[jacquelynives]

[janeives]

it’s crazy to see the direction they are taking her character this season because there are already aspects that i wrote into my portrayal as far back as season 2 that more or less align with her current narrative, but her journey navigating public school is especially interesting to me. while i don’t know the details of how she winds up in public school in s4 canon, i do know how i always envisioned it.

that is, she is an immensely curious, knowledge - hungry girl who longs to fit into the world and experience it behind the lens of a normal child. it becomes glaringly obvious how huge of an importance school bears on the formation of childhood and even of self, and it’s an experience she is adamant about having once she starts to settle into a family dynamic with the byers. it’s easy at first to see it as an opportunity (for friendships, for learning, for experiencing life as it is meant to be lived). joyce, i imagine, would be tentative to give in to the idea. she is protective of jane. she is not naive to the brutality of other children, and she already struggles with her attempts to shield will from the cruel barrage of bullies. it would be difficult for her to enroll jane in school knowing that she would be subject to that kind of torment. but jane is nothing if not persistent, and her adamance would eventually break joyce’s resolve. she isn’t nearly as hard headed or strong willed as jim. she’s a pushover, and jane knows how to push.

so she would be enrolled. she would attend school with an initial abundance of enthusiasm and passion. she would be the new kid, and paired with this her lack in social skills would have her stick out like a sore thumb. jane is awkward. she’s socially inappropriate, she can be loud at times and mute others. shes stubborn, easy to frustrate, easy to anger. she struggles to pick up on or recognize social cues. she becomes easily overwhelmed, she lacks boundaries. to a lot of kids, even the well meaning ones, she’s odd and off putting.

not only this, but academically jane is well behind the mark compared to her peers. hawkins lab failed her. the things she was learning in her formative years were centered around her as an experiment, not her as a child. growing into a functional adult was never in the cards for her. not only did she miss out socially, she missed out cognitively too. the skills she is adept in do not serve her in a real world setting, and therefore she would come to find her assignments confusing and overwhelming, leading her to become frustrated, both at herself and consequently at others (see: poor coping skills). frustration for jane often leads to violent outbursts, and in absence of her abilities i can easily see her becoming physically violent with teachers or other students, lending bullies more fuel (ie; that’s the weird kid who always freaks out)

ultimately, i see her time attending public school as being brief and somewhat explosive. i think it would/will bring her more grief than anything. i also think that it would end in one of two ways: jane simply refusing to go after experiencing enough terrible days, or jane being removed from school following multiple violent outbursts resulting in disruption of class / injuries or harm to other students.