Chapter Seventeen:

The next day was an early start in the eldest Scott household. Getting two teenagers up at six in the morning was a tough task in itself as they were never morning people, you can thank their mom for that, and it took Peyton and Lucas about three times to get the twins up. The first time they shook the twins awake and they had groaned sitting up on the bed and when the parent would leave the room so they could get ready the youngsters would throw their sheets back across their face. Ten minutes later Lucas would walk into the room and find her son fast asleep the comforter coving him from head to toe. The second time the twins were woken up they actually made it out of the bed, but again as soon as mom or dad had left they closed their bedroom door and hid beneath their sheets. Ten minutes later Peyton would check on her daughter to find her nestled in between the soft blankets her hands wrapped around her pillow as she slept. The third time their parents woke them up they made sure they'd stay awake as Lucas and Peyton grabbed the ends of the blankets and yanked them off of them walking out of the room the comforters in their hands.

"Tell me why exactly we couldn't do this in the afternoon?"

Leighton whined the sun barely rising over the horizon. Everyone was there, except for Lindsay who was able to stay in the comforts of her bed for as long as she wanted.

"Because the sooner we get it done the sooner it'll be finished."

Lucas spoke as if it was logic popping open the cap to the gallons of paint with a screw driver then handing over a paint roller to Elliot and paint brushes to Leighton and Preston.

"Woo who."

Elliot sarcastically added.

"Should I really be doing this?" Preston mentioned pointing the paintbrush towards his cast and looking at his father. "I am handing cap and all."

"That's not fair, if Pres can get out of doing this job than I should be able to? I uh-"Elle protested trying to think of something, but her mother spoke before she could think of anything.

"Pres you're not disabled and Elle even if you did have an excuse it wouldn't work. This is a family project and we're going to get it done."

"But it's so early!"

Peyton ignored her daughter's protests as she went towards the iPod docking system and picked through a playlist she had made trying to find a song to get everyone up and into the working mood.

"Hey Elliot do you like The Killers?"

Peyton asked her children's step brother. He hadn't said a word except for the 'woo who' and she wanted him to feel like he was part of this crazy family because he was and she hoped he didn't feel left out.

"Who are they?"

"You don't know who The Killers are?"

Preston dropped dead from shock as he asked the question. How on earth did you not know who The Killers were? But of course he was raised by a woman who had excellent taste in music and so he grew up listening to rockin' music that was now considered old classic rock seeing as it had been almost twenty years since the band was started by a couple of guys back in the early two thousands.

"They were among one of the alternative band that me and your dad use to listen to when we were in high school."

Pressing the play button the sounds of a piano quickly start before another music instrument is added and then the lead singer of the band starts singing the lyrics flowing through the speakers.

Glamorous
Indie rock'n'roll is what I want
It's in my soul, it's what I need
Indie rock'n'roll, it's time

And Peyton's singing along because it's as if the person who wrote these lyrics was thinking of her. She brings the paint brush up to her mouth to use it as a microphone before her own kids join in.

"It's indie rock'n'roll for me."

"It's indie rock'n'roll for me."

"It's all I need."

"It's indie rock'n'roll for me."

It's Preston who sings in tune, Leighton who sings way off key, Peyton who is off by just a bit, and Lucas who ends the ballad his singing isn't so bad. By the time the song finishes there was crazy dancing and just as bad singing that seem to turn into a live horrible musical while Preston did air guitar moves.

"So what do you think, Eli?"

Father asks son and the young boy shrugs.

"They're okay, I guess."

"You guess? Dude, do we have to play the song again?"

Leighton adds. It has always been one of her favorite songs because it reminds her of when she was little and her mom would play the song and dance around crazily with her and her brother joining along seconds later.

The next song began to play the lyrics of Fall Out Boy's 'I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me.'

"Did you know?"Peyton began dipping her brush into the paint and slashed it across the now white wall. "Pete Wentz dedicated this song to me?"

"What?"

Elliot asked interested he did know who Fall Out Boy is; probably the only band he knew that he considered oldies in his book. He didn't know anything at all about Peyton except for the fact that she was a woman his father used to love and that she was the mother of his half siblings.

"She's just joking, but my mom did used to date the rocker. His son, Bronx, is actually in my band."

