The soft bristles stroked the canvas, staining it red. Without thinking my hand instinctively splayed more colour on the worked surface. This was probably the most relaxing thing I've done all week. Between work, school, tutoring and my new occupation as Sadie's official babysitter I had no time for myself, let alone my homework.

My art assignment sat propped up on my mother's old easel. The light filtering in from my bay window made the colours dancing around the canvas glow. Maybe I should paint more often, it served as a decent get away from the rest of the world.

But apparently I had spoken too soon.

The sound of my phone emitted throughout my bedroom causing my hand to pause mid-air. The pupils of my eyes drifted to the once forgotten device, back to my acrylic covered hands.

The thought alone of getting paint on my phone was giving me anxiety.

Working quickly so I didn't miss the call I placed down my brush and pallet and scanned around my room for a towel before messily running my hands over my apron.

The iPhone continued to wail for my attention and carefully I plucked it up between two of my cleanest fingers. Not wanting to push my luck and hold my phone to my ear I answered the call, pressing speaker so I could get my prized possession out of my grimy fingers.

"Hello?" I answered, not even bothering to check the caller ID. Taking the few steps back to my canvas I picked up my brush.

"Cali! Cali, I need your immense love for children right now!" A short shriek pierced through the phone followed by a crash. "Because I have seriously lost mine." There was a short pause. "Michael- put it back!"

More shuffling and chaos sounded through the phone causing me to smile. Ella's life should seriously be a comedy series on HBO.

Another high-pitched screech found its way into my room followed by a slamming door.

"Ella?" I called after a few moments of heavy gasping coming through the speaker. "Ella?"

"Help me. Cali you need to help me. My house is going to retort to a pile of rubble with the way these man-children are running around."

I bit my tongue and decided against correcting my friend's misuse of terminology. "Babysitting again?"

"Sadly."

I shook my head with a smile. "I don't understand why you agree. This happens every time."

"Not every time," Ella muttered from her side, muted banging still plaguing the background.

"Every time."

"Okay! Every time," the blonde sounded exasperated and I could picture her raising a hand only to slap it down on her thigh, "but it's not like it's my fault my spoiled cousins act like a raid of barbarians once their parents leave."

A storm of crashing sounded from Ella's line. "What was that?"

"I don't know, and I'm afraid to find out."

"Where are they?"

"I locked them in the upstairs bathroom." Ella stated like it was the most perfectly normal thing in the world.

"You did what?" I questioned bewildered by my best friend's tactics.

"It's fine! It's not like I left them or anything. I've been standing outside the door this whole time." More banging sounded and I couldn't help but pinch the bridge of my nose, paint brush still in hand.

"Ella..." I said condescendingly.

"Okay fine! I'll let them out if you promise to come and help me. If not I'd rather the three little monsters stay where they are and destroy one room rather than my entire house."

I let out a sigh and dropped my brush, so much for finishing this project today. "Fine, I'm coming. Just let the kids out. I'm sure what you're doing right now is a form of child abuse and I don't want to have to visit my best friend in jail."

"Thank you! By the way, you might want to consider bringing some duck tape and rope if you have. If not a padlock and -" The noise coming from Ella's end rose in volume and then completely went silent. "You three better pray to Buddha that isn't my toothbrush."

A moment of eery silence followed her threat. Then Ella calmly spoke into the receiver. "Calista, forget about child abuse. If you don't get here in ten minutes I'm going to be done for attempted murder."

"El-"

"Run brats, run!"

There was no opportunity to defuse the situation over the phone because the next thing I knew the line went dead.

I hardly had enough time to throw my paint covered supplies into a tub of water before running out the door, shouting to my mother that I needed to save Ella before she turned into a convicted criminal.

Not even bothering to whip out my phone and announce my arrival like I usually did I parked in the empty driveway.

Wasting no time I raised my fist to knock but no contact was made. Ella's frosted glass door flew open startling me. Without even so much of a greeting her tiny, but extremely forceful, hand took hold of my jacket and dragged me into the confines of her home.

