The next morning was a repeat of the same, since Jack made sure to wake up before the kids did. This morning, he wanted to make a few phone calls. As pleasant and relaxing as the previous day had been, Jack knew quiet days indoors would not hold the kids interest for very long. And so he picked up the phone book, and made a call. Ten minutes later, he had an appointment for that afternoon for all three kids at the school. Humming, he set about making waffles.
When the kids were all downstairs, making their way through plates of food, Jack made his announcement. "Today, we're going to see about getting you kids in school."
"But why?" Daniel demanded, his mouth full of waffles.
"I don't wanna go to school! I don't like school, I like it here," Sam protested.
"Have we offended you in some way that you wish to send us away Colonel O'Neill?" Teal'c's pronouncement prompted a new wave of protests from Sam and Daniel, both of them promising to behave and be good if he just wouldn't send them to school. Jack found it hard to keep a straight face. Imagine! Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson not liking school! It was like having them say they didn't want to go visit another alien world because artifacts and alien devices were boring to look at!
"Whoa, hang on!" He waited until they quieted. "First of all, you aren't being sent to school because you did something wrong. Kids have to go to school; it's a rule. Every kid has to go until they are eighteen. Just like I have to go to work. In fact, while you kids are at school, I'm going to be at work. And besides, you'll get to meet other kids, and do other things now during the day."
"Do we really have to?" Sam asked pushing her half finished waffle around her plate.
He ducked his head to hide his smile. "Yes, you really have to, but I think you'll like it too, just as much as you like it here, you'll see."
There were reluctant nods, and breakfast was finished in silence.
The kids were subdued that morning, as if hoping their good behavior would somehow convince him to let them out of going to school, but Jack had to only look at Sam's broken arm to convince himself he was doing the right thing.
He made sandwiches for lunch, watching in amusement as Sam ate hers piece by piece, and Daniel nibbled his from the inside out. Teal'c ate his quickly and asked for a second. The kids lingered over lunch, trying to delay the inevitable, but Jack wouldn't let them stall and soon had them bundled into the SUV, hoping the teachers wouldn't notice that Sam still had a fair amount of glitter on various parts of her despite his attempts to get it off of her. He'd even considered using the vacuum cleaner on her, but decided with their recent luck not to go anywhere near the child with a machine.
He stopped at the base on the way, and Hammond had everything ready for him, three neat folders with each child's name neatly written on them, containing the falsified transcripts and immunization reports. "Unfortunately, these are incomplete due to the uh," Hammond coughed discretely, "Nature of their individual circumstances, so we thought it would look too suspicious if we made them complete and the children weren't able to perform at grade level. In fact, we had to remove a few parts out of Major Carter's and Dr. Jackson's to cover the time gaps. We think their cover stories should cover the gaps and explain any inconsistencies in their education."
Jack nodded, taking the folder and thanked General Hammond before herding the kids back out, the kids smiling and waving, making the General laugh. He'd been thinking much the same thing as Hammond, and was glad that the other man had gone with the incomplete records. Sam and Daniel's education was now nearly twenty or more years out of date. While some things never changed, there were bound to be some differences. And Teal'c would have a lot of adjusting to do; hopefully his foreignness could be explained away as easily as Cassie's had.
Arriving at the school, Jack led the kids in, and stopped at the principal's office. He'd only met the woman once, but she'd seemed friendly enough, and smiled at each of the children, asking politely about their names and ages before leading them into her office.
"Well, Colonel O'Neill, it's been a long time since we've seen you around here." The woman motioned for Jack to take a seat, sitting down behind her desk. Jack settled the kids with a few coloring books and sat down too, returning the woman's smile.
"Yes Mrs. Parker, it has been a long time. Cassie really misses this place, it seems like only yesterday she was starting her first day here." Jack smiled at the memory of SG-1 escorting Janet and Cassie Fraiser to the school.
"Oh yes, Cassie was such a wonderful, bright young girl. How is the rest of your team by the way? Cassie always seemed so fond of all of you." Mrs. Parker smiled.
Jack squirmed slightly and very carefully avoided looking at any of the kids. "Oh, they're doing great, busy with work or they'd be here too," he lied blithely, hoping the woman didn't recall enough about Cassie's favorite honorary aunt and uncles to recognize the names and similar characteristics in the group in front of them.
