I'm staggering all by my lone'

Unlike several of the other girls in Nick’s harem, who had trouble getting out of bed in the morning, Rose was up with the sunrise.

She had a big, beaming smile on her face, and with good reason. Not only had she gotten a great night’s rest (the beeping of the games in the Arcade Suite had become white noise at this point) but, well…

Rose headed into the bathroom and checked her look in the mirror. Just to make sure that last night wasn’t a fluke.

She let out a sigh of relief.

The blonde’s beautiful hair had more than grown to the length it was before she’d acquired this transformation. Now it went past her shoulders in a tangle of blonde waves, dancing about as she shook her head.

“I’m back in it!” She crowed, pleased that fulfilling her latest bounty had led to such a splendid change in her appearance.

Rose: 9600 BP + 300 BP = 9900 BP

She wasn’t able to clean the Master’s Suite yesterday because Nick wasn’t there, but that didn’t matter. If she did something small, she’d be the first girl on the show to hit the 10000 BP mark! And that was something special, probably.

Feeling lighter than air, Rose didn’t even give her roommates a passing thought, and skipped out into the lounge.

She arrived just in time to see Gina trudging out the door of the Romance Suite with a laundry basket full of clothes in her arms and a scowl on her face.

“Gina? Hey, what’s up?” Rose asked curiously, not expecting the punk girl to be up this early in the morning. “Oh! And…”

Gina wasn’t alone. Sylvia followed after her, with Amelia bringing up the rear. The strict stepmother had just been talking about making sure that the other girls do their laundry regularly, but when she saw Rose, she paused.

“Good morning,” she said gruffly. “Did you need something?”

Before Rose would have felt a little down at being talked to so coldly by Nick’s stepmother, who she’d been desperately trying to impress all week. But by now, she’d come to realize that was just the kind of woman Amelia was, and it didn’t reflect her actual feelings.

So she put a smile on her face and greeted her.

“Good morning, Amelia! And Sylvia and Gina as well,” she said politely. “I was just heading to breakfast. Would you like to join me?”

Amelia pushed up her glasses and shook her head. “Perhaps at a later time,” she replied. “After we do the laundry.”

“Oh? Laundry?” Rose blinked. “But don’t the faeries handle all that? You just leave your clothes out for them in the hamper and they take it away for you I thought.”

“Yup, that’s how they do things,” Sylvia nodded matter-of-factly.

FLUMP!

Gina dropped the laundry basket on the floor and stared at Rose in open-mouthed shock.

“Wait, what?!” She exclaimed. “You mean the faeries do the laundry here!?”

“How… how did you not know that?” Rose was genuinely confused. “You’ve been on this island longer than I have!”

“Well, when I was host, the faeries said they couldn’t do Gina’s laundry because she never put her clothes in the hamper,” Sylvia tattled. “I could have made ‘em pick everything off the floor, but I thought it was funnier if they didn’t.”

Everyone stared at her. Sylvia shifted awkwardly in place, starting to feel a little defensive. “W-well, you know, part of Gina’s whole appeal was that she was a punk girl and a slob! So wouldn’t it fit better if her clothes were always wrinkled and crumpled ‘cuz she grabbed ‘em off the floor?”

Rose couldn’t hold back her amusement, even though she was trying to be on her best behavior to look good in front of Amelia. “You spent the first few weeks living with Dawn, and you never noticed that she was diligently putting her clothes away in the clothing hamper? Come on…”

Gina looked at Sylvia with a glare of betrayal. “So this is your fault!?” She groaned.

Amelia stepped in. “You shouldn’t be relying on that anyway,” she said sternly. “When you return to earth, you won’t have faeries waiting on you hand and foot. It’s important to learn to do these things yourself, wouldn’t you agree, Rose?”

Rose suddenly realized that Amelia was staring right at her.

“E-eh?” She played bashfully with her hair, and turned a little red. “You… you’re asking me?”

Amelia nodded. “Sylvia spent her entire existence on this island. So you are the only other person here who would have outside experience on earth, correct?”

“Well… yes, that’s true,” Rose agreed. “And… Amelia is completely correct, Gina! It’s important to learn to do your own laundry!”

