Effy giggled as Jake gave her a piggy bank across the threshold of her house, the two of them were just returning from tonight's game in which the ravens had won so both of them were in a pretty good mood. For the last few days Effy had been in a very good mood and she knew that it was largely due to Jake, just being around him seemed to make her happy and he had taken to coming over to the house after school to study so Effy wouldn't be alone with Nathan or Dan for too much time. It meant a lot to Effy as she no longer felt like she was suffocating in her own home. Things had gotten to an all time low in the Scott house and everyone was practically walking on eggshells at the moment and there was constant yelling, if Dan wasn't yelling at Effy for constantly disobeying him then she was shouting at him and Nathan about how much she hated the both of them and occasional Nathan yelled at the two of them to stop yelling. It was chaos and Effy had started resuming her habit of sneaking out of the house when it all got too much for her. As Jake carried Effy back into the Scott house of hell, Effy got the surprise of her life when she saw that her mother Deb was home early after being away for about ten days. Effy wasn't expecting to see her mother standing in the hallway talking to Dan like she had never left.
"Hey kids!" Deb warmly greeted and Effy just had her mouth wide open over the fact her mom was back. It was both a good thing as it meant Deb could act as a buffer between Effy and the rest of her family but it also meant that her mother would get in the way and interfere and try and fix this huge problem within the family and Effy didn't want that. She was content to spend the rest of her life not talking to Dan and Nathan unless she had to and even then Effy would only do it if she had to, she'd much prefer to never speak to the two of them again from the moment she left this hell house for college. Effy planned on never looking back once she left for college. "I heard about the game tonight congratulations!"
"Thanks Mrs. Scott." Jake politely stated and Effy just rolled her eyes, not at Jake being polite as Jake had been raised by his parents to always be the polite gentleman. Effy was rolling her eyes at the basketball talk as she could never escape it, her mother knew that she detested basketball and yet Deb was bringing it up much to Effy's dismay.
"Where's Nathan? Did he not come home with you?" Deb asked as she looked around expecting Nathan to be with them and Effy was starting to think that someone had replaced her mother with someone else. As Deb was well aware of the fact that her two children didn't get along and spent as little time together as possible. So Deb asking Effy where her brother was, just didn't really add up. Her mother knew Effy better than that.
"Don't know and I couldn't possible care where he is and Jake doesn't know where Nate is either." Effy lied as she slid of Jake's back, she was well aware that he was hosting a party at the beach house but it wasn't something that she was concerned with. Her and Jake had plans of their own and unlike the rest of the people they knew, the two of them didn't need alcohol to have fun. They were just going to stay in order some Chinese and watch a film. Effy was taken a back when her mother narrowed her eyes at her and then began walking towards her. Effy didn't realize why her mother was doing this until Deb reached out and touched a loose piece of strand of her hair. Effy had kind of forgotten about her hair and her mother was seeing it for the fist time as the daughter Deb had left behind, didn't have partially purple hair when she left for work.
"Effy what on earth did you do to your hair!" Deb demanded and Effy couldn't help but snicker, Jake had been right. Her mother would freak out when she saw what she had done to her hair. Effy didn't really understand why as it wasn't like she had shaved the entire thing off or was sporting a purple Mohawk. It was only a bit of purple in her hair, it was no big deal not to mention it was Effy's hair and she'd do whatever she wanted to it as she was no longer a child.
"I dyed it. Call it boredom or teenage rebellion but I dyed it and there's nothing you can really do about it." Effy said in a condescending voice as she didn't see why her mother was asking her such an obvious question as it was perfectly clear to see that she had indeed dyed her hair.
"You let our daughter do this to her hair?" Deb asked turning to Dan and Effy couldn't help but scoff in amusement as she couldn't wait to see how her father was trying to explain this one. It should be interesting, not to mention sort of funny/
"Yeah Dan, why don't you tell Deb why you let me dye my hair?" Effy quipped with an amused smirk on her face and immediately Dan became very uncomfortable and Effy was loving every minute of this. Vandalizing her dad's property and cars was entertaining enough but this was going to be the pinnacle of everything. Deb would go insane once she found out what had happened, sure Effy would get in trouble for everything on her part but it would be nowhere as near as much trouble as Dan would get in. The more she thought about it Effy realized she could get away with everything she had done, if she played her cards right with her mother. May actually get this joke of a grounding lifted.
