Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Grey's Anatomy. I just manipulate them to my will. Also, any line or phrase or setting that seems remotely familiar from any other show, movie or book, also not mine. I borrow…

Prompt: Sofia comes home from school upset and Callie and Arizona make her feel better.

AN: So this prompt was a bit vague, so I just did what I want with it. Hope it was along the lines you were thinking, anon! Thanks for the submission. Enjoy!

A's and F's

The front door opens and immediately slams shut, making the wall hangings rattle on their posts. Arizona looks up from her laptop where she is working on her latest journal article and just makes out her daughter flying past the door of her study.

"Sofia?" She calls, but gets no reply. Setting her laptop off to the side, she gets to her feet and climbs the stairs, stopping outside her daughter's closed door. Knocking lightly, the blonde asks, "Sofia, honey. Are you alright?"

"Yeah…" Her daughter calls back, but Arizona doesn't miss the tremble in her voice. "Yeah just… I just want to be alone. Ok?"

Arizona tries the doorknob but it's locked. "Sweetie, let me in."

"No, Ma. Just… I'm ok. I promise. I just… I need some time, ok? Please?" Her fourteen year old daughter replies.

The peds surgeon chews on her lip, battling herself on whether to give Sofia her space or trying to talk to her. But Arizona was a fourteen year old girl once… a long time ago. She knows what it's like to just want everyone to leave her alone. That sometimes, even if they mean the best, parents just can't understand.

So with a deep breath, Arizona says, "Alright, honey. But… I'll be right downstairs if you need anything. Ok?" Only silence greets her, and she adds. "Mom will be home in a couple hours. I was thinking… maybe pizza tonight? We'll even do Hawaiian. Pineapple and ham, your favorite." Still, only silence comes from the other side of the door. "Ok well… I'll see you in a bit, sweetie."

When Callie comes home, Sofia still hasn't come downstairs. Arizona fills her wife in on how upset their daughter seemed, and even a large Hawaiian pizza isn't enough to get their teenager from her room. Callie tries talking to the girl, but the door remains locked. Sofia promises that she's just not feeling well and wants to be left alone. But in a house with two surgeons, someone says they are sick and being left alone is the last thing to happen.

It's after nine and dark eyes remained glued to the ceiling, almost as if Callie stares hard enough she will be able to see through it and watch their daughter. "Never should have put that lock on her door." She murmurs.

"She's fine, Calliope." Arizona tries, even though she, herself, doesn't really believe it.

"When was the last time she ever passed on pizza?" The Latina rebuttals, seeking something to distract her and reaches for the pile of mail. "Never, she's never skipped dinner before. And if she's sick, at least one of us should check on her."

"Well then, what do you want me to do? Bust down the door with my bionic leg?" The blonde quips back.

"Don't be so dramatic, Arizona." Callie replies with a smile. "I'm sure I can find a hammer that's worth about 100 grand less than that leg of yours." She giggles as her wife playfully shoves her, but stops when she comes across an already opened envelope. It doesn't have postage on it, but it's addressed to 'Arizona Robbins and Callie Torres'.

"Did you open this?" Callie asks, holding the envelope up for the blonde. Arizona shakes her head 'no', and then scoots closer to her wife as the Latina pulls out its contents. They both immediately recognize the logo of Sofia's high school and soon find out it's their daughter's report card. Eyes skim down the usual bank of A's and A+'s, but halt when they come across a big, fat 'F'.

"F?" Arizona gasps, snatching the report card from Callie's hand. "No, that's a typo. …Right? Sofia doesn't fail anything." Blue eyes read the paper again, and she asks, "Is it even possible to fail gym? …I'm going to talk to her." The blonde starts to stand but a strong hand pulls her back down on the couch.

"She wouldn't let us in when we didn't know she was failing. You really think Sofia is going to talk to us now that we do know?" Callie muses. The Latina takes back the report card and glances over it one more time. "No… There's something going on, Arizona. How about we just let her have her space tonight, and tomorrow I'll go down to her school and talk to this… Mr. Adams. Sound good?"

A hand runs through blonde hair and Arizona fidgets anxiously. What she really wants to do is pound her daughter's door down and demand answers, but she knows that would do more harm than good right now. So instead she takes a deep breath and answers, "Yeah, Calliope. Sounds like a plan."

The sound of keys jingling in the front door signal the return of Callie Torres from another day at the hospital. Just like every other night, she walks inside, closes the door, and tosses her keys on the table just inside. Her bag is the next thing to hit the floor and her leather jacket is shrugged off her shoulders. But before it can slide its way down her shoulders, Arizona catches it and pulls it off her wife.

"So?" Arizona asks softly, hanging up the leather jacket on Callie's peg. "What did he say?"

