chapter one — back home

  "hello" called claire dunphy when she walked through the door of her house "we're home"

it took just a few seconds and the three missing dunphy children made their way down the stairs. first haley, then alex and lastly luke, who slipped and fell down the last few steps

  "effy?" asked haley, before she walked forward and engulfed her youngest sister in a hug, in contrast to alex, haley actually got along with effy pretty well

alex was a little more reliculant, the smart girl already guessing that something was wrong, but she hugged her sister nonetheless

luke got up from his position on the floor and the twins hugged too

  "what's going on?" asked alex still concerned about what was happening

  "your sister got herself thrown out" explained claire, while she put down her bag

  "cool!" luke raised his hand to high-five effy, but before they could do so, phil had caught his arm mid-swing

"not cool" he said "it's really serious"

  "are you staying?" asked haley and effy turned to look at her dad

"yes, she'll go back to school with luke"

"nice" luke laughed

  "and shares a room with you too" phil smiled, knowing how much the twins would despise that

"what?" luke's face got really dark "that's not fair dad"

"i think it's more than fair, actually" said alex

"yes, i had to share a room with bernstein over here, this whole time" added haley, before she made her way down the hallway, alex hot on her trail

"it's einstein, you idiot" effy could hear alex say

"dad!" luke exclaimed again, looking at his father and making puppy eyes

"you still live in that same room, yea?"

"yes?"

"and you still have that bunkbed there?"

"yes?"

"then she'll be staying there with you, good luck kids" phil patted each of their shoulder before he walked into the kitchen as well

"this is going to be very annoying" said effy

"agreed"

———

effy had set her suitcase down on the ground in front of her and was sorting through her clothes. due to the fact that they had to wear a school uniform and the children were allowed to use the washing machine, she had only a few clothes to put back into her closet

"listen here, princess diaries" exclaimed luke when he walked into their shared room

"that's not-" effy tried to interrupt but shut up by a quick look of her brother "go on" she sighed

"i'm a man now, so i moved down to the other bed. you can get the top one"

"i always slept at the bottom, luke"

"yeah well you're not the one to make a decision here, i'm taking you back in, you should be grateful"

"only because dad made you" effy got up from the floor to stand in front of her brother "i was away the last few years, you had the bed long enough, it's my turn now"

"you're not the boss of me!"

"you're not the boss of me!" repeated effy in a mocking voice, moving her hand as if it was a little puppet

although luke was older, he had always been a little more sensitive than effy, so it didn't take long for im to cry out in agony at her mocking

"stop it or i'll call dad" he whined

"yeah?" effy asked "do it"

not long after, phil dunphy was standing in his twins bedroom, already guessing how hard the following years would be, especially when they would both hit puberty

"please, effy, just be the bigger person, yeah?" he held the space between his eyes

"it's not fair dad" effy tried to reason, while luke sent her a winning smile

"effy, just please okay? we're trying to enroll you back in school and it's harder than we thought, so just please, i'm begging you, don't make it any harder as it already is. the top bunk is the cool one, i promise, i had one when i was your age myself"

effy would lie when she would say that she didn't feel atleast a bit guilty about the things that happened today and that her parents had to drive out to the school at 3 am.

"okay, dad"

luke grinned widely as he watched his sister put the sheets up on the bed. when she noticed his look she stick out her tongue at him

"nothings changed, kids" exclaimed phil before he left the room of his youngest children

*