Hurt


"Hey, how was school?" Punk asked Jessica as he stood waiting for her outside the school, picking her up as she was almost first out of class.

"It was fine." Jessica told him, taking his hand and walking out of the yard with him to their car.

"Glad it's Friday?" He asked her.

"Yes." She said almost immediately as Punk laughed a little.

"Yeah, me too." Punk groaned a little, taking her bookbag from her and opening up the car door to let her into the back where Jo already was.

"Hi Jess." Jo smiled, happy to see her sister, "Did you enjoy school?" She asked, sitting in her car seat drinking a juice box.

"Yeah." Jessica nodded to her as Punk closed the door over. She put on her seat belt as Jo watched her.

"What'd you do?" Jo asked curiously. She liked to ask questions of course but she liked to talk to her sister, especially when she hadn't saw her all day. She really missed her.

"Nothing really." Jessica told her, "I wrote a story." She told her sister whilst Punk got in the front and drove off before the traffic got bad.

"A story about what?" Jo asked curiously.

"Just about a book we read." Jessica said, "And we had gym class today. Someone forgot to pack my trainers." She said as Punk was barely listening and had his eyes on the road, "Dad." She said louder.

"Huh? What?" Punk answered.

"You didn't pack my trainers in my bag. I had to use school ones." She rolled her eyes.

"Shit." Punk whispered to himself, "Sorry, sweetheart. I was rushing about this morning."

"You're rushing about every morning." Jessica shook her head as Punk nodded.

"What do you do in gym class?" Jo wondered.

"We ran around and played tag, and then we played with the balls." Jessica told her.

"Oh, that's cool." Jo nodded.

"What did you do?" Jessica asked her as Punk smiled, watching in his rear view mirror. He liked to see the girls getting on with one another, as a parent it was the best thing to watch.

"Oh, I spent the day with Cami and Seth." Jo said, "I fed some of the chickens and I got to play with the piglets." She said.

"That sounds fun." Jessica frowned a little. She would have much rather spent the day with her sister than have gone off to school, and that was a rare thing for her to feel.

Jo noticed that Jessica looked a little sad and was confused because normally her sister wasn't sad, "Are you ok?" Jo whispered to her so Punk couldn't hear as Jessica turned to her. Sometimes Jessica realised that her sister wasn't a baby anymore. She was older and she did notice things.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jessica nodded to her.


They eventually got home and after the girls said hello to their mother, they headed on upstairs so Jessica could put her bookbag down and get into other clothes like sweats and so Jo could… watch her.

"You ok?" Punk asked AJ, giving her a warm hug as she hugged him tightly and closed her eyes so she could lose herself in the hug. She'd dreamed about getting that hug all day.

"Yeah." AJ sighed as Punk kissed her head, "How was work?" She asked him. Trying to pretend everything was ok was the hardest thing in the world.

"It was fine." Punk nodded, "I'm just glad I got the weekend off." He shook his head as AJ nodded, "How you been feeling?"

"Ok." AJ nodded, "A little better, I guess. I got up and had a coffee and then… tidied up a little, had a snack and then a nap." She said, "Not exactly a productive day."

"And that's completely ok." Punk reminded her as she smiled and kissed his arm, "We doing pizza for dinner? I'm feeling lazy." He admitted as she smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, me too." AJ smiled. She had no idea what to say to him at this point. After his mother had gone, she had advised her to tell him about everything going on. She never thought that his mother would be the voice of reason in something but she seemed set on being helpful and doing the right thing, and AJ wasn't mad at that.

She knew she was right. He did deserve to know, but she felt like keeping it from him meant keeping him from the stress and worry of everything. She had always been the type of person to try and keep everyone else happy, and keep the stress on only her, but she knew one way or another, he had to know. She figured tonight once the kids were in bed she'd tell him in the calmest way possible.

Meanwhile upstairs Jessica had gotten changed into her sweat pants and was unpacking her bookbag whilst Jo sat on her bed watching.

"You have lots of books." Jo said as she looked at everything Jessica was pulling out of her bookbag.

