Scorpion School for Gifted Minds
Chapter 1
Hello All! This is my first foray into Scorpion fanfic, but I'm glad to be part of such an awesome fandom. This AU idea just wouldn't leave me alone, so here it is. I've got several more ideas for it (Valentine's Day Dance, Christmas parties, etc), but it'll depend on how inspiration strikes (more reviews often help with inspiration, so let me know if you like it!). Please read, review, and enjoy!
"Table six is up. And looks like the genius group is back."
Paige looked over at the door as she grabbed the plate from the window. She couldn't quite decide what she thought of the Scorpion teachers. They weren't rude, exactly, but more… self-involved. Slightly destructive at times, especially when they started arguing about physics and creating complicated catapults or suspension bridges out of the silverware.
They had only come in a few times, but they left a bit of an impression. The woman (Paige assumed ironically) named Happy was gruff and vocal, but tipped well (which always placed people in the 'nice' category for Paige). Toby was always commenting snarkily on something, often getting smacked by Happy for it (she noticed he never really seemed to mind). Paige thought Sylvester was a bit young to be a teacher (he looked barely 20), but his sweetness and anxiety made up for his spraying every surface with disinfectant before the group was allowed to sit.
It was the one Paige recognized as the leader of the group that puzzled her. His name was Walter, and while his looks had caught her eye at first (what? she was a single mom, not a nun), the main thing that piqued her interest was that she couldn't get a read on him. Part of what made her good at her job was getting a sense of who people were. She could figure out if someone needed a friendly face, a quick chat, or if they just wanted a cup of coffee and silence. But Walter… confused her.
She had seen him in here before with a woman she thought was his girlfriend (Jeanine? Janice? She was fairly certain it was Janice). But they didn't act like a couple. Or rather, Walter didn't. Janice would tell a funny story, and he would stare over her shoulder. She would reach out to brush his hand and he'd automatically move away. It was like watching an awkward first date on repeat, and Paige felt for the poor woman making such an effort when it wasn't reciprocated.
They had actually come in for lunch at Nemos earlier today, and she was nearly positive that Walter had broken up with Janice. On his lunch break, no less. Not that it was any of her business, but when she heard Janice say, "Longest three months of my life!", Paige had to turn away so that they wouldn't see her face contort with shock. Three months? The woman was either insane or a saint. Probably both.
But despite the fact that Walter had broken off a three month relationship just a few hours earlier, Paige couldn't see any difference in his usual demeanor at all. She sighed, dropped off the grilled cheese to table six, straightened her shoulders, and put on her best smile as she approached the group.
"Hi! Welcome to Nemos! I'm Paige, I'll be taking care of you. What can I get started for you?"
"I'll have more of your gorgeous smile, and a side of your number, perhaps?" Toby smirked until Happy elbowed him in the ribs.
"The idiot will have a BLT and I'll get the burger. Swiss cheese. Medium rare."
Paige jotted the orders down. "Great. And for you?"
Sylvester jumped nervously. "Oh! Um, can, can I get the tomato bisque? With saltines. With exactly twelve saltines. And the soup needs to be at least 165 degrees so as to prevent bacteria growth. Do you have a thermometer? A sterile thermometer? One that's accurate? Have you calibrated yours in the last-"
"One tomato bisque at 165 degrees with twelve saltines. Got it. Next?"
The group looked to Walter, who was staring off to the side. Paige moved into his line of vision. "And what would you like?"
Startled, he looked up at her in confusion. "What?"
"Can I get you anything? Water? A salad?" She repeated slowly.
He blinked at her. "Most restaurant ice machines had higher levels of bacteria than water samples taken from toilet bowls at the same location, and 70 percent of the complimentary lemon wedges served in water tested positive for microbial growth, such as mold, bacteria, staph, and Candida yeast. Lettuce is always marked up an exorbitant amount and is never washed thoroughly enough to fully eradicate any of the germs living in the creases of the leaf. Not anything with eggs, as you most likely get your eggs from a factory farm which substantially increases the chances of salmonella, nothing covered in sauce as that's how places like this hide meat that is past its prime, so I will have a steak, cooked medium, no sauce, and a can of soda. Also, you have anemia. It turns your fingernails pitted. That's why your polish looks streaky. You need more iron."
