Juliana's POV

"Ufhg." I said as all the air was forcefully pushed out of my body.

"Getoffgetoffgetoff!" I wheezed, unable to breathe.

"Justin, get off of her!" a voice barked from behind Justin, and Justin was quick to move off me.

I shot up to a sitting position, coughing slightly as the air burned when it was returned to my lungs.

I looked over to see a guilty looking Justin sitting on my bed and a stern looking grandpa standing by my door.

"I'm sorry Julie, that's the only way I can wake up everyone else." Justin said sadly.

I could tell that he was regressed again, just from the way he was acting, and the childish hint to his tone. It made me wonder if I would ever see him in his older mindset. I was curious to know what type of person Justin had turned out to be.

"It's fine," I wheezed, still trying to catch my breath. "Just please keep in mind that unlike the others, I still weigh less than you.

"Come on Justin, let's go." Grandpa said in an almost snappy tone. Justin looked at him confused.

"Go where? Julie isn't even dressed yet."

"No, but you're writing lines." He stated and shifted so he could point to the door across the hallway, which from what I've gathered, is Justin's room.

"Aww man, that's no fair!" Justin exclaimed, but got up anyway.

"Why does he have to write lines?" I asked softly, and Grandpa turned his attention to me.

"Because he hurt you. He knows better." He said simply.

"No he doesn't. That's how he wakes up everyone, he just forgot that I'm not as indestructible as some people here." I defended, not wanting Justin to get in trouble because of me.

"He still hurt you. He's writing lines. End of discussion." For some reason against my better judgement, I opened my mouth to argue again, but one look had me closing it.

"Don't think I won't give you the same thing. If you'd like to join him, just keep talking." He said and I ground my teeth together to stop from making a comment that would get my ass beat.

He nodded slightly to himself, content with my lack of acknowledgement before he followed Justin to his room. But not before calling over his shoulder that I needed to be down for breakfast in 10 minutes.

Piss off Grandpa - Check.

'Well isn't that a great way to kick off that day?' I thought bitterly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breakfast was a shit show.

Apparently Justin had talked Grandpa into taking him and I to a roller rink, but because of him cursing out Grandpa after refusing to take his punishment for "hurting me" those plans had been cancelled.

And since Uncle Stefano didn't want me to "get bored," he suggested that Elliot and I go to the drawing room and paint together, so we could have some "bonding time".

And I'm not even exaggerating, he actually said that.

He just didn't want to leave me alone and risk me getting into trouble or breaking anything. Because apparently Justin had been grounded to his room until he completed the million lines Grandpa had given him, and Elliot was the only person home that would be free. Everyone else would either be working at one of their corporations, or in their office.

Now Elliot didn't like having me spontaneously dumped on him, so he threw a small little hissy-fit, and when he didn't get away with that, he conceded to simply glaring daggers at me throughout the entire meal.

If looks could kill.

So here I was, practically jogging to keep up with a pouting Elliot as he marched his way to his art studio.

And boy was that the correct term.

When he opened the door I was enveloped in a large room filled to the brim with all different sorts of art supplies. From canvases to paper, pencils to paint, there was even a pottery section.

"Are you going to stand there gaping all day?" Elliot snapped and I moved inside so he could shut the door.

"Okay, here's the deal. This is my space. This is my stuff. You can use the supplies here, however you do not touch, look at, or mess with any of my previous or ongoing work. You do not make comments on them because frankly I don't care.

" If you use something, wash it and put it back where you got it. Do not talk to me once I am in the zone. If you're curious about if I have something, I probably do, if you want to know where it is, the cabinets are labelled. Capisce?" He said and I nodded, still in shock at his impressive set up.

"Good. You can sit there." He said, pointing to a stool that was stationed next to a wall that had a bunch of empty canvases and copy paper.

I sat down, looking at the easel in front of me, contemplating what I wanted to do.

As much as I hated to admit it, most of my drawings were pretty dark, or had dark meanings behind them. So now, thinking about drawing when I wasn't completely overwhelmed by emotions, or wasn't simply doodling, I was at a dead end. However, I refuse to let this be another thing he takes away from me.

Settling my resolve, I noticed that Elliot was already situated on a stool identical to mine, with an easel in front of him also. He had a canvas propped up on it, facing away from me, obviously, with a paint brush in one hand and a paint palette in the other.

That's what I was going to draw.

Snatching up a canvas from the right of me, I made sure my work would be hidden from the immediate eye, and Elliot, and got to work first sketching out my portate.

I took special time with Elliot's eyes, having to erase and redo them more times than I cared to admit. There was such a peaceful and passionate look in them, it was impossible to capture.

I'm not sure how long we were in there; however I would have to say it was a good amount of time because I had gotten almost the entire sketch complete, except his eyes still weren't quite the way I wanted them, before there was a soft knock on the door.

When there was no answer from either of us, me because I didn't want to be rude by inviting someone into a space that wasn't mine, and Elliot because I'm not sure he even noticed. Hunter peaked his head in the door.

"Juliana, dad wants to see you in his office." He whispered and I nodded, hopping off the stool, finding a random sheet to throw over my sketch so Elliot wouldn't see, before following Hunter out of the room.

"Did he say why?" I asked Hunter as we went up the stairs to the third floor, and Hunter simply shook his head.

