Why hello there. I just came back from vacation (which was extended thanks to bad weather back home) and meant to upload this before I left. So it's a few days later than I intended, but I'm still very excited to share this with you all! This one was very fun to write.

Aiden and Michelle: 8 years old

Elizabeth: 2 years old


Homework Hell

As a mother and a gym leader, Misty could often find it difficult to balance all of her responsibilities.

That's why she appreciated being able to keep almost everything under one roof most of the time.

On most days, when Misty went to work in the gym, she was able to bring all three kids with her. Elizabeth would spend most of her time in the playroom, watched over by one of her aunts when Misty got too busy. Though Aiden and Michelle would occasionally join their younger sister in the playroom, now that they were older, most of their time in the gym during the day was spent in school.

The twins were privately tutored by a young teacher named Ismene. Ash and Misty had decided relatively early on it would be best for Aiden and Michelle to be homeschooled, since Michelle was pretty advanced for her age and Aiden was a handful when it came to schooling. Both participated in outside activities with other kids and had plenty of friends, so their parents weren't worried about the socialization aspect. The private schooling was solely because it was what Ash and Misty felt would be most beneficial for their older children.

The gym's kitchen served as the twins' classroom. They would sit at the table with Ismene and learn there. Misty would poke her head in occasionally just to check on them, but she knew better than to interrupt their lessons. After all, she wasn't a teacher and didn't want to pretend she knew more than Ismene…because she didn't. But once Ismene was finished, she would always meet up with Misty and tell her how the twins had done that day. For that, Misty was very appreciative.

On this particular day, Misty was busy rearranging some things at the gym's front desk when Ismene walked out of the kitchen. Her footsteps alerted Misty, who looked up with a smile on her face.

"Hey," Misty greeted. "How'd they do today?"

"Good!" Ismene replied. "They both worked very hard today. We worked on some new math skills and also did some reading comprehension. Michelle finished all of her work, so she's done for the day. But Aiden still has some left over to finish."

Misty sighed and dragged a hand down the side of her face. "That's going to be a fight."

Aiden and Michelle came running out of the kitchen, both looking rather excited. Misty was surprised that Aiden was that happy, considering he now had homework to do.

"What do you two say to Miss Ismene?" Misty asked the children before they could say anything else.

"Thank you!" They chirped simultaneously, each giving their teacher a slight bow.

"You're welcome," Ismene replied with a little giggle. "I'll see you two tomorrow!"

Once Ismene had walked out of the gym, Misty turned her attention onto her daughter and suggested, "Michelle, why don't you play with your little sister for a bit before you have to get ready for swim practice?"

"Okay!" Michelle giggled, turning on a heel and darting towards the playroom. Aiden was about to follow right after her, but Misty was very quick to put a stop to that.

"Where do you think you're going?" Misty questioned, sending a chill up her son's spine as he skidded to a halt.

"Um, to go play with Michelle and Elizabeth!" Aiden answered, glancing over his shoulder with a shaky smile.

"Nice try," Misty quipped. "But Miss Ismene told me you have homework to do."

Aiden instantly pouted in response. "Mom, I don't have time for homework! I have baseball!"

"And you know that schoolwork comes before sports," Misty calmly argued. "Now, back into the kitchen. The sooner you finish that homework, the sooner you can get to practice."

Aiden grumbled and trudged his way back towards the kitchen. Misty followed after him, intending to both help him with the work and make sure he wouldn't sneak back out of the room. Once he sat down in his chair, Misty took a seat beside him, causing the boy to roll his eyes.

"Mom, I don't need help," Aiden whined. "I can do it myself!"

"I'm just going to sit here in case you need any help," Misty reasoned with him. "But I agree. You can do it yourself. You're a very smart boy!"

Aiden narrowed his eyes as he flipped open his math textbook to the page Ismene had marked off for him with the paper he was supposed to write his work on. Picking up a pencil, Aiden began to examine the first question while Misty watched. Aiden could feel his mother's eyes on him, and he snapped his head up, alarming her.

"Don't watch me!" Aiden cried.

"Why can't I watch you?" Misty questioned.

"Cause it's weird," Aiden muttered.

"Alright, I'll do something else then," Misty relented, getting up from her seat and walking to the sink. Peering inside, she saw some dishes waiting to be washed. She turned on the faucet and began rinsing them, while Aiden turned his attention back to his textbook.

The first question was looking for the answer to 35 + 45. Aiden furrowed his brow as he thought, struggling to come up with the correct number. He hated math. It would be much easier if he could just use a calculator, but Ismene said he and Michelle had to learn to add and subtract on their own, because they might not always have a calculator with them.

Aiden had ended up putting calculators everywhere (even in his baseball bag!) and showing Ismene to try and prove her wrong, but it didn't do any good. Still no calculator allowed.

Getting bored with trying to calculate the answer in his head, Aiden finally gave up and scribbled a "75" on the first line of paper. With that finished, he moved onto the second question, this time asking for the solution to 80 – 15. Aiden growled. Math was so dumb! He was never going to have to use it as a Pokémon trainer.

The boy suddenly felt something brush against his legs, leading him to take a quick peek beneath the table. Vaporeon had managed to slink into the kitchen, and was currently rubbing herself against him. He chuckled softly and gripped the sides of his chair, leaning further down.

"Hi, Vaporeon!"

The bubble jet Pokémon glanced up at the boy and mewled happily. "Vay!"

Misty, meanwhile, looked over her shoulder and realized that Aiden had once again abandoned his homework, this time in favor of fawning over Vaporeon.

