She never thought she would be able to say she made friends in college. She never thought she would meet her brother again. She never thought she could ever win custody over a child. She never thought she could find someone to love her. But all of those things happened. All because of one project, in one class, that half of them didn't even want to take.

It was the start to a new semester. The campus was full of students, all rushing to their classes. Éponine Jondrette was no exception. She was a junior Elementary Education Major. It was her second class of the day that she was currently walking to. She was excited for this one. She was taking it with one of her friends' father, Dr. Valjean. The class was Intro to Child Psychology. Her sister and her one friend, and roommate, Cosette, were in the class with her. As she walked into the medium sized classroom, she spotted Cosette and went to sit by her. Cosette nudged her boyfriend, Marius, who was on the other side of her, trying to get him to talk to the other girl. He quickly went back to talking to some of his friends who were on the other side of him. The ladies visited quietly as the room filled with students. Azelma came in and sat next to her sister. When the clock said eleven, Dr. Valjean came in. There were about forty students in the room.

"Welcome to Intro to Child Psych with Dr. Jean Valjean, that would be me, class number 246, section 01, at eleven o'clock, am. If this is not the class you are supposed to be in, please step out of the room before I pass out the attendance sheet." Dr. Valjean said. No students left. After he handed the sheet to the person in the back corner of the room, he went back to the front and grabbed a stack of syllabuses. He passed them out before once again going to the front of the room and turning on the overhead projector. He went through the syllabus, outlining test dates and what was required of us to pass. When he got to the last page, he smiled.

"This is my favorite part of this class, although many of you will hate the idea of it, you will come to love the assignment by the end of the term." He said. "The largest portion of this class is done outside of class. Many days, we will not even have class, as you will all be very tired. This project is also 75% of your grade. The final is only 10% and other tests are only 5%. The project is called The Kid Project. Each one of you will pair up, preferably with someone of the gender you are attracted to, whether that be the same or the opposite. You will get to choose, unless you need help, and then I will pair you up. You will move into a suite style dorm for the semester. I will pair you with a child from the local orphanage. You will be caring for this child for the entire semester. You will have funds from the school to do so. This is not only going to be one of the most valuable experiences for this class and learning about children, but it may be the most valuable experience of your entire college career and life. Caring for a child changes a person and their outlook of the world. You will all be new people at the end of the semester."

All of the students looked around the room, trying to figure out if the professor was joking or not. Then, when they realized he wasn't, some went on looking around for partners. Some stared at him in shock. One kid raised his hand. "Can we drop this class?"

Dr. Valjean nodded, but then spoke. "You can drop the class, if you wish, Mr. Grantaire. There will be no alternative assignment given, but, for many of you, this class is required of your major. The school has made it that way, as they have seen how this assignment works and changes the students. While taking the class, we have found that students do better in their other classes and go on to be more successful because of the responsibility and time management skills it forces you to have."

Éponine blanched. How was she supposed to take care of a kid when she couldn't even take care of herself? How was she supposed to work with another student she barely knew to take care of another human being?

"Class is dismissed, but if you have your partner chosen, you may come to the front and sign up for a meeting time with myself. You will have class on Wednesday, be on time, or don't come at all." Students started gathering their things. Éponine watched as a few couples went up and signed up for a meeting time. She glanced at Cosette and Marius, who were having a deep conversation.

"I'll see you later, Cosette." Éponine told her roommate that she probably wouldn't be rooming with for much longer.

"Wait, Éponine, I want to introduce you to the guys." Cosette called after her.

"Can it wait? I have another class to get to." Éponine said, trying to give an apologetic look.

"I guess, meet me at the Cafe Musain tonight at 7? They'll all be there then." Éponine nodded, and walked out with her sister, who was of the same major, just a year younger.

"So, what do you think of the assignment?" Azelma asked her older sister as they walked across the hall to their next two classes.

"I think I want to drop the class, but it's required for our major." Éponine responded. Azelma agreed and walked into her next class without her sister. Éponine continued until she got to her class.

That night, she arrived at the Musain, a local cafe where many of the college students went to do homework, a little before 7 with her sister. She looked around, but couldn't find Cosette or Marius. She went up to the register to ask if they frequented. The girl working the register gave her a funny look and said they were in the back room, like always. The Jondrette sisters thanked her and proceeded to the back room. When they got there, they found there were around twenty people there. Cosette quickly spotted the two women, and waved them over to where she was sitting with her boyfriend and some guys who looked familiar.

"Éponine!" Cosette squealed. "I'm so glad you could come! And you brought Azelma! Yay!" She said, obviously having a little too much energy, as she jumped over to them and hugged her roommate and Azelma. "I would like you both to meet some people." She led them over to the table, where two guys pulled out chairs for the new-comers and Cosette easily slid into hers again.

"This is Marius Pontmercy. Éponine, you met him this morning, but Azelma, he is my boyfriend. He is studying law." The blonde girl said to the pair, hooking her arm and laying her head on the man to her rights shoulder. He had light brown hair, with tints of red in it, bright green eyes, and freckles on his cheeks. He was cute, but in more of a boyish way, Éponine thought to herself. "That is Antoine Courfeyrac, but we just call him Courf." Cosette said, pointing and the next man, sitting next to Marius. He had a pudgy, but very fun looking face and many dark curls on his head, with equally as dark eyes. He was also dressed very nicely. "He is studying law as well." Cosette said.

