Jumped to Conclusions

A guest asked for a one shot where Neal is up crying all night and Hanna doesn't sleep, but David and Snow don't realize, so she fails a math test the next day. She gets grounded because they don't know, but eventually it gets out.

Hanna sat straight up when she heard her little brother's cries. She found it odd because she always stayed asleep when Neal woke up in the night. Sometimes her mom and dad would talk about how many times he was awake the night before and that's only reason Hanna knew he didn't always sleep through the night. Hanna looked over at the clock and saw that it was only 11:30. She hadn't even been asleep for two hours yet. She pulled her pillow over her head and tried to go back to sleep. The pillow did nothing in the way of muffling Neal's cries. Hanna watched the clock, and the time continued to tick away. 12:45, 2:15, 4:30…Neal stopped crying occasionally and Hanna would get some relief, but as soon as she felt herself finally starting to fall asleep, the cries would start again. Something was really upsetting that baby tonight, and he was not calming down. Nobody in this house was getting any sleep tonight.

Hanna's stomach did a flop when she saw the grade on the top of her math test a few days later. F. An F? Hanna thought back to the day she took the test. What was going on that day? Hanna thought she understood this math chapter fairly well, so why did she fail? Something must have happened. Then Hanna remembered. That was the day after Neal's all night crying event. They figured out the next day that he was starting to get a few new teeth. He was still a bit fussy during the day, but his sleeping schedule went back to normal as long as he had some medicine before bed. But of course, his teeth had to choose to come in and keep him up the night before Hanna's math test.

Hanna didn't know what she was going to do when she went home. There was no way to hide this grade. If you failed a test, you had to take it home and get your parents to sign it, then bring it back to the teacher the next day. Hanna did not want to take this home and face her parents when they saw her grade. Hanna thought maybe if she played her cards right, she could get her test signed without her mom and dad seeing the grade.

Hanna walked up to the front door and could hear Neal fussing again. When were those teeth going to give the kid a break? Hanna thought this could work to her advantage though. Her mom and dad would be too preoccupied with Neal and wouldn't pay much attention to the grade when she asked one of them signed the test. This may just work out after all.

Hanna went inside and found her mom in the kitchen bouncing Neal up and down, trying to sooth him, while her dad was holding a teething ring to Neal's mouth. Neal wasn't a fan of the teething rings though and wanted nothing to do with it. Hanna set down her back pack and pulled out her test. She picked up a pen that was lying on the table and went over to get her test signed, hoping it would go like she planned.

Hanna placed the test and pen onto the counter. She made sure her hand covered the giant letter F at the top of the page. "Can, uh, one of you sign this for me real quick?"

David glanced up at Hanna. "Sure kiddo." He put down the teething ring and picked up the pen. "We didn't even hear you come home."

"Yeah it's kinda hard to hear with this little guy crying so loud." Hanna reached out her other hand to Neal and wiped a few of his tears away. "I'm sorry your teeth still hurt, buddy."

"He should calm down soon," Snow said. "We just gave him some more medicine and…wait a minute. What exactly is your dad signing?"

"It's nothing. Just…"

Snow reached over and lifted Hanna's hand from the paper.

"Mom, no!" Hanna tried to keep her hand down, but her mom was too strong.

"Hanna what is this?" Snow pulled the paper out of David's reach when she saw what Hanna was trying to hide. "You failed your math test?"

Hanna gulped. She didn't know what to say.

Snow held out the test to Hanna. "Explain this, young lady."

"It…it wasn't my fault. I…" Hanna wanted to explain, but she felt bad putting the blame on her baby brother.

"Then who's fault is it?" David asked.

"Hanna we've talked about this," Snow sighed. "You're suppose to come to us if you're having trouble understanding your math."

"But Mom I wasn't having trouble!"

"This," Snow held up Hanna's test once more, "tells a different story."

"And you tried to hide it from us," David added. "We're not going back to this, Hanna. We will not tolerate you sneaking around and hiding your math grades from us again."

