Aidan's POV:
Half an hour later, Ellie and I were sitting on my art room floor, with a canvas in the middle of us.
Ellie's eyebrows were scrunched in concentration as she held the brush and slowly painted the clouds I had drawn.
How we ended up here you ask?
Well, after getting drenched, I went upstairs to freshen up and change my clothes. I took a shower and got dressed.
After I was done I went to Ellie's room and saw her all cleaned up and sitting at her desk with a couple pieces of paper in front of her.
"What're you doing?" I asked making her jump.
"Aidan! You ruined my drawing." She said as she looked at the long streak on the page of her half finished drawing.
"You like to draw?" I asked as I looked at the drawing.
She nodded her head in response.
"What about painting?" I asked her because during our art class, she looked like she didn't knew how to handle a brush.
"I don't know how to. Which was why my painting was horrible." She replied catching on to what I was referring to.
"Uh-huh. Where did you learn to draw?"
"Mrs. Lee taught me. She said she would teach me how to paint as well when I was 14 but then she got fired the next day."
Mrs. Lee seemed to have taught her everything. I wonder who she is.
I mean I know she was her homeschooling tutor but I'd like to meet her in person someday. She seems like a nice woman.
"I can teach you if you like." I offered.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Come on." I smiled as I took her to my art room.
That was how we ended up here. I pulled out a new canvas and drew a couple clouds on it, then told Ellie to paint it.
Now, she was looking at the drawing with full concentration being careful not to paint outside the lines.
But that didn't help at all because her hand was shaking uncontrollably for some reason.
"I can't do it within the lines. My hand is shaking a lot." She said breaking out of her concentration and sitting up straight.
"Why is your hand shaking?" I asked curious.
"It happens when I try something new for the first time. Like when I tried drawing, the lines were uneven. So it didn't look that good."
"What did you draw?"
"Still life."
"Can I see it?"
"Unfortunately no. John tore it into pieces because I didn't get him his lunch on time."
Strange parents. I wonder how the orphanage even let someone adopt her without adopting me as well.
"Do you need help on that?" I asked pointing at the painting.
She nodded. I stood up to get a new brush and came down to sit on the floor again.
"Okay, so he problem is that you're holding the brush wrong. Hold it so that the handle of it is on the inside of the shape." I told her as I demonstrated how to do it.
"Why?"
"It's how you paint within the lines."
Then I dipped the brush in the color she was using and began to paint the cloud within the lines as well as trying to explain it.
Emphasis on trying.
I'm not the best teacher. In fact, I don't even know how to explain as well as a teacher does. But I think Ellie seemed to get it.
"Where did you learn to paint?" She asked me after some time.
"I've been painting since I started school. So I've been doing it for the majority of my life."
"Can I do it now? I think I got it." She said. I nodded and withdrew my brush so that Ellie could do another cloud.
Her eyebrows scrunched together in concentration again.
Her hand was shaking a little bit so it was sort of messy but she did better than last time.
"It looks much better." I commented.
"It looks horrible." She said back making me laugh.
"No it doesn't. Look," I said as I pointed at one cloud, "It was the first one you made. The one beside it is the one you just did. See the difference?"
"Nope. They both look the same to me."
I was about to tell her that it wasn't the same when the door opened and Jake stepped inside.
"I'm hungry!" He announced.
"Then go make something for yourself!" Ellie and I said at the same time.
Jake looked at the two of us for a second then smiled a huge smile saying, "You both have been working on the twin telepathy thing haven't you? Let me tell you, it's going great!"
"Get out Jacob! You know you're not allowed in here." I said.
"Nope! I want food."
"You can just go and make food for yourself or rummage through the fridge. There has to be something in there." Ellie said.
"There's nothing in the fridge, Elf."
Ellie picked up the closest thing beside her - which just so happens to be a paint tube - and threw it directly at him.
It hit him on his forehead.
How she managed to get his forehead without bursting his eye while sitting on the floor is beyond me.
"Ow!" Jake cried out while rubbing his forehead.
"I told you not to call me that!" She yelled at him.
Like I said, do not mess with Ellie when she's mad or embarrassed. She's probably going to be flustered after 5 minutes but right now she doesn't care.
Third person's POV:
Midnight seemed to be the only time when Steve could call them.
He dialed the all too familiar number and waited for them to pick up. He wasn't sure how they would take this news.
After about five rings, he heard a familiar male voice on the other side.
"Steve." The voice greeted.
"I'm not sorry to disturb you this time." Steve said into the phone.
"I know. You were never genuine with your apologies anyway. What's the update?" The voice asked him.
Steve paused briefly.
"You're quiet meaning something happened. What is it?" He said.
"Uh... We might have a small problem." Steve said slowly.
"Which is?"
After another pause Steve said, "The couple that adopted Ellie..."
"What about them?"
"They've filed a case against us."
There was silence on the other side for a long time. Then a sound of smashing glass.
"WHY?!" The male asked angrily.
"For taking illegal custody of Ellie." Steve answered his question.
Another long moment of silence.
"Ellie can prove that they were... Not fit enough to be her parents, can't she?" Came from the other side.
"She can."
"Then ask her about it. I'm sure-"
Steve cut him off. "Actually, it's not that easy. Ellie's not ready to open up yet."
"Why the hell not?"
"Can you blame her? After being in an unhealthy relationship with those people, do you really think she'll open up after knowing us just for a week?" Steve asked.
The male sighed and said, "You're right. But can you at least try?"
Steve thought about it for a second then replied, "I'll try. But don't get your hopes up." Then hung up.