"Next is Jean Prouvaire, or Jehan. He is studying to be an writer. Next to him is his boyfriend, Henri Grantaire, sometimes just Grant or R. He is going to be an artist." Cosette introduced the next two men. Jehan had a light complexion and sandy blonde hair. His eyes were sky blue and looked somewhat dazed. He had a legal pad with many hardly legible scribbles covering it. Grantaire looked more like Courf, but had much sharper features. His hair was even darker, but had light brown eyes. He was the one who had asked if he could drop Cosette's dad's class this morning. He was sketching on his boyfriend's pad, but Jehan didn't seem to mind.

"The last one is Gabriel Enjolras. He is studying law in hopes of becoming a social justice lawyer." Cosette explained.

"Just call me Enjolras." The man with blonde curls, bright blue eyes, and a very strong jawline, said to the ladies. "I do not like my given name." He explained. The girls nodded.

"And boys, this is Éponine and Azelma Jondrette. They are both majoring in Elementary Education, but Azelma is a year younger than Éponine and I." She said to the guys. They all said hello. "All of the guys are a year older than us, Éponine, but all of them at this table are in our Child Psych class. We were just talking about the assignment my dad gave us."

"I think it's ridiculous and we shouldn't have to do the project to graduate." Grantaire said.

"Cheer up, we can do it together!" His boyfriend responded. "It'll be fun. It'll be like…"

"Like you're already living with each other and have a child?" Enjolras finished for him. "Like you're domesticated?" He added.

"I guess you aren't too keen on the idea, Enjolras." Éponine said.

He shook his head. "I don't mind the idea. Helping the children in the orphanage have at least one semester of love and fun is a great idea, I just don't like the idea of it being a group project. At least he's open to couples doing it together, regardless of type."

Éponine nodded as Cosette said, "He knows many of you already. He is very accepting and wants people to succeed in everything they do. Requiring a student to live with another for a whole semester, especially one with a partner, of either gender, would probably not go over so well for a relationship." The whole table thought about this, and realized it was true, and that Dr. Valjean did have some very nice things going for him. "But, the rest of you need to find partners! Obviously, Marius and I are doing the project together, we already signed up for a meeting time. What about Jehan and R? Are you going to do it together?"

"Yes." Jehan answered, glaring at Grantaire. "Whether he wants to or not, we are going to pass this class."

"Wonderful! Now for the rest of you… Any idea who you're going to work with?" Cosette asked Éponine, Azelma, Enjolras, and Courfeyrac.

"Hey, Azelma. Would you be willing to do the project with me? I don't know any other girls in the class, besides you two." Éponine had noticed Azelma and Courfeyrac eyeing each other since they walked into the back room of the cafe.

Azelma nodded, somewhat shyly. "Yeah, that sounds fun." Cosette clapped her hands before looking to Éponine. Éponine shrugged back. She glanced around the table. The only other person left was Enjolras. He was too beautiful. He looked like he was sculpted by angels, and that was just what she could see through his red jacket and jeans. He looked to have very muscular arms, and she just could not get over that jaw line…

"Éponine? Hello, anyone home?" She jerked her attention back to the conversation. Cosette had been trying to get her attention.

"What? Sorry, I spaced off. What were you saying?" Éponine asked the other girl.

"I was just suggesting that you and Enjolras do the project together."

"Oh, I don't know…" Éponine started to say.

"I think that's a good idea, Cosette. I don't know many girls, much less in our class. What do you say, Éponine? Unless you have someone else in mind?" Enjolras said.

Éponine shook her head. "Well, then. It's settled. We all have partners now, and can all sign up for our meetings! I'm so excited! Maybe we can get rooms next to each other! Or at least nearby one another. We are going to have so much fun." Cosette gushed. They spent the rest of the night in each other's company before they all split off to go back to their dorms. Luckily, most students stayed on campus all four years, so they had already paid for their housing, they just had to switch dorms for the project. But even living on campus, Marius, Enjolras, and Courfeyrac insisted on walking their partners back to their current dorms. It was a nice way for the Jondrette sisters to get to know the person they were going to be living with for the next few months.


AN: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of The Kid Project. If you are here because you read any of my other stories, I hope you enjoy this one more. I really like this plot, story, and set of characters.

Disclaimers for the story go HERE - Obviously, the characters don't belong to me. Victor Hugo, who created the Les Miserables book, and then everyone who has helped in creating every musical and movie after that get much more credit than I will ever deserve. I also got the idea of the project from another Fanfiction story I read a while ago. If you would like to read that one, it is in the Maximum Ride Universe, and I will put the link on my page. I got permission by the writer of said story, DemiSpy, to use her wonderful idea. I cannot thank her enough! So, DemiSpy, if you are reading this, thanks a bunch!

Just a warning, this is going to be a fairly long story. Like my other chaptered story, I like to prewrite most, if not the whole story before begin publishing. As of now, I am not totally finished, but I'm reaching the climax, and it is a little more than fifty single-spaced pages on Google Docs. The rating is going to start off as T, but I may have to up it to M for a couple of chapters. I might just put trigger warnings in, however.

I don't really normally read ANs for stories I read, so the rest of them will not be this long, hopefully. I'll be posting once a week until it is finished. Read and Review, my darlings, and I'll see you next week!