Conferences
Mrs. Janine Claxton had been doing this job for years. She'd been around the block. She'd made her mark. It would only be another year few years before she would retire. Others might use their last hurrah as a chance to slack off, but not her. Which was why she was so intent on giving her all to this next meeting: a parent-teacher conference with Mr. and Mrs. Pines.
Now usually, a parent-teach conference would be with a teacher, not the high school guidance counselor. But the Pines twins were a special case. After nearly a full year at Piedmont High School, they had already made a significant impact on the school… just maybe not the impact that was meant to be made.
It was her job to address the numerous complaints and grievances of her fellow staff, while also reassuring the Pines parents that their children were performing decidedly well.
Janine peered closely at her yellow legal pad through her bifocals, once more reviewing the comprehensive list of things she wanted to discuss with the Pines parents. Quite frankly, this was going to take a while.
A soft knock came at the office door, and Janine answered with the appropriate, "come in."
The parents let themselves into the tight office, glancing around with the same degree of scrutiny that the twins did every time they entered; though with Mabel it was always playful enthusiasm and with Dipper it was always cautious curiosity. Janine could see the children's features reflected in their parents: round faces, brown hair, and height that hit the perfect median. They weren't the kind of people that stood out, but they were the kind of people who asserted themselves in whatever way they saw fit.
Mr. Pines pulled out a chair for his wife and she sat down gracefully. After her husband had seated himself in a similar manner, both pairs of warm, beige eyes fixed fully intent stares on the guidance counselor.
"Thank you both for coming today." Janine began with a practiced smile, "I'm Janine Claxton."
"Pleasure to meet you." Mr. Pines responded with an equally practiced smile, "I'm Matt Pines and this is my wife, Miriam."
Mrs. Pine's matching smile never wavered as she veritably threw the first punch, "I was not aware that parent-teacher conferences were held with the guidance counselor, Mrs. Claxton. Unless I mistakenly wandered into the wrong office."
It was possible that if Janine hadn't been doing this job for as long as she had, she might have been cowed by Mrs. Pines' opening statement. But she had been doing this job for nearly twenty years. And she hadn't been surprised by Mrs. Pines' question either.
"You are correct, Mrs. Pines." Janine answered, folding her hands and laying them over the legal pad on her desk, "But in the interest of conserving your time, the administration thought it best that you meet with me instead of all seven of the twins' teachers."
"Why," Mr. Pines queried, "would every teacher need to meet with us? It's usually only the few that have comments to make. As far as I am aware, Mabel and Dipper are doing just fine in school."
Mrs. Claxton held up a hand, "We will get to that in a moment. But first, I would like a little bit of background on the two of you. What do you do?"
The Pines didn't look particularly thrilled with this arrangement, but answered nonetheless.
"I manage a research division of pharmaceutical company in Oakland." Matt said.
"And I," Miriam tossed a lock of her long hair behind her head, "sell pottery. I have a degree in art history and a masters in restorative sciences. I also curate for exhibits on occasion, though I try to keep that to a minimum as it takes away quite a bit of my time with my family."
Janine blinked. While Matt Pines' business career had not come as a surprise, she had not been expecting so much accomplishment from the unassuming woman in front of her. Miriam Pines eyed her coolly, daring her to comment.
Instead, Janine cleared her throat, pretending to read the legal pad in front of her, "Now I know were Mabel gets her prodigious expertise in the fine arts."
Mrs. Pines smiled fondly, "She's quite talented. And not just in art."
"Yes. I would say she has a knack for making friends. With anybody. Including in class." Mrs. Claxton pushed her glasses up on her nose, "You see, I have reports from four teachers that they have to repeatedly quiet her in class. And on more than one occasion, she has received disciplinary action for not abiding by the rules…"
"The rules to stay perfectly silent and still?" Mrs. Pines interrupted her, drilling her with a chilly gaze. She was good at those apparently, "Yes, let me just ask my very energetic daughter sit in an uncomfortable desk for eight hours a day without moving or talking. That will go over very well."
"Those are the rules, Mrs. Pines." Janine reiterated.
"Absolutely. And if she breaks the rules, you take away her thirty minute lunch period, the only time that she gets to freely talk with her friends. That's sure to encourage silence."
"It is what's best for their learning environment."
