Adopted by Stromae

huit

As soon as Maelle arrived at home— she found it a little disturbing, to say the least, she was already semi-comfortable with that term— she made an unsuccessful beeline for her room, with Paul stopping her.

"We're having dinner early today," he announced enthusiastically, met with a cold glare from Maelle. "Max is over. Meet us at the dinner table, okay?"

"Can I put my bag down first?" she rhetorically asks, shrugging off Paul's hand that was on her shoulder. Without waiting for a response, she continued the walk to her room.

As she took her jacket off and threw it into some corner with little precaution, she took a deep sigh. Seeing Maxime was a permanent reminder that, to her foster parents, she was nothing more than a lost cause. After having an amazing foster child like Max and then being thrown into the deep end with her; she realized after being a pain in the ass for two weeks there would be no way she could recover. That was it— she had a chance, and she blew it.

At the same time, she always had this eternal anger for them and distrustful instinct when she thought of them. They offered her a place to stay, whatever, but did they really care about Maelle? No, of course not. I mean, why would they? She needed to keep this the way it was right now, or else she would look pathetic if she tried to backstep and apologize for what'd she'd done. That was out of the question.

Keeping a straight face, she'd decided she would need to do something. Something to set them off. They didn't understand that when she acted terrible to them and they reciprocated with nothing but patience and kindness— it made her feel as if something was eating at her. The only way she'd be able to fight that off if she made them angry, and she wasn't sure how that'd happen yet; but she knew it needed to happen. Soon.

She walked into the dining room and took a chair next to Max, albeit uncomfortably, feeling as if she stuck out like a sore thumb. A plate of porkchops and mashed potatoes was placed in front of her by Coralie, to which she ate whilst the everyone else spoke about Max's experience at university. They were speaking English, but it was most likely forced to keep Maelle comfortable.

Soon, she realized— what better way for her to get at her foster parents then mess with their perfect child, Maxime? They clearly had a soft spot for him, and she knew if she continued to act within her comfort zone; which was being unremorseful, she would get nowhere. That was expected of her. What wasn't, though, was if she tried to pretend to be attracted to him.

After short consideration, she nodded internally. That would probably do the trick; hopefully it'd lead to each of them hating her, which was the end goal, after all.

Maelle did just that. Even though she kept a blank stare whenever her foster prents would be speaking, it was an entirely different story with the young adult sitting next to her. Whenever Max would make a pitiful attempt at a joke, she'd laugh. Whenever he'd be speaking, she'd listen intently as if it was the most awe-inspiring thing she'd heard in her entire life.

"So, yeah. University has definitely been a better experience than I thought it'd be," Max finishes off the topic, hopping onto another. "My roommates are pretty nice, as well. I think it'll be a decent first year."

Think, Maelle, think. What would someone that was totally into their foster brother say at a moment like this?

"It'd be nice to visit your dorm room." Maelle blurted out, feeling absolutely idiotic that those words were the ones that decided to leave her mouth. Embarassement probably made her face completely red, and she knew that this would be it.

She didn't even look up to see any of their facial reactions, and was extremely tempted to storm out of here and lock herself into her bedroom. This was probably one of the biggest predicaments she'd caused herself living here— and for once, she was entirely to blame.

"That would be great!" Max beamed, surprising Maelle to a degree that was inhumanly possible. "I could show you around campus and everything. You could grab lunch with me, it would be really nice to have you around."

Paul and Coralie both seemed happier than ever– and she'd realized her plan had backfired on her completely. She cleared her throat, and pushed back her plate to signal she was done eating. "Yep. Okay, goodnight."

She realized that nothing she could do would upset these people. Being angry, messing with them, just being present— she was completely and utterly underserving of them. Maelle was in a spot where she was confused, whether or not to change her ways was like deciding which one of her legs she'd rather cut off. She didn't care— but in either scenarios, she knew she'd end up being hurt further.

She exhaled in frustration, but ultimately, she decided upon the fact that if she was going to commit to anything at all in her life, it would be being discourteous to the Van Haver family.

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a/n: heyy how is everyone doing!!! i'm doing well, thank u i spent all day sleeping. : ^ ) this is the eighth chapter in about three days which is a world record for danielle + i, so applaud us ty.

adios, have a good day !!