Chapter 2: Summer's End

France, Marseille August 22, 2017, 08:12

It had been a wonderful summer. Two months in a holiday camp near the city of Marseille was exactly what the doctor ordered for the students of Collège Françoise-Dupont. After a long and hard school year, every student in that school dreamed of only one thing… holidays. Among those students, were the students from Miss Bustier's class. They were no better than the rest of the other students; nor worse than them for any matter. In fact, they were what one would call normal if one asked. Normal, regular children.

But the truth was that they were anything but regular children. Three of them were the chosen ones… the ones who would save the world from the clutches of the forces of evil; they just did not know it yet.

Their story, their real story as it would later be known by numerous future generations, started on their last week in the holiday camp. Every year, Collège Françoise-Dupont organized an excursion that lasted two whole months. That year, the camp that had been chosen for the excursion was one near the city of Toulouse, in the south of France.

On that particular Tuesday morning, Marinette Dupain-Cheng had been the first from her class to get up and get ready for breakfast. This was a little unusual because Marinette was known for being a heavy sleeper, and it was the custom for one of her friends to wake her up. As she ate her breakfast, she also checked her cell phone for any texts from her parents.

"Can't believe it's only a couple of more days for me to see mom and dad again." Marinette mused to herself. Her parents initially did not want to let her take that trip to the holiday camp, because in the previous years, the school had elected camps closer to Paris, and they felt that Toulouse was too far. But after begging them countless times, they finally agreed to let her go with the rest of the class. "I miss them so much… and I miss the smell of dad's cookies too. These here are good, but they don't hold a candle to the ones he bakes." she thought, as she grabbed one of the chocolate chip cookies from the plate that was in front of her.

"Morning, Marinette!" she was called back to reality by someone who sat to her left on the table. It was her best friend, Chloé Agreste. They had known each other since they were around 6 years old and had been the best of friends ever since. In fact, Chloé spent so much time at Marinette's house, that her parents already thought of her like a second daughter. Chloé went as far as calling Marinette "her sister from another mother", something that Marinette loved because it had a nice ring to it.

"Oh, morning Chloé." Marinette smiled at her.

"You okay? You usually don't get up this early. Couldn't sleep?" Chloé asked her, as she grabbed a croissant from the huge pile of delicious treats that were on the table.

"A little…" -Marinette yawned.

"Don't tell me you're dreaming about being with Adrien in that way again…" Chloé teased her friend, as she nibbled the croissant.

"Don't say that out loud!" -Marinette hushed her. "I don't want anyone else to know. It's bad enough that you and Nino walked in on us. I don't want to deal with someone else knowing about that"

"Know about what, girl? That you're with my brother?" Chloé asked her in a whisper.

"Y-Yes…" -Marinette waved her head.

"Marinette… We've been through this." Chloé sighed, as she placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "You need to tell the others that you're with him. I mean, they won't know it, if you don't tell them."

"I know, I know, I know… but I'm waiting for the right moment." -Marinette sighed, suddenly losing her appetite. Every time Adrien Agreste became the main theme of conversation, the girl lost her focus. Sometimes, when talking about him, or just thinking about him, she felt like Superman when exposed to a piece of Kryptonite.

"And that moment will be when? When summer ends and we're back in school? Girl, you have to do it before we go back to Paris, or you'll spend another school year sighing over him." Chloé stated the obvious.

"I know, but what if he tells me that he isn't ready for the truth to come out to the other?" -Marinette panicked while thinking about the possibility of Adrien not being ready to tell the others about their current secret relationship. The boy was really her Kryptonite.

"Look, I know you've been acting really shy when it comes to Adrien, but you have to gain courage and tell the other that you two are a couple. Otherwise, Helena will end up snogging him one of these days! You know that I'm right." Chloé said.

Once again, she knew Chloé was right. Helena Bourgeois, the daughter of Audrey and André Bourgeois, the editor of Mode and the Mayor of Paris respectively, also had her eyes set on Adrien. Having bullied her over the years, Marinette hated her, and the hate was mutual. The heiress was one of the worst people she knew, and though over the years Marinette had tried to ignore Helen and not let her hate for her get the best of her, Helena managed to get under her skin. Thankfully, neither Helena nor Luna Rossi, who was an almost carbon copy of her mother, were with their excursion but were instead on a Mediterranean cruise because otherwise the heiress and the Italian liar duo would turn Marinette and Adrien's big reveal of their relationship into one big scandal with either Helena or Luna claiming that Marinette is boyfriend stealer or that Adrien has been cheating on either Helena or Luna with Marinette.

"Look, let's just talk about something else, okay?" Marinette said, trying to change the subject. "Like, what are we going to do this afternoon?" she smiled.