"Oh really? And here I thought there was something called interactive education; involving students; promoting discussion."
Mr. Pines held out a hand, his smile calm amidst the rising tension. "Mrs. Claxton. I'm sure you have daily meetings with your coworkers, yes?"
"Of course." Janine nodded.
"And when someone is lecturing at you for an extended period of time, you don't catch every word they say, much less remember it all, yes?"
Janine nodded again, albeit, with more hesitancy.
"What my wife is trying to get at is that while Mabel can be a chatterbox, you may want to evaluate where these incidents are occurring. What are the preexisting conditions? Environments? Biases? I work in epidemiology. I look closely at statistics on a day to day basis. What I'd be asking is, how many 'disruptive' students are these teachers reporting before I go pointing fingers at any one child for ruining the 'learning environment'. An inefficient teacher, perhaps? A simple evaluation can pinpoint a problem with much more unerring accuracy than blindly trying to patch up the symptom."
Mr. Pines sat back, that relaxed smile never leaving his features.
"Well… uh." Janine stammered.
"Why don't we move on?" Matt suggested, "In the interest of conserving time."
Janine hadn't missed the way he used her own words against her.
"Well," she pushed her glasses up on her nose, "Our Literature teacher, Miss Schultz, is very complementary of Mabel. She says that she enjoys having her in class and she always brightens her day. Her only concern, however, is that she says that she once saw Mabel get into a fight."
Mrs. Pines cocked an eyebrow, "And this was never reported?"
"No." Mrs. Claxton pressed on, reading off her notes, "Miss Schultz says that by the time she got outside to where the fight was, there was no one there. When she asked the boys involved, they denied anything like that ever happening. And when she asked Mabel, she told Miss Shultz she had been giving the boys 'a karate lesson'. Does your daughter do karate, Mr. and Mrs. Pines?"
"She does." Miriam answered, "She has won a few tournaments in the area. I'm sure if you asked Mabel, she could tell you all about it."
"I think it would be appropriate for you to have a conversation with Mabel about when she should engage in her karate activities."
"We've already had such a conversation, Mrs. Claxton. Mabel is well aware of when to talk things out rather that act out, as you've already expressed." That algid gaze was back again, "For the most part, her skill is reserved for karate lessons, defending herself, and mystery hunting."
While 'mystery hunting' was not a term in Janine's compendium, she was too embarrassed to ask for clarification. The Pines parents' ability to turn her own words around was seriously frustrating her attempts to impress on them the gravity of her allegations.
"Alright," Janine mumbled, "Moving on. Lastly, on the topic of your daughter, I wanted to ask if you've had any talks about what she wants to do with her future. When I had her for a counseling meeting a few weeks back, I got the impression that she wasn't taking things seriously."
"How so?" Mr. Pines asked.
"She said that she was going to be the main protagonist of a television show." Mrs. Claxton read off her notes, "'One with jokes and mystery and magic and romance and cute boys…'" she cleared her throat and continued, "I tried to remind her to be realistic. Just for future reference, you may want to steer such conversations into the realms of possible."
Mr. Pines' polite smile had turned into a grin, "The realms of possible are much wider than you give them credit for, Mrs. Claxton. I don't think Mabel's acting career is outside of that. Though I'm curious now. What did Dipper have to say in his counseling meeting?"
While disgruntled that she had again been dismissed, Janine welcomed the convenient segue. She pushed her glasses up on her nose once again and peered at her notes. While dealing with Mabel was like an avalanche of information, getting Dipper to answer a single question was like pulling teeth.
"He spent quite a while staring out the window before he decided on anthropologist." Janine informed the Pines parents, neglecting to mention that though her hearing might diminished, she didn't think she had imagined him answering with 'wizard' the first time.
"Certainly within the realms of possible, isn't it, Miriam?" Mr. Pines said rhetorically, flashing his wife a grin. Mrs. Pines stifled a snort behind her hand, playfully whapping her husband on the shoulder. And while Janine missed the inside joke, she didn't miss the way they were mocking her concerns.
"Mr. and Mrs. Pines." Mrs. Claxton snapped, feeling tempted to rise out of her chair, "Please. It is my responsibility to help your children succeed in any way I can, but I cannot do that if the two of you are not willing to cooperate."
