Chapter Text
Reed looked up at his father as they approached the school that would be his primary place of learning. For the next five years at least. He always knew deep down that he was going to end up in a public school.
He’s heard his mother and father arguing. His mother thought he needed to be in a public school with kids his age and to socialize, his father wanted him to be put in higher grades since he clearly is smarter than the average first grader.
Reed finds himself messing with his backpack, which is resting on the car floor between his little legs. The New Scooby Doo Mysteries characters printed on it…while he finds the show unbearably unrealistic and impossible…it is oddly entertaining.
“Father…” Reed calls out and looks up in the rear view mirror where Nathaniel’s eyes meet Reed’s.
”What is it Reed?” He asks as he pulls out to the entrance of the school where all other parents dropping their kids off are.
Reed stares at all the kids of all ages with wide eyes as he watches walk into the school. He’s never seen so many people his age in one place before. Even if it’s more like he’s never seen so many people his age before in one place. He can do multiplication and division and even some algebra, but interacting with kids his own age? He’s clueless.
”Reed.” Nathaniel repeats, sounding more annoyed this time as he looks over at his son.
“…I don’t want to go.” He says and he sounds like the five year old he truly is for once. Staring at his father with big brown doe eyes that always seem to work ok his mother…not so much his father it seems.
”Reed, if I had my way you’d already be in the fifth grade and in the most elite school possible. Your mother says you need to spend time with children your age.” Nathaniel says and sighs through his teeth, like he doesn’t see the point in it…but was just too tired to keep arguing with his wife. “Do this for your mother.”
Nathaniel pats Reed on the head gently, an awkward gesture considering his father’s never been that emotionally affectionate. Reed slowly puts his bag over his shoulders and gets out of the car. His father doesn’t come out and give him a big hug like the rest of the parents sending their kids off. Instead he just gives him a nod from inside the car before pulling out and driving away.
Nervously clutching the straps of his backpack he begins walking towards the rest of the kids inside the school. It’s so much…bigger than he was expecting and there are so many kids that are taller and bigger than him. His mom has always said that he was too skinny and tried to get him to eat more. His father never seemed that concerned about his weight though, but now Reed wonders if he should have been.
He lets out a little ‘oof’ when he gets run into and looks up at the big fifth grader who just plowed into him. “S-Sorry.” He says, he doesn’t know why he’s apologizing. He wasn’t the one who ran into the other kid…but something about the way the other kid is looking at him…makes him feel like he should be the one to apologize.
“Better be.” The older kids say and shoves Reed aggressive against the wall which makes him let out another ‘oof’. “Weird-looking rich kid.” He mutters and Reed feels a pain in his chest as he hugs his arms over himself.
He just bows his head and keeps walking towards his classroom and ignores the stinging in his eyes. He didn’t think he was weird looking, he looked like his parents and he never thought there was anything wrong with that. Sure, he knew his parents were more well off than the rest…he could always tell when he stared out the window and they drove through other parts of town. He didn’t think that would matter. Clearly, it did.
Going into his classroom he sits down in the front of the room and rubs at his eyes. Brushing off the last bit of upset from him face and instead stares around the colorful room. He bounces his feet on the ground all excitedly as he’s never been in a real classroom before and is absolutely thrilled. He wonders what his teacher will go over first?
Algebra? Geometry? Biology? Maybe chemistry? His mom told him the other kids wouldn’t be as smart as he was. So they probably wouldn’t be allowed near any chemicals or burners, not that Reed was allowed near them at home anyway. Still, he believes though could go over the formulas! At least memorize the periodic table…even though Reed already has that memorized.
He looks over as his teacher walks in and writes her name on the chalkboard ‘Mrs. Gray’. Reed does his best to commit it to memory as he stares at it. She turns around and faces everybody with a small smile on her face. It doesn’t look all that real to Reed though, it looks similar to the smile his mom gives him and she had an argument with his father.
“Alright, boys and girls. Today we’re going to start with getting you all in your assigned seats. We’ll also be going over what you’ll be learning for the year!” Mrs. Gray says in an overly chipper voice.
