Our Life Together

Morning Monsters

"Liam, you gotta stay awake." I hand him some breakfast "You have that test today."

"I'm too tired." He mumbles.

"It's Friday, after today you have 2 days of sleeping in." Brad tries to help "If you go to school I'll give you $20."

"Okay!" He perks up immediately.

"Brad!" I glare over "You don't need to bribe him to go to school. He's going either way."

He ignores me and hands Liam the money anyway.

"Dad, I'm tired too!" Gabe adds.

"Yeah, me too daddy!" Jack acts like he's sleeping.

"Good job, Brad." I walk away to finish their lunches.

Brad hands Gabe $20 and Jack $10 since he doesn't know the difference yet. They're all happy with this and actually not horrible monsters the rest of the morning.

I wake up Olivia to get her ready for the day since Brad and I both work. She is hungry right away and screams the whole time I'm trying to get her dressed. I eventually give up and let her eat while I walk down to make sure Brad doesn't do anything else ridiculous.

"Mommy?" Jack runs up to me right away with chocolate all over his face and hands "I have cookie?"

"It looks like you already had one, buddy." I walk towards the kitchen "You don't need anymore."

"But I didn't!" He fights rubbing his hands on his clean, white, shirt "See!"

"So then what's all over your shirt and face?" I ask.

"Uh. Gabe do it!"

"Nice try, Jack." I grab his hands to finish washing them and points towards Brad "Go tell daddy you need a new shirt."

Brad takes him upstairs to get changed while I make sure the other two are ready. They throw all their stuff in their backpacks and I notice that Gabe is really quiet. He's never this quiet.

"What's wrong, Gabe? You feel okay?" I help him get all his things together when I notice a note that has my name on it. He sees it and turns completely white.

"I'm sorry, mom." He says handing it to me. I grab it with my free hand and start to read. It's basically just a letter from his teacher for Brad and I about his behavior.  In the note, he says that Gabe shows a lack of effort towards his work, and often turns to being funny when he should be serious. At the end, he asks that we call him to talk about this because he thinks he's learning to do this at home.

"What the fuck?" I stand there holding it in shock. He's basically blaming Brad and I and our careers for this.

"I don't try to be bad, mom." Gabe is clearly upset about all of this "He yells at me all the time and then I can't listen."

"Don't worry, dad and I will fix it." I lean down to hug him.

"Dad's fixing what?" Brad asks walking back into the kitchen.  He sees the note and after reading it looks pissed.

"What is this?" He asks rhetorically "Gabe, what's this teacher's name?"

"Mr. Wolf."

"Well I'm talking to him when we drop you off." He grabs his car keys and walks towards the garage.  Jack runs right up to the car, helping Brad buckle him in and the other two sit in their seats. I follow them out, wanting to go with for this meeting, and put Olivia in her seat.

The whole ride there is mostly Olivia crying, Liam complaining about it, and Jack talking about the most random things ever. Once we drop him and Liv off at daycare, the car is completely silent. Gabe almost seems a little scared of what's going on, which makes me mad because that means this teacher really is rude to him.

"I already don't like this guy." Brad looks around the classroom "What kind of first grade teacher has those creepy posters on the wall? That's just weird."

"It is!" I agree "I bet he still lives with his parents and those are the posters his mom won't let him keep in his room."

"Excuse me?" A guy, probably the teacher, walks up behind us "Who are you?"

"We're Gabriel's parents." Brad answers "We saw your note and were hoping to talk to you."

"Oh yeah, the actors." He rolls his eyes mocking the word. We follow him into his classroom, bringing Gabe with.

"So you saw my note?" No, we just lied and said we did.

"Yes, earlier this morning. We had a few questions about it." I try to act reasonable "You said Gabe has problems listening, and that's surprising to us.  At home he isn't anything like that, and he has never had any problems doing his homework that he learns how to do by listening to your lesson."

"Well, then he must just be lucky." He laughs at Brad and I "I can assure you that he does not pay attention at all.  I don't know how he would be able to do his work at home, you guys can't be too well at this work.  You aren't the teachers."

"Do you have a problem with us?" Brad asks bluntly "You're really acting like you do. I don't care what you think about me, but whatever it is should not be taken out on my child."

"You know what? I do have a problem with both of you." He admits "I have a problem with people like you, who have things handed to them, having kids and dropping them off here relying on us to educate them because you aren't smart enough to do it yourselves. Parents should help the teachers put by at least helping the kids..."

"Are you serious?!?" I cut him off "When has he EVER showed up to school without his work being done? We do help him, and honestly, the few things that he doesn't understand are easy for us! Just because we aren't teachers or doctors doesn't mean we're not smart. We just chose a different career than yours."

Mr. Wolf laughs at us, again making it seem like he thinks we're idiots.  I wanna yell at him, but Brad won't let me.

"I think you should really be worried about how he thinks everything is funny."  The teacher switches the mood and is much more serious "He disrupts the class by doing that."

"We'll work on that with him."  Brad replies seriously "You do seem to be overreacting though.  He might disrupt the class, but you act like he let's nobody learn at any time."

"All I ask is that you work on it with him.  I think if you do that then maybe he'll be able to listen better."

I turn to Gabe, trying to keep cool, and he looks like he's ready to burst.

"But he's so mean, mom!" He finally yells "I'm the only one that ever gets in trouble!  It's not fair."

"That is not true."  The teacher tries to defend himself, but both Brad and I can see right through the lie.

"Whatever your problem is makes you look like an asshole."  Brad stands up a little too calmly "You need to get over yourself and leave my son alone!"

He grabs our hands and practically pulls us out of the classroom.  We let Gabe come to work with us since he doesn't want to be around that teacher, and I promise to get his class switched.