Two updates in a week! I'm on a roll :D I hope you guys like this chapter.

-Shadow-wild

Chapter Five

"Gah, I can't do this anymore!" I flung my paintbrush angrily on the table and sighed. My brother stood next to me in the garage while I examined the painting.

"Why are you so worried? It looks fine to me." He said, not bothering to actually look at the painting.

"Fine? Fine?! Parker, this is a state art contest were talking about here, it has to be more than fine!" I snapped while pointing the dripping paintbrush at him. I sighed again and examined my art work. On the far left was a profile view of a girl's face, painted in light blues and dark purple hues. Next to her was a skull half obscured by a rose resting on top of it. A butterfly was painted near the top. The different colors swirled together in a rainbow like pattern.

"Anyway, that bitch Mikayla's probably gonna have her richer-than-Bill-Gates dad pay the judges." I muttered. Every year I entered the art contest. And every year I came in second place. And every year Mikayla Thorn-burn won first place, by having her dad bribe the judges. Okay, I know second place isn't that bad but still... her art sucks. Every time it's either a crappy picture of an apple or it's just... every year she submits the same drawing and she always wins. I just don't get it!

"Language." Parker scolded while laughing at the same time. I shot him a look and he instantly shut up.

"I just don't know what to do. It's bad enough that she's a total bitch at school, but this..."

"You'd need like a master painter to help you if you wanna win." He replied while plopping down in a chair. Wait a minute... I popped my head in through the open door to the living room. Malik and Altair were jumping up and down on the couch shouting in Arabic and freaking out about the soccer game going on on the t.v. Ezio was on my computer again doing who knows what. Maria and Aveline were chattering excitedly while going through some of my mom's fashion magazines. Connor was fiddling around with his knife. I finally spotted Leonardo looking through a small book I had cluttered with sketches I drew. Most of them were fan art of video games, but hey, at least I tried.

"Hey Leo can you help me with something?" I asked him from across the room. He lifted his head from the sketch book.

"Did you draw these?" He asked. I nodded. "These are very good, Sarah. But some of your perspective is a little off. Not by a lot, but a little." He replied. Maybe Leonardo could help me?

"Just come here, I need your help." I paused for a moment. " And Connor, please don't go kill someone." Connor hastily put the knife dan and smiled sheepishly. Leonardo walked over and I showed him my painting.

"Sarah, you have talent for someone your age." Leonardo gasped while looking at my painting.

"Thanks but... it's still kinda crappy. I was hoping you could help me with it. Since you're like a freaking amazing artist and all."

"I am?" He asked. Why was he so shocked?

"Um... yeah. People would pay billions of dollars just to buy your artwork." His face instantly reddened.

"Oooooh." He murmured, his face continued to redden.

"Okay calm down and help me." I laughed. He took the paintbrush and looked hard at the painting. His brows furrowed and a thin line formed on his forehead as he mulled over my artwork.

"Hmmm, that's fine. Mmm... Ah!" He mixed black, white and a dark blue together on the palette and added some strokes to the bottom of the skull. I watched as he cleaned the brush and stared at the painting again. After a whole minute of him staring at the painting he let of another "Ah!" and mixed some more colors and paint again. He lifted it up and showed me his handiwork. The butterfly's wings had turned a brighter orange and the skull's shadows had darkened.

"Wow it looks amazing, Leo. Thank you so much!"

"Haha, you're welcome mi amico." He laughed. While he was twirling the still wet paintbrush in is hand some of the paint flicked onto my arm.

"Hey what was that for?" I gasped jokingly.

"I-I'm sorry, it was an accident I swear!" He panicked. I wrested the paintbrush from his hand and flicked some paint onto his arm.

"There now were even." I laughed. He grabbed a random paintbrush that had been on the table and flicked paint on my shirt.

"Now we are even." He said proudly. Grabbing some more paint, I flung the glob at Leonardo, right onto his shirt. In return his threw a dark glob of paint at my face. I stood there as the glob dripped down my forehead while Leo was laughing his head off. Calmly I picked up some more paint.

"This. means. war." I hissed as I threw the paint at him. For at least an hour we continued hurling globs of paint at each other and attempting to dodge a few. When we were out of paint we went back inside, completely drenched in the colorful paint. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at us. Altair and Malik stopped flipping out about the soccer game, Ezio stopped typing and Aveline and Maria stopped looking at the magazines.

"Um.. Hi." I said.

"What happened to you two?" Ezio asked, then he started laughing.

"We uh... had a paint war. This paint should wash off... I hope." Before going to wash the paint off I had an idea.

"Hey Aveline come here for a second..." I said mischievously. She saw the grin stuck on my face and stopped dead in her tracks.

"Why?" She asked cautiously. I rushed towards her and hugged her tightly. She screamed as I squeezed her tighter.

"Friends gotta hug, Aveline!" I laughed hysterically as she squirmed.

"Get off of me- Ugh my shirt!" she exclaimed. More paint was being plastered on to her as she wriggled away from me.

"Damnit!" She cried as she looked down at her now colorful shirt. I turned around and faced Maria.

"Come here, Maria, let me give you a hug." I giggled as I started chasing her around the house.

Paint wars are fun . So do you guys like it? Please review, favorite and follow :D

-Shadow-wild