One Adoption... Sorry, Direction (1D Fanfic)

Chapter Seventeen

"I hate school, I'm sixteen, I'm done with it," Jeni announced.

"Same, but I'm fifteen," Jasi added.

"I don't care, you're under our charge, you need to finish it," Zayn replied.

"Well I'm not going to," he was told.

"Neither," Jasmine added. "Lic?"

"Yeah same, I'm not doing stupid school," she protested. The three girls were standing on one side of the kitchen facing Zayn, the kitchen island between them. Liam was using his laptop at the table, Niall and Harry were shopping, and Louis was Skyping Freya in the living room.

"Well first of all, Miss Alicia, you're still fourteen and you can't quit yet. Second, Miss Jasmine, you haven't even finished grade nine, so you can't quit either. Third, Miss Jennifer, you don't have an apprenticeship or traineeship lined up, so you have to go to school. And finally, I say so."

"Liiiiiaaaaammmm," Alicia whined.

"You're not getting support from me, Al. I'm with Zayn – you have to go to school."

"Okay never mind, get back out of the conversation," Jasmine told him. "We. Are. Not. Going. To. School. Okay?"

"No, no, not okay actually," Zayn responded.

Suddenly Jasmine seemed to snap. Her face turned red and she screamed out of frustration before yelling as loud as she could.

"I'm not fucking doing any bloody school! I hate you and I fucking can't deal with dickheads!"

At that outburst she turned and ran out of the room, rage clouding her senses as confusion flooded her brain. Soon shame, regret and embarrassment would join the emotions she was experiencing, but all she could process was her intense dislike of school and the burning feeling of needing to not attend.

Inspired by her sister, Alicia decided to run away as well. Before she could get very far she was caught by Liam, but she swore at him and twisted away, dodging out of the front door and past the security guard as Liam chased her. Her feet fled over the concrete of the pavement, her brain simply ordering her to run, get away, as far as she could before anyone caught her and forced her to go to school. School was bad, school was boring, school was yelling, school was teasing, school was questions, school was lying, school was missing her sisters, school was scary and lonely and big and humiliating. Ali was not, not, not going to school.

I would rather die, she thought as she ran until her lungs hurt and her legs burned and she gasped for breath while climbing a tree.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Jennifer was the only Scott girl left to face the music.

"You going to take off too?" Zayn asked her.

"Why, you want me to?"

Zayn sighed and sat down at the table, relaxing slightly. "I would really rather that you didn't. Sit," he ordered, motioning at a chair. Jennifer selected a different seat and collapsed onto it.

"So what's the problem?"

"You're trying to make us go to school," she replied, her voice implying that the question was stupid.

"What's wrong with that?"

Although it took some questioning, eventually Zayn managed to find out the reasons behind Jeni's reluctance to accept the education system.

She spoke to him honestly about her feelings of inadequacy when she didn't know things at school. She told him about her fears of rejection by classmates, and how she saw herself as strange. He heard about how being adopted, a foster child, a freak added to her insecurities. From the living room, Louis listened in as Jeni spilled her worries about being a failure, disappointing teachers or the boys, and failing herself. Slowly, the boys pieced together and learnt about Jeni's story, her insecurities and incredible sense of pride. They realised that she would rather not try at all than try and fail; they figured out that she was a perfectionist; they tried to understand why she had given up on school before she had even tried. All of the boys were aware of the fact that the girls had had broken education, changing schools over the course of all of the foster homes, adoptions and group homes that they had moved to. Their biggest challenge, they knew, would be convincing her to try again, once more, one more chance.