Jake yawned as he maneuvered his large SUV first onto the street and then in the driveway. Home sweet home, he finally thought with a tired smile. The road trip had been exhausting to say the least. Three cities, three games in four nights. Finally he was home with one day off and after that, it would be back to the gym, back to the arena and back to the crazy schedule. The thing he wanted most was a long, hot shower and a quiet, sleep filled night tucked between the sheets of his own bed. Parking inside the garage and grabbing his bags, Jake made it into dimly lit, quiet house.

"We need to talk", said the almost angry voice.

Jake jumped.

"Peyton, I didn't see you sitting there. You scared the shit out of me, babe."

"Sorry", she said. "But I've been waiting on you. We really need to talk."

He raised an eyebrow. He couldn't ever recall a time seeing her look so agitated and tense. Her beautiful face looked tired and worn as she sat at the kitchen table, arms crossed. A worried Jake took a seat beside her.

"Let's talk", he said softly. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

Peyton shook her head.

"It's about Jenny at the school and…"

"Oh shit", Jake rubbed his eyes. "I totally forgot to follow up on that. Is everything cool now? I know her principal had called the day I was leaving to talk about some disagreement she had with a teacher…

Peyton laughed in spite of the situation.

"There was no disagreement, Jake. Jenny called the teacher a bitch and she got sent to the office. End of discussion."

Jake's eyes widened.

"Are you serious? Pey, she really did that?"

"Yes."

"Well, did you talk to her?"

His wife nodded.

"Her principal, Mr. Langdon did and so did I."

"Good", he breathed a sigh of relief. "How did that go?"

"Probably not that well considering she isn't doing her assignments, won't listen to anyone, got in a fight with another girl, and skipped school…twice."

"But Pey, I've only been gone five days", Jake said, confused and refusing to believe that the little angel he once cradled in his arms could be capable of causing so much destruction in such a short amount of time.

"Exactly", she said.

Jake sighed.

"Alright. Um, I guess I'll talk to her tomorrow."

"No, Jake. I think it should be tonight and I think you should do more than talk."

"What do you mean?"

"This is getting out of hand. Jenny's behavior is out of control."

"I know but we were prepared for this, remember? We knew it might be rough and that she might need some time to adjust."

"How much time, Jake?"

He shrugged.

"I don't know, babe. As long as it takes. We just have to be patient."

"My patience is really wearing thin."

"It'll be okay", he gently patted her arm as he stood to leave.

"That's it? That's all you're gonna say?"

"It's late and I'm tired. What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know. Let's see, you could start by calling your daughter down here and tryoing to talk some sense into her. But considering she has no respect for authority and certainly for us, and she hates the whole world, that probably would no zero good. So might I suggest you call her down here anyway and set some ground rules."

"Punish her?"

"Something, Jake. Jesus, I don't know. But something has to be done so that she knows she can't go around disrespecting every adult when the notion hits her."

Jake sighed.

"Look, babe, I know you're frustrated but I don't think that's the way to go."

"Jake…"

"Hear me out. There's always a reason for everything. People don't just act, they react. We don't know what Nikki did to her and I don't want to push for answers and make it worse. Jenny could have been traumatized somehow."

Peyton looked away.

"Maybe. I don't know, Jake. Maybe Nikki was a horrible mother and Jenny grew up in deplorable conditions with terrible things happening to her. That could have been the case but what if it wasn't?"

"What are you saying?"

"When I see Jenny's attitude, I don't see a frightened, abused kid. I see a Nikki clone."

"Peyton…"

"I'm sure Nikki wasn't the best mother. She probably let Jenny do whatever the hell she wanted, when she wanted with no rules and no respect for anyone. I think Jenny is used to no structure and getting her way all the time."

"Then we need to break her of that."

"Absolutely."

"But we can't just go in as the evil father and step mother. Trust me, it will backfire, Peyton. We have to be calm and patient and let her know that we love her no matter what."

"All the while as she walks all over us?"

"It's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" Peyton repeated. "Oh my God. I cannot believe you just said that to me. Not that bad. Damn, Jake, how would you know? You're never here. I'm the one left to deal with the attitude and the teachers and the principal and…"

Peyton was starting to lose her temper and it showed. Her voice rose and her arms began to flail.

"Okay, okay", Jake went to her. "Just calm down, okay? Look, I'm sorry. That's not fair. I put you in this position and I'm not around all the time so I don't see things the way you see them. You're right, Pey. I'll talk to her right now."

"Jenny, come down here", Peyton called out.

A few seconds later, they heard the footsteps and sure enough the arms folded, sullen child was in front of them.

