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Daniel Kazansky-Mitchell is a confusing child. One half of a pair of twins, her first since she started teaching, he’s clearly starting to develop into a precocious little alpha. More often than not seen on the playground leading his sister Sophie around by the hand, at the head of a large gang of other first graders.
His parents had turned up to their first ever parent-teacher conference in matching military uniforms, not in itself surprising, there were a lot of military families this close to the base. But these two stood out. A man and a woman, scents indistinguishable under standard military patches, they’d seemed completely in tune with each other in a way she hadn’t seen before. They’d even walked in sync. The children called them ‘Daddy’ and ‘Baba’ which gave her no help in determining who was who and told her only that they might not be betas under those patches. Though her money was on ‘baba’ being either some foreign word for ‘mom’ or otherwise instigated by the woman. She could see that being something she’d insist on as a woman in the military. There was nothing feminine about her at all, maybe she resented the implications of ‘mom’? At least she seemed not to resent the actual children.
Daniel was almost certainly going to present as an alpha, she could almost trick herself into believing she’d already scented it on him in the classroom. But he’d done none of the posturing she would typically have expected from a young alpha boy, just starting to grow into his designation. He almost never acted out, he always raised his hand, even if it was to deliver some seriously advanced backtalk for a first grader. All the kids who followed him around the playground seemed pretty placid too, the bullying problem she’d been bracing for the second she saw the posse forming had just… never materialised. Which was why this particular incident was so out of left field. One of the other young boys – also, almost certainly an alpha – had been engaging in much more of the typical posturing, gathering a group of other boys and trawling around the playground picking little fights. Not the type of thing Daniel would normally engage in. They’d apparently had ‘words’ according to the teacher that had witnessed it, and it eventually resulted in the two little boys rolling around in the grass trying very hard to be the first one to work out how to throw a real punch. They’d been pulled apart and sat in front of the principal’s office until a parent could come to collect them. The incident was being written up as one of those things little alpha boys do, as it hadn’t spread to any other students, and both had calmed relatively quickly. Enough to have been talking quietly by the time Jayden (the other boy)’s parents had shown up. That was half an hour ago. Now she’s stuck with Daniel waiting for whoever had answered the phone to come collect him. It hadn’t been either parent. She’d met both Robert and Natasha Kazansky-Mitchell, and neither had the deep, slightly raspy, voice that had been on the other end of the line.
There’s a screech of tires outside. Daniel, who’d been humming absently to himself – questions as to his motivation having failed to draw out further details of the fight – perked up immediately. The principal’s windows overlook the parking lot. She can watch the greying gentleman climb out of the old-looking, expensive-looking sports car and jog towards the school’s entrance. He’s slowed down by the time he comes back into view, at the end of the hall, and seems completely prepared when Daniel screams “Gamma!” and launches himself at the man with all the force of a missile. He carries the boy the rest of the way back towards the office, before letting him down with a groan and a muttered “Gamma’s back isn’t what it used to be.” The man, Daniel’s grandmother, is completely unlike any older omega she’s ever met. He's clearly in very good shape for whatever his age is. Impossible to tell, as the greying streaks in his brown hair, and the barest whisps of lines around his face could put him as young as fifty. His teeth, when he flashes a blinding grin at her, are dazzlingly white, and only a little crooked. He offers a hand.
“You must be Miss Feldman, Daniel and Sophie can’t stop talking about you.” He chuckles at her continued goggling, “All good things, I promise.” She takes his hand, it’s warm, and the handshake is firm.
“I understand Daniel’s in a bit of trouble.” His isn’t the voice from the phone call either. Must have been his mate. “My husband told me there was a fight?” Bingo.
“Yes, Daniel and another boy had to be separated at recess today.” He cuts a look to his grandson, who looks at the floor, but keeps a firm hold on his grandmother’s hand. “There won’t be any further repercussions, we understand these things can happen with young alphas,” Mr. – did she never ask his name? whose parent was he, Mr. or Mrs. Kazansky-Mitchell? – narrows his eyes, and Daniel’s head flings up to stare at her “but we’d like them to keep them away from other student for the rest of the day, and we feel discussions for these kinds of incidents are best handled in the home.” Daniel’s grandmother nods slowly.
“Okay. I’d still like to speak with the teacher who saw it, if that’s all right, I’d like to understand all viewpoints involved.” She’s relieved. Unconventional looks aside, Mr. Daniel’s Grandma seems to be taking this incident seriously.
“Certainly, I’ll check with Principal James and see if she can be excused from her class.” She attempts to retreat into the safety of Principal James’s office. Attempts, because he follows her. James stands hastily when he looks up at their entrance.
“Admiral Mitchell, sir.” She barely keeps her jaw from dropping. Daniel’s grandmother, Admiral Mitchell, laughs and reaches out to shake the offered hand “I’ve been retired for years now James, longer than this one’s been alive!” he jostles Daniel with the hand over his shoulder. “I had no idea you’d decided on teaching, congratulations!”
“Thank you, sir, I wouldn’t expect you to.” Admiral Mitchell scoffs. He must have been what she is generally starting to understand is ‘a good CO’, clearly enough to be remembered. Andrew’s been out of the Navy for more than 15 years.
