How Green Becomes Wood

"The history teacher?" Dark repeated, for the first time feeling anything even near to regret for leaving. Of course it would be his replacement who was being racist.

Then he took the two projects from Xander, reading the notes aloud to Daizi, but hesitated when he saw the title of Alec's, looking up at him and nearly asking why he didn't let him know that was his project but deciding it wasn't a needed line of questioning. Anyway, he vaguely recalled Daizi letting him know something about it, but at the time she had told him Alec was being a bit cagey about it. He didn't know it was about this. Then Dark read the notes to Daizi as he had done before, his voice as even as it had been before.

"Weren't your sources given to you by your Aunt?" Daizi asked.
 
Alec nodded and then answered aloud, "Yes. It's all public stuff, and I could have eventually found most of it, but it's also all available on request. I asked Aunt Ciara if maybe I could get some of the harder-to-find files, and she got them for me. Some of them have been redacted a little, but I only used what I could find. No assumptions, no filling in the blanks."
 
"Yes," Alec said, his grip tightening on Xander's. "It... didn't go well. She claims that even if my source of files from the FBI is real, which she doubted, then they were obviously doctored."
 
"By the FBI because..." Alec hesitated, feeling guilty for saying the words even though he knew they were not his fault or in any way approved by him.

"The FBI wants to make themselves and the government look better now that there is a higher concentration of Arab people living in the States. Votes and public opinion and all that," Xander said bluntly. "If they make things look better, then people will be happier. I presume that it would also make oil companies over in the Middle East happier too, but that is assumption."
 
"One would imagine if they wanted to please us, they would try to minimize it," Dark said, hiding his agitation as best as he could manage.

"Has she ever done something like this before?" Daizi asked, putting her hand on his knee.
 
"Maybe. Not to this extent," Alecc said. "Mostly just kind of an odd smile and a laugh and wave it away. I think once she told me not to use such biased sources, but I can't remember what that topic was about."
 
Both Dark and Daizi fell quiet in turnp, thinking carefully about what they had been told. It was horrible, what they were being told. Worse still what it meant. But they both knew this game, they knew how it worked. It wasn't enough.

"I can talk to your teacher," Dark said at last, "about your grade."
 
Alec glanced at Xander. "My grade isn't that important. At least... it's not important here. I don't want to make a fuss just for that. It's for... the why. I don't know what to do there. "
 
Again, Dark and Daizi were quiet, not having expected to have this conversation so soon. They knew it was inevitable they'd have it with their daughter, but they expected they had a few years to figure out what to say.

"The why she is this way?" Daizi asked, "Or...?"
 
Alec sighed. "No. What I mean is, the grade itself doesn't matter to me. At least, not that much. What matters is why she gave me the grade, and it wasn't because I messed up. If it'd be better to say nothing, I would, but I don't know that it is, but I don't know what to say or do."
 
Dark sat back against the couch, looking cautiously at the assignment as though it may come to life and do harm, "It is never better to say nothing, but I do not want her to retaliation against you."
 
"The worst she could do is fail me, and I'm pretty sure eventually the principal would notice," Alec said with a shrug. "Not to sound immodest, but it would be very strange for the son of the former History teacher to completely fail."
 
"Retaliation isn't always that explicit habibi," Daizi cautioned Alec, "believe me. And even if it is, it will take Bernice time to notice, and longer to agree there's a problem."

"You know how stubborn she can be," Dark said, "Retaliation from teachers is a real problem. Even if we talk to her, there is a risk of it, but I would feel better. It does not to be us alone, you can be there if you want to be, but I want an adult in the room."
 
"Okay," Alec agreed. "If you think that's the best way to go, then you should do that. I don't know if I want to be there for it or not, but... If you think I should be, I'll go."

"I probably shouldn't. I'll just get madder," Xander said bluntly. "She's a bitch. A subtle one."
 
"I do think it is the best that we speak to her," Dark replied, "I am hoping she may be willing to listen to me, as someone familiar with the profession and the subject."

"We'll go," Daizi agreed, but couldn't totally hide the shadows filling her features. They might be able to exert enough pressure to have a grade changed, she guessed, but she knew they had no hope of changing this woman's mind about people like them. With what they knew of what she had said, it wasn't like they could get her fired. Even if they could, she'd probably be able to get a job elsewhere, and she was a teacher, so she seemed bound to instill these prejudices into at least some of her students. And those students might have kids. It never ended.
 
Alec could see the pain in their faces, especially Daizi's. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I know I should tell you about this, but I'm sorry I have to. I know it hurts you more than me."
 
"It is not your fault," Dark replied, "I prefer to know." Lightly gripping the couch at her sides, Daizi couldn't bring herself to say anything. All she could think about was the child sleeping upstairs.
 
He knew it wasn't his fault, and it was nice to hear, but it felt like his fault. Alec managed a small smile. "It's not exactly a fun topic. I wasn't sure what to do. I've been debating all day."

"I told him he should tell," Xander said with a shrug. "Someone has to talk about it."
 
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