Tom Holland Fatherhood Series

First Bad Grade

6 years old

Parker sat in his high chair, spooning cheerios into his mouth with his rubber spongebob spoon, a skill he recently picked up from watching his big sister at the table. His dark brown eyes flickered between the television and Charlie, who was sat on the opposite end of the table, dipping her french toast sticks into a bowl of syrup. You stood at the counter of your new house, still not getting used to the big space as compared to your tiny apartment that you spent the first 7 years of your relationship in. You faced a wall of windows, leading to the back garden where a play set was half built, courtesy of your husband and his brothers. The living room was settled to the left of the kitchen, and was currently scattered with toddler toys and Charlie's coloring supplies. The open space was so new and you thought the kids were adjusting nicely, for being 6 and 2 years old.

Parker was young and you weren't too worried about how he'd take the move, but you were worried about Charlie. She had all of her friends from her old school and the neighbor boy you thought she had a crush on, Noah, that would be left behind in the move across Kingston. She seemed upset when you and Tom talked to her about it, but you couldn't go on living in the 2- bedroom apartment. Parker had been sleeping in yours and Tom's room since he was born, but now that he had outgrown his crib, it's time for him to have his own room and for you and Tom to get your privacy back.

Charlie had seemed to have adjusted well to her new school, at least so you thought, until the first round of progress reports were mailed to the house about two months into the term.

You waited until you got back from dropping the kids off at school and nursery school to FaceTime Tom, who was on the press tour for Onward 2.

"Hey darlin'" Tom picked up the phone with a smile on his face, which you saw through the screen and it immediately made your mood better. You held the off white paper on your lap as you caught up with Tom on how his interviews were going. You always let him get out his excitement before you gave him any news that was less than great because you didn't want to damper his enthusiasm that you loved so much. "...so Pratt invited us to he and Katherine's baby shower. I think we should go." Tom finished, after quite a long-winded story.

"Of course," you replied, still twiddling the paper between your fingers.

"Okay, what's the bad news?" Tom asked, his brows raising as he looked at you through the phone.

"What makes you think there's bad news?" you asked, almost mocking an offended tone.

"Your eyes keep looking down and you're never this quiet unless you're going to give me bad news," Tom replied, matter-of-factly.

You sighed, cursing yourself for how well he read you. You didn't want to bring him down, but your daughter's grades were not good at all, and he deserved to know and you wanted his input on how to handle it.

"Charlie's progress report came in the post today," you started, holding the paper up to he could see the back.

"Oh? How's my little genius doing?" He loved hearing about the kids when he was away. He always says it makes him feel like he's home with them.

"Well, she got an unsatisfactory in reading. That's what I called to talk to you about," you sighed, looking down at the paper to reread the mark yourself.

"What? We read to her all the time. She reads her nighttime books with me," Tom frowned, and you could tell his mood was soured.

"I think I'm going to schedule a meeting with her teacher. Did you want me to wait until you came back?"

"Please."

Tom was home the next week and you had scheduled the meeting for Wednesday evening so you'd have time to drop off the kids at their Nan's house before heading over there. Mrs. Cooper, her year 2 teacher, seemed very nice and welcomed you into the empty classroom and offered you each a seat. Tom's hand rested on the small of your back as you passed through the door and sat on the opposite side of her desk.