trouble isnt a privlidge, its a right :: MARCO

Marco expected the occasional acting up from all of his kids, because, kids made mistakes—people made mistakes. God knows he could be chock full of them sometimes. And after all that had happened over the last couple of months, he should have been surprised that he wasn't hearing more things from teachers or the principal. It wasn't to say that he wanted to. The last thing he wanted was for his kids to get into a world of trouble. They weren't bad kids. Everyone hit their rough points and everyone had their troubles. Not to mention, adopting kids meant that there was still another history there where they had no control over. A history that had to be taken into account for the kids that remembered it or for the parents that didn't know how to let go. Marco never expected a family to be easy and he wouldn't give it up for anything. He loved every one of them, no matter what scheme they pulled or what was going on. And he didn't think any of them were bad or inherently so. They were just kids and things were bound to happen. He wished that he could magically make everything perfect, but he couldn't. And he feared that nothing was the way that he wanted it to be lately. The family wasn't together and he didn't really get a chance to see most of his kids. Everything was hectic and split and he tried to pay attention, but sometimes, things went by a little unnoticed. Jessa hadn't though. He just didn't think things would get this bad and when he got the call from Darcy, he dropped everything and went to the school.

"Hey, kid," Marco greeted, though it was obvious that he wasn't too happy. He wasn't angry; in fact, he was more concerned. She never treated people like that. And now it seemed like she'd turned into other kids' worst nightmare. He took note of her clothes, but on a regular basis wouldn't have minded if it wasn't accompanied with a new attitude. He had no problem with an alternative style. With clothes and style he was open to just about anything that they could throw his way. But, he didn't like the attitude and getting into fights or hurting other kids wasn't acceptable. It was never going to be. His arms were folded, but not really in an intimidating manner. "I hope you know we're about to have one long talk." He told her in warning before he gestured with his head for her to stand up. "Come on, up with you, Jessa. You got everything?" He asked her, in case she needed to take any stops by her locker. He was already working up ways to approach this. Marco had always been good at talking to people and he'd even studied to be a social worker in college and had even been one for a few years, before the fashion thing happened. But, that was a long, crazy story that he didn't expect to work out. Sometimes he missed it, because it wasn't really the fashion aspect that Marco liked about his normal job, he just happened to be very good in business.

Still, this was his daughter and if anyone could talk to her, it had to be him. What type of parent was he if he couldn't have this conversation. Oh, she was in trouble, but he wanted to get to the source of the problem. Because, if that wasn't addressed than nothing would ever get better. It would just be progressively worse. Punishment didn't work that way. You couldn't punish and punish and hope someone learned. That just helped people distrust and feel hated. He didn't want that. He wanted to help, and he didn't think pure discipline did that.

Marco furrowed his brow at her greeting and gestured for her to follow. "Hey," he said, sharply, "watch it." He warned. There was still a gentleness to his voice, but he kept firm, to let her know he wasn't playing around and he wasn't going to accept that attitude from her. She would listen to him. He wasn't going to have anything but that. He waited, however, until they were out of the school, before he said anything. "Now that we're out here," he began, as he started for his car. "You wanna tell me what makes you think you can treat other people like that?" He asked, knowing it was nothing he ever taught her was right. If anything, he tried to ingrain the exact opposite. He wanted his kids to treat people like they wanted to be treated; at least with some common courtesy and kindness. There were a lot of different people out there and none of them deserved bullying.

"That's not the Jessa I know." He added. And it wasn't. He never heard of her acting out that way before. And while he noticed differences in her, he tried not to crowd her too much. But since it apparently got worse and she was really acting out, he needed to take care of it. And not only to keep her out of trouble, but to help her. Because, in his eyes, it could have very well been a cry for help. And he wasn't going to ignore it. He couldn't.

"You're not stronger, Jessa," he corrected. That wasn't a good enough reason to do anything. "You're a bully when you do that. And bullies, they're not tough." And hurting someone at all was damaging, especially when it was for no reason. Marco knew exactly what it was like to have someone want to insult or hurt him for no reason at all. When he was a teenager, while he had plenty of friends, wound up pretty popular, there were people that didn't like him. He was the gay kid, that was practically asking for insults and bullying now and then. He learned how to deal with it, to ignore it and brush it off, however. Even now, there were enough bigots in the world to drive him up the wall. But, being mean to someone was never the answer. Marco understood that people usually acted out because something happened to them, because it made them feel better about their insecurities. So, something was definitely very very wrong.