The Latina just shakes her head, her eyes darting to the staircase, and she shuffles into the kitchen. She pours out a glass of red wine and takes a seat at on one of the breakfast stools, pulling a small sip of blood red wine into her mouth.

"Hello?" Arizona tries again, waiting not-so-patiently for the woman to spill. "What did her teacher say? It was a mistake, right?"

"No, it wasn't." Callie answers, pulling the hair band from her hair and allowing her raven locks to spill out of the messy bun it was in. "She's failing P.E."

The blonde stands there expectedly, and growls, "I'm assuming he told you more. Like… why our brilliant daughter is failing the easiest course ever invented."

Chocolate eyes find blue, and Callie answers, "She's not changing out. …The first few weeks she did, but since then every day she's sat out. Took a zero for the day."

"I… I don't understand." Arizona says, finding herself pacing a small five foot path back and forth in front of her wife. "She has gym clothes; we bought her like five pairs at the beginning of the year. Why wouldn't she change out?"

"Did she eat dinner tonight?" Callie asks.

"Um, no. But what does that have to do with anything?" Her wife replies, the Latina staring right into her soul. "Do you know what's going on?"

"Yeah, Arizona. …I think I do." She answers with a sigh.

A soft knocking from the other side of the door pulls Sofia out of her math book. She was attempting to get some of her homework done but the constant growling of her stomach made it difficult. The fourteen year old knows that it's her mothers, and she knows that she has been lucky to avoid them this long. But the next knock that comes is less than patient.

"Sofia, open this door." Her Mom calls.

"I'm studying." She calls back, even though she knows it's a lost cause.

"Sofia Robbin, I swear to God, if you don't open this door right now I will rip it from its hinges and you will never have it again." Callie replies, using her most authoritative voice.

Dark eyes roll in their socket but the young woman climbs off her bed and unlocks the door. By the time Callie and Arizona realize that their daughter did what she was told, Sofia is back on her bed and waiting. The Latina sits down next to the girl while Arizona pulls out Sofia's desk chair and sits in front of them.

"I think we need to have a talk." Callie starts, laying a soft hand on her daughter's bent knee. "Ma and I saw your report card, mija. We know that you're failing gym."

"It's a stupid class." The fourteen year old sneers. "All they do is run around in circles."

"But it's still a requirement, honey." Arizona says.

"I talked to Mr. Adams today." Callie supplies, drawing Sofia's eyes to her. When it looks like her daughter is about to die of shame, she quickly adds, "Don't worry, I went after hours. None of your friends saw me. …But he said you haven't changed out in months. Why is that?"

"I don't know." Sofia mumbles, pulling away from her mother's touch and curling in on herself.

"Baby girl, you can talk to us. …About anything. You know that." Arizona whispers, dipping her head to try and find those expressive brown eyes her daughter inherited from Callie. "We've all been there, sweetie. Trust me."

"You haven't." The fourteen year old snaps before she even knows it.

"What?" Arizona pushes.

"You haven't been there. You don't know what it's like, Ma." Sofia says, unshed tears pooling in the corner of her eyes. "You're one of them. Blonde, thin. …Pretty. You don't know what it's like to be different. To be… laughed at because you look different."

Callie has to take a deep breath to control herself. She was positive that this was what it was all about. That her daughter was getting bullied or laughed at in the locker rooms. She knew because she went through it herself at Sofia's age. But to see her daughter brought to tears over it makes her heart break.

"They laughed at me." Sofia continues. "Made fun of my hair. Called me fat."

"Who did?" Arizona asks.

"The pretty girls. The popular girls. Tall, blonde. Skinny." Her daughter answers. "You." Sofia spits, her glare turning hard as she stares at her mother infront of her.

"Sofia-" Callie starts to scold the girl, but Arizona holds up a hand.

"Let her talk, Calliope." The blonde says, then looks back at her daughter. "These girls, why do you think they make fun of you?"

"I don't know. Because they're perfect and I'm not." Sofia says, using the sleeve of her jacket to wipe at her tears.

"No, honey… No." Arizona sighs as she reaches forward and lays her hands on the girls legs. "You're beautiful, Sofia. You're perfect."

"No I'm not." The girl rebuffs, drawing in on herself even more.

Arizona and Callie exchange a pained look, both of them hating the fact that their daughter can't see how amazing she is. They didn't really have a game plan coming into this, and now they are feel vastly unprepared for this talk. But they've started it and they aren't going to quit halfway through.