Preston spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world that his mother was kidding around. His brother still looked surprised if anything.

As the first hour passed by they got through one fourth of the room. The twins sharing a wall, while Elliot painted the one across from them, and Lucas and Peyton got through a bit of the largest wall in the room. The five really hadn't talked to any other person than the one next to them and when Peyton finally did turn around her eyes bugged out of her head.

"Oh my god." The sound of her voice caused Lucas to turn around and drop the roller to the ground. "Guys!"

"Yay, I won!" Leighton said excitedly not hearing her mother's exclamation while Preston recounted the tally. "You're such a sore loser you know that. We've counted like ten times already."

"Wait, what about that one. I won that one!" Preston pointed towards the top left corner and looked back at his younger sister who shook her head from left to right. "Yeah, I did."

Lucas looked at the wall that they were supposed to be painting; oh it was painted all right, painted with the pattern of more than two dozen tick-tack-toe symbols with X's and O's across the patchy wall.

"No, I'm the X's remember?" She shoved her paint brush into her brother's side leaving a wet stain. "Oops, my bad."

Preston looked down at his t-shirt. It was an old one so he didn't mind, but that didn't mean he was going to let her get away with it. He went to attack, but she had pretty great reflexive moves thanks to her dad and he landed forward the brush whipping against the back of Elliot's head his brown hair now green.

"Hey!"

Elliot exclaimed slightly angry causing Leighton to laugh.

"Oh, man, I'm sorry. I was trying to get Elle."

Walking past Preston Elliot seemed annoyed as he stormed off, but stopped when he stood next to Leighton and rubbed the roll against her bare arm. The cold contact causing her to shiver and he laughed. Preston air fived Elliot who returned it. It had been years since the Scott siblings got along and maybe this was the turning point. They hadn't notice Elle dip her brush into the gallon and when it was too late to do anything about it she splattered the paint brush across Eli's chest. It looked like there was going to be a paint fight about to happen.

"Enough, the paint costs money." Lucas spoke, but it wasn't an angry tone just a very fatherly one. "And money doesn't grow on trees."

"Yeah it does. It's made out of paper." Leighton mentioned to her father and laughed along with her brothers who joined in on the comeback.

Minutes later it was agreed that Pres and Elle would join Elliot in painting the wall seeing as he was the only kid who was able to paint evenly. If anything that was a bad idea because even though the brothers and sister were talking they hadn't made any sound of mischievous and that alone should have been a clue to Lucas or Peyton that something was up because when they turned around they noticed another game that was painted on the wall; hangman. There had been a head, body, and legs underneath it with ten blank spaces; T_ is S _ c k _s.

"I got it, This Sucks!"

Elliot replied winning the guess that Leighton had started which had earned him a high five from his sister. The sound of someone gasping caused the trio to turn around.

"You call this painting?"

Lindsay stood at the entrance of the living room her facial expression less than pleasant and her knuckles growing whiter around the mug she was holding.

"We call it art."

Preston seemed unfazed by the woman's appearance of devil horns and a pointy tail.

"I call it crap." She seethed. "Lucas, if I knew that my living room was going to be turned into a child's chalkboard I would have at least hired a professional to do it."

"I got another one." Rolling her eyes Leighton began to draw five more lines. "It rhymes with witch."

Preston began to speak, but before a sound could leave his mouth one stern look from his mother shut him right up.

"Lindsay. Outside. Now."

Lucas ordered like he was talking to some kind of animal, but she followed behind him nonetheless; leaving Peyton alone with the three teenagers.

"Okay, guys, no more games. Just paint."

And they did as they were told bringing the brushes and rollers in up and down motions while the four sometimes glanced out the back window; Peyton and Leighton watching their body motions while Preston and Elliot watched facial expressions.

***

"Lindsay what is the matter with you? You refuse to get up in the morning and help with the living room and yet you criticize something you wanted nothing to do with in the first place."

"You're joking right? There's games plastered on the wall, but maybe if you weren't so engrossed with your ex high school girlfriend than you might have noticed."

She crossed her arms angrily and Lucas notices the trait from her as insecurity instead of angrily and he's frustrated with her and she knows it as soon as he rubs the back of his neck.

