Marinette woke up extra early the next morning to have time for present wrapping. After she was finished, she tied on a shiny ribbon and held it up to see.
"I hope Adrien likes it," she sighed, with a dreamy look on her face. Although she was dazed about the gift, Marinette couldn't get last night's incident out of her head. The news channel didn't show anything about the situation, so Marinette decided to forget about it for now. Tikki woke up early as well, to see what Marinette was doing. She saw the gift and gasped.
"Wow Marinette! You really outdid yourself this time! The gift looks really nice!" Tikki gushed.
"Thanks Tikki. I hope he likes it! It's a matching hat to the scarf I gave him!" Marinette twirled around the room with the gift in her hands. She stopped and faced the clock, which read 7:45. "Oh no! I better go before I'm late! Again!" Marinette rushed downstairs. Tikki flew as fast as she could to make it into Marinette's schoolbag.
"Don't forget about me!" Tikki complained. Marinette shushed her as she walked past her parents. She grabbed some warm cookies from the baking tray and placed them in her bag for the kwami to eat. She waved to her parents good bye and rushed to school, clutching the gift in her arms.
Marinette reached the school just in time to see Adrien get out of his car. For some reason, Adrien had a grumpy look on his face. Marinette hoped it wasn't because of her, even though there was no reason for him to be angry at her.
"Hey, Adrien! I made you a gift… I hope you like it because I like you and…" she abruptly stopped talking. "I mean nothing!" she said with a nervous chuckle. Adrien glared at her, and walked into the school, ignoring her and her gift. Marinette was left in shock and disappointment. Trying to stop the tears from coming out of her eyes, Marinette rushed to the girl's restroom. Nino saw the whole thing and walked up to Adrien.
"Dude, that was soo not cool. You made Marinette cry man! What's with you today?" Adrien looked over at Nino, and sighed.
"I'm just… not feeling well today. I should probably just go home, before I make anyone else upset." Adrien trudged out of the building and walked home.
Nathalie was out doing errands while Mr. Agreste was out at a meeting, so Adrien was alone at home. Plagg flew out of his bag, shaking his head.
"Was that about yesterday?" he questioned Adrien. Adrien hesitated, and nodded. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
"Plagg, hide!" he swept the Kwami away and answered the door. There stood Nino, with a worried look on his face. "Nino, you didn't have to co-" Adrien started.
"Yeah I did! Besides, I don't mind missing school every now and then. You should tell me when you are going to skip next time!" Nino interrupted. Adrien gave him a look, but shrugged.
"Well, now that you're here, let's go upstairs. I got a new game." They both went up the stairs into Adrien's bedroom. He lifted up a CD case with the word "Katsuwatch" on it. Nino's mouth dropped open.
"You got Katsuwatch? I heard it's great! Let's play!" Nino grabbed a controller and turned on the console.
For the next few hours, Nino and Adrien sat in front of the t.v playing video games while sipping drinks. Suddenly, Nino's ringtone went off.
"Shoot it's Alya! We had to study for the history project today at the library." He grabbed his bag and waved Adrien goodbye as he ran downstairs and out the door, hoping that Alya wasn't mad. Adrien sighed.
"I need some fresh air. Plagg, claws out!" Plagg, who was enjoying himself with a big chunk of camembert, got sucked into Adrien's ring. Adrien transformed into Cat Noir and jumped out of the window and onto another roof. He leaped from building to building until he heard sobbing. His ears perked. Ladybug? He thought. Cat Noir peered down and saw Marinette crying while hugging the present that was meant for Adrien. Cat Noir sighed. Sorry Mari. There were just so many things on my mind today. You must be heartbroken. Cat Noir jumped down and ran over to Marinette. "Hey Mari. What's wrong?" Marinette sniffled.
"Nothing." She murmured. Cat Noir comforted her. Soon, Marinette was able to explain what had happened this morning, and surprisingly, Cat Noir listened. Maybe I was wrong about Cat Noir. He's actually a nice guy. Marinette thought to herself. "Here I want to give you something." Marinette handed him the gift she was holding onto. "I'll have to adjust it for you, though. Come over to my house." Marinette smiled. Cat Noir suddenly realized how pretty Mari was. He doesn't need Ladybug; Marinette was who he admired now.