"As their parents," Mrs. Pines interjected smoothly, her eyes freezing Janine on the spot, "It is our primary responsibility to help them succeed. Do continue with your meeting, Mrs. Claxton, but don't presume that you know our kids better than we do."
Fuming, Janine continued, "A few teachers have taken issue with Dipper's note-taking style," anger simmered just below the surface of her voice as she withdrew a crumpled piece of paper from her desk, "Apparently he's been writing everything in ciphers."
"Is that a problem?" Mr. Pines queried with a raised eyebrow. He didn't even bother to look at the offending evidence laid out on the desk. It was almost as if nothing about it astonished him.
"Well, no." Janine pressed on, "But the teachers asked that he write his notes in English. When Dipper didn't comply, his teachers asked me to bring it up to you."
"Well, you've brought it up, haven't you?" Mrs. Pines parried, "What else do you have for us?"
"You're just going to ignore this?" Janine asked, aghast.
"There's no rule against note-taking in your own style." Mr. Pines elaborated with an irksome smile, "That is why the teachers couldn't do anything about it. Maybe Dipper learns best in ciphers."
"When asked to read it aloud in class, he read it in Italian." Mrs. Claxton deadpanned.
"Latin." Mr. Pines corrected.
"That doesn't matter…"
"What doesn't matter is this meeting." Mr Pines interrupted. He stood, closely followed by his wife. "If you don't have anything constructive for our children, why don't we cut this meeting short? In the interest of conserving your time, after all."
Mrs. Pines' smile was like a wild cat, as she snagged the symbol strewn sheet of paper off Janine's desk while she was too flabbergasted to respond.
"Have a good afternoon, Mrs. Claxton." The woman said, brown eyes flashing.
Mr. Pines held the door open as the two left, and Janine did nothing to stop them. Yes she'd met rude parents. She'd met overprotective parents. She'd met harmfully negligent parents. But the Pines took the cake when it came to parents that had unwavering faith in their kids. As misplaced as Janine thought that faith may be.
Their voices drifted through the thin door from where they stood out in the hallway.
"That went about as expected." Matt Pines surmised.
"I can't believe they took Dipper's notes? Who does that? How do they expect him to study without his notes?"
"Is it class notes or… extracurricular notes?"
"Class notes." Miriam Pines answered, disgust evident in her tone.
The Pines parents sighed unanimously as they began to walk away, but Janine didn't think she imagined it when she heard Mr. Pines say, "If only the administration knew about half the shenanigans Mabel and Dipper get into. Someone would probably have a heart attack."
Mrs. Pines scoffed, "No doubt."
Maybe, Janine Claxton thought, she would retire early after all.
Yep! Mr. and Mrs. Pines know all about the magic and mayhem that is their children :D Honestly, the typical plot of teenagers hiding things from their parents is so hackneyed. I love the idea of a crazy family life with house rules like: "Mabel, no practicing martial arts holds on your brother" or "Dipper, no spells in the house unless you've practiced it exactly 100 times" "Dad, watch! I can kick to your head!" "Mom, I decoded that manuscript you found in the museum", etcetera. Supportive parents are awesome. I, personally, am so thankful that I have amazingly encouraging parents! 3
HAHA, oh my. Matt and Miriam really wrote themselves. I swear I had a plan for their personalities; literally none of that plan come through in this chapter. But I like the way it turned out. Mrs. Pines has Dipper's attitude and mainly defends him in the chapter. Mabel takes after her mom's smarts/interests. While Mr. Pines has Mabel's attitude and mainly defends her in the chapter. Dipper takes after his dad's smarts/interests. They were both heavily unimpressed with the Piedmont education system, which may be my voice sneaking through there… school is the worst.
Speaking of which, I should be studying for my biochem exam XP I needed a break that was more constructive than tumblr, and this chapter was overdue anyway. In conclusion, this is the end of the main series. I feel like these last few chapters have been hard to get out, and like I've said, I want to stop while I can make these good. I don't like it when things are unnecessarily dragged out. Look out though! THE EPILOGUE(S) WILL BE COMING SOON!
This idea spawned thanks to suggestions left by a guest reviewer and Extreme Light 9. A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that has been reading and reviewing and offering suggestions. I am sorry that I couldn't come through on every one, but I tried to incorporate as many as possible while staying true to my headcanons.
Sorry about the long author's note. And thanks again for reading!