By the end of his tirade, Paige was openly gaping. Toby's eyebrows had shot up, Happy was glaring, and Sylvester looked even more nervous than usual.
Silently repeating the mantra of "be determined to have a good day", she resisted the urge to shove her notepad down the dark-haired man's throat, and simply said, "Got it,", and walked away.
She put the order in and checked on Ralph, who should have been working on his homework, but was playing with the condiments again.
Taking a calming breath, she leaned over. "Hey sweetie, I thought we were working on our English homework."
Ralph shifted away and moved the sugar packets around.
"I know it's not your favorite, but if you get it done, I can probably score some ice cream for you, okay? Deal?"
He moved the salt and pepper shakers around, but eventually took the pencil she offered him.
Paige glanced up and saw Happy announce she was going to the bathroom. Toby stood as well.
"Me too."
"The hell does that mean, pervert?"
"It means that the brain is highly susceptible to suggestions, and that it's easy to trigger sympathetic bladder-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence!"
Happy stomped off as Toby trailed behind her. Paige then noticed Walter nudging Sylvester and pointing at Ralph. She followed their gaze and saw that Ralph had abandoned his homework and was fiddling with the creamers again. As Sylvester got up from the table, Paige couldn't take it any more. She stormed over to Walter, jaw clenched.
Trying to keep her voice down to at least minimize the chance of getting fired, she placed her hand on her hip and made sure the teacher was actually looking at her. "Hey! I can handle your destructive catapult experiments, I can handle you insulting my place of work, and I can even handle how insanely rude you were to me earlier, and believe me when I say I have had men grope me more politely than you spoke to me. But do not, I repeat do not come here and mock my son. What the hell kind of teacher makes fun of children?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Toby standing with his mouth open in shock before Happy shoved him out of sight. Walter stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. "I-"
"And my polish streaks because Ralph does it. He loves to paint, and don't tell me that he needs help, either. He's challenged. Have some empathy."
His dark eyes met her angry ones, and then he looked over at her son and sighed.
"Challenged, huh?" He rose and stood next to her, jutting his chin at the booth where Sylvester had joined Ralph.
"Look at Sylvester and him. Do you know what they're doing? The matches are the king, the jelly is the queen, the sugar packets are the knights. He's playing chess with a grand master who's about to lose."
Just then Sylvester looked up and shouted, "Walter, you see this? Checkmate in eight moves. This kid is amazing!"
As Paige stared, suddenly seeing the purpose Ralph had behind each motion, she felt like the floor had fallen out from under her.
"And he doesn't like to paint your nails. He does it because he wants to hold your hand, but he can't process physical contact. So help him. Or he will never connect with you. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your son is a genius."
She watched as Sylvester and Ralph set up the pieces again, and saw how intently and quickly her son reacted to whatever strategy Sylvester was using. He was focused, engaged. She had never seen him like this, even as a baby. Knowing that he wasn't challenged, but was actually brilliant, only opened up a whole other part of her life where she still didn't understand him.
"Order up. Table fifteen. Paige!"
Jerking back to reality, she made her way over to the kitchen and asked the other waitress if she could take the food over. Karen looked concerned at how pale she was, but didn't ask any questions as she grabbed the plates. Paige stayed hidden until the group had left (everyone had tipped well this time, with the receipt full of equations on the back adding 'Sorry!' underneath. Paige managed a smile and was glad she had put Sylvester into the 'nice' category already.).
The next day, after dropping Ralph off at school, she watched him walk towards the doors, shifting away from the other kids. (She realized that it was the same way she had seen Walter react with Janice.) She bit her lip, then drove past her work over to the Scorpion School for Gifted Minds. The sign in front of the modern looking building had an abstract design of a scorpion, made of circles and squares.
Getting out, Paige glanced around at the grounds, looking for some sort of information, or brochure, or something. Finding the small box of pamphlets attached to the Scorpion sign, she browsed through one, but wasn't sure if she should go ask for more information, or even where. She heard footsteps and looked up to see Walter coming down the steps of the school. He was rifling through papers, brows puckered in concentration. One of his papers flew out of his hand, and when he reached out to grab it, he did a double take as he saw her.
