Chapter Text
Max gets woken up by the incessant blaring of his alarm and groans miserably. He’s not a morning person, has never been and it usually takes about 4 snoozes for him to actually get out of bed. He’s about to do just that, reaching his arm out to grab his phone and press the button on the side, when he realises what day it is. Suddenly he’s wide awake, swiping the alarm off instead of snoozing it and sitting up in bed.
Today is Sem’s first day at school. His little boy turned four a little over a month ago and now he’s going to go to big boy school, where has the time gone? It feels like just yesterday when he first held him in his arms. His first steps, first words, every moment suddenly flashes behind his eyes and no, no he is not gonna cry before 9 AM.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, definitely just sleep, he pushes back the duvet and gets out of bed. He quickly puts on a pair of worn grey joggers and a rumpled looking t-shirt, he’ll change into something else later, and shuffles over to the bedroom next door. Gently he pushes open the door, the room softly lit by the Peter Pan nightlight, casting a soft glow over his still peacefully sleeping son.
His dark curls are a mess on top of his head, the duvet pulled up close to his face, the happy faces of Marshall, Rubble and Chase staring back at him. Like pretty much every kid Sem’s age he’s obsessed with Paw Patrol, so much so that Max can sing the whole theme song by heart now. The sweet little moments when Sem cuddles up to him on Sunday morning to watch Paw Patrol with him are some of his favourites though, so whilst he can’t wait for a new obsession to take over, he does enjoy this one as well sometimes.
Max would love to just stand here and stare at his son for a little while longer, but they’re actually on a time schedule today, so instead he kneels down beside the bed and softly shakes the little boy awake. An annoyed little groan falls from his son’s lips, his face scrunching up before his eyes blink open slowly.
“Hey buddy, time to wake up,” Max says, before pressing a kiss against his forehead. Sem just grumbles and pulls the duvet up higher, snuggling back into the warmth as he closes his eyes again. He truly is his son.
“Semmy, remember what day it is?”
The boy’s face scrunches up again as he thinks his father’s words over, before suddenly his eyes open wide and he sits upright in an instant. “Big boy school!”
“That’s right, let's go and get some breakfast in you, little man,” Max says, standing back up again as he watches Sem scramble out of bed. He has to remind Sem to walk slowly down the stairs as in his excitement the little boy nearly trips down the steps, his slightly too long pyjama bottoms, also Paw Patrol, getting stuck underneath his feet.
Once they’ve made their way safely down the stairs, Max helps Sem get up onto his chair, before grabbing both of them a bowl. Holding up two boxes of cereal, he asks “Coco Pops or Shreddies, bud?”
“Coco pops, please Papa.”
They quickly eat their breakfast before Max is ushering Sem back up the stairs to get changed. They’d picked an outfit the night before, but for some reason Sem doesn’t want to wear it today, so they end up going through half his closet.
“Sem, baby, you need to pick something now otherwise we’ll be late,” Max sighs, eyeing the clock on the wall. “Dinosaurs or lion?”
He holds up both shirts, one with a giant drawn lion on it and one with a mix of illustrated dinosaurs, both shirts say roar on them as well. Sem deliberates for a long time, sat down on the floor in his Paw Patrol pjs looking over both shirts intently.
“Lion,” he eventually says, before almost immediately going, “no wait dinosaurs!”
“You sure?”
“Yes, dinosaurs!”
Having finally settled that dilemma he quickly helps Sem get changed into his new outfit. The white shirt with dinosaurs on it matched with some dark grey shorts. Max tries to brush his teeth whilst Sem does the same, but he spends most of his time trying to make sure Sem doesn’t spill toothpaste onto his clothes. He really should’ve planned this better. Teeth and hair brushed, he’s about to put the brush through his own hair when the next alarm goes off on his phone.
