Chapter Six
A Guiding Hoof
It had been six weeks, and Spring Blossom had settled in to living with Spanner very well. It had been a little alien to Spanner at first, knowing that each day he went home that his now-daughter would soon be home as well. His schedule always worked out that he was home an hour before Spring, and he used that time to keep the house tidy. Spring was a well-mannered filly, and had no trouble at all following Spanner's few rules. Really, Spanner was amazed by how little guidance and direction she actually needed.
She was changing his life in more ways than one, too. Here and there, decorations began to crop up in the house. It started with her flower planter from the orphanage, mounted outside her bedroom window, and slowly spread to other things. A flower on the coffee table in the living room, on the ledge of the indoor window that looked out on the living room, on the kitchen table, and so on. She would pick them from outside, mostly, or get them from school.
She was adding other things to the house as well. Despite admitting to not being good at drawing, she tried her hoof at creating a few paintings of quaint landscapes or of the two of them playing together, using the brushes and paint at school. They were messy and amateurish, but Spanner found them endearing and taped them to the fridge.
Spanner was in the living room, dusting, when the front door opened and Spring Blossom came in from school. She shrugged her saddlebags off and locked the door, a habit that Spanner had encouraged her to develop. She didn't fully understand why, and to be honest Spanner only did it out of habit as well. It was just one of those things that he couldn't shed.
"Hi Springy, did you have fun at school today?" Spanner asked as his daughter came into the living room. She nodded, but Spanner could tell she was a little uneasy. He wasn't going to press, but he was sure it was a case of nerves.
"Yeah, it was alright. I, uhm, got my report card today" Spring said, keeping her eyes on anything but Spanner. He trotted over to her and sat down by her. She pulled her saddlebags over, but didn't open them.
"Let's see it."
She brought it out and gave it to Spanner, who read it over. She had an A- in Equestrian language arts and science, a B in history, and a C+ in math. There was a note from her homeroom teacher at the bottom, reading Spring Blossom is a bright and hardworking filly, and she gets along very well with her classmates and teachers. I've spoken with her math teacher and he's told me that she struggles with some of the harder numbers of multiplication(like 3's, 7's, and 8's). A week or two of some extra guidance on this and she could easily be in the B range.
Spanner nodded. Multiplication and division was easiest when put into practice, as opposed to thinking about it in the abstract, so he made a note to go over it with Spring. "Are you happy with these grades, Spring?" he asked.
"No..." Spring said. She was clearly very disappointed with herself. "I'm sorry, I took notes and paid real good attention, but it's hard."
Spanner smiled. "Spring, I want to tell you something. In life, there will be times when you're very proud of what you've accomplished, while others won't feel the same. There are times when you'll have to perform something to somepony else's desires, and do your best to satisfy their wishes, but first and foremost if you're happy with what you've done, that's what matters most. And if you're not happy, then it's important to try again until you are."
"But...isn't it important to get good grades?" Spring asked, and looked up at Spanner, who nodded.
"Yes, indeed. But as much as I want you to do well in school, I also want you to want to do well in school, do you understand? A pony is best motivated when they enjoy what they're doing, and proud of what they accomplish. If you do things only because they make other ponies happy, then it'll be hard to have confidence doing your own things. It's OK to be a little selfish, so long as you always take others into consideration as well, got it?" Spring explained.
Spring nodded. "OK, I understand... Uhm, can you help me?" she asked.
"Of course. Multiplication isn't quite as hard as you might think, it's just a matter of practice. The more you do something, the quicker and easier it becomes to do" Spanner said, and guided her to the kitchen table. "Your homeroom teacher wrote that you're only struggling with a few multiplication tables."
"Yeah, I can do twos, fours, and fives real easy. Sixes I can do, but it gets a little hard the higher I go. The other ones are hard, too..." she said, and Spanner smiled at her.