“The Admiral asked to speak with Beth, about what happened with Daniel and Jayden?” This cannot turn into a full Navy nostalgia fest; her next class is starting in less than 10 minutes. Mitchell snorts.
“Please, Ms. Feldman, ‘The Admiral’ is my husband, just call me Pete.” He twinkles at her. She has the distinct impression that she’s being flirted with. But that would be ridiculous. He’s an omega, and mated.
“But Gamma,” Daniel breaks the moment, “I thought Papa was a Secretary?” Pete bursts into laughter. The idea is absurd, natural dynamics turned completely upside down. She couldn't even immagine it. When the laughter doesn’t abate after several seconds (and now that she’s looking, even Andrew is struggling not to join in), she turns to Daniel.
“Can you tell me why you think that, Daniel?” big eyes look mournfully up at her from where he’s being clutched to his grandmother’s side.
“’Cause” she decides now is not the time to correct the contraction, “When the fancy men in the suits come to talk to Papa, they always call him Mr. Secretary.” It takes a few second, the laughter has abated by the time the penny fully drops. And when it does, her jaw nearly follows. Daniel’s grandfather is one of the Joint Chiefs?
“Tammy, why don’t you stop by her room on your way back, and let her know to come by here when this block’s done?” She takes the out and escapes before she can say something embarrassing. To the mate of a freaking Cabinet Member. Good Lord, her mother will never believe her.
She looks in on Beth, just wrapping up science period for her third graders. She extracts a promise to tell her everything, before she sends her on her way.
In the break room, after classes had emptied, and Admiral Pete Michell had returned in the same flashy sports car to pick up Sophie (who had repeated the scream-and-pounce move her brother had demonstrated earlier in the day) Tammy finally corners Beth to get the rest of the story about the admiral’s visit to Principal James.
“He just kinda looked at me” she says “the whole way through. Like I had done something. And then he says ‘I see’ all admiral-like. It honestly felt like a review, I was shaking!” Tammy is more than a little taken aback. It’s some of the most un-omegan behaviour she’s ever heard of, not to mention it jars with the easygoing impression she’d got from the man. “And then!” Beth isn’t finished, “He turns to Danny, still all serious, and says ‘Daniel, is this true?’ and Danny just looks up at him, no fear in this child’s face, and goes ‘yes Grandma.’ No buts, no defending, it was weird.” Tammy agrees. “And then the grandmother says, ‘all right, do you want to explain now, or when we get home so you can tell me and Papa together?’ he just. Didn’t get mad, didn’t look disappointed, didn’t say anything else!” Slightly less weird, but most parents in that situation would probably want the principal to hear the excuse as well, and then to argue that it would exonerate their child – grandchild – of any wrongdoing. She approved of the omega’s restraint in this circumstance. Alpha impulses were only natural. Curbing them, teaching little boys the control that society required, was a job for the family, a controlled environment without other children around to be influenced by the growing tides of scent and hormones. “And it looked like the kid really thought about it. He kept looking between me, and Andrew, and his grandma. Then he said ‘Jayden called Noah a bad word.’ And repeated a lot of that traditionalist bullshit that swirls around the more cesspit-adjacent parts of social media these days: Omegas should just stay home, female alphas are useless to the species, that sort of crap. I won’t repeat it again” she raised her eyes in a ‘y’know’ gesture, “apparently, someone at home is a Fox junkie, and is filling poor little Jayden’s head with all that awful, reductionist stuff.” Tammy bristles a little, but there’s no accounting for taste, especially in TV. “It sounds like Daniel decided to set him straight. Honestly, I hadn’t heard all of that, but I kind of approve. All that nastiness… it shouldn’t have a place here, that’s all I’m going to say.”
Well, yes, but -
“We shouldn’t be encouraging violence Beth, they’re children!” Beth looks at her like she’s said something wrong.
“Tammy, that kind of speech encourages violence, hell, it is violence in some situations! You can’t honestly tell me you’d have stopped that boy defending his family from that kind of ignorant hate?” She ignores Beth’s outburst, the rhetoric is as familiar to Tammy as it is aggravating. It seems like these days it’s the only one anyone is allowed to have. Her brother had even lost his girlfriend over it! Not that she thought it was a huge loss, Tammy had never liked her, overly opinionated as she was.
“His family?”
“Yes!” Beth nodded, “You know his parents are a female alpha and male omega?” Tammy nods. She hadn’t, but she wasn’t going to tell Beth that. Or ask how Beth knew, she’d been trying to work out that couple’s dynamics for months. “And, well, you met his grandmother.” Tammy had. She doesn’t think she’ll ever forget it, the man was so strange. So outside of her expectations.
“Well there you go then” Beth nods to herself, like that’s an argument that makes any sense.
“I’m still not sure that really justifies hitting another student, Beth.” And Beth sighs, Like Tammy’s the tiresome aunt someone needs to sit next to at thanksgiving.
“Maybe Daniel’s reaction will be enough to let Jayden know that kind of language isn’t okay, that it wasn’t funny. Honestly Tammy, I think Jayden was just trying to pull pigtails.” She gets that grin, “I think someone’s got a little crush.”
Oh no. Kiddie crushes are The Worst. Especially before presentation. That could go so wrong in so many ways. What if she’s right, and both boys grow into alphas? She’ll have to separate them. The whole staff will start placing bets. This is going to be a disaster.