"Oh no, girl, you're not giving me the slip on this matter." Chloé looked her in the eyes, determined to convince Marinette about what she should do regarding her relationship with Adrien. "Marinette, you've been sighing for him ever since he was transferred to our school, and this can't go on. You've got to tell him what you really feel about him. Otherwise, you're going to end up getting sick, and I'm not letting that happen to my best friend." she said.

Hearing her say that, Marinette smiled, thinking of how lucky she was for having such a great friend.

"You really don't give up on me, do you?" Marinette asked, smiling tenderly at her friend.

"Never." Chloé shook her head, smiling back at her. "And you know what? You're going to tell the others about your relationship with Adrien tonight." she smiled deviously at her best friend.

"Tonight?!" Marinette nearly fell from her chair when Chloé said that. "Don't you think that's a little too soon? I mean, I need to think about what I'm going to tell them… I can't just show up in front of them and say them! I need to think about this thoroughly and…" -she began to babble like she always did when she got nervous about something.

"There you go again, girl…" - Chloé sighed, as she saw her friend panicking. Grabbing Marinette's hands, she looked her in the eyes and said: "Sometimes, you have to just go with the flow. Besides tonight is the most perfect time, given what we have planned, remember?"

"Remember what?" a voice was heard from behind them. Turning around, Chloé saw their friend, Mylene Haprèle, smiling at them.

"Oh, good morning Mylene!" -Marinette smiled at her.

"Good morning to both of you too, girls." Mylene yawned. She had stayed up late, talking to some kids, who like her belonged to the theatre club that she had joined when she first got there and did not sleep much. "But, tell me, remember what? What were you talking about?" she smiled at them.

"Oh, I was just reminding Marinette that tonight is the night that we're all going camping in the woods, free from any adult supervision!" Chloé exclaimed, with a decidedly wicked voice, while letting out a faux evil laugh. She also winked an eye at Marinette as a way to say "We'll continue this conversation later, okay?"

The day went by fast. Though most of it was filled with all kinds of activities, the whole class still managed to gather the strength to do the one thing they'd been waiting to do for more than two weeks, camping a night in the woods, just them. Having asked permission to do so to their teachers, as well as the camp's counselors, they knew they were going to have fun. The sun would soon set on the horizon, as the 14 kids made their way into the woods. Nino Lahiffe, the class's DJ and party guy, as he liked to be called had found the perfect place for their soirée a few days before, during a hike, and was now leading his friends to that very same place.

"Come on, everyone! We're almost there!" Nino shouted at the whole class.

"You've been saying that for like 15 minutes already, Nino." -Adrien joked around with his best friend.

"It's not my fault you and the other slowpokes are so slow, man." -Nino said. –"Here, let me give you a hand, bro." -he said, as he extended his hand to Adrien and helped him climb over a small rock.

"Thanks… I just hope you don't kill us of exhaustion before we get there, though." -Adrien told him.

"What are you talking about? You're in great shape." -Nino said.

"I don't think Adrien is talking about himself… I think he's talking about the girls." -Ivan said, as he approached them. Because of his bulky stature, he was a little huffy from all that walk; although the main reason for that was that he had been playing football most of the day, and the weariness from that was starting to get the better of him.

"Well, I am…" a second voice was heard coming for the bushes. It was Max. Being the nerd he was; Max was more of an indoor guy. "… I still can't believe you guys convinced me to come along when I could have stayed back at the camp and participated in the Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament."

"Don't be like that, Max." -Nino said.

"Yeah, you'll have fun, even without video games." -Adrien declared.

"They're right. You will." -Ivan said.

"You said this would be a quick walk, Nino," Chloé told him.

"Okay, maybe I didn't take into account that I'm faster than most of you." -Nino said. –"But still, you could move a little faster too… where are Nathaniel, Kim, Rose, and Juleka?" -he asked them.

"They were behind us, a few minutes ago," -Sabrina said.

"I bet Nathaniel stopped to draw something in that sketchbook of his, while Kim is off goofing around like he always does, and those two girls probably stopped to pick some flowers…" -Nino sighed. "Well, I'll go see if I can find them. In the meantime, you girls carry on."

Chloé was about to say something, but Nino disappeared before she could say it. Sighing, she signaled Mylene, Ivan, Marinette, Alya Cesaire, a transfer student of Collège Françoise-Dupont for the last three years, and Sabrina to move forward.

Mylene also decided to keep going, to join the rest of the class. She was already about 10 meters up ahead when she noticed that neither Chloé nor Marinette were following her. Turning around, she saw her friends, where she had left them just a few seconds before.

"You're not coming?!" Mylene asked Marinette and Chloé.

"Oh, we're going to stay behind a little, so Nino and the others don't end up lost," Chloé told her. "Don't worry, we'll catch up to you in a jiffy." she declared.

"Okay. See you in a bit." Mylene said as she resumed walking.

