Eleanor King was by far the hardest, most ill-behaved kindergarten student Vanya had ever met. It's not to say that she'd always had perfectly well behaved students, in fact far from it. She'd had her fair share of troublesome students in her student-teacher and teacher's aids experiences, but none had been as hard to handle as little Eleanor.
Vanya was nearing her wits end with how to correct the little girl's behavior without having her miss recess everyday or make her feel like she was a 'bad child' as there was no such thing. She'd consulted all of her teaching books, she'd asked some of her fellow teachers and past mentors, she'd sent a few letters home as well, and yet nothing seemed to be working.
She had noticed that the weeks that Eleanor was going to her mother's she was a much more well-behaved child, not perfect, but better. But the weeks she was at her father's was another matter. Vanya had had several meetings with Eleanor's mother Delores, discussing her daughter's behaviors as well as exceptionally impressive school work. Eleanor was by far one of the smartest children, nevertheless kindergartener that Vanya had ever taught.
She'd mentioned to Delores that if Eleanor's poor behaviors and outbursts in class could be controlled a bit more, that Vanya fully believed that Eleanor could skip the remainder of kindergarten as well as 1st grade and go right into 2nd if that's what they believed was best for their daughter.
When they began discussing Eleanor's poor behavior in class in their latest meeting, Delores was at a loss, mentioning that her daughter never acted out while at her house. But when Vanya mentioned that she'd noticed a pattern of the behaviors occurring when she was at her father's, Five, house, Delores seemed to understand what was happening. "He spoils her rotten, I swear." Delores scoffed, a look of disbelief and a bit of annoyance on her face.
"What do you mean Ms King?" Vanya asked her.
"Her father, is very much like a child sometimes." Delores scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Instead of discouraging bad behavior, like any good parent does, he rewards it. Giving her candy, toys, later bed times, whatever she asks for. He doesn't understand that you're supposed to reward good behavior and punish bad."
As much as Vanya didn't, agree, with Delores King's parenting style, she still suggested, "Perhaps, we should have Eleanor's father join us for our next meeting. So we can discuss a consistent plan of action between both households?"
When Ms King agreed, Vanya was more than happy to see that both of Eleanor's parents would be able to attend their meeting the following week. Vanya always thought it was very important to keep a child's parents, especially when they were separated, on the same page when it came to their child.
So, roughly an hour and a half after all of her students, except Eleanor who'd stayed for their meeting, had left, returning to their parents. As Vanya set the room up for the parent-teacher-student meeting, she had Eleanor feed their pet goldfishes a small handful of their fish flakes. Once she'd finished with feeding the fish, Vanya had her tell her what her writing workshop story was about; to be honest Vanya was only half-listening to the little girl. She was mostly just giving her something to keep her occupied now that there were no other students for her to play with, and besides the fact that Vanya had practically written the story with Eleanor.
Eleanor always claimed to have no idea what she wanted to write during their writer's workshops. Vanya always gave them pretty simple writing prompts. Things like describing their favorite book character, what kind of adventure do they want to go on, what was their dream last night, what did they want to be when they grew up, and so on.
But whenever Vanya gave her students time to work, Eleanor's hand was almost always waving in the air, trying to get her attention. And when Vanya would ask her what her question was, it was always, always, that she couldn't understand the prompt.
While Eleanor was getting to the part of her story that the pirate princess was fighting the space aliens on the moon with her magic wand, a man, fully dressed in a suit with a briefcase, who Vanya could only guess was Five, walked into the room, Eleanor launching off her spot on the reading carpet that she'd been sitting at as she retold her story about her last dream, which Vanya had a feeling it was more the little girl's imagination than what her actual dream was but, she'd never really know.
"Daddy!" Eleanor cheered as she scurried of the rug and into her father's arms.
"Hi princess." Five said back to her, "How was school today?"
As Eleanor retold the numerous things she'd done that day at school, Five nodding along as she told him, Vanya was absolutely not checking him out. Even the slightest bit. That would be wildly inappropriate. When Eleanor was finished retelling her father her day, she wiggled out of his grasp as he placed her back on the floor, before running off to play with some of the blocks that had been brought out of their toy cupboard for her to play with.
