A/N: Not entirely sure how this will turn up on the format, but here goes! Remember to favorite and leave a review! This is a oneshot, so there will probably not be any sequels. Anywhosel, to the story!
"Mari, look, you need to get yourself together!"
"But, Alya! He right. Over. There." Marinette Dupain-Cheng jerked her head with every word to where Adrien Agreste was standing, talking to his friend Nino.
"And so's my boyfriend. So what? You need to go over there and say hello." Alya put her hands on her hips and scowled playfully at Marinette.
"But you're an outgoing, carefree person who isn't like me, an ingoing, careful person," Marinette spat back. She crossed her arms and sighed, glaring at her friend.
"Fine!" Alya said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm going to talk to my boyfriend." She threw a playfully haughty look at Marinette and strolled over to Nino, embracing the boy and waving at Adrien.
"Alya," Marinette grumbled under her breath, stomping forward, her hands balled. A couple feet before she reached her friend, Adrien turned around and smiled at Marinette.
"Hey, Marinette!"
"H-hey, Adrien," Marinette stuttered, caught off guard by Adrien's happy demeanor and his award-winning smile.
"Hey, Marinette," Nino said, winking at the blushing girl.
"Glad you finally came to your senses," Alya said, smirking. "Nino and I were just talking about his new yoyo. It's a really doozy, durable and flexible string, flashy sides, and no one has beaten him in it."
Ha! I'll bet I could beat him up and down the streets of Paris, Marinette thought, a smirk on her face.
"I'm not sure, I'm know Mari here can beat you, Nino," Adrien offered, winking at Marinette.
"I … uh, well, y'see, I …" Marinette stuttered. Of course she could take on Nino, but the fact that her crush had said that she could probably beat his best friend caught her off guard. "Why would you think that?!" she finished lamely.
"Ah, well, you look like the kind of girl who would give a yoyo master a run for his life. After all, Max was beaten by you at the video game regional thing a couple weeks ago."
"But that was video games," Nino said, interrupting Adrien. "Flinging a yoyo around is a totally different matter."
"Well -"
"Did someone say yoyo?" a high voice said, interrupting Marinette. Chloé Bourgeois sauntered up, her sunglasses on and her hips swaying very unseductively. Sabrina was nowhere in tow. "And Nino, whatever happened to blowing bubbles? Those are surely what you were born to do. Something below me. Now, where's this yoyo so I can school all of you in how to properly throw it."
"First of all, Chloé, blowing bubbles is not beneath you. You are beneath blowing bubbles. Secondly, Nino doesn't have to give you his yoyo to throw. Third, even I could probably 'school' you in throwing a yoyo." Marinette scowled and crossed her arms.
Chloé huffed. "Well why don't we put that to a test, baker's girl?"
"Fine."
"Now you don't -" Adrien started.
"Come on, Mari, you can take her!" Alya shouted, pumping her fist in the air and jostling Nino in the process.
"Actually … a yoyo battle would be kind of cool," Nino said thoughtfully.
"We could get the whole school in on it," Alya said excitedly.
"We could make it into a fundraiser for something," Adrien suggested. "I mean, I don't know what, but it would be a pretty cool idea."
"Yeah!" Marinette said happily. "A five euro entrance for every contestant. It could turn into something really cool. I suggest we start right away. I could make a banner and spread information and Alya could say something about it, and maybe we could get Chat Noir to come!"
"Chat Noir? Are you serious?" Alya said. "Girl, he's cool and all, but Ladybug would bring a much bigger crowd. No one likes Chat Noir as much as they like Ladybug."
Marinette hummed to herself. "Yeah, but Ladybug is out of town somewhere I heard…" The lie felt plain and forced to Marinette, but everyone seemed to buy it. Adrien looked a little sad or angry, she couldn't tell. Maybe it was because Ladybug couldn't come? She shrugged to herself.
"We should just get someone, I dunno, akumatized and she'll come."
"Alya! Are you freaking serious?!" Marinette squealed in shock. "That's a terrible idea."
"Yeah, you're right. It's just … Mari, listen, if Ladybug came, there would be a great crowd. You could be famous if you beat everyone."
"Alya, you're forgetting the reason for this fundraiser," Nino said.
"I guess I am …" Alya said sheepishly. "Do you have any ideas, Adrien?"
"Huh, what?" Adrien asked. He looked like he had been jolted out of his thoughts.
"Ideas," Alya pressed. "Do you have any?"
"For the fundraiser? We could hold it at the school."
Marinette nodded. Adrien had great ideas, and she would follow those ideas until the blood ran dry in her body and the last of his bones decayed. Of course, this is all assuming that she'd live long enough to see his bones decay and that wasn't likely to happen.