“Shi-oot,” Max curses, dropping the brush again and ushering Sem out of the bathroom instead. Down at the bottom of the stairs he quickly slides into some trainers, before helping his son get his shoes on correctly. He catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he pushes Sem towards the door and sighs, so much for changing out of his joggers before school. ‘At least Sem is dressed nicely,’ he thinks to himself. He grabs his keys and Sem’s school backpack and off they go.
Luckily the school is pretty close to their house, within walking distance which is nice. He loves his car, but trying to manoeuvre it through the middle of London before 9 AM is a no go, even for him. Instead he’s trying to get Sem to walk a bit faster, the tiny backpack slung over one of his shoulders as he tries to make his own hair look less like a mess.
“Sem, buddy, please keep walking. We don’t want to be late for your first day, hmm?” Max nearly begs his son when the little boy stops to smell the flowers in front of someone’s windows. It’s ridiculously adorable, but time is of the essence right now. He’ll make sure to stop at the house on their way back from school later.
“Hold my hand.” They’re close to the school now, he can already hear the high-pitched screams from excited children as they cross the road, Sem’s tiny hand held in his own.
There’s a row of parents standing at the school gates when he gets there, all waving at their children, looking far more put together than Max. He sees a brown haired man press a kiss against his daughter's cheek, before waving her off along with the rest of the kids, her Burberry skirt and crisp white shirt perfectly ironed, and her hair in a neat bun. He looks like he’s got everything under control, nothing like Max who tries once more to tame his hair, before brushing down his shirt to get rid of the cat hair on it. They reach the gates just as the bell is ringing and he fervently tries to ignore the judging looks he’s getting from the other parents as he kneels down and looks his son in his eyes. He smoothes down a few errand curls atop of Sem’s head and presses a kiss against his forehead.
“You have a good day at school today, yeah? I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends and do lots of fun stuff. You’ll have to tell me all about it later, okay?” he says, his voice a little wobbly as the moment finally really sinks in. His baby is going to school. His little boy is all grown up.
Sem nods enthusiastically, wrapping his arms around Max’s shoulders for a hug which Max can’t help but tighten. He’s not ready to let him go yet, just a few more minutes is what he wants. A few more minutes of just them. The last bell starts ringing though, the teacher from Sem’s class just waiting on him now that all the other kids have already gone inside. “Go have fun, buddy,” he finally says, pressing one last kiss against Sem’s cheek.
He watches his little boy run towards the teacher, his little backpack swinging about on his back as he grabs onto the teacher’s hand. Slowly he stands back up again, dusting the sand from his joggers, trying desperately to stop himself from crying. Once his eyes fall onto the other parents his eyes dry back up quickly though. They’re looking at him with such disdain in their eyes. He can see the father of the little girl with the Burberry skirt looking at him, his eyes falling onto his rumpled appearance and it’s only then that Max notices his shirt is both inside out and backwards, the tag poking out on top of his chest.
He wants the ground to fall away from underneath him and swallow him, he can do so much better than this. He’s really not such a slob normally, this morning just caught up to him. He still got his son dressed and ready for school though, who are these people to judge him. Just because they have got their life sorted perfectly doesn’t mean they’re better than him. He meets Burberry girl’s father’s eyes with fire in his eyes... screw them.
He turns around quickly, long strides taking him back down the same route until he’s back home again. With a sigh he leans back against the front door, eyes closed. Why does he feel like he’s back in highschool again, his peers already making fun of him after the first day. The nerdy looking kid with braces and ink staining the sleeves of his shirt and wrist from drawing all the time.
Dan used to joke that he looked like a bully when he saw the pictures of Max as a pre-teen, but in actual fact it was Max that was getting bullied. Somehow the other kids had already decided he was a loser after the first week. Yeah that first year of highschool had been hell, but thankfully the year after he wasn’t the only kid with braces anymore. He learned that his locker was there for him to actually use and store his books in, rather than carrying his heavy backpack around all day. He became less shy, found his fellow artsy people and life got easier.
Let’s just hope the same will happen with the other parents at school.