Who: Reid, Garcia, and Finstock What: Finstock tries to teach Reid some lacrosse while waiting for Garcia When: Thursday Evening (backdated) Where: Finstock/Garcia household Rating: low
Spencer wasn’t sure how he’d ended up holding a lacrosse stick and wearing a lacrosse helmet, but here he was. He had been meaning to come over to take Penelope out on a friend date to discuss how things were going for him teaching at Hanover, but it seemed as if Penelope was a little late and so Finstock had ended up ‘entertaining’ him. One thing had led to another and now Reid was facing Bobby Finstock who also had a lacrosse stick in his hand.
“It’s simple, really.” Finstock was explaining. “It’s all about hand-eye coordination.”
“Therein might lie the problem because I -”
“Don’t worry kid! You can shoot a gun right? It’s as easy as that.” Finstock had no idea if it was the same thing, but both things involved hands and eyes so it had to be someone accurate, right?
Of course Spencer started a long winded explanation of how the two skill sets were different and why and Finstock really tried to listen, really, but it was like listening to Stilinski talk about his favourite movie in the locker room - Finstock glazed over.
When he couldn’t take it anymore, Finstock cut Reid off by shouting, “Heads up!”
Finstock lobbed the ball toward Spencer. It was a slow, easy ball anyone should have been able to catch.
Reid did not catch it.
“Okay, well, that happened…. Let’s try again!”
“Are you sure? We could always just go inside…”
“You’re going to get it soon, I know it kid. Heads up!” Finstock lobbed another easy one in Spencer’s direction.
–
When Penelope returned home, knowing that she was late to meet Spencer, she was momentarily confused to find the house seemingly empty. Had she gotten the date or time wrong? Or was she so late that he gave up on her? That wouldn’t explain why Bobby wasn’t here though. She knew Penny was out with friends and hadn’t expected to find the girl at home.
Pulling out her phone to send some texts, she heard what sounded like a window breaking and rushed through the house to find the source of the sound, her fingers hovering over the buttons on her phone so she could dial 911 if necessary. And there were her boyfriend and her friend. It appeared that Bobby was trying to teach Spencer how to play lacrosse and it was going as well as she would have expected.
“Hey, boys,” she said, bending over to pick up the ball from amid the bits of broken glass. “Think you lost this.”
*
Spencer reacted on instinct which, hindsight, was kind of silly, but he immediately let go of the lacrosse stick like somehow Penelope would see he wasn’t holding it and therefore couldn’t blame him. He also looked a bit like a deer in the headlights.
Finstock on the other hand was rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah… sorry. I really thought he had it.” Okay, so not really. Finstock had hoped the kid had it, but Spencer seemed to have very little athletic prowess.
“Sorry.” Spencer finally said.
–
Penelope laughed at their guilty reactions. “We can nail a board over it until we get someone out to fix it,” she said. In terms of things that could go wrong here, a broken window was positively mundane. Besides, she liked that two of the most important people in her life were bonding.
“As good a coach as you are, Bobby, I don’t think you’ll ever make a lacrosse star out of Spencer.” She went to grab the vacuum cleaner so she could sweep up the broken glass before Penny got home or Sergio got his paws cut. “He could analyze your player stats though and make suggestions based on them.”
*
Reid’s eyes widened a little in a ‘why didn’t I think to mention that before’. “She’s right. When I was in high school I coached the basketball team. I was able to help them win through the use of mathematics and statistics. They won a lot more after that.”
Finstock blinked. “Well why didn’t you say so? You’re hired!”
Reid wasn’t sure when he’d ‘applied’ for the job, but Bobby seemed like a nice man if not overly enthusiastic for sports. He took off the helmet, his hair a mess from it, and placed it next to the lacrosse stick. “I don’t mind helping. Maybe I can teach another student how to do the same thing too.” Another awkward kid who needed help socially…. He was pretty sure high school still sucked for a lot of kids, even in Madison Valley.
The men followed her inside, being careful of the mess. Finstock went to go to the basement for some plywood.
“Sorry again.” Spencer knew Penelope wasn’t angry from her body language and tone of voice, but he still knew it was an inconvenience. “....I can’t help but think Morgan would have really wanted to witness that moment.”
