Confrontation
If Tony was being honest, he didn’t realise there were schools this small within city limits, and yet here they were.
Loki surveyed the building with an appraising eye. “This place is miniscule.”
Sage rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah. Like I said, only about a hundred fifty people. Also, it’s a little religious. Not obnoxiously so, but you know.”
Tony nodded, pursing his lips. “Well it make things worse for you if we both go in?”
“Anthony…”
“No.” He held up a hand, watching Sage intently. “You’re the more diplomatic of us anyway, Lokes, it’s okay if-”
“Holy shit.”
Sage’s eyes were glued to Loki, who, when Tony turned to look at him, had transformed into a woman. Tony sighed. “You look like Katie McGrath.”
“Oh! I love her!”
Tony rolled his eyes a chuckled, opening the door. “Alright, fine. You two win. Come on, Sage, I don’t want you to be late.”
---
Sage couldn’t keep her eyes off the clock in math class. She knew Tony and Loki would be talking to the counselor any moment, and truth be told it was kind of stressing her out. Tony had offered to bring her lunch, but she didn’t think she could handle her friends meeting her foster dad today too.
“Hey.”
Sage blinked and turned to see who had just poked her. “Um, hey?” The girl behind her almost never talked to her. This was weird.
The girl grinned at her brightly, looking a bit teasing. “You got a hot date later or what?”
“Huh?”
“You keep looking at the clock like you’re about to jet. I mean, I get it, but you’re usually pretty focused. What’s up?”
“Oh. I- well. My foster parents are meeting with the counselor today. I’m trying to drop Lafitte’s Chem class next semester. I’m really struggling to learn anything from him. At this point, I’m pretty much teaching myself.”
“Yikes.” She winced in sympathy. “My cousin helped me make it through Chem last year. Let me know if they won’t switch with you. I’ll hook you up with his number, okay?”
Sage nodded slowly. “Y-yeah. Sounds great, thanks.”
No problem.” Suddenly, her hand shot up. “Mrs. Meyer?”
“Yes, Grayson? Is there something I can help you with?”
“Could you repeat that last section? I wasn’t really tracking with it.”
Sage shot the girl - no, Grayson - a grateful look, and got a smirk in return. Note to self, she thought, try to make friends with her.
---
“Mister Stark.”
“Miss Betts.” He gave the counselor the most genuine fake smile he could muster as they shook hands. She didn’t seem to be taken aback by meeting him, so that was one point to her favour at least. He might be able to work with this woman. “Allow me to introduce my… wife Lola.” Tony could already hear the verbal lashing Loki would throw at him for calling him by the name of Coulson’s car, but he wasn’t the damn fool who transformed to a woman. For now, though, Loki smiled politely and also reached across the desk to shake the counselor’s hand.
“Lovely to meet you both.” She smiled kindly and motioned for them to sit while doing so herself. “From what I understand from the email I received, you would like to look at the possibilities of adjusting Sage’s class schedule second semester?”
“Yes. Sage has expressed some concerns to us as to one of your science teacher’s abilities to teach. A Mister… Lafitte, I believe? She has been greatly struggling under his instruction.” Loki offered her a tight smile.
“Alright. Would you mind telling me what Sage’s issues with Danny are while I pull up her grades?”
“The idiot doesn’t know how to teach.” Tony ignored the look of shock on the counselor’s face. “Based on what Sage has been saying, he only teaches to accommodate one type of learning type, which isn’t cool in the first place. Although, apparently even when he teaches to that learning type, he teaches like the students already know the material and this is a refresher course. Now, Sage has told me that you’ve had a bit of a rocky few years with your sciences. What with switching the teachers up every other year and assigning history and math teachers to teach sciences, and I’m willing to not hold that against you, because I hear it’s your second year here. I also hear you’ve got a new principal, and changes in administration are never fun. Believe me, I’ve been the cause for several. New boss means new rules and things have to change, and it’s not easy. Here’s the thing, though.” He leaned closer to the poor woman who, frankly, looked astonished and vaguely alarmed. “Her grades won’t reflect it, but Sage is suffering in that class, and from what I gather, it’s due to a shoddy foundation from this school’s lack of organization and a class teacher who should be a lab teacher. Now,” he leaned back a steepled his fingers in front of his nose, glancing sideways to ensure that Loki didn’t have his disagreeing face on. “I think we can work together to fix this, don’t you? I think that the three of us, working together, a handful of brilliant minds, I’m sure-” he just about lost it as Loki coughed to hide a laugh, “Can find a way to make sure that my daughter is understanding the material being taught, and still get all the necessary credits for this year without majorly rearranging her schedule, don’t you?” He offered her a simpering smile, and reached for Loki’s hand, sending him a silent thanks when he wasn’t rebuffed. “I would hate to have to reschedule that donation we were planning to make at Christmas time.”
“O-of course. L-let’s see. Uhm…” Miss Betts’ eyes darted around her computer screen and she began clicking frantically. “Well, we do offer a Biology 2 course during seventh period. If Sage would be willing to drop her Theatre class-”
“Theatre is one of the few things keeping her sane at the moment. If you cannot devise a way to fix this without making her sacrifice the only class she enjoys this year, we will have major issues.” Loki fixed the woman with a death glare, and she gulped.
“Right. Okay, well… Our other science teacher, Mrs. Buchanan has a free period during sixth. I can talk to her and see if she wouldn’t mind taking on Sage as a Chemistry independent study. And, perhaps if there are… other students with similar concerns, we could… make it a legitimate class.” She smiled nervously at the two sitting in front of her. “How does that sound?”
“Wonderful.” Tony gave her a broad smile. “I knew we could come to an agreement. Lo?”
Loki nodded, looking thoughtful. “I believe that would be acceptable. Thank you for being so accommodating, Miss Betts.” He rose, Tony quickly following suit and turned toward the door.
Tony winked at the counselor, gleefully noting that she still looked rather shaken. “We’ll be in touch.”
“We did it!” Tony practically crowed as they stepped out of the office, barely restraining himself from pumping his fist in the air.
“Like you expected anything else.” Loki smirked as he saw how ecstatic his partner was. “How soon can we inform Sage?”
Tony hummed, considering. “I asked if we could join her for lunch, but she didn’t seem real thrilled with the thought. Should we take her out?”
“Are we allowed?”
The inventor snorted and laced his fingers with Loki’s. “At this point, who cares?” He pulled out his phone to text Sage and let her know that they would be returning at noon to take her out. He smiled at the affirmative response he received, knowing that she really shouldn’t have her phone out during class, but not really caring enough to call her on it. “Where do you want to go?”
“I rather think it should be Sage’s choice, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but you hate Chinese a little bit. You know she’s gonna want Panda Express.”
Loki smiled softly. “I believe I can stomach it this once. She’s earned it.”
Tony grinned. “That’s very true.”