Marinette had a problem.

Well, it really depends on the perspective. Alya would have probably shamelessly celebrated if she was there.

Nino grinned at her sheepishly from his seat next to a less than thrilled looking Nathaniel as Marinette stood in confusion in the doorway of the classroom. Across the room, Adrien sat by himself at his table looking no less confused than Marinette, obviously wondering why the heck did his best friend just abandon him for seemingly no reason. Marinette hid a sigh. So that was what Alya was texting Nino about.

On one hand, Marinette was glad that she didn't have to sit next to Nathaniel after those comments from yesterday about her looking like Ladybug. Sure, he didn't directly accuse her of being Ladybug, but it was enough to have her stressed for all of last night. Funny how a simple comment could stress someone so much.

But on the other hand, that meant that she had to sit next to Adrien. And that was not something she had mentally prepared herself for. As if sensing her thoughts on him, Adrien glanced up, catching Marinette's eye. He smiled uncertainly, shrugged, and pulled out the stool next to him, clearing inviting her to sit.

Oh boy.

Taking a deep breath, she made her way across the room.

"Good morning, Marinette," Adrien greeted politely with a smile.

Marinette smiled back. Or at least she tried. It was suddenly hard to remember how to smile at that moment.

"M-Morning, Adrien," Marinette replied with a squeak. She stood frozen next to the table, unable to quite bring herself to sit next to him.

"Sorry about Nino stealing your seat," Adrien began apologetically. "I don't know what came over him. He insisted on sitting next to Nathaniel today."

"O-Oh, really? That's, um, weird…" Marinette forced out a small laugh. Still, she didn't move from her spot to sit.

Noticing this, Adrien looked at her questioningly. "Do you not want to sit next to me?"

Marinette jumped. "O-Of course I want to sit next to you! Who wouldn't want to sit next to you? You're Adrien after all!"

"Er…"

Marinette blushed furiously. "I mean since you're a great friend and all…" Oh lord have mercy.

Letting the conversation drop awkwardly, she simply took her seat next to him, hyper-aware of how close their arms were side to side. Her chair slightly lurched to the side as she shifted her weight, bringing her even closer to him, a movement which he didn't seem to take notice of. If she just moved her arm an inch to the left…

"Good morning, class," Ms. Ro greeted with her usual small smile. The class quieted down. "I hope you all have your designs. I'll be coming around to check them so please have them out."

Murmurs, along with a few groans, filled the class as the students began digging into their bags. Already, she heard a few curses from the table behind them. Marinette pulled out her sketchbook and flipped to the page from yesterday, careful to keep her movements casual and not fall into her habit of moving like a trained robot while nervous. Adrien seemed to not notice as he pulled out a folder neatly labeled "Ceramics Class"

"Did you get all your designs done?" Adrien asked, a smile on his face. He kept his folder closed.

"Y-Yeah, do you want to see?" Marinette tilted her book towards him.

She was a little proud of the designs actually. Since she and Nathaniel had quite a bit of experience with designing and drawing already, they had finished quite early on in the class. They didn't talk much; Marinette was too much on edge the whole time to allow for any casual conversation. But what did happen was that once they had realized they had both finished early, both artists had subtly started adjusting their designs in an attempt to one-up each other until it had turned into a silent competition. Nathaniel had begun with a variety of simple cartoon styled objects to which Marinette replied with the same style but with more details. Nathaniel, noticing her challenge, changed his style, keeping his designs simple yet extremely detailed, more than Marinette's designs. After that, the two spent the rest of the class silently, yet furiously, trying to out-do the other.

The result, after many scratched out designs and erased and redrawn parts, were six beautiful designs each. Every design had their own themes such as floral vines, cherry blossoms, or marine life. They were also probably far too complicated to turn into a stamp, something neither she nor Nathaniel had thought of.

"These are very nice," Ms. Ro complemented, walking up to the table. She smiled as she studied the designs. "Your name is Marinette, right?"

"Yes," Marinette replied nervously. Next to her, Adrien started fidgeting as he drew his paper closer.

"And what about your designs?" Ms. Ro turned to Adrien, an expectant smile on her face.

"Er…" Adrien slowly opened his folder and pulled out a sheet of paper. Despite his subtle attempts to partially hide his designs from Marinette's view, she caught a glimpse.

