Chapter Seventeen - Growing Suspicion

Annabelle and Luka stayed in the practice room until they heard the bell for the end of class. When they left, they bumped into Miss Vidal.

"Hello, Luka. Was it physics again?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he said. "Don't tell Miss Mendeleev."

"My lips are sealed," she said with a wink. Then she noticed Annabelle. "Oh, you brought someone with you this time. Is she in your class, as well? I get it. I don't like Miss Mendeleev either."

"No we just bumped into each other," he said.

"I was skipping my class too and Luka told me we could hide in here," Annabelle said.

The music teacher smiled. "Well, you're welcome in here whenever you want. But don't skip class too often or you'll end up like him."

"Hey!"

Luka and Miss Vidal laughed. Annabelle just stood there awkwardly. The two of them seemed like good friends, which made her feel out of place.

"Well anyway, you two better not skip anymore classes today. Especially you," Miss Vidal pointed at Luka. "You've been in here everyday this week and if your mother finds out I've been letting you do it, she'll kill me."

"Ok, I won't." He smiled. "Bye, Julie."

She waved as he and Annabelle left. "Say hi to Anarka for me and it's Miss Vidal in school."

"Right, sorry."

Luka closed the door to the music department and Annabelle looked at him quizzically.

"What?" He asked.

"You seem like you know her," she paused, realising that sounded stupid. "Outside of school, I mean."

"She's my mum's childhood friend. She's basically like my aunt."

She smiled. "That's nice."

They walked up the stairs towards Annabelle's classroom. They paused outside before she went in.

"Thanks for helping me out, Luka."

"It's no problem."

She looked at his blue eyes and her heart started beating faster. His gaze was intense, but kind and she could feel heat start to rise to her cheeks again. She quickly looked down.

"I should, uh, go in," she said, putting her hand on the door handle.

"See you around, Annabelle." He began walking to his classroom, but stopped after a few steps and turned around. "If you ever want to bunk off again, just let me know. I'd be glad to join you." He winked at her and carried on walking.

Annabelle's face turned red. She breathed deeply to calm herself down and then walked into the classroom. As soon as she entered, everyone turned to look at her. Lila rolled her eyes dismissively when she saw who it was and turned away, making Annabelle feel even calmer. Maybe she was just overthinking and Lila wasn't that scary after all.

"Sorry I missed class, Miss Bustier. I started to feel dizzy so I went to the infirmary to lie down." Annabelle already had that excuse planned since this morning because she wasn't going to turn up originally.

Miss Bustier smiled and looked understanding. "That's ok, Annabelle. If you're still not feeling well, you can go home."

"No it's fine. I'm feeling better now." She was suddenly aware of how strongly Adrien was glaring at her from his seat, obviously not believing her. She bit her lip and ignored it.

"Mylenne told me you wanted to swap seats with her because you're struggling to see the board sometimes. Is that correct?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm going to get my eyes tested at the weekend, but it would help me out for now."

Annabelle rubbed the back of her neck and briefly glanced over to her old seat, where Mylenne was now sitting. She looked happy to sit next to Ivan. Then she saw Lila behind her, smirking, and she quickly looked away. Clearly Lila didn't believe her either.

"Well then, take your new seat next to Alix."

Annabelle smiled and walked to sit in her new seat. Adrien eyed her as she walked past his desk, but she kept on ignoring him. She could already tell he was going to have a go at her at break.

When class was over and break had started, Annabelle tried to slip past Adrien, using the crowd of her class to go unnoticed. But she felt him grab her arm and pull her back when she tried to go through the door.

"How was the infirmary?" He asked rhetorically, clearly annoyed.

"I wasn't going to skip the whole class," she paused. "Well, I was originally, but-"

He sighed and leaned against a desk, cutting her off. "You promised you wouldn't."

Annabelle looked at the ground. "Ok, so that might've been a lie." Adrien rolled his eyes. "But, Ziggy did convince me and I was about to, but then I bumped into Luka in the locker room."

"Luka? What was he doing in there?"

"He was skipping his lesson too and then we hung in a practice room until the bell rang." She sighed. "I know I lied earlier and I really am sorry about that, but," she looked him dead in the eye, "I promise I won't skip anymore lessons because of Lila."

Annabelle looked sincere and Adrien wanted to believe her. He sighed.

"Do you actually mean it this time?"

She nodded. "Luka told me that the longer I put it off, the more it will build up in my head, when in reality it probably isn't as bad as I think it is and he was right. Lila isn't really that scary, she's just quite annoying."

He laughed, then sighed. "Ok, I believe you. But if you do it again, I will start dragging you to school myself."

She froze and stared at him. "You are joking, right? You're not gonna do that, right?"

He just smiled without responding and began to leave the classroom. She followed closely behind.

"Adrien, please tell me you're joking. You're not gonna do that. If you think I'll let you, then you're wrong."

They both started to laugh. They were too busy paying attention to each other that they didn't notice Marinette staring at them as they left the classroom.

"Something's definitely going on with them Tikki," she said on her way home from school. "I don't know what it is, but there just has to be."

Today, like most days, Annabelle and Adrien were seemingly inseparable.

"They might just be close friends, Marinette. It's not that suspicious. Maybe you're just jealous," her kwami responded teasingly.

Marinette became flustered. "I am not jealous. It's just they went from barely talking to each other to best friends all of a sudden. There has to be some other reason to it."

Tikki sighed. "They became close around the time they did that project together. Maybe they just realised they had a lot more in common than they thought."

