"Aria Blaze! What has your mother told you about wrestling the neighborhood boys?"
Aria Blaze stared at the ground as Andante Dazzle began to lecture her yet again.
"She said it was fine, as long as I win," Aria muttered, folding her arms. Andante glared at Aria, and her golden eyes seemed to burn with annoyance. From the next room, Aria spotted Adagio Dazzle, her best friend friend, and Aria's younger siblings watching in interest. Hoping to scare them away, she scowled at them.
"I think I'd better have a talk with your mother, then!" Andante continued. "I cannot babysit you while she's at work if you're going to pick fights with every child on the block!"
"You're not my babysitter- I can take care of myself just fine!" Aria muttered angrily. "I can stay with my older brother, or my cousins, or whoever! I don't need to be here." Aria hated when adults thought she was just a weak kid. In Aria's mind, there was no doubt she was stronger than some of those mean adults.
"Aria, I just don't want you to keep getting hurt." Andante's tone softened. "Have you even looked at yourself?'"
Aria hadn't, so she looked down. Cuts and scrapes covered her arms, though most of them weren't recent. Her plain white t-shirt was wrinkled and dirtied. At the hem of her shirt, small chunks of fabric had been ripped off. This was mostly due to running through brambles and prickly underbrush in her escape. Her knee-length jeans were not as soiled, but they probably hid some nasty bruises.
"I'm fine!" Aria protested.
Andante shook her head. "Let's get you cleaned up, alright?" Adagio's mother took Aria's hand and led her to the kitchen. Treble and Tempo, Aria's younger sisters, followed.
"Why did Aria get hurt?" Tempo asked.
"Yeah, Adagio wouldn't tell us!" Treble added.
"Adagio! Come get the twins!" Andante shouted.
"Yes, mom!" Adagio darted out and grabbed each twin by the hand. "Can I take them to Sonata's house?"
"If Ballad and Opus come with you," Andante responded. She was, of course, referring to Aria's other two siblings. Ballad groaned from the other room.
"Seriously? I don't want to hang out at a twelve-year-old's house!" the teenager complained. Aria rolled her eyes at her sister's moping.
"Aria, wash your hands while I get you a fresh shirt," Andante told the young girl as she left the room.
Aria watched Andante's retreating figure before she declared, "Heck no!" Aria ran out the door as fast as she could. She didn't need a dumb new shirt, her current one was just fine!
Aria ran past her siblings and Adagio, who had only made it to the front yard. Ballad sighed.
"Ms. Dazzle, Aria just ran out of the house!" she called. Aria didn't pay attention to her bossy older sister; she continued running down the block.
"I'm gonna finish what I started!" she declared determinedly. When Aria passed the final house and rounded the corner, the neighborhood's playground came into view.
The seven or so boys were still on the playground where she had left them. One or two looked bruised and beat up like she did, but the rest of the gang looked unharmed. Aria pursed her lips as she hid behind a bush, watching them.
"So, they think they can just walk away unharmed?" Aria muttered to herself. "Not on my watch!"
Aria stood up and shouted, "Hey, Fish Faces!"
The boys all turned in her direction.
"You ready to go?" Aria yelled snarkily. The boys looked at each other. And laughed.
Aria growled like a dog ready to charge.
"Look, Aria, you're Ballad's little sister. We don't want to hurt you any more than we have to," commented a boy with wavy blue and white hair.
"Yeah, how would that look for us if she found out we beat up her kid sister any more?" added another boy. Even though it was a Saturday, he was dressed in a magenta school uniform.
"First, I am not a kid, I'll be a teenager in, like, a month! And second, don't use my sister as an excuse, you wimps! And third, you've already hurt me, so I could go tell Ballad anyways!" Aria snapped, punching a fist into her hand.
"I don't know how you ripped your shirt up, but we definitely did not do that," commented a boy, eyeing Aria warily.
"Don't dodge the subject!" Aria yelled again, clenching and unclenching her fists. These boys were cowards, and she hated cowards.
"Hey, if she wants to go, she can go!" snipped a bully sitting on the monkey bars. "I'll pound her, just like I did last time!" He jumped to the ground.
"Finally! Fight me, you jerk!" Aria cried, tossing her aquamarine-streaked hair out of her face. The rest of the guys watched, bemused, as their friend walked right up to Aria. He was only a few inches taller than her; Aria wasn't intimidated by him in the slightest.
