𝓢𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓽 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓟𝓼𝔂𝓬𝓱𝓸

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝔀𝓸

𝓐𝓵𝓫𝓮𝓻𝓽𝓸 𝓟𝓞𝓥

The doorbell rang, causing me to flinch and accidentally mess up my drawing. I huffed in annoyance and erased the pencil mark, starting to trace the outline again. But the doorbell continued to ring, making it impossible to concentrate. I sighed. 

I heard a door slam, then heard my sister Giulia stomp down the hall, muttering. "Stupido stronzo non può preoccuparsi di suonare il campanello una volta e aspettare..." she hissed. The doorbell rang again, and she screamed, "I'M COMING, HOLD ON!"

I laughed. Whoever's at the door, they're gonna regret being impatient, I thought. Giulia had been short-tempered recently, and the littlest things set her off. It was highly unrecommended to mess with her on a regular day- but now, no one dared disagree with her. 

Except for me, but I liked living dangerously. 

I finished sketching the figure on my paper, ignoring the sound of muffled conversation coming from the first floor. I held up the paper, observing my drawing. It was a siren- a jungle siren, with the bright patterns that warned of its' poisonous scales. But the shape wasn't right- the tail was too bulky, and the arms were too long. I sighed and tore the page out, crumpling it. It wasn't much use trying to draw different sirens when I've never seen them in person. 

The pencil scratched across the page, drawing out the form of another siren. I tried drawing outback sirens, deep sea siren, and urban sirens, but none of them turned out right. I sighed again and smacked my head against the drawing pad. "Why can't my drawings ever turn out right?" I groaned. 

I flipped a few pages back and looked at my drawings that were actually good. All of my tundra siren drawings turned out well- which made sense, given that I was a tundra siren. But then, I flipped the page to my only other drawing- a reef siren. 

I had drawn the reef siren with a slim body, whip-thin tail, and delicate looking claws. I grinned at it, but my smile faded. It still needs color, I thought. But I've only ever seen a reef siren once- and that was only quick enough to get the body shape, not the color. I closed the drawing pad and leaned against my headrest, staring out the window. 

Ever since Papa had expanded the fishing business, we had moved to a new house in Genova. The house was large- we had four extra bedrooms that we saved for guests. But I only cared about Portorosso. That was where we had originally lived- a small town where everyone knew each other. 

Our house there may have been smaller, but I liked it better there. I could always swim out to my tower and draw the stars. Here in Genova, it was harder to see the night sky through the bright city lights. 

Life had been calm in Portorosso- Papa could always come for dinner, I spent time exploring with Giulia, and we were just... free. But nowadays, Papa was too busy to make it to dinner every night, and I usually helped him. Moments like these where I could just relax and draw were rare, and even then, there was some form of distraction. 

I heard yelling from downstairs and decided that it was time to go down and investigate. I slid off the bed, left my drawing pad on the nightstand, and walked out into the hall. I peeked over the balcony, catching sight of Giulia's curly red hair. 

"NO, you can't come in, cagna! Even if Alberto was here, he doesn't want to see you! Now get the f**k off our property before I call the cops!" she screamed. A female voice said something from the porch, but I didn't catch what they said before Giulia slammed the huge door in their face. 

I stepped back from the balcony and walked down the stairs, grinning at Giulia. "Who was that, sorella?" I asked. She rolled her eyes and huffed. "That one girl- the one that insists upon dating you. Lila Rossi," she said.