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s3 ep2
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"no he didn't" effy exclaimed shocked. she was laying on her bed, belly down feet in the air, while she listened to leslie on the phone.

they didn't see each other often when effy went to boarding school, but kept in contact nonetheless. now that she was back they would visit the same middle school and also be in the same classes.

"can you shut up, please?" luke asked from his place on the floor. he had been sorting through old magazines. deciding which he could throw away.

effy was amazed by that. she had never seen him read a magazine, or anything in general to be honest

"kids, dinner!" phil called just before effy was going to reply something not so nice

"i'll text you later, i have to go down for dinner" effy said goodbye and put away her phone, before she jumped down from her bed and walked down the stairs. sitting at the table together with her brother.

"so i hear this little voice coming from the cans, and it's like, 'help! i fell in the peaches!"

effy noticed alex and haley sitting down next to her

"it's mom" luke laughed "hilarious"

"so hilarious. i'm like 'claire?'"

"you might want to tell them that it was you who pushed me into the peaches in the first place"

"you pushed her?" effy asked

"no" phil said "this again? i wasn't even near you"

"yes you were, you knocked me with the cart. it was completely your fault" claire laughed

"well, let's just agree to disagree"

"no! i.. i disagree to disagree"

"then you agree?"

"no, no, i don't, because i'm right"

"as usual" haley muttered

"no, i am right"

"like always" alex muttered through gritted teeth

"stop it! when i'm wrong, i admit it"

"which is never" luke copied what his sisters had done before

"fine, fine" claire finished setting the rest of the table while her family broke into laughter.

when they had finished their dinner, the kids got up to go back to their room.

"effy? could we please talk to you?" claire asked, before the youngest of the dunphy kids could leave the room

———

INTERVIEW — EFFY

"ever since the vacation on the ranch, i've been avoiding that conversation about school and everything. it's not like i'm angry at haley for bringing it up, it's nice that she stuck up for me, but i'm not very good at confrontation so i tried to avoid it until they would just forget haley ever mentioned something"

———

one week ago

effy was down in the kitchen, fetching herself something from the refrigerator, when she heard her parents coming

"effy are you in the kitchen?" phil called "luke told us you were."

"damn—it" effy muttered, before she threw herself behind the kitchen counter, sneaking off into the living room and finally up the steps, when her parents walked into the kitchen.

———

three days ago

phil and claire walked up the stairs, while effy and luke were sitting in their room.

"we can't keep ignoring it, we need to talk to her" claire said

"oh definitely, effy should be able to tell us if she doesn't wanna do something"

effy looked up from her magazine and jumped down the bed. "cover for me" she called towards luke, who was playing on his gameboy.

"huh?"

before effy could reply, she heard the approaching footsteps of her parents. she quickly opened the window and climbed onto the deck, closing it behind her

———

INTERVIEW—EFFY

"yeah, i know it's getting desperate. i spend two hours on the roof, because luke forget to let me back in. it's not going great"

———

"what's up?" effy asked when she turned around to face her parents

"we wanted to talk to you about—" before claire could finish her sentence, effy acted as if something had suddenly appeared at the window.

"oh my god is that a horse?" when her parents turned around to look at it, effy bolted out of the room and up the steps

———

INTERVIEW — EFFY

"very desperate"

———

when effy had made it up the stairs, she was faced with haley and alex who seemed to be discussing something.

"what is going on?" she asked, stepping into the shared bedroom of her older sisters.

"i like you, effy" haley said, standing up and guiding effy to sit on her bed "and i'm so sympathetic about that little room sharing problem you have with luke"

"you are hm?" effy picked up that they were planning something, because even alex seemed to agree with haley

"okay, listen" alex said "we're trying to get luke to move out of his room"

"i'll help you. i mean two of us would still need to share, but anyone's better than luke. where should he move to though? if we pull it off correctly we could ban him to the garden.. we should just make sure that mom and dad won't find out"

"woah great idea" said haley "than you could move to the attic and we would all have our own room!"

alex just shook her head "no" she paused "we're doing it as planned. luke—attic and then we'll throw a quarter"

"fine" haley muttered

"come one, let's pull this off" alex stepped into the hallway, her sisters close behind. she let down the steps to the attic.

"manipulation is the key here" she instructed "just act it out"

"okay" haley and effy both agreed

"no way, you both! it was my idea! i'm taking this room!"

"over my dead body" haley shimmed in "this is going to be my room and there's nothing you can do about it"

"hey, i'm the only one who has to share with a boy, i should get this room!" effy added

the three turned around by the sound of luke climbing up the steps. "what are you guys fighting about?"

"okay, so we all think that this would make a totally awesome bedroom" haley explained

"but" alex interrupted "only one of us can have it. don't you think it should be me?"

"oh so not, it should be me, right, luke?"

"hello?" effy threw up her hand "it's not like i'm your literal twin sister, you probably think i should have it"

"why do you guys wanna move into the attic?"

"oh you mean the penthouse?" haley asked, trying to sell it to him

"with all the privacy of being on its very own floor?"

"and without having a terrible roommate"

luke looked around the room, oblivious to what his siblings were planning. "it is kinda cool"

———

half an hour later, effy was helping alex to move her stuff into their now shared bedroom. they had agreed that effy and alex would share until haley got into college (effy and alex looked at each other for a long time as haley exclaimed that), but they deemed it to be fair, because haley was older and she probably would move out at some point. until then effy was just glad that she didn't have to share with luke anymore. alex was a much more comfortable roommate.

"honey, this is a terrible idea" claire told luke, who was about to climb the stairs up to his new room "you're gonna hate it up there"

"mom, stay out of this" alex said, her clothes in hand, stopping in the middle of the both rooms, while effy nearly walked into her. due to the height of the clothes stack she was carrying, she couldn't really see where she was going.