"Hello Mr. Hargreeves," Vanya started, sticking her hand out towards the man, "I am Vanya Petrova, Eleanor's teacher. It is a pleasure to finally meet you." Delores had told her he'd been held up work during their 'meet the teacher' and open house sessions in late August.
Five took her hand, giving it a firm shake before letting it go as he replied, "The pleasure is all mine Ms. Petrova. And please, call me Five. Mr. Hargreeves is my father."
"Well, Five, please take a seat," Vanya said, turning away from the man slightly, pointing him towards the desk, not to hide any blushing on her face, "Ms. King should be joining us shortly."
He nodded and wordlessly made his way over to the desk, Eleanor popped up from where she'd been playing to tell him to sit in the tiny chair that had her name on it, the one that was clearly indicating that Eleanor would be sitting between her parents during this meeting. It was quite comical to watch the man, who was a few inches taller than her, sit in the chair intended for six year olds.
As Five sat in the chair, Vanya stifled the few giggles that tried to weasel their way out of her while Eleanor was barely able to tell him that he was sitting in the wrong chair through her laughter, as if he hadn't been able to figure out he was in her chair the entire time. Five slid over to one of the adult chairs as Eleanor sat in the little chair, making sure to point out the little crown next to her name, one that she had drawn on herself.
A few minutes later, Delores entered the room, apologizing for running so late, she was only three minutes late, as she sat in the chair on the other side of Eleanor. Vanya sat in her chair across from the three, pulling out the file on Eleanor's academic progress first, wanting to start their meeting on a high note before getting into the more developmentally important aspect of their meeting.
Eleanor typically wasn't at the meeting Vanya had with Delores, usually her father or a friend could watch her while they had the meetings. As Vanya explained what each of the categories they'd been testing the students on meant in 'adult terms', Eleanor kept asking what it meant so Vanya would then explain in 'six year old terms'. It certainly caused their meeting to run a bit longer than they'd been planning, but it was quite cute.
When Vanya finally began to approach the topic of Eleanor's poor behavior in class, rather than Five offering up an explanation for it, Eleanor simply said, "Daddy gives me my favorite candy when I act crazy in class."
Five got a very, petrified would be a good word, look on his face while Delores gasped and scowled at him, despite telling Vanya the week prior that Five's parenting was quite literally exactly what Eleanor had just said it was. Instead of questioning either of the little girls' parents, Vanya focused her energy on Eleanor. "Do you know why Daddy gives you candy when you misbehave Eleanor? Has he ever told you?"
Eleanor nodded eagerly, shouting back, "Yes!" Vanya prompted her to continue and boy did she, "Daddy said that when act crazy in Ms Petrova's class I get to have candy because he thinks you're very pretty. But I can't tell you or Mommy or I won't get my candy anymore."
Needless to say, Delores's glare on Five's, still quite nervous looking, face grew stronger as Eleanor explained how her father had been encouraging and rewarding her poor behaviors. The ones that Delores and Vanya had been having meetings for for nearly two and a half months at this point. When she'd finished, unintentionally, ratting her father out, Eleanor asked if she could go play some more, which Vanya told her she could and the little girl scurried off.
When Vanya, a bit reluctantly, returned her attention to the two adults in front of her, Delores began, "Five! How could you teach our daughter that misbehaving is a good thing? Rewarding her with candy and teaching her to lie to me? And her teacher? And for what? So you could gawk at her teacher? I should've known you'd-"
"Delores," Vanya called softly, using her teacher voice, getting the woman who was nearing a rampage to quiet down, even for a moment, "I am sure that Five has a very good explanation for his recent, choices, that he neglected to tell Eleanor. Seeing to the fact that she is, in fact, a child." Vanya's gaze shifted from a still fuming Delores to a very nervous Five, "Five? Care to explain?"
Five took a steadying breath and launched into some explanation that Eleanor had been telling him she was having a rough time at school, and that the days she'd come home happy, even if she'd been bad in class, he'd give her a reward of some kind. Vanya didn't believe a word of it, as Five was still acting far too nervous for someone who was telling the truth. But she wasn't going to question him in front of his ex-wife, as she was finally beginning to simmer down a bit.