To say they were crude was an understatement.

Ms. Ro said nothing, simply raising an eyebrow. Then she nodded and walked away.

As soon as the teacher turned, Adrien hastily flipped his paper over. Marinette could see the tips of his ears turn red. Before she could say anything, however, Adrien murmured something incoherent under his breath.

"Huh?"

"My dad never put me in any drawing classes," Adrien repeated, this time just barely audible. His ears were still red and he looked away in embarrassment.

Marinette giggled, more out of surprise than anything else. Adrien? Bad at drawing? She didn't think that there was anything that the model was bad at, but here he was embarrassed that he couldn't draw well. It made her feel better; it felt like he was an actual person with flaws just like her instead of a perfect model that she had always made him out to be.

Adrien pouted a just the barest of pouts. If anyone asked, he would have denied it.

"I'm better with my hands at making things. I just don't draw often. Or at all for that matter."

"It's okay, Adrien," Marinette chuckled. "No one starts off good at anything."

"You're pretty good at drawing, though," Adrien commented, almost wistfully. He eyed her drawing sullenly before looking away.

Marinette shrugged. "I've been drawing designs since I was young. It's not a very useful skill, though."

"You didn't take classes?" Adrien asked, slightly surprised.

Marinette shook her head. "Classes cost money. I never really needed any and I didn't want to burden my parents by asking."

"But who teaches you?" Adrien frowned slightly.

"Myself?"

"You can teach yourself how to draw?"

"Well, yes…" Marinette looked at Adrien curiously. "It just takes practice. And maybe some internet tutorials. Haven't you ever learned something yourself?"

"Ah…" Adrien scratched the back of his head. "My dad always signed me up for lessons for as long as I can remember. I usually have too many lessons to have time to learn something on my own. I didn't even have time to meet people, which is why I wanted to go to a public school for the first time."

"So you didn't have any friends besides Chloe?" Marinette asked, bewildered. Did he grow up with only Chloe as a friend? Poor guy.

"There were other children. Sometimes. But Chloe has always been the closest out of them," Adrien confirmed. "Nino was the first real close friend I've had."

"Wow." Once again, Marinette felt guilty about separating the two. Sure, it was Alya who had specifically asked (or rather, threatened, knowing how she was) Nino to switch seats but that didn't make her feel any better.

"Yeah, I don't know why he moved. He didn't say anything either. I hope he isn't mad at me," said Adrien with a frown. He glanced over his shoulder at the said friend who sat in mutual discomfort with Nathaniel. It was actually kind of amusing seeing the normally talkative Nino sitting so quietly.

Marinette laughed nervously. "Oh, I'm sure he has his own reasons."

"Yeah, I guess…"

Before Marinette could further reassure him, Ms. Ro cleared her throat. She smiled at the students.

"I'm glad that most of you have your designs. Today, we'll be starting to use clay. So the first thing we do with clay is to wedge. This is to mainly remove air bubbles but it can also be used to mix two pieces of clay. For example, if one piece is too dry, you can wedge it with a wetter piece to mix the two moisture levels." She walked over to the wedging table, rolling up her sleeves as she did so. Reaching into one of the bags of clay that sat upon the table, she cut out a small slab using a piece of string that she had been holding onto.

"Even though this clay is coming directly from the bag, we still need to wedge it. We'll only be using one type of wedging in this class which is really simple." She smashed the clay slab into a ball and placed it upon the plaster table as she stood on the side with her back to the wall so that the whole class could see the clay.

"Wedging is similar to kneading dough. First, you push forward as well as slightly downward with both heels of your hand," Ms. Ro said as she demonstrated slowly. "You don't want to push too far downwards and flatten the clay; try to keep it in a lump rather than a slab. Then you pull the clay back to where you first started. This pulling back towards yourself should slightly rotate the clay into a different angle than the first time and do the process again. Once you repeat this for a minute or so, you can turn the whole lump to the side and repeat."

Ms. Ro demonstrated, first slowly then quickly. Her hands moved quickly, almost too fast to keep up with. Some students tried following her movements. Only a few were able to do so confidently.

