Marinette Dupain Cheng
Marinette stood in front of the door to the office with Tikki floating beside her purse looking at the door.
"What questions is she going to ask you?" Questioned Tikki observing her holder glimpsing neutrally at the door.
"Alya and co. said to not worry about it. She just wants to get to know us and in case we have trouble, she can help us too,"
"But you're not telling her about being Ladybug?"
"Of course not! Even if I would, I don't think, she could help me," Said Marinette making Tikki nod, then both looked at the door and Marinette opened the purse for Tikki. "Come get in, I need to get this behind me before an akuma decides to show up right now," Said Marinette watching Tikki disappear, afterward she knocked on the door and the door got opened back and Marinette smiled to see the brunette woman opening the door.
"Hello, you must be Marinette," Spoke the woman making Marinette nod. "I saw your shadow through the glass and went to make sure if someone was here. Were you about to knock?"
"Yes," Responded Marinette. "Sorry if I took too long,"
"No problem, come enter and sit there," Offered Alfida letting the blue-haired girl enter the office to take a seat, followed by the woman returning to her seat to start the questions. "You must have heard it before from your classmates. You're here to be interviewed by me. I'm Alfida Ecofinisher the new school psychologist. All answers I receive from my questions won't be shared anywhere in public. It will stay between the two of us. Are you ready?"
"Yes, I'm ready," Said Marinette confident.
"Good, I'd like you to introduce yourself to me, tell me your name, age, and origin," Questioned the brunette making Marinette nod.
"My name's Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I'm 15 years old, my mother's Chinese, and my dad has a French father and an Italian mom. I grew up all my life here in France and I'm practically a full-fleshed French,"
"About the Italian and Chinese part, do you have any connection, that could show me that side a little?" Questioned the woman making Marinette nod.
"Well, it's not very notable, but my eyes are a little almond-shaped and I have dark hair like Chinese citizens. Due to my parents being busy I have never been to China before with them. I met my mother's uncle, who once came here for a competition. He had taught me a few words as he saw I tried too hard to learn a bit Mandarin,"
"That was good from your uncle's side," The brunette commented making Marinette smile happy. "Tell me, how is school doing for you? How do you feel at the school,"
"Oh definitely better than last year," Responded Marinette making Alfida furrow her one eyebrow at her answer.
"You were in a different class last year too, right?" Questioned Alfida making Marinette shrug.
"Well yes….no….Well, Miss Bustier still was my teacher there, but I had a few other students in my class. Justin, Claudia, Marc, Jean, Mireille, and Laura were there and left for Mrs. Mendeleiev's class. Juleka, Rose, Max, Kim, Nathaniel, Chloé, and Sabrina joined the same class as me,"
"And what is in this class now better, that you didn't enjoy in the previous one?"
"Well, if I can be really open-hearted here with you, I used to be bullied in the last class by my two classmates Chloé and Sabrina,"
"Oh and what did you do about it?"
"I remained always politely towards her trying to make her stop. Fighting back would just have made it worse for me at that time,"
"And is it the same now?" Questioned Alfida making Marinette shake her head.
"After meeting Alya, I learned to defend myself better. No fists or bad words, but words, that are good enough to gain her respect or make her leave. As long as we're left in peace it's fine, what comes out,"
"Okay and Alya is one of your friends?" Questioned Alfida making Marinette nod.
"She's my best friend. She had stood up for me on my first school day and invited me to share a seat with her. We've been the besties since that day,"
"She had mentioned you two being deskmates in her appointment," Commented the woman making Marinette smile. "Have you other friends besides her?"
"There's Juleka, Rose, Nino, Marc, Luka, Kagami and Adrien….." Commented Marinette slowly dropping into a daydream as the psychologist wrote down the name of the students she had mentioned.
"Is Kagami someone from your family?" Asked Alfida watching Marinette glimpse up dreamily making the woman tilt her head confused, then waved her hand in front of Marinette's face. "You're alright?" Questioned Alfida waving her hand hastily bringing Marinette out of her fantasies.
"Wait….what, what happened?" Questioned Marinette making smile a little embarrassed at scaring the student. "Can I hear the question again?"
"I just wanted to know, who Kagami is,"
"She's a friend I made on friendship's day. It's a funny story, I never wanted to be friends with her and sabotaged our game to avoid winning and being able to meet Adrien Agreste. I got to know in the end, she was all locked up in her home with no friends at all and I felt so bad for doing that," Marinette stated watching Alfida curiously write that info down.
"Why did you want to sabotage the game between you two?"
"I…..wanted to avoid her from getting closer to Adrien…...she…...loves him….." Added Marinette scratching the back of her head sheepishly.
"What's so bad about it? Is he your boyfriend?"
"Yes!" Responded Marinette, then heard a little voice saying no, making Marinette gasp at her mistake. "No! I mean yes….no, NO! No…...nope. I wish it was a yes, but it's a no, a big, fat no,"
"Okay…..." Commented Alfida correcting the first answer she had written before to add the right answer to it. "How is it going between you two? Is the one of you, trying to fight for a possible relationship?"
