Unhappy In Its Own Way

A Boy/Girl Meets World fanfic

By Auburn Red

Well the Tribal Council has spoken. :D Thank you to all the rave reviews for "Parent Meets Teacher"! I have never had so many favorites and reviews happen so quickly. Thanks to you all, I am doing more with this story! The first chapter is a retooling of "Parent Meets Teacher" with more chapters added.

Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. They belong to Michael Jacobs and Disney.) While the first two chapters are set shortly after the events of "Girl Meets Flaws," chapter three on will move forward towards the current season.

Author's Note: Because of developments in the Girl Meets World canon, i.e. "Girl Meets Farkle," this story's status has been moved to an AU story. Think of it as what if Jennifer's personality hadn't changed much and was the same "darling" we knew in her high school years?

Summary: Formerly "Parent Meets Teacher." Cory Matthews holds a parent-teacher conference with Stuart Minkus about Farkle and learns some interesting things about his former nemesis' family. Can he and his friends and family help put a stop to a bad situation before it gets worse?

"All happy families are alike; Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." ~ Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Chapter One: Parent Meets Teacher

Despite the beliefs of many people, students and otherwise, parent-teacher conferences were not unheard of for Stuart or Farkle Minkus. Of course the issues were never academic or disciplinary, but it wouldn't be the first time that a Minkus was called to speak to a teacher in private. Minkus sighed before he knocked on the door. It probably wouldn't be the last. He stood in front of the classroom door and knocked. "Come in," Cory Matthew's voice said. It was uncanny how he still sounded the way he did in high school. Minkus opened the door as Cory was bent over some papers, his curly head at first not raised until Minkus cleared his throat.

Minkus stifled a chuckle. He would have bet even money that Cory Matthews would be the last person to become a teacher and shape young minds, well maybe second to the last after Shawn Hunter. Now here he was, as far as he could tell or as far as Farkle told him, he was good at it.

"Hi Minkus how ya doing?" Cory asked shaking his hand. Stuart Minkus returned the greeting warily. Cory was never friendly to Minkus even when he visited during Career Day. But then again, they were adults now. They should have gotten past, the teasing, the verbal bullying, and the arguments that made their sixth grade year, particularly Minkus' so difficult. At least that's what Minkus told himself.

"Fine Cory, how are you?" he asked. "Is it about that grade? I told you before I really don't think that Farkle deserves that A-!"

Cory blinked slightly taken aback. He was used to parents coming to him saying that their kid didn't deserve an "F' or a "D," and couldn't he retest them or grade on a curve? (Of course the low grades as the high ones were certainly deserved but try telling some grade-proud hyperactive parent that!). But then again he had known for years that neither Stuart nor Farkle Minkus were normal students or parents. "Uh, no it's not about that," Cory said. He waved at a desk. "Have a seat." Minkus sat at one of the front desks shifting his tall legs uncomfortably. (6"3 take that former jocks, he taunted in his head to those who picked on him because of his size). "Did Farkle talk to you about what happened yesterday in class with the other kids?"

Minkus shook his head. "No, we don't talk about things like that." He said. "I help him with his homework though." The assignments were always fun and interesting for the Minki such as when Stuart showed his son the pictures taken by Farkle's Great-Grandpa Ginsburg who worked at Cafe Hey in his younger years. What an interesting historic journey that was and to find out that Farkle could have met his friends a lot earlier, that Stuart could have met them a lot earlier, well it may have saved him a lot of awkwardness in school. It also brought Grandpa Ginsburg to life, the only relative who really ever understood the "weirdness" that was Stuart Minkus (no doubt if he had lived to see his great-grandson, he would have felt the same way about Farkle). Anyway, those homework assignments were sources of bonding between a genius father and son.

