Fic: We Don't Need No Education (R/Q, PG, Future!Fic)
Title: We Don’t Need No Education
Author: an_an0maly
Summary: Rachel and Quinn taking their kid to school for their first day.
Pairing: Rachel/Quinn
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,685
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters unfortunately. Title belongs to Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall Part 2'.
Author’s Note: This is for gilligankane as an apology. This is based off of this prompt. It might not be exactly what the OP wanted, but I gave it a shot anyway. I also learnt/learned a lot today from a discussion with grdnofevrythng , the_girl_20 and grdnofevrythng about storeys/stories, and as the context of the fic is America, I've changed it to the appropriate spelling. Shall we move onto the lasagne/lasagna debate next? Thanks to the_girl_20 for reading this at work. Better than that meeting you were in, huh?
Arwyn Berry-Fabray stood on the sidewalk, her lunch box in her right hand, and backpack in her left. Kingston Elementary, with its three stories, dark brick and a security guard at the top of the steps loomed above her. Arwyn let her gaze linger on the front entrance. Students of varying ages, heights and ethnicities were entering and exiting the front doors. Some accompanied by parents, others by older siblings from the neighboring middle school. Many were joking and laughing and sharing secret handshakes. A group of giggling girls fawned over the display on one of the girls’ iPad360.
Arwyn took a deep breath before biting her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure this was such a great idea - this school thing. She’d been home-schooled for the last five years while her mother toured the country in a revival of Annie. They’d finally settled down after Rachel took a fall on stage and broke two ribs, resulting in Quinn begging Rachel to take a break to recuperate, and to perhaps expand their family.
They’d finally settled in Los Angeles. A compromise had been agreed upon between Rachel and Quinn. Rachel was free to pursue an acting career on screen, as long as they could settle down in one city. Arwyn had enjoyed the moving around, though - she’d visited most of the states, collecting pins from each one. Rachel had convinced her that pins were easily transported, whereas snow globes had a tendency to break.
Now, on the fifth day of September, on a bright, warm day, Arwyn stood in front of the first school she would ever attend.
“Ready?” A voice called from her right. Arwyn turned her head and looked up at her mother.
Arwyn scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Please,” she began. “I was born ready.”
Her mother grinned down at her and readjusted her handbag on her shoulder before nodding her head in the direction of the front doors. “Your mother is already inside, no doubt having already located your classroom and the teacher with whom I am certain I will engage in countless educational discussions with.”
Arwyn held her head high. She tightened her grip on her lunch box, slung her backpack over her shoulder, smoothed down her sweater vest and skirt and began to march up the front steps, her mother following close behind. Just as they reached the front doors, her mother reached out and gently gripped onto Arwyn’s shoulder, pulling her back.
Brown eyes met hazel. “I realize you agreed to this arrangement, in most part, so I could further my career, but it’s not too late to retract your decision. Your mother may argue the point with me later, but I believe I could be very capable of providing you with an education at home, in the kitchen. Or, I’ll have a classroom attached to the back of the house. Easy! Done!” Rachel exclaimed as she grabbed Arwyn’s hand and began to turn them away and back down the steps.
“Rachel Berry-Fabray!” A stern voice called from behind them. Arwyn couldn’t help but wince at the voice. She’d heard it countless times. Particularly when she’d ordered one of everything on the room service menu at their last hotel, or that one time she’d flooded the bathrooms at the theatre in Chicago after the owner yelled at Rachel during a rehearsal.
Rachel shot Arwyn a look of concern. Arwyn just nodded her head slightly, indicating they would face Quinn together. As one, they slowly turned to face a scowling Quinn. She had her hands on her hips, her lips pursed and her foot tapping against the concrete. “I understand why Arwyn might be afraid, but Rachel, I expected more from you,” Quinn admonished.
Rachel and Arwyn suddenly straightened their spines, crossed their arms and scowled back at Quinn, almost in unison. “I resent your accusation!” Arwyn exclaimed in indignation before stomping her foot down.
“I am offended that you would think I was afraid to send Arwyn off to school. The implications alone are quite unsettling. I was just allowing her to reaffirm her decision on this particular school,” Rachel argued before uncrossing her arms and beginning to march right back up the steps, shooting a side-long glance at Arwyn who quickly followed suit.
“Right,” Quinn commented with a raised eyebrow. She turned and followed her wife and daughter through the front doors, guiding them down the main hallway.
Rachel glanced over her shoulder at her wife who raised both eyebrows at her. Rachel waved her left hand over her shoulder at Quinn and held her head high. “I do hope you know where you’re directing us. It wouldn’t do for Arwyn to be late on her first day.”
Quinn smirked as she watched Rachel become defensive. “I know where her classroom is and I’ve also introduced myself to her teacher. I did all this while you were still in the car reciting all the school rules and the discipline policy to our daughter.”
