It was after school and Marinette Dupain-Cheng was frustrated after what had been going on for about a week. Lila had gone back to her lies and everyone was buying them again, it led to her having to sit at the back while Lila got HER seat next to Adrien.
Of course she had gotten over her old crush on Adrien, but still the seat meant a lot to her as her friendship with Adrien helped her become more confident. But now it seemed like him and the whole class was against her.
Well Chloe, she had been dethroned as the one on top of Marinette's hate list. For how angry that Chloe had made her after all this time, it never made her so mad that she was in danger of being akumatized or turned the whole class against her!
"I know things are bad Marinette but they will get better, I promise, why don't you give Peter a call? That is bound to cheer you up!" Tikki suggested popping her head out of Marinette's bag. Marinette's eyes opened when she remembered that she had yet to call her long distance boyfriend Peter Parker.
They had met during the Summer when she had her parents had went on vacation to Queens, New York. She had met Peter who was a gifted science geek. She had gotten to know eachother especially when by accident they each discovered the other's secrets...
About one of them being like a spider and the other being like a ladybug...
They agreed to keep eachother's secrets (it was embarrassing to her that all her hard work that she had her identity exposed to someone else). Peter was in actuality New York's costumed super powered crimefighter Spider-Man. They grew closer, Marinette even helped design his new suit with him to replace the homemade one he had been using before. They had by impulse kissed before they left. But they had been keeping in touch by email and phone calls.
Peter actually knew certain people who gave him someone to help him translate different languages.
True as Spider-Man, he reminded her of Cat Noir but as Peter he was a loveable dork. Her parents and his Aunt May even remarked how similar they were. plus it was nice to have someone else to open up about having to keep secret being a superhero.
She got out her phone and started calling Peter's number, she answered it and asked "Hey Peter, how was Stan's funeral?" she decided that she didn't want to let Peter know about her troubles and comfort him. The last email he had sent her told her that Stan, one of the neighbors of his apartment had passed away. he was a nice sweet old man who was filled with stories and advice for Peter when he came to him. The funeral would have taken place by now.
"It was hard to say goodbye to Stan but we had eachother for comfort... Sorry had to move there... Still we are able to move on but guess what, on social media my Spidey account was contacted by someone from Insomniac Games and they want to talk about making me into a Game!" Peter told her a bit somberly but grew excited at the last bit.
NYCWallCrawler was the social media account that Peter had set up for his Spider-Man identity. It was becoming quite popular in New York.
Marinette was weirded out by the pauses but said nothing about it, she happily told him "when it comes out you can be sure I will be first in line at my local game store! Sorry Peter, can you hold for a second..." Marinette sounded apologetic at the end when she saw that Alya and Nino were coming over towards her.
"Marinette, we have been giving this some thought and seeing how lonely you have been and how this has been affecting you..." Alya told her and Marinette grew a smile waiting for the apology...
"We forgive you..." Nino finished and Marinette stood there opened mouthed hoping that she heard them wrong. "We know that you just made a big mistake and overreacted from your jealousy, and you don't need to apologize girl..." Alya told her with a smile reaching out her hand that Marinette angrily smacked away with her free hand to their shock.
"Good because I got nothing to apologize for! Some friends you all are, I thought I knew you all better than that to go along with this! Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to my call with someone far more worthy of my time and attention than false friends!" Marinette shouted to the shock of the two, the classmates who were nearby and Marinette herself.
She walked away and noticed to her horror that her hand with her phone was still near her shoulder. She then went back to her phone and heard a gasp making her groan realizing Peter heard her shout like that. She should have covered it...
"Wow Marinette, what did Chloe do to get you this riled up this time?" Peter asked with concern making Marinette sigh.
"No Peter, Chloe practically had nothing to do with it this time..." Marinette and she decided to explain everything to him.
"Sorry to hear about that Marinette, from what you have told me I thought your friends were a great bunch that I wanted to meet myself..." Peter told her apologetically and Marinette gave a sad smile.
"Still I have a great feeling that you will have a big surprise when you get home..." Peter told her cryptically before hanging up. She blinked and put away her phone in confusion.
"Big surprise, what does he mean?" Marinette asked Tikki and Tikki just shrugged, Marinette jsut began walking home. She was ignoring any classmates who tried to walk up to her.
She got home to see a huge crowd in front of her family's bakery; she saw Nadja Chamack trying to get closer and asked what was going on. "You won't believe it Marinette. Tony Stark is in Paris for a meeting and he brought an intern with him. A boy about her age and they are in your family's bakery right now!" Nadja told her excitedly and Marinette blinked in shock.
She then made her way through the crowd and entered through the door. She saw that at the counter was a smiling Tony Stark along with Peter's Aunt May. She then saw looked to see Peter waving to her with a cheeky smile.
She then engulfed him in a hug, "Tony came to me and my Aunt May about us coming over here on a trip, I have been having to keep a secret from you for some time so I can see your look on surprise." Peter told her apologetically but Marinette didn't think much of it.
"Marinette, why don't you and Peter have some time to yourself and play a game in the living room." suggested Marinette's father when Marinette let go of Peter. They went to the living room where Tom already had a games console set up.
They began getting to work playing some rounds of Ultimate Mecha Strike III, "if you ask me III makes up for the disappointment that II was, the first game set up a high standard that they only managed to match with III..." Peter told Marinette only to see that she was growing a bit sad.
"Is this about the lying girl and the gullible classmates?" Peter asked in concern pausing the game to meet her in the eye.
"I still can't believe I allow my emotion to get an Akuma after me and I had snapped at Alya and Nino in the middle of our call..." Marinette told him feeling a bit ashamed in herself. Tikki came out when she was sure there was no one else about and gave Marinette a hug on the neck.
"They were the ones who screwed up and everyone has their limits, even the most sweet Marinette." Peter told her making her blush a bit. "Plus you said that you overreacted when you first saw her and her first lie, well that was another mistake and if they are still buying lies after that then it's their fault for being gullible. I still have some citizens buying the whole 'Spider-Man is a Menace' thing that Jameson spews on about." Peter continued and Marinette just sighed once more.
"Plus I am not entirely honest myself, it's not to get attention but i have to hide being Ladybug..." Marinette muttered but Peter picked up her head to meet him in the eyes.
"I know all about that, at least you jsut have to hide Tikki. I have to hide my outfit and equipment. Last time i had to hand wash my suit, my excuse to Aunt May was that I was washing the American flag..." Peter told her causing Marinette to laugh.
"Let yourself cool down Marinette and if they decide to keep being idiots then that's their fault. You are the amazing sweet girl I am proud to call my girlfriend, you are the one whose a gifted designer who won a contest by a famous designer and was chosen by a rock star to come up with his album cover." Peter assured her and she smiled.
She then decided to put it out of her mind as she asked if they can continue playing the game. Peter then got an idea and grinned while asking if she would give her a minute. Marinette blinked in confusion but gave a nod.
Peter then got out his phone and went on his social media page and logged in as NYCWallCrawler. He then began typing away:
You want to know Spidey's tailor? It was made for me by a visiting design student from Paris. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, she designed an album cover for Jagged Stone! She is going to be big one day!
He smirked as he posted it and went and unpaused the game after putting his phone away. Hopefully now more people will know how much better than Lila, Marinette is and hopefully she won't try and kill him when she finds out.