Marinette's POV
Next week, at school.
"How is your presentation?" I ask Alya as she gets out her papers for her History presentation.
"It's good." She replies. "All three of us have met over the weekend and worked on it."
"Heh, same, except only Adrien and I worked on it." I say and fold my arms.
"That's not very surprising. What was she doing? Did she give you all the work and ditch you?" She asks.
I scratch the back of my neck and look away guiltily. "Well, yes she gave us all the work, but we also didn't mention to her that we were meeting up to work on it." I say, "but even if we did invite her, she would have only been a distraction to us." I justify.
"Well, that wasn't nice. Yes, true she wouldn't have done anything, but you basically made her have a zero on the project." She says. I bow my head in guilt. She's right. Adrien and I basically gave up on her, and didn't give her a chance to get a score.
I know what I have to do, "I have to go do something." I say and get up from the desk. Alya watches me as I walk over to the teacher who's setting up for the upcoming project presentations.
She looks up from her work at me, "Oh, hello Marinette. What can I do for you?" She asks me.
"Um, well, it's about Chloé." I say.
"Oh yes. I got your email. I'll deal with her later." She says.
"Oh, n-no, Um, actually, Adrien and I haven't been fair to Chloé. We knew that she wouldn't help us when we worked, so we didn't invite her to come help us when we met over the weekend." I say.
She looks at me for a second, "Hmm. So are you saying that she won't be able to participate?" She asks.
"No. She'll participate, just not a whole lot. I just wanted to tell you so you know it's because of Adrien and I that she's not doing a whole lot." I say honestly.
"Alright, but please, next time have her at least be there as you work." She says.
"Yes ma'am." I say. I turn around, and Adrien is right behind me.
"So, after everything you said, you still want her to get points for the project?" He asks me, raising his eyebrow, giving me a smirk.
"Um, well, Alya and I have been talking, and she helped me realize that leaving Chloé out was wrong." I reply. He shrugs. "Alright."
I walk past him and Chloé walks up to me. "So, did you do the project?" She asks.
"Yup, and I need you to do something for it." I reply.
"Nah, I rather not. I'm rather tired and I don't feel like doing anything. Just say that I did my section." She says. My jaw drops to the floor. Uggh, she makes me so mad. Why am I doing this? I close my eyes and take a deep breath. 'Calm down Mari, Calm down.' I say to myself.
I open my eyes and she's playing with her nails. "No Chloé, you're going to participate, but lucky for you, it's easy. You're going to hold up some posters." I say.
"Hold up posters?" She asks. "Nu-uh, my arms will get tired." She complains.
"Oh well, or you'll get a zero." I say.
"A zero huh, well, I have a D, and if I get a zero, I won't pass the class for the semester." She mumbles to herself. "Fine, alright. I'll do it." She says and rolls her eyes.
I put on a fake smile. "Okay, come with me." I wave over to Adrien. When he gets to us, I explain the situation.
"Aright, so Adrien, Chloé and I have made the agreement that we'll present to the class and Chloé will hold all of our papers. So Adrien, will you get all of your posters that need to be presented?" I ask.
"Yes ma'am." He salutes, then head down to his desk. He pulls out his work and lays them on my table.
"Here, I'll let you guys do your thing." Alya gets up from her seat and heads over to Sabrina and Nino with her stuff, leaving me, Chloé, and Adrien to ourselves.
We go over our battle plan one more time with Chloé and the teacher interrupts the class.
"Class has started. Please head back to your seats, or sit with your group. Either is fine." She says. Chloé grabs our posters and sits next to me. She sits with a bored expression, not very interested in what's going on. Man, she makes me irritated. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. 'Everything is fine, everything is fine.' I repeat in my head. I open them and look at Alya, who noticed my stress. She gives me a smile, and a thumbs up. I return the smile, glad to know that she's got my back.
"Alright, I am going to draw a name of a group randomly. That group will come up to the front of the room and present their project. I will grade you off of your performance in front of the class as well as how precise your information is." She says and picks up a cup from her desk. She walks up to Nathanial.
"Please choose a name." She says. Nathanial does as he's told and reaches into the cup. He pulls out a white sheet of paper and hands it to the teacher. She opens the sheet.
"Alya, Sabrina, and Nino. Please come and present your project." She says.
Adrien's POV
After class
Nino comes up behind me and slaps my shoulders. He starts to praise me of how good our presentation was.
"Thanks Nino. Yours was pretty good as well!" I say.
"But yours was the best in the class! Did you travel to a University and meet a professor or something?" Nino asks.