Fortunately, his answer seemed to placate the woman, because she nodded and continued, dropping the subject. "Well, enough about the past, you have three more special cases for us, or so you tell me." Mrs. Parker leaned forward with another small smile. It was one thing he'd found endearing about her. Other educators might cringe away from the kids that might need a little bit of special care and assistance, but not Mrs. Parker. She embraced them, and looked for ways to make them thrive, which is why Jack was willing to take the small risk that someone might find the names and appearances of the three children familiar and question it, those that knew Cassandra Fraiser well. Luckily, SG-1 hadn't spent a lot of time at the school though, so Jack really doubted anyone would link the kids with the adults that were only seen occasionally at the school.
Jack pulled out the folders and passed them over, then became immediately bored and had to try very hard not to fiddle with anything while Mrs. Parker quietly looked over the information he'd just provided her with. He knew that the school was generally accepting of most kids, but he worried that maybe the records would be too incomplete, or that his three wouldn't be able to get in. He squirmed as the silence lengthened. The kids were behaving better than he was! Too bad it wouldn't have looked very good for him to have brought his game boy. Jack frowned, wondering if there might have been a way for him to smuggle the small device in. Perhaps he could have brought it under cover as something to amuse the kids? He spent the next several minutes devising various strategies and legitimate excuses for why he would have needed the toy.
Finally, Mrs. Parker set the last folder down bringing Jack out of his reverie, and then crossed her arms on the desk. Jack rearranged his features and looked at her attentively. She took a small breath before beginning, either not noticing Jack's preoccupation or choosing to ignore it. "You do realize these records are missing a lot of information?" she asked, tapping the neat stack of folders with a finger.
Jack sighed, and nodded. "I'm sorry about that. It was the best I could do on short notice. The kids have only recently come into my care, and well, they haven't come from the most stable of environments if you get my meaning. Sam has moved a lot, as has Daniel. Daniel in fact, spent most of his earlier childhood out of this country. Likewise, Teal'c wasn't born in this country at all, but moved here. So as you can see, it's a bit hard to get complete records for them."
She looked thoughtful and was silent a long moment before speaking again. "Yes, I can see that. I can see from what little there is in here that they seem bright, and their immunizations are at least up to date, so I'm prepared to allow them in on a trial basis, but it means that you will have to be willing to help with a bit of tutoring too until they are caught up with the rest of the class."
He was already nodding emphatically; in fact he'd planned on it. She smiled at his response, and continued. "Ok, well if that won't be a problem, I think what we'll do is place each of them in the classes that are appropriate for their ages, and then after giving them a few weeks to adjust, we can reevaluate and see if they need to be placed in another grade level or not."
Jack knew she was thinking the kids might have to be held back, given the lack of information in their folders. But he happened to know these kids, or at least what they would someday be, and had a feeling they'd do just fine. In fact, in Sam's case at least, he had a feeling she'd do better than fine because he had a niggling memory of her saying something in the past about skipping an elementary school grade or two, possibly something about never having been in the second grade when they'd been talking about school once. When he'd questioned her, she'd sheepishly told him she'd skipped the second grade. He thought Daniel would do equally well, as would Teal'c once he adjusted to the routine. And so he agreed to the stipulation and hoped that Mrs. Parker would be pleasantly surprised.
Rising up from her seat, Mrs. Parker smiled again, and Jack rose as well, reaching across to take her proffered hand. "Ok, it's settled then. You can bring them by for the first day tomorrow morning. Would you like to bring them around for a little tour now? I can show you the classrooms and main areas."
Jack accepted the invitation, and called the kids, who looked at him with mixed emotions of trepidation and excitement. The school day had just finished while they were meeting, and so the halls were mostly deserted of students as the group made their way around to the various classrooms, and he, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were shown around the school.
Once the tour was over, Jack again thanked Mrs. Parker, and then hustled the kids off into the SUV. A little back to school shopping was in order.
A/N: Well again, nothing truly exciting in my life, for a change, though they are still trying to kill us at work. I think I'd like to learn to knit though. Oh, and Tuesdays are 35 cent wing days at Bill Bateman's, where you can choose a variety of flavors such as Nuclear and Hell.