Adagio Dazzle slammed open the door to the siren’s home and stormed inside.

Tonight could have gone better, to say the least. Falling on stage was bad enough, but it was especially bad considering Adagio was front and center. It broke her concentration immediately and jarred the audience out of her control.

The whole thing meant she and her companions missed out on the biggest payoff of energy they could have enjoyed in quite some time. Still, her fellow sirens somehow made sure that was not the worst part.

Behind her walked in Aria and Sonata. Morons that they were, they abandoned attempting to salvage the situation in favor of breaking into fits of laughter on stage. Laughter that had scarcely stopped since the trio left their concert.

“That… was… amazing!” Aria professed, huge grin still on her face.

Adagio turned to level an angry glare at Aria. “It was not amazing, Aria!” she snapped back. “It was an accident!”

“An amazing accident!” Sonata chimed in.

Adagio sneered at Sonata. “It wasn’t that big of a deal!”

“Are you kidding?!” Sonata replied. “Did you hear the sound you made when you hit the ground?! That was like… the faceplant heard around the world!”

Aria nodded. “Oh man, definitely. That sound is ingrained in my brain at this point.”

Adagio walked over to the couch and let herself fall into a sitting position with an angry huff, folding her arms across her chest. “I really don’t know why you two won’t drop this. You two hit yourselves in the head so often, you must have damaged what are clearly already damaged minds!”

Aria collapsed onto the opposite end of the couch, allowing her boots to rest on the center cushion. "Look, I facepalm a lot, and Sonata over there faceplants so many times I think she's part goat. But you? Tonight? This is mythical!"

"Shut up! There was a hole in the wood!"

"But there weren't any!” Sonata declared. “I checked before we started because of all the holes I fall into!"

"You hear that?” Aria said as she motioned towards Sonata. “If there was a hole, Sonata would have found it. One way or another."

"Shut. Up," Adagio said through clenched teeth. She began to grind them against each other as she stared at Aria. “Anyhow, it was your ridiculous laughter that caused us to lose out on all that energy!”

Aria smirked. “Way to shift the blame there, Dagi. We wouldn’t be laughing if you didn’t fall flat on your face.”

“Excuse you, but I caught myself before I hit my head!”

Aria rolled her eyes, a massive smile still on her face. “Then what’s with the massive welt on your forehead?”

“What?!” Adagio protested reaching up to her head. Well, my head is pounding, but that’s just stress from listening to these two imbeciles… right? “There isn’t a...” Adagio trailed off as she reached her fingers up to her head and felt a bump where the throbbing was.

“And I know forehead welts~!” Sonata sang. “That was a grade ‘A’ faceplant!”

“I…” Adagio’s anger suddenly subsided into a look of worry as she looked between the girls. “I don’t really have a bump on my head, do I?”

“Dagi, it’s huge!” Aria said. “You must feel it.”

Sonata snickered. “She’d have to be brain-dead to not feel it!”

Aria nodded. “Yeah, more brain-dead than you.”

“Exactly!” Sonata’s smile dropped. “Hey! Well… you’re dumb!”

Aria shook her head. “Sonata, as much as I’d love to trade my great insults for your terrible ones, we really should be concentrating on Adag—”

“I NEED A MIRROR!” Adagio cried.

Aria and Sonata turned back to Adagio.

“Adagio,” Aria began, “your room is full of mirrors, just—”

“I’ll get one!” Sonata said cheerfully as she ran off.

Aria sighed. “Just let the moron go get one, I guess…”

The two waited on the couch in the closest to silence the group had experienced since Adagio’s tumble, the only sounds being Sonata’s enthusiastic journey up the stairs.

Aria cocked an eyebrow at Adagio. “Dagi, are you trying to cover up that huge bump with your hand?”

“Shut up!” Adagio snapped.

The sound Sonata’s strained grunts could be heard from upstairs as she slowly stomped her way back towards the other girls.

“Yo, Sonata!” Aria called out. “What’s the hold up?”

“This mirror is hecka big!” Sonata called back.

Aria shook her head. “You could have grabbed a small one, stupid!”

“Adagio doesn’t have any small ones!” Sonata shot back.

Aria scrunched her lips up slightly. “Well… that’s true… Obsessed narcissist that she is, she can’t help but cover her walls in giant mirrors.”

“Aria, shut up!” Adagio commanded. “I’m literally sitting on the couch next to you!”

“Yeah, I know,” Aria said with a smirk.

Sonata trudged into the room holding a full length mirror in front of her.