"Dad, I'm not!"

"Hanna, do not raise your voice at us," Snow warned.

Hanna glared at her mom.

"Hanna give me your phone and go to your room," David told her.

Hanna rolled her eyes. "Why?"

"Because you're grounded."

"Dad, that's not fair!"

"Hanna give me your phone and get up those stairs right now, and do not come back down until we say so." Snow held out her hand for the phone.

Hanna could feel the tears begin to build up in her eyes. She took her phone from her pocket it and placed it into her mom's hand. Then she ran up the stairs before the tears started to fall.

"Han, I've been trying to call you," Emma said as she walked into Hanna's room. "Are you ignoring me or what?" She sat down on the bed. She pulled the covers away from Hanna's face and saw her tear stained cheeks. "Hey…what's the matter?"

"You don't know how to knock, that's what's the matter." Hanna reached out and pulled the covers back over her head.

Emma pulled the covers back down again.

"Emma!" Hanna sat up and reached out for her blankets once more, but her sister pushed them away onto the floor.

"Hanna, what's going on?"

Hanna sighed. "Mom and Dad took my phone. That's why I didn't answer you."

Emma grinned. "What did you do to get yourself into trouble this time?"

Hanna furrowed her eyebrows at Emma. "I didn't do anything."

"Han, come on…" Emma knew they wouldn't have taken the phone for no reason.

"Well, I failed my math test, but…"

"See, that's not nothing Hanna…"

"No, just stop. If you're not going to let me tell my side of the story either, then you can just leave."

"Okay, okay," Emma put up her hands. "I'll listen. What happened?"

Hanna explained to Emma about what happened the night before her math test.

"Why didn't you just tell Mom and Dad that?"

"I tried, but before I could, they took my phone and sent me up here."

"Do you want me to go down and talk to them for you?" Emma offered.

Hanna shrugged. "I don't see what difference that would make."

"Hanna, they'll want to know the whole story, and I'm sure they'll understand. They've been under a lot of stress with the baby these last few days. That's probably why they got frustrated and sent you up here without letting you explain. In their defense, I'm sure they didn't realize Neal kept you awake that night. You sleep like a rock most of the time."

Hanna thought about what Emma said. "I guess you're right. If you want to go talk to them you can. They told me I'm not allowed to come downstairs, so they'll listen to you better right now than they will to me."

"Okay, I'll be back." Emma stood up and threw Hanna's blankets back at her. "Here, make your bed while I'm gone."

Hanna rolled her eyes at her sister, but fixed her bed anyways. She was grateful that Emma was going to go talk to their mom and dad for her.

A few minutes later, there was a quiet knock on the door and Hanna looked up to see her mom and dad walking into the room. Hanna could see the guilt all over their faces. They knew they made a mistake and Hanna couldn't deny it made her feel pretty good to see that. Usually she was the one messing up, but not this time.

"Hey, kiddo," David said as he sat down on the bed next to Hanna.

Snow sat on the other side of Hanna. "I think we owe you an apology."

Hanna shrugged. "I tried to tell you."

"We didn't realize Neal kept you wake that night, babe." Snow tucked some of Hanna's hair behind her ears. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I don't know. I barely remember going to school that morning."

"We're sorry we didn't realize," David told her.

"And we're sorry we jumped to conclusions and didn't listen to you earlier."

Hanna looked up at her mom and dad. "So, does that mean I'm ungrounded and get to have my phone back?"

"Yes," David held out the phone, but then quickly pulled it back. "But…you have to promise to tell us if Neal keeps you up at night again."

"And no more trying to hide test grades," Snow added.

David gave Hanna her phone. "Do you forgive us?"

Hanna nodded and smiled. "Yeah I do."

"Good," Snow wrapped her arms around Hanna.

"We promise to listen to you next time." David gave Hanna a kiss on the top of her head. David meant what he said. He and Snow felt horrible for not taking the time to listen to what Hanna was trying to tell them. They would be sure to not make that mistake again.