“I was ensuring she was fully equipped to socialize in this kind of overbearing environment,” Rachel argued, her arms crossed over her chest.
Quinn side-stepped a child and their father to find her place on Arwyn’s left. “You mean, with children her own age?” she quipped
Rachel shot Quinn a glare. “I do not appreciate you mocking my concerns.”
Quinn grinned down at Arwyn who met her gaze and bit her lip as her eyes filled with mirth. “I would never mock you,” Quinn replied in a jovial tone. “Ok, I would, but only when I think you’re being ridiculous.”
Rachel nudged Arwyn. “Aren’t I lucky I married your mother?” Her voice full of sarcasm.
Arwyn switched her lunchbox to her left hand before reaching up with her right to give her mother a comforting tap on her arm. “I assure you, I still love you,” she said very seriously.
Rachel suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and pulled Arwyn into a bone-crushing hug, Arwyn’s arms pinned to her sides. “Of which I am grateful for, every day,” she mumbled into Arwyn’s hair.
“We’re here!” Quinn announced, interrupting the moment between the pair. She moved toward the doorway behind Rachel and waited.
Rachel pulled back, a look of panic set in her features. She grabbed Arwyn’s shoulders and made sure her daughter met her gaze head on. “Recite it back to me,” she ordered in a slight panic.
Arwyn blushed and ducked her head. “Mom,” she whined softly.
Rachel’s grip tightened slightly. “Arwyn, please. For me,” Rachel begged, her gaze intently focused on her daughter’s face.
Arwyn sighed and eyed a boy squeezing past her mother to enter the classroom. “Arwen was the daughter of Elrond, the King of Rivendell. She was breathtakingly beautiful and fell in love with Aragorn. She elected to reject her immortality in order to live a life of man with her beloved. She was pivotal in inspiring and motivating Aragorn to take his rightful place as King, thus proving that ‘behind every great man, is an even greater woman’,” Arwyn recited quite seriously.
Rachel ducked her head, her hands still gripping Arwyn’s shoulders. “Why did your mother have to have a secret Tolkien obsession? Liza would have been easier to explain,” she mumbled before lifting her head back up. “You just remember that you are beautiful and strong and are quickly becoming a great woman.”
Arwyn blushed as she grinned at her mother. Her gaze flickered to her other mother looming over Rachel’s shoulder, her eyebrow raised. Right. She bit her lip, scrunched her eyes and willed the tears to come.
“Oh, Arwyn!” Rachel exclaimed, her throat closing up with emotion as she watched her daughter turn into a blubbering mess. She pulled Arwyn into another hug, her cheek resting against Arwyn’s temple.
“Mom,” Arwyn sobbed into her mother’s shoulder. “I’m afraid the fear is setting in. What if the research on current trends is inaccurate? I also forgot my spreadsheet on appropriate conversation topics on my desk at home!” She exclaimed in near panic, her arms wrapping around her mother’s back and gripped tightly. She saw Quinn rotate her finger in circles, motioning for her to hurry it up. “And - and... I forgot the stickers!”
Rachel gasped as she pulled away. “Arwyn! I thought I had prepared you more sufficiently for this!” Rachel straightened up and began searching through her handbag. Arwyn caught Quinn rolling her eyes over Rachel’s shoulder. Arwyn shrugged a shoulder and smirked.
“Here!” Rachel exclaimed as she thrust a full sheet of gold star stickers into her hand. “It’s incredibly fortunate I still use them for fan encounters and spontaneous signings.”
Arwyn’s eyes lowered as she nodded her head and reached for the stickers. She took them carefully from her mother and held them to her chest. She looked up at Rachel from beneath her lashes and allowed her bottom lip to tremble. “Thanks, Mom.”
Rachel’s smile wobbled as she brushed a tear away from Arwyn’s face. “I love you, Sweetie.”
“Okay!” Quinn interrupted accompanied by a clap of her hands. “My turn!” She announced as she nudged Rachel aside. Rachel rolled her eyes and took a few steps away to rifle through her bag for her camera. She’d already taken thirty photos before they left the house, another twenty-five out the front of the school, but she just needed a few of Arwyn at her classroom door to and her desk to complete the scrapbook collection.
Quinn eyed Rachel’s distance before pulling Arwyn into a tight hug. Quinn sighed. “One scoop with chocolate fudge,” she whispered in her daughter’s ear.
“Three, with sprinkles,” Arwyn negotiated as she buried her head in her mother’s shoulder.
“The stickers were a tad too much. Two scoops, no topping. Final offer,” Quinn bartered.
“Two scoops of chocolate ice cream and I’ll stay out of the Principal’s office for a week,” Arwyn argued.
Quinn only took a second to contemplate the offer. “Deal.”
“I’ll miss you, too!” Arwyn exclaimed loudly for Rachel to hear.
