JOHN BENDER’S TIMELINE ––––
( NOTE THAT THIS ONLY GOES UNTIL AGE 21 ; I HEADCANON THAT CLAIRE COMES BACK FROM NEW YORK AND THEY REKINDLE THEIR RELATIONSHIP , GET MARRIED , ETC . THE FOLLOWING IS FOR STORY BUILDING ONLY AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS I SEE FIT . ALSO CONSIDER THAT THERE ARE PLENTY OF TRIGGERS INVOLVING ALCOHOL , DRUGS , AND DEATH IN THIS POST , SO IF YOU ARE EASILY TRIGGER , PLEASE DO NOT READ ! )
April 19th, 1967: Born to parents Tina and Johnathan Sr. Bender.
July 1977 –––– 10 years old: Older half-brother William leaves for college. John’s mother and father’s relationship with alcohol increases immensely. Mental and emotional abuse begins.
January 7th, 1979 –––– 12 years old: First strike across John’s cheek is given.
April 19th, 1981 –––– 14 years old: John’s grandmother gives him a bottle of expensive cologne.
August 27th, 1981 –––– 14 years old: Grandmother on his mother’s side passes away. John begins to act out in school. Tina drinks more heavily. Physical, emotional, and mental abuse escalates.
November 2nd, 1981 –––– 14 years old: John starts school at Shermer High.
December 14th, 1981 –––– 14 years old: John gets suspended for punching a teacher. Behavioral issues escalate.
May 1982 –––– 15 years old: John meets Nikki Blake. She introduces him to alcohol and drugs. She begins to groom him. That same year, she hits him, and then overdoses.
March 24th, 1984 –––– 17 years old: John Bender reports for Saturday detention. (And every Saturday for the rest of his Junior year).
March 26th, 1984 –––– 17 years old: Everything is back to the way it was. Claire ignores John. John goes out and drinks his weight in liquor. He comes home and fights his father. His mother is caught in the cross fire of a wrench that’s been thrown, and has to go to the hospital.
April 19th, 1984 –––– 18 years old: John finds a small space to rent with an older couple, Leann and Jude, in exchange for helping work on cars in their shop. John vows never to drink/do drugs again, and he promises himself not to be like his parents.
November 5th, 1984 –––– 18 years old: John returns for his final year of high school. He’s able to afford semi-decent looking clothing, and he begins his journey in trying to graduate.
December 24th, 1984 –––– 18 years old: John falls off the wagon after his mother seeks him out to tell him his father had a heart attack and passed away. Jude finds him passed out in the snow in the park, takes him home, and helps him get back on track.
January 18th, 1985 –––– 18 years old: John and Claire are going steady. He’s apologized to teachers and students. Principal Dick is still not on his side, and hounds him until graduation day.
May 25th, 1985 –––– 19 years old: John dabs on the last bit of cologne his grandmother had given him. He wears a tie and button up shirt he’s gotten from the second hand store down the street from the mechanics shop, and the new shiny shoes Leann bought him. He’s given a special award for most improved student. He kisses Claire after they’ve thrown their caps. Leann and Jude applaud him from their seats.
June 1st, 1986 –––– 19 years old: John and Claire break up when Claire goes off to college in New York. He drinks alcohol for the first time in 2 years, and Jude and Leann are there to help him again.
September 2nd, 1986 –––– 19 years old: John starts at a trade school to become a professional mechanic, with the help of Jude and Leann.
April 19th, 1988 –––– 21 years old: Jude and Leann’s birthday present for John is the same cologne from his 14th birthday, along with a two year sobriety pin.
June 5th, 1988 –––– 21 years old: John graduates trade school with an official degree in Automotive Mechanics and his name is put on the sign for Moore’s Mechanic Shop (which he inherits at 35).