"Have a seat", Jake offered as jenny plopped down with a loud, annoyed sigh. "Everything okay?"

"Fine", she mumbled.

"That's not what Peyton tells me", he continued softly. "I hear you're having problems at school."

Jenny looked right at him and spoke in a flat, monotone, slightly sarcastic voice.

"I have no problems, Jake. Life is good. I love school. My new home is great. I'm happy."

She accentuated her comments with a nice, fake smile.

"Jenny, acting like that is not going to solve anything. If there are things you need to talk about, like stuff with your mom or whatever, you can come to me. You can come to us."

"Whatever."

He sighed.

"You want to tell me about what happened at school with your teacher? She says you called her a name."

"She was acting like a bitch."

"So…"

"So I called her on it", Jenny shrugged.

"You can't do that", Jake said. "You just can't walk around saying everything on your mind and I don't want you using language like that. You're just a kid."

"Fine", she huffed. "Can I go now?"

"You absolutely can't", Peyton intervened. "Why don't you tell your father about that fight you got into."

"It's no big deal."

"Jenny…"

"I was at my stupid locker minding my own business and this stupid, preppy chick comes up to me in front of everyone and accuses me of looking at her douche bag boyfriend. I wasn't and the whole thing was dumb so I told her to get out of my face. She wouldn't and I pushed her."

"So the other girl started it?" Jake asked.

Peyton rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe he was defending her actions.

"Jenny, people are going to be jerks sometime. Especially in school but that's a part of life. You deal with it and move on. You can't go around putting your hands on every single person that gives you attitude."

"She just wanted to try the new girl", Jenny said defiantly. "I bet she won't try me again."

"Okay, Jenny", Jake sighed. "No more fighting, no more swearing. And unless you give me a legitimate reason why you can't be in this school, you have to go to every class, every day unless you're sick, got me? And if you need help with your assignments, just ask. I'm here and so is Peyton and I'm sure Haley wouldn't mind helping out either."

"No thanks. I don't need Mary Poppins as a tutor."

"Well, maybe you need help from someone. We still don't have your academic transcripts and the school says you're struggling in your classes", Peyton spoke up.

"So?"

"So that means every day, starting tomorrow, you come straight home from school. You will be allowed one snack and you will sit at this kitchen table with no TV, no art, no music, no PlayStation until you study for thirty minutes, complete all your homework, and then you and I will go over it together."

"That's bullshit", Jenny protested.

"Your father said no cursing."

"I think that's bullshit, too."

"You're grounded, Jenny. Two days of wake up, school, come home, study, go to bed. Got me?"

"You can't do that."

"Oh yes, I can. You want to go for a week?"

Jenny turned to Jake for help.

"Are you going to let her do that to me? She's not my mother!"

Jake sighed.

"Peyton and I will discuss your punishment and if you promise to get your act together…"

"Jake!" Peyton practically yelled, furious her husband would undermine her authority.

"It's okay. Look, everyone just calm down? Okay? We'll figure all this out tomorrow."

Jenny gave Peyton a smirk.

"Thank you, father? May I be excused now?"

"Go ahead", he sighed. "Brush your teeth and get to bed. It's late and you have school tomorrow."

Jenny brushed past Peyton and bounded upstairs, leaving her stepmother irate.

"Way to go, cowboy", she shook her head. "That'll really teach her."

"What am I supposed to do? Pey, she's just testing our limits."

"And right now you're testing mine!"

"Babe…"

He headed towards her but she pushed away. A sharp, shooting pain raced through her head.

"Goddammitt!" Peyton winced.

"You okay?" her husband asked concerned. "Can I get you anything?"

Peyton just stood for a few minutes with her head buried in her hands, waiting for the hurt to subside.

"I'm okay", she finally looked up.

Jake shook his head.

"Come here. I get so worried about you. Peyton, I hate seeing you in pain like that. I love you, babe. What can I do? How can I help you?"

Peyton gave him a look before walking off upstairs to bed.

"You can start backing me up. You can stop being Mr. Nice Guy and making me out to be the Wicked Stepmother of the South. We can do this together and try to help her before it's too late."

He nodded.

"I'm sorry. It's just hard. Pey, I look at her and my little girl, my little Jenny is all grown up. My baby is gone and in her place is this angry, sullen young woman. I don't know how to handle it. Part of me feels guilty that she had to end up with Nikki in the first place. I mean, what kind of life did she have? I should have looked harder for her, done more to protect her."

"You did everything you could, Jake. We did everything we could."

"But it wasn't enough. I let her down once and I lost her. I can't let that happen again. Maybe I do need to be tougher but I can't risk pushing her away. I won't lose her again, Peyton. Not this time."