Marinette should have known that an extended period of time without an Akuma attack was too suspicious for words and as per usual, Hawkmoth had the most inappropriate timing.
After Marinette had had her startling revelation in the toilet she had tried to calm down by breathing deeply and muttering incoherent chants such as: "he hasn't said anything, so he can't know," which lead to her only working herself up and backfiring her attempts at calming down as thoughts collided inside her head: 'what if he's only pretending to not know so he doesn't hurt my feelings?'
Tikki had watched the display in front of her with disbelieving eyes until eventually she couldn't take much more of it. "Marinette!" She yelled, her voice loud enough to cause a slight echo. "You've completely misunderstood the situation! Please try to calm down!"
Before Marinette could even respond the door shot open, Tikki instinctively shot into Marinette's purse.
"Mari?" It was Alya, peering searchingly around the door. Once she had sighted Marinette she breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought it was you. No one else would be giving themselves pep talks in front of the mirror. I suppose you must've heard what's happened, huh?"
Assumptions rampaged around in Marinette's brain, forming one big ball of stress and worry. Could Adrien have told somebody that she liked him? Had Nathanael told someone even though he had promised not too? What if someone had overheard their conversation? But how could they have known what the two were talking about?
She shook her head wildly. "No. What is it? Is it about Adrien?"
Alya frowned in concern and shut the door firmly behind her. "No, it's about Nathanael... And you."
"Me?" Marinette exclaimed, pointing to herself accusingly.
"I heard people talking about it as they were coming from the art corridor - I figured I'd meet you there since you were taking your time. Apparently you asked to talk to Nathanael alone. I heard Kim saying that you took Juleka's advice and that your secret admirer had asked you out. And then he ran off, declaring that the person who likes Juleka should ask her out next. Now, most of our class is gossiping about the two new couples." Alya had her arms folded as she leant against a sink, studying Marinette's dismayed expression. "But I can see that it's just gossip. If it were true, you would have texted me the outcome," she pressed, only somewhat teasing.
"Of course I would have if it were true!" Marinette responded automatically. "The only people who were in the room were Ivan and Myléne but it's not like them to spread rumours."
"That's probably because it wasn't them," Alya resolved and gave Marinette a dead-pan expression. "When I asked Kim who he had heard the rumour from, I wasn't surprised as to who it was. The identity of the gossiper is..?"
"Chloé," Marinette filled in, annoyance flooding through her. "She must have heard it from Ivan and Myléne. Chloé either followed me or they must have left the classroom and were talking about it."
Alya's eyes lit up. She shook her head in disgust. "And guess who I saw but didn't think of it as important as you ran to the art corridor? Chloé and Sabrina, talking about 'where did she think was going in such a rush?'" Alya grew dejected and grasped Marinette by the shoulders. "I'm sorry I didn't stop them, I didn't think much of it. Only that Chloé was being Chloé."
Marinette smiled wanly and patted Alya's hand. "It's not your fault, Alya. Thanks for coming to find me."
"Hopefully once you deem the rumour untrue, people will just forget about it," Alya pulled away from Marinette and raised her eyebrow in a teasing manner. "I can't say the same about Juleka though. If, like you say, Adrien does like her... In fact, how did you find this poem that he wrote? And what did he say about the girl that he likes?" Alya had gone into full-blown reporter mode and Marinette felt eerily nostalgic as she had seen this side of Alya before but only with the mask on.
"Well... Funny story," Marinette began nervously, fumbling with her thumbs. "I may have founditintherubbish." Her words attached themselves together in humiliation and had come out in a clump. Alya's eyebrows furrowed together whilst attempting to de-jumble them.
"Oh, Marinette, you found it in the rubbish? Was he writing it in class?" Alya's expression was unreadable so Marinette decided to try and redeem herself.
"Okay, it sounds crazy and creepy but I was just really interested in what he was writing! He seemed so intense! So when he threw it away I found it when he left the room!" Marinette heard how deluded she sounded and wanted to tear out of her own skin just to escape from herself.
Alya just stared at her in disbelief until the laughter started and never seemed to cease. Marinette stood by and watched Alya try to talk between heaves of heavy laughter.