Suddenly panicking, she dove back into her car and sped off. She barely got to Nemos before her shift started, and tried to put the embarrassment of this morning behind her. Luckily, none of the teachers came in for lunch, so she was at least spared that. Ralph came in after school, and Paige noticed that he looked almost longingly over at the table where the geniuses had sat yesterday.
She started him on his science homework, then got caught up with three demanding tables at once. After the last one finally paid, she gave a long sigh, changed out of her uniform, and came out to see Walter playing chess with Ralph.
Freezing, she watched as Walter took the jelly out of play, slid the salt shaker out of the reach of Ralph's knight, and triumphantly placed his creamer in front of Ralph's matchbook. Then, her world shook as her son gave Walter a half-smile.
"Rematch?" Walter asked, then looked up to see Paige staring at them. He stood hastily and made his way over to her.
"Hello Miss Dineen. I understand that I was a bit... brusque yesterday and-"
"Rude." She interrupted in spite of herself. "You were rude."
He took a moment, then corrected himself. "Yes. I was rude yesterday, and I wanted to apologize for how I handled that social interaction. It was not... optimal. But I have come to understand that often to rectify social missteps, if you will, it is customary to offer recompense in the fashion of a cup of coffee, or, in this specific case, dinner. With you and Ralph."
She narrowed her eyes at him, still irritated about how she couldn't quite read him. "Okay, well, thank you, but I'm wondering why."
"Wondering why?" He repeated in confusion.
"Well, I get the feeling that you don't try to... 'rectify social missteps' often, so I'm wondering what your motive is." She raised an eyebrow in challenge.
The dark-haired genius paused. "I saw you at Scorpion today." He offered almost hesitantly (Paige tried to hide her flush of embarrassment). "And I noticed you took a brochure. And while we did our best to ensure that the information was efficiently expressed, I thought that maybe an interpersonal alternative would be more beneficial."
Paige tilted her head at him, waiting until he summarized, "I... thought you might want to ask questions about the school."
Unsure, she deflected, "I don't know. Ralph gets bored whenever we go out."
The smile that Walter gave her made her stomach twist in ways it hadn't in years. "Trust me, he won't be bored."
…
She was gratified to see that he made visible effort to be civil to their waiter, with small glances at her as he ordered. Once the waiter delivered their drinks, she saw Ralph start to shift in his seat. Walter noticed as well, and pulled out a notebook and a pen. As Paige watched, he wrote out a long equation and pushed it toward Ralph. The boy blinked, then hurriedly began scribbling on the paper.
When Paige looked back at Walter, he gave her that same half-grin and said, "That'll keep him occupied for a while. What did you want to know about Scorpion?"
"What do your friends teach? The ones that come into the diner?"
"Well, Happy teaches robotics and mechanics, Toby teaches psychiatry and psycho-analytics-"
"What now?"
"Um, human behavior. Occasionally he'll do medical seminars, but he prefers studying the way the mind functions. Sylvester is in charge of statistical theory, he's basically a human calculator."
"And you? What do you teach?" She asked, finding herself actually interested.
"Whatever I need to. Coding, programming, software development, security risk and management. Different each year."
She laughed. "How do you keep all that in your head, Einstein?"
Walter furrowed his brows at the reference. "Einstein's IQ was 160. Mine is 197, the fourth highest ever recorded."
Paige's eyebrows shot up as she couldn't help remark, "Bet that's something you mention a lot, huh?"
She hid a smile as he considered it. "I only mention any fact when it is relevant. The need to establish the importance of intelligence is shockingly high in many situations I come across."
"I'm sure it is." Paige murmured as she took a sip of her iced tea. "Look, your school looks... well, amazing, but I looked at the tuition costs, and honestly – I can't afford it."
"I thought that might be a contributing factor to your reaction earlier today, and since it's obvious that while you may be above the set poverty line in the US, your annual salary is much less than the average required to attend Scorpion."
Paige suddenly felt like she was at the diner all over again. "Excuse me?"
"It was a simple deduction based on several points of data. You have no-name sneakers, he has orthotics. Whatever you have goes to Ralph. The inflammation under your eyes from lack of sunlight comes from working two jobs. As for the boy's father, I'd make calculated assumptions in the realm of interpersonal communication issues."