"Well….so far I think he hasn't seen me in another light as I wished or he doesn't know I'm the best fit for him,"
"Okay. Could you clarify, what you mean by best fit?"
"Well…..I know everything about him, I know his favorite food, favorite color, his foot size, his 5 first names, his Christmas gift wishes….I have made an agenda of all the things he does during the week. This helps me seek for a way to get closer to him and get the chance to get to know him better,"
"Uh what sort of agenda do you mean?" Questioned Alfida, then Marinette pointed at a map of Europe, that was rolled down making the woman look a little confused.
"I just have there the entire year with all the things he does all over the year. Imagine I would want to bring him a cake and hope to ask him to go to the cinema? Imagine I would go to his house and then see, if he's at the rescue center taking care of kittens or doing a photoshoot? Afterward, he's got mandarin lessons and his bodyguard won't let me in? Then I won't have time when he's free, cause I'm busy. This is why the schedule is practical,"
"Well in that case it sounds a little helpful," Alfida said a little convinced making Marinette smile a little, but noticing the woman seemed a little disrupted from the story.
"It's probably a little creepy. My friend Alya said to me, she found it crazy, that I managed to get all those details about him."
"I presume the way you have obtained it, is crazy,"
"Once in a group project I had a glimpse into his schedule made by his father's assistant and I got the change to get myself a copy,"
"Hmm okay," Spoke the woman noticing it down. "What are your hobbies? Do you have any?"
"I am very skilled in sewing since the third grade as I started sewing for the first time and got fascinated by it by the day Gabriel Agreste visited our school once to talk about fashion designing. At that time his wife still was with him and he seemed really happy. From sewing, I later got inspired into drawing sketches of clothings and certain patterns I could use one day when I want to create a dress or anything based on it. Another thing I like to do is baking. As my parents are owners of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, sometimes I helped them down making pastries and baked goods for her bakery. When nothing is going on I like to bake whatever comes to my mind,"
"Very cute. You spoke about the sewing and the designs before. Could you see yourself in the future working as a fashion designer or a tailor for example?" Questioned the psychologist making Marinette smile about the woman's recognition.
"I totally would love to be a fashion designer in the future, the designs and minor designs I have done already as a hobby serve as training and inspiration for myself for my future. Until there, I will definitely be skilled enough to be accepted…..besides…...I have actually no idea how to get there, I know Gabriel's designs were discovered by Audrey Bourgeois. Perhaps Gabriel could give me a little hand to get to her, after all he praised my bowler head the one day we were here given the task to create it at the school once,"
"Was it a school project?" Questioned Alfida. "I haven't seen this at the school before?"
"Miss Bustier had the idea to make art class different and asked Principal Damocles about making a competition and he offered to get Gabriel to come as a judge for our projects so the winner's hat could be worn by Adrien at a photo shoot,"
"Okay, that must have been cool," Commented Alfida making Marinette nod.
"And guess who won? Yours truly, all cause I knew my copycat would have tried to copy me and they did a terrible mistake by copying my name into their rip-off as well," Mentioned Marinette proud remembering her smart outgo of that afternoon making the woman nod, as she wrote down the information.
"Those bonus points at Gabriel sure will make a difference in the future for you," Stated Alfida making Marinette nod. "Could I ask you about, which subjects you're good at and which, you're not that good at?"
"Of course, where I have got the best grades is in philosophie and literature. What I'm needing more focus on to pass over a 12 is history,"
"Alright, up to the next question. I know your parents have a bakery, but you haven't told me yet anything about them. Who are they?"
"My mother's called Sabine. As you know she's from China, Shanghai originally. My mother was here in Paris for a language exchange practice and had met my father, which at that time was doing a course as a baker at his father's bakery. When they assumed a relationship in the future, my father's parents split up, not being able to accept a woman from a different culture in the family. My grandma had left my grandpa because of his issues to not accept the change of the world and upon my father and my mother getting married, he as well distanced himself more and more, isolating himself in his bakery. On my dad's 40th birthday grandfather happened to be akumatized because I had tried to convince him to come over for dinner. Cat Noir, who had brought him home convinced him, that the way I and him made the bread was both good and I reminded him, that I added my dad's secret ingredient into the bread, which my grandfather never wanted to eat before and got to know, it didn't taste that bad and decided to come see his son again and apologize,"
"That's a very sweet story with a good ending for your father,"
"Despite my grandfather still disliking the modern world so much, he's slowly accepting some of the untraditional changes,"
"Alright, now as we're still talking about familiar things, I would like to know, if you've got any health issues or allergies or even nothing at all,"
"I'm fine so far I know. I asked last year my parents and they said, back when I was born they made an allergy test and nothing was revealed,"
"Good, good. If there's something urgent or an issue, you need to have someone to talk with about, what persons would you trust to chat about it?"
