Hey! Here's a story. We're all in quarantine right now, so I'm trying to write more, but that's not a promise.

My goal is to release the second chapter to Road Trip (anyone remember Road Trip?) before Season 3 takes over everyone's life. Maybe update Deathtales and Beautiful Days in Duckburg as well. No promises, though. No promises about anything! I wanna update everything, obviously. I have a list of 27 stories to update that has only grown since I wrote it down.

Donald Duck got nervous every time he set foot in a school. He hadn't had much of a formal education himself, being home-schooled by Scrooge for most of his grade school before bopping off to college. He was a big fan, of course, of education. He was constantly trying to better himself for his boys, which wasn't always easy since he'd always struggled being understood with his speech-impediment. But he did his best, and he encouraged his boys to do their best as well.

He questioned how good of a motivator he was whenever he got called in by the teachers to talk about the triplets. No matter how much he encouraged his boys to do their best and mind their teachers, he got called to these meetings, where no one was happy.

He always wanted to argue, before he even sat down and faced the "behavioral issues," that his boys weren't bad kids. But he couldn't speak up when they told him of the triplet's missteps. He got so angry and desperate, and they got a little bit afraid that he would take out his anger on them, though he never did, and they did their best to be calm about each uncomfortable conversation. He sat down in an uncomfortable little chair, barely making eye contact with the teacher, hoping for some glimmer of hope.

Perhaps the teacher saw that he needed some hope to hold on to because almost every conversation began with, "Mr. Duck, your boys have limitless potential." And Donald would smile, because they did have limitless potential, and at least that was one good thing. He knew that that would probably be one of the only good things he heard in the next few minutes.

"However, there are serious behavioral issues that need to be addressed. I'm sure you understand that this isn't a personal attack on your children, Mr. Duck. But some changes need to be made for them to best thrive in this environment."

"Go on." He tried to stay cool.

"Let's start with Huey. Huey is one of the brightest students in the class, but he has a hard time relating to and working with others. He seems to shut himself off from the other students and I think you need to work with him to make him more comfortable in social situations and improve his teamwork skills."

"Huey is a Junior Woodchuck, I'm hoping that scouting will help him get out of his shell and interact with others in a more positive way."

"Good, good. Huey also has a tendency to work ahead on things which, on occasion, leaves the other students behind and further isolates Huey from his peers. And I fully encourage Huey to continue to work at the pace that best helps him learn, but maybe slow down a little bit so that he can work with the others and not just alongside them."

"I'll talk to him about that," Donald said with a sigh, already exhausted even though he knew he had yet to listen to the worst of the complaints. Huey was shy and overeager to learn, but Dewey and Louie were legitimate troublemakers.

"Let's talk about Dewey." Donald bit back a wince, scared of where this was going. Little Dewey was an injury magnet and a thrill-seeker and that was clearly about to be brought up.

"Dewey can't sit still in class. We understand children that have a lot of energy, that's why we have PE and Recess, and it's clear that Dewey thrives in those environments, as well as in Music Class. However, recently, he's started daring the kids to do dangerous things at recess."

"I'll talk to him about that. That's obviously not okay. But I'm sure the other children are smart enough not to do his dares."

"Louie has been making bets with the other kids on whether or not the recipient of the dare will do it. I obviously made him give all the money back to its rightful owners."

"I'll have a talk with him."

"Mr. Duck. It seems like you're going to be having a lot of talks to tonight. In fact, you say the same thing every time you meet with one of the teachers here. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't seem to be the right approach."

"What do you want me to do? I'm trying my best, my boys just have big personalities."

"I understand, Mr. Duck, and I agree with you. We're happy to have them in this school. Huey is very, very smart, Dewey is a great student in the courses he enjoys and Louie does very well in every subject when he applies himself. But they don't work well with their classmates. And Louie rarely applies himself. Steps need to be taken because just talking isn't working."

"I can't… I can't be too hard on them. They're little kids, and they remind me so much of their mother…"

"I understand, Mr. Duck. But you can't just make excuses for your boys. These issues need to be dealt with before they become serious problems. I can't tell you how to parent your children, Mr. Duck, but it is clear that some parenting needs to be done." Donald took a deep breath to feel less angry. He nodded.

"Is there anything else that I need to know about their behavior?"

"I mentioned that Louie doesn't apply himself often. He seems to doze off in some of the classes and it appears that he spends a lot of time inside his head. Like Huey, he doesn't get along with the other children very well, though he is a bit more sociable. Dewey doesn't seem to have any problem making friends but he tends to coerce them into mischief. Often it's just kids being kids but sometimes they get hurt."

"Right. I'll figure out something to do about that. I'm sorry my boys have been giving you grief. Thank you for seeing that they have potential because I know that they do. They're good kids, at heart."

"I know they are. I look forward to seeing them rise to their potential." Donald nodded, thinking to himself, "Me too." His boys reminded him so much of Della. He hoped, as they got older, that it was the best of her that they lived up to. Listening to their "behavioral issues" being listed out made him worry about the paths they might take one day. But he knew that they would do great, great things and be their best selves. He just had to be the best version of himself for them first. He just had to live up to his own potential, if there was any potential left to live up to.