So Arizona clears her throat and says, "You know, when I was your age… I had braces." Both Sofia and Callie look up in surprise, the blonde's wife never knowing this fact about her. "Yeah, my nickname was 'metal mouth'. No matter where we moved, it was always the same. And your uncle Tim, he was one of the popular kids. Just like those girls that make fun of you. He was tall, and strong. Played football. …And one day after school he was with all his football friends, hanging around his car. He was supposed to drive me to my piano lesson." The peds surgeon recounts, "I got there and told him that we needed to go, that I would be late but… he told me to 'chill out, metal mouth'."

"Uncle Tim called you that?" Sofia asks weakly.

"Yeah. …It hurt. A lot. I remember skipping my lesson that day and walking home." Arizona says, trying to force the tears from that memory away with a strangled laugh. "It hurt that someone I loved, and supposedly loved me back, would do that to me. Use something so personal against me. But later that night, at nearly midnight when we were supposed to be asleep, he came into my room. I didn't even acknowledge him but he said that he was sorry. He couldn't sleep knowing I was hurt because of what he called me."

"I asked him why he did it. And you know what he said?" Arizona asks, getting a small shake of the head 'no' from Sofia. "He said… he did it because he felt like he wasn't enough. …He was standing there, all of the top kids in school circled around him, and he didn't feel like he was worth enough. So he made someone else feel worse, just so he could feel better. And if you had known Tim back then, you'd have thought it was crazy. Everyone wanted to be like him. …But he still didn't believe it."

"So… yeah. You'll get called lots of things in life, Sofia. But only because the people making fun of you have their own issues they're trying to ignore. You let those names get to you, and you let them win." Arizona continues. "With me, metal mouth was the most innocent of the names. Kids weren't exactly accepting of someone being gay back then either. And even as you grow up, there will always be those few out there looking make someone else hurt. Even if it means calling a woman with one leg a cripple. …So, when you walk through the halls of your school, or go into that locker room and hear someone whispering about you, know that they are only calling you names because they are afraid of someone calling them names."

Sofia just sits on the edge of her bed while Callie slowly runs a hand up and down her back, letting Arizona's words sink in.

"And as far as you thinking you're not beautiful… I just…" Arizona sighs, her gaze falling to her wife. "Sofia, look at your mother. She's breath taking. Stunning. Gorgeous. The most beautiful woman on the planet. …And you are her copy, honey. I swear it. Plus, your dad wasn't that bad of a looker either. I mean, if you're into that kind of thing." The three women chuckle softly, a smile appearing on Sofia's face for the first time in days.

"You're supposed to say that, you're my mom." Their daughter mumbles.

"Maybe." Arizona answers with a small nod. "But that doesn't make it any less true. Yeah, you have hips and you have breasts-"

"Maaaaaa." Sofia whines, pulling her zipup hoodie across her body tighter.

"You do. There's no shame in it. Let me tell you, in about three years you're going to be thankful for them while those skinny blonde girls will be out buying inflatable bras." The blonde says with a dimple smile. "You're growing up, Sofia. You're maturing ahead of your peers, but that's just your genes. You have a different body type. You're your mother's daughter. You can't change that. And I don't know why you would want to, because your mother is the most… amazing woman ever."

"Ma's not so bad either." Callie says, giving the blonde a wink. "But sweetie, don't shut us out, ok? Because, believe it or not, your Ma and I have gone through all of this too. Trust me. …I used to have a unibrow and sit in the back of the class and eat my hair." The smile on their daughter's face grows even wider, and after one more wipe of her sleeve, the tears vanish and cease to continue. "So, are we ok?"

"Yeah." Sofia whispers, her throat still thick with tears. "Yeah, I'm ok. And I'll start dressing out for gym. I promise."

"Good. Because, you may be a Torres but you're also a Robbins. And Robbins' don't fail anything." Arizona says proudly. "Now, there is a large Hawaiian pizza downstairs in the fridge that will not get eaten unless you eat it because, frankly, Hawaiian pizza is disgusting." A full fledged giggle erupts from the fourteen year old's lips, making both Arizona and Callie smile. "How about we go veg out on the couch with some cold pizza and a good movie?"

"Ok." Sofia replies, slowly standing. Her eyes dance nervously around the room, but when Arizona stands as well, thin, strong arms wrap around the blonde as the girl hugs her mother tight. "Thanks, Ma. You always make everything better."

"That's what I'm here for, baby girl." Arizona whispers back, kissing her daughter on top of her raven hair before Sofia disappears from the room. The peds surgeon watches her go then looks back to find her wife staring at her. "What?"

Callie just takes the woman's hand and the two start to meander downstairs. "I didn't know you wore braces." She says as they descend the staircase.

"What can I say…" Arizona sighs, pulling her wife to a halt when she is a step below her. Turning the Latina so that Callie is looking up at her and pulling the woman in closer by the front of her shirt, Arizona whispers, "This super magic smile didn't just happen overnight."