Chapter 8

Kagami crying in Oni-Chan cut me really deep, man.

On Friday morning all the students were back at school attending the lessons at the Françoise Dupont.

Today the students had to introduce one of their parents to their class and tell the class about it. Some of the parents the students had already met a few years ago when Miss Bustier had the same idea. This day more parents were present, also Nathaniel and his friends their parents.

Inside the classroom, all students were sitting on their seats with their parents standing on the side of the classroom listening to Nathaniel's mother, that stood in front of the classroom together with her son.

„I'm going to tell you about my job as an air traffic controller. My job is it to regulate the traffic in the air and also on the ground of the airport where the ground handling is passing around the lot to load, refuel and unload the planes around the airport. We have three different branches at the airport and momently I'm responsible for the landings and the taking offs" Nathaniel's mother explained the class."

On the last row sat Lila with her mother next to her on Nathaniel's seat exchanging a message with someone.

„Is it the work?" Questioned Lila looking up at her mother, which nodded at the question. Lila sighed and placed her arms on her table laying her head over them. In front of the brunette, Kagami looked behind at her friend.

„What's wrong?" Questioned the blue-haired girl, then Lila rolled her eyes up signaling Kagami, it was about Mrs. Rossi.

„At least she could do her presentation and be a little bit here with you, " Kagami told her friend, which smiled a little to her friend's comforting words.

„What about your mother?" Questioned Lila. „Why didn't she come?"

„Because she's unemployed" Responded Kagami.

„Oh, " Lila said then felt her mother place her arm around Lila's back giving her a peck on her cheek.

„ I have to go, arriverderci, " Mrs. Rossi said walking at the side of the classroom passing by the parents of the others students, then opened the door and shrieked as she saw Gabriel Agreste standing there with his hand formed to a fist to knock on the door of the classroom.

„Oh uh buon giorno, Mrs. Rossi" Greeted Gabriel a little surprised at seeing Lila's mother staring at the man.

„Buon giorno…."

„I know I'm the last person in the world you would want to see, but I…."

„Monsieur Agreste, we thought you wouldn't come, " Said a voice and Gabriel looked around along with Mrs. Rossi.

„I have to go" Mrs. Rossi said walking away leaving Gabriel, which wanted to grab her on the shoulder, but then looked down sad.

„I think Mrs. Rossi still needs to assimilate everything, that happened in the past. At some point she will forgive you for everything you did with her daughter" Miss Bustier said glancing at the fashion designer, then Gabriel nodded and entered into the classroom along with the class teacher.

On the front row stood Rose's father together with her doing their short presentation, then while Rose's father told the class about the job, Gabriel went to the side of the classroom to have a straight view to his son, which looked at the side and smiled as he saw his father.

„This time I won't miss it, my son, " Gabriel said making Adrien smile, then Nino hit the best friend gently on his shoulder.

„Hey, where have you been last night with Adrien?" Questioned Lila and Kagami turned around to her friend.

„After the prom?" Kagami asked.

„Uh yeah, well I kind of didn't see you for the rest of the evening, not even the coronation of the king and the queen of the prom"

„I went with Adrien to the hospital. His little sister was born yesterday"

„What, really?" Questioned Lila earning a nod from the best friend. „That's amazing"

„She's this big and she's got the same eye color as Adrien, " The Japanese girl told demonstrating with her hands the size of the newborn.

„Could you have her in your arms for a while?" The Italian asked earning a nod from the best friend. „Adorable!"

„Who's adorable?" Questioned Nathaniel looking at the two girls.

„Adrien's a big brother now, " The Japanese girl said looking at the redhead. „Her sister was born yesterday night as we were all here at the prom"

„Were you two actually away from the prom at some point?" Asked Nathaniel earning a nod from the girl. „Kim had said something weird like Adrien was getting laid by you, but everything he says is uhm…."Nathaniel said making the girls laugh. „I swear he said that!" Nathaniel hissed annoyed at the girls, then Lila placed her hand over Nathaniel's arm petting it, while her boyfriend observed her doing so.

„...Are you free this evening?" Questioned Nathaniel and Lila shook her head. „I'm going out on the roofs with a certain redhead, super smart, handsome and with a purple skin complexion"

„Oh, you're talking about me…" Nathaniel said a little embarrassed.

„Were you getting jealous of yourself?" Questioned Kagami with a smirk making Nathaniel shook his head.

„It's the third time she tricks me out like that. Even as you know, who she's like that"

„Awww don't worry, she's never going to replace you with anyone"

„I know that, " Nathaniel said glancing at Lila, which smiled at him and leaned her chin on his shoulder staring at his face amorously.

„If I were you I would pay attention before Miss Bustier sits you and Nathaniel away from each other again"

„Yeah I don't want Chloé to seat next to me again, " Nathaniel said sadly.

„She won't, I promise"

To the front walked Alya together with her father Otis Césaire, then Alya waved at the front row, where her boyfriend Nino sat together with Adrien.

„Maybe some of you have already seen me before. I work at the ménagerie du Jardin de Plantes as a zookeeper. As a zookeeper, I have to keep the enclosures of the animals clean, feed them every day, check on their health and when necessary assist veterinary at any situation, when they're at the zoo to make their routine checks on the animals. A couple of weeks ago our tigress Faith gave birth to two young cubs and Alya here has a couple of postcards with a picture of the two young boys." Otis said watching Alya give to Adrien and Nino a picture, then moved to a dark-skinned woman, which was the mother of Nino and Adrien's father which took the postcard from the girl, then Gabriel looked at the postcard of the girl watching the two cubs sleeping peacefully by their mother's belly.