"So this is really about Peyton staying here? I told you before that she's watching over Preston while he recovers."

"Jesus, Lucas, why do you think everything always revolves around Peyton? That was actually the last thing I was thinking about. What I really mean was that I'm not a genius when it comes to the art of painting, but I'm sure that it's not suppose to start like that otherwise it'll become uneven." She stops to take a breath. "But you know now that you bring it up maybe it would be best if Preston recovered at his own home."

"What's that suppose to mean? This is his home."

"No, Lucas, it's not. His home is back in Los Angeles with his mother, sister, and Julian. Recovery comes faster when their in the confines of the place their most comforted at."

"No, Lindsay, this is his home." He used the same tone she had moments ago. "His mother, his sister, his brother, and I are here for him. He'll do just fine right here in Tree Hill because he has all of us including Nathan, Haley, my mom, and his cousins."

"You're delusional if you really think that."

If anything Lindsay's comment had infuriated Lucas beyond belief. He didn't want to say something he might later regret so he stormed away from her and back into his house slamming the door shut behind her.

"Is everything okay?"

Peyton asked when Lucas took his position right next to her. He nodded, but she knew the truth. Not wanting to push him she ignored it for now and they began to finish painting with the music playing in the background being the only sound of noise. A couple hours later the project was done and showers were taken everyone fresh and clean.

"Hey, Peyt." Lucas knocked on the open door she was sitting on the bed her laptop sitting on one of the pillows doing what he assumed was work related. "Do you happen to have any kind of pain killers?"

"Yeah there's some Advil on top of the table over there."

She points to the stand where one of her unpacked bags is hogging up most of the table. He thanks her and she goes back to looking at the screen while he moves around spotting the small bottle on the side grabbing it he hears something fall to the ground and roll underneath the stand.

Peyton doesn't seem to notice as she's quickly tapping away on the keyboard and entering one of the demos that she had received earlier that morning thanks to Fed Ex. She instinctively rocks her head to the beat and made a mental note to put that disc into the 'Yes' pile. When she looks up to ask what Lucas thinks of the song playing through the speakers she doesn't see him anywhere in sight.

"Luke?"

Now she spots him he's on his knees on the ground and she automatically thinks the worse. But when he stands up she knows there's no heart attack and he's okay so she's okay.

"What is this?"

He asks shutting her door for some kind of privacy and she looks at the clear vile her eyebrows stitching together in confusion.

"I don't know. What do you think it is?"

"Cut the crap, Peyton." And he sounds so angry which in turn causes her to become angry quickly coming to her own defense. "This looks like crack. Are you on drugs?"

"Excuse me?"

She just wants to slap him for making such an accusation like that.

"You experimented in high school-"

"Tell me one person who didn't?" She cuts him off; if eyes could talk than hers would be screaming with fury.

"You work in the music business where this…" He uses extra emphasis bringing up the small vile as if to make a point. "Is a daily occurrence."

She jumps off the bed causing her computer to almost crash on the ground and is now standing mere centimeters away from him and she forcefully grabs his jaw, just like when a mother wants to get the truth from her child, probably with more force than necessary.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that you actually believe that I would go and do something so stupid and try to ruin my life. Because I'm telling you right now that that isn't mine."

And he's looking in her eyes and sees nothing but truth and she's looking into his and sees nothing but remorse on his behalf that he had said such a thing.

"Thanks for believing in me, but don't you dare ever accuse me of being in idiot."

She does a complete one eighty her breathing is steady and so is his. He wonders if its a good thing that they can go back to some kind of normalcy in a matter of minutes.

"Well if it's not yours and it's not mine than who's could it be?"

"I don't know maybe Lindsay's some huge crack whore or drug lord." Lucas gives her a look when she comments his wife. "Kidding, kidding, kind of." And she figures out where Elliot gets his seriousness from because neither of them have a sense of humor. Then again this wasn't a big humor topic.

"You don't think it could be Pres or Elle's?"

He mentions their twins.

"Or Elliot's?"

And she mentions his other child.

A/N: Did you like the Scott kids interaction? I kinda wanted Elliot to be nice in at least one of the chapters. :D

-I'll have a dose of green button! Anyone else?