"All students, the presentation will begin in five minutes. Please make your final adjustments now and get ready to go on the catwalk. I repeat, the presentation is in five minutes."
Marinette looked down at the dress she had designed and made. This was the final showcase for the Paris College of Art. People from fashion companies would be out there too, scoping out the potentially talented designers and models. Marinette had gone into college for a degree in fashion for it was much more likely to land a job in a bigger company if you had a degree. She was hoping to get an offer from Timeless, a fairly large company, and eventually work her way up to Agreste Fashion, the biggest fashion company in most of Europe. Which, conveniently, had its headquarters right in the middle of Paris.
Looking back at her dress, she saw that the hemline on the full skirt was torn. "Well, what are you waiting for?" screeched the model she was helping. "The dress is torn! Go fix it!"
Marinette dashed around to her sewing kit and pulled out a handful of pins and ran back to her model. She quickly pinned up the torn hemline. "Honestly, who wears heels while putting on clothes?" Marinette muttered.
"For your information," snapped the model, "Russian models always put on their shoes before they dress. And you should have made the dress sturdier!"
Marinette rolled her eyes. "Students, one minute until the presentation!" Please make your way to the stage," came the disembodied voice of the announcer.
"Okay, it is fixed. Please be careful this time!" Marinette said but the model just scoffed. They both walked over to the stage.
Behind the drawn curtain would be the catwalk, the friends and family of the graduating students, and the prospect of a great designing job from scouts of fashion companies. This is what all designers waited for.
Marinette heard the announcer presenting her classmate's models and their clothes. Finally, she heard her name being called. She watched as her model stepped onto the catwalk, paused at the end of the stretch, turned around to show the flowy skirt, pause again, and then walk back to the curtain. Nothing went wrong. And she could have sworn she heard Mylène and her mother yelling from the crowd.
After everyone had gone, she and her classmates were led into the dining hall where there were refreshments and they would get to see their parents and friends again. Marinette looked around for her parents but she could not see them.
She turned around quickly because someone had hugged her from behind. "Mylène!"
"Your design was amazing!" Mylène yelled. "Honestly, everyone else's designs looked bad next to yours. Congratulations!"
"You really are amazing," said Sabine, coming up and hugging her daughter.
"I am so proud of you!" Tom congratulated her.
"Thank you, guys. This means so much to me!" Marinette hugged Mylène and her parents back.
"I must say," an unfamiliar voice behind them said, "You certainly have an eye for fashion, Ms. Dupain-Cheng. Nathalie Sancoeur, Agreste Fashion. I believe you have the potential for being a designer there." Marinette's eyes popped wide open.
"S-so, is this like a job offer?"
"Yes, I believe it is," Nathalie said with a vague smile. "Can you come in this Tuesday at 10 for an interview?"
Marinette nodded mutely, her slightly mouth hanging open. "Well, I will see you then."
They all watched as Nathalie walked away, her heels clicking on the marble floor.
"You just got a job offer- from your dream job!" squealed Mylène, bouncing up and down.
"That was so amazing!" Marinette awed. "I have to get my portfolio ready at once!"
oOo
At 9:45 am, Marinette walked into the luxurious foyer of the Agreste Fashion building. The ceiling was high and the floor was made of white marble. The whole room had accents of gold everywhere which was a testament to how well the company was doing. Marinette straightened her pants suit and made her way up to the receptionist.
"Hi, I'm here for an interview at 10 with Nathalie Sancoeur." The receptionist looked up and smiled.
"You must be Ms. Dupain-Cheng. Yes, you can go to the elevator and go to the ninth floor. Ms. Sancoeur will be waiting for you when you get there."
Marinette thanked the receptionist and made her way to the elevator. Even the interior of the elevator was fancy. She shivered with nerves. The whole building is so big and so fancy… I'm not sure that I really belong here, she thought.
The elevator dinged ad the doors opened. Walking out, she saw what could be her new workplace. It was a large space with big windows. Desks were set up in clumps of twos and threes all around and people were busily typing on their computers or scribbling on large sketchbooks.