"Ms King, I believe that Mr Hargreeves and I should have a few meetings alone to clear up any confusion or miscommunication that Eleanor may be bringing back to his household." Vanya explained to Delores, "If that's alright with you?"
Delores, albeit a bit begrudgingly, agreed. Despite the fact that she would now have a bit more freetime on Wednesday afternoons now that they wouldn't be having, hopefully, anymore meetings about Eleanor's behavior that Delores needed to be there for. Soon after, Delores, Eleanor, and Five left the room together, Delores giving Five an earful about his 'horrible parenting' and when Vanya thought she saw Five look back at her with a wink, she blamed it on how tired she was after the long week, and meeting.
When the next week rolled around, Eleanor went home on the bus to her mother while her father arrived at precisely 4 o'clock, only a half hour after her students had left for the day. "Five," Vanya started once they'd settled into their seats across the table from each other, "I have a pretty good feeling, that you were full of shit last week."
Five blinked, obviously a bit surprised at the language his daughter's kindergarten teacher was using, despite no children or superiors of hers present. "I, I'm not sure what you mean Ms. Petrova." Five stammered out.
"Your excuse, last week. About Eleanor, supposedly having a rough time at school." Vanya said, watching as he begrudgingly accepted that she'd caught him in his lie, "Would you like to tell me the real reason for your rewarding of what we both know is bad behavior? Especially for someone as bright as your daughter."
"Well, you see," Five started, a light blush spread across his cheeks, "you remember how Eleanor mentioned that I'd said that I thought you were 'very pretty'?" Five paused for a brief moment, but continued when Vanya nodded, "Well, she wasn't not telling the truth."
"Mr. Hargreeves, you do know that any relationships between teachers and parents are heavily discouraged." Vanya said, trying to sound as exasperated as she felt.
Five sighed, running his hand across his face, "Yes, yes, yes. I know that. I did, believe it or not, read the rules and guidelines this school has when enrolling my daughter."
Vanya took a calming breath, how had he managed to frustrate her so much so quickly? "Would you care to explain what your intentions are then with the bribery of your daughter?" she asked him.
"I, I don't know. I guess I wasn't thinking." Five sighed, slumping a bit in his chair, "I just, saw your picture on the information sheet that Eleanor brought home back in August and, I guess I've just been, infatuated with you since then."
"And that's why you've been rewarding Eleanor?" Vanya asked, "Because of a picture?"
Five popped back up in his chair at her question, frantically replying, "No, no, no. Not just because of your picture. It was the way Eleanor talked about you." Vanya must've looked quite confused because Five quickly launched into an explanation "She never liked going to preschool, for years. She's never bonded with a teacher or a babysitter or coach quite like she has with you. And when she'd excitedly tell about how Ms. Petrova was teaching her how to write, or read, or add and subtract, and so on. It just, I don't know, stirred up some feelings in me that I haven't felt for years."
Vanya was at a loss for words, seeing as Eleanor had never seemed to truly like her while in class, although that was likely due to the bribery going on, but to hear how she'd affected Eleanor, and by extent Five, in such a way made Vanya feel warm and touched.
"And I know this is wildly inappropriate," Five continued, "and as you said, heavily discouraged, but, perhaps we could go get coffee or something sometime? Where we don't have to discuss how much of a horrible parent I am."
"You are not a horrible parent." Vanya quickly told him, "You want what is best for your daughter. That's why you enrolled her in one of the best schools in the country. That's why you're willing to go to parent-teacher meetings when needed. That's why you are willing to admit you did something wrong, not only to adults but your daughter as well, and explain to her how she should and should not be behaving in school. You are by far one of the best parents I have had in my class, and your daughter is by far my smartest student."
"The biggest thing," Vanya continued, taking a pause to catch her breath, "is that you are involved in your daughter's learning. Which is more than I can saw about a lot of the parents of my students."
Silence filled the room for a moment, both trying to fully absorb what the other had said before Vanya suggested, "Perhaps, if Eleanor's behavior in class improves consistently over the next month or so, going into winter break, we can, find a time to meet for coffee. No talking about anything you don't want to. How does that sound, Five?"
"Sounds lovely, Vanya."