Chapter Text
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Jon Snow felt nervous but he supposed no matter the age a person was, getting called to the principal’s office could always be a somewhat nervous-inducing experience.
Parking his truck in the lot, he saw that Sansa’s car was already there. Inside the front doors, the halls of Greywater Primary School were quiet, the children in their classrooms. A banner was hanging across the front hallway, gray construction paper with yellow and green lettering, excitedly announcing the year’s end school dance. Sansa had already talked to the children about it and Julia was already talking about the new dress she wanted mama to make for her for the special occasion and Max couldn’t wait because there was going to be a sundae bar set up for the event.
In the front office, Jon went to the counter. “Jon Snow. Principal Haggerty called-”
“Right this way, Mr. Snow,” the secretary smiled. “They’re all waiting for you in his office.”
All? Jon followed her around the counter and to the office in the back. Sure enough, Principal Haggerty sat behind his desk and to one side of the room, there were four chairs and to the other side, there were three chairs. George, Eleanor and George’s best friend – and their neighbor – Michael Boone sat there and in the four chairs, one empty and clearly for him, was Sansa and Michael’s parents. Jon took note of his son immediately. Despite what one would think, Jon and Sansa had rarely gotten called to the school for George. He was wild and hyper but he knew when to behave – for the most part. And looking at George now, they had definitely never been called to the school for this.
Kids roughhoused. Especially siblings. He may have been an only child but he grew up with the Starks and very much of the time, it was every one for themselves. Catelyn and Ned always made sure that it never got too violent but they almost always looked at it as a way for the kids to burn off energy and wear themselves out. Jon and Sansa were the same with their own five children. They made sure it never got too violent and holes weren’t being put into the walls and things weren’t being broken but most of the time, they just let the kids do their thing.
But taking one look at George and Boone and it was obvious that this was more than roughhousing. The collar of George’s tee-shirt was torn, the plaid shirt Boone was wearing was missing a few buttons and Eleanor’s eyes were wet and red.
Jon looked to Principal Haggerty. “Sorry to keep everyone waiting,” he said, sitting down next to Sansa.
He knew he looked like a mess. He had tried brushing off as much as he could but there was still construction dust on his jeans, grease and oil stains on his work tee-shirt and he was just going to admit that he didn’t smell the best. Usually, if there was something with the school, Sansa would handle it. It was just easier – especially since they lived right down the street from the primary school and Jon was always at the hospital’s jobsite. But today, the principal had called and that wasn’t something Jon could just push off on Sansa to handle alone because while there had been very few details given over the phone, from what he could gather, not only had George been fighting in school with his best friend but Eleanor was involved, too. This was something much bigger and Sansa shouldn’t have to handle it on her own.
“Thank you all for being able be here,” Principal Haggerty gave a smile to the four parents.
From the corner of his eye, Jon could see that Sansa sat, upright in her chair and slightly stiff. Perhaps she was nervous about being called to the Principal’s office as well.
“So, I have a vague idea as to what happened but neither George or Michael or any of their other friends who witnessed the fight are volunteering details,” the Principal began. “It began right after gym class. I’m not sure who went after who first but both boys were able to land a few blows on each other before two of our teachers were able to pull them apart.”
“George,” Sansa frowned. “What were you thinking?” George didn’t speak and wouldn’t even look at his parents but he did squirm in his seat at his mother’s words.
“George is your best friend, Michael,” Mrs. Boone scolded her son.
Both boys didn’t say anything and seemed to be not only avoiding looking each other but also their parents. Jon looked to his son. George didn’t just attack and start fights with people. None of their kids did. He knew that Sansa watched Brandon. He admitted that he did, too, because while though honestly he sometimes forgot that he wasn’t actually Brandon’s biological dad, Jon never forgot that Ramsay’s blood was in him. No matter how much Stark and Tully dominated him, the truth was that Ramsay had had a hand in making him and that was unescapable. Sansa (and Jon) watched him to see if there was any bit of Ramsay, no matter how small, coming through. There wasn’t. If Sansa was to say that Brandon had no biological sperm donor and he was the product of an Immaculate Conception instead, Jon would believe her because there was just no way – no hint of it – that Ramsay was partially any part of Brandon.
Jon looked to his wife now and he could see the gears in her mind turning. Sansa cringed at violence of any kind. She still sometimes jumped at sudden loud noises and everyone knew to never sneak up on her from behind. There was a difference between roughhousing and actual physical violence and Sansa now looked to their son who had gotten into a physical fight and Jon could see that she was beginning to panic. He reached over and covered her hand closest to his with his own and he then looked to his daughter.
“Eleanor,” he said and Eleanor’s head flew up immediately. He gave her a gentle smile. “You have to tell us all what happened between your brother and Michael.” Jon chose his words just right. She must. In certain situations, children should not have the option and he hated to say it but Eleanor was such a stickler for the rules, she would be the first to crack. Eleanor Snow was not the sort to ever sit in the principal’s office.
George and Eleanor then looked at one another. George was obviously telling her something with his eyes and Eleanor seemed to be responding with her own, neither actually speaking a single word. Jon and Sansa had been married and together long enough for them able to read each other’s eyes quite well but the twin’s bond was something entirely different and something actually much stronger. It was honestly like the two came out of Sansa’s womb, able to immediately telekinetically speak with each other. Jon knew what George was probably telling Eleanor right now but Jon was holding out hope that his daughter’s desire to always follow the rules would win out.
And when she sighed softly, Jon knew that it had.
“Boone asked me to the end-of-year dance,” Eleanor informed everyone in the room.
That was all she said but that was more than enough for them to all understand. None of them were idiots.
After a moment or so of that settling in everyone’s minds, the Principal exhaled a sigh.