With Ralph fully absorbed in solving whatever equation Walter had given him at the other end of the table, Paige found herself resorting to hissed sarcasm. "Oh, so we split because I have issues communicating. And I thought it was the blonde in Tahoe. Who the hell are you to tell me that I look like I am barely above the poverty line? That hurts my feelings. Do you understand?"
He bit his lip as she watched him process her words. "Yeah. I recognize that. I've been told things like that a lot before."
She gave him an assessing look before deciding that he hadn't meant anything malicious by it. "Not surprising."
He cleared his throat awkwardly, then continued, "Well, I anticipated something to that effect, so I wanted to offer you a job."
Paige froze. "A what?"
"A job as a counselor at Scorpion. We're very good at attending to the students' intellectual needs, but not so much to growing their EQ, which I feel you would be well qualified for." He slid a folder over to her.
She was being to feel her vocabulary was limited to a single word. "What?"
"Uh, IQ is intelligence quotient, EQ is emotional quotient. People with high IQ tend to have low EQ." He shot her a self-deprecating grin. "People like me."
"B-but why me? I'm not a genius."
"No, but you are raising one. That takes, uh, someone smart, brave. You want to know about your son, I can translate him for you. You translate the world for us. It's, um salary plus benefits. Plus, there's an discount, if you will, for the tuition of children of employees."
Paige could only glance back and forth between the papers Walter gave her and her nine-year-old at the opposite end of the table.
Walter spoke, his voice surprisingly gentle. "You're worried about not being able to connect with Ralph. That is a second chance."
She stared at the folder, taking in the requirements of the job, the substantial increase in pay, and couldn't shake the feeling that this was all a dream.
"I-"
"Done!" Ralph chirruped and passed the notepad back to Walter. The man took it with a smile, checked it over, then tousled Ralph's hair. (She noticed that Walter had initiated the contact, and that Ralph didn't shy away as he normally did.)
"Great job!"
Ralph gave another of his rare smiles, then waited impatiently for Walter to write out another problem.
"This time Ralph, try to imagine what real-life scenarios this could be applied to."
Her son nodded, then went back to filling the notepad.
Walter looked at Ralph with a fond grin, the glanced up to see Paige staring at him.
"He… he doesn't talk to anyone but me."
Walter shrugged. "He recognizes one of his own."
After a moment, she asked again, "Why me? I'm sure there are other more qualified people-"
"Not that I've seen." His voice was firm.
She waited, hoping he'd offer more of an explanation.
Her patience paid off, as he sighed, rubbed his face, then said, "My parents, they… they didn't really understand me. I don't blame them, but after a while, they stopped trying. You haven't."
Paige turned toward Ralph, watching him engage with written numbers more than he ever had with kids his age. "I still don't understand him." She commented softly.
"But you try. You haven't given up, and that's… remarkable." She saw the genius struggle to choose his words. "I created Scorpion to help kids like me, like Ralph. Kids that have to ignore any sentence that starts with ' normally'. To make sure that they're not scared of anything that they're capable of. Kids that find it difficult to make friends, and sometimes feel like no one else in the world likes them."
As she watched Walter try to express his reasons, her heart broke for the child he used to be. The boy that he didn't want Ralph to become.
"You just got to make sure that he knows it's not his fault." It was almost a question.
Paige smiled warmly at him, trying to answer the silent query. "I know."
His distressed eyes met her brown ones, and he cleared his throat, slipping back into a professional demeanor. "Anyway, the um, the job is yours, if you want it. I understand if you need to take some time to consider-"
"I'll do it."
Walter's eyes lit up. "Really?"
She hid a smile. "Yes."
"Great! I'll um, I'll see you Monday."
As they left the restaurant, Walter noticed Ralph staring at the stars. Looking up as well, he asked, "Do you ever pause your dreams, Ralph?"
Ralph didn't tighten his grip on Paige's hand, as he usually did whenever people asked him questions. Instead, he let go, and fell into step with Walter, leaving Paige frozen in shock. "Yeah."
"Ever rewind them?"
"Sometimes."
"Yeah, me too."
As she watched them walk together, for all the world like a normal man and child, she could feel the sting of tears in her eyes. She didn't know what this new job would involve, but if it offered Ralph (and if she was being honest, partly for Walter as well) a sense of normality, she'd chase it to the ends of the earth.