Repeat After Me

Chapter 2

I slept until 11am when I heard my parents and Josh get home. I came out to the living room.

'The football has been cancelled,' Josh announced. 'Bloody coronavirus. It's ruining everything.' He lay down on the couch and flicked the TV on. 'Mum, can you make me a smoothie?'

'Of course darling,' mum said. Josh and mum often accompanied dad on his interstate trips with Geelong football club. He was one of their team physios. They started leaving me home by myself when I was about 14. I think I was ruining the football fan club vibe (even the noise of the crowd annoys me). Instead, I found new ways to occupy myself, like going out painting in the city at night.

'Did you want a green smoothie?' mum asked Josh eagerly.

'Nah, one of those avocado and peanut butter ones,' he said.

I could hear mum rummaging through the fridge in the kitchen. 'Ivy, how did you go last night?' she called out.

'Fine,' I said. 'I warmed up some dinner and watched a movie. I had an early night.'

'I thought Charlotte was coming over.'

'Nup, I never said Charlotte was coming over. That was like four weeks ago.'

'Oh. I thought it was this weekend. Nevermind. Such a shame about the football being cancelled. It was one of the only things left for people to look forward to. The world has gone mad.'

Dad walked in with three overnight bags hanging from his tanned arms.

'Did you watch the game?' he asked, hopefully.

'No,' I said.

'Shame, because it's going to be the last one for a while.'

I shrugged my shoulders, unable to muster up any enthusiasm.

Back in my room, I drew a still life of my sticky tape dispenser. I thought about Asten from last night. I hadn't met any other street artists before. I always worked on my own. Sometimes I didn't even know why I did street art. It was an unexplainable urge I had. Often I didn't even let myself carry pens and pencils home from school, in case I was overcome with the impulse to draw something on someone's fence.

Mr Colter, my art teacher, said I had a passion that was rare. But he said I needed to hone my technique and move more towards 'conscious painting'. He recommended that I work on my drawing skills and take extra life drawing classes. He was the first person to say I had any kind of talent, so his limited edition encouragement was like survival food.