"TIME TO GET UP! IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!" Steven leaped onto Twoie, who was soundly asleep on the couch. "Oof!" Even though Twoie was used to taking harder hits from gems, he still curled up in shock and pain from Steven landing on his stomach.
"Augh! Steven! Get off!" He pushed the boy off of him so he could curl up on his side. Steven paid no notice to Twoie's plight. "I set up the classroom while you were sleeping! You went to bed so late last night that I figured I'd wait until I was done to wake you up. Now come on! It's time for school!"
As he was running around the room, cheering, the temple door opened up. Pearl stepped daintily out of her room, staring in confusion at the ruckus. "Why are you running around the room, Steven? And where's Twoie?" She startled at the pained groan that greeted her from the couch. "Goodness, Twoie? Are you alright? What has gotten into you two this morning?"
She walked over to the couch and helped Twoie sit up, letting him lean into her hands. Steven ran over to her, ecstatically jumping up and down. "Twoie is going to start homeschooling me today! Isn't that great, Pearl?" Pearl stiffened, letting go of Twoie in the process. Twoie's eyes widened right as she let go. He went crashing to the ground.
Pearl rounded on him. "H-homeschooling? You're not teaching Steven about Homeworld, are you? How could you? Don't you know how dangerous that place is? How do you even know about it?"
Twoie mumbled something under his breath as he propped himself up against the floor. "You know Pearl; maybe you should stop making assumptions about things you don't know. Homeschooling is a human thing, not a gem thing."
Pearl's face blushed in anger. "Don't talk to me like that, young man. You may be Steven from the future, but I know what's best for my Steven. I don't want you talking about any of that with him. Do you understand me?"
Twoie took a deep breath to calm himself down. He flashed her an irritated glare as he stood up and faced her. "Pearl, I get why you're concerned, but you shouldn't yell at me when you're the one in the wrong. Homeschool is when kids are taught subjects like math and science from home instead of from an educational institution run by the county. We both have a lot of free time right now, so I thought having lessons with Steven would be a good idea." He wiped the look of irritation off his face while spinning on his heel to face Steven. "Come on Steven, I'll make us breakfast."
Twoie ushered Steven away from Pearl, not giving her a chance to respond, and started looking through the cupboards. "Pancakes, okay?" Steven turned to look at Pearl. Her face was scrunched up in annoyance, and she walked away in a huff. She grumbled something about Peridot before the front door slammed shut behind her. He turned back to Twoie, who was rummaging through the fridge for more ingredients. "O-okay. Pancakes sound good."
Steven pulled out a flat pan, a bowl, and a whisk for Twoie while Twoie grabbed the measuring cups. "How good are you with fractions?" Twoie questioned. He noticed that cooking would probably be a good application of fractions in real life.
"I'm okay with fractions. I know the basics, but that's about it." Twoie hummed thoughtfully. "Remind me to go over fractions more often with you when we cook, or the next time we're at Fish Stew Pizza. Anyways, let me tell you what I have planned for today." Pancake flour, milk, and two eggs went into the bowl.
"I printed out that comprehensive test for you while we were at the library. I'm going to have you take one for every subject just to see what level you're at." Steven melted some butter in the pan, and Twoie poured some batter onto it. "Every time you finish a test, we'll take a break. I want you to finish all of the tests today so that we can actually start lessons tomorrow." Twoie stacked some pancakes on a plate and set it down on the bar counter. Steven dug into his pancakes with gusto.
Breakfast was a little awkward. Twoie furrowed his brows at his now empty plate. He didn't mean to snap at Pearl, but it was hard when the gems were still treating him like a stranger. It's not like he wasn't weirded out as well. He just wanted to forget their argument ever happened. He picked up both plates and went over to the sink.
"Okay, Steven! I'll wash up everything from breakfast." Twoie looked over at the 'classroom' that Steven had set up. There was a desk and a chalkboard set up by the couch. How did he not notice that when he woke up? There was also a stack of books by the chalkboard, and multiple pencils, markers, and notebooks surrounding the desk. "Do we need all this? I was just going to have you work on the couch?"
Steven smiled, all tension leaving his body. "Absolutely! This is our first day! Hold on!" He ran up and down the stairs as fast as he could. "I also got you this!" The light shined off the black rectangular glasses that Steven held in the air. "Lots of teachers wear glasses on TV. So I got you these glasses and popped the lenses out!"
Twoie chuckled. "Okay, fine. I'll wear them just for today, okay?" He set the last clean dish in the dish rack and put the glasses on. Next, he grabbed the packets from the counter, ushering Steven to sit in his desk.
"I thought we'd start with the easiest one first. I don't think you'll struggle too much with English since you read a lot with Connie. After, we'll test Math, History, and end the tests with Science. I want you to do your best and don't worry if you can't answer a question. This test is to figure out what you already know, not what you should know, okay?" Steven nodded in determination. "I'm ready for this!"
He was not ready for this. After each test was completed, Twoie could see confusion and stress marring his expression. Twoie was reading the completed packets on the couch, still wearing the glasses, while Steven marked his answer for the last question. The second it was filled in, Steven dropped his head on his desk. "Done… Finally…"
Twoie held back a laugh. "Alright, Steven. I need to finish looking over these for tomorrow. Why don't you go rest or see if the gems want a break from their search?" That made Steven look up in excitement.
"Yeah, that's a great idea!" He ran off towards the temple doors. Twoie wrote more notes down in his notebook.
Steven had done pretty well in the English test; his reading ability scored a bit higher than his actual grade level. His writing definitely needed work, though.
He had done alright in Math; arithmetic was fine, multiplication was fine, any word problem involving friends or sharing the kid had aced. The issue seemed to be symbols. He had no idea how to work with any of the symbols used in algebra. He also struggled with trigonometry.
He sighed as he looked over Steven's history packet. The kid knew a lot about gem history but human history? That was something they would need to work on. He knew about Beach City's history but barely any of world history or US history. 'I'm definitely looking up how far the Smithsonians are from here. That'll be both a fun field trip and a good learning experience for history and science.'
The sound of the temple door made Twoie look up from his work. Amethyst stepped out of the temple, flashing a grin at Steven as they started walking towards the door. "Amethyst and I are going to go hang out at the boardwalk! Do you want us to bring you home anything?"
Twoie shook his head. "Thanks for asking, but I'm fine. Have fun!" He grabbed Steven's science packet and started looking over the answers. He heard the door thud closed. "Okay, Twoie. All I have left is this packet, and then I can get started researching everything I need to know for tomorrow's lessons." He muttered to himself.
This was another subject that Steven struggled with. He knew the basics about animals, plants, and the weather, but that was it. "Okay, the museum is the first field trip I'll take him on once I get permission from Dad to borrow the van for the day. Maybe, I'll schedule that in two weeks so I can use it to test him on things he's already learned." He gathered the packets up and started organizing his lesson plans for the next day.