Marco climbed into the car, put his seatbelt on and continued to listen to her. He didn't say anything until he had the car started and was pulling out of the parking lot. "I don't?" He asked, shaking his head. "Jessa, you have never been ignored. Not by me. I know you better than you think. And if you think I'd ignore you, then you're really mistaken." He didn't ignore his kids. And while he didn't have a choice when it came to half of them, because they didn't live with him. The two that did, he paid attention to.

"Hurting someone else doesn't make you stronger, Jessa." He repeated and he didn't think for a moment that he was wrong. Usually, when someone hurt another person, it was because of a weakness in themselves. It was an insecurity. But, he never thought his daughter as weak. He thought contrary to that and he believed in the best of all of his kids. But, he wasn't going to stand for bullying. Bullying could destroy someone's life so easily. It was wrong, cruel and it needed to be stopped before it got too far. He didn't think she was really a bad kid and he didn't think that she really wanted to hurt people... She seemed to be crying out for something, attention, maybe. And she got it and Marco wasn't going to blow it off.

"Jessa?" He listened to her, his brow furrowing with momentary confusion. "You can tell me anything. Anything at all." And he would never judge her and if it was such a hard confession, he couldn't be angry. She was his daughter, he loved her, and nothing she could tell him would ever change that.

As Marco listened to her, he didn't pretend that he knew what was going on with her, because he couldn't know the specifics of how she felt right now. He hadn't grown up with that type of affliction and his birth parents had stayed in the picture throughout his life. Of course, there had been times he questioned how much his dad cared about him, because his dad had homophobic tendencies and coming out had been hard for Marco. But, it was different, because at the end of the day, his family had accepted him. "They did. Sometimes, I doubted it. When I was your age, I was sure my dad would hate me for who I was. And I was sure he did hate a part of me for a long time." He admitted and then shook his head.

"Jessa." Having to deal with the drama of birth parents was something that Marco was used to having to come up at some point or another. Naturally, kids would be curious about their biological parents. He expected it to happen and didn't take any offence to it; not in the least bit. He didn't think that they were going to somehow consider him to be less of their dad, just because he wasn't their blood. Because, they might as well have been blood to him. There was no difference between the love he had for his kids and the love that someone who biologically had kids of their own would have. "Blood doesn't have to mean family. Those people-- Your parents-- They might have given you up, but that doesn't reflect you, it reflects them." He said, and it was always tough to talk about. At calling herself a mistake, however, he turned off the road and pulled over, so that he could focus on her more than the cars in front of him and looked over at her. "No, don't you say that. Even if anyone out there thought so, look at how your life turned out. Look where you are now. You have two parents that love you completely. If someone wants to call you a mistake then they're not worth your time. Because you, and your brothers and sisters, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. And that's not a mistake." He couldn't speak for what happened with her biological family, but somehow, she managed to make it to their home and she was important to them.

Blood had nothing to do with love. Sure, the idea was that when someone had a kid of their own, usually love came with it. There was something instinctual about caring for your own biological child, he supposed. But, that didn't mean it always happened that way. Marco saw how the system worked and how many kids were pulled from families where the parents couldn't have cared less about the kids they brought into the world. Just because someone had a kid didn't mean they loved it. And sure, he saw parents that gave kids up out of love and that made mistakes and lost them. When he adopted Aidan as a baby, he had been one of those kids. Straight out of a meth house with an addict mother, but he'd met the woman and she had loved her baby and although she didn't have a choice but to lose him, she understood and wanted it. But, some people they didn't care. And Marco understood it without having to experience it. He was lucky enough to have a family that he was born into that cared about him. Not everyone was that lucky.

"And so does yours, Jessa. Your family loves you. Not the people who had you. Your family. There's a difference between blood and family. Sometimes people are lucky and it works out to be both. Other times, your family, the people who love and take care of you aren't blood at all. Those people that brought you into this world, they were selfish. They were invested in themselves, not you." He said softly, trying to reason with her, knowing that it was hard when she was upset, but he had to give it a shot anyway. "They might not have cared, but that's not because of you. You didn't do anything wrong and obviously you're not unloveable. There's a difference between the people who brought you into this world and your parents."