Aria shook her head. “I can’t believe you actually managed to bring that thing downstairs without tripping and falling.”

Sonata set the mirror down and poked her head out from the side. “What? And outshine Adagio? You know how she loves to be the center of attention.”

Aria snickered. “She certainly falls all over herself to make sure that happens, yeah…”

Adagio gritted her teeth. “I swear I will murder you both in your sleep!”

“Oh, lighten up, Dagi,” Aria said. “You’re going to pull your hand away and see that isn’t that big of a deal!”

“No, it’s a huge one~!” Sonata sang out.

Aria rolled her eyes. “Point is, you’ll take a look at your forehead, see you need some ice, and move on and stop freaking out about this whole thing.”

“I am not freaking out!” Adagio snapped.

“Hmmm…” Sonata hummed. “You’re freaking out a little… I mean… you usually don’t shake like that unless you’re really mad…”

Aria shifted her glance from Sonata and took a look at Adagio. Adagio seemed to almost be squeezing her forehead as if the pressure might somehow force the bump on her head to disappear. Her face was certainly turning red and she did seem to be shivering… or maybe quaking as she sat on the couch.

Adagio slowly pulled her hand off her forehead and stared at herself in the mirror. A large, reddish welt was set dead center on her forehead.

Aria shook her head. “See? Just a bump you can ice and deal with for a few weeks.”

“Ooo!” Sonata exclaimed excitedly. “We can call her ice queen!”

Aira chuckled. “Good one.” She turned back to Adagio. “Just chill out with some ice—”

Sonata broke into a small fit of laughter. “Pfft…Ahahahahahahaha!”

“— we can put on one of your stupid romantic comedies, and you can sit tight while Sonata and I make fun of you.”

“And how!” Sonata said.

“So no big deal, right Dagi?”

Adagio said nothing and simply stared at the bump on her head through the mirror.

“Adagio?” Aria said in a worried tone.

Adagio suddenly shot up to her feet and began marching towards the house’s kitchen. “I’m going to go grab all the ice-cream from the freezer, then go live in my room until forever.”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Adagio, you’re being a tad melodramatic, don’t you think?”

“Yeah!” Sonata chimed in. “I mean sure lots of people saw you fall and pointed and laughed…”

Adagio quickly walked by, several pints of ice cream in her arms. Aria followed her with her eyes.

Sonata continued, “… and I mean… Aria and I are never going to let you forget this… Like ever.”

Adagio made her way towards the stairs.

“And we’re immortal, so when I say never, I mean never!”

Adagio began to ascend the stairs.

“Countries will fall and entire civilizations could be wiped out and Aria and I will still remind you about that night you—”

‘SLAM!’

“She left, Sonata,” Aria informed.

Sonata puffed out her lower lip. “… Did she really take all the ice cream?”

Aria nodded. “Yep, cleaned the freezer right out.”

Sonata sighed, trudged over towards a wall and leaned the mirror against it. “We better go then.”

“What?” Aria said raising an eyebrow. “If she wants to throw a tantrum, let her! Why should we care?”

“Not to help her, dummy!” Sonata snapped. “We better go buy more ice cream!”

“Oh… Yeah, good call,” Aria said as she stood up.

Aria sat slouched in a chair at a square table in the kitchen of the siren’s home. She held up a comic book in one hand, the comic having been folded slightly for ease of reading one-handed. A dark blue mug full of some steaming liquid sat in front of her on the table that she’d occasionally reach for and take a sip off before turning the page.

She was enjoying the quiet of the house, or at least, enjoying it as much as Aria enjoyed anything. Which was to say she felt just a hair above being completely miserable.

Quiet in the siren’s house was exceedingly rare. One or both the other girls were usually doing something to produce noise. She had thought with Adagio holed up in her room that she’d actually get to enjoy a lot more peace for a change.

“Aria!”

She was wrong.

Sonata happily sprinted into the kitchen, giddily jumping up and down like an overstimulated puppy. “Aria! Aria!”

“Oh my God, Sonata! Leave me alone!”

“Just… wait… look what I can do with a spoon!”

Aria pulled her comic closer to her face. “Seriously, Sonata! Find someone else to bug!”

“Look! Look!”

There was the sound of metal clattering to the ground.

“Aria! You didn’t look!”

“Ugh!” Aria exclaimed as she lowered her comic to glare at Sonata. “What?!”

Sonata grinned wide as she bent down to pick up the spoon. She placed it on her nose where it immediately fell to the ground again.

“Please tell me that stupid thing was it.”

“Whoops!” Sonata said bending down. “Let me try again.”

