After The Unexpected

[07] -Reading Sucks

6 years old

Jaxson sat in his high chair, spooning cheerios into his mouth with his rubber spongebob spoon, a skill he recently picked up from watching his big sister and brother at the table. His dark green eyes flickered between the television and the twins, who was sat on the opposite end of the table, dipping their french toast sticks into a bowl of syrup. You stood at the counter of your new house, still not getting used to the big space as compared to your smaller home that you spent the first 7 years of your relationship in.

You faced a wall of windows, leading to the back garden where a play set was half built, courtesy of your husband and his friends. The living room was settled to the left of the kitchen, and was currently scattered with toddler toys and the twins coloring supplies. The open space was so new and you thought the kids were adjusting nicely, for being 6 and 2 years old.

Jaxson was young and you weren't too worried about how he'd take the move, but you were worried about the twins. They had all of their friends from their old school and the neighbor boy you thought Sammy had a crush on, Noah, that would be left behind in the move across Brooklyn.

She seemed upset when you and Bucky talked to her about it, but you couldn't go on living in the 3- bedroom home. Parker had been sleeping in yours and Bucky's room since he was born, but now that he had outgrown his crib, it's time for him to have his own room and for you and Bucky to get your privacy back.

The twins had seemed to have adjusted well to their new school, at least so you thought, until the first round of progress reports were mailed to the house about two months into the term. You waited until you got back from dropping the kids off at school and nursery school to FaceTime Bucky, who was on currently on in Budapest taking down yet another HYDRA base.

"Hey doll" Bucky picked up the phone with a smile on his face, which you saw through the screen and it immediately made your mood better. You held the off white paper on your lap as you caught up with Bucky on how his mission was doing. You always let him get out his excitement before you gave him any news that was less than great because you didn't want to damper his enthusiasm that you loved so much.

"...so Thor invited us to he and Janes baby shower. I think we should go." Bucky finished, after quite a long-winded story.

"Of course," you replied, still twiddling the paper between your fingers.

"Okay, what's the bad news?" Bucky asked, his brows raising as he looked at you through the phone.

"What makes you think there's bad news?" you asked, almost mocking an offended tone.

"Your eyes keep looking down and you're never this quiet unless you're going to give me bad news," Bucky replied, matter-of-factly. You sighed, cursing yourself for how well he read you. You didn't want to bring him down, but your children's grades were not good at all, and he deserved to know and you wanted his input on how to handle it.

"The twins progress report came in the mail today," you started, holding the paper up to he could see the back.

"Oh? How are my little geniuses doing?" He loved hearing about the kids when he was away. He always says it makes him feel like he's home with them.

"Well, Sammys got an unsatisfactory in reading, and James is failing in Math. That's what I called to talk to you about," you sighed, looking down at the paper to reread the mark yourself.

"What? We read to her all the time. She reads her nighttime books with me, and James is always counting and adding," Bucky frowned, and you could tell his mood was soured.

"I think I'm going to schedule a meeting with their teacher. Did you want me to wait until you came back?"

"Please." Bucky was home the next week and you had scheduled the meeting for Wednesday evening so you'd have time to drop off the kids at Tony's house before heading over there.