eugene and cynthia were introduced through mutual friends who set up a double date with their roommates at the time. it was their first date together, but it was obvious that they had more chemistry than their friends who had been together much longer than they had.
the young couple spent most of the time talking about their eery similarites and aspirations for the future. they loved all of the same movies and they both wanted to own their own gyms. they fell in love and eventually started a family, still aspiring to open a gym.
though the plan was slight postponed after the birth of their first child, eleanor, that didn't stop them from. if anything, it motivated them both more and they opened up their gym called "smith's" before ellie's eleventh birthday.
from there, the gym actually made a killing and ellie spent a lot of time at the gym around people if she wasn't at school or at home. she loved to see all of the different people including her parents in their element.
when her father was free, he always helped spot her since he knew how much she loved being in gymnastics. cynthia and eugene took very different approaches to parenting ellie.
eugene was more of the fun parental figure. he loved to spoil her when he could while her mother was stricter. she expected more from her because she wanted a good life for her little girl.
because lindsey, ellie's younger sister, seemed closer to their mother, that also happened to strain her relationship with her mother at times. she always knew her mom loved her, but she treated her daughters differently.
by the time that ellie reached high school, she had held a job at the gym for a while and her father wanted to surprise her by driving to a college of her choice, just the two of them.
excited for the trip, eleanor and her dad went out for dinner and then on the way to the drive through movie screening, they got into a nasty car crash.
eugene and ellie both survived the crash with several injuries which included broken ribs and more. ellie still has a small scar on her forehead and a long one on her side where her skin had gotten punctured.
