Chapter 2: Thoughts of an Aspiring Designer
Author's note: This chapter is going to be a bit disjointed, as it's a summary of Marinette's view of events from Origins to Style Queen. I was going to have the chapter be in the form of diary entries like Gabriel reading the Ladyblog last chapter, but I didn't want to be solely limited to Marinette's POV, just have the focus on her.
(First day of school)
Marinette had a bad habit of sleeping through her alarm, brought about by her occasional obsessive fashion design, where she would progress long into the night trying to get something done. And with the Summer holidays allowing her to wake up later in the day, her sleep schedule was completely messed up.
But for her first day back at school after the Summer holidays, Marinette decided to make sure that she wouldn't sleep in and wake up with plenty of time to spare.
"Wahh!" Marinette cried out in shock as extremely loud music went off straight into her ears.
The teen quickly pulled out the earbuds she had placed in the night before, rubbing her tender earholes while also trying to calm her heart.
It was a horrible way to wake up, but the best way to ensure that she didn't just sleep through her regular alarm.
Stumbling through her morning routine, Marinette was able to get breakfast and out the door in a timely manner.
She crossed the road without incident, walked into the school, and made it to homeroom to sit in her usual seat.
From her seat, Marinette watched as a girl she had never seen before entered the classroom and stopped at the front, as if judging where to sit.
Looking around the seats, Marinette could see that there were no desks completely empty, meaning that the new girl was trying to choose which classmate, who were all strangers to her, was the safest to make her desk mate.
Deciding that this would be the year to make some proper friends, Marinette spoke to the new girl.
"You can sit next to me, if you want?" She invited.
"Oh, really?" The new girl questioned with a smile. "Thank you so much."
The new girl stuck Marinette as slightly over-enthusiastic in tone with thanking her, but she was happy that she could help the new girl out.
"I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Marinette held out her hand.
"Lila Rossi." The girl smiled as she shook back. "I just moved to Paris."
"Cool." Marinette said. "Where did you live before?"
"Italy." Lila answered. "My mum's a diplomat, you know."
"Really?" Marinette's eyes widened. "That's a really important job."
"It is. And I've met so many people thanks to my mum's travels." Lila said. "Just before I moved, I managed to make great friends with Prince Ali from Achu. He was really impressed with the charity work I've done."
"You've met Prince Ali?" One of the classmates, Rose, jumped over from her own desk to talk to Lila.
"Yep." Lila said in satisfaction.
"That's amazing." Rose sighed with a hand on her heart. "I hope that I can meet him one day too. I just want to thank him in person for all the charity work he's done."
"Well, maybe I can talk to him about meeting you." Lila suggested.
"Really? That'd be so awesome." Rose jumped up and down on the balls of her feet in excitement.
Marinette listened to the two without interrupting.
Lila knowing someone like Prince Ali sounded a bit farfetched. But then again, why would someone say they knew a Prince, a statement everyone would be suspicious of, if it wasn't true?
Slumping on her desk slightly, Marinette was reminded of the macarons she was given by her dad to share with the class.
"Uh, macaron?" She held open the box.
"Yay, thank you, Marinette." Rose thanked, taking one of the treats.
"Oh, my favourite." Lila said, taking another.
The rest of the class quickly moved to grab their own macaron.
Unseen by anyone, Lila took the opportunity to drop her macaron to the ground with a hidden sneer of disgust.
Then Chloe showed up and decided to ruin Marinette's good mood.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Those are our seats." Chloe demanded.
"But Chloe, this has always been my seat." Marinette argued with a frown.
"Not anymore." Sabrina chimed. "New year, new seats."
"Well, we're both already sat here." Marinette defended.
"And you can stand right back up and sit somewhere else." Chloe made a shooing motion. "There's plenty of room next to the other new girl, the brute and the tomato. So, you can both choose separate seats or ask one of them to move if you want to sit together. Adrien is coming today, and since that's going to be his seat," Chloe pointed at the seat in front of Marinette. "This is going to be my seat. Got it?"
"Who's Adrien?" Marinette questioned.
Chloe and Sabrina laughed at her.
