"How does someone fail P.E?" his mother's voice was incredulous, trembling faintly with outrage. "He's not even fat. He doesn't have asthma. There's no excuse."
Although his parents were often critical of his grades, they were rarely this critical when he was around. Right now, he was hearing what they said about him when he wasn't around. He'd slipped invisibly down from his room to hear his parents discussing the semester report card that had arrived in the mail.
The answer to how he'd failed P.E was obvious. It was a class with almost no homework, tests, or semester projects. Any points had to be earned in-class, and Danny was frequently not in class, missing entire periods of gym or parts of it. Combine that with his lackluster achievements when running the mile or taking the presidential fitness test, and he'd ended up with a solid F.
It was a shame, because it meant he might as well have not wasted any time in gym at all, but he still had to show up as much he could or face even more detentions or even truancy court.
"We're going to have to make time to work with him on this." Maddie continued on, raking her fingers through her hair in exasperation.
"Aw Maddie, c'mon. Can't we just buy him a gym membership?" his crestfallen father asked.
Danny watched his mother glare at Jack.
"No. Lack of opportunity isn't the issue. It has to be a lack of discipline. I'll have him join me for some of my weight-lifting sessions each week. And you can take him jogging each morning—the doctor said you need to be exercising more anyway."
Danny rolled his eyes at his father's devastated look, and floated away. They weren't going to help him pass P.E next semester. It wasn't a lack of fitness that was his problem—there were plenty of weedy nerds that scraped by with a D or C. Participating was the biggest part of the grade.
At least any increased endurance and strength he gained from working out with his parents might help him with ghost fights.
Author's note: I'm on the "the Fentons are flawed but still decent/good parents" side of the spectrum overall but I still hate how they dealt with his grades.
"i Get this straight Danny. You're a Fenton. Fentons get As. Or in your father's case, B minuses./i" -Maddie
I swear I saw red when I heard that line in the show. So toxic and just wrong...Anyway, that's the inspiration for this ficlet. It won't be the last time I write about the pressure they put on Danny to have perfect grades. It's probably part of why Jazz is the way she is too, if she was told that by Maddie.
Any feedback is appreciated ^^