“Brat,” Quinn muttered with a grin.
“Just the way you made me.”
Author: an_an0maly
Summary: Rachel and Quinn taking their kid to school for their first day.
Pairing: Rachel/Quinn
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,685
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters unfortunately. Title belongs to Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall Part 2'.
Author’s Note: This is for gilligankane as an apology. This is based off of this prompt. It might not be exactly what the OP wanted, but I gave it a shot anyway. I also learnt/learned a lot today from a discussion with grdnofevrythng , the_girl_20 and grdnofevrythng about storeys/stories, and as the context of the fic is America, I've changed it to the appropriate spelling. Shall we move onto the lasagne/lasagna debate next? Thanks to the_girl_20 for reading this at work. Better than that meeting you were in, huh?
Arwyn Berry-Fabray stood on the sidewalk, her lunch box in her right hand, and backpack in her left. Kingston Elementary, with its three stories, dark brick and a security guard at the top of the steps loomed above her. Arwyn let her gaze linger on the front entrance. Students of varying ages, heights and ethnicities were entering and exiting the front doors. Some accompanied by parents, others by older siblings from the neighboring middle school. Many were joking and laughing and sharing secret handshakes. A group of giggling girls fawned over the display on one of the girls’ iPad360.
Arwyn took a deep breath before biting her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure this was such a great idea - this school thing. She’d been home-schooled for the last five years while her mother toured the country in a revival of Annie. They’d finally settled down after Rachel took a fall on stage and broke two ribs, resulting in Quinn begging Rachel to take a break to recuperate, and to perhaps expand their family.
They’d finally settled in Los Angeles. A compromise had been agreed upon between Rachel and Quinn. Rachel was free to pursue an acting career on screen, as long as they could settle down in one city. Arwyn had enjoyed the moving around, though - she’d visited most of the states, collecting pins from each one. Rachel had convinced her that pins were easily transported, whereas snow globes had a tendency to break.
Now, on the fifth day of September, on a bright, warm day, Arwyn stood in front of the first school she would ever attend.
“Ready?” A voice called from her right. Arwyn turned her head and looked up at her mother.
Arwyn scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Please,” she began. “I was born ready.”
Her mother grinned down at her and readjusted her handbag on her shoulder before nodding her head in the direction of the front doors. “Your mother is already inside, no doubt having already located your classroom and the teacher with whom I am certain I will engage in countless educational discussions with.”
Arwyn held her head high. She tightened her grip on her lunch box, slung her backpack over her shoulder, smoothed down her sweater vest and skirt and began to march up the front steps, her mother following close behind. Just as they reached the front doors, her mother reached out and gently gripped onto Arwyn’s shoulder, pulling her back.
Brown eyes met hazel. “I realize you agreed to this arrangement, in most part, so I could further my career, but it’s not too late to retract your decision. Your mother may argue the point with me later, but I believe I could be very capable of providing you with an education at home, in the kitchen. Or, I’ll have a classroom attached to the back of the house. Easy! Done!” Rachel exclaimed as she grabbed Arwyn’s hand and began to turn them away and back down the steps.
“Rachel Berry-Fabray!” A stern voice called from behind them. Arwyn couldn’t help but wince at the voice. She’d heard it countless times. Particularly when she’d ordered one of everything on the room service menu at their last hotel, or that one time she’d flooded the bathrooms at the theatre in Chicago after the owner yelled at Rachel during a rehearsal.
Rachel shot Arwyn a look of concern. Arwyn just nodded her head slightly, indicating they would face Quinn together. As one, they slowly turned to face a scowling Quinn. She had her hands on her hips, her lips pursed and her foot tapping against the concrete. “I understand why Arwyn might be afraid, but Rachel, I expected more from you,” Quinn admonished.
Rachel and Arwyn suddenly straightened their spines, crossed their arms and scowled back at Quinn, almost in unison. “I resent your accusation!” Arwyn exclaimed in indignation before stomping her foot down.
“I am offended that you would think I was afraid to send Arwyn off to school. The implications alone are quite unsettling. I was just allowing her to reaffirm her decision on this particular school,” Rachel argued before uncrossing her arms and beginning to march right back up the steps, shooting a side-long glance at Arwyn who quickly followed suit.
“Right,” Quinn commented with a raised eyebrow. She turned and followed her wife and daughter through the front doors, guiding them down the main hallway.
Rachel glanced over her shoulder at her wife who raised both eyebrows at her. Rachel waved her left hand over her shoulder at Quinn and held her head high. “I do hope you know where you’re directing us. It wouldn’t do for Arwyn to be late on her first day.”
Quinn smirked as she watched Rachel become defensive. “I know where her classroom is and I’ve also introduced myself to her teacher. I did all this while you were still in the car reciting all the school rules and the discipline policy to our daughter.”