“You’re just saying that because you’re a suck-up!” Gina pointed out.

True as that might have been, Rose wasn’t about to back down, not when she had Amelia’s approval!

“Like you’re one to talk about sucking, how many blowjobs DID you give Nick the other night, anyway?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Sylvia doubled over with laughter and Amelia sighed. Her eye twitched and she shook her head. “Never mind. That was clearly a mistake.”

“Eh? B-but… I-I did my own laundry!” Rose protested, **** to get back into Amelia’s good graces. “And I did my brother’s laundry, too! I didn’t want him to have to worry about that… Amelia’s right, Gina, it’s important to know how to do that stuff!”

Of course, Rose had fully exploited the faeries every chance she got since coming here. She appreciated living in the lap of luxury, and she dreaded inevitably having to give it up when they returned to earth.

So she could understand Gina’s apprehension here.

The punk girl sighed and looked back and forth between the two blondes. She scratched her head and nodded in resignation.

“Well… if you guys say so…”

“Um, Amelia, aren’t you rich, though?” Sylvia pointed out. Gina froze halfway down to pick up the laundry basket, and glanced at her.

“You have no point with that,” Amelia harshly replied.

Sylvia flinched. “I-I just mean, you have the money to hire servants, right? When we’re all living with Daddy, then you could pay for it! That was part of the reason you and Vivian were brought onto this show, remember?”

“Hey, yeah, if Vivian sticks around in the harem, then that cool butler of hers can do all the laundry and stuff!” Gina agreed. “I can wear nice clothes without having to iron shit!”

Amelia gave her a rebuking stare. Gina swallowed and was about to take it back when Rose interjected.

“It’s not responsible to do things that way!” She said like the bratty teacher’s pet she was desperately trying to be. “Even if you did have servants to do your work for you, you should still do it for yourself! Right, Amelia?”

She turned to the older woman with an eager look in her eye. To Gina she resembled a puppy begging for a treat.

“Oh come off it, Rose, you’re one of the laziest people here! Are you telling me you wouldn’t want to be pampered like a princess?” Gina groaned, rolling her eyes.

Rose baulked. “I… we’re not talking about me right now!” She lamely replied.

Amelia loudly cleared her throat. “Ladies.”

All heads turned to the teacher, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest and a look of disapproval on her face.

“It’s clear to me that all of you need a lesson in personal responsibility. You’re all sounding very spoiled right now,” she said, disappointment palpable in her voice. “When I married my husband, I went from living in a mansion with servants to a three-bedroom house in the suburbs, where I did all the household chores by myself.”

Rose’s eyes bugged out of her head. “Three bedrooms?! What did you do with the extra one!?”

The idea of living in a house where every member could have their own bedroom if they wanted was mindboggling to Rose.

“I can’t even remember when I last had a permanent living situation,” Gina said, scratching her head in thought.

“Dakota let me have a bedroom!” Sylvia said proudly. “I had my own bed and everything! Even a blanket and pillows, too!”

Amelia pinched the bridge of her nose. Perhaps I was too harsh on them, she considered. Maybe they aren’t as lazy as I feared after all.

No, this was indicative of something far more tragic.

She tried to soften her tone, as much as she possibly could. “Ladies,” she said gently, “I understand we may come from backgrounds of varying amounts of privilege. And while the temptation might be strong to take advantage of things like servants, having other people do your work for you is… it’s… well, it’s…”

At the moment, Amelia was suffering from her biggest problem. She couldn’t properly articulate her thoughts and feelings in a way that the other girls could understand.

But Rose could.

“Amelia’s right,” she said, nodding. “It would be nice to rely on servants, but you need to learn how to do this stuff yourself, Gina. Sylvia. Me, I already know how to do my laundry, so I’ll just supervise of course.”

“Eh? That’s not fair! You’re just going to judge us?” Sylvia whined.

“No, I’m going to give you pointers!” Rose replied. “You can always use an extra set of hands to help out, right, Amelia?” She asked, looking hopefully at the other woman.

Amelia pushed her glasses up. “Actually, you should do it as well,” she said bluntly.

Rose’s jaw dropped. “What? But-!”