Chloé and Marinette stayed behind, not because of Nino and the others, but because Chloé wanted to talk alone to Marinette; without anyone eavesdropping on them. They had not been able to talk much after breakfast regarding what Marinette was to do that night, and that was the best chance they had. Still, Marinette was starting to have second thoughts on Chloé's plan.

"Look, I know you're just trying to help me, Chloé, but…" Marinette hesitated.

"No buts, Marinette. You have to tell the others that you are in a relationship with Adrien." Chloé told her.

"But, don't you think I should do that, you know, with Helena and Luna there?" -the blue-haired girl asked concerned about how her two tormenters would react to hearing about the new relationship secondhand.

"Maybe, but you know how you've been acting when you're around him. I think the safest way for you to do that is if someone is with you… Look, I'll just give you a push, and then you do the rest." - Chloé declared.

"But do you even have a plan?" Marinette raised her eyebrow, suspicious that Chloé was just planning things as she went along. Her best friend never did answer her question, which Marinette took as a yes Chloé was just planning things as she went along.

After a few mishaps, the whole gang arrived at the place Nino told them about. It was a small glade with tall pine trees around it, and a lake nearby. Gathering in its center, they made a large bonfire near a few old tree logs that were there and settled their tents in a circle around it. When they finished settling in, the Sun had already set. The only noises one could hear were the summer breeze blowing and the crickets singing.

For dinner, they had sandwiches. As for dessert, they decided to roast marshmallows. As the white fluffy treats roasted in the blazing flames, the whole group talked among themselves about what they had done that morning, and what their plans for their last days there were.

"I still have to try canoeing," Nathaniel said.

"You mean, you still haven't tried it?" Kim asked. One of the first things the class jock had done when they arrived at that camp was to take on a canoeing lesson, which he loved.

"Nope." -Nathaniel answered.

"But we've been here for almost two months now. How could you have not tried canoeing?" Kim asked him.

"I don't know… I just never felt like doing it, that's all." -Nathaniel shrugged his shoulders.

"That's what you get for spending most of your days drawing." -Mylene chuckled. –"You can't be in two places at the same time." -she declared.

"Well, my favorite dream right now is the one where this summer never ends, and we get to stay on vacation forever." Kim joked, making several of the others laugh.

But not everyone was sad that their vacation was nearly at the end. Adrien had had the best summer vacation of his life with his friends, but he missed his father, Gabriel Agreste.

"Well, I for one I'm happy to go back to Paris, next week. I want to spend my last few vacation days with my dad before we go back to school, and he has to go back to work." -Adrien admitted.

"I would be lying if I said I didn't want to spend a few days with my parents too." -Kim said. –"I mean, don't get me wrong, I love hanging around with you guys, but…"

"We know, family is family." -Rose said. She had been quiet most of the time, with her friend Juleka beside her. Both girls had been friends ever since they met 4 years earlier, but during that summer their friendship became stronger, and they grew closer to one another. –"There is no shame in admitting you're homesick."

"Marshmallows are done, everyone!" -Sabrina said, as she started to take them from the sticks they had been roasting on and placed them in a bowl they had brought with them.

For a few minutes, no one talked. They were all too busy munching on the yummy marshmallows to say anything. If there was one thing true about camping, it was that a bonfire and some roasted marshmallows made all the difference, when it came to making such a regular night into a memorable experience. When there were only two marshmallows left in the bowl, Juleka and Chloé grabbed them, but not for themselves. Juleka gave it to Rose, who thanked her by planting a little kiss on the cheek, making the goth girl blush lightly. As for Chloé, she gave hers to Sabrina.

"Here, you can have it, Sabrina." -Chloé said, as she handed her the sweet treat.

"Really? Thanks, Chloé." -Sabrina smiled.

Seeing that, Marinette smiled and thought to herself:

"It's nice to know that Chloé can move on from my love life."

They went on mingling with each other throughout the night. When Chloé felt that they were all relaxed, she decided to put her plan to make Marinette tell the others about her relationship with Adrien into motion. Signaling Nino, the two of them went inside her tent, where she told him how they were going to do what she had planned. Nino did not see himself as a matchmaker, but being Adrien's best friend and knowing that the blond was in a relationship with Marinette as he had been with Chloé when she had walked in on them in the heat of the moment, which he had been sworn never to tell anyone else, he felt it was his duty to help Chloé with that.

The plan was simple. They were going to play charades in pairs, and the four of them were going to make sure that Marinette and Adrien would be each other's pair. Alya, having been roped into the plan by Nino, scribbled everyone's name in little pieces of paper, and then used Nino's cap to make the draw. They paired up Max with Kim, Ivan with Mylene, Alix with Juleka, Rose with Nathaniel, and finally, Adrien with Marinette, having decided that Nino, Chloé, Sabrina, and herself would sit this one down, serving as judges.

"Alright, who wants to go first?" -Nino asked.