ᴘʏʀʀʜɪᴄ ᴠɪᴄᴛᴏʀʏ// ᴛʜᴇ ɢɪʀʟ ᴡʜᴏ ʟɪᴠᴇᴅ ᴀᴜ

EARL'S BIGGEST MISTAKE

Bluebell went down to breakfast the next morning to find the two Scott's already sitting around the kitchen table, Bianca looked up from her magazine with a cigarette on her hand.

"Finally, I thought the princess was going to sleep all day." Bianca snapped as soon as Bluebell stepped inside the kitchen. "To cook, girl, I'm famished."

"And quickly." Olivia was changing the channels on the Telly, she normally spends her time stuck looking at it there when she wasn't with her friends.

Bluebell rolled her eyes but said nothing before quickly getting to work. The two were far from wishing the girl a happy birthday, but Bluebell was far too used to this to care.

She first put the coffee machine on before starting to prepare the usual meals for the two Scott's. Bianca liked toast and eggs while Olivia had water and a fruit, not the healthiest breakfast but Olivia wanted to look out for her figure and not end up looking like Blue as she had said when the King girl pointed it out.

As she was cooking the eggs, Bluebell looked up at the reporter on the television, who was halfway through a report on an escaped convict.

"...the public is warned that Pettigrew is armed and extremely dangerous. A special hot line has been set up, and any sighting of Pettigrew should be reported immediately."

"Shut that off." Bianca snapped, looking at the picture of the run down man on the Telly with a strange look in her eyes "NOW."

Olivia blinked, obviously not being used to her mother yelling at her so she did as told and turn the T.V off "There was nothin' good anyway."

Bluebell quickly put the food on a plate and placed it in front of the two Scott's. Bianca shot her the nastiest look Bluebell had ever received from her before starting to eat, surprisingly quiet.

After a couple of minutes of silence, while Bluebell was serving Bianca her coffee Olivia spoke in a hopeful tone.  "Mum, can I go to Fiona's tonight for a sleepover?"

The woman drained her coffee, glanced at her gold watch, and added, "No, you can't. Your father's coming tonight. Actually I'd better be off in a minute. Earl's train gets in at ten."

Bluebell, whose thoughts had been upstairs with the Broomstick Servicing Kit, was brought back to earth with an unpleasant bump.

"Earl Scott?" She blurted out. "He's not coming here, is he?"

Earl Scott was Olivia's father, the only man who was dumb enough to fall into Bianca's trap and married her. Of course, that didn't last for long, she doesn't know the details exactly because it happened before she went to live with Bianca but she knows they didn't last over a year and yet  no matter how many years passes Bianca refuses to go back to her maiden name.

Earl's a pilot and has to be constantly in and out of the country so he didn't often stay with the Scott's because work needed him but each of his visits stood out horribly vividly in Bluebell's mind.

Earl was a perfectionist and controlling, it had to be a sort of way, his way or hell would rain upon you, like it did on Bluebell on many occasions.

At Olivia's fifth birthday party, Bluebell was in charge of giving the children candy when they left the party. Being a five year old, Bluebell was elsewhere having her fun, so when Earl found out she wasn't there to give the candy away, that night he destroyed every toy she had. A few years later, he had turned up at Christmas with a computerized robot for Olivia and a box of plane snacks for Bluebell. On his last visit, the year before Blue started at Hogwarts, Bluebell had accidentally spilled tea over his favorite shoes. He took her out into the garden, grabbed the hose, soaked her in water and refused to let her in until past midnight. The memory of this incident still brought tears of laughter to Olivia's eyes.