Cory was confused. He and Topanga talked about everything with Riley from school assignments to social problems. He could sense on Career Day that both Stuart and Farkle seemed close. Was there something going on at home? Most parents would have learned about bullies from their kids, but then he knew some who didn't. Either the kid didn't tell them because he wanted to face his troubles himself or there was some reason at home to keep him from opening up about being bullied. "Well one of the students picked on Farkle telling him he was weird." The teacher could see his former nemesis give a sarcastic look like 'so what else is new.' "He called him nothing-"

Minkus rose from his seat and headed for the door. "What is that kid's name? I will find out and find out who his father is, get my lawyer, and sue the living shit out of him!" He probably would have done it too, but Corey held him back. He had never heard Minkus swear and certainly had never seen him that mad before, irritated yes, frustrated yes many times (in fact that made the teasing so much more fun) but that furious and filled with rage, never. Minkus seemed so different from the scientific logical genius that he knew for so long.

"Calm down, Minkus," Cory said. "It's alright. We fixed the issue in class." He quickly explained about how the kids wrote their flaws on their foreheads and Billy admitted that he was jealous of Farkle. Billy wiped the writing off of Farkle's forehead. Billy apologized and all was well in the world once more. Minkus still looked skeptical and his expression seemed frosty, but at least he didn't get mad.

Minkus sat back down. "So why are you telling me this now?" he asked. "It seemed that this Billy learned a lesson in humility." Something you and Shawn could have learned a long time ago, among other people in my life, just saying, Minkus thought sardonically.

"Well there were some things that concern me," Cory asked. "Especially about Farkle's behavior."

"He didn't fight him did he?" Minkus asked.

"No," Cory said.

"He didn't play pranks did he?" Minkus inquired.

"No," Cory said. "He's a great kid."

"You don't have to tell me that," Minkus reminded him fondly. "So what's the problem?"

"Well," Cory hesitated. "I'm concerned not just as Farkle's teacher, but the father of one of his closest friends. Has Farkle ever seen a therapist or been tested for any, um, issues like-?"

Minkus prompted. "You mean like Asperger's or Juvenile Autism, maybe even a mild form of schizophrenia?" Cory shrugged as if he didn't want to fill in the blanks but nodded like he couldn't deny the question either. Minkus laughed bitterly. "It's funny when we were in school, behavior characteristics like that simply meant you were a nerd. Get all 'A's and you were a teacher's pet. Dress differently and wear pocket protectors and you were just a weirdo. Now there's a name for it, a condition as if medicine and therapy could treat it. As if the stigma of being weird in school wasn't bad enough," Corey was about to say something, but Minkus continued. "The answer is no. Farkle has not been tested for any of those things."

"Don't you think that he should?" Cory asked.

"Why?" Minkus asked. "Because he knows more about sociopolitical consortia than most people his age? Because he can discuss quantum physics about as well as most kids discuss-"he prompted as if he couldn't think of a name.

"-Hunger Games or The Avengers," Cory answered. "Maybe anything with Channing Tatum."

"Alright, I will assume these are shows or movies," Minkus answered. For a moment Cory and Minkus laughed at the distant memory of the time when exiled from his normal friends because of a disastrous hair experiment, Cory ended up sitting with the "weird" kids and the kids told Cory about the shows that they watched.

Minkus returned to his original logical persona. "Anyway, no, I don't think that he should. If he had any emotional problems or was a harm to himself or others, then I would in a heartbeat. I'm aware of the symptoms." Minkus didn't want to admit it but sometimes he was hyper observant about such behaviors in his son. He didn't want him to get through school doing even a third of the things that he did to get by. So far he was lucky. "But I won't do it. Kids can be cruel enough, sometimes adults can be too. I won't put Farkle through that stigma dragging him from specialist to specialist to psychiatrists as if something is wrong with him because there isn't. I won't take him to the other part of the school because it's for gifted, but troubled students with emotional problems, only to be forgotten by his peers and his parents." Cory was about to say that he suggested no such thing towards Farkle and that John Quincy Adams didn't even have "another part of the school," but Minkus continued as if the history teacher was no longer in the room. "What kind of parent would do that? I can deal with Farkle's genius and eccentricities, because I understand him. No one else does. What kind of parent doesn't even make an effort to understand their own child?"