"I'm going to IM everyone in the school and tell them about the yoyo contest thingamajig doodah we're doing. How about holding it in a couple hours? It's not much time, but it's a Friday afternoon. Not many people should be doing anything." Alya was already on her phone, typing away. Her fingers flew over the screen so fast, Marinette was sure that the phone was going to catch fire.
Nino was watching Alya, but soon directed his attention to Adrien. "Adrien, couldn't you get your dad to sponsor the comp?"
"Eh … I don't know, Nino. He's always away on business trips. It kinda makes me mad."
Poor Adrien, Marinette thought.
"Ah, that sucks, man."
"Marinette," Alya said, jolting Marinette out of her thoughts, "you need to go home to make that banner if it's going to be finished in time."
"Right!" Marinette said, starting to jog backwards. "See y'all in a couple hours!" She grinned and turned around, running forward. She ran almost all the way to her house before needing to stop and wait for a light to change colors.
Marinette tapped her foot impatiently and waited for the light. She took out her phone and opened one of the apps and started designing the banner. It would be yellow with a yoyo for each "o" and yoyo strings circling the words. It would be her best banner yet - something Marinette vowed for every banner she made.
A couple minutes later, she arrived at home. She raced up the stairs to her room, throwing her miniature purse on her bed and threw herself onto her chair. She rolled to her table and pulled out a piece of paper. She attacked it with gusto and in half an hour, she was done.
She sighed with satisfaction as she looked at her creation. It definitely was better than the last one. It varied slightly from her original design. She found that she did that a lot - stray from the original design and turn out better.
This design still had the original base design, but a little bit more sparkle was added to the poster as well as actual string for the yoyos. All in all, it looked pretty cool.
Marinette looked at the time and almost choked on her coke. It was almost five o'clock which was the designated time for the yoyo tournament. If Marinette didn't hurry, she'd be late to the competition, and possibly late for her death sentence given by Alya to those who arrived late.
Marinette rolled up her banner carefully and shoved it into a case she puts her banners in. She nodded to herself after checking that everything went well, supplies were put away, and she had everything.
A jog, bust stop, and a pigeon protest later, Marinette was at the front of the school where a small group of people had gathered. A couple yoyos bounced up into the air and then fell back down to earth.
Marinette smiled to herself. She had this in the bag. No one was better at yoyoing than Ladybug! … right?
"Marinette!" Alya called, spotting her friend. She ran up to her with a clipboard in her hand, furiously scribbling on something.
"Yeah, Alya?"
"You're going to go first, 'kay? Take it easy on Rose, will ya?"
Marinette hefted the case. "Yeah, sure, when do I start?"
"One hour. Registration takes thirty minutes about, and then we have several groups and then we have to get organized. On top of all that, we have to inspect all the yoyos." Alya was explaining everything so fast, Marinette couldn't keep up.
"Marinette! You brought the banner, cool." Nino had spotted Marinette from a couple yards off and was now jogging up to the two girls.
"Oh, hi, Nino!" Marinette said brightly. "Yeah, I did. Are you competing?"
"Nope," Nino said, shaking his head. "I'm one of the judges. Can I have the banner so I can put it up?"
"Yeah, sure," Marinette said, taking the banner case off of her shoulder. She extended it to Nino who grabbed it, nodded his head once, and then ran off to the gym where the event was being held.
"This is going to be so fun!" Alya squealed giddily. "You're so totally going to win this, Mari. You're gonna beat Chloé upside her head with your yoyo."
"I think I'd get disqualified, Alya," Marinette said, laughing.
"True. Then you really have to beat her for me."
"Aye aye!" Marinette said, saluting.
Alya laughed and looked over her shoulder when a loud crash was heard. "Crap. They've brought down the lights. Jerks," Alya said under her breath. She raced away in the direction of the sound.
Marinette hummed to herself quietly as she walked to the registration counter. She jotted her name down and pulled out a couple euros and was about to place them on the table when she heard his voice.
"You're not paying, are you, Marinette?"
"Adrien?" Marinette asked, jerking her head up.
The blonde smiled at her, his eyes brightening with the smile. "You don't have to pay since it was part of your idea."
"But it's not fair," Marinette said feebly, knowing that this argument wouldn't last long.
"Well we are doing a fundraiser, so if you want to donate, then that's entirely up to you." Adrien smiled again. "Well I'm off to check on the other entrees. See ya, Marinette! Beat Chloé for me, will you?" He winked and jogged off in the direction of a cluster of students.
Beat Chloé? For Adrien? I … I think I can do this. Breathe, Marinette, breathe.
Tikki nudged out of Marinette's little purse and flew up to her face. "Did you hear that, Marinette? Did you? He wants you to beat Chloé for him!"
"Y-yeah, Tikki, I know, I know!" Marinette squealed to her kwami.
Tikki did a little flip in the air before becoming serious. "Now, Marinette, you know that you can't be all extravagant in this competition, right? What if you accidentally reveal yourself as Ladybug?!"