"Do you even know any of our names, Aria?" he asked her. Aria's determined expression turned into one of surprise.
"What? No, why would I need to?" she retorted, looking around at all the boys.
"Argh!"
The guy shoved her to the ground. Aria landed on her elbows. She felt her skin grate against the rough pavement.
"Hey! I was distracted!" she protested angrily.
"Come on, Aria! You've picked a fight with us like, a billion times, and you still don't know our names?" he taunted her. Wild amusement sparkled in his green eyes. If Aria had been an anime character, she would've had the red pulsing thing over her head right now.
"You guys treat me like some kind of joke!" she protested, stumbling to her feet. "You're only a couple years older than me!"
"Watch out, she packs a punch!" warned one of the boys, rubbing his arm. Aria's opponent glanced away for a split second-
THWACK! Aria landed a kick right to the guy's left shin.
"Ow!" he yelled, immediately grabbing his leg in agony. Aria looked on in satisfaction.
"Mind telling me your name now?" she sneered.
Instantly, she was surrounded by three other dudes. These boys were taller than Aria, unlike her previous opponent.
"Listen, brat, you've picked a fight one too many times," growled one, grabbing Aria by the arm.
"Let me go!" Aria turned scarlet when her voice came out as a mouse squeak.
"You might think you're a threatening force to be reckoned with, but you are not," another boy continued, staring Aria down. She fought to hold his gaze. She was strong.
"You're just a kid. Got it?" The boy holding her arm released Aria, and she stumbled several steps backward.
"Ha ha!" she laughed nonchalantly, rubbing her arm. "Believe me, I'm gonna beat you all one day."
"Yeah, yeah. Now, beat it." The boys all glared at her, all seven of them. Aria glared back. Slowly, she walked backwards. As soon as she could, she ran back up the street.
Instead of going to Adagio's house like she should have, Aria turned left and walked into Sonata's backyard.
Her siblings, as well as Adagio and Sonata, were all hanging out. Opus was reading, Ballad was scrolling through dumb stuff on her phone as Adagio looked on with interest, and Sonata was playing with Tempo and Treble in the sandbox.
"Aria!" Sonata noticed right away that Aria had arrived, and ran right over to her friend. "Did you really go fight all those big bullies?"
"Oh, look who came back!" Adagio came over to join them. "So, what happened?"
"I kicked one guy in the shin," Aria told them proudly.
"OMG!" Sonata squealed excitedly. Her azure ponytail bounced as she jumped up and down. "So, did you win? You won, right?!"
"Let me guess, you hurt one of them, they realized you were serious, then someone threatened you, so you ran back here and they're gonna go back to treating you like a joke," Adagio deadpanned, tossing one of her cheese-colored curls. "The usual cycle?"
"It is not a cycle!" Aria protested. "One day, I'm gonna beat them out of this neighborhood. Nobody will ever have to worry about them again, and we will rule the world!"
Adagio and Sonata looked at her blankly.
"Or we could start a singing group!" Sonata broke in cheerfully. "My mom's been reading stories about sirens, and I read the too! Sirens, you know, the ones on the rocks with awesome singing voice? We could call ourselves the Sirens!"
"I'm gonna go with Sonata on this one," Adagio agreed. "Fighting is for brutes. We could be so much better as a singing group!"
"Whatever." Aria folded her arms. "I'll join, I don't care!"
Sure, obliterating people in music competitions sounded just as fun as beating people up. Aria could do both, right?
"Why were they in my backyard? I thought you were supposed to be watching them!" Sonata's mother, Senza, suddenly came outside, accompanied by Andante.
"I know- Aria!" Andante's golden eyes widened when she spotted Aria. She rushed over to the young girl. "Stop picking fights, okay? You'll end up just like your mother!"
"Mom, do you think we'd make a good singing trio?" Adagio piped up.
"Shush, Adagio!" Andante scolded. "Not now! Aria, we're going inside to get you cleaned up right now! No running off again!"
"See ya later, guys," Aria remarked as Andante pulled her inside.
"Okay, so can you please not use the kitchen sink? I just had it redecorated with genuine pearls." Senza followed them in, rattling off everything they were not supposed to do. Aria just rolled her eyes. One day...