During Minkus' monologue he rose again and paced back and forth. Cory had suspected that Minkus had stopped talking about Farkle a long time ago. Come to think of it when he was in school with Minkus, he had never seen either of his parents show up for any of his events. He knew that if Cory had won as many awards as Minkus had, Alan and Amy Matthews would be in the front row cheering their son on (well after they recovered from initial shock that their son had passed any academic awards in the first place). "What kind of parent would think that their son is weird?" Cory supplied touching Minkus' shoulder.

Minkus sighed heavy. "The type of parents that are unprepared for their child's genius and are overwhelmed by his oddities. The type of parents that are furious when their third grade son points out flaws in his father's bookkeeping. The type of parents that avoid talking about their son to their friends when his recitals of Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare ceased to be precocious after he turned seven, became freaky instead. The type of parents that wonder why their kid doesn't take up a sport or go outside to play with their friends. The type of parent that wonders why their son isn't normal." Minkus stopped as if the confession wore him out. "I can't put Farkle through that."

"You're not that type of parent," Cory agreed. "You're better than that."

"He's well adjusted," Minkus said as if searching for validation. "He has friends, something I never had a lot of," or any after a time, he thought. "He always talks about Riley, Maya, and Lucas."

"They are tight," Cory said. It was clear that Minkus and Farkle were very close. Perhaps the fact that Farkle opened himself enough to trust Riley, Maya, and Lucas when Minkus did not have very many close friends, Cory could attribute that to Minkus' own successes as a parent rather than his own parents' flaws in not recognizing their son for what he was. Still one thing puzzled him. "I am confused, though. You and Farkle are close, I can see that. But after he was teased, Farkle didn't stay home. He continued to electronically listen to the lectures from Janitor Harley's closet. Wouldn't he have at least told you about it, maybe even faked sick rather than go back to school?"

Once again, Minkus' scientific grade-proud persona was up. "You have met my son haven't you? He's never missed school a day in his life." He said that with pride and Cory could recognize a touch of austerity as if he wanted that to be the only reason. Cory suspected that there was something else Minkus was not telling him about Farke's home life. Time to test the waters a bit. "Well if you like we can set up some strategies if this problem comes up again, you, me, Farkle, his mother-"

"-No," Minkus said so abruptly that Cory drew back. "I'll be glad to discuss it with you and Farkle, but not his mother. She wouldn't come anyway."

"Well wouldn't she if she knew that we could help her son?" Cory asked. While he knew Farkle's mother in high school, surely she would have matured hadn't she?

Minkus looked around. "You don't see her here, do you?" he asked sharply. "We both got the phone call. Only I showed up."

"Are there problems at home?" Cory asked.

"Is the Pythagorean Theorem the sum of the squares of half the base and the height the square of either of the other two sides of length? " Minkus asked. Cory looked confused so Minkus translated. "Yes, there are. Cory you married your childhood sweetheart and you are very happy together," he asked.

"Sure absolutely," Cory answered.

"I couldn't be happier for you, well maybe slightly jealous," Minkus said remembering his childhood crush on Topanga. "You are very fortunate. Not everyone is."

Minkus looked outside the classroom window in silence. Cory understood the allusion. He had to phrase it as delicately as he could. He didn't want to be accusing, but he wanted to make sure that he knew the facts before he spoke to someone in authority. "Is there abuse going on?" he asked.

"No," Minkus said. "Not physical anyway. I wouldn't tolerate that and she knows it too.

But Jennifer doesn't always have a lot of patience for her husband and son. Now she really does have some psychological problems. She has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder." He said. "When she's medicated properly she's alright for the most part, but when she isn't or when she has been drinking she often says things, calls Farkle names like 'Freak", 'Weirdo,' and sometimes-"

"-'Nothing,'" Cory guessed now understanding why Minkus flew off the handle when he heard Billy's insults. "Minkus, verbal abuse is still abuse. I am supposed to call DFS if I hear about abuse." In the state of New York, Cory was considered a Mandatory Reporter someone who had to report signs of abuse.