"Maybe, but what about Cat Noir meeting Annabelle two times now. You can't tell me that isn't suspicious."

"Cat Noir sometimes meets you on your balcony, are you saying that's suspicious too?"

"No, that's different because," Marinette paused. She never found it weird because it was Cat Noir, but he didn't know she was Ladybug or at least she didn't think he knew. He knew that Annabelle was Black Sheep. Maybe they were just friends too. Maybe she was just overthinking things.

She sighed. "Maybe you're right, Tikki. I might just be being paranoid. But I do still find it a bit weird."

"Well I actually said jealous but-"

"Tikki, shut up!"

They both laughed. Really, Tikki did find it suspicious. She knew that Adrien and Cat Noir were one in the same, but she couldn't tell that to Marinette and there was no way that Annabelle knew that, right?

Marinette was on her balcony, sketching out some ideas. Every so often, she would look over in the direction of Annabelle's house. She knew that Cat Noir had visited her twice, but those were only the times she knew about. There was a chance they might've done it more than that.

She knew that Tikki told her not to be suspicious, but she couldn't help it. Although Annabelle had proven herself to be a nice person and actually be useful as Black Sheep, she still didn't completely trust her. Maybe she was just being jealous over Adrien, even if she didn't admit it, but why did she feel the same about that as she did about this. She couldn't be getting jealous over Cat Noir, could she?

She sighed. "I guess he isn't coming tonight."

"Who isn't coming tonight?"

Marinette jumped when she heard a voice come from behind her and fell of her chair. She turned around and looked up. It was Cat Noir. Speak of the devil, she thought to herself.

He jumped down from the roof and helped her up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, Marinette. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, dusting herself down. "What are you doing here?" Why are you with me and not Annabelle?

"Well, I was roaming around the streets of Paris, like the stray cat that I am," he posed dramatically and she rolled her eyes, " and it crossed my mind that it had been a while since I last visited my Princess."

Marinette could feel heat rising to her cheeks when he said that. She couldn't deny that she was glad that he decided to meet her instead of Annabelle. But why was she reacting like this? She couldn't be jealous about Cat Noir.

"Why do you always call me that?" She asked, ignoring her thoughts.

"What?"

"Your 'Princess'." It always reminded her of how he called her 'his Lady' as Ladybug, but at least it was obvious where that came from.

Cat Noir thought about it for a while and shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's because when your dad got akumatised I had to be your knight in shining armour, coming to rescue you, the princess locked away in a tower of vines."

Marinette snorted and rolled her eyes. He'd called her that since long before then, so she knew she wouldn't get a proper answer out of him. And although the reminder of when she pretended to go out with him had her internally cringing, she brushed it off.

"So how have you been, Princess? Did you ever sort out that problem with the new girl?" Cat Noir asked.

She forgot she told him that and she was surprised he remembered. "Oh yeah..." She leaned on the balcony railing. "Kind of? She actually managed to help out a bit with... um... that school project, but she couldn't help out as much as she wanted to and," she sighed, "I'm still not sure about how I feel about her."

He tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I still can't seem to trust her. She seems nice, but she reminds me of someone else that I know. What if she only helped out to get close to me now so that I'll ask for her help again and she... uh... sabotages the project? I know I'm probably overreacting but-"

She stopped as soon as she heard Cat Noir laugh. She looked at him annoyed and confused.

"What?" She snapped.

"Nothing, it's just," he paused to calm down his breath, "you're being awfully dramatic over a school project."

Marinette didn't know what to say. She probably did seem dramatic to him, but she couldn't tell him the truth and give away her secret identity. Maybe she was being dramatic anyway.

He continued. "Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea to judge her like that before you actually get to know her. Maybe you should just talk to her and let her help you out if she wants to. Not everyone's out to get you."

Once again, he was right. Cat Noir always gave such good advice to her as Marinette. She wished he would be this useful when she was Ladybug, but he was always too busy flirting with her to do that.

"Thanks, Cat," she said.

He turned to face her. "No problem, Princess."

They stood in silence for a while before Marinette spoke. "Why do you do this?"

"Do what?"

"Meet me on my balcony. Surely you'd rather spend your time doing more interesting superhero things. I mean if I were a superhero, I wouldn't want to spend my time transformed hanging out with my friends. I can just do that anyway."

He looked a little sad when she said that, but she couldn't work out why. He shrugged. "I don't know. I just..." He sighed. "When I'm transformed, I can do whatever I want to do and go wherever I want. I can't always do that in my normal life and sometimes it's just nice to talk to a friend, even as a superhero."

Once again, Marinette was at a loss for words.

"Anyway, what's with all the questions tonight? Is this an interrogation?" He asked, then he smirked. "Or were you just curious?"

She rolled her eyes, knowing what he was doing. "I'm not saying it."

"You're not saying what?"

She shook her head. "Don't play dumb. I know what you're trying to do."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. What aren't you gonna say?"

Marinette started to laugh and Cat Noir followed suit. He smiled, but still felt slightly sad. He wished that she would act the same around him as Adrien, but she always seemed less confident and uncomfortable. Alya and Nino had told him that she didn't hate him, but sometimes it was hard to believe. That was another reason why he liked visiting her as Cat Noir because she acted around him the way she did around everyone else, but he couldn't tell her that.

But then again, he always had to keep up appearances as Adrien, so he couldn't exactly blame her. Sometimes it really did seem as if Cat Noir was his true self while Adrien was his alter ego.

"Cat Noir?"

"Huh?" He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Marinette.

"You zoned out for a bit. Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he lied. "I'm fine."