"Well, I didn't think it was this funny at the time!" She tried indignantly.
"And what exactly did this poem say?" Alya managed to get out as she pushed up her glasses to wipe away stray tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
Marinette had memorised it off by heart, much like studying for a chemistry test, only she didn't want to appear too stalker-ish so she pretended to struggle. "Um, something about her having 'jet black hair'? Um... 'Eyes as blue as the heavens'? And, a 'mysterious mask', I think."
There was another poignant silence before Alya released a similar bout of laughter. "What's so funny?" Marinette questioned, desperateness clung at her tone and Alya tried to control herself.
"So, hold on, let me get this right," Alya breathed out slowly before recapping. "The boy threw his poem in the rubbish, which you picked up - correctly interpreted it to be talking about you - and then wrote him a reply and sent it to him without signing it."
Marinette nodded. "That's the gist of it anyway."
Her best friend rolled her eyes so impressively that it appeared they almost lost themselves in the back of her head. "So, Adrien received a response to his poem that he threw away? He must have either been so blown away by your romantic poem or he's just as oblivious as you, Mari," Marinette looked affronted and Alya put her hands up in mock-surrender whilst continuing to explain.
"He's either realised too well that only someone in his class could have seen his poem to the point that he may have thought your reply poem was an elaborate prank and decided not to bring it up," Marinette's heart sank a little at Alya's point. She really didn't want her act to be seen as mocking. "Or, he just hasn't considered as to how someone wrote him a reply to a poem that he trashed. Or, a conclusion I wish was likely, he hasn't read your poem at all. I mean, if he hasn't said anything it might be because he hasn't got anything to say because he hasn't read it."
"And why do you think that's not likely?" Marinette inquired in frustration, annoyed that her only hope to be rid of this mess had been snatched away from her.
"Because I may have asked if he got any cards on Valentine's Day and he said he got one he didn't expect to receive with a dreamy expression on his face," Alya replied coyly. "I asked him after class before I went to find you because you were talking about the poem you sent him. Are you sure you didn't sign it?"
Marinette's innards had been set ablaze and now she was charcoal. "I am 101% sure after hearing that reply! If he really felt that way towards me I think I would know! Right?" She added, urging Alya to give her some advice.
Alya cocked an eyebrow. "Wake up, girl!" She announced, as if giving Marinette the divine resolution to her problems. "The poem! He clearly described you! How could you read that and think 'eyes as blue as the heavens' meant he was talking about Juleka?" Alya seemed stumped, as if Marinette's obliviousness had truly astounded her - which it had. "As Nino said, Juleka's eyes are like copper, not like the heavens!"
The bell had rang throughout Alya's exposure of Marinette's assumption, but the two girls had both mutually chosen to ignore it.
The bell had only added to the tension inside of Marinette and she felt her thoughts were zipping around her brain, not leaving her any room to form a coherent thought. A logical thought. "But the 'mysterious mask' part? It's metaphorical, it has to be. 'Eyes as blue as the heavens' is what's hiding underneath her mask. So, he wants to get to know and understand the girl he likes so he feels he deserves her, therefore meaning he can get her to unlock the gate of heaven, meaning she lets him in? Her mask is a facade, and it fits with Juleka because her hair always covers her eyes!"
Alya audibly groaned in frustration. "But not the colour of her eyes, Mari!"
"It's metaphorical!" Marinette deflected, trying not to be swain, not sure what would happen to her if her assumption had been wrong all along.
"It's a description!" Alya defended, her mouth turned up in a smile, but not an amused smile, a 'I can't believe those words are coming from your mouth' type of smile.
"Okay," Marinette breathed, unable to gloss over the mass of the situation. "Okay, okay, okay. So if you are right - if he didn't write this poem about Juleka, what does it mean? He got my poem and said he didn't expect to receive it? Who does he think it's from?" The more questions she had, the more frustrated she became.
"And why does he not question where it came from?" Alya retorted, equally as frustrated as her blue-eyed friend. She was about to proceed with her rant but her phone buzzed, disrupting her train of thought. She pulled the phone from her pocket and checked the message.