–
“It’s not your fault,” she assured him. If anything, Penelope would blame Bobby for the accident, but in the grand scheme of things, especially things that could happen in Madison Valley, it was not a big deal at all. “And I have to admit, I wish I’d gotten it on video. Your face.”
She chuckled again and slung her arm around his shoulders, giving them a squeeze before stepping back so she could run the vacuum. “Sorry I was running late,” she apologized after she finished cleaning up the glass. “Instead of going out, why don’t you hang out here and I’ll cook dinner for all of us. Bobby might be a good person to talk to about teaching since he has a lot of experience.”
*
“Oh. Okay. Are you sure?” Spencer was asking mostly because making dinner was always more work than eating out and he didn’t want to impose himself or make Penelope feel like she needed to do that. “I could always pay for something to be delivered.” He still had money on his card even if he was starting to work at the college. Spencer didn’t exactly spend frivolously so he could technically not have worked for a while longer. Of course, he had no idea what he’d do without having a job.
“Teenagers are a little different, but probably not too many different considering I’ve seen what some of my students from home are getting into now that they’re adults.” He was actually proud of them, but Finstock didn’t show those kinds of emotions easily and especially in public. Penelope was the one who saw the most ‘human’ Finstock. “Plus if you catch two making out you don’t need to phone home.”
Spencer blinked. “You catch students making out?”
“Pfft, that’s one of the more tamer things I’ve seen.” Which was true. “But I did some dumb stuff when I was a kid too so I get it.”
Spencer did not. His ‘dumb stuff’ was not like most teenage experiences. “Well, any help you’d like to offer, I’d be happy to take.” Spencer was definitely glad to be teaching in College though.
–
It was easier to talk at home than it would be in a restaurant and Garcia actually enjoyed cooking so it wouldn’t be any trouble at all. “I can throw together a pasta dish pretty easily,” she said. “As long as you don’t mind eating vegetarian.” Even though she didn’t care if Bobby and Penny prepared and consumed meat in the house, she still avoided it and wouldn’t cook it herself.
Penelope did a lot of dumb things as a teenager too and knew that Spencer’s experience was vastly different. “Boy Wonder here started college before he could drive,” she explained. “He didn’t exactly have a typical teenage experience.”
*
“I don’t mind.” Spencer thought vegetarian food was just as delicious most of the time. “I really appreciate it.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Finstock was clearly shocked and awed as he regarded Spencer Reid. “You were in college as a teenager? Does that mean you did the whole high school thing as a middle-schooler?” He suddenly shook his head. “You poor guy.”
“Uh. Thank you?” Spencer wasn’t sure how to really respond to that, but he had a feeling Finstock was trying to be nice so he went with that. “I preferred college as a whole.”
“Don’t we all?”
Reid looked at the man. “Why did you choose to teach in high school then?”
The truth was Bobby liked kids. He just didn’t openly admit it. “It’s much easier to navigate as an adult - trust me… at least when no one’s trying to kill you.” Somehow he’d missed all those attacks except for that one time when he had been shot by an arrow.
“Hopefully that kind of danger is negligible here.” He looked at Garcia since he figured Finstock would have some sort of reply that wouldn’t give him a straight answer.
–
Penelope shrugged in response. “Bobby lived in a town that was weird and dangerous before he ended up here,” she explained. It was hard to say if Beacon Hills was worse than Madison Valley and she wasn’t about to try and compare. “You saw what happened with those weird robot bugs. Things like that do happen.” More often than she would prefer.
“Overall though, I’d say teaching is less dangerous than being in the FBI.” At least she hoped for Spencer’s sake. She didn’t want to see anything bad happen to him.
*
Bobby did a few nods as Penelope explained. It also helped he understood that the supernatural existed earlier than any of the other teachers - he just chose to ignore it as much as possible.
“I guess you’re right. No need to carry a gun, that’s for sure.” Not that Spencer liked guns really. It was just an unfortunate necessity in his original line of work.
“Alright Spence. How about you help me board up that window while Penelope makes some delicious food?”
Spencer nodded. “I’d be happy to.”
–
“Should be ready in about forty-five minutes,” she said, smiling at her two favorite guys bonding. While they were doing that, she would text Penny and let her know they were having a guest for dinner.