is the result of my hard work, not looking at someone else's, dad. Fine, if you really don't need it, I'll tear it up in front of you."
Not giving a pause after her words, Violin tore the paper up to form several pieces into small pieces, leaving it scattered on the floor, not forgetting to give a bitter smile before actually getting away from there.
"You see? That's the result of your upbringing. You let her do whatever she wants, even if it's a useless thing. Now you see the result, right?" He said to his wife who was silent staring at the ravaged paper. A tired sigh emerged from her mouth as she stared at the back of her husband who was getting away.
-
Despite all the burdens and demands that always befall her from her father, Violin never feels free. All wishes of the middle-aged man must be obeyed, even though she has given a sarcasm that not all children can be as smart as he wants them to be.
Even so, Violin is still trying to reach that high point. After all, what child doesn't want to make their parents proud? Although Violin wants other things to be proud of herself, because grades will not guarantee everything will go well in the future.
"He's crazy, kid, always looking out for people, even though in the end he still loses."
"I heard, they're both in the hospital."
"It's really bad, they've never gotten along before, they always wanted to make a fuss. But now for the first time, you know, they had a competition last night. To make them both have to be hospitalized, maybe if there's a problem that's not small enough they're willing to -relain having to take matches for racing?"
"Well, how do I know, especially if the boy is always silent, I rarely hear his voice."
Some conversation between two male students managed to distract her. Her legs stepped to put the backpack that had perched on both of her shoulders, approached the male student to ask something.
There was another feeling that bothered her, especially when she couldn't find Leo's presence, who usually always fell asleep in a corner chair beside him with a headset that clumped his ears. In fact, usually the boy always comes first than the violin.
"Eh, by the way. Earlier I heard you talk about racing with the hospital. If I can ask, who are them?" She asked the two tall men who were leaning against the classroom door.
"That's it, your seat mate is really quiet, with Haikal. He said they had a wild motorbike race last night, and they ended up both in the ER. He said he had been moved to the hospital room."
Her eyes opened wide, imagining how the two of them competed in that race. As a classmate, Violin should have felt the need to know more about this than anyone else. But still, even though Leo had always kept himself covered up to the point where none of his background came from that man, she didn't know anything about it.
"Gosh! Then Leo—I mean, which hospital are they at?" The two men just shrugged their shoulders.
"I don't know. But you better ask Felix or Clara, because they're going to visit Leo and Haikal after school."
"Okay then, thanks for the news." Violin said before walking away from there.