Office Hours, January 6

[bigdamndean]

The new semester meant Zoe's paperwork had started reproducing amongst itself again. She was almost to the point where she was worried about her desk weakening under the weight of everything on top of it, but the longer she took to get through everything, the longer she could ignore the messages she'd gotten from the school board, wanting to talk

Comments

[rocksthescarf]

Chuck didn't particularly want to do this, but he got the feeling he wouldn't stop getting nagged at unless he worked this whole thing out. It helped he was hanging around the school anyway today, since he could just stop by Zoe's office after he left the library.

"Hi, Principal Winchester," he said. "Are you busy?"

She looked busy.

[bigdamndean]

Zoe peered past a pile of papers and smirked at Chuck. "Not with anything I want to be busy with," she said. "Come on in."

[rocksthescarf]

"Thanks," he said, walking into the room and taking a seat. "I wanted to talk to you about me missing my finals last semester."

[bigdamndean]

"Yes, I heard you were...out of town, so to speak," Zoe said. "Family emergency, was it?"

[rocksthescarf]

Sure, let's go with that. "Uh, yeah. My dad died. I left for the funeral and then just...stayed away longer than I anticipated."

[bigdamndean]

"Grief over losing a parent does come before classes," Zoe said, because she wasn't a nerd like certain members of her family. "Were the finals all that you missed?"

[rocksthescarf]

Actually Chuck had missed the last two weeks of classes but that was more due to him being lazy and avoiding post-SOW stuff than anything that had to do with his dad. He definitely wasn't going to admit to that.

"Yeah, pretty much," he said. "I mean, if you want me to do something to make up for it, I'll do it. I'd just really like to graduate in the spring. If I don't I might very well be nagged at until the day I die."

[bigdamndean]

"How were your grades before finals?" Zoe asked. "Is there a solution to this that you'd prefer?"

[rocksthescarf]

"My grades were fine." As very well they should be considering who was doing most of the work. "I'll be honest with you, in the past my dad just tended to give the Headmistress money when I screwed up. But something tells me you wouldn't be a fan of bribery."

[bigdamndean]

"In the past, your headmistresses weren't as nice as I am," Zoe said. "And as much as I'd love some extra cash to clothe my ever-growing toddler, bribery won't be necessary. I'll talk to your teachers, and see if we can get your grades to simply stand as they were before finals. Does that sound reasonable enough?"

[rocksthescarf]

Chuck nodded, looking extremely relieved. He thought he was going to have to go through some weird punishment or something. "Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you."

"And I would have bought Grace clothes if you wanted me to," he said. "...just no flannel."

[bigdamndean]

"I'll settle for you agreeing to call Sam the next time you're out of town for so long, so I don't have to deal with a frantic stepson and his flannel," Zoe said.

[rocksthescarf]

Chuck winced a little at that. "I'm not going to do that to him again."

[bigdamndean]

"Good," Zoe said. "Then I'll get in touch with your teachers and see what I can work out."