The Swan Miraculous

The Maid Story

I hum quietly to myself as I work on my script for the homework project. I'm the one coming up with how we got the location of the heroes' hangout. We can't really say they stop by my house all the time and stuff.

I've come up with something that isn't exactly a lie; that we used Alya's Ladyblog to gather information and managed to work it out, but we can't say the location in order to protect the heroes. Worst case scenario is that someone actually goes fishing through and somehow manages to hear that quiet line that the others were all looking out for anyway, right? I wouldn't have caught it myself if I didn't know to specifically listen for something tying me to the heroes.

"Whatcha doing, Esme?" Arya asks curiously, fluttering over my shoulder. "Just some homework," I smile to her. I already love having a kwami. Arya's really sweet and cute and great company.

"'... To protect the identities of the heroes, we have been asked not to disclose the location of their {hangout?}, but through connections and the use of Alya's Ladyblog we have been able to meet with the heroes individually to speak about their charitable acts of courage and heroism for the city...' That's really good!"

"Aw, really? Thanks!" I smile to Arya, glad she thinks it'll work well. "But... What does that part actually mean?" Arya asks in confusion, pointing to the part that says {hangout?}. "Oh, just gonna check that word before I write it up neatly," I explain. "You know, see what the opinion is or whether I should use a different word for it."

"If you say so!" Arya nods. "Now how about you take a break from that for now? You should get something to eat!" "Is that your way of saying you're hungry?" I ask playfully. "It can be both!" She giggles.

I chuckle and get up, heading down to the kitchen with her. "Let's see what we've got, then..." I check all the food we've got while Arya phases through all the cupboards and stuff. "Any preferences?" I ask her, amused. "I wanna know what stuff you like to eat."

"Hm... Ooh! Croissants!" Arya returns, holding a croissant double her size. I laugh. "Gotcha. Croissants it is." I get a few more croissants out and set them on a plate for us both to grab at as we go. I take one now and Arya and I happily munch away.

"So, Esme, I gotta ask..." Arya starts, glancing up at me. "Sure, what's up?" I smile, looking down at her. "Where are your parents? Usually there's at least someone else around here I should be hiding from..."

"Oh, my mother's out on a business trip again," I shrug. "There's nobody else except me." "Really?" Arya frowned. "That... doesn't sound right..."

"It's fine, I don't mind," I assure her nonchalantly. "She's only my adoptive mother. I've only properly seen her a few times. She occasionally stops by here for a day or two, then she's off again. She hasn't been here in two months."

"And you've been alone all that time?" Arya frowns. "At first there was a maid," I sigh irritably, remembering that snobby woman.  "Let's just say she and her friends decided to work night shifts. And I mean that in multiple different ways."

"Yuck! What did you do about it?"

"Well that wasn't the only issue with her, so obviously I wanted her gone. My mother didn't seem to like her much either, so I brought it up to her what goes on at night. All the parties and the alcohol and the guys... she said she wasn't pleased with it, but she did a decent job so she wasn't going to fire her unless something big came up. She couldn't be bothered, really, and no real harm had been done."

"That's no good! What happened after that?"

"Oh, this is kinda the part where it gets kinda sketchy. Well, even more sketchy. You probably wouldn't exactly approve of what I did next."

"I won't judge. She sounds like she probably deserved it, depending on what it was. Come on, you can't leave me hanging like that!"

"Okay... so after my mother left the maid threatened me for bringing it up. So I waited until the night before my mother returned, then I left a bottle of the maid's favourite wine in my mother's room and took my mother's super expensive necklace - it's her favourite one - and took it to school the next day."

"What? Why did you do that?"

"Because at that time Chloé Bourgois - you know, Queen Bee? She's the mayor's daughter, so she gets away with everything - was having a bit of a relapse into the 'mine' phase toddlers have; the one where they always think everything belongs to them just because they say it does."

"Okaaaay...?"

"Stay with me on this - so anyway, I took the necklace into school and left it half hanging out of my bag in class. When I knew Chloé had seen it I asked to go to the bathroom. When I came back, I caught Chloé sneaking back to her desk and the necklace was gone from my bag."

"What does this have to do with your maid?"

"I'm getting to that part - the next day when my mother came home, she immediately saw that the necklace was gone. And the smell of alcohol was super strong in there. Then she found the maid's favourite wine spilled all over her carpet. She didn't suspect me since I'm still too young to drink all this time later and I'd have no reason to steal the necklace aside from to wear it and return it. She asked me if I'd taken it from her room and believed me when I said no."

"And the only other people it could've been were the maid, her friends from all her parties and anyone else you've brought over?"

"Exactly! So they tried to track down the necklace and at one point they must've realised Chloé had it, but she didn't get in trouble because she's the mayor's daughter and he's a pushover for her. So they returned the necklace and claimed that it had 'just shown up' when they were arresting a jewellery thief."

"Wow, so you used Chloé's father's position and Chloé's brattiness to make sure the necklace was returned safely but nobody else would get in trouble if  it accidentally got found?"

"Pretty much, I guess. That's definitely how it worked out. And the maid was fired. She downright refused that she'd done anything but it was assumed she'd been blackout drunk and just couldn't remember."

"Did your mother ever find out?"

"Oh, she knew right away. Wouldn't say how. She put me in charge of all the maid's old jobs around the house - not that she did a good job anyway - as a punishment while she got to work finding a replacement. She did say she was glad I got rid of the maid, though."

"And did you ever find a replacement?"

"Nope, that just stayed as my job. I think it just slipped her mind. But I don't mind, it's nicer this way."