"Aiden…" Misty sighed.

The boy picked his head up and frowned. "Vaporeon just wants to play! I didn't want to ignore her. That's not nice, right?"

"No, it's not, and it's very nice of you to pay attention to her," Misty replied. "But you've really got to get that work done. Vaporeon, come here!"

The water type darted out from beneath the table, eagerly meeting her trainer and standing by her feet. Misty knelt down to pet the Pokémon's head, causing her to purr happily.

"Aiden's a little busy right now," Misty informed her partner. "You can play with him later, okay?"

Vaporeon murmured in agreement and rubbed against Misty's legs instead. Aiden, on the other hand, crossed his arms and started to pout.

"The more you focus on that work, the sooner you'll get it done," Misty reminded her son.

Aiden groaned and put his attention back on the textbook in front of him, picking up his pencil and studying the same problem he'd stopped on before.

What a waste of time, Aiden thought to himself. I'm not gonna sit here forever thinking about this stuff! I'll get it done nice and quick, just like Mom said. But maybe not with as much focus as she thinks it needs…

As soon as Misty had finished washing the dishes in the sink and turned around, she saw Aiden closing his math textbook with a smirk on his face.

"Finished already?" Misty asked, sounding surprised.

"Yep!" Aiden chirped. "It was easy!"

Misty raised an eyebrow. "Easy" was never a word her son used when it came to math. Or any subject, really. Aiden noticed his mother's skepticism, and nervously laughed to cover himself.

"I'm gonna go ready for baseball," Aiden quickly continued, jumping out of his seat.

"Hold it!" Misty cried, causing Aiden to stiffen. "I have to check your answers first."

"Why?" Aiden whined, dramatically throwing his arms down. "I finished all of it!"

"I know, but I want to make sure you did it right," Misty sighed. "Just wait right here while I look it over."

Aiden folded his arms and nervously shifted from foot-to-foot as Misty opened the textbook. She scanned the questions in the book, comparing them to the answers Aiden had written down. As she looked between each one, her brow became more and more deeply furrowed. Aiden noticed this and began to slowly inch back towards the doorway. Maybe if he snuck out before she noticed-

"Aiden, none of these are right," Misty commented, glancing up at her son.

The boy frowned. "What? What do you mean?"

"All of these answers are wrong," Misty reiterated, holding up the paper for emphasis. "Did you rush through it?"

"No!" Aiden immediately cried. "I don't ever do that!"

Misty arched an eyebrow. "Aiden, you rush through your homework all the time."

The boy's cheeks started to turn bright red. "Yeah, well…not this time! I didn't rush!"

Misty sighed and put the paper back down on the table. "Well, now we're going to have to fix the whole thing."

"We?!" Aiden repeated, his voice raising an octave. "I told you I don't need help!"

"Clearly you were having trouble," Misty calmly retorted, nodding towards the sheet of incorrect answers. "Unless, of course, you really were rushing…"

Aiden continued pouting, but walked back over to his seat. As he sat down, he commented, "I only rushed a little bit –cause I didn't want to be late for baseball."

"I already told you that your schoolwork comes before sports," Misty scolded, her tone becoming stronger. "You're not going to practice until this work is finished correctly."

Aiden groaned and threw his head back. "But that's gonna take forever!"

"It won't if you let me help you," Misty replied. "So why don't we just go through everything and make those corrections?"

"Fine," Aiden grumbled, staring a hole through the kitchen table.

Misty picked up the pencil and held it out in front of Aiden. It took him a minute, but he eventually reached out and took it from her. With her hand now free, Misty pointed at the first question and read, "35 plus 45. Do you know the answer?"

Aiden drummed the pencil against the table and shook his head.

"Are you actually thinking about the question?" Misty prodded, her voice becoming laced with annoyance. "Or are you still thinking about baseball?"

"Jack and Noah and me were gonna see how far across the field we can throw the ball," Aiden whined.

"Okay, still baseball," Misty sighed. "Aiden, I meant what I said. If you're really not going to try on this homework, then you're not going to go to baseball practice."

"I hate homework!" Aiden cried, tossing the pencil away. "It's not fun. I'm no good at it. I'm good at baseball! And that's fun! I want to do that, Mom. I don't want to do this stuff. It makes me feel stupid."

Guilt quickly flooded Misty. She should've known that was part of it. Aiden wasn't like Michelle…he struggled with schoolwork. He wasn't a fast learner and he didn't really enjoy anything about school. Sure, he loved Ismene, and never misbehaved for her and always tried his best. But Aiden still got frustrated relatively easily, and it really wasn't all his fault.

Misty gently grabbed her son's face, causing his eyes to widen. "You are not stupid, Aiden. And you're not wrong. Homework isn't the most fun thing in the world. But it's important! You want to learn as much as you possibly can. You know that Dad and I think you and your sister's education is very important."

Aiden frowned, but slowly nodded his head.

"Besides, you're very lucky," Misty continued. "Miss Ismene really doesn't give you a lot of homework. You get almost all of your work done with her! A lot of other kids get much more homework than this every single day. And they don't get to play as much as you and your sister do because of it. Miss Ismene does that because she wants you and Michelle to be able to play and be kids. She thinks your education is important too, but she doesn't want that to be the only thing you guys do all the time."

Aiden tilted his head this time. "Do you and Dad think that too?"

Misty smiled. "Yes. Dad and I agree with that very much."

Aiden still didn't look happy, but he reached out and picked the pencil back up. "Okay. Let's get it over with."

Misty giggled at her son's declaration. "I agree. Let's get it over with!"