"Think of multiplication not as a number becoming more, but rather as another form of addition. You're just taking a number, and adding that number to it, and then adding the same number to that number, and so on. So take threes for example. You start with three, and add three, and you get six. Count up in your head, and you'll notice that every third number is what three goes into evenly. One, two, three, four, five, six, and so on. Do you understand?"
"I think so... So the next number would be nine, and then twelve, and then fifteen, and then...eighteen, and then 21, and then 24... Then 27... 30... Huh, it is easier if I just add them up" Spring said, and Spanner nodded.
"Like I said, you'll get faster at it the more you do it. There's also little tricks you can employ, like with nines. Every number in nine's multiplication table, if you separate them into two separate numbers, then add them, you'll get nine. So the table goes nine, eighteen, 27, 36, 45, and so on. Well one plus eight is nine, three plus six is nine, two plus seven is nine. See?"
Spring's eyes widened. "Oh wow, that's cool, I didn't know that! Thanks, Spanner!"
"You're welcome, dear. When you go back to school tomorrow take a look at your multiplication tables again, and ask your math teacher if there's any tricks he can teach you. I'm sure you can improve that grade if you just put a little more time into it."
"OK! Thank you, Spanner! I'm glad you're not mad at me" she said, and Spanner smiled.
"Of course not, sweetheart, I can't be mad at you for trying your best. I've told you before that we all have shortcomings, things that we struggle with, and there's always more to learn, but if you make sure to always do your best then that's all anypony can ask of you" Spanner explained, and Spring nodded.
"OK! I'll do better next time, I promise! I really have fun with my Equestrian language and science class! Today we learned about photosyn-- Photosynphuh--"
"Photosynthesis."
"Yeah! It was all about how plants make oxygen, it was really cool! Trees and bushes take in sunlight, and water, and then release oxygen. The teacher even had a big setup with a paper plant and roots to show us! He said that the energy from sunlight is converted into chemical energy and then..." Spring trailed off, apparently thinking back on the lesson. "And then stored in sugars the plant makes by soaking up water using its roots."
"I'm sure you were quite enthusiastic about the lesson, given your enjoyment of flower gardening" Spanner said, and Spring brightened up even more.
"I was! Last week we learned about poluh-- Pollination! Bugs like bees are drawn to flowers because of their pretty colors and smells, and the flower's nectar. They'll crawl around on the flower petals and suck up the nectar, and then pollen gets stuck to their legs and carried to other flowers!" Spring explained. Spanner was happy to see her so giddy now, her nervous mood from earlier completely wiped away.
He smiled. "You're going to keep learning all sorts of amazing and fascinating things, Spring. I'm glad you like telling me about your lessons. I imagine that you should go water your flowers, though, before you forget."
Spring perked up, her smile fading a bit. "You're right! I'm gonna go do that!" she said, and took off for her room. She stopped at her door, though, and looked back. "Uhm, Spanner? Is it OK if I call you 'dad'...?"
"Of course it is, dear heart" Spanner said, and trotted over to her. He put a hoof on her shoulder, and she beamed. "Take care of your flowers, and if you're hungry I can make you a snack. Otherwise we can spend the day how you'd like if you don't have homework."
Spring nodded. "I do have some homework, but I'm not hungry. I can wait until dinner!"
"OK, Spring, just call for me if you need any help." Spring rushed into her room and grabbed her watering can, and went to the bathroom. Spanner trotted into his room and sat down in the chair by his bookshelf. It felt good to be off his hooves for a moment, and he reached for the book he'd been reading the previous evening.
In the six weeks since he'd taken custody of Spring, life had become idyllic. There had been a few days here and there marred by some mishap or another. Spring falling down and hurting herself, Spring getting a cold for a few days, and Spring getting stung by a bee, but otherwise it had been everything Spanner Wrench had ever dreamed of. Every day brought something new. A story about her schooling, a story about a joke a friend had told her, or the two of them having fun together. His coworkers had noticed him smiling more and looking brighter each day, and though he would always be a quiet and reserved stallion, it was not an unwelcome change.
Spanner couldn't ask for anything more.