"You don't know Adrien? What rock have you been living under?" Chloe laughed.
Lila gasped next to Marinette.
"Wait, you don't mean Adrien Agreste, the model?" She asked.
"The very same." Chloe said smugly. "He's my best friend and he adores me. So, move."
"Hey! Who made you queen of seats?" The other new girl spoke up.
"Oh, look, Sabrina. We've got a do-gooder in our class this year. She thinks that she can stand up to me?" Chloe mocked. "What are you going to do, shoot lasers at me through your glasses?
"Wouldn't you like to know." The girl said, unphased.
She then walked over to Marinette and pulled her out of her seat, almost making her trip.
"Come on, you can sit next to me." The girl said.
With one issue dealt with, Chloe turned her attention to Lila.
"You too." She ordered.
"But now you have a seat free. And I'm really tired from helping my sick grandma this morning." Lila gave excuses.
"Sabrina needs to sit there." Chloe dismissed. "It's best for my work."
"I-I don't want to cause trouble." Lila appeared meek, causing everyone to glare at Chloe.
Unfortunately for them, Chloe was immune to their stares.
"Then move and you won't have any." Chloe said.
Seeing that Chloe wasn't going to cave to peer pressure, and deciding to pick her battles, Lila reluctantly got out of her seat, allowing Chloe and Sabrina to slide into their new spots.
"Are you alright?" Marinette asked.
"Yes." Lila said. "It's just, I'm near sighted, so I'm going to struggle to see the board from any further away. Would either of you mind moving so I can see the board?"
Marinette looked to her desk mate and then sighed.
"I'll move." She volunteered before the other girl could.
"Aw, thank you so much." Lila smiled widely as Marinette grabbed her bag and left the seat, allowing Lila to sit in her place.
As Marinette climbed the stairs, Chloe suddenly screamed out.
"My shoes!"
Everyone turned to see Chloe waving about her foot, trying to rid herself of the crushed remains of a macaron.
"You!" Chloe accused Marinette.
"I swear that I didn't drop any." Marinette defended herself.
"You must have not noticed." Lila said, not admitting that she was the one to blame.
"Marinette, please clean it up." Miss Bustier told her student.
Marinette sighed and crouched under the desk to gather up the crushed pieces of macaron, depositing them in the bin before choosing her final desk placement at the very back next to Nathaniel.
The teen practically slumped into her seat as class finally started.
She was barely there ten minutes and it already felt like a long day.
…
"Sorry that you had to go to the back." Marinette's new friend, Alya, apologised as she and Marinette hung out in the library.
"It's fine." Marinette waved off. "You and Lila need to be at the front more. And I'm fine sitting with Nathaniel."
"Still, it's super sucky of that blond girl to force you and Lila out of your seats like that. Who does she think she is?"
"The mayor's daughter, unfortunately." Marinette answered. "She's able to get away with everything because she continuously threatens people, including the teachers, with her father's power."
"That's so messed up." Alya gasped.
Marinette nodded. "But an unfortunate fact of life at this school." She sighed.
"Well, just because she's used to getting her way, doesn't mean that we can't stand up to her. Just like Majestia says, 'all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing'." Alya showed off a superheroine on her phone. "And that girl is evil. While as good people, we can't let her get away with it."
"That's easier said than done. She likes to make my life miserable." Marinette said.
"That's because you let her." Alya said. "You just need some more confidence."
"Yeah." Marinette said.
Marinette then looked around.
"Is Lila back from the toilet yet?" She asked.
The new friends were then interrupted by the building shaking so badly that they were sent to the floor.
They quickly ran over to the security camera screens that were displayed in the library, watching as a humanoid stone creature stomped outside while screaming.
Marinette gasped as she recognised the voice of her classmate Ivan, who had been sent to the headmaster after threatening Kim in class.
"It's as if he's been transformed into a real-life super villain!" Alya said gleefully, quickly checking over her belongings as she prepared to leave.
"Wait, where are you going?" Marinette questioned.
"Where there's a supervillain, there's always a superhero close behind." Alya said knowingly. "No way I'm missing this."
