The Miraculous Willoughby's

Orphans On Purpose

The Willoughby's walked home somberly, not caring about their shoes getting wet with leftover rain water, or that the girls' frocks were dripping.

"I hope we're doing the right thing." Marinette sighed, staring sadly at the ground. She missed her friend, and had a heart of gold. Leaving a baby alone on a doorstep didn't sit to well with her. It had to be wrong!

"Of course we are, Marinette." Adrien assured her. He'd expected her to be worrisome. "A great man with a great home MUST have a great family." He stopped on the sidewalk, and turned to his siblings. Alya and Nino seemed to share Marinette's sadness. They had earlier been interested in the buttons on the stop-lights, but now, they walked past it without a single glance. Adrien knew he had to cheer them up.

"Just imagine what that lucky orphan's life will be like!" He encouraged. The three younger ones were silent for a moment, before nodding slowly. Ruth's life would surely be better than theirs.

"I wish we had a home like Ruth." Marinette sighed, wistfully. "Where we didn't have to steal food, and no one would say, 'shut up, Marinette.'" She put her index fingers under her nose, and mimicked her father's voice.

Adrien sighed, smiling as he thought of it. "We would eat at a table, like the great Willoughby's of old...our legacies would go on...and no one would ever have to go to the coal bin again!...unless they wanted coal." He looked like he could barely believe it. The twins watched him for a moment, before adding their two bits. "I want a factory." Nino commented. "Big factory!" Alya chimed in.

"Wait!" Marinette held out her hands in a gesture of excitement. "We could have all that." Her siblings snapped to attention.

"...except the factory." The twins were visibly disappointed, but still listening.

"What if we...." she gestured to herself and her siblings, "became orphans?"

Adrien groaned and rolled his eyes. "That is you IFFIEST what-if, yet! We have parents!"

Marinette nodded her understanding, stepping in front of her brother as he started walking again. "But what if we didn't? It's like in the books: James, that peach fellow's, were eaten by a hippo-"

"I thought it was a rhinoceros?"

"Mary's died of cholera in India. Imagine how great our family would be if they were gone!" Adrien's eyebrows went North. "What if WE..." Marinette continued, "...orphaned ourselves?"

"Ghastly!" Adrien cried."

"Ruthless!" Marinette agreed, throwing that in to sway her brother.

"Marinette, getting rid of an orphan is one thing. How do you propose we discard of two insidious grown-ups?"

"Easy." Marinette pointed across the street. Adrien followed the direction, to see a butcher in a meet-shop slicing a ham ferociously. He gasped. "No!"

"No, not there." Marinette grabbed his nose, and aimed his gaze. "There!" This time, Adrien saw a lawn worker with a chainsaw hacking branches off of a tree. He cried out in repulsion.

"No, not there. THERE." Marinette pin-pointed Adrien's head to the place in between the tree and shop. Adrien's eyes widened, and he scurried across the road, ignoring the cars...and fell flat on his face. By the time he got up, his siblings were already at the window. he was fine...didn't even break his concentration. He planted his face against the window, to see a lady give a piece of folded paper to a man on the other side of her desk. "And all you troubles, will be gone for good."

"Gone for good?" Adrien breathed. He stepped aside, and found the same brochure on a rack. "With a piece of shiny paper...we could send them away. What if we orphaned ourselves?!" He stared wide-eyed at his siblings. Marinette decided to just play along. "Yeah. Cracking idea, Adrien." Adrien pointed, using his firm 'oldest-kid' voice. "To home." He proceeded to lift the entire rack, and charged off, shouting a war cry.

Now, don't get all sensitive. 'Oh, this is bad.' It's nature. it will work out.

I should have told you, but this story isn't all fluffy and fuzzy and...oh blimey, those are sharp scissors! Watch the eyes.

With incredibly sharp scissors, multiple magazines, and a  bottle of glue, the Willoughby children went about turning the brochure into a map of an exotic getaway, that would give their parents exactly what they want.

"To be left alone with their love!" Marinette cried, hugging the family's cat.

They decorated the map with pictures of the hottest places on earth, as well as the wettest. They included cannibal homes, natural disasters, wild animals, and the ever-famous acid-hot springs. Plenty of orphaning opportunities.

They saved the deadliest spot for last.

"The Unclimbable Alps." Adrien dramatically breathed, unfolding a picture. It went all the way down to the floor. "In Sveetzlund."

His siblings gasped. "he who goes up," they chorused, "does not come down."

Finally, their map was finished, and, thanks to the twins incredible folding skills, turned into an innocent-looking brochure. Adrien added the final touches, armed with his paint, and his favorite red pen. "The Reprehensible Travel Agency." he read aloud to his brother and sisters. "No Children Allowed."

The twins hooked it up to another Willoughby device, pulled a reel. It glided through the vents, and into the parlor, where their mother was knitting, as always, and their father was playing with a ship in a bottle.

"Hm?" Andre and Audrey glanced up...and screamed.

"Andre?" Audrey gasped.

"Yes, Pooksy?"

"What is it?!"

Andre made a big show of wriggling on the ground like a worm, and slowly reaching for it. Once in his hand, he unfolded it.

"What does it say?" Audrey asked.

"See the world..." Andre read.

"See the world?" His wife repeated.

"Have adventure..."

"I'd love to have an adventure!" Audrey climbed onto the coffee table.

"Do you know what else, Audrey?"

"Yes, Andre?"

"No children allowed!" They both laughed. "I would love that." Audrey giggled. Then, she deflated. "If we leave these...CHILDREN...here alone, they'll ruin everything!" She put a hand to her head, dramatically. Andre sighed, before perking up. "What if we didn't leave them here alone, ah? We could hire..." he waved his hands in a 'ta-da' motion, "A nanny!"

"But aren't good nannies expensive?"

"Of course! So we'll hire a not good nanny. For cheap!"

To adventure. I can't believe they fell for it. Are they gullible or what?

But, that very afternoon, they were gone...for good.