The day passed slowly for Jack, tied up in seemingly endless meetings and paperwork that seemed to have multiplied in the few weeks he'd been occupied with the changes wrought to his team. Finally though, the hour came when Jack could climb behind the wheel of the SUV that he no longer minded driving because it meant he could be closer to his teammates. He drove to the school and parked, then joined all the other parents outside the door waiting to pick up their own children.
The bell rang and a few moments later children started pouring out the front doors, climbing onto the waiting school buses, into cars or reuniting with their parents. Jack searched for his three, wondering where they were. It seemed like every other kid was going to come out of the school before he caught a glimpse of blond hair and blue t-shirt, moments before the skinny little arms wrapped firmly around his middle. Daniel and Teal'c were just behind her, at a slightly more controlled pace.
"Colonel Jack! Colonel Jack! Look, I drew a picture!" Sam proudly displayed a slightly rumpled piece of paper that had something vaguely round blue and greenish on a colored black star strewn background, and waved it excitedly, while disengaging from him and dancing about excitedly.
Jack grinned at her, and turned his attention to Daniel. Daniel noticed his scrutiny and shrugged, trying to act uninterested, but Jack noticed the gleam in the boy's eye while he glanced quickly about to make sure no one was close enough to hear him. "I like the library. They have a lot of books I've never read. And history was ok." He shrugged again, and this time wasn't fast enough to duck as Jack ruffled his hair. "Hey!" he protested, quickly combing it with his fingers. Jack just smiled, and looked at Teal'c.
Teal'c straightened, and nodded. "There will much for me to learn here. Mr. Lee has been most gracious. I believe the time I spend here will be most interesting indeed."
Clasping the older boy's shoulder, Jack led the three kids to the car, pleased that the kids had done well in their own ways.
The ride home was filled with excited chatter, as even Teal'c opened up a little and shared moments of the first day of school. When they got home, Jack gave them all a quick snack, and let them relax a little, before he discovered to his dismay that they already had homework, along with notes from their various teachers explaining that the light assignments were geared at helping catch the kids up with the rest of the class. Jack also frowned when he discovered the second note tucked into Sam's folder. He skimmed it quickly, and then called the little girl over. She scowled when she saw what he had in his hand, and stared at her feet, kicking at the carpet with one shoe.
"So what's this about your math work Sam?" he asked, still slightly surprised to be getting a letter warning of a problem with Sam and math on the very first day of all things. Especially concerning a problem with Sam and math. It was unthinkable.
Sam just scowled more and refused to look at him. "They do it wrong here," she mumbled. Then she looked up, brow creased. "Why am I in the second grade? At my last school I was in the third grade."
Jack blinked, and somehow kept the pleased smile off his face. He'd known she was smart, especially with the way she was changing the subject on him. "One thing at a time Sam. Now what do you mean by wrong?"
She sighed, and rolled her eyes, foiled. "It's different. I did mine, and I got all the right answers, but Ms. J said I did it the wrong way, but I don't like how they do it here, and I don't see why I can't do it the way I did it at my last school!" Sam's tone had taken on a tinge of exasperation.
He wondered how best to approach this one. Obviously, Ms. Janissima hadn't had much luck, or she wouldn't have sent the note home. "Look, Sam, you need to set up the problems like the other kids are doing them, or when you start to do new math problems, it will be harder to understand."
"But the new way is stupid," she insisted stubbornly. Jack just narrowed his eyes at her. She sighed again, and wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Fine. I guess I can try it the new way, but I still think it's dumb."
Jack smiled sympathetically, before he approached the other subject. "Ok, now that we have that figured out, what's this about the third grade?"
Sam's scowl quickly returned and she treated the carpet to another scuff from her tennis shoe. "I'm not s'posed to be in the second grade. I skipped it this year."
"Okay," Jack said slowly, trying to find safe ground, "What did Ms. J say?"
Sam continued to glare down at her shoes, kicking at his poor defenseless carpet. "She said she'd see after a week or two, if I could do the work. She doesn't understand. I'm not dumb you know." Her chin lifted and she met his eyes finally, almost defiantly, her small mouth set in a thin determined line. At that moment, she looked quite a lot like her grown up version.
Jack swallowed, fighting down the pang that welled up as the child before him reminded him of what he missed. He decided to avoid the last statement, instead, getting her to focus on something else. "Well, how does the work seem?" Jack had already known Sam was going to be in the second grade, but he wanted to see how she was doing before he rushed in demanding she be advanced. After all, a lot of time had passed since Sam had been in the second grade, even if she didn't feel like it had. To her, she'd only been in school a few weeks ago. Things were taught differently now. Math, obviously for one. But maybe she was right. Heck, for all he knew, maybe she really belonged in the fourth grade. He hid a snort at that thought. That was all they'd need, to be raising a child prodigy this time around.
She was quiet for a moment, her brow furrowed in concentration, before she finally answered him. "Well, I know a lot of the stuff, but some of it is different, they teach it weird, like math. I don't like it, I like my old school better." Her voice held the hint of a pout.
"I know Sam, but we can't exactly send you back to your old school. Things are different now. I think what Ms. J said was fair, and if in a week or two, you work really hard, maybe you can be in the third grade again." Jack pulled her close as her face fell. "It's not all bad is it?" he asked, trying to take her mind off the negative aspects. He was relieved when she shook her head.
