Before Chloe had the chance to scream at her again, Marinette hastily opened the front door, blinking out into the surprisingly bright morning sunlight, at the stranger on the doorstep expecting some sort of taxman or the part-time cook and her best friends mother, Mrs. Cesaire, because according to Chloe, Marinette's cooking was too peasant like for her.
What she got was the shock of her life.
Standing in front of her was a palace messenger, around her age with short black hair, tanned skin, and kind whiskey brown eyes, with what was clearly a message from the palace, on her doorstep. Her doorstep!
"Uh, miss?" the messenger asked politely, waving a gloved hand in front of her frozen, shocked face, "Are you alright?"
Realizing she was gaping, Marinette quickly shook the freeze and replied "Yes, fine thank you. I'm Marinette, who are you?"
"Name's Nino," the boy grinned proudly, "Nice to meet you Marinette. But I didn't come to drop some beats, I came with a message from the palace. All eligible maidens are invited to Prince Adrien's birthday ball at the Palace tomorrow evening. King Gabriel and the Queen are trying to find him a suitable wife." Nino held out the crested invitation to Marinette, who took it eagerly, albeit confused, as to why the King would look for the Prince's wife among commoners. It probably wasn't King Gabriel's idea, she knew that much. The Queen and Prince Adrien cared a lot about the commoners they ruled, not just the nobility like King Gabriel.
"Thank you Nino," she said, gazing down at the expensive paper in her hand, waving goodbye to Nino who waved back, walking back the way he came down the path.
Marinette shut the door slowly, leaning back against the wood, daydreaming about the amazing things that could happen to her at the royal ball. The royal ball! There would be waltzing and macaroons like the ones she used to make with her parents in the family bakery, and she would even see Alya, her best friend she only met occasionally, and by occasionally it was more like every half a year. Marinette was hardly ever let out of the house, she might talk and start gossip, and albeit very true rumors about the Bourgeois. She might even meet Prince Adrien, she'd had a, really tiny, gigantic crush on him for years now.
She opened her eyes from her wonderful dream to discover that she had twirled into the center of the vast hallway, with Chloe right in her face, trying to pry the envelope out of her small hands, which currently clutched the invitation to her chest.
Finally retrieving the envelope out of Marinette's tight grip, whilst muttering quite colorful insults about her under her breath, Chloe's icy eyes scanned the paper, for once her steel-like eyes holding a faint spark of joy. She stopped cursing Marinette under her breath as her face lit up like a Christmas Tree, dazedly shoving the cup of tea into Marinette's hand, for once gently as she spun, plopping gracefully down onto the white sofa, an explosion of garish yellow against the cotton colored suede. Sighing dramatically, she raised her voice calling excitedly and incessantly for her father to come down this instant.
That was when the Mayor's bedroom door banged open with a resultant crash.