Ashton's POV

"Is Rain up yet?" I asked Rae and ran a hand through my hair.

Rae shrugged and took another sip of her iced coffee.  One of our managers had made a run out to Dunkin Doughnuts and got us coffees and doughnuts for breakfast. 

"Rae, sweetheart, I know you're nervous but I need to know if she's at least somewhat done getting dressed.  We have to leave in 15 minutes.  Can you please tell me if you saw her when you were coming downstairs?"

She swirled the straw around in her drink and said nothing.  I groaned, now is literally the worst time for her to go nonverbal. I need to make sure that everyone is ready.  Everyone had come down the stairs but Rain.

"Fine." I got up.  My chair pushed back with a sudden squeak that made Rae flinch.  "I'll go upstairs and get her.  Think about speaking, okay?  Go find Michael and Calum and hang out with them for a little while or until we're ready to leave."

I jumped up the stairs; taking them two at a time.  Today is the big day.  We're going to introduce Rae to the world.  It was at the perfect location too, a fundraising festival for kids waiting to be adopted.  We were to preform a set there and Rain was to attend also.  The cool thing about the festival is that families wanting to adopt can have contact with kids waiting for families.  We hoped that Rain could find a forever family there.

"Rain!" I knocked on the bedroom door, "C'mon, get up."  I heard no answer from the other side.  "Alright.  I'm coming in."

She wasn't even out of bed yet!

"Hey, we have to leave soon." I sat down on the edge of Rain's bed, "You gotta get up."

"I don't want to." Rain mumbled and rolled over so she was facing away from me.

"You have to." I emphasized, "We have a schedule, remember?  And don't you want to get adopted?"

A dark cloud passed over Rain's face, "No.  I don't want to be adopted." She said with a huff and buried father down into the covers.

"If you don't want to be adopted, can you at least go for Rae?" I begged and looked at my watch.  Only 10 more minutes left, "She's really nervous and needs someone there.  Rain, please?"

Reject's POV

I've never been in a place with so many people.  So many different colors and noises entered my senses and overwhelmed my brain.  In fact, I was so nervous about this that I stopped talking.  Ashton had been so busy and stressed this morning and I didn't want to say something dumb and have him take his frustration out on me.

"I fucking hate these." Rain mumbled as she navigated through the hoards of people.  I've never been to a fair like this but Rain has been to quite a few.

At it's core, it was a fundraising festival for group homes and the foster system in the state of California.  Group homes from around the state had tents set up with merchandise and information about that particular place and the children in it.  Families looking for kids could also come and meet children from around the state in need of adoption.

Legally, Rain was still in the custody of the Oakland Shelter For Homeless Youth so we were to hang out at their display for the day.

"Sokanon!  I'm so glad you could come!" An older woman greeted us as we walked up to their small tent.

"It's Rain." The usually quiet girl said through gritted teeth.  "And before you ask, this is Rae.  She's the daughter of 5 Seconds Of Summer's drummer."

"Well that's nice." The woman said and leaned close to me, "I'm Miss Lance, the director and events coordinator of the group home."

I looked down at the ground.  Her eye contact was making me feel really uncomfortable.

"She has schizophrenia and doesn't like eye contact or talking sometimes." Rain was quick to explain for me.  "So what do I have to do today?"

"You just have to stay here and act interested and not argue and get angry with everyone, which apparently your disorder," She made quotation marks with her fingers, "makes hard for you."

"I'm on medication for my 'disorder'.  I tried to kill myself.  I stayed in a psychiatric hospital for almost a month.  What other proof do you need?" Rain's voice was angry now.  I started to scratch at my wrist and closed my eyes.  I hate it when people fight.

"Let's not argue." Another volunteer swept in to recover the situation, "Sokanon, why don't you help Maisilynn and Angela with face painting?"

"Actually, Angela isn't coming." Someone else piped up form the back.

Miss Lance groaned, "Where else am I going to find another artist at this time?"

"I could do it." I said and half raised my hand.

Rain nodded enthusiastically, "Rae is a great artist, trust me.  She's amazing."

