TITLE: Kindergarten Chaos
AUTHOR: jenbachand
PAIRING: Grissom/Sara
RATING: General
SUMMARY: How Betsy Grissom came to be home schooled.
DISCLAIMER: I made no money from the writing of this fic.
NOTES: Thanks to the lovely mingsmommy for the beta. This is how I'd like to see Grissom retire/return to teaching/become a househusband. This is set in my geek kid series. It is set after Soft Glow and before Joy.

Monday Morning.

Betsy Grissom was not settling into kindergarten as her parents had hoped. Rather than the days free to sleep and have a few hours of alone time, her parents had spent almost every day of the first two weeks of school talking to her teacher, Ms. Grey. A tall slender woman who was, in Sara's opinion, much too severe for a teacher of five and six year olds, and a woman who had no clue how to handle gifted children.

She was also thoroughly intimidated by the Grissom child.

That morning after dropping Betsy off at school, Sara was looking forward to a long bath and a nap before Grissom got home from court. Instead, she had only been able to start her soak when the phone rang.

Apparently, Betsy had suggested that instead of learning one letter of a word at a time, her classmates learn word recognition instead, and had defended her stance by citing that she and her two regular playmates also in the class, could all read the words on the board, rather than the letters alone.

And instead of setting Betsy and her compatriots to the side with books, the teacher had deemed it necessary to set Betsy in time out. Alone.

And when Betsy refused to answer the teacher when called on after her time out, and her friends had followed suit, Sara's precocious daughter had been sent to the principal.

At least it was a situation she understood. But there was no spanking awaiting her daughter at home, like had been for Sara the one time she had argued with a teacher. She would have to speak with her daughter about interrupting her bath time though.

Wednesday Lunch.

Two days ago, Gil Grissom had a very serious discussion with his daughter. He did not want his daughter to be ostracized for being smart and endure the same lonely childhood he had experienced, although there really wasn't much concern of that happening. She had friends who always wanted to have her over to spend the night, or who wanted to stay the night at the Grissom household.

The problem was that none of the staff at her school seemed to know what to do with her. She was reading at a second grade level, but the school didn't want to advance her to a different age group.

They also seemed to be affronted that Betsy had taught her friends to sign and they were quickly teaching the rest of the class.

And apparently the class thought it great fun to only answer with hand signs.

He pinched the bridge of his nose just thinking about the day last week when the teacher had called nearly in tears.

So, Monday after Sara had retrieved their little girl from school, they had a family discussion on proper school room behavior and, being the indulgent parents they were, rewards were set for engaging in said appropriate behavior.

Betsy had argued her points, and they were valid points, but the one thing that had truly made his head ache was when she put her hands on her hips and stated her level of annoyance with her teacher.

"I'm sorry, but I think Ms. Grey is behaving like a fascist."

Which made him wonder what books his daughter had been reading.

After much more debate it was decided that a kitten would be acquired if she could behave for six weeks. It was decided that proper behavior included not arguing educational theory with her teacher or inciting an uprising amongst her peers. While Betsy could be a determined little girl when she wanted something, he did not hold out much hope of her making it the length of time in order to add a feline member to their family.

He was just undressing for a nap before Sara came home from testifying at the Miller trial when the phone rang. He groaned as he read the caller ID. Sunny Valley School.

Betsy Grissom had decided that rather than print the same letter on her worksheet over and over, she would use as many words as possible starting with the letter P (the letter of the week) to tell the teacher what aPointless Project Penning P's with Pretty Pencils was.

He would have to congratulate her on being creative. After he explained why there would be no Purring Pet anytime soon.

Thursday Evening.

Conrad Ecklie really didn't like the Grissoms. They had the highest solve rates in the lab. If paired on a case, they could usually wrap it up and be home before sunrise. And they were undeniably the happiest family he had ever witnessed.

They were also a large chunk of his budget. Well not the pair of them. Really just Gil Grissom. His status as a forensic entomologist and length of time in his job made him a budgetary drain. He had few options for getting rid of either of them, but he had to trim the budget somewhere.

Looking through his e-mail one last time before heading home, an idea struck, and he made a few quick phone calls.

In Gil Grissom's mind, an e-mail from Ecklie was never a good way to start off his shift, and this one specifically asked that he come by his office before heading out into the field.

It had been a long day, and he still had an eight hour shift to get through. He and Sara had spent the morning discussing what, if anything to do about their daughter's education. They had the name of a private school specializing in gifted children and a brochure on home schooling the principal had thrust in his hand when he picked Betsy up Wednesday. While the private school was an option, home schooling would probably a better choice, just not a feasible one at this point in time.

Rather than put off the meeting with his supervisor, he headed down the hall to see what torture awaited him.

"Ah, Gil. Come in and shut the door please, we have a lot to discuss," Ecklie said with an almost gleeful tone to his voice.

Friday Morning.

"Are you both coming to class with me today?" asked Betsy from the backseat of Sara's hybrid SUV. Gil was driving, Sara was worrying the seatbelt in the passenger seat, and Betsy was strapped into her booster seat in the back seat, sipping organic, hormone free milk, packaged with a happy cow on the carton. "This girl, Susan, her mom came to class last week to volunteer. She was nice and brought cupcakes. And Roger's dad came to talk to the class. He's a pilot in the Air Force."

"Yes and no honey. We're" Grissom paused wondering if they should have discussed it with her at home like Sara had wanted to, "we're going to spend part of the day with you later this morning, but we'll be in a meeting with your principal for a while."

"I'm not in trouble already am I?" came the quiet voice from the backseat.

"No sweetie," Sara quickly to reassured her daughter. She gave Grissom a look that clearly restated her opinion, as she turned to face her daughter. "Daddy is going to be changing jobs, and part of that change means that he'll have his days free."

"All right," Betsy nodded. She took another sip from her milk box and smiled at her mother.

"He's going to start home schooling you also. So today will be your last day of class," Sara finished. "Do you understand what that means?"

"Sure. Daddy will be teaching me my lessons and not make me do stupid letter pages, and he won't get upset when I want to read a book instead of coloring," Betsy finished primly. She smiled the Sidle Smile back at the originator of said smile, causing Sara to reflect it back. "But what will Daddy do for money? Is he going to make you pay all the bills now?"

"No Betsy," Grissom said with a little gruffness. "I'm going to be teaching in the afternoons and evenings at the university. I'm going to teach bug classes. I won't stick your mom with all the bills to pay."

"Oh, all right then." Betsy giggled and finished her milk just as they pulled into the school parking lot.

The three Grissoms headed towards the school, a new adventure on the horizon for them all. Grissom would be teaching both his daughter and students, with the occasional consulting job for the lab. Sara would be supervising the night shift, and Betsy? She would be enjoying her days free to start plotting how to make the world conform to her ideas.

And how to talk her father into that kitten.