“I was ensuring she was fully equipped to socialize in this kind of overbearing environment,” Rachel argued, her arms crossed over her chest.
Quinn side-stepped a child and their father to find her place on Arwyn’s left. “You mean, with children her own age?” she quipped
Rachel shot Quinn a glare. “I do not appreciate you mocking my concerns.”
Quinn grinned down at Arwyn who met her gaze and bit her lip as her eyes filled with mirth. “I would never mock you,” Quinn replied in a jovial tone. “Ok, I would, but only when I think you’re being ridiculous.”
Rachel nudged Arwyn. “Aren’t I lucky I married your mother?” Her voice full of sarcasm.
Arwyn switched her lunchbox to her left hand before reaching up with her right to give her mother a comforting tap on her arm. “I assure you, I still love you,” she said very seriously.
Rachel suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and pulled Arwyn into a bone-crushing hug, Arwyn’s arms pinned to her sides. “Of which I am grateful for, every day,” she mumbled into Arwyn’s hair.
“We’re here!” Quinn announced, interrupting the moment between the pair. She moved toward the doorway behind Rachel and waited.
Rachel pulled back, a look of panic set in her features. She grabbed Arwyn’s shoulders and made sure her daughter met her gaze head on. “Recite it back to me,” she ordered in a slight panic.
Arwyn blushed and ducked her head. “Mom,” she whined softly.
Rachel’s grip tightened slightly. “Arwyn, please. For me,” Rachel begged, her gaze intently focused on her daughter’s face.
Arwyn sighed and eyed a boy squeezing past her mother to enter the classroom. “Arwen was the daughter of Elrond, the King of Rivendell. She was breathtakingly beautiful and fell in love with Aragorn. She elected to reject her immortality in order to live a life of man with her beloved. She was pivotal in inspiring and motivating Aragorn to take his rightful place as King, thus proving that ‘behind every great man, is an even greater woman’,” Arwyn recited quite seriously.
Rachel ducked her head, her hands still gripping Arwyn’s shoulders. “Why did your mother have to have a secret Tolkien obsession? Liza would have been easier to explain,” she mumbled before lifting her head back up. “You just remember that you are beautiful and strong and are quickly becoming a great woman.”
Arwyn blushed as she grinned at her mother. Her gaze flickered to her other mother looming over Rachel’s shoulder, her eyebrow raised. Right. She bit her lip, scrunched her eyes and willed the tears to come.
“Oh, Arwyn!” Rachel exclaimed, her throat closing up with emotion as she watched her daughter turn into a blubbering mess. She pulled Arwyn into another hug, her cheek resting against Arwyn’s temple.
“Mom,” Arwyn sobbed into her mother’s shoulder. “I’m afraid the fear is setting in. What if the research on current trends is inaccurate? I also forgot my spreadsheet on appropriate conversation topics on my desk at home!” She exclaimed in near panic, her arms wrapping around her mother’s back and gripped tightly. She saw Quinn rotate her finger in circles, motioning for her to hurry it up. “And - and... I forgot the stickers!”
Rachel gasped as she pulled away. “Arwyn! I thought I had prepared you more sufficiently for this!” Rachel straightened up and began searching through her handbag. Arwyn caught Quinn rolling her eyes over Rachel’s shoulder. Arwyn shrugged a shoulder and smirked.
“Here!” Rachel exclaimed as she thrust a full sheet of gold star stickers into her hand. “It’s incredibly fortunate I still use them for fan encounters and spontaneous signings.”
Arwyn’s eyes lowered as she nodded her head and reached for the stickers. She took them carefully from her mother and held them to her chest. She looked up at Rachel from beneath her lashes and allowed her bottom lip to tremble. “Thanks, Mom.”
Rachel’s smile wobbled as she brushed a tear away from Arwyn’s face. “I love you, Sweetie.”
“Okay!” Quinn interrupted accompanied by a clap of her hands. “My turn!” She announced as she nudged Rachel aside. Rachel rolled her eyes and took a few steps away to rifle through her bag for her camera. She’d already taken thirty photos before they left the house, another twenty-five out the front of the school, but she just needed a few of Arwyn at her classroom door to and her desk to complete the scrapbook collection.
Quinn eyed Rachel’s distance before pulling Arwyn into a tight hug. Quinn sighed. “One scoop with chocolate fudge,” she whispered in her daughter’s ear.
“Three, with sprinkles,” Arwyn negotiated as she buried her head in her mother’s shoulder.
“The stickers were a tad too much. Two scoops, no topping. Final offer,” Quinn bartered.
“Two scoops of chocolate ice cream and I’ll stay out of the Principal’s office for a week,” Arwyn argued.
Quinn only took a second to contemplate the offer. “Deal.”
“I’ll miss you, too!” Arwyn exclaimed loudly for Rachel to hear.
“Brat,” Quinn muttered with a grin.
“Just the way you made me.”