"Alright." She sighed, "Rae can work with Maisilynn.  She's over there.  Sokanon, you can run the money and the change."  Miss Lance gestured to an African American girl mixing paints.

"Hey." I said and smiled slightly as I waled over to the dark skinned girl.

"Hi." She smiled, "I'm Maisilynn, but please call me Maisie."

"Cool." I sat down next to her, "I'm Rae and this is Rain."

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"I want a pretty flower." A little girl smiled brightly and sat in the chair in front of me.

"Sure." I answered and picked up my paint palate and a few brushes.  I started with the lime green stem and then put a yellow circle on top.  Vibrant light  blue petals surrounded the dot and completed the flower.

We had actually been doing really well at face painting.  The cash box was almost full.  Maisie is a huge 5SOS fan and is really looking forward to the set later.  Even Rain seemed to be comfortable.

"We have almost two hundred dollars!" Rain announced and closed the cash box with a bang.

"That's great." Maisie exclaimed and set her brush down, "We're pretty much out of paint so I think we end for the day."

We quickly cleaned our materials and presented the money to the caseworkers in charge of our booth.  They said we were free to wander the fair and do whatever we pleased as long as we stayed together and got back to the booth by four.

"Why do all the kids have orange shirts?" I asked Maisie as we walked around.  I noticed that a lot of the kids here were wearing orange shirts with the logo of their adoption agency on it.  In fact, it seemed like I was the only person under 18 that was wearing other clothing than that.

"It means that you aren't adopted yet." She explained, "How old are you guys, by the way?  I'm 14."

"13." I said.

"15." Rain told her and stopped to look at a pretty looking bracelet for a few seconds.

We arrived at the edge of the fairgrounds, where the stage was set up.  I've never seen any of the boys in concert.  This should be interesting.

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"Congratulations, your imitations are taking over the radio station!  Corporation!  Calculations!  We are the voice of the new generation!" Michael sang into the microphone as the crowd cheered.  We couldn't be too rowdy, but it was still fun nonetheless.  They really did put on a great live show.

Rain was grinning and shouting the lyrics along with me.  I'm glad she's happy.  This is a great experience for her.

"Okay guys, we've got something to tell you." Michael motioned to Ashton, who came out from behind his drumset.

Ashton grabbed a microphone, "Okay guys.  There's no clever way to lead up to this, so I'm just going to tell you: I adopted a kid."

The roar from the crowd was unbelievable.  Instantly, the voices in my head were buzzing.

They think it's dumb.  They think you're dumb.

"Do you guys want to see her?" Ashton allowed a few minutes for the crowd to scream and express their excitement, "Alright!  Rae, come on up!"

"That's you!" Rain yelled in my ear, "Go up!"

I tentatively made my way closer to the stage.  Rain and I were in the middle of the audience, at least we weren't all the way in the back.  Security guards helped me over the barrier that separated the crowd from the stage.

"You okay?" Ashton asked me.  I nodded.  I think I'm okay.  There's a lot of people out there.

"Here she is!" Ashton put his arm around my shoulders, "This is Rae, my daughter."  I managed a smile and waved to the crowd.

"She's a great artist and a lovely kid."  He said into the microphone, "I hope you all will enjoy getting to know her as much as I have."

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The sun had set in the sky, creating a lovely sunset.  Blues and pinks mixed in with the orange just right.  Beautiful.  Today has been a full day, a great day.  After meeting fans and signing autographs the boys had agreed to help pack up the rest of the booths.

"Is there a Sokanon here?" Two men in their thirties came up to our booth, which was halfway taken down already.  What did they want with Rain?

Miss Lance pulled Rain over to meet the men, "This is Sokanon."

Rain yanked her arm away, "What do you want with me?"

"We should probably introduce ourselves.  I'm James." One of them said, "And this is my husband Mitchell.  We're interested in adopting you."

"No!" Rain immediately shot back, "I don't want you to adopt me!"

"Sokanon!" Miss Lance hissed, "That is not the way you act to potential adopters."

"Whatever." She scoffed and walked away, "Rae, let's go find Ashton."

I walked with her, not having much of a choice.  Why is she so against being adopted?  She hates the foster system.  Wouldn't she want to get out out of it the first chance she could?