"It's from Nino. He's asking where we are; class started five minutes ago," Alya sighed and stored her phone away. "I would usually suggest you talk to Adrien and try to sort things out but in your circumstance I have a feeling you'll say-"
"No," Marinette cut across. Her heart had gone shaky at the thought of confessing everything to Adrien. "I can't talk to him. I talked to him today and messed it up. I can't... I can't talk to him about this!"
Alya held the door open for Marinette. "So, what? You'll just never talk to him ever again?"
"No! I mean, yes? Maybe? Well, not today at least..."
"You're going to have to talk to him at some point. Either that or you debunk this whole Juleka thing and told her you made a mistake," Alya stated logically, an idea Marinette experienced a fresh wave of horror from.
"And risk her having her confidence destroyed when I made such a big deal out of someone having a crush on her? No way! I'm such an idiot, I swear I made it sound like someone having a crush on you gives you value!"
Alya ruffled Marinette's hair while climbing the stairs to their classroom. "Well it sounds like you're going to have to talk to her anyway. Look, you've made some assumptions and acted impulsively on them, but now you've figured out you were wrong - with the help of your best friend, who you can talk to at anytime - it means you've taken the first step to fixing the problem."
"Alya, I wish I were more like you."
"Is it bad if I say I wish you were too? Only so you wouldn't have gotten involved in this mess." Marinette would have slugged her only if it wasn't true.
The rest of the school day passed uneventfully for Marinette. Only the rumours of her and Nathanael being a 'thing' were still being fuelled by Chloé as she often sniggered over the 'Dorky Couple'. Of course, with Kim being extremely vocal it wasn't long before Chloé had heard the rumour about Juleka's secret admirer and had began to tear into that too. But as no one had stepped forward to confirm if it were true and Kim had stopped giving details of the secret of Juleka's admirer as soon as Chloé had overheard, the rumour was void and vacant, meaning Chloé had better things to do. Like announce fictional commentaries about the 'Dorky Couple's' interactions, which were non-existent and didn't leave Chloé a lot to go on.
The only thing, besides annoyance, Marinette had to deal with was deeming the rumour to be untrue to Kim and Alix when asked about it. Although she had tried to maintain constant quietness to avoid any interaction with Adrien.
As soon as school was over, Marinette waved goodbye to Alya, promising to call her later, and escaped from school and raced towards home. She greeted her parents non-verbally and only responded with a nod and a faint smile as her mum told her that she had left the compacted door which led to the balcony open to air out her room. When she retired to her bedroom she flopped onto her bed, threw her bag onto the floor, and closed her heavy eyes. Blindly, she swept her hand to her side and unclasped her purse, allowing her Kwami to be free.
"Today was exhausting," Marinette murmured into the pillow, quite willing to curl herself into a ball and take a long nap to forget about her woes of the day.
Tikki must have hovered away from her and up towards the balcony because when she next spoke she sounded muffled. Suddenly Marinette tuned in to a variety of different noises, most of them being police sirens and the sound of a blaring horn. "As much as I need to talk to you about today, Paris needs you the most! You better transform! Quickly, Marinette!"
Marinette struggled to lift her head from the pillow, she felt like her neck was too weak and her head was too big for her body. "What? Why?" She fell from her bed and clambered up the stairs and over to where Tikki was positioned behind the balcony.
The girl squinted to focus her vision and was met with the sight of police cars speeding down the street in chase with what seemed to be a clown on a unicycle. Only when Marinette peered closely did she see that the clown had a vivid grimace with piraña-like teeth and his horn was spawning masses of weeds that curled around the surrounding buildings, halting the police cars and tangling around the civilians. "Soon all of the cities in France will have been visited by my one-man circus!" The criminally insane clown screeched at the top of his lungs into his horn, which also served as a megaphone.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Marinette exclaimed in grief as the weeds began ensnaring police officers into its grasp. It seemed that luck really was not on her side today and she couldn't believe her day had somehow managed to become worse.
A small spark of hope flared to life within her, perhaps luck would be brought to her one time today. "Alright, Tikki, spots on!"