justifer 2

2. school days

"ali please tell your sister she needs to get up"
alina rolls her eyes before jumping off the stool and leaving the kitchen.
jen carries on buttering her toast as she waits for her kids to get ready and leave for school.
she misses waking them up herself but moody teenagers don't tend to like their mom gently telling them they need to get out of bed in 15 minutes.
justin hurried into the kitchen, pulling his jacket on as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
"i'll see you later on, i should be finished in time for jacks soccer match" justin breathed heavily from rushing as he took a bite of jens toast, kissed her on the cheek and then left the kitchen just as quickly as he'd entered it.
jen smiled as she heard him shout bye to the kids, hearing the muffled goodbyes back to him.
with it being near the end of may, the kids will be breaking up for summer soon which everyone always looks forward too because it means they can head back to LA for a while and no homework.

"girls are you ready?!" jen shouts from the bottom of the stairs.
it's a warm day, even at 8am it's starting to heat up as the sun gets stronger. the patio doors are open as the dogs run in and out of the house as they please.
"ali! summer! you're gonna be late!" jen shouts again as she looks down at her watch.
finally the girls come down, both visibly annoyed they have to go to school.
"i don't get why we can't drive ourselves yet, why is jack allowed to and we aren't?" summer complained as she hauled her backpack over her shoulder.
"because he's older and payed for the car himself from the money he's actually earned" jen smiled back before taking in the outfits her newly turned 15 year old daughters were wearing.
alina had chosen a short sage green summer dress and trainers.
and summer is wearing an even shorter black skirt with a black crop top.
jen had tried to get summer to wear more colour but she was firm in sticking to her dark aesthetic.
"can you two not wear things so short for once?"jen asked.
summer rolled her eyes, moving past her mom without saying anything.
alina looked down, smoothing her dress out, "i like this dress though mom"
"you look beautiful honey i just don't want either of you to get dress coded...again" jen smiled as she kissed her daughters head, leading both of them to the door so they wouldn't miss their bus.
"ha like anyone would wanna look at alina inappropriately " summer smirked as she bit into an apple she'd taken from the kitchen seconds earlier.
"shut up, at least i don't act slutty" alina spat back just as quickly.
"hey! come on, you're gonna be late" jen rolled her eyes as she almost pushed her daughters out the house.
she leant against the door frame, pulling her gown tighter around her silk pyjamas as she watched the girls head down the drive.
she couldn't help but smile at how, when they were babies jen had imagined them looking like this...but it was alina with the dark hair and grungy clothes and summer with the blonde hair and girly clothes...and yet somehow they'd switched and become the opposite.
"i'll be picking you up tonight, your brothers got a soccer match!" jen shouted to the girls. they didn't turn around but jen could tell summer rolled her eyes, which made jen giggle to herself.

finally once the girls had disappeared down the street jen headed back inside.
she washed her face and changed into some green cargo shorts and a black tank top.
she tied her brown hair back with a claw clip (she'd stopped dying it when she started her break from acting).
she made a glass of iced coffee and headed into the garden with her laptop, sitting on one of the sun loungers in the shade, she began replying to the few emails she had in her inbox that related to the recent project she'd just directed, a short film about cancer that kristin had sent to her last year.

the day passed quickly by as jen busied herself tidying the house which seemed to constantly be messy. she also spoke briefly to courteney about seeing her again in a month or so but had to hang up because the girls were about to finish school.

jen pulled the range rover into the pickup bay and waited, big sunglasses shading most of her face from the teachers and parents who always stared for too long.
finally she saw alina walking towards her.
"hi sweetie, how was today?" jen asked as soon as alina got in the car.
"it was good, i got a B on that maths paper"
"oh that's so good, well done baby" jen smiled widely as she twisted in her seat to look at her daughters smile.
"where's your sister?" jen asked as she turned back around, knowing they couldn't sit there for too long.
"i don't know, i haven't seen her"
jen knew this pattern all too well and when she saw summers head of year walking towards the car she knew how this conversation was going to go down.
she rolled her window down, lifting her sunglasses onto her head, smiling as pleasantly as she could.
"hi mrs theroux" the teacher smiled as she reached the car.
jen had to force her smile just a little when she heard the false politeness in the young woman's voice, knowing she was just trying to stall before telling jen the bad news.
"hi miss yates...what has she done this time" she asked sarcastically with a slight laugh.
"well...it's more what she hasn't done actually"
jen cocked her head to the side, smile faltering slightly.
"summer didn't actually arrive for registration this morning, she didn't show up to any of her classes."
"what?" jens smile completely dropped off as she turned back to alina.
"she was with me when we got on the bus i swear"
jen turned back around.
"why didn't the school contact me?"
"we tried to ring your husband but it went to voicemail, a message was left"
jen closed her eyes, trying not to snap at this young woman for not ringing her when justin hadn't answered.
"ok" jen sighed "i'll have a word with her when i see her" jen reapplied her plastic smile.
"ok, but the attendance officer and the guidance counsellor have been in conversation and because this isn't the first time summer has done this, we would all like to have a meeting with you and your husband to try and think of a strategy to maybe support your daughter better"
jen placed her hand on the steering wheel, eyebrows furrowing more.
"i'm sure that can be arranged soon" jen answered stiffly "but in the future i would like these meetings to be held before the staff get the chance to gossip about my daughter without me or her dad present"
jen kept her tone pleasant but the smile was no longer there.
she knew summer was difficult, she always has been, and lord knows it drives her parents insane.
but she will always defend her. in any situation.
"if it's ok with you i'd like to leave and try and track my daughter down now please"
miss yates nodded, stepping back as jen rolled the window up and pulled away from the front of the school.