"My mother and Alya are the ones I can always talk the most to, when I'm in trouble and need advice,"
"Okay and do you have a place you wish you would go someday on vacation or for a visit?" Questioned the psychologist making Marinette nod.
"China to be able to get to know, where my mother and her uncle originally are from," Marinette responded thinking about it. "Spain and Italy would be interesting too. I know I would love to visit a very romantic place. I'm pretty sure those places are romantic, at least I heard this,"
"Perhaps certain parts of the country. I'm sure you get to know them better or additionally another country you haven't mentioned yet," Commented the brunette making Marinette nod.
"I could ask people, that are from there, but at the moment I don't know anyone from Spain. About Italy, I could ask my grandma,"
"That's a good idea too. I have two more questions for you, which…..actually one, the second last was answered back during your hobbies, which are your great talents unless you forgot one, that is important to mention,"
"So far I know, that was everything I had,"
"Okay, then let me ask you the last question. If you were to spend a few months on a lonely island without any friends or family members, which three things would you have there with you to help you survive?"
"Uhm that's a good question. I would take stones…...wait islands have stones, right?"
"Most of them should,"
"Oh okay, so forget that. I will take a pot with me, so I can use it to cook, a fishing net, that will help me catch fish easier and last a long rope. Sleeping I could be on the sand easily or in case of emergency, I could use the rope to climb up a tree and sleep there or use the rope to make a hammock with something or with the rope only. I'm sure I would figure out a way with it,"
"Very well," Commented Miss Ecofinisher noticing down on the block the last infos of the student. "That's all for now, have you anything in mind I could help you out with or is everything good for now?"
"Everything is fine for now," Responded Marinette getting up from the chair to push it back, then looked at the chart, that was pulled down, which reminded her of her schedule from Adrien's private life. "One question I do have…...is it really creepy, that I have that sort of map with all doings of Adrien?"
"Well, I don't want to try to hurt you or mock you in any way, but if you want to have my honest opinion, this is considered creepy in my eyes. It is like that because the way you learned about him those things weren't naturally asked by you about him. It was…...that way you said. It wasn't that bad, but other people would have figured it out another way like I don't know follow them around the places hiding behind things to not being caught, then you learn this or that. Then there are these cases, where certain boys or girls follow their crush when hanging with another person of a different gender and this one person is alerted and follows them to see, what's going on between them. This pursuit here is called stalking and stalking actually is a crime, variating on the relationship between the people or the current attraction between the two. For example, person A wants nothing to do with you, but person B is like so thrown at person A and keeps following her hoping to gain her interest in any way, despite it eventually working the opposite direction,"
"Wait…..if I follow Adrien to his house with another girl or boy, this means I'm stalking and committing a crime,"
"Yes, I don't have the criminal code here, but I can show you that someday. It isn't as worse as murder, but it's also not something to be proud of. You probably haven't experienced stalking in your life, so it's a bit difficult to explain,"
"Well I actually know, what stalking means, but I…..I never looked at myself or excused myself with another reason to make it harmless. A friend or two pointed it out to me, but I didn't give them ears,"
"I'm glad you have understood it, Marinette….,"
"But one question…..is it okay, if I follow person B I know is using person A for her own benefits, then I watch the person B lie or tell stories to impress person A, which is blind and doesn't understand person B's deceitful nature….,"
"Still wrong,"
"But…...if I can stop person A from doing a mistake…..can I film it?"
"Yes and no. This is in law difficult to prove because you would need to have their approval for the recording, but when it's a crime it would be okay, so far I know…..I would need to take a look at the code,"
"Okay, but calling the person out for lying, that's not bad,"
"Uh that depends on how it's done and how you know the person is lying. Lying isn't punishable according to the law unless it is done to spare or force someone into jail, false representations, misinformations, mostly things connected with the law. If you say person A has broken your nose, but in reality, you have fallen on the ground, this is considered a crime. If you say, your name is uhm…...Jean Dupont, that's also wrong,"
"Ok, but if I know the person was lying all the time, how could I prevent her from continuing?"
"Maybe ask her, why she's doing all that? There are bunch of reasons why someone could be lying. Wether they're good or not, we don't know,"
"Is it possible to help this person change that issue on herself?" Questioned Marinette, then Alfida walked the girl to the door and opened it back.
"With help and self-realization, they can. The important part is for them to realize it first and ask for help. Eventually, there's you, who would do that. Who knows, this lying habit could have come out because she was taught like that or it grew on her for specific reasons. It can also be something like a personality disorder, that grew due to some motive from the past like an negative experience,"
"Okay," Commented Marinette neutral. "To be honest, I don't know much about her and it's kind of questionable, why there are so many overly exaggerated stories told by her. Why she couldn't tell just basic things instead,"
"This you might figure out when you get closer to this person," Miss Ecofinisher commented making Marinette nod.
"I could give it a try….Eventually, in the library, I can find something that could help me,"
"Sure, if you want and need an opinion, you can come to me and I will help you," Offered the woman making Marinette nod.