"No," Minkus said desperately. "I can handle it! The last thing I need to hear from is Family Services! Besides you are only required to call in the events of physical or sexual abuse or charges of child neglect and none of that is going on!"

Cory nodded. Technically that was true and he was aware that verbal abuse could be very hard to report unless the verbal abuse is done in public (and nine times out of ten the verbally abusive parent is clever enough not to do that). It comes down to he said/she said and can be retracted by the victim later or taken to be blown out of proportion.

"She just loses her temper on occasion and says things that she doesn't mean that's all," Minkus added quickly.

Cory reminded him. "But Minkus, if it's getting to the point where Farkle doesn't want to go home, then something needs to be done."

"Like getting a divorce," Minkus sarcastically asked. "Jennifer would rather stay a rich woman with the last name of Minkus than consent to a divorce. She likes the galas, she likes the money, likes the designer wardrobe, likes to play the perfect hostess, but she doesn't like all that comes with it. She doesn't like the 'freaks' that are her husband and son. Even if I obtained a divorce, she is manipulative enough to fight it. It was her father's money that started my company. Her cousin is my lawyer, well you get the idea. I could lose everything."

Corey was stunned. "You would rather stay in a marriage that makes you, Farkle, and possibly her miserable than lose your money?"

Minkus shook his head. "If it were just a matter of the money, the helicopter, the brownstone, everything I would let her have it. Well except the company, I worked my tail off for it," he said. "It was my ideas and technologies that made Minkus International what it is. Her family's money just allowed it to go from a starter to a Fortune 500. But she would make sure that she obtained full custody of Farkle. She may be mentally ill at times, and a social drinker-" Alcoholic, Corey wanted to supply "-But she is smart, clever, and manipulative enough to make sure that I never saw Farkle again. I won't leave my son alone with her. He's alone with her enough as it is."

Minkus remembered when he and Jennifer Bassett first dated and decided to get married. While they went to the same high school, they barely interacted with each other until college when her father recognized Minkus as the type of "brilliant young man that (he) could finance." She was perfect for him, blond, attractive, intelligent in her own way, and wealthy. She also had a lot of culture, class, and was very understanding at first. While Stuart Minkus didn't exactly subscribe to the feeling of love beyond it being a rising of natural pheromones and body temperature to somewhat uncomfortable status, he suspected that he was really in love with Jennifer. He felt that they were a perfect match, physically, intellectually, and emotionally. He should have seen that sometimes things can appear too perfect.

He began to recognize the cracks in their marriage even early on before Farkle was born, most of them he tried to dismiss or ignore, so determined was he to get his company moving and keep his marriage intact. Stuart might have dismissed receiving statement after statement from stores and credit card companies revealing that Jennifer had overspent yet again. He might have disregarded when after a few too many champagne flutes, Jennifer would tell all and sundry what she thought of her and Stuart's sex life or what she thought should have been going on in their sex life. Minkus may have even dismissed the times when she would demand this car or that bracelet, or whatever material object, her every conversation a litany of "gimme, gimme, gimme," as if her husband were nothing more than an ATM to get money from and not a man who worked hard to keep his burgeoning company afloat and support his wife's affluent lifestyle. He could even put up with her sometimes explosive temper which often put housekeepers and anyone else who was unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire at odds. He could live with all of that and not say a word.

But what echoed throughout their brain was shortly after Farkle was born and Minkus came home hearing the baby crying in his room. Minkus poked his head in and saw that Farkle clearly had been unattended. Where was his nanny and where was Jennifer? He heard the sound of a giggle coming from the master bedroom and a man's laugh in return. He opened the door to see Jennifer lying in bed with the night desk clerk at their apartment, some dark-haired handsome character. He had to hand it to her, at least it wasn't some cliché like the gardener or the pool boy. Jennifer and her paramour rose from the bed flushed and embarrassed about being caught, not about what they had done. "Stuart, what the hell are you doing here?" Jennifer asked in a rage as she slipped back on her teddy and bathrobe.