"Not really." Jessica disagreed as Jo looked through the books, suddenly finding a piece of paper with the word loser on it, staring at it with confusion.

"What does this say?" Jo turned it to Jessica as Jessica took it from her and screwed her face. She hadn't saw anyone slip this in her bag and figured those girls done it when they were in gym class.

"Nothing." Jessica shook her head, scrunching it up and putting it in the trash as Jo frowned, "Do you think I look fat?" She asked her sister as Jo looked at her.

"No." Jo giggled, "You're little." She shook her head.

"What about in those jeans I was wearing?" Jessica asked as Jo shook her head with confusion.

"No." Jo shook her head, not understanding why her sister would ask such a thing, "You look lovely." Jo frowned as Jessica smiled to her.

"Thanks." Jessica smiled to her. As a kid being teased, she was of course believing everything that was being said about her, to the point where she was refusing to eat her lunch, and even believing her sister was hard.

"I liked your outfit today." Jo told her, "I like that sweatshirt." She nodded.

"Yeah, me too." Jessica nodded. Even though she was feeling down, her little sister was bringing her spirits up a little and she never thought that would be possible.

"Hey, you two." AJ walked into the bedroom, "We're getting pizza tonight. Cool?" She asked them.

"Cool!" Jo exclaimed happily, "Lots of pizza for me." She mumbled happily as AJ smiled.

"Ok." Jessica nodded as AJ smiled.

"How was school?" AJ asked her, "Did you get some homework?"

"No, not this weekend." Jessica said.

"Hey, that's good." AJ nodded, "What'd you get up to?" She asked, sitting down on the bed.

"She wrote a story." Jo nodded.

"Oh, really? What about?" AJ asked.

"Just about a story we read." Jessica shrugged, "It wasn't very good." She shook her head.

"Hey, I bet it was amazing. I love your stories." AJ nodded, "And what else did you do?" She asked as Jessica smiled, sitting down between her mother and sister. She could always count on them to make her feel better about herself, without a doubt.


"Why aren't you eating anything?" Punk asked Jessica, sitting at the table later on after he'd gone out for pizza. Jessica had only ate half of a slice and wasn't eating anymore. As a young, impressionable little girl, she took to heart what people said to her, especially girls the same age as her. Being called fat made her confused and conscious, so she was trying not eat as much as she could.

"I'm not hungry." Jessica shook her head, meanwhile Jo stared across at her with confusion.

"Did you eat lunch?" AJ asked Jessica, sitting beside her as Jessica nodded and looked down.

"I'm not convinced." Punk shook his head.

"I had some things." Jessica shrugged.

"You're not eating enough." Punk shook his head with confusion, "Why? Have you got a sore stomach?" He asked. He couldn't understand why all of a sudden she wasn't eating. It was starting to confuse him and worry him, "You won't be able to run properly at track."

"I'm just not hungry." Jessica told them.

"All day?" Punk shook his head.

Meanwhile Jo added some things up in her little head, realising why her sister wasn't eating. She was young but she wasn't completely stupid.

"She thinks she's fat." Jo said as AJ looked across at her youngest door whilst Punk looked over at Jessica, "But I said she's not."

"Why do you always have to tell them everything?" Jessica kicked Jo's foot under the table as Jo kicked her back and threw a pizza crust at her.

"Hey, hey…" Punk raised his voice a little, "What? What are you talking about?" Punk shook his head.

"Why would you think that?" AJ asked Jessica with concern. She was a healthy little girl who took her small figure from her mother. It was beyond her why she would think such a thing.

"Jessica." Punk shook his head, waiting for an answer.

"Girls in my class said so." Jessica said, "And they put things in my bag."

"What girls?" Punk shook his head.

"The new friends I made." Jessica said.

"Is that why you aren't eating?" Punk asked her as Jessica left the table and ran away before either of them could call her back.

"How can she ignore all this pizza?" Jo mumbled to herself with confusion as she reached for another slice whilst AJ and Punk looked at one another with worry and concern. It felt like an extreme level of bullying was taking place to which they hadn't even questioned or noticed, both thought she was way too young.

