Chapter Two: Witness.
Lea Keller, new in town and filled with curiosity, made it her business to find out about the Miraculous. She spent the next few weeks asking her fellow students for any information they had. That was how she met Alya. She was speaking with a girl named Marinette when Alya approached her.
"Have you seen my blog?" She asked her, as if Lea should know what she was talking about.
"No, why do you ask?" Lea replied politely, noticing the amusement on Marinette's face.
"I call it the 'Lady-blog,' it's dedicated to Ladybug," Alya sashed proudly. "Check it out, if you want news on Ladybug."
"What about Cat Noir?" Lea asked.
"Oh, come on, everyone knows Ladybug is better," Alya laughed.
"Cat Noir is pretty cool, though," Adrien piped up behind her.
"Class, please take your seats," Ms Bustier called, as she entered the room.
They started sitting down and Lea took her seat at the back of the classroom. She stared at the back of Ivan's head while Ms Bustier rambled on about some novel she wanted the class to read. Lea stared at the clock impatiently. She'd hated school in England, and she wasn't about to start liking it now she was in France. Not to mention Ms bustier would occasionally use a word or phrase that Lea didn't understand. She tried to remember them so she could ask her mother, but quickly decided she didn't care about that either. inevitably, i dozed off with her face in her arms on the desk.
When she woke up, Ms Bustier was saying something about Adrien's father. Wasn't he famous or something? Lea couldn't remember, but someone had mentioned him before.
"The winner will be offered an internship by Gabriel Agreste, and be a model in an upcoming photo shoot with our very own Adrien." She explained. "All you have to do is design and model an outfit by next week."
The offer wasn't exactly alluring.
Being an intern didn't appeal, and she didn't know a damn thing about style. She'd studied Textiles in England, so she knew how to use a sewing machine or embroider, or pretty much anything. But, when it came to choosing colour schemes or aesthetics in general, she was hopeless.
"You should go for it," her mother sashed enthusiastically. "Your needlework is excellent, Lea, and your fashion sense could be considered abstract. Besides, an internship with Gabriel Agreste would impress future employers, even if you do end up moving back to England."
"Why would I move back to England?" She asked flatly. "I thought you liked it here."
"I do, I-" She cut herself off. "Oh, I love it here, but you never know what will happen in the future."
"So, I guess I'm entering the competition," she sighed and leaned back on the kitchen worktop.
"You'll do great, Lea," mum breathed proudly.
So, over the following weekend, she thought of nothing else. She looked at what her fellow students were wearing outside of school, to see what was popular in France. But her mother kept entering her mind. Why would she go back to England? They had just got there, and she was honestly starting to like it. After patrolling the city, she decided to go home for dinner. It would be dark soon, and she was hungry. It was later than she'd thought, because it got dark quicker than she'd thought. Perfect way to spend her Sunday evening, Lea thought bitterly.
She heard a glass pane shatter around the corner, and took cover immediately. Peering around the corner, she saw two men in ski masks breaking a window. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket, as one of the men clambered through the window. Her phone bleeped loudly to alert her that it was running out of battery, and a line on cold sweat began to form on her forehead. The second man looked up at the bleeping, and she turned to run. But he was fast, and on her immediately. As he grabbed her, he shouted to his friend. The other man was holding an octagon shaped box. Lea cried out for help, but there was nobody around. She struggled and bent her leg before thrusting her foot backwards at her assailant. The man grunted and released her. She took her chance and darted forward, colliding into the second man. He dropped the box in surprise and two objects fell from it. Lea grabbed the first one she saw, but couldn't reach the other. Then she started to sprint away.
She was clutching the object so tightly as she ran, that the edges began to dig into her hands. She was panting when she reached her front door. Only then did she think to check that she hadn't been followed. The two men were nowhere to be seen. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to relax a little. She realised she was still holding something, and looked into the palm of her hand to see what it was. It was a fox tail pendant attached to a gold chain. It didn't look like much, and Lea wondered why they had bothered to steal it. But she sort of liked it, and started to think of fox themed outfits for the competition. But first, she would have to persuade her parents not to ground her for being late home.