Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want

11

"I don't know how you convinced me to do this," Homelander said.

"It was just an idea," Nina reminded him. "I didn't convince you of anything. I just gave you a little push."

They were preparing to visit a classroom. A classroom with loud, angry sixth graders. He wasn't really nervous, just annoyed that he had to put on a happy face to these people. Nina handled most of the calls and talked to the principal and the counselors of the school to make sure everything went on according to plan. He greeted the adults just okay, but children... Children were a nightmare to deal with, and now he had to face a bunch of them, and their mean little comments and their lack of respect to authority. Nina noticed how uncomfortable he was, and joked about it.

"You know, you can just fly away. I'm not stopping you."

He looked at her, her smile fading away to a neutral face. "Come on, boss. It's not the end of the world. Just make the kids happy."

He rolled his eyes, and she giggled. They entered the classroom together. Lots of wide eyes followed the both of them as they positioned themselves in front of the class. Homelander went on and sat on the corner of the teacher's table, putting as little weight over it as possible so it wouldn't break. Nina seemed excited to enter a classroom for the first time in a while. She knew how difficult it was to be a teacher, and how worn out she felt at times, but she did miss some of the interactions she had with her students. It wouldn't be that hard, would it?

"Good morning, guys!", Nina said. A big part of them answered back, but some just stared or whispered stuff to their classmates.

"I can't hear all of you. Good morning!" She was trying to sound cheerful as possible, even seeing some grumpy faces among the kids.

"Good morning!" Now it was louder and more enthusiastic. Perhaps most of them were sleepy.

"I brought a friend with me." Nina pointed at Homelander who smiled and waved. "Who's excited to meet him?"

A lot of kids, especially the boys, raised their hands. Some looked afraid and some looked confused. Homelander kept fake smiling through it all. Nina continued. "He's gonna talk to you for a bit. You can even ask him questions if you want to!"

"Hey, everyone!", he said. "Nice to meet all of you."

Nina heard some giggles, which she assumed was some good news. Homelander started pacing around, hands behind his back. "So, how many of you like to come to school?"

Just a few kids raised their hands. He smiled. " Well, did you know that superheroes like me have to study too?"

"But you have super strength!", said a blonde, blue eyed boy. "You don't need to know math."

"Well, in fact I do need to!" His tone was comically fake, but it made the kids interested. "How do you think I know how and where to throw the bad guys? It's all math."

Nina smiled as she watched their eyes glisten. "But science? And geography too?" A little redheaded girl asked.

"Yes! You need to be better than the bad guys. You need to be smarter. And that's how you do it. You need to study." He pointed to the kids with his gloved hand.

A tall girl with pigtails raised her hand. "Where can I find some Compound V?"

Nina widened her eyes. She looked at Homelander, who was looking at her at the same time. Even the kids knew. Damn, kids at that age already had iPads and absorbed that kind of information. He didn't know how to answer it, so he changed the subject. "Listen, this is about school. Just... respect your teachers."

"Yeah, but teachers suck!", said a brunette, freckled kid. "And I hate school."

Homelander walked to him, he sitting on one of the last rows of chairs. He crouched a bit and looked at the kid in the eyes. "Well, you shouldn't. It's a very important part of life."

"Well, it's lame, and you're lame too. A-Train is so much better."

Nina raised her eyebrows. Homelander's face twitched a bit. Of course, not everyone is going to like him. He had his back to Nina and she noticed that he fell silent, so she decided to approach her boss. He stood up and she looked at his face. He looked serious now. The smile was completely gone.

"What's your name, young man?", Nina asked, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Adam."

"Well, Adam. Sometimes people like school, and it can be boring sometimes. But it's indeed very important. It's where you get to learn..."

"Shut up, you stupid bitch," Adam said. Nina could miss lots of things, but the entitlement wasn't one of them. Homelander took one step closer and Nina immediately put her hand over his chest to stop him. She continued to pay attention to the kid. Adam was still terribly grumpy. Probably a spoiled little brat.

"Listen, that's not really a nice thing to say, young man," said Nina.

"I don't really fucking care. You two are boring and lame."

Nina heard Homelander sigh of frustration and continued to hold him back, or pretend to do so. She doubted he would harm a kid, but she did know she couldn't stop him if he wanted to. He had lost his temper with the Seven before and she wanted to avoid any kind of bad PR.

"Well Adam, it's okay," Homelander said. Nina looked at him a bit worried. He was smiling. "We understand. I hope you change your mind. We're going to Voughtland on Saturday and I really want to see you there."

The kid's expression changed, now looking slightly surprised. "Voughtland?"

Homelander nodded, with a smirk. The kids cheered. "Yes. You can even talk to A-Train there. I bet he will love meeting you."

Adam nodded. It was impressive how the mood changed just because he was offered something he wanted, but never asked for. Maybe his parents conditioned him to be as annoying as possible and seeing other people usually as enablers of his wishes. It was sad to see. Nina knew that a lot of kids' bad habits were results of poor parenting. Adam was an example of it. Homelander walked to the front of the room and waved goodbye to the kids, when the redhead girl came and hugged him. Soon, a bunch of kids stormed him, trying to hug him. Nina motioned him to crouch and she took her cellphone out, for a pic. It was adorable and hilarious at the same time - a man who hated kids smiling and posing with them all over him. At least it worked, and the boss although not happy, was satisfied with the result.