Hey, everyone! How are you guys?

I hope you guys are doing okay, especially around the time of Mothers' Day. You guys are soooo awesome and amazing!

For anyone looking for something to cheer them up, I pasted a link to a video from my all-time favorite Youtuber, Danny Gonzalez. He mostly posts videos of him making fun of rip-off low budget movies or hilariously stupid channels (Ex. Billion Surprise Toys, the channel he is making fun of in the attached video). Danny is one of the funniest- no THE FUNNIEST Youtuber I've ever come across. I highly recommend checking out one of his videos.

Has anyone read Keeper of the Lost Cities yet?

No?

Okay, on with the story!

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Chloe's POV

6:34 AM

"Wake up, Chloe!" a familiar sweet voice said urgently. I slowly opened my aquamarine blue eyes to see a petite girl with short fiery hair leaning over my head wearing a froggy hoodie.

"Five more minutes..." I mumbled. Sabrina rolled her eyes and yanked the blankets off of me.

"I made waffles," she said. "If you don't get up, I'll carry you to the kitchen myself."

I chuckled sleepily, burying my head in my peach-scented pillow and throwing my blanket over my head. "Like you could."

Sabrina gasped offendedly. "That's it, you're getting up now!!"

She grabbed the blanket off of me and dragged my hand to the bathroom. "You get ready. We have school!"

I quickly got up from my comfortable bed and slumped to the sink grumpily, running the sink over my toothbrush. I looked out the window to see summer leaves falling down for sidewalk trees and the superheroes of Paris battling yet another villain.

My mind drifts back to the day I got akumatized, because of mom. My thoughts darken as my mother comes into them, and a familiar cloud of resentment surrounds any memories I've had of her. Holding my toothbrush in my hand and staring at my reflection like a frozen statue, my mind goes back. Way back.

Crash! A sound of glass shattering from inside the room filled the air, sending a shiver across my body. I clutched my yellow teddy bear closer to my chest and gulped, slowly inching my face closer to the doorway to spy in on my mom. A broken china plate layed on the carpet. Mother stared at it angrily with clenched fists and beads of sweat dripping down her forehead. Her breaths were a shallow and quick as purple her face was.

After seeing the mortifying sight, I hastily stepped back and pressed myself against the cold walls. Mother would be furious if she saw me spying, so I fearfully stood as close to the wall as I could; part of me trying to flatten myself into the wall. That way, she wouldn't see me. At least I didn't think she would.

You could never really tell, with mother.

These days, however, the days she was her sweet, nurturing, motherly self were decreasing. A couple years ago, one week had only one day of rage, fiery, hot-tempered mother storming down the halls towards my room. But those gaps have been growing rapidly, and now weeks only have one day of the good mom. The good mom would send some servants to make you hot chocolate, or buy you some new shoes at her favorite store, but not yours, because it was "too young and hippy".

Just like I expected, Mother stormed out of the room. She thankfully didn't notice me, and it took a lot of willpower to not let out a sigh of relief when she passed the wall I was clinging to. For a fraction of a second, it seemed like I was in the clear. Until I saw what she was dragging along with her out of the room and my eyes widened with terror.

A suitcase.

She's leaving. For good, this time.

My brain desperately ordered my legs to obey, to stay put, to not chase after her. But nevertheless, I sprinted to the helicopter pad like my clothes were on fire. I saw mother dragging the suitcase up the ramp, and my brain cursed at itself when I screamed, "Don't go! Please!"

Mother turned around and looked me in the eyes for a moment. And for a split second, I could see real sympathy in her eyes. Not the kind that some people faked, or tried to fake. Real sympathy. But as quickly as it came, it was gone.

She simply nodded a goodbye like I was too unimportant to deserve a goodbye with words, and the ramp lifted up and closed the vehicle, sealing my mother away from me for good.

I watched the helicopter slowly rise into the rise and disappear into the clouds, heading for New York. Where the fashion industry wanted her to be, but not where her family wanted her to be. Paris. Home.

When the helicopter was no longer visible, I dragged myself to my room and looked at the ceiling for hours. Then, when the sun went down and nightfall came, I cried and smeared tears and snot on my comforting teddy bear until I was too tired to cry anymore, then fell asleep.