Ella's usually well kept blonde hair looked to be a tangled mess. It was almost all pushed over to one side, a windstorm appeared to have had its way with it. Her, I'm sure, once pristine attire was splattered in unknown substances, her shirt wrinkled to sin. Ella Louise Gillard, the Ella Louise Gillard, looked like she'd been living on the streets for a good few weeks.

Taking my eyes away from her ratty appearance I search the expression on her face. It was blank with an underlay of murderous frustration, like a shallow tide before the ever vengeful waves of a tsunami.

"Uh... h-" there was no chance to finish my greeting. She pulled me in further and I struggled to kick off my boots as not to track puddles around the house.

With one final yank my seemingly mentally unstable friend forced me to tumble into her laundry room with her. As quickly as possible in her panic Ella clicked the white door shut.

"Ella-"

A slim finger rose to her lips.

"Ella-" I tried again.

She shushed me.

I huffed in irritation.

"Don't you think you're over exaggerating just a tad?" I rushed out in a hushed whisper before she could silence me again.

"We're at war Calista."

Oh God, she's serious.

Straightening myself up I left Ella in her squatted position against the wall. "Ella this is ridiculous. You're the adult. How do three children get you to hide away in your own stinkin' laundry?" No pun intended, "I could hardly get you into the girl's locker room in ninth grade."

"They're animals." A tremor of terror racked her petite frame.

"Exactly and like all animals children smell fear. So put on your big girl pants and let's get these kids settled."

Inhaling a hefty breath Ella slid her way up the wall. "You're right. This is my house, my rules." With a determined nod of her head and a bump of her chest Ella was back and ready to go.

There was no words spoken between us but we knew what needed to be done.

I yanked the door open confidently and firmly. We were two teenagers almost on our way to university. There was no way we were going to allow these children to run rampant and have us sprinting for cover.

To both mine and Ella's surprise however, three little boys materialized once the obstacle was out of the way. Each blonde hair blue eyed child stood determined in a line just outside our safe haven. By looking at each of their faces you would think these children were absolute angels. They definitely had the falsified appearance.

With wide eyes I studied each one of their smug faces. War paint littered their bodies and somewhere along the line they had ditched their shirts. Each boy held a wild look in their eyes. Excitement, exhilaration, a trill for the hunt. And in their hands? Nerf guns. Fully loaded.

Each bullet having been dunked in unforgiving paint.

I swallowed thickly knowing what was to come. Should I squabble and beg for mercy or go down with my pride still intact?

Ella's thin fingers wrapped around my wrist.

Bartering. Bartering sounded like a good idea. Yeah.

The flesh of my lips parted in hopes of defusing the battle that was about to go down.

And once again I wasn't given the chance.

"Fire!" Michael, the oldest of the three, called with his gun in sniping position. Bullets flung free from their casing and a scream erupted from next to me.

Taking Ella's hand I shouted the only plausible thing that came to mind, "Run!"

* * * * *

A groan embarrassedly escaped my lips as Ella snatched away the pack of green peas and swapped them with a chunky bag of frozen fruit.

"Hey," I pouted with the bag of fruit now in hand.

"Don't hey me. I got the brunt of it." Ella stated haughtily, icing her head.

Huffing in annoyance I placed the bag of strawberry and mango slices to my head. Some relief was better than none at all and after colliding head first with Ella I needed all the relief I could get.

That woman has a hard head.

Returning to the task at hand I frowned watching Ella's cousins as they finally calmed down enough to sit in front of the TV. Every twitch made me want to duck for cover under the kitchen table.

"You think we tired them out?" Ella questioned seemingly unsure.

"Well, they definitely tired us out."

"After all that I think we deserve a well deserved break."

Wiping my hair out of my face and feeling for bumps I asked, "What do you suggest?"

"Teen Wolf marathon?" She offered hopefully.

I frown. "But... I don't have my Stiles jersey, it won't be the same."

"You can be a Derek fan today. Come on." Ella snatched the pack of frozen goods from me for the second time.

"But what about...?" I trailed off, my eyes shifting to glance into the family room.