"I live here," Minkus said. "What's his excuse?" he asked acidly pointing at the clerk who hurriedly put on his slacks and shirt over his boxers. "Mrs. Perkepsian downstairs called me at work to tell me that she heard Farkle crying for over an hour. She thought that you weren't home or something happened." He looked from his wife to her lover. "Well you're here and nothing happened so- Where's Mrs. Brown? " He asked about the nanny. He was actually surprised with himself for taking things so calmly.

"She quit," Jennifer explained. "She didn't like my visitors." Quit or more than likely was fired, Minkus thought

"Maybe I should go," the clerk said.

"Maybe you'd better," Jennifer sharply retorted as if he were nothing more than the help sent to meet her trivial needs.

"Oh no, please finish," Minkus sarcastically said. "I would hate to interrupt such an important conversation between you two."

The clerk buttoned his shirt and asked. "See you again, Mrs. Minkus?"

"Yeah right," Jennifer said icily before the man left.

Minkus gave his wife a cold look, but his son's crying kept him from saying anything right away. He tended Farkle, changed him, put powder on his tiny body, and lay him down for his nap before he returned to his wife. "Do you mind telling me what that was about?" he asked. "If you want out, just say the word and I'll be glad to give it to you."

Jennifer laughed and clapped her hands. "You know for a genius, you're pretty stupid! You won't do it."

"Try me," Minkus dared.

"And I can't let you do that, Stuart. You see I would have to go through the trouble of having to find a job, can you imagine how awful that would be?"

"I'll make sure that you receive proper alimony and you are granted joint custody if you want," Minkus offered.

Jennifer Bassett-Minkus smiled. "Joint custody, now that's a good one. Now I would be glad to go through the boredom of a court hearing, splitting assets, blah blah blah if you want. All I would have to do is push myself in front of a door and say that you hit me or I could tell them that because his father is a workaholic who rarely spends time with his son." Working extra hours to support your wants, Minkus wanted to counter, but chose not to in case Jennifer lost her temper. "I could easily gain full custody of that brat! The only way you will see him will be through binoculars. If by some chance that you get custody, well I can find out where he is and a mother's love should open many doors especially to apartments or schools, shouldn't it?"

The scales fell from Minkus' eyes. All of the misbehaviors that he tolerated, the difficulties that he tucked away into a logical mind that ignored the details for the big picture of having a wealthy influential wife were gone. For the first time, he saw his wife for who she really was. Minkus knew that she had no real love or affection for Farkle and would only keep him from his father as a way of hurting him or as a bargaining chip to get her way. She was right about one thing, what kind of genius was he to not recognize this sooner?

"The way I see, Stewie is this," Jennifer said sweetly. "You get what you want, daddy's money. You get to start your little company, become as rich and famous as you want to be, prove to the world that you aren't just some nothing weirdo from Philly. You even get the perfect wife and doting mother. I get what I want, the house, the lifestyle, and get to have my fun on the side. Everybody wins and we all go home happy. But if you so much as call an attorney, I could make this hearing extremely unpleasant, so what do you say, darling?" She said "darling" with such venom. Minkus felt like he was in some science fiction or action film where the hero was listening to the villain reveal their master plan. But this was real, this was his life and it was Farkle's.

In a strange way, he felt sorry for Jennifer too. Maybe this was the only way she could ever really be satisfied with her life, to find pleasure in retail therapy, extramarital affairs, alcohol, and manipulating others to get what she wanted. She wasn't always in control of herself in her bouts of mania, maybe this was some way of gaining the control that she desperately needed.