"Oh hush, Tikki, that won't happen. Have some faith in me, okay?"
Tiki huffed and crossed her arms. She flew back into the purse and mumbled something Marinette couldn't hear.
"All contestants to the gymnasium. All contestants to the gymnasium, please."
Marinette looked up and snapped her purse closed. She hurried to the gym and slipped in the double doors.
At the front of the room were a couple tables pressed together. Alya walked up and onto the tables and waved her hands for silence. When that didn't work, she tapped the microphone she held in her right hand. Silence ensued.
"Thank you all for coming to the yoyo fundraiser! I'm sorry for such short notice, but thank you all that came. All of you coming means a lot." Alya winked at the crowd. "There will be about four rounds. Two people will compete with each other in one ring. The winner of that round will move on to round two, then three, then four. That's all assuming that they won the previous rounds. The winner of the tournament will be able to donate the funds of this fundraiser to any charity of their choice."
"I'll, of course, donate it to the charity of me," Chloé said, walking up behind Marinette. She crossed her arms and looked at Marinette haughtily with a smirk on her face.
"I don't think that it works that way, Chloé."
"So, without further ado, yoyo flingers, to your stations!" Alya then started listing off names and circles. In less than five minutes, the entire gym was filled with people bouncing their yoyos.
Marinette was paired up with Rose. Crap, if I'm to make it to the top, I'll have to beat Rose. Alya said to go easy on her!
Nino walked up to their area and dropped a yoyo in both girl's hands. "The first thing you have to do is walk the dog. After that, you'll have to bounce the yoyo as many times as you can in ten seconds. You then have to finish with a trick. You'll be judged on how well the "dog" is walked, the number of times to yoyo is bounced, and the difficulty of your trick. Understand?"
Rose and Marinette both nodded.
"Get ready."
Marinette put the yoyo loop on her middle finger.
"Get set … go!"
Marinette nodded and her yoyo dropped gracefully to the ground, rolled a couple inches, and then shot back into her hand. She looked at Nino. Once he nodded she started bouncing the yoyo up and down. Once, twice, three times. She had just finished her fourth bounce when Nino tapped his watch.
"Time, Mari."
Marinette nodded. It was time for her yoyo trick. She decided to throw the yoyo up in the air and, as it came down, roll it on the floor, jerk it up, and make it land in her hand. She executed this flawlessly.
Nino took notes and then nodded to himself. "Marinette, you are passing on to round two. Rose, how can you expect to move on to the end of the tournament if you can't even walk the proverbial dog?"
Marinette was already walking away by the time Nino finished his sentence. She headed toward the bleachers and sat down. One by one, people started filing down to the bleachers where Marinette was sitting.
Alya walked up to the stage made of tables again and looked at her clipboard. "The remaining people, please listen as you are now going to be sorted into a different ring with different people." Alya rolled the names off the clipboard and everyone scurried to the designated positions.
Marinette breathed in through her nose and then exhaled out of her mouth. She did this several times and then she was ready.
The rest of the competitions were a bit of a blur. She went up against Kim, Juleka, and Max. As it turns out, there were more than four competitions. Alya had messed up on the number of people. It was to be expected, though.
Finally, it was the last round. Marinette grasped her yoyo in her hand when she saw her competitor.
Chloé Bourgeois.
Of course it was her. She had probably blackmailed her way to the top. Marinette wasn't going to let Chloé win the competition.
"And now, the final match!" Alya voice rang loud and clear. She was off of the table stage and walking toward the middle ring where Marinette and Chloé were standing. "Our two competitors are Chloé Bourgeois and … Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"
There were mixed cheers and applause from the people who had stuck around. Some people were still filtering out, their interest lost.
"Yoyos at the ready?" Alya asked, looking at each of the girls' yoyos. "Good. The first you're going to do is a Ladybug impression. You have to choose one of Ladybug's tricks and imitate it. The best imitation will get five points. After that there's the challenge to see how long it takes for you to walk your yoyo five times across the floor. Less than fifteen seconds and you'll get five points. More than fifteen seconds and you'll get one point. The first person to twenty points will win."
"Alya, I don't know if you can count, but that only adds up to, like, ten points if I win all of the sections."
"Yes, Chloé, I know," Alya said exasperatedly to the blonde. "You'll find out the last part after the first two."
"Why not now, Alya?" Marinette asked.
Alya turned to her best friend. "The third one is a surprise, of course!" Alya winked at Marinette and then turned back to the small crowd. "And now? Our two competitors will compete!"