Marinette's new friend then ran off, leaving her alone to worry with the other students in the library.
…
"Eye on Iris." Alya showed off her new blog to Marinette and Lila. "Bringing you all the news about the coolest new superhero, Iris!"
"This is great." Lila complimented. "Iris definitely deserves a blog dedicated to her."
"It looks good." Marinette agreed. "But why do you trust Iris so much already? I mean, all these stone beings…"
"Don't worry, Marinette." Lila stated, sounding almost harsh. "Iris easily defeated Stoneheart before. She's sure to fix this problem just as easily.
"I hope so." Marinette said, not fully convinced.
It was scary for one of her classmates to turn into a supervillain out of his own control.
And it was even scarier to imagine it happening to other people, especially her new friends and classmates.
"Don't worry. I saw Iris with my own two eyes and she was absolutely awesome, she's a true superheroine and sure to save us all." Alya tried to comfort Marinette.
Unseen by Marinette and Alya, Lila's grin was growing progressively bigger as she drank in the praise for Iris.
The three new friends stopped when they overheard Ivan being quizzed by his classmates about his transformation the previous day.
Their questioning clearly wasn't malicious, but it was still bothering the boy who was just as confused as them.
Then, of course, Chloe decided to make her appearance to make fun of Ivan, rubbing his actions in to make him feel worse, until Ivan stormed off.
"I'll go talk to Ivan." Marinette said, walking off after the angry boy.
Frowning angrily, Alya chose to go confront Chloe.
Lila looked in between the two girls before smirking and quickly walking off in her own direction.
…
After comforting Ivan and helping him with his confession to Mylene, Marinette rejoined Alya as they walked to class together.
Marinette wrinkled her nose in disgust when she found an unknown boy seemingly planting gum on Lila's seat
"Hey, what are you doing?" Marinette called out, not happy that a prank was being pulled on Lila, who wasn't even there yet.
Chloe and Sabrina laughed, making it clear to Marinette that they were also behind the mean prank in some way.
They had likely decided that Marinette's seat was too far up and decided to target Lila instead, for trying to defend her seat the previous day.
The boy tried to defend himself but Marinette wasn't buying it, a friend of Chloe's wasn't likely to be honest or nice.
Marinette placed a tissue over the gum.
"Make sure to warn Lila when she arrives." She instructed Alya as her friend sat down.
Alya gave her the thumbs up while Marinette climbed up to her own seat, making sure that nothing had been planted on her own seat.
Miss Bustier only barely started taking the register when the re-Akumatised Ivan burst into the classroom, grabbing both Mylene and Chloe before storming off.
"Oh no, I guess Ivan's confession didn't go well." Marinette said to herself from where she was ducked down at her desk with Nathaniel.
"Come on, let's follow him." Alya said eagerly, running over to Marinette.
"Uh…" Marinette looked at the large hole in her classroom. "No thanks. I'd rather go find a safe place to hide and wait out the attack." She shook her head.
"Girl, you're going to miss all the Iris action." Alya said.
"And I'll be much safer for it." Marinette pointed out.
"If you say so." Alya shrugged, running off once again.
"That girl is crazy, going into danger like that." Nathaniel muttered.
"I guess she's just passionate." Marinette responded.
"We better hope that passion protects her then." Nathaniel said. "Or that Iris can protect her while fighting."
Marinette frowned as she nodded in agreement.
…
"So, I've renamed Eye on Iris to the Ladyblog, so that it's about the real heroes." Alya explained to Marinette and Lila as they walked into school.
"Are you sure that you want to jump the gun again?" Marinette questioned. "I mean, you made the blog for Iris before really knowing her, and now you've changed the blog for Ladybird and Chat Noir without really knowing who they are."
"Yeah." Lila quickly agreed. "And, I mean, how can we be so sure that Iris is a villain. Ladybird and Chat Noir just showed up and claimed her to be one, and now everyone is just believing them over her, even though she's the one who saved the day."
"You weren't there, girl." Alya shook her head. "Ladybird and Chat Noir were the ones to save Ivan and Mylene, and I heard that Ladybird was also