"yeah" haley agreed, coming to a halt next to effy and taking some of the clothes from her youngest sister "we all have more room now, effy and luke don't have to share anymore and everybody wins"

"well now alex and effy have to share" claire argued

"just until i go to college" haley crossed her arms, effy and alex left her statement uncommented

"well, don't get too comfortable in there, girls" claire said "luke" she called back up to the attic "it's cold and it's scary up there. you're gonna be back in your own room by tomorrow night"

"i don't know claire" phil's head appeared in the entrance "it's got a lot of potential. this is a lot nicer than the attic i lived in when we met"

"one night" claire repeated "if that.. trust me on this"

"what because you're always right?" claire turned to look at her youngest

"sweetheart, i would love to be wrong, i just don't live with the right people for that"

effy rolled her eyes, registering that there was no use to keep arguing with her mother, she would always be sure to be right. so the girl walked into her room and started putting away alex' clothes, blending out the conversation, or more— the discussion that was taking place right in front of the door.

———

effy followed the rest of her family into the living room of the tucker—pritchett house, after claire had said that she wanted to show them something

"okay, everybody" claire exclaimed turning on the tv "showtime"

on the monitor was a shot from out the supermarket. claire stood in front of her cart.

"oh my god, that's us at the market" phil said

"uh uh" claire nodded her head "it's security camera footage"

"how did you—"

"i don't understand, what are we watching?" mitchell interjected

"it ain't the godfather" jay stated the obvious

"okay, look. i fell yesterday at the market. phil and i have been having a little disagreement as to what happened" she bend down to tap her finger onto the screen "just watch, okay, right here. i stopped to fix my shoe, and then phil, right there. he makes way for this very attractive woman, whom he conveniently leaves out of his retelling of the story" phil looks at his children ashamed

"now, right here. phil backs up, pushes his  butt into the cart, pushed me into the cans. do you see that? it's all his fault! just like i said! i was right! suck it!" claire's voices turned louder and louder

effy raised her brows at her mother "are you sure you are alright, mom?"

"why wouldn't i be? i've just proved that i was right all along!"

"when did you get this?" phil asked curiously

"oh my god" alex exclaimed "that's why you wanted to come separately"

"you went to all that trouble just to prove you were right?"

"it really wasn't that much trouble. i just went to the store, found your friend jordan, the bad boy, who got me the manager, he gave me the address of the off—site security office. i filled out some paperwork, sally faxed it to corporate, three minutes later, i'm buying a pack of dvds and burning a copy. cake"

"sounds like a lot of trouble" effy muttered

"yeah" luke agreed "it's like a sickness"

"what? none of you believed me, so i got proof! you should all be sucking it right now"

"please!" gloria interrupted "stop with the 'sucking it', claire! they're children"

"yes, children are very impressionable. you'll never know what they'll pick up" cam nodded, clearly talking about something else

"okay, cam" mitchell stepped away from his boyfriend "i'm sorry that i blamed it all on you, okay? but we both need to look at our actions. i mean, if we're thinking about adopting another baby, then we need to—" mitchell stopped, quickly realizing what he just said

"you're adopting another kid?" jay asked

the family broke into chaos. various screams and questions could be heard, gloria beginning to clap and the rest of the family joining her calls of blessing

"that's not how you make an announcement!" cam ran around furiously "banners! banners!" his arms went up to the banner that was hanging on the ceiling. the words 'it's gonna be a boy!' written on to. he turned on the music and started dancing around frantically.

"really mitchell?" he turned off the music after realizing that nothing was going like he wanted it to "you couldn't even share telling your family?" he chuckled in disbelief "it's fine!"

"why are you upset?" gloria questioned "this is such good news"

"no, we're a little on edge" mitchell tried to explain "because lily has been acting out, like she doesn't want a sibling"

"yeah, because mitchell taught her to hate sharing" cam added

"and, or, because cam wears her like a fanny pack"

"oh, stop blaming each other" jay interrupted "no kid wants a sibling. i mean, claire hated you so much, she stuck you in a dryer when you were two"

"you put me in the dryer?"

"i did, but it wasn't cause i hated you. my friend marcie said that it wouldn't run with a kid inside it, and i knew it would. i was right"

"good governor" phil muttered from next to claire, the rest of the family looking at her alarmed "it's been going on since you were five?"

"oh my god it is a sickness"

"yeah"

"what would make me have that need at such a young age?"

"how long was i in that dryer?" mitchell asked loudly "because.. is this why i'm afraid of tumbling? i had to quit gymnastics, claire!"

"a childhood without tumbling?" phil asked "you knew this and just stood by and did nothing?" he stood up to look at jay

"okay, okay" jay chuckled "what's done is done. all you can do is learn from your mistakes and in that spirit, i would like to propose a toast to manny" he raised his glass "this week, he did something he wasn't supposed to do, like we all do"

"like we all do" gloria said loudly raising her glass as well "salud to manny"

"not yet" jay stopped her "but manny stood up like a man. he admitted he was wrong, and he took his licks and i'm damn proud of him"

"ahh, now we clink"

"no, we clink, when i say we clink. so, manny made a mistake, but he didn't take the easy way out. he's got guts, he's got integrity. and as far as i'm concerned, he's the best.."

"okay" manny screamed jumping up from his seat "stop, stop! i didn't to any of that! mom broke into the locker and threw the necklace inside and then we ran away like cowards! i'm sorry, jay! i'm sorry"

"i knew it! i was right, i was right!"

"ohhh" everyone chimed

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A/N :  not proofread so read at your own risk!!

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