Chloé went first, her blonde ponytail swinging in the air almost hypnotically. She reached the middle of the ring and looked back at Marinette, smirking. She took out her yoyo, and, after approval from the judges, started bouncing it up and down. Once a good rhythm started going, she started to walk the yoyo across the floor. After two times rolling on the ground, she yanked the yoyo up and aimed it at a target sign. She flung the yoyo at it and yanked it back right before it collided with the target. She caught the yoyo and turned around triumphantly. She smirked and bounced the yoyo up and down a couple of times while waiting for the judges to score her.
Marinette walked to the circle and cleared her throat. "Chloé, please step out of the ring."
"Why? You aren't going to win anyways." Chloé stepped back out of the ring as she said so, smirking all the while.
After a nod of approval from the judges, she started by flinging her yoyo out at the target and then started twirling it in a circle like how she does when she was defending herself against an Akita attack. She jumped into the air and threw the yoyo in the air. As she was coming back down to the earth, she spun her yoyo above her head and then landed on her toes in a perfect bow.
As the judges scored her, she looked over to Chloé triumphantly. Her smirk had disappeared and was now replaced with a scowl.
Serves you right, choosing to go up against Ladybug, Marinette thought.
"As we all thought, Marinette won that round! She gets awarded five points whereas Chloé gets zero," Alya said, triumph clearly in her voice.
There were muttering a of approval that were quickly silenced by Chloé's death stare.
"Now it's on to the next round: the yoyo bouncing. If the two contestants are ready, please step in front of the judge who will time you."
Marinette stood awkwardly in the middle of the circle. Her heart almost stopped beating when she saw her judge. Adrien. He smiled at her and even waved a little before clicking a couple buttons on his stopwatch.
"Are the contestants ready? On your marks, get set, go!"
Marinette missed the start of the round because she was looking into Adrien's eyes. Well, she was looking at them, not into them. She squeaked when she realized that Chloé was already ahead of her. She fumbled with her yoyo and almost dropped it. Her mentally slapped herself and continued on with walking the yoyo across the floor.
She finished in 23 seconds.
Alya, clearly surprised at the turn of events, cleared her throat and announced the winner of the round. "In 14.7 seconds, Chloé wins the round and is awarded five points." Alya looked at Marinette as she said the last part, "Marinette finished in 23 seconds and gets only one point." She handed the microphone to Adrien.
Adrien was practically radiating excitement when he announced the next and final event. "This event is one of the more dangerous ones. On either sides of the gymnasium there are ropes that you'll be hooked up to. Don't worry, there are harnesses and this is safe. I tested it myself. Anyways, what you'll be doing is swinging from one end of the room to another and hitting targets that pop up. The person who hits the most targets win! The targets all are equal to two points each, by the way."
I can win this! Marinette thought excitedly. I am Ladybug after all and she does crazy awesome things like this all the time.
"Now, ladies, if you will walk to the opposite sides of the gym and get strapped in by the officials, we can continue on with this competition." Adrien smiled his signature smile as the two girls walked in opposite directions.
Marinette's assistant was a tall and slender woman with green and black hair. She asked Marinette to sit down in the harness. Marinette did so and was strung up very quickly. Pretty soon she was dangling in the air.
"You okay, Marinette?" Alya asked her, coming beneath her.
"Um, well, I suddenly realize I have a fear of heights which is unnatural because-" I'm Ladybug and am "flying all the time. "-I've been selected to be on a skydiving team."
"Um, okay? Well anyways, you're going to be released in about three seconds. You have your yoyo, right?"
Marinette nodded and showed Alya her yoyo.
"Good. Two seconds. One second. Go get 'em, girl," Alya yelled as Marinette was released from her taunt position and went flying across the gym room. She flung her yoyo at a cardboard version of The Bubbler and knocked it down.
Marinette was actually doing pretty well...right up until Chat Noir popped up in front of her. She screamed and flailed her arms. "Get outta the way, Chat!" She yelled, ramming into the black cardboard superhero.
Marinette looked over her left shoulder and saw Chloé easily dodging the cardboard versions of the super heroes. In the process of looking over at Chloé, Marinette crashed into one Ladybug, two Lady Wifis, and one more Chat Noir.
How am I this bad at this?! I'm freaking Ladybug!
Marinette crashed into the safety pad on the gym wall. She slid to the ground unceremoniously. "It was all because of that danged Chat Noir," Marinette said angrily.
"You don't like Chat Noir?" Adrien asked, coming into view. He looked slightly hurt. "Um, erhm, well, not really? He's great and all, but too punny."
"Oh." He smiled a little and extended a hand to help her up. She grabbed it and Adrien hauled her up and took off the harness. "You know, you were supposed to hit the evil villains with the yoyo."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know," Marinette huffed.
Alya walked into the center ring and loudly sighed into the microphone. "And the winner? Chloé Bourgeois."
Cheers erupted in the gym, mostly because if they didn't, their life would be hell from Princess Chloé Bourgeois.
Marinette scowled. At least now people won't ever suspect me as the miraculous Ladybug!