"Deb? What happened to mom?" Deb questioned in shock over hearing Effy so effortlessly call her by her first name.
"Oh I've decided to no longer address you and Dan by your parental titles and so from now on I'll be addressing by your first names. You might want to ask Dan why I'm doing that, it kind of has something to do with my hair as well. It's a pretty interesting story if you ask me." Effy casually replied and from the corner of her eyes she could see that Jake was looking around rather uncomfortably, no doubt this was the last place that he currently wanted to be here but Effy knew she'd be finished here in a moment or two. Her mother was an intelligent woman and she'd start asking the right questions soon enough and then the yelling would start.
"What I missing something here?" Deb demanded as she looked between Effy and Dan as it was clear that something was going on but she wasn't privy to any of it. Everyone else in the room was well aware of what happened except Deb and Effy wasn't surprised that Dan hadn't told his wife what had gone on when she was gone. No doubt Dan was hoping that Effy was going to pretend like nothing happened. But there was no chance of that happening. Pigs would have to start flying for Effy to do that.
"It's not as bad as it sounds Deb–" Dan began.
"–Yes it is Deb, Dan told Nathan that he had wished that I had never been born, said something about if he wanted a daughter then he would have adopted one. So basically your husband pretty much stated that Nathan was the only child that he has ever wanted and I was just a spare part that came along. It destroyed my self esteem, I cried and than ran away for a day and since then I can't bare to be in the same room as your husband and son." Effy interrupted, as she wanted her mother to be on her side.
"You told our daughter that you never wanted her?" Deb demanded her voice rising up significantly and knowing when to take her leave, Effy grabbed Jake by the hand and dragged him upstairs to her bedroom and shut the door firmly behind her.
"Wow… That was intense." Jake said after a moment and Effy couldn't help but laugh.
"It's always intense here these days but with my mom back now, things are going to be a lot more worse." Effy replied as she watched as Jake walked over to her chest of draws and picked up one of the several framed photographs that were sitting on top. Effy waited a moment before following him and once she reached Jake, Effy looked round to see what he was looking at. He wasn't looking at any of the photos of him and Effy smiling and goofing around or the pictures that Effy had with Peyton, Brooke or any of her other friend. It was family photo Jake was looking at, taken about nine years ago when Effy and Nathan were nine. Back then things were so different, they were so much more normal and Effy didn't hate everyone. Her and Nathan were as close as could be and she dotted on both of her parents. A lot had changed since that photo.
"You all look so happy." Jake noted as he looked at the photo and Effy couldn't help but nod in agreement, it was kind of sad in a way how things had drastically changed. Effy couldn't really recall when exactly everything had changed but at some point it had and since then it had been this way. The Scott's may seem like they were the perfect family to the outside but they were far from it. There was just nothing there. The only person Effy had any sort of affection for in her immediate family was her mother and even then Deb had a tendency to get on Effy's nerves.
"Once upon a time… Back then Nathan and I got along so well, practically did everything together and actually acted like brother and sister instead of strangers. Dan was different then, I felt special then as he would used to drop everything if I walked into his office to see him. He'd always buy me these little trinkets and always get me these big books to read. Dan used to read to me but it got the point where I was reading to him instead. Deb was working but not as much as she does now and we' d have dinner together almost every night, go on holidays. Back then we were a family and I didn't have to work so hard to even be acknowledged by my own family." Effy grimly stated and she took the photo out of Jake's hand and looked at it for a few moments, mourning the loss of the family she once knew. Before walking over to her bedroom window that looked over the front yard and opening the window, Effy went about chuckling the photo out of the window. Moments later there was the sound of a small smash, no doubt from the impact of the frame on the ground.
"That was harsh Eff." Jake couldn't help but point out and Effy just shrugged her shoulders.
"The truth hurts Jake, I used to love them all but they aren't the people I used to know or love. I'm not the same person I was back then and this house is no longer a home and the family that was in that photograph is not a family. They don't exist anymore."