“Currently, Mary has been handling all of Nicholas’s laundry,” Amelia said, throwing that out like a casual observation. “It could be good for you to show him that you could do that yourself.”

“Oh! In that case, yes, I want that!” Rose nodded rapidly. “Yes please, right away!”

Sylvia and Gina shared a knowing smirk. Rose was nothing if not predictable, after all.

Nicely done, Amelia! Nothing motivates Rose better like comparing her to Mary! Sylvia thought, nodding in approval.

“Let’s do this, come on, girls!” Rose clapped her hands together. “Hustle! Hustle!”

“There’s something you’re forgetting, my girl,” Sylvia pointed out. “What about your laundry, hmm?”

“We’ll meet you down in the Laundry Room,” Amelia said. “Let’s go.”

Rose hustled back to the Arcade Suite as Amelia left with the other two girls Sylvia didn’t have much in the way of cleaning, but Gina made up for it by having a veritable mountain of laundry all to herself.

“So that’s it? We just wait for the machines to run?” Gina asked, staring in exasperation at the swirling clothes going through the washer.

“You really have never done laundry yourself, have you?” Rose asked, giving the punk girl a sideways look.

“…So what?” Gina got defensive, even though she knew that Rose was right to judge her. After all, back when she was younger, her mother had been the one to handle all the laundry and stuff. And then when she got older and was kicked out, she’d basically just stopped caring about any of that.

Still… she knew that was something she needed to change about herself. Amelia was right, part of growing up was all about handling your own laundry and stuff.

“How long is this supposed to take, anyway?” Sylvia asked, fascinated with the spinning clothes in the machines. “I’m getting hungry.”

Amelia was a stoic statue. Rose sighed.

“…It could take a while,” she admitted. “Doing your laundry always tends to take a couple of hours. Didn’t you know that?”

“Hours?!” Sylvia sputtered. “No, no, no, that’s no good. Come on, guys, let’s go.”

She started pushing Gina out of the Laundry Room, much to the punk girl’s confusion.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Gina demanded as she was practically shoved out of the door.

“I’ll show you in a second. Come on, Amelia, Rose, let me show you something cool!” Sylvia urged them excitedly.

Amelia and Rose looked at each other, and while Rose was hesitant, Amelia didn’t pause for a second and took charge, walking out after them.

Sylvia slammed the door shut, then immediately opened it.

And just like that, all the machines had stopped running.

“Whoa, what?” Gina’s jaw dropped.

“No way are we waiting a few hours,” Sylvia said, shaking her head. “Nope, the Laundry Room works with a time dilation! If you put clothes in the machine and close the door, it speeds up the time inside the room until everything is done! But only if nobody’s in there.”

“So our clothes are finished washing already? Whoa!” Rose ran inside, excited. Then she stopped herself. “Err, I mean, that’s not the right thing at all, Sylvia!” She put her hands on her hips and gave the other girl a disapproving look. “We’re supposed to be about doing things the right way today, not taking shortcuts! Right, Amelia?”

“Suck-up!” Gina loudly masked with a cough.

“Actually, this is a perfectly acceptable shortcut,” Amelia informed the actress, much to Rose’s surprise.

“What? But-”

“Simply speeding up the mechanical process does not rob you of responsibility,” Amelia explained. “It is not as though any action you could take for yourself would change things, correct? So I see no problem with speeding up the time it takes for the clothes to get clean. Very efficient, Sylvia. Thank you for showing us.”

“Nyeh!” Sylvia stuck out her tongue at Rose.

“…That is not appreciated, however,” Amelia sternly chastised her.

“…Sorry,” Sylvia apologized.

The girls transferred their clothes to the dryer next, and through the same method, a couple seconds later everything was completely dry.

“You know, if doing laundry was this efficient all the time, I’d be up for it,” Gina mused. “But I’m guessing back on earth we’re not going to have magic auto-dryers, are we?”

“Certainly not,” Amelia said, shaking her head as she looked over the wrinkled mass of clothing Gina was spreading out on the table. “But in the real world, you would be doing other chores while waiting for your clothes. So it’s a fair situation.”

“I don’t suppose there’s some magic quick-press iron you guys have got here?” Rose sighed, plugging in the boring old regular iron.

