The Forgotten Child

11

All Saturday and Sunday Zayn stayed in bed, only getting up to use the restroom. It was now Monday and Louis and Harry decided it was time to take Zayn to the mall to do some shopping before he started school the next day. Louis woke Zayn up that morning and checked the boys' back which he was pleased to see the swelling had gone down fully and it looked a lot better, and Zayn claimed he wasn't in any more pain. Zayn slipped on a pair of jeans an a t-shirt before making himself a bowl of cereal while Louis and Harry got ready and took Liam and Niall to school.

Upon arriving at the mall, they made their way inside where Harry and Zayn followed Louis into one of the first stores "Zayn do you know any of your sizes?" Louis asks and Zayn shakes his head. "Alright take these into the dressing room over there and tell me which ones fit and which ones don't." Louis says handing the boy a couple pairs of pants and some plain t-shirts. Zayn quickly tried them on and found that only the smalls were the closest to fitting him.

"Uh these fit and these don't." Zayn mumbles as he walks out, holding up the two piles of clothes in his each hand.

"Good, now if I pick something out that you would never wear, please tell me and I won't get mad. I don't want to waste money on something you won't wear." Louis says taking the two stacks of clothes and walking back out to the store. Zayn nods and blushes lightly, following his stepdad towards the racks of clothes. Louis only picked up a couple pairs of pants and one shirt for the boy before moving on to the next store where he picked up more shirts and even a couple pair of shoes.

"Alright lets go." Louis says once he had paid. "Let's go next door. They have cool clothes that Niall and Liam like to wear."

They continued to shop for another hour or so before deciding to stop for lunch. They ate and exchanged some small talk before they were back on their feet shopping again.

-

"Zayn come on bubba. We gotta wake up." Harry says running his fingers through Zayn's hair.

"Stop." Zayn whined turning around and pulling the covers up. Harry sighs and pulls the covers back and lifted the boy up so he was in a sitting position.

"Good boy, now come on and get dressed. Louis is making breakfast." Harry says as Zayn fists his eyes. Zayn stayed there for a moment hoping that Harry would walk away so he could sleep more. "I'm not leaving until you are up and moving around." Harry says, crossing his arms with a smirk and Zayn huffs, throwing the covers over his body and standing up. Harry smiled victoriously before getting up and going to get ready himself.

Zayn slowly got dressed and made his way downstairs where Liam, Niall, and Louis were eating. "Good morning love. Help yourself." Louis says gesturing to the food on the table and Zayn nods taking a bowl and pouring some cereal and milk.

"Excited for today?" Harry asks walking up to the table. Zayn shrugs and stirs his cereal around while trying not to fall asleep. After eating and saying goodbye to Louis, Zayn was in the car with the rest of the family on his way to school. Since the middle school was closer to the house than the high school was, Zayn was dropped off first.

"Have a good day love. I'll see you when I get home. Louis will pick you up." Harry hollers as Zayn got out of the back seat. He made his way to the front office, not bothering to acknowledge the stares he was getting from other students.

"Good morning Zayn!" Mr. Higgins says as soon as the boy entered. "Why don't we go ahead and head back to my office."

Zayn nodded and followed Mr. Higgins back to his office. "I have your schedule and locker number here." Mr. Higgins says sliding over some papers for the boy. "Here are your textbooks and workbooks. I am assuming you went out and got the supplies this weekend after our meeting?" Paul asks and Zayn nods again looking down at his backpack sitting on the floor. "Alright well let's go put some of this away in your locker and then I can show you around."