“For God’s sake Sonata, just go!”

Sonata came up with the spoon. She placed it on her nose and this time it stuck in place. “Ta-da!” Sonata said as the spoon fell to the floor again.

“Great. You’re a moron.” Aria raised her comic back in front of her face. “Now leave me alone.”

“Hey, Aria?”

“Seriously, Sonata. Shut. Up.”

“Wanna hear the most obnoxious sound in the world?”

“I have never not wanted to hear something so much in my li—”

“WheiEIEIeieiEIEIeieiEIEIEeieEI—”

Aria suddenly jumped to her feet, flinging the comic on the table. “That’s it! I can’t take this anymore!” Aria cried. “We need to get Adagio out of her room so you can at least focus some of your nonsense on her!”

Sonata frowned as she began to follow Aria towards the stairs. “But she hasn’t come out since last night, and it’s past noon and stuff! I mean… imagine how bad her room must smell without a bathroom!”

Aria rolled her eyes as she walked up the stairs, Sonata behind her. “She has her own bathroom, remember?”

“Oh, right!” Sonata replied. “How can I forget Adagio’s and my secret fun time spot?”

Aria paused at the top of the stairs. Her cheeks began to turn slightly red as she turned towards Sonata. “Secret…. ‘secret fun time spot’?”

Sonata smiled and giggled. “Sometimes when Adagio is in the shower, I like to sneak in there!”

“… Go on…”

“I sneak in there and then quickly pull open the shower curtain while I pretend-stab Adagio with a kitchen knife and go”—Sonata mimed a stabbing motion— “Eee! Eee! Eee! Eee!”

Aria sighed heavily and continued walking. “So that’s why she sometimes chases you around the house while she’s wet and naked.”

“See!” Sonata said. “Fun!”

Aria stopped at a door. “Well, it is sorta entertaining. I’ll give you that.” Aria knocked on the doors with her knuckles. “Yo, Dagi! Come out, alright? It’s your turn to hang out with Sonata!”

“Go away!” Adagio cried from insider her room. “I’m hideous!”

“You have a bump on your forehead, Adagio! Sonata walks around with those all the time and it doesn’t stop anyone from commenting on how good she looks.”

“Some guys use it as conversation starters!” Sonata chimed in cheerfully.

“This is not a big deal, Adagio!” Aria shouted at the door.

“IT’S A HUGE DEAL AND IT’S IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FOREHEAD!”

“Oh my gosh, Dagi!” Aria cried. “Who cares? You act like this thing has messed up your perfect face or something!”

“MY FACE IS—WAS PERFECT!”

Sonata scrunched her lips up. “Well… you’re pretty, I’ll give you that, but it’s not like you don’t get the occasional zit! Ew.”

“I – DO – NOT – GET – ZITS!” Adagio shouted out forcefully.

Aria blew a dismissive gust of air. “Pfft… I know you think you can apply enough makeup that we don’t see them, but it’s not like you make them go away, Dagi!”

“Totally!” Sonata agreed. “Oh my gosh! Remember the big one she got on her nose?”

“Heh. Do I?” Aria replied. “She got so mad about us staring and commenting about it she stormed up to her room, and came down with a Band-Aid over her nose!”

“Haha, yeah! She said she somehow cut her nose plucking her eyebrows! How does that even work?!”

Aria shook her head with a smile on her face. “She should have told us she was trying to shave off some of those lip hairs she gets!”

Sonata nodded. “Now that I wouldn’t question.”

There was another brief pause followed by the sound of Adagio letting out a pitiful wail as she began to cry.

“… Wow… you are really terrible at this!” Sonata said.

“What?!” Aria protested. “I was doing fine until you butted in with your zit comment! She’d be out here right now if you weren’t such an idiot!”

“Oh please,” Sonata said dismissively. “You, like… spend all your time trying to make people feel bad! Like you have clue one on how to make them feel better.”

Aria narrowed her eyes. “Oh yeah? Listen to this.” She turned towards Adagio’s door. “Yo, Dagi!”

Adagio answered through the door. “Hhehh…sob… Seriously! Please die or promise you’ll kill me! I’m not picky at this point…”

“I just wanted to say your hair is absolutely massive. I mean… I’m amazed I don’t disrupt animal nests when I help you brush it.”

“…”

Sonata snickered. “Keep going…”

Aria spread out her arms to signify how huge Adagio’s hair was. “Every time I see it, I just think… ‘Wow… that is just a massive orange mess of dead mammal fur growing out of that woman’s head! The heck does she not have horrible neck pains from supporting her head all day?’”