Sylvia shook her head. “Nope, just good ol’ elbow grease!”

“Indeed,” Amelia nodded. “No more shortcuts. This next part you’ll be doing all on your own.”

Gina looked at the mountain of clothes in front of her. “A-all of it?” She stammered. “Amelia, I have to plan out my party tonight! This is going to take hours!”

“Oh, the party!” Rose’s eyes widened. “That’s right! I almost forgot!”

“I agree, this would take a considerable amount of time to work through,” Amelia nodded. “Which is why, for today, I requested some assistance. From a professional.”

She turned and gestured towards the doorway. Octavia was standing sharply in front of them, dressed flawlessly as ever without even a hair out of place.

“I was told my services would be appreciated here,” she said, walking into the room. “And Lady Carrington is busy on a business venture today, so I found myself with free time on my hands.”

“The girls here need a lesson in ironing,” Amelia informed the butler. “I will be assisting myself. If you don’t mind, of course?”

Octavia nodded. “As you wish. Once I verify that you all have a grasp on what is required, I will take over. Is that acceptable?”

Rose raised her hand. “I already know how to iron my clothes,” she pointed out.

Octavia narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps.”

Needless to say, the trio were the last ones to make it to the Banquet Hall. And Amelia as well, of course.

“I can’t believe she got through all those clothes so fast,” Gina said, shaking her head. “Talk about efficient!”

“I’m surprised we actually have time for breakfast!” Rose said, amazed. “I thought for sure we’d be in there until lunchtime!”

“It really makes you think, huh?” Sylvia mused. She had never actually had to lift a hand to do something like that before. “I’m just glad we’re done.”

“You all did quite well for yourselves,” Amelia said. Everyone stared at her in shock.

“A compliment?!” Rose squealed with glee. “Oh, thank you, Amelia! Thank you so much!”

“You’re a really easy person to please, huh?” Gina said, smiling in amusement. But she secretly felt happy about Amelia’s compliment as well.

“Thanks,” Sylvia replied, nodding bashfully at the older woman.

Amelia looked a little uncomfortable. She had only meant to express her honest appraisal of their skills. Why is it that I can give an honest recounting of my feelings in a situation like this, but not other times? She wondered, wishing that it could always be this easy to share how she felt about something.

Then she did something that puzzled her even more.

She reached out and patted Gina on the head.

“H-huh?” Gina turned red with surprise for a moment. “Hey, Amelia, what gives?” She asked, looking at the other woman in confusion.

Amelia seemed just as flustered, though she hid it better.

“…It was a natural impulse,” she replied. “I suppose it must be my transformation, giving you praise for a job well done.”

“Oh! Me, me next!” Rose pleaded, rushing over to the older woman and looking hopefully at her.

Normally, Rose wouldn’t let anybody touch her hair. But getting her head patted by Amelia practically made her shiver in delight.

Sylvia was the last one. Amelia walked over to her and placed her hand on her head, giving her a nice, gentle pat.

“Well done,” she said brusquely, and Sylvia’s eyes widened.

“Well done.”

Like a grainy movie playing before her eyes, Sylvia flashed back momentarily to another gesture of affection like that. For a second, she could swear that Dakota had patted her on the head and told her “Well done” before, just like Amelia had.

But that couldn’t be, right? Dakota didn’t do stuff like that.

Just as quickly as it appeared, though, it was gone, and Sylvia shook her head, feeling like she was coming out of a daze.

“Huh? What was that?” She asked, thinking she heard Rose say something.

“Hmm?” Rose looked up at her. “Oh, it’s nothing, I was just telling Gina that if she wanted, I’d be happy to help her plan for her party tonight over breakfast. What do you think, Sylvia? Sound like a plan?”

“Oh, uh… y-yeah, sure,” Sylvia nodded, still feeling a little shaken by her strange vision. “Amelia, you’re going to help too, right?”

Amelia nodded. “That should be obvious,” she replied. The way she phrased it made it sound like the answer was a firm “no” and yet everyone knew that she was obviously going to say yes.

It took some getting used to the woman’s odd expressions of her feelings, but the other girls were all willing to meet her halfway.

That was a comfort that Amelia didn’t realize just how much she longed for until now.