"No, but he probably just wants to talk about rules, or some other boring shit." Hunter rolled his eyes.

I simply nodded, and let out a big breath.

"You'll be fine, it's not like he's gonna shank ya." Hunter laughed, before he motioned to a door on our left.

I knocked lightly and Hunter quickly left, escaping back down the way we came.

I entered into the spacious yet very bright office after being given permission.

"Hello Juliana, please take a seat." Uncle Stefano said, looking up from his computer with a smile. I did as I was told and waited patiently for him to be done with whatever it was he was doing as it looked important.

Just as Uncle Stefano closed his laptop, there was another knock on the door, and in came Grandpa.

'Amazing,' I thought to myself sourly. 'Now I'm in a room, alone, with two of the ex capo's. One of which I had an attitude with earlier. Think I know why I'm here now.'

Grandpa made himself comfortably on the small couch that was on the left wall, equal with the chair I was sitting in.

"Sorry about that Juliana, work has been very crazy the last few days." I simply gave him a small smile that hopefully portrayed that it was no big deal and it didn't matter.

What am I saying, smiles can't talk.

"So, I called you in here because I would like to go over some general rules, and to just fill you in on how things tend to work around the house, okay?" He didn't really ask, however I still nodded anyway.

"Now if you have any comments or concerns with any of these rules please let me know at the end and we will discuss it." He said and again, I nodded.

'More like he'll pretend to listen and then tell you to suck it up.'

"Rule #1. No Fighting. This implies no hitting, no kicking, no name calling, shaming, or putting people down. It is okay to disagree, however you still need to respect one another. And violence is not how we solve things in this house.

Rule #2. Communicate. If there is something going on, something causing you trouble, then there is no reason for you to try and hide it, or deal with it on your own. We're family. It's healthy to talk, to rant, to ask for advice, but we can't help you if we don't know there is a problem to begin with.

Rule #3. Tell the truth/Own up to your actions. Everybody makes mistakes, that is just a part of life. But you will get in even more trouble if you're caught lying, or if you try to hide something from us. Especially if it's something that could potentially put yourself or others in danger.

Rule #4. No drugs or alcohol.

Rule #5. Do not go into mafia related rooms. I will map out those rooms and locations for you so you have a better idea of where those are, but the main ones are the basement and the shed out back. Granted, both of those are pretty heavily guarded so if you were to succeed in sneaking in there, I would be surprised, however the punishment for that will still be severe. And this leads us straight into our final rule, rule 6.

Rule #6. Do not mess around with mafia related things. At this age, you already know to keep your mouth shut when it comes to anything mafia related. However, you are at the age where you are going to be getting more and more curious. That being said, if you ever, and I mean ever, mess around with things like: the safe room, the weaponry, the prisoners, files, things in our offices, shipments, even if you meant it in a harmless way, we will all personally make sure you understand why that is not acceptable. Not only would you be putting yourself at a high risk of getting hurt, you would be risking many other lives.

Do you understand me?" This was possibly the most serious I'd seen Uncle Stefano since I got here.

From what I had seen, he was very easy going, not much angered him, and he joked around a lot.

"Yes sir." I said, almost on instinct from the tone he was using with my right now.

"Good. Later I will explain which rooms are the ones you should stay out of, and get you programmed into the house security system so the alarms don't keep going off." He said, almost as if he was making more of a mental note to himself than informing me.

"Uhh, alarms?" I asked, confused because I hadn't heard any alarms since I got here.

"Oh yes, we have a lot of silent alarms that can be tripped in certain places if fingerprints are not recognized. For example the office door, when you twisted the knob to come inside we got a warning about an unidentified, possible, intruder." He said, writing something down on a stick note, sticking it to the side of his desk when he was done.

"All of that from me twisting a door handle?" I asked, incredulous Sure, my house had some pretty exaggerated safety measures, but this was something else.

"Yes. Now anything about the rules before we move on?" He asked and I simply shook my head, even though I was a little unsure about what he meant when he talked about communicating something that's bothering you with an adult.

Did he mean if someone was bothering you, or if you were actively about to kill yourself?

'Don't you dare ask him. He'll mock you and call you an idiot for not knowing what he meant the first time. Then you'll be in trouble.' The stupid little voice in the back of my head warned, and I swatted that thought away, however it still resolved my resolution to not ask.

"Alright. This is just a written version of the rules, you can do what you want with it, but I don't want any excuses of "not remembering" them." He said, handing me a sheet of laminated paper, stating all the rules in simple form.

Yes, I said laminated.

"Good, so, there is another thing I would like to talk about, and that is activities. I'm not sure if anybody has told you, but I do like keeping you kids occupied, especially during the summer, with some sort of social group/s or activity that will get you out of the house, or just keep you socialised. So are there any groups you are currently aware of that you would like to join that maybe you did back home, or that you are interested in doing here? If not I can get you a few lists of ideas." Uncle Stefano said and I nodded, pretty surprised by that.

"If you could give me a few ideas, or a few days then I could probably give you an idea of something I would like to do." Uncle Stefano nodded, and then looked at another sticky note sitting on the top of his desk.

"Okay, other than that, I'll have Massimo show you which rooms to avoid tomorrow, but you can continue painting with Elliot." He said, dismissing me with a smile. I smiled back, grateful to get out of the room.