"Well, the person who found most of the information was Marinette, so I don't know. I was impressed too." I say. It's break so everyone is out of class, but the majority of everyone was in the library because it was finally starting to get really cold outside. Everyone was wearing a jacket and long pants. It's been sweater weather for a while, but now it's time to get out the heavy jackets.
"Alya had a lot of information too. She did most of the information checks for us. She's so awesome." Nino says. I look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, just a question, but do you have a thing for Alya?" I ask him curiously. I already know the answer. He has it bad for her. I watch him stare at her with admiration all the time during break, and he includes her in our conversations often. I just wanted to ask him for clarification.
"M-me? Like Alya?" He gives a raspberry and waves his hand at me. "Y-you've got to be joking. Me? Like her? N-no way!" He stutters. He is such a bad liar. He laughs at me for a bit, then gives up. "It's that obvious?" He asks looking shyly at me.
"Well, I'm your friend, so I notice these things. You talk about her a lot, and you look at her a lot. So, at least to me, yes." I say.
"Aw man. Yeah, I like her, but there is no chance for me to be with her. Plus, I think I'm totally friend zoned." He says. I chuckle and put my hand on his shoulder. "Never stop trying." I say.
"I'll keep trying." He says, but then his attitude completely changes and the roles switch. "How about you and Mari?" He asks me giving a raised eyebrow like I did to him.
"What about me and Mari?" I ask him.
"Are you guys a thing?" He asks, moving closer to me. "I saw you in her room. You guys were alone, and you guys had a moment." He says. My mind goes back to the pizza party. I guess that was when I first realized that she was someone special to me.
"Oh yeah. That. Umm… we were talking about something important, and it got really intense." I lie.
"Oh yeah. It seemed intense, but there was much lack of conversation." He says. I awkwardly start rubbing my arms, a sudden chill entering into the room.
"Okay, yes, that might have been a moment, but I can assure you that we're not a thing because I like someone else." I say. Yeah, I have feelings for Mari, but my love for ladybug is much, much bigger.
"Who?" He asks.
"No one you know." I say. He gives me a curious look then shrugs. "Okay, I believe you." He says. The conversation dies and my eyes wander around the room for no reason. My eyes settle on Marinette, who's talking to Alya. I watch for a while and turn back to Nino who gives me another raised eyebrow. I blush and give him a shrug.
Nino rolls his eyes and gives a small laugh, "Yeah, okay." He says. The school bell rings and we head back to class. I am one of the last people in the class and I look at everyone. I'm a bit surprised to see Nathanial talking to Marinette while holding a piece of paper in his hand. I don't know what they're talking about, but I don't like it. I walk to my desk and pretend to act normal.
I listen into their conversation, "You did awesome during your presentation. I think you blew everyone away." Nathanial says.
"Oh, thanks Nathanial." Mari says.
"U-um, I made you something." He says and I hear the piece of paper in his hand. "I admired how you presented with no fear, so I drew a picture of you presenting. I hope you like it." He says shyly.
I hear the ruffling of paper and Marinette gasps.
"Oh Nathanial, it's awesome! I really do like it! Thank you!" She says.
"N-no problem." He says. Why do I feel so upset? They're friends and that's what he does. He makes pictures of people and gives his art to them, so why is this time any different. I look at my clenched hand. This is weird. Nathanial walks back to his seat and I can feel myself relax a bit. I turn my head and look at him, then at Mari.
"So, what did he give you?" I ask her.
"Oh, um, he gave me a photo of us presenting during class." She says and lifts up the page for me to see. The photo has me, Chloé, and Marinette standing in front of class during our presentation. I have to give it to Nathanial, he's really good with a pen. It had Marinette front and center, then me and Chloé in the background, though, Chloé and I weren't as detailed as Mari though. Again, I can sense my hands going tighter. I'm not upset that I'm in the background, but the thing that I'm upset about is the fact that he made Marinette so beautiful in the photo, meaning he's trying to get to her again.
"A-are you okay Adrien?" Mari asks.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm good. It's just, um…" I try to say but I get interrupted by Mari who was laughing silently to herself. "W-what?" I ask her.
"Oh, n-nothing." She says. I sit back to my seat and peek at her with curiosity. I look at my desk then look at Nathanial and although he wasn't looking at me, I gave him a glare. I reevaluate myself. I don't get it. I know I like Marinette, but to this extent? No, I love ladybug, and I will stay pure to my lady. I peek at Marinette again. What am I to do?