"Chloe?" Sabrina called from outside the bathroom. I quickly snapped out of my trance and checked my phone to realize I've been standing here for seven minutes.

"Uh, yeah! Getting ready!" I called out and hastily brushed and styled my hair. Because of the time, my hair looked a little lazy when I walked out, which Sabrina noticed...within three seconds.

"Are you okay, Chlo?" she asked; her nickname for me making my heart doing a triple backflip. The sides of my mouth twitched with a tiny pang of happiness, but otherwise I probably looked pretty gloomy.

"Yup!" I said. Sabrina looked at me suspiciously for a couple seconds as we stood looking at each other. I couldn't help but chuckle slightly, bringing a small smile to my face.

"Let's eat breakfast," she finally said. "If you want to tell me what's going on, I'll be here."

As we ate our fluffy caramel vanilla waffles, I noticed my phone buzzed with a new message. My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as I read the name at the top of the text.

Mom.

What does she want? I thought, or at least I thought I did.

"What did you say?" Sabrina mumbled over the waffle muffling her voice.

"Oh, nothing! I just have to get something," I said hastily. Sabrina looked at me with wary eyes, but chose to let me tell her myself. I looked down at my phone to read the text again.

Meet me in my study.

I grimaced. Not exactly the kind of heartwarming text you would expect a mother to send her daughter, but actually texting your daughter directly is a first step, right?

I made my way to mother's study. After years of dreading being called to her study by servants so that she could yell at me for something, the hallway felt like walking down a graveyard. My pace slowed the closer I got to the door, until I was barely moving as I slowly gripped the door handle and turned it.

Mother's office was as big as my humongous room with glass walls all around except for the wall behind her desk, which was polished marble. Even though the smooth shiny glass let in a lot of sunlight, the room still felt cold and dim.

In one of the two chairs in front of mother's desk, a girl with sky blue eyes and blackberry hair in pigtails sat with her arms rubbing her shoulders. Her eyes widened as I walked in the room, acknowledging her presence with a simple nod instead of a withering glare.

Sitting down on my chair that despite being cushioned felt like hard metal and doing my best to avoid Marinette's gaze, I turned towards my mother who looked at me with a blank slate of a face.

"You called me here?" I said coolly. Mother took a slight breath, and opened her mouth before speaking two seconds later.

"I have been thinking, Chloe," she said slowly and carefully. I raised my eyebrows at her correct attempt of remembering my name, but chose not to interrupt. "I feel like it would be best if...you had Marinette's scholarship. I feel like it's the least I could do after getting you akumatized."

Mother, Marinette, and I all knew getting me akumatized wasn't her reason for handing over the scholarship, but something else a little harder to talk about. Not that I mentioned that, either. I was a little busy making sure my jaw stayed put instead of dropping to the floor.

But now was not the time for sappy heartwarming family bonding time. Now was the time to make things right.

I looked Marinette in her surprised blue eyes and turned back to my mom. "Thank you, mom, but I think Marinette should take the scholarship." I kept my expression cold and distant, which seems to make my mother's forehead crease guiltily.

Not that it changed anything. I wasn't ready to jump into my mother's arms the second she opened them. I've lived without her affection for years, and I can do it again.

When my mother failed to respond, I took that as an invitation to be excused from the room. Quickly rushing back to the kitchen where Sabrina was waiting for me, I couldn't help but catch a glimpse at Marinette's gaping jaw. I mentally snickered.

Proving everyone wrong felt good.

Sabrina's eyes lit up like cute lightbulbs as I returned to my plate of waffles.

"What was that?" she asked curiously, scooting her chair closer to me and putting her hand on mine.

I chuckled lightly and told her the whole story. Her eyes widened with awe when I got to the part about the scholarship.

"Wow, Chloe, that's..." she started, staring into my blue eyes before crashing her lips against mine, knocking over a glass of milk. I tasted the taste of honey and caramel on her soft, rosy lips.

"I'm so fucking proud of you," she breathed between kisses, and I couldn't help but smile.