"I'm gonna go see if she's alright." AJ shook her head.

"No, let me." Punk nodded, standing up from the table, walking on by and heading upstairs.

He walked on over to Jessica's bedroom door, opening it up where he saw her lying in her bed with her back to the door. He sighed to himself. He'd prepared himself for a lot of hard bumps in the road being a father to two girls, but he wasn't fully prepared, no one could be. It broke his heart that she was taking all these horrible comments to heart, and that they were getting inside her little head. He thought it was despicable that at such a young age she was trying to starve herself, it almost shocked him a little.

"Jessica." Punk said softly, closing her door over behind him and walking over to the bed, "Hey." He said, sitting down on the edge of her bed, rubbing her arm as she turned around on her back where he could see she was crying, "Hey." He sighed sadly, "Don't do that." He shook his head, wiping her tears. There was absolutely nothing worse than seeing either of his daughter's cry. It was the worst thing in the world, next to seeing AJ cry.

"Are you mad?" Jessica wondered.

"What? No, why would I be mad?" He shook his head as she sat up against the headboard of her bed, "No, I'm worried. I-I don't want you to listen to these girls and what they have to say, because they're wrong." He nodded, "I… I thought you had friends… like Caitlin and Polly? Are they the ones saying this to you?"

"No." Jessica shook her head, "No, I… I made new friends. They were nice to me and then they started being mean." She said.

"What do they say?" Punk asked her. He wanted her to talk about it so she didn't feel alone, because the world they lived in, way too many people didn't get encouraged to speak out on their feelings.

"They say I'm fat and I'm a loser. And that only boys run track." She said, hugging her knees to her chest, "One of them took my homework and I… I got into trouble because my teacher thought I hadn't done it."

"How long has this been happening?" Punk asked.

"A little while." Jessica shrugged, "I thought they would stop."

"And do you believe what they're saying?" Punk asked her as she just shrugged, "They're wrong. You aren't any of those things. And… girls run track too. And you know what, they do it better because they stick at it." Punk nodded, "That's not an insult. If you're doing something that is supposedly something a boy should be doing, then I always want you to keep doing it, unless it's hurting anyone." He said, "There's nothing wrong with you. You're beautiful and they're just… picking on someone because they're bored." He shook his head.

"But why?" Jessica shook her head, "If they're bored why can't they do something else?"

"Because some people are just mean. Kids can be mean. Adults can be mean." Punk nodded as Jessica frowned, "When I was at school I got bullied all the time." He said.

"You did?" Jessica asked. She thought that she was the only person in the world to feel this way but her father was making sure she didn't feel like that.

"Yeah." Punk nodded, "I got my glasses broke. People made fun of my hair. The type of music I listened to." He said, "People are mean. It's part of life I'm afraid, but I don't want you to listen to them." He said, "Because what they're saying to you isn't right." He said, "Me and mom will speak to your teacher about it and it'll get better." He nodded to her.

"But now I have no friends." Jessica said.

"We can talk to Caitlin's mom and… maybe you and her can have a play date." He said, "Get closer again." He said as Jessica nodded, "But please… don't listen to anyone who… who has anything negative to say about you. You're perfect." He nodded as she smiled to herself, "Come give me a hug." He nodded as she knelt up and wrapped his arms around him tightly, "I love you." He said, squeezing her tightly. He didn't want her to ever hurt or feel bad about herself ever.

"Phil!" AJ yelled from downstairs.

Punk let go of Jessica and stood up from the bed, he sensed a strange tone in AJ's voice and immediately felt himself worried, "Stay here." Punk told Jessica, leaving her bedroom and closing the door over behind him, heading down the stairs and through the hallway, walking into the kitchen where he saw AJ standing in the corner of the kitchen with Jo beside her, turning to his left where he saw Jamie standing with Jason.

"Nice of you to join us." Jamie smiled as Punk gulped and looked across at them. Suddenly everything had come crashing down.