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"Good evening, Collège Françoise Dupont! This is your Gossip Girl, Alya Césaire with this evening's announcements!" Alya spoke enthusiastically through the speaker system, "Two more days until the magical night of the masquerade dance! Tomorrow will be the last day tickets will be sold."
It is Monday and school has just ended. Marinette has a slight headache and is tiredly rubbing her eyes. But, she smiled, feeling pretty confident about her finals.
Tomorrow will be the last day of testing but it isn't anything hard for Marinette, just art and gym. She will be able to pass them with flying colors.
The bluenette is heading towards the locker room to gather anything she may need from her locker before school break. Yet, she paused midway to her destination when seeing Luka talking to his group of his friends in the hallway. Marinette still isn't quite ready to face her ex-crush and decided to go the long way to the locker room.
She made a break back in the direction she came, almost running into a pole in the process.
Then, sapphire eyes spotted another obstacle heading her way. Lila is caressing her bloated stomach with a small entourage of people following behind, listening to that liar's tall tales of make-believe.
Marinette looked back and forth.
It is either face her greatest enemy or high levels of awkwardness.
Quickly thinking, Marinette stumbled into an empty classroom at the last moment and shut the door. She let out a sigh, sliding down the door and sat on the floor.
That was her choice.
Chickening out.
"What are you doing, Dupain-Cheng?"
Marinette's head shot up at the familiar snobby voice of Chloe Bourgeois, who sat at her usual seat with Sabrina next to her. The supposed "empty room" is a little fuller than what the designer expected.
"So much for avoiding drama. Thank you, karma," Marinette thought, standing up from the ground.
"You know, just seeing if I...left my physics' book in here?" She answered, sounding more like a question. Chloe didn't seem to care about Marinette's excuse or anything she said in general. The blonde continued to examine whatever is on her phone while Sabrina continued to do their homework.
"What are you doing here?" Marinette asked, causing Chloe to look away from her phone in annoyance.
"My daddy and I are going to meet some lady to fund some athletic group to represent our school. Something about possibly meeting a rich and famous future business partner or something," Chloe explained before returning to her phone, "Now, shut up, get whatever you need and be gone."
Marinette rolled her eyes before peeking outside the door. She scanned the area for any signs of Lila or Luka still around. Seeing that the coast is clear, she sighed in relief and walked out the door. Marinette is walking in the direction of the locker room but isn't paying much attention.
Of course, Marinette's clumsiness just has to catch up to her after bumping into another person, causing them to drop something. The designer paused, seeing that she bumped into a girl she didn't recognize.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the bluenette apologized, kneeling down to help pick up a vaguely familiar box with the fancy DC symbol on it. A box from her parent's bakery. Marinette picked it off from the ground and handed the box back over to the girl.
"It's alright. I thought I should get something nice for some people I'm meeting today..." she trailed off, opening the box. She dejectedly frowned and sighed, shoulders sagging.
"...but it seems that it will not work out as I planned."
Marinette glanced inside the box. Then, her heart crumbled a little but not as much as the cookies inside the box. The bluenette knew she has to fix her mistake.
"Do you still have some time before you have to meet?" She asked the girl. The girl didn't seem to know how to respond to that, hesitatingly answering, "Yeah."
"How about we run across the street real quick and get you a new batch of cookies? I'm close to the people who work there and can get you some more cookies for free since it was my fault," Marinette explained, earning a skeptical look from the girl.
She hummed in thought, "Sure, that's very generous of you."
The two began to walk towards the school's exit.
"I'll have to get my stuff tomorrow, I guess," Marinette thought before introducing herself, "My name is Marinette, by the way."
The girl gave a small smile, "Kagami."
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Nathalie knocked on the door.
"Adrien, lunch is ready," she informed, getting no reply. With a bit of resilience, the woman opened the door to reveal a dark room. The lights were left off and the curtains are closed shut. The breakfast she prepared for Adrien was left on the nightstand, untouched and had gone cold long ago.
She spotted the said teen still laying under the covers in the bed, never once leaving it (unless needing to use the restroom). Nathalie frowned at the sight, unsure of what to do.
Nathalie and Adrien have been staying in a hotel since Saturday, it now being Monday morning. After the incident, Adrien has been really quiet and unmotivated to do anything. It left him in a complete state of wretched shock. Though, that was an underestimate of the century.
A mother, who was thought to be missing and possibly alive, had died many years ago. She was encased in a mechanical-like casket right under the mansion dwellers' noses and preserved in embalming fluid to keep from decaying like some sort of sick trophy.
Nathalie could only use two words to describe the situation to the reporters that salivated over the story.
Disgusting and inhuman.
Nathalie and Adrien are still waiting for any more information the police haven't shared yet. It was a hard pill to swallow but the two are managing the best they can with what little they had.
Nathalie gingerly shuffled into the room and over to the bedside. She kept a close eye on the teen before grabbing the breakfast plate, hesitating to leave the room. She knows he is hurting badly. She knows staying locked in this room and eating little are not good signs.
Yet, the woman never had a way with words or any sort of comfort, really. She was merely an assistant, not a caregiver of any sort nor a psychiatrist.
Maybe, she should just leave and hope for the best.
Yet, she didn't move.
Nathalie glanced down at the cold food, lips thinning out in thought.
"I can't say I know what you're going through right now...because, I really don't," Nathalie said, stumbling over her words, "And, I was never really good with words or any sort of comfort."
The room stayed silent. Nathalie wondered if Adrien was evening listening to her at this point but she had to at least finish.
"Just know, I'll try to be a shoulder you can cry on even if I'm not cut out to be the right kind shoulder," Nathalie finished, hoping it would possibly get some sort of reaction.
Nothing.
Nathalie grimaced, deciding it is time for her to depart and leave Adrien to wallow in his sorrow.
"Had I said the wrong thing?" She couldn't help but question within her mind, "Did I make it worse? Was my wording weird? Yeah. It probably did kind of sound a little weird-"
Nathalie nearly tripped and spilled the plate of food, not expecting arms to wrap themselves around her stomach. Her wide eyes blinked in astonishment, unbelieving of what is happening. Her grip on the plate tightened, body frozen to the spot when hearing a small whimper and sniffling coming from behind her.
Blue eyes glanced behind her, seeing Adrien's face buried into her back but can feel his body trembling. Sympathy swirled within her chest, stiff shoulders loosening up and relaxing. She carefully placed the plate on the bed and loosened Adrien's hold on her to turn around.
Nathalie knelt down to the teen's height, watching as he rubbed his puffy red eyes and listening to his shaky breathing.
"Sorry...I-I just..." Adrien rasped, unsure of what to say. Nathalie knew exactly what he meant and gently smiled. She reached up and caressed golden locks, fingers combing through his hair.
"It's alright," Nathalie replied, sympathetically, "You're hurting right now but with time, it'll heal. You might have a scar or two that'll stay and hit you at your weakest moment but you're not alone in this. Not anymore, I can promise you that."
For the first time in a while, the tiniest of smiles appeared on Adrien's face. Pain still lingered in emerald eyes and the smile was half-hearted.
Yet, Nathalie knew that he would be okay.
"Thank you, Nathalie. You really are the bestest," the teen snickered. The woman raised an eyebrow, teasingly responding, "Who taught you your grammar skills."
"Last I checked, it was you," Adrien answered.
"Touché," is all that Nathalie could say.
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