“Take this,”A maid said sourly, pushing a big basketful of laundry into my arms forcefully. “Go and put them out to dry outside on the washing line.” She turned and stalked away. I made a face at her back before turning away to do the laundry.

I had already pulled open curtains and made beds for most of the morning, couldn’t they give me a break!? I grunted and took the basket of laundry outside. It was nice and sunny outside.

“A good day to be walking around, free,” I sulked to myself as I dropped the basket onto the ground and started putting up the clothes. When I had put up about the 50^th piece of clothing, I turned my head to look at the nice sunshine again. The garden seemed empty. I could just…escape now right? Tippy-toeing, I snuck to the front of the house and was about to run for my life outside the gates until suddenly a familiar voice came  out through a speaker that was right next to me.

“Escaping won’t work, I have security cameras you know~” My eyebrow twitched. That jerk. I ran out anyway. Even if he had security cameras, how was he going to catch me anyway?

Suddenly from nowhere, security guards came from all directions and charged straight towards me!! I yelped. Dammit!!! This wasn’t fair!! The security guards all crashed into me like football players and soon, they were all piled up on top of me. I was squashed down below a whole lot of security guards. Somebody help me.

~~~

“Escaping this place without permission is very hard you know,” Aaron said as I was placed down onto a seat in his room. I blew on my fringe which had parts of hair sticking out. This was not fun.

“That means I can get out of this crazy place with your permission, right?” I challenged. Aaron considered it for a moment.

“Yes,” He said after a while. “But I really doubt that I would let you go with my permission.” I narrowed my eyes.

“Then I’m escaping by force.”

“As you wish. Good luck with that.”

I stood up to walk away.

“Remember to help the other maid’s cook lunch!” Aaron called as I slammed the door shut.

~~~

“Chop up these vegetables for lunch,” The chef said to me as she shoved a basketful of vegetables at me. “Make sure you cut them perfectly. Now.” Yet, another worker in this house that was female that sounded like they hated me. I sighed and shuffled towards the kitchen bench where the chopping board was. Another girl was also there and was chopping up some onions with her head down. Her brown fringe covered her eyes.

I placed the vegetables down next to her and ignored her and started chopping. She was probably one of those maids that hated me as well. I didn’t get it. Why did these maids hate me so much?

The chef came up to look at our handiwork so far and slapped the girl next to me on the back. She flinched.

“What are you doing!?” The chef yelled. “You’re not supposed to chop those onions like that!” She flung all the onions that the girl had chopped into the bin.

“Do it again!” The chef ordered, small specks of spit flying onto the girl’s face. “And do it properly for goodness sake!” She turned around and left in a huff.

The girl wiped her face and sniffed. Not knowing what else to do, I spoke to the girl.

“Hello…” I said. The girl flinched and looked at me. I took some onions from the kitchen bench and placed them onto the chopping board.

“Would you like me to help you chop up onions?” I asked. The girl didn’t reply but I cut them up anyway.

“No one here has been nice to me like this before,” The girl said softly after a while. I turned my head towards her.

“Sorry?” I asked. She looked up at me. She had shiny, brown hair that was not long and not short. She was surprisingly pretty since most of the maids I had met so far were ugly and hateful.

“Most of the maids here dislike new maids or maids that are close to Master Aaron,” The girl continued. “They treat them like dirt.” Ah. So that’s why they seem to hate me so much.

“You wanted to work here?” I asked. The girl lowered her head.

“Actually…” She said. “Master Aaron took me in.” I blinked.

“Wh-What!?” I yelled. “What do you mean!?”

“I’ve worked here for quite a while,” She explained. “He took me in when I was little and our family was very close to becoming broke. I was selling some of my favourite dresses on the streets to try earning money but not many people bought them.”

I listened intently. If she was almost broke then, how did she meet with Aaron!?

“Then, master Aaron’s car came along and stopped next to me. His sister came out,” The girl said.

“S-Sister!?” I shouted. “He has a sister!?” The girl looked at me in confusion and nodded. Well, excuse me for not knowing. The girl then smiled.

“His sister liked my dresses. She bought them and I told her to look after my favourite dresses for me,” She said. “His sister had frowned and asked me why I was selling my favourite dresses. I told her everything and she asked master Aaron to take me in. In the end, he did.”

“That’s nice,” I said. “But…I haven’t seen his sister around.” The girl nodded.

“Yes,” She replied. “His sister is studying in America somewhere right now.” I whistled and continued chopping.

“Nice,” I said. There was silence for a while I chopped the onions into perfect blocks.

“Um…What is your name?” The girl asked. I turned my head towards her.

“Ah,” I said. “Gui Gui.” Oops. I turned back quickly. I hoped she didn’t watch the news a lot. I hoped she wouldn’t find out that the AWESOME THIEF Gui Gui worked as a maid in some STUPID NERD’S house.

She didn’t.

“Oh,” She replied, smiling. “My name is Mei Mei. Nice to meet you, Gui Gui.” For the first time in this horrible house, I felt happy. I had finally made a friend that wasn’t like those other maids in this house.

But I wondered if I could trust her. I wondered if I could tell her I was a thief and wanted to escape this place.

~~

Author’s Note: So now we have another character to step into this story. Now that Mei Mei is in this story, I’ve thought of two other characters I could add into this story!! If you click back to the foreword, you’ll see them there along with Mei Mei.