"Ms. Dupain-Cheng, it is good to see you today." She whirled around to see Nathalie standing behind her holding a clipboard. "Yes, it is good to see you too," she said.
"If you are ready, we can begin," Nathalie said, turning and leading Marinette to an office on the opposite side of the room. Nathalie sat down in her seat and motioned for Marinette to take a seat as well.
"I assume, since you have just graduated from college, that you have some experience with some computer software?"
"Yes, I do have a lot of experience with CAD and Illustrator, but I mostly design on paper," Marinette stated. Her hands were shaking so violently, she had to hide them under the desk. Nathalie wrote a note on her clipboard. "Do you have your portfolio ready?" Nathalie asked.
Marinette nodded. She fumbled as she took out her folder of work. She steadied her hands and placed her designs on the desk in front of her. "I have been designing since grade school. About six years ago, Gabriel Agreste held a competition for a bowler hat design and I won it. There is the sketch I made," Marinette said, pointing to the paper. Nathalie picked it up and studied it for a moment and wrote something else down on her paper.
"I have entered many competitions in the last few years with professionals who compete as well, and I have won a few of those. I have also been making and designing my own clothes since grade school."
Nathalie looked through her sketches as she talked and made notes periodically.
"How do you stay up to date with current fashion trends?"
"I try to get a wide range of designs so as well as the normal fashion magazines you would find around here like Elle and Vogue Paris, I also order magazines from all around like Glamor, Dazed, and Vanity Fair."
"Alright," Nathalie said. "Now, what do you think- Ms. Bourgeois, what is going on?" A woman about Marinette's age had just burst into the room, waving a paper around.
"What is going on?" screeched the woman. "Your committee just vetoed my design for the second time! Don't you know who I am? I can ruin you!"
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will take care of this immediately." Nathalie said, taking the paper of her hands. By the way that Natalie sat so calmly, Marinette guessed that this happened fairly often.
"You better. You know what I can do." the woman sniffed and promptly stamped out of the room. Marinette realized why she looked so familiar. She was Chloe Bourgeois, the daughter of Mayor Bourgeois. Hopefully, she wouldn't be working with her.
Nathalie looked at the paper in her hands for a moment. Then she slid the paper and a pencil across the desk to Marinette.
"I want to see what you can do with this design."
Marinette immediately took the pencil and hand and studied the design. She erased and drew for a few minutes before finalizing and sliding the paper back to Nathalie.
"It was a good design, to begin with," Marinette stated. "I lifted the skirt on that side and changed the neckline to a rounded one which would bring out the sleeves…" she trailed off realizing that she may have been talking too much. Her hands started shaking again so she clenched them together.
"This is very good," said Nathalie after a moment. She looked up. "Would you be able to start today?"
Marinette's jaw dropped. "Uh, y-yes. Yes, I can."
"Good. Let me show you around and then I will find someone for you to shadow for a few days." She took up her clipboard and walked out of the room with Marinette in tow. "So here, as you have seen before is where you will be working. You will be sharing an island with one of our journalists, Alya Césaire."
Alya looked up. "I guess you're my new desk partner. Nice to meet you," she said, sticking out her hand. Marinette shook it. "Nice to meet you too!"
"Hey Nathalie!" said a deep voice behind her. She saw Adrien Agreste coming up to them. The Adrien Agreste. The gorgeous supermodel of Agreste Fashion. Her heart started pounding very fast.
"Hey, is my father here right now?" he asked Nathalie.
"No, he went to a conference an hour ago. He probably will not be back for the rest of the day." Her phone went off with a ping and she sighed. "I have to take care of this immediately. Adrien, since you are not doing anything else, would you show Marinette around? She just started today."
"Of course! Are you ready Marinette?" She nodded, wide-eyed. She was about to take a tour with Adrien Agreste! She was sure that this job would be the perfect fit. Maybe I could belong here, she thought as he led her away.
Hey guys! If you made it this far, thanks for reading. And thank you to the people who brought the weird coding to my attention. So yeah... tell me what you think! Critisms are welcome since this is my first fanfic. I'll probably be back soon ;)'
-m.c.