"You have to remember that doing this on plaster will dry your clay out. Don't wedge too long either even if you're not wedging on plaster. That's a mistake many beginners make. Wedging is also best done standing so you can put your weight into it. And when you're done," she stopped and took the string she had used previously. "You can cut it in half. If you see air bubbles then you'll have to wedge it all again. If not, just put the pieces together and give one or two wedges and then you can begin. You don't have to cut your clay in half every time, only when you want to make sure there isn't air. Any questions?"

The class was silent.

"Good. You may use any of the tools at your table. Remember to keep your clay moist to prevent dust. I will give a demonstration of how to attach to pieces of clay tomorrow. Do not try to attach two pieces of clay by sticking them together. You may get started now."

The class began talking excitedly. Adrien and Marinette glanced at each other before he stood up, a smile on his face. "I'll go get some clay."

"Ah, thanks," Marinette said, offering a small smile. She hoped that it only felt like she was blushing.

"No problem." He was already turning away, flashing one of his model smiles. Half of the class was already gathered around the wedging table, eager to get started working with clay.

When Adrien finally did return with two small lumps of clay, Marinette stood and took one lump from his hands. She was careful to not touch his hands as she took her lump in fear of melting from bliss right there on the spot.

The clay was cool to the touch and slightly moist. The texture was surprisingly really smooth, almost as if she was holding playdough. It was smoother than playdough in fact, and a lot heavier.

"Roll up your sleeves," Adrien advised. Marinette noticed his were already rolled up. She did so after setting the cool lump on the table. She frowned as she looked at her clay.

"Do you remember how to do it?" Adrien asked, a frown on his own face. He poked his clay uncertainly as he gave a half-hearted shove with his hands in an awkward imitation of what Ms. Ro had done which did nothing except getting the clay stuck onto the table. Around them, the class was having similar reactions. Some students giggled as they played with their clay as others huffed in annoyance before scraping their clay off the table.

"Don't push so hard in the beginning," Marinette advised. She turned to her own lump, giving it an experimental push with the heels of her hands. It reminded her of kneading dough, except the clay was a lot heavier as well as less mushy. Pulling back the clay, she repeated the process. Pretty soon, she had a steady rhythm going.

"How...are you doing that?" Adrien asked in astonishment. His own lump of clay was already flattened onto the table. "Have you done this before?"

"No," Marinette admitted. She turned her clay onto its side, remembering what Ms. Ro had said about turning before continuing to wedge. "But it's a little similar to working with dough. My family runs a bakery."

"Wow…" Adrien looked impressed as he ripped his failure off of the table. "That's so cool."

Marinette blushed. "It's nothing much, really."

"Can you teach me?" Adrien made a face at the clay in his hands. He gathered the remains of his attempt at wedging into a ball before placing it on the table again. "I don't know why mine keeps sticking to the table…"

"A-Ah, sure…" Marinette slowed her hands as Adrien watched. "I think it sticks to the table because it's too wet...I just kept wedging and mine started to dry out. So I think you should just keep going."

"Like this?"

"Move your hands closer…"

"Um…" Adrien grimaced.

"H-Here." Acting far braver than she felt, Marinette reached over and adjusted his hands with her own into the correct position. "T-The heels of your hands should be close together...Like this. Kinda like making a V shape with your hands."

"Ah, thanks." Adrien looked surprised but quickly wiped it off his face. Turning red, Marinette quickly withdrew her hands.

"N-No problem..."

Never try to connect two clay pieces by just sticking them together. It's not playdough and it will fall off eventually.

Author's Note:

Remember when I said this chapter would be up last night? Funny story, I was writing this chapter on my laptop in bed, blinked, and it was 7 AM in the morning and I was in lying down with no recollection of even closing my laptop. I was on a video call at the time too, which I apparently ended after crawling under the covers and murmuring something about sleeping according to my boyfriend.

Reviews make me smile :)

Thank you to Diane, FicsFromAnAnbuNin, missdragongirl, obsidiandragon182005, Guest (2), Luiz4200, mayuralover, Dan, Swirlspot, and Dancing Princess for reviewing!

Diane - Ah, thank you for catching that! I meant to type wary but I probably misspelled it and it autocorrected and slipped past my notice… Happens often lol...I'll change it soon!

Luiz4200 - Your guess is spot on!