The Masks of Amelia

I Get Help with the Cleaning

We made it home safely, but I couldn't let out a sigh of relief because I was still holding my breath, waiting for something horrible to happen. 12 hours were down, but I still had 12 more to go. 

Horrid scenarios swam in my mind. I'd have to hire a contractor to rebuild part of the house, both girls would almost murder their now ex-boyfriends and I'd have to handle the PTSD. I'd have to clean my step-mother's room, which would not go well with my kleptomaniac tendencies.

I was never expecting this.

My evilly-sometimes-brilliant step-mother had arranged for an interview with the biggest news channel in the kingdom. I didn't know how, I didn't want to know how, but she had. And so, my humble family would be interviewed by King's Crown News. In four hours.

Of course, this meant I had to make sure every inch of the house was spotless by then, just in case the reporters wanted a full tour. Even into the attic, apparently. The attic that had not been touched in my full 17 years.

As I hosed down windows, and carefully scrubbed floors and walls, I realized perhaps I could have friends to help me clean. No one was home, they were getting pampered before the big interview on gods knew what.

I called up my mafia contacts, and some other friends of mine, Grace and Jake. Grace was an air elemental, and very aptly named. Jake worked at the dress shop I'd taken the girls to just two days ago. He also had an adorably awkward demeanor around Grace. I'd sent them both subtle signals they should date each other over the years, but alas, they were both woefully ignorant.

Scarlett showed up first, of course, and turned the impromptu cleaning spree into an impromptu meeting about Plan B. While I was all about Plan B, (Go team!) I needed to get this cleaning done in order to participate in Plan B.

And so first, I delegated people into different parts of the house, because of course Scarlett had showed up with ten of her closest mafia bodyguards. I'd seen some of them around before. Most of them were non-elementals like me, using this fact to sneak by the more snooty elementals and cause some mild havoc.

Of course, I paired Grace and Jake together because I just couldn't help myself. I did send one of Scarlett's bodyguards with them.

"Remember everyone, you hear a car come into the garage, you vanish. You put things back, and you go. I don't want to see you before you go, I don't want Lillian seeing you before you go. Am I understood?" There were nods, some sly smiles. I stomped up to the grinning guard and looked up at him. "If Lillian sees you, she will incinerate you. She will burn through your heart and look through your body like an interesting plant she's found for Eva. And she will smile much like you are right now, but hers will last longer. Am I understood?" The nods were more serious this time, and I dismissed them.

Scarlett stared at me, open-mouthed, and I realized what had happened. I'd turned into a general for a brief moment. Now that the moment was gone, of course, my knees were practically knocking together as I realized I'd just yelled at a hardcore member of a hardcore mafia. I'd practically threatened the poor guy. He'd tell Boss, and Boss would send a hitman after me, and maybe I wouldn't avoid death this time, because I was dying of stress anyway.

But then Scarlett lit up faster than her fire did and I could see mastermind wheels turning in her head. "You sounded like a princess just there, Miss Amelia," she said.

I grimaced. "Did I? I didn't mean to. Do you think they'll be mad? They're not going to mess anything up now are they? Oh gods, what did I just do? I need them to help me, I need"

"You need to calm down, Amelia. If anything, their respect for you just increased." She sounded... impressed.

I floundered for a moment. "How?" Now I was just bewildered. Yelling at them made them respect me? That didn't sound right. Lillian's yelling had never made me respect her in the slightest.

Scarlett just grabbed a bucket and mop and motioned for me to head up to the attic with her. I snagged the dust rag and polish and followed her, still trying to figure out the enigma that was my friend's mafia and family, which were essentially the same thing.

Once we were up in the attic and Scarlett had checked for bugs, (A habit Boss had instilled in her) she started talking as we cleaned the maze that had been set up there.

"When I told these guys we were going to go help you clean up this afternoon, they literally said, 'What, the tiny timid one? Why?' and I just about chewed their heads off, insisting we really do need you for Plan B. And you just proved my point back there. You can become someone else, whoever you need to be to get a job done. You needed them to listen, so you became someone they had to listen to. And you sent them away with a wave of your hand. And they listened. Amelia, I have trouble getting them to take me seriously. That was amazing! And we can use it. You practically turned into a princess back there. So, hear me out here, what if we snuck you into the ball as a mysterious princess? Or at least some sort of lady's daughter or something."

Scarlett seemed so excited by this new prospect of hers, but... I liked the idea of preserving my anonymity at a ball. I had assumed I would be a simple maid, at the most Scarlett's lady in waiting or some such thing. Nothing as bold as this.

"I'm flattered Scarlett, really, but what was your original plan? Maybe that one would work better. I don't know if I could pretend to be a princess for that long, in front of people, no less." I was shrinking back, focusing intently on the weird table in front of me. It had too uneven a surface to have been much use.

"Amelia." Scarlett took my shoulders. "You can do this. The other plan is crap compared to this one." She had that crazy masterminding fire in her eyes. "This way, you don't even need your step-mother's permission to go, and you don't have to worry about setting up your sister with the prince. We can do that. We'll make sure they're around him when the big stuff happens, and he'll have to help them get over their 'delicate senses' and you know neither one of them would let go of him after that and," Scarlett started babbling all these things that could happen in our favor, and suddenly, it didn't seem such a bad idea.

We finished the attic, and Scarlett laid out a solid plan on how to get me to the ball even if (or more likely, when) Lillian didn't let me go to the ball.

I was finally part of Plan B.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

So I finally figured out a filler chapter and I'm super proud of myself.

You know how sometimes you just get a really sudden urge to write because everything else that's going on isn't good enough and isn't correct? That's what inspired this. And also, I feel powerful typing without looking at the keyboard.

SO! Like, comment, criticize, compliment, I'm taking everything and giving you this.

Anyhitherwho!

~KK