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It was just after 6 pm, and Edgeworth was getting ready to go home for the day. Suddenly, his phone began to ring, the typical Steel Samurai theme that was custom to only two people. He picked it up after the second ring.
“Wright, to what do I owe the pleasure?” He greeted, packing case files into his briefcase.
“Hey, Edgeworth! I was wondering if you could do me a favor actually? Trucy’s Parent-Teacher Conference is tonight at 7 and I thought I would be able to make it but my trial got extended so I have to keep investigating. I was wondering if you could go for her instead?”
“I-” Edgeworth began.
“It’s really fine if not! I can always email them to ask how she’s doing or if I can meet them on another day, but I feel like that would just be annoying them and they already have a designated day for it so--”
“Of course I’ll go, Wright. You don’t have to ask twice.”
“Perfect! Thank you so much! I’ll send you the address and her schedule with her teachers. They usually give out a guide at the front entrance for which teacher is in each room.”
“We were both students once, I think I remember how this will work.”
“Right, right. Thank you again!” Phoenix hung up the phone.
~~~
Edgeworth in fact, did not remember how this worked. Schools had apparently decided that students could now come with their parents and some were designated helpers for teachers, signing parents in for their talks. The school had also grown tremendously from when he last set foot in it, there was barely any walking space through the halls with all of the people.
“Surely this must be a fire hazard,” he muttered as he glanced down at the directory.
He had circled all of Trucy’s current teachers, and had decided to make a plan to go from the first floor up, starting with the closest room first.
Unfortunately, many other parents had that exact same idea, and so he quickly decided to climb the stairs to begin his plan backwards.
Once again, many other parents had that idea, and so he resorted to grumbling as he signed up on various lists and then looked for the most available teacher to wait by.
That had ended up being Trucy’s English teacher on the second floor, Ms. Sam Milly. The student helper barely glanced at him when giving him a number and telling him the wait would be 10 minutes. The girl then looked down at the list.
“Oh you’re Trucy’s dad? She’s in my reading group! I’m Kaitlyn!” She looked very excited to share that.
“Oh, no I’m--” Edgeworth began, but then wasn’t entirely confident if he would be able to meet Trucy’s teachers if he weren’t her parent.
“Yes, I’m Trucy’s father.” He sighed.
“Cool! Tell her I said hi!”
“Of course.”
Edgeworth waited out the next few minutes slowly distancing himself from any more small talk. When it was finally his turn, the girl had turned into the room to yell, “Trucy’s dad is next!”
She ushered him into the room.
Ms. Milly looked up, a warm smile on her face that quickly became surprised, but then warm again.
“Oh, I didn’t realize Trucy had another father. Nice to meet you, Mr. Wright.”
“Mr. Edgeworth, actually. Phoenix was busy with work tonight, so he asked me to come instead.” Edgeworth decided it was not lying if he omitted some facts of that statement. He quickly acknowledged that this kind of reaction would be typical of all of the teachers he met today who were familiar with Phoenix.
“Well, let’s get started then. Trucy is doing really well, always participating. She could do a little better to pay attention and not cause a distraction with her tricks, but they’re mostly harmless.”
Edgeworth took out a notepad to take notes to give to Phoenix later.
The teacher continued to talk about Trucy’s progress, while Edgeworth took detailed notes.
“Do you have any questions for me?” She ended by asking.
“Oh…” Edgeworth tried to think of a question that would be suitable for a father. “Is Trucy making friends?”
Ms. Milly laughed a little, “Yes, don’t even worry about that. She’s quite popular in class, everyone wants to be partners with our magician.”
Kaitlyn leaned into the room “Time’s up, Ms. M!”
Both the teacher and Edgeworth stood and shook hands.
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Milly.”
“It was nice meeting you, Mr. Edgeworth.”
~~
As he predicted, many of the other teacher meetings went much the same way. The teachers being surprised at hearing Trucy had another dad, Edgeworth not correcting them, and then copious notes being taken on her praises.
His last teacher towards the end of the night was the art teacher. The hallway here was mostly empty, and the door didn’t even have a helper. He decided to hit all of his bases anyway.
He walked in to find the teacher on her phone in the middle of the art room. He knocked on the door and she quickly looked up.
“Hi! I’m Ms. Hugh.” She jumped up to shake his hand.
“I’m Mr. Edgeworth, I’m here for Trucy Wright.”
“Oh, great! I met Phoenix last conference. We had a great talk about the class!” She said as she rifled through the papers on her desk to find Trucy’s portfolio.
Edgeworth wasn’t too surprised by this as he knew Phoenix still had a soft spot for art.
“I think Trucy really enjoys watercolors the most, but she’s been really impressive with every unit so far.”
Her art teacher had actually showed him some of Trucy’s work, and he admitted they were very impressive, albeit all “rabbit out of a hat” based.
“She gets it from her father.” He found himself saying.
The teacher beamed.
“Phoenix told me he actually went to this school as a kid, did you also go?“
“Yes we both went here, we were in the same class actually.”
“Oh that’s so cute!”
“I was never good at art, but he was.”
“He told me this was the class that inspired him to pursue it for a while. I see he didn’t go all the way with it though.” She laughed.
“He still sketches sometimes.”
“A true artist never stops.”
They spoke for a few more minutes about Phoenix, Trucy, and the class.
“I’ve taken up a lot of your time. I should be going. Thank you.” Edgeworth stood to leave.
“Don’t even worry about it, no one ever comes to see the art teacher. It’s nice you and Mr. Wright do, must be a family thing.” Ms. Hugh took out the picture from earlier out.
“I usually keep some of the students’ work to show the parents who show up, and then if they want they can take them home. Do you want to take hers?”
“Yes.” He didn’t even hesitate.
~~
When he got home it was around 10pm. He was exhausted, but figured it wasn’t too late to call and give his status report.
“Hello, Wright.” He greeted when the phone was answered.
“Hi! Did everything go ok?” Phoenix answered quickly, he sounded tired.
“Yes, I took a few notes but mostly everything was positive. Her art teacher gave me one of Trucy’s drawings from the class, I can give it to you next time I see you.”
“That would be great! I really like Ms. Hugh she’s super cool. I think she’s Trucy’s favorite teacher.”
“I’m not surprised, she was very lively.”
“Yeah. Thank you again for taking your evening for this.”
“Anytime Wright, I’m happy to do things for you and Trucy.”
“Still, thank you. Trucy and I are gonna go to bed soon, so I’ll let you go. Goodnight. I’ll see you next week to pick the notes up!”
“Have a good night, Wright.”
The next Monday, Trucy was told by students and teachers alike how nice it was to meet her other father, and she was too amused to correct them.