"No Colonel Jack, I liked science class, we get to do more fun things here. Oh, and they have computers. We never had those. They are really cool and do all sorts of neat things. And they have more TV's and other cool stuff that my old school didn't have." Jack grinned at her enthusiasm for the high tech. Hopefully, she wouldn't be tempted to take anything apart. He wondered if he should have a word with the teachers, and give them a warning, remembering what had happened to his ill-fated X-box.
"Okay kiddo, why don't you go start on your homework, and I'll come help in a few minutes?" Sam nodded reluctantly. Homework was still homework and she'd much rather be outside playing.
Jack went over to Daniel, who was sitting at the kitchen table, several books spread open before him. "Whatcha up to Danny?"
Daniel looked up, pushing his glasses up on his nose in a very familiar gesture. "I'm deciding whether I want to write a report about the ancient Egyptian sun god Ra, or if I want to write one about Yu."
"Me?" Jack frowned at the topics Daniel had mentioned, and got confused.
"No, not you, Yu, the Yellow Dragon, from ancient Chinese mythology," Daniel explained, flipping to a page in a book, and showing him a picture of a golden dragon.
"Oh. That Yu." Jack however was thinking of a different Yu. He hadn't been aware there'd been a dragon Yu. That just made things even more confusing. He frowned.
Not noticing Jack's preoccupation, Daniel continued with his explanation. "They are both really interesting. It's hard to decide. Maybe if I had some more books, the library at school didn't have any more on China or Egypt though. Do you think we could go to the public library Colonel Jack?" Daniel looked up hopeful, the all-to-familiar puppy dog expression not missed by Jack. Jack glanced at the rather impressive pile of books that Daniel had somehow crammed into his backpack, and knew the boy had more than enough information. But he also knew Daniel's love for the printed word, and was pleased to see the youngster finally starting to slowly open up to him, he'd been so quiet and shy so far.
"Tell ya what Daniel, you figure out what you want to write a report on by Friday, and Saturday I'll take you kids up to the Library okay?" Jack settled on a compromise. They'd have to go out later and pick up a few more school supplies according to the notes sent home with the kids, and he didn't think they'd have time today. He really wanted the kids to devote most of their time this week to settling in to the new school routine and do as little running around as possible. He watched Daniel's eyes narrow as the boy considered the offer.
Finally, Daniel nodded, and smiled. "Ok."
Jack tapped the pile of books. "I'm sure no matter what you decide on, it will be really cool."
Daniel grinned, and turned his attention back to his books. Jack moved on to Teal'c who had taken over the coffee table. The older boy was staring down at an open text, a perplexed look on his face. His binder sat open beside the text, the note page blank. "So what are you working on Teal'c?" Jack sat down behind the boy.
Teal'c turned to regard him, a frown creasing his young features. "Colonel O'Neill, I do not understand this assignment."
Jack raised his eyebrows. Returning Teal'c's look, Jack replied. "Well, try me."
Teal'c turned back to his text and stared at it as if willing the book to make sense to him. "I am to explain and demonstrate to the class how a volcano works. But I do not see how I am to carry out such a task, when a volcano seems so hot."
"Ah," Jack said. He remembered volcano models. He wasn't surprised they still did them in school. "Actually, Teal'c, I have a good idea what you are supposed to do for the demonstration part. When is your project due?"
"Next Friday," Teal'c replied, still frowning at the book.
"That's plenty of time. We can work on it this weekend after we take Daniel to the library." Teal'c nodded, he looked dubious though. Jack was already trying to think about what supplies they would need, he could pick up some of them tonight when they went out to grab the rest of the school supplies.
The kids all worked quietly on their homework for the next hour, Jack helping where he could, though he was already starting to wonder if he'd gotten in over his head. This "new math" that Sam was complaining about seemed like a needlessly annoying way of doing things he'd learned to do years ago. And quite a few of the kids homework questions set his fingers itching, wishing he had at least one of their grown up selves to call to ask for help. He wondered how other parents dealt with all this stuff.
After they got done with their homework, they ran back out to Target, and picked up the new school supplies and a few craft supplies he thought he would need for Teal'c's weekend project. He'd stop at a craft store later in the week for the rest. He grabbed a carry out dinner again, promising himself that he'd make the kids a real home cooked meal tomorrow. They'd been eating entirely too much fast food the last week with all the running around they'd been doing.
He had a hard time getting the kids in bed again, but this time it was because they were excited about their first day, and anticipating what they would be doing the next day. Eventually they went to bed though, and Jack gratefully went to bed not long after.
A/N: My bad. I had gone over to Gateworld and asked if anyone knew how to spell Chappa'ai. (Special thanks to Agent Dark for the link!) and yet I was so tired when I posted the previous chapter that I didn't read it through all the way like I normally do, which is how the "check spelling" creeped in there.
And I need an indestructible cat toy. This week, I came home to pieces of a stuffed felt butterfly scattered all over my bed and bedroom. I'm still finding bits of fluorescent pink felt and polyfil days later. The butterfly used to hang on a little wand and suction cup thing, but they broke the string within days of getting the toy. After tying the butterfly in more and more creative ways to the wand, they were bound and determined to pull it off. (They love to grab toys on a string in their mouths and run away with them not seeming to realize the toy remains attached, it's quite funny to watch) Anyway, they managed to bend the wand, and then later crack the plastic on the suction cup holder for the wand. After finally snapping the string when the wand was just wedged into the broken holder, I gave up, figuring they'd lose interest in the toy now that they'd succeeded in freeing the butterfly. But I guess I was wrong, since it became one of their favorite toys. However, the butterfly has not survived, lasting slightly longer than a month. I refuse to spend another $6.99 for a new one.