Work Text:
Cisco got Cat settled with a book about dozens of women who contributed to science and other STEM fields. Upon sitting down, Cat immediately flipped open to where she'd left off. Cisco took a moment to watch her focus entirely on her reading.
"One day," Cisco finally said, "They're going to make a second edition of this, and you'll be in it."
Cat smiled.
She continued reading. Cisco spent the wait time looking over what adorned the walls. He grinned at the flyer for the robotics club.
"Hey, this looks fun!"
Cat looked up at him.
"It says they meet every Wednesday after school," said Cisco. "You're here waiting for me at the library anyway; you should go!"
She went back to reading, "I like the library."
"Yeah, but you can't do science at the library."
"I don't want to do science at the library," she didn't look up at him; she just kept on reading. "I can do science at home."
"Fair enough," Cisco shrugged. He soon found another flyer. "What about drama club? You can't do drama at home."
"Drama club meets on Thursdays. You pick me up right after school on Thursdays."
"I can pick you up later. It's no trouble, I promise."
Cat frowned. She held her book closer.
"I'm not trying to get rid of you," Cisco held up placating hands. "I just don't want you bored at the library all the time while I'm at work."
…She pointedly returned to her book.
Cisco frowned. Shoulder-length hair, brown eyes, ample nose, chubby cheeks… for all that they looked alike…
Cisco wouldn't trade his little engineer for the world, but he would've killed for a robotics club at her age. There was a wall of club flyers right across from her classroom, yet not a single one called to her.
Silence followed.
Eventually, a man exited the classroom. He passed by Cat, yet she was not disturbed by his movement. Although Cat did spare a glance once Miss Blake emerged from the classroom.
"Thank you for your patience, Mr. Ramon," Miss Blake said. Cisco hadn't seen her since orientation. She stunned Cisco with an outfit that matched down to her accessories, most prominently featuring a blouse with yellow waves. She also had her curls pulled back. Cisco felt like a slob even in one of his nicer hoodies, freshly-shined high tops, and his hair game on point as always if he did say so himself. Which he did. Often. Cat gave him a thumbs up or an okay gesture every time.
"No problem," Cisco said as he held out his hand. "We weren't waiting long."
She shook his hand with a polite amount of firmness, "It would be best if Caterina remained outside."
"Oh, sure," Cisco checked in with Cat first. "Will you be okay out here?"
"Yep," Cat said, having returned to her book ages ago and content to stay there for ages more.
Miss Blake's classroom had a wall of novels, posters explaining various punctuation marks, and a flyer about the book the school book club was reading that week. Cisco thought Cat would love that, but she hadn't said anything about it.
She invited him to sit at the chair across from her desk. Leather upholstery. It clearly wasn't there during the school day; Cisco noticed an empty corner at the back of the room.
"Thank you, Polly," he said as he sat down. He gave her an award-winning grin, which Miss Blake returned with a smile of her own.
"Caterina reads the assigned material, she participates in class, and completes her assignments on time. Her penmanship is so good, I grade her work last so that I can finish with something easy on my eyes. I always look forward to her contributions to class discussions. I have nothing but praise for her academically."
Cisco braced himself, "That sounds like you have complaints about her non-academically."
Miss Blake interlocked her hands over the desk, "Mister Ramon, I'll be frank. Your daughter is all academics. She has no friends that I or the other teachers have observed, she spends lunch and recess by herself, and she's not in any extracurricular activities."
Cisco thought of Nora-from-the-present, Jenna, Ivan, Dawn, little Ronnie, Hermey Snart-Rory, Lowell Snart-Rory, Joss Mardon, and even her own doppelganger. He then said, "Cat has plenty of friends."
"She never discusses them."
Cisco gave her a why would she? look, "They don't go here. She probably doesn't want to talk about strangers with strangers."
"I know she hasn't grown up with students and staff like the rest of her classmates have, but she's been here since the start of the school year, and it's after winter break already. When is she going to socialize, enrich herself beyond the classroom?"
Cisco sighed, "Look, Polly, Cat designs and builds incredible tech with me and the rest of our geek squad, she goes to movies and museums with me and her friends, she reads an entire library every year. She socializes and enriches herself all the time, she just doesn't do it here. And I'm perfectly fine with that. School's not her favorite place to be; that's fine. She's got other places she likes to be."
Miss Blake bore into his soul in search of agendas, motives, and secrets. Cisco didn't blame her. A relatively new student who didn't open up must've seemed suspicious to someone who was legally required to report child abuse and the like. It irritated Cisco that weird got equated with wrong. Did he understand Cat all of the time? No, but he accepted her and embraced her as she was, which was more than his parents ever did for him. She liked being at home. He used every excuse to be out of the house at her age. There were many days he doubted himself as a parent, but as long as home felt like a home for her, then he wouldn't judge himself too harshly.
"Very well," Miss Blake eventually said. "If you have no questions or concerns, then we can be done here."
"I don't," Cisco stood up and shook her hand again. "Hope the rest of these conferences go well, Polly."
"I hope your day is satisfactory as well, Mister Ramon."
Cat looked up when Cisco exited the room. A mother arrived via the elevator, so Cat and Cisco decided to take it down. They had enough time for Cisco to ask a question.
"You'd tell me if anybody was mean to you, right? A local hero or two can always go into vivid detail about how much bullying hurt them."
"I'm good, Dad," Cat snorted, eyes locked on her book.
"Any chance you're interested in book club?"
"Nope. What I am interested in is seeing Captain Marvel again."
Cisco patted her head as they headed toward the exit, "When that creep tells Carol to smile, you can pretend he's telling her socialize."
Cat snickered.
Once they left the cameras' field of view, Cisco held out his hand, but Cat beat him in creating a breach. Cisco beat her into the breach though.