After all, it wasn't like Minkus was the most attentive of husbands working all hours and he made no secret that he liked the financial gains behind their marriage. Jennifer was the archetypal bored housewife finding her outlets through her own pleasures and she was right. She married him fairly young and she didn't really have much of a drive to find any type of employment. She didn't have to after having been spoiled and coddled first by her parents then her husband. What would she possibly do?

And Farkle. He was the light in Minkus' eyes. Farkle made everything worth it. Stuart couldn't have Jennifer gain full custody with him obtaining nothing more than visitation rights if even that.

"Let's face it Stuart," Jennifer taunted. "You love me and you would be nothing without me."

"You're right," Minkus sighed. "Alright, it's a deal." He shook her hand as if laying out a business merger.

Jennifer smiled like a cat with a canary in her mouth. "Good, now I saw this wonderful Cartier set that I just have to have."

Before she finished the word out, Minkus opened his wallet and gave her money. He could hear Farkle crying through the bedroom again. "Aren't you going to take care of that?" he asked Jennifer as she changed into her clothing.

"Why?" she asked as she put the money in the purse. "I have some shopping to get to. You want that little nothing so much, he's your problem." She walked out the door as Minkus entered his son's bedroom sighing and picked up his infant son.

Minkus didn't tell Cory any of that. After all, how could he understand anything about an unhappy marriage and what it did to both parties? How could Cory Matthews understand how hard it was to make a failed union work and to keep up appearances so that one wouldn't lose the only reason that kept the parties in the marriage in the first place? He just told Cory how he dealt with the problems at home, the way he always did when he was a kid getting away from his bewildered parents, he hid. "I spend a lot of time at work. Work is where I am at my best where I don't have to fight the histrionics of an unstable wife and mother."

"So you would rather have Farkle deal with them himself," Cory asked. "He can't deal with them forever. One day she won't just settle with words. One day those words will become actions and she will physically hurt him. I'm giving you 24 hours, If you don't do something about it, I will."

Minkus sighed and winced. It was ironic, he stayed in his marriage for Farkle's sake and now the marriage was what was hurting his son. He felt tears come to his eyes but kept them hidden. "What do you suggest that I do then?" He felt trapped.

Cory held out a business card. "Here is the number for victims of abuse. It includes groups for parents as well as kids." Minkus took the card. "They can help you both deal with the problems at home and help Jennifer too."

"You keep these for all occasions?" Stuart asked incredulously.

"You'd be surprised how many students or parents need to contact someone like this," Cory said ruefully.

Minkus looked at the number. "Jennifer's pretty stubborn. She doesn't think that she has a problem."

Cory nodded. "Then we can deal with that as well. They help you with arranging interventions and contacting the proper authorities if she becomes physically violent. Also, you can call me and Topanga if you or Farkle want to talk. Of course Farkle can talk to Riley anytime he wants. Topanga can even help you obtain a divorce."

"She's not a divorce attorney," Minkus remarked.

"No but she knows some who are," Cory said. "They can help work with you so you can get full custody of Farkle."

Minkus looked closely at Cory confused. "Why are you doing this?"

Cory smiled. "Because Farkle is my student and my daughter's friend and I would like it if you and I could be friends too." Cory approached Minkus. "During that assignment about flaws, I realized something: people can change. Bullies like Harley Keiner and well…me as well as their victims. So it's my way of saying I'm sorry for the things that I did or said to you in school. I want to help you and Farkle, maybe help us both move on from who we were as kids."

Minkus thought for a minute. Cory really was trying. He was a different person from that taunting malcontent that Minkus knew in middle school. After all, he wasn't the same person either. Who was? He looked at the business card. He felt like his head and heart were battling for dominance. His head reminded him of all of the benefits to his marriage to Jennifer and the difficulties that would come with divorcing her. His heart was reminding him of Farkle and that it was a chance for him to feel safe.

"Alright, I will think about it, Cory, thank you." Farkle said.

"Well don't think too long," Cory warned as he led Minkus to the door. "I wouldn't sit on this if I were you."