After the Fall

Having Downtime (Fluff and Smut)

"Alright two chicken strip dinners with onion rings. One with gravy and one with ketchup." The waiter says while putting down the two plates in front of Max and Amberlee, both of them being seated in a booth, both of them across from each other. "Anything else for you both?"

"That's it, thank you." Max says, her going to pick up her drink while the waiter goes to walk away, her drinking some of her drink.

"Thank you mommy." Amberlee says while dipping her chicken strip in ketchup before going to bite on it.

"You're welcome baby." Max responds, her dipping her chicken strip in her gravy before eating, both of them going to eat in content silence.

After a minute Max looks at her while chewing, seeing Amberlee sucking on her straw, drinking her drink while holding a onion ring in her small ring. "So is there anything else I would need to know Ambie that is going on? Anything else me and daddy need to know?"

Amberlee takes her lips away from the water, her going to put down her onion ring. "I just don't like school."

"That's understandable sweetheart." Max tells her softly. "I didn't like school either."

"You didn't?"

"Not at all." Max shakes her head. "But school is one the requirements to do in life, you just have to...cope with it."

"Cope?" She questions.

"Yeah, it means to deal effectively with something difficult." Max explains. "And effectively means doing something in a manner to achieve a positive result, so a successful result. So with that being said I'm not asking you to love school, but it is something you have to cope with, something you have to work hard in too, because me and your Dad want you to be successful in life. Plus you are already smart we want you to show it off that way we can brag."

Amberlee smiles softly, her looking ahead of her after a moment. "It's just hard sometimes." She admits. "She doesn't make it easy." She mumbles.

"Who doesn't make it easy?" Max questions.

Amberlee plays a little with the onion ring in her hand, her going to put it down before playing with the charm bracelet Lucas got for her. Max looks down at the action, noticing how she always does it when she is down, and when Lucas isn't around. "Hey." Max says softly, Amberlee looking up at her. "Talk to momma sweetheart."

"Daddy told me to keep being brave." Amberlee says. "I'm trying to."

"But that doesn't mean that give others the opportunity to bring you down, especially when they are in a higher position than you are." Max says. "So tell me who."

"Miss Cross." Amberlee responds. "She doesn't stop others from being mean to me and she never lets me work alone. In groups I try, and they don't listen, I try telling her that but she doesn't listen." She explains, her expression going down all over again.

It makes Max blood boil but at the same time it makes her heart heavy as well. It makes her blood boil because it pisses her off that the teacher was doing that freely when she wasn't there and now that Max is there she wants to be all buddy buddy with Amberlee. Smiling at her, complimenting her and calling on her when questions are trying to be answered.

Letting Max know she is a fake bitch.

But it also saddens her because Amberlee should not be dealing with this kind of stress this young. First she had to deal with them being swatted, and that is still something she still continues to deal with, and now this. She doesn't want to see her daughter go through unnecessary stress, especially at such a young age. She should be smiling when coming out of school, explaining what was done for the day, she should be ecstatic while at home, not happy for a certain part of the day but her face going down every single night because she knows she has to return back to school the next day.