Sonata put her hands up to her mouth and attempted to stifle laughter. “You’re…. hehehehahaha… you’re on a roll!”

“I mean… when you weigh yourself, do you account for your massive pounds of hair? I mean, between that and how much you already weigh… you’re like… what? 200 pounds? 250?”

Sonata broke into a fit of laughter.

“Shut up!” Aria snapped. “I’m trying to listen if any of that got through to Adagi—”

“WUOHAAAAAAHUAAAAAAAAAHUAAAAAAAHUAAAAAAAAAHUAAAAAAAAAAAA..!”

“HAHAHAHA! Oh it got through, alright! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Aria frowned. “Okay, you got me… I am bad at this.”

“Hahahahaha!” Sonata wiped tears from her eyes. “No, no… hehehehehe… Keep going! I’m sure you’ll come up with something nice to say if you just try a little harder!”

Aria glared at Sonata as Adagio continued to wail from inside her room.

“Hey!” Aria said. “If you think this is so easy, why don’t you try?”

Sonata smiled. “I thought you’d never ask! To the Taco Hut!”

Sonata walked back towards the stairs, Aria following behind with a grumpy expression. “You’re going to try to fix this with tacos… Why am I not surprised?”

A quick trip to the local Mexican-approximation fast food chain and back, plus a little time to write some heartfelt messages encouraging Adagio to get better, and the girls were once again in front of Adagio’s door.

Aria sighed as she stared at the pile of tacos Sonata held in her arms. “Let me guess, you wrote them in crayon?”

Sonata held up a taco that had ‘Feel Better!’ written on its wrapper in blue ink. “No! Washable marker! You two wouldn’t let me have crayons once I figured out I could use them to turn my mouth funny colors!”

Aria cringed. “Right, I had successfully repressed that memory. Thanks for reminding me so it could haunt my dreams again.”

“You’re welcome!” Sonata said cheerfully.

Aria shot Sonata a glare, then took a closer look at the pile of tacos in Sonata’s arms. In addition to ‘Feel Better!’, written on the tacos in colorful pen were messages such as “Please stop crying like a baby!”, “It could happen to anyone, but it happened to you!”, and “Your giant zits aren’t as gross as you think (but they’re still gross).”

Aria looked up from the pile of tacos and pointed at them. “These are supposed to make Adagio feel better about herself?”

Sonata narrowed her eyes. “Since when have tacos made anyone feel worse?”

“Since a few minutes from now, I’m guessing,” Aria said.

Sonata smirked as she walked up to Adagio’s door. “Watch in learn, oh ye of little fate.”

Aria’s head jerked almost involuntarily. “It’s ‘faith’, dim-wit!”

“Whatever!” Sonata replied. “Just watch a master at work.” She lightly rapped on Adagio’s door and began to speak in a sing-song tone, “Oh, Adagio~! I have some tasty tacos here full of inspirational messages to make you stop all that gross sobbing you’re doing~!”

“GO – AWAY!”

“I’m worried about you, Adagio!” Sonata said. “We both are!”

“No I’m not,” Aria said. “I just want her to come out so you don’t spend all day just bugging me!”

Sonata ignored Aria and continued, “Adagio, you can’t just live off ice-cream! Believe me, I’ve tried! Please at least open the door so I can give you these yummy tacos!”

“SERIOUSLY! GET LOST!”

“Hey, yeah,” Aria said turning towards Sonata. “Just go walk outside until you can’t remember where home is anymore. That should only take a few blocks at most.”

“Shut up!” Sonata snapped back. “I’m trying to get Adagio to come out!”

“Coulda fooled me,” Aria replied.

“BOTH OF YOU, GO AWAY! YOU’RE TAKING OUT ALL THE JOY OF BEING MISERABLE!”

“Oh my gosh,” Aria said as she raised a palm to her face. “You did not just say that out loud…”

Sonata looked back at the door. “But Adagio, if you don’t open the door, how will you ever get these delicious tacos made just for you?”

“Just for her?” Aria replied. “You just went down to the local Taco Hut and picked them up. They would have made them for anyone that paid them.”

Sonata raised a finger to her mouth as several tacos tumbled out of her grip onto the floor. “Shhhhhh!”

“I DON’T CARE!” Adagio shouted back. “JUST LEAVE!”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Great plan,” she said sarcastically. “Too bad you didn’t account for the completely unpredictable outcome of Adagio still refusing to come to the door.”

“Pffft! As if!” Sonata replied as she bent down. “I’ll just slip the tacos under Adagio’s door!”