Reed has to blink his eyes his eyes at her words. Assigned seats? He can’t just sit wherever he wants? He watches as all the kids stand up and when Mrs. Gray calls their names and says where their seat is. So Reed slowly stands up and relocates himself when she does the same for him. He’s a little upside when he ends up in the middle row of desks closer to the back than the front. He has to sit up extra tall and crane his head to see over the kid in front of him!
Mrs. Gray hands over two worksheets to everybody and Reed smiles when she hands the two to him as well. Looking down at them however his smile fades into a confused frown. The first worksheet makes sense he supposed, it’s got cartoony drawings on it with little bubbles asking questions. Such as ‘My name is…’ and ‘My favorite book is…’ or ‘My favorite color is…’ The title of the worksheet being All About Me!
Reed can see the purpose of this worksheet since it seems like a way for all the other kids to get to know each other. The next worksheet really confuses him though, it’s a lot worksheet asking him to write the capital letters, illustrations of how the should look next to the dotted lines.
He looks around the classroom to see if anyone else is confused by how easy the work is. Instead he is greeted by the sight of all his peers working diligently. He notices that as they write their capital letters their lines are all wonky and shaky. He doesn’t really understand why they are like that…haven’t they been practicing writing since they were two years old like he was?
Not wanting to be the one to not complete his work, he quickly fills out both worksheets and hands them in. Mrs. Gray seems surprised by how quickly Reed got them done but he can’t understand why. He also doesn’t get why everyone else is still working on them or staring at him with what looks like jealousy.
Once all the kids hand their worksheets in they sit and practice their addition and subtraction. Both of which Reed finds mind-numbingly boring. He already knows how to add and subtract every number together. Sure, practice is great and all but Reed’s positive he has it all memorized to a T. Of course his pondering is interrupted when Mrs. Gray calls out to him.
“Reed, may I speak to you in the hall for a moment?” She asks and all the other kids ‘ooooh’ at him. Reed doesn’t really understand why they’re ooh-ing or why he’s being called into the hall. He didn’t do anything wrong he thinks, either way he gets up and follows Mrs. Gray into the hall.
Reed notices another boy sitting in the hallway outside the classroom next to his. Did he get in trouble. Is he about to get in trouble? Reed doesn’t think he did anything to get himself in trouble. He filled out his worksheets and was practicing his addition and subtraction even though he found it boring.
“Reed, on your worksheet you put Fahrenheit 451 as your favorite book.” Mrs. Gray tells him and Reed blinks because, yes he did and he doesn’t know why that’s a problem.
”It is my favorite book, Mrs. Gray.” Reed tells her and his brow furrows in confusion when he sees the disappointment and confusion on her face.
“Reed, that is a high school level book. One that I do not believe you would understand or that your parents would let you read.” Mrs. Gray says and Reed blinks his eyes in shock. Is she saying she thinks he’s lying? He isn’t! Before Reed can try and defend himself Mrs. Gray speaks again. “You also placed your favorite subject as Chemistry. Reed, fibbing will not get you far in this classroom.”
Reed blinks and he feels the familiar stinging in his eyes that he did when that fifth grader shoved him. “I’m not fibbing-“ he begins but Mrs. Gray cuts him off
“Reed, you’re going to sit in the hallway for ten minutes while I call your parents. I expect the truth when I come back.” Mrs. Gray tells him and walks back inside the classroom and closes the door behind her. Reed sits against the wall and pulls his knees to his chest.
”So, lying on your worksheets huh? The boy who was already in the hallway says and Reed looks over at him.
”I didn’t lie.” Reed sniffs and rubs at his eyes to get rid of the tears. Resting his head on his knees as his eyes continue to burn.
”Don’t worry, I don’t think you’ll get in as much trouble as I am. I punched a classmate in the face.” The other boy says and Reed looks over at him with a sniffle again.
”…Why did you punch another kid in the face?” Reed asks and he curls up tighter and leans away as if trying to make himself look small.
“He was making fun of another kid and the teacher wasn’t paying attention. So I punched him.” He says and Reed nods his head a little. A part of Reed wishes this boy was there when he was bullied by that fifth grader
”I’m Reed Richards.” He tells the other boy and wipes the rest of his tears away.
The other boy smiles wide and walks on over from where he was sitting and sits back down next to Reed. “I’m Ben, Ben Grimm.”