Gabriel listened to the presentation of Mr. Césaire, then widened his eyes as he had an idea.

Alya sat back on her seat and Juleka walked to the front with her mother and during that moment Gabriel got up and approached Kagami, who sat on her seat watching the presentations.

„Kagami is your mother free this weekend?" Questioned Mr. Agreste.

„I'm not sure, I have to ask her about it" Responded Kagami. „Is it important?"

„I had an interesting offer, she might want to hear about" Gabriel explained his son's girlfriend. „But I call her after the presentations"

„Alright"

Gabriel went back to his spot to watch the mother of Juleka talking about her job.

„After the arrival at the docks a crane discharge the ship and load it again with other freights and bring it away to the next destination" Mrs. Couffaine had told Juleka's class, then Juleka walked the classroom up, followed by the mother and Adrien got up from his seat looking at his father, which smiled at his son and walked to the front of the teacher's desk.

„Well, you all know me from TV, magazines, advertisements or for my clothing and fragrance brand. All of you know, that I'm a fashion designer and fashion designing isn't just drawing any style of clothing on a sheet of paper or watching models wear your cloth line on the stage. It's quite a lot of hard work. You've gotta be spontaneous, when it comes to designs, you gotta be very strict to yourself about your own designs like are people really going to wear that or what do I need to change here to wake people's interest on it. When I'm happy with my design I send it to one of the responsible manufacturers and look together with them, which fabrics and trims we take for the new design, then they produce it and once in a while I visit them to check the state of it and when changes are necessary we'll do it and when not, they keep doing their work until the final product is shown and ready to be worn at the next fashion show, which happens twice a year here in Paris. Once in awhile, my son Adrien has a photo shooting wearing my clothing line and next week he's doing a photoshoot and is wearing the national team's new jerseys. If someone's interested, they're welcome"

„Save one jersey for me, " Kim said with a chuckle earning a smile from Adrien.

„With Gabriel's new designs France will for sure win the world cup next year" Miss Bustier said making the Agreste's chuckle.

„Next week I can bring my jersey if someone is interested" Adrien offered his classmates.

„Thank you very much, Mr. Agreste and we still got time for another pair, what about you and your dad Marinette?" Questioned Miss Bustier. „So you can share with your class the pastries before the break starts?" Suggested Miss Bustier earning a nod from the class president.

Later in the break, the students had gone out at the school, others instead stood inside the school building in their break together with their friends chatting or having fun before the next lessons would start.

Lila was inside the girl's restrooms leaving one of the five toilet boxes, then opened the water tap to wash her hand. From the boxes, someone flushed the water of the toilet, then from the side the door of the toilet box opened and it was her friend Kagami, who had also been in the restrooms to empty her bladder and walked at the lavatories to wash her hands next to Lila.

„Can I talk to you about something?" Questioned Kagami looking at Lila holding her wet hands under a hand dryer, which turned on automatically to evaporate the liquid from the hands of the Italian girl.

„Always" Responded Lila taking her hands away and shook them to get rid of the last drops she had on the hands.

„How long have your parents been absent in your life?" The blue-haired girl asked, then Lila tried to remember the last time she and her family were together when she was younger.

„I don't remember exactly. I think I was in the elementary back in Italy when my parents were starting to be less and less present around me. Only my parents' assistant was most of the time around for me." Lila responded looking at Kagami, which listened to her. „I asked her, when would my parents have time for me, showed them my grades, my works and all from the school and they didn't even have taken a look at it, just said, that it was great. My parents promised me a lot of times, they would spend time with me and do something, but that almost has never happened."

„Okay, " Kagami said neutral, then she dried her hands under the dryer and Lila held her friend on the shoulder, which had turned quiet after Lila's talk.

„What's going on, Kagami?" Questioned the brunette. „Something with your parents?"

„This summer holidays my father passed away, " The blue-haired girl told her best friend.

„Wh….what?" Lila asked quietly. „What happened?"

„Heart attack" Responded Kagami. „An hour before I had argued with him about his low presence in my and my mother's life. I did expect him to be angry about me or sad, anything….but why did I have to talk with him like that?!" Kagami got louder, feeling appalled and covered her eyes as she started to cry, shrieking Lila, then she ran into one of the toilet boxes and came out with a toilet paper roll, then ripped two pieces off handing it to Kagami for her to sniff her nose.

„It wasn't your fault Kagami, it was just a very mean coincidence"

„I just wanted him to be clear, that I and mother are way more important, than his job and we wanted him to have around us, even if we were only for a couple of weeks there"

„Your father could have spent more time with you during the times you were there in Japan….after all, you only go with your mother to Japan like once a year?"

„Sadly..."

„This won't bring your father back, but you can count on me when you need to talk. Or Adrien and Nathaniel."

„Thank you, " Kagami said making Lila smile, who then embraced her friend to comfort her.

„I express my deepest condolences to you and your mother, Kagami, " A voice said and Kagami looked down at the pocket of Lila's red jacket, where she saw Lila's fox kwami looking up at the Japanese girl.

„Thank you, Trixx"