“Yes,” he cleared his throat and turned his chair back towards the four parents. “I think it’d be best if all three leave school early today to return home. Michael and George will serve detention all next week after school.”
“Sounds good,” Mr. Boone said and the parents all nodded their heads in agreement.
They all left the office then and an office worker took George, Eleanor and Boone to their lockers so they could gather their things as the parents waited for them just outside the front doors.
“I’m so sorry,” Sansa said and visibly swallowed the dryness in her throat. “George will… we are going to punish George at home, too, and this will not be happening again.”
“It’s alright, Sansa,” Mrs. Boone said. The family had three boys and unlike the Snows who just had roughhousing among their children, the Boones were more than used to actual bloodshed in their house. Not that they had the “boys will be boys” mentality but boys could just be more violent when in a group.
“Gods, I hate puberty,” Mr. Boone muttered and Jon actually cracked into a grin at that.
Boone came out of the school first and the Boones all left, heading towards the parking lot, and Jon and Sansa continued waiting for their own two. Jon looked to his wife and tried to think of what to say. Even now out of the principal’s office, her body was straight and stiff and with a gentle hand, making sure that she could see it coming, he reached to the back of her neck and began to massage it. Her eyes closed and she shuffled closer to him. Jon stopped massaging so his arm could circle around her shoulders and hold her close to him. Sansa leaned in for a moment and then with eyes open, she looked to his face and wrinkled her nose.
Jon grinned widely, almost laughing. “I’d like to see you doing construction work in this humidity and not sweat and smell while doing it.”
Sansa’s nose continued being wrinkled. “You’re taking a shower when we get home.” Jon just nodded because he knew he smelled and with such oppressive heat, taking a shower wasn’t the worst sounding thing in the world to be doing. “How do you want to handle this?” She then asked him.
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “A week’s detention and a grounding at home?” He then wondered.
Sansa paused and thought and then nodded. “I’m going to talk with Eleanor, too, and no matter how George is behaving, she is more than allowed to go to the dance with Boone if that’s what she wants to do.”
“She’s a little young for dating, isn’t she?” Jon couldn’t help but ask. The twins were twelve now and yes, he had gone out with a girl when he was twelve. His mom had driven them for ice cream but it hadn’t even really been a date. No kissing or handholding. Just two kids of the opposite sex getting ice cream together. Going to a dance together was definitely more date-like sounding.
He noted that Sansa almost smiled.
“It’s a school dance where the entire school plus plenty of parents will be present. It actually sounds like a good first date for our daughter,” she said. “And who knows if Eleanor and Boone will even consider it that.”
Jon knew since the first moment Eleanor, and then Julia, was born that this was something he would have to prepare himself for. Both of their daughters were beautiful – inside and out – but as they began to grow up and more of their personalities developed, Jon admitted that he thought – and worried – about Eleanor just a smidgen more. Julia marched to the beat of her own drummer and did what she wanted when she wanted to. She very much knew what she liked and what she didn’t like and when she was introduced to something new, her opinion of it was swift and solid. If she ever dated a boy who did something she didn’t like, Julia would be the first to tell him. Back in Wintertown, she had been a little shyer. She had had a bully and had kept it from her parents, afraid of how they would react. But since moving to Greywater, Julia had exploded into a phoenix and Jon and Sansa knew that that would never happen again.
Eleanor though was truly her mother’s daughter and not just in looks. Not only did she always follow the rules – for the most part – she had this need for everyone to like her and for them to be happy with her. As her father, it was an absolute nightmare for Jon to just imagine what that meant Eleanor would do just to please someone in her life.
As if reading his thoughts because they were the same as her own, Sansa began to shake her head. “Eleanor’s brother is not going to tell her who and who she can not date.”
Jon stared at her once her words had been registered in his brain. Suddenly, he was twenty-years-old again, pushing her into his closet because Robb was coming and he didn’t want his best friend to catch them. When they were alone again, Sansa had left him that day and he thought he had lost her for good. She had gone to Winterfell University, met a guy and moved to Dreadfort with him after graduation, and Jon fell in love with beer, thinking that that was it for him. He knew it wasn’t Robb’s fault. Robb had never said anything. It had been Jon, convincing himself that the Starks would never approve of him dating Sansa and so, he made her sneak around with him until she hadn’t been able to take it anymore.
Obviously, George, Eleanor and Boone were just twelve-years-old and they were all so young and there was no remote hint that this incident would lead to such paths that Jon and Sansa had gone down. But still, Sansa’s words hit him directly in the chest and now, all he could do was remember what had happened between himself, Sansa and Robb.
“No,” Jon was finally able to speak. “George definitely is not going to do that.”
Sansa looked at him and her eyes looked a little damp but she blinked quickly to prevent that. Jon reached out and took her hand, grasping it, his thumb rubbing along the inside of her wrist, over that particular scar. In all of these years, Sansa had actually never talked about that one and Jon had never wanted to pry. He was her husband, yes, and they had very few secrets between them but they were allowed to keep some things to themselves and if Sansa never wanted to talk about the scar on the inside of her wrist – and even if Jon knew exactly what it was even if he didn’t know the story – Jon would never ask her about it.
The twins came out of the school then and George still wasn’t able to look at either of them.
“I’m sorry-” Eleanor began to say.
“Don’t you dare,” Sansa said went to slip an arm around her shoulders, squeezing the girl into her side. She then looked to Jon. “Will you take George home?”
“Let’s go, George,” Jon said. He leaned in and gave Sansa a peck on her lips and then put a hand on the back of Eleanor’s head. She looked up to him with her red, wet eyes and he gave her a smile. “It’s okay,” he told her in a quiet voice and with a sniffle, she nodded her head. He turned and began to cross the parking lot, back to his truck, and he didn’t look behind him to see George following him. If George knew what was good for him, he was following.
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