Aria cocked an eyebrow. “Slip them under her door? Sonata, those tacos are about an inch thick and the crack under the door is a fraction of that, you can’t—”

‘Crunch!’

Aria sighed. “—possibly fit them.”

Sonata continued to try forcing a taco through the small crack under Adagio’s door. “Oh Aria, you’re so stupid!”

Aria’s face contorted as surprise and anger vied for control of her muscles. This resulted in a lot of angry twitching as she glared down at Sonata. “I’m the stupid one here?!”

Sonata nodded as she pushed on messy mass of taco and wrapper with both hands. “Yep! You talked about fractions, and you know how pointless I think math is!”

Aria stared up at the ceiling as she let a sigh heavy with aggravation slowly leak out of her mouth. “What can I say, Sonata? Your logic is truly outstanding.”

Sonata giggled to herself as she began shoving another taco under the door. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Adagio called out from her room again, “What are you… SONATA, NO!”

Sonata grinned to herself. “Sonata, yes!”

“Aria! Do something!” Adagio cried.

“I can help her shove smashed taco under your door, Adagio!”

“I MEANT DO SOMETHING THAT HELPS ME!”

“No, Dagi. I think I rather help shove a taco under your door. You better come out quickly if you want it to stop, there’s like a dozen of them here…”

Sonata reached for a third taco and began shoving it under the door.

“Aria!” Adagio called out. “I'll… I'll come out. Just… will you please pull Taco Girl away from the frickin’ door?!”

“See!” Sonata said as she stood up. “I told you it would work!”

Aria rolled her eyes as she put a hand on Sonata’s shoulder and pulled her from the door. “Alright, Taco Girl. Just step back so you’re not immediately in swinging range when Adagio finally comes out.”

The door suddenly pulled open, and Adagio walked out. Dark lines of mascara ran from her eyes and down her chin, and her curly hair was much more disheveled compared to when she had entered her room the day before. She held one hand over her forehead and glared at the two girls in front of her door as she stepped over the smashed bits of taco by her room’s entrance.

“So… You feel better?” Aria asked.

“No, I feel terrible!” Adagio said. “But you two are so inept at making me feel better, being made fun of for falling and having a huge lump on my head is preferable.”

Aria smirked and rolled her eyes. “Sorry we ruined your quality wallowing in self-pity session, Adagio.”

Adagio rolled her eyes then turned towards Sonata. “You’re cleaning up this mess in front of my door, I hope you know.”

Sonata smiled. “I’ll get on it right away!” she declared as she lowered herself to the ground.

“And don’t just eat it off—”

The sound of hard tacos shells being munched on and Sonata’s hums of contentment can be heard. “Hmmm… You say something, Adagio?”

“NEVER MIND!” Adagio snapped.

Aria smiled. “Work out your anger over a few video games, Stumbles McFalls-on-her-face?”

Adagio sighed heavily. “Fine! Just shut up about—”

“Yay!” Sonata cried as she shot up from the ground, taco sauce and small bits of food on her face. “Zit faced, fuzzy-haired, lip-stache, miss trips-a-lot is actually going to play video games with us!”

Adagio gritted her teeth. “Just shut up about everything… If you two can stop talking for just a little bit, that would be great…”

“Dibs on first player!” Aria cried.

Sonata made a mad dash for the stairs. “Not if I get there first!”

Aria broke into a sprint. “Sonata, if you lick the controller again, I swear I’ll— Hey! Move it!”

“You move it!”

Adagio watched as the other two girls attempted to go down the stairs together, all while struggling and pushing against one another.

“WHOA!”

“AIEEEEE!”

Soon, both girls lost their footing and with a series of yelps, thuds, and bangs. Aria and Sonata found themselves in a heap on at the bottom of the staircase.

Adagio stood at the top and placed a hand against her hip, grinning wickedly as she enjoyed the sight below her.

“Owie…” Sonata uttered.

From the tangled pile of limbs, Aria looked up and scowled at Adagio. “Not one word, Adagio… Not one…”

“Who, me?” Adagio said as she motioned to herself with a massive, devilish grin on her face. “I’d never rub in the fact you’re such a klutz you can’t even manage the stairs of our house without tumbling down them like an epileptic chimpanzee having a seizure.”

Aria narrowed her eyes. “At least I don’t make a public spectacle of myself when I fall!”

“At least I’m not a complete idiot!” Adagio shot back.

Sonata struggled from under Aria. “ARIA GET OFFA ME! YOUR SPIKES ARE STABBING INTO MY SPLEEN!”

The End.