Okay, I am back with another Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction. Although before I begin, I have an important announcement to make, and that is...I lost all interest in the show. I'll try to keep posting fanfictions for the fandom since I still do have a few ideas for it. But as far as this story goes, I'm just going to upload the first chapter for now, and try my best to update it in the future if I ever get around to it. But for now...R&R.

Side Note: This takes place about a month after the events of Karma.

"Jalil, come on," Alix said, trying to get Jalil out of bed so he could go back to work. "I know this is the last thing you want to do. But you have to start going back to work."

"I know," Jalil said, not bothering to get up from his bed, and keeping his back turned to his sister.

"You're not going to get up. Are you?"

"No," he said. "There's no point. Everything around me just reminds me of Sadie, and I don't need anymore fake pity from Theo or Penny."

"Jalil," Alix started.

"Just go, Alix," he said. "Please."

"Fine," she said, turning her back to her brother. "But at least try to get out of bed today. I don't care if you don't go into work, but you need to do something other than lay around in bed. It's been a month."

Making her way to the door of her brother's apartment, Alix packed up her purse, and swore under her breath when she accidentally knocked her old pocket watch onto the floor from where it had been sitting on the counter. Picking it up, and inspecting it for damage as someone knocked on the door. Turns out it was just Theo and Penny coming back to check on Jalil again as they've done every day for the last month since Sadie's death. But Alix knew better than to let them in. It was one thing when all of their kids were at odds with each other because Lila's daughter pulled the same shit she did with Marinette back then; but for their kids to continue to talk bad about Sadie the way that they did at her funeral. Even she couldn't forgive them for that.

Hearing Theo knock on the door again, Alix rolled her eyes and put her pocket watch back on the counter. Silently waiting until they were both gone before she finally made her exit.

~Meanwhile: Back in the Past~

"I'm sorry, Mr. Dupain. But I simply cannot allow your daughter to continue attending the school," Marinette's principal said as she spoke with Tom and Sabine while Marinette was still in class.

"Is this about her attendance?" Tom asked. "Because she has a habit of coming to class tardy. I can talk to her about that."

"This isn't about her attendance or her grades," the principal assured them. "In fact, both of those aspects of hers have actually improved since she was enrolled here. She's a bright, creative, and overall very lovely young lady. And all of her teachers adore her. It's just at this school, people like that get a huge target put on their backs for all of the wrong reasons. And the whole reason why she was put into this school in the first place was because of bullying at her old school."

"But Marinette's been bullied countless times by the mayor's daughter, Chloe Bourgeois. Surely she can handle whatever the students here have to throw at her."

"Mrs. Cheng. The bullying here goes far beyond a snarky comment made by the mayor's spoiled brat," the principal explained. "Plus, I would hate for you to have to keep traveling all the way from the other side of the city just to get her here and back."

"Oh, we really don't mind," Tom insisted, not wanting to send Marinette back to her own school because they didn't have the time to homeschool her. Nor did they want to send her to a different school. Because the only other school within city limits was a private school that required a uniform, and didn't really allow for much creative freedom like the previous two.

"Mr. Dupain. I understand you don't want to send Marinette back to her old school. But Francois-Dupont does have other classes she can join, so she's not around her former classmates. Unless you have another school in mind for her."

"No," Sabine said, looking sullenly over her shoulder towards the door. Knowing Marinette was probably sitting by the door, listening to every word. "We'll discuss this with Marinette later today when she comes home. Thank you again for talking with us, Mrs. Wingsly."

"It's no problem at all," she said, shaking their hands once again as they stood up. The bell ringing out in the hallway to signal the end of class.

R&R.