Jesy's Little Girls (Little Mix Adoption Story)

Chapter 4 - Car Tantrums

Jesy's POV

It has been six days since the car accident and five since the girls came home, and I realised this morning that we hadn't really left the house. Perrie and Jade were coming over shortly, and Leigh-Anne had stayed the night, she had practically lived at mine the past week she was so good with the girls and it was great to have a second pair of hands. For a September day, it was warm and sunny and we had decided to go out to London Zoo. 

Despite being less than happy when I left to get their toys, they were really enjoying having them, and both girls were happily playing together on the floor of the living room, while I made sandwiches and packed snacks for our picnic.

Me: "Girls, can you get your shoes on and go to the toilet please," I asked finishing packing the picnic basket. "You can bring a toy if you would like to," I offered as Eloise reluctantly walked away from the princess dolls, she had been playing animatedly with. The smile reappeared on her face as she handed me Cinderella and Ariel before running off to get her shoes.

Leigh-Anne: "We won't all fit in one car, Jess, not with the car seats." The zoo was too far away to walk to and I didn't fancy taking the girls on the train just yet, so we were going to drive over. 

Me: "Yeah, Pez and Jade can go in Perrie's car, we'll go in mine." I said, the girls were ready to go excited to get out of the house and they loved the animals. 

We headed out the house and I unlocked my car, opening the backdoor for the girls, Olivia climbed across into her carseat. Eloise hung back reluctant, "Come on Ells, I'll help buckle you in," I said when she didn't seem to be getting any closer to the car.

Me: "Whats the matter, E," I asked as she came closer to the car and for the first time I noticed the tears welling in her eyes.

Eloise: "No car, no car," she repeated over and over as the tears spilled over and rolled down her cheeks silently.

Me: "Why not, talk to me," I said kneeling down in the driveway in front of her. When she didn't respond and just repeated the same words over, I sat down pulling her unto my lap. "You've got a special car seat, and you've got your elephant and your dollies and Olivia is in there waiting for us," I said reassuringly. I stood up holding her, walking round to the other side of the car hoping that she would let me put her in but as soon as she figured out what I was trying to do, she fought me, wriggling out of my arms.

I again sat down, letting her cry into me, with the tears becoming more steady and instead of the quiet tears we had before, these were now loud, body racking sobs. I whispered quietly to her, trying to figure out where this fear had come from.

I couldn't believe I had been so stupid. Of course she was scared, she had been in an awful car accident, killing both of her parents. I thought back to the last time she had been in the car, coming home from the foster home, she had been so tired she fell asleep within seconds of me picking her up, to tired to fight the car, but now she knew exactly what was happening and was having none of it.

Me: "Its okay, talk to me, there is no need to be scared anymore."

Eloise: "No, no car, no crash," she said words muffled. She kept crying into me, while I knew that the crash on Monday was a fluke, rare and highly unlikely to happen again, Eloise was 5 and in her little brain, the car was associated with death and terror. My attempts at calming her down had failed, so I passed her across to Leigh-Anne, hoping that she would have a better chance, but after 10 minutes, it was starting to get cold and dark clouds appeared in the sky. 

Jade: "What do you want us to do Jess," she said, my planned happy easy picnic at the zoo that I thought the girls would enjoy had gone out the window and I didn't know what to do.