"They just spent two hours acting out a war scene, I'm sure they don't have enough energy left to break anything else. We'll watch one episode then we'll come down, you'll make dinner and I'll watch them." Ella explained her plan of action with ease. "Even though I have half a mind not to feed the little terrors after what they did to my hair."

"Hold on. Rewind. I'm cooking dinner?" I repeated with an eyebrow raised, a finger pointing in my own direction.

Ella fluttered her lashes and plastered on a sickly sweet smile. "Pretty please?"

I rolled my eyes at my friend, "Let's go."

The two of us made our way up to Ella's room, and took our usual positions to enjoy another episode of Teen Wolf. Ella hooked up her laptop to the flatscreen mounted on her wall. Watching the teenage drama was something the two of us had in common but when we came together it turned into an obsession. Like a bunch of men coming together for the Superbowl, Ella and I immersed ourselves in the show, chatting loudly and reacting with exaggeration. Keep in mind we'd already seen these episodes before.

Oh, the struggles of waiting for the new seasons to be released.

As usual the two of us got caught up in the action on the screen and due to that we decided to try our luck and throw on another episode. Unfortunately things weren't going as planned for us today.

Crash.

Bang.

Boom.

Instantly the two of us paused, looking at each other in shock and growing anxiety. We raced off Ella's extremely comfortable sheets, my foot getting caught and wrapped up in the process. Catching myself before my face met the floor I unhooked my foot and barrelled down the stairs after Ella. My feet weren't even firmly planted on the main floor when Ella's banshee-like screech shook the house.

"You brats are dead!" Ella lunged forward but I was able to grasp a good hold on her sweater while making my way into the living room.

"What- oh, no."

In the midsts of trying to hold back Ella from her kill my eyes searched for the damage.

And I found it alright.

A gapping hole had appeared in the living room wall, just narrowly missing the fireplace. The force of whatever happened to the wall caused an antique family portrait of Ella's grandparents to fall to the wooden floor. The the frame splintered and the glass had shattered, shards littering dangerously under the pot lights above.

Her mom was going to kill her.

"My mom is going to kill me!" Ella echoed my thoughts in dismay. "But not before I kill you three!" She shrieked at the boys. I gripped her shoulder tighter, preparing for her next assault. All three troublemakers looked equally apologetic. The youngest, Mathew, who was about five looked about ready to cry.

"Okay, everyone just calm down a second. Someone explain to us what happened."

"There's no need to explain," Ella muttered, thrusting the skateboard in my direction. "I told you guys already didn't I? Number one, you're not meant to be skateboarding in the house. This is an outdoor activity for a reason. Number two, how many times do I have to tell you three not to touch what doesn't belong to you? Thomas is going to freak. You used his nerf guns to emotional traumatize his sister and then you use his skateboard to kill the living room wall!"

"We're sorry." Michael muttered causing both his brothers to follow suit and apologize.

"It's okay," I started, Ella tried to interject but I threw my hand over her mouth. "We'll talk about this later. Why don't you guys go back to watching TV while we clean this up. It's not safe with all the glass laying around."

The boys took my advice and headed out the room dragging their feet.

"What am I meant to do?" Ella clutched her knotty blonde strands. "My mother's going to be back from her business trip on Tuesday."

"It's all good. We can... fix it." I encouraged looking skeptically at the gapping hole.

"I can't even toast bread properly and you think I have the ability to patch up an elephant sized hole in my wall?"

"I wouldn't say elephant sized..." Ella raised a perfectly shaped brow at me, "maybe more like a small hippo...?"

A groan escaped as she threw her hands up in exasperation before covering her face.

"We'll figure it out. We got time. We'll just run to Harold's Home Hardware and grab the stuff to fix it."

"And who exactly is going to fix it?"

"We will."

"I'm sorry but do you have some secret carpentry degree I don't know about?"

"No, but I have YouTube."

Ella signed, setting her brother's skateboard against the wall. "If we go who's going to watch the brats?"

"Harper."

Ella paused her pacing. "The children-loathing brainiac?"

"The one and only."