AN~ Edited.
Mr. Henderson's wife was from a rich family, and used to maid service. Mr. Henderson was neither of these things. This caused quite a few problems in their household, and Mrs. Henderson had complained for years about how horrible it was that she had to cook and clean herself. Another issue Mrs. Henderson had with her life was that she couldn't have a child. She had wanted one- or more- for years, and they had tried, but nothing had come of it. Mr. Henderson had decided that he could solve three problems at once: his wife's repeated complaints about the fact that they didn't have maid service; their lack of children; and the ever-present problem of what to give the woman who already owned everything she could ever want. And to top all that off, he'd get paid for taking care of these kids!
He had explained this to Sabrina and Daphne on the ride to his house, and they had dutifully gotten dressed in Christmas-themed outfits, put large bows on their heads, and given Mrs. Henderson large, fake smiles from under the tree when she emerged from her bedroom. No use starting off on too bad a footing, after all.
She'd been quite pleased with her presents, particularly with Sabrina. She said that she was a very pretty little girl, the spitting image of her 'mother,' who would make a wonderful daughter. When she discovered that Sabrina had taken care of her sister for a week on her own, running the whole house, she was even happier, and declared that Sabrina was the perfect girl, and hadn't Mr. Henderson given the best present? Poor Daphne watched this from the sidelines, and Sabrina did her best to include her. In response to Sabrina's attempts, Mr. Henderson said she'd be all right, once she slimmed down a bit. At that, Daphne turned bright red, and Sabrina put an arm around her and glared at Mr. Henderson. She spent the rest of the day reassuring Daphne that she wasn't fat, and Mr. Henderson- excuse her- daddy- was a mean, nasty man who had no idea what he was talking about.
The next day, Mrs. Henderson took the girls to a seamstress to have cute little maid's outfits made up for them. The dresses were black, with puffy sleeves and skirts that flared out and ended in a lacy white frill around their knees. The aprons and mob caps were white and old fashioned, also trimmed with lace. Daphne thought they were 'spiffarooney,' but Sabrina found them uncomfortable and hard to move in, even with the added fluffy, lace-covered panties and thigh-length socks. Besides, who wore Mary-Janes anymore? Not Sabrina. She was a sneakers sort of person, thank you very much.
Their duties, according to Mrs. Henderson, would be to clean the apartment, do the laundry, help cook, and neaten the bedrooms. They'd have to go to school, and there would be outfits for that, too. They went to a department store after the seamstress to buy the girls each more fluffy underwear and knee-high socks, six pleated grey plaid skirts, three black-and-gray argyle blouses, six white button-down shirts of varying sleeve lengths, gray fitted coats with thin lapels, gloves and a hat, sneakers (sort of), a pair of shorts, and a T-shirt. All the clothes were matching, uniform, and boring. Sabrina asked if there would be anything colorful, and Mrs. Henderson said, yes, they would have to have a church outfit for Sundays.
This meant a trip to yet another department store, where the girls were bought stockings, nicer shoes, and matching green dresses. Sabrina was of the opinion that they were being transformed into twins, which was kind of ironic, considering Daphne's stout, dark figure, versus Sabrina's thin build that she considered gangly, but Mrs. Henderson described as 'willowy,' her pale skin, and her blonde hair.
Finally, after buying a pair of (no surprise) matching lacy nightgowns, Mrs. Henderson told the cabbie to take them back to the apartment, and Sabrina was allowed to collapse on the bed of their pristine white bedroom. They went to bed early in preparation for tomorrow, when she and Daphne would start their maid duties.
Being a maid wasn't so bad, compared with some of the girl's other foster homes, and with the horrible experience of shopping from their first day with the Hendersons. At first they'd been expected to cook, too, but after the mess they made of the cod flambe, Mrs. Henderson decided to cook herself, and the girls just had to clean. They spent their winter break dusting, mopping, sweeping, and pondering the eternal mystery of how a house could be so full of dirt when barely anyone entered or left it. Sabrina thought that this place, aside from all the hard work and Mr. Henderson's nastiness, wasn't that bad. In a small part of her brain, Sabrina almost admitted that she enjoyed the attention she got from being fussed over by Mrs. Henderson, and being the favorite child (her parents had worked hard to hide it, but it was obvious that Daphne was their darling). They might even have stayed there, if it wasn't for school.
On January second, schools across the state opened their doors to embrace children and immerse them in a flood of knowledge and new experiences. For most children, these experiences were things like learning a new game in gym class, or discovering a computer program that let them design buildings. For Sabrina, the main experience of the day was being ridiculed for not only being the new girl, but being a new girl dressed in completely ridiculous, uncool, and not-worn-by-anyone-else clothing. The only thing she learned was that kids on the upper east side of Manhattan were even nastier than kids back in her own school district.
Daphne fared no better, and at school, they sat alone in the cafeteria commiserating and deciding that, though Mrs. Henderson was nice, the school was the last straw, and they couldn't stay in that place any longer. So they concocted The Plan.
The Plan consisted of secreting their suitcases into their lockers and adding their other possessions to them one by one, until all their things were in the school. Daphne wanted to take the clothes, but Sabrina said no. The clothes were horrible, and besides, Mrs. Henderson might suspect something if she noticed that all their clothes had disappeared.
It would probably have been smarter to approach Mrs. Henderson or someone at school and mention that they were having difficulties fitting in, but when Sabrina had sent out tentative feelers in these directions, she'd met with two responses: First, 'this is normal, things will improve over time.' Second was 'It's because you don't belong here; this school requires a certain sense of class that two orphans couldn't possibly be expected to have.' So help from adults had been shot down- just like always.
Once all their things were in the school, the girls just... didn't go home. This way, with Mrs. Henderson on a trip somewhere and Mr. Henderson spending all his time in his office, the girls could continue going to school for some time, then just disappear. Besides, if they lived in the school, they could pull all sorts of nasty tricks on the kids who'd been mean to them. Sabrina decided to put her no-pranks rule aside for just this little while. Even Daphne, who was generally too fond of people to try anything like that, thought these snobs deserved it.
The Plan worked beautifully. By the time Mrs. Henderson got home, they'd stopped going to classes altogether, just loitering around the school and doing nasty things to the bullies who'd made their first week miserable. They got plenty of food, since lunches were provided free with tuition for the school, and the gym showers were nicer than the showers at the orphanage. It was quite the life, until the announcement went around the school that anyone who'd seen Sabrina or Daphne Grimm-Henderson should report it to the office, or better yet, the police, because they'd disappeared from their home and were being searched for, and Mrs. Henderson was frantic.
Sabrina spent a miserable night alternating between being worried that she'd be caught and feeling guilty for running off on Mrs. Henderson. She wondered if that was a rational feeling or if she was just being silly, and then decided that, if nobody discovered them within a week, she'd turn herself in. She needn't have made that decision.
The next morning, one of the girls came into school early and caught Sabrina and Daphne brushing their teeth in the bathroom. She screamed, drawing the attention of the janitor, who called the office, who sent them to the principle, who called the police, who alerted Mrs. Henderson. Within half an hour, the fiasco was over, and the girls were in the police station, waiting to be picked up by Ms. Smirt.
When the girls explained why they'd run away, Mrs. Henderson started crying, wrapped both girls in tight, bony hugs, and was ready to take them back to her house right that second and get them transferred to another school, but Mr. Henderson declared that they'd been horrible children, and should go back to where they came from, and he promised Mrs. Henderson that she could pick out some new children soon. She kept crying and didn't let go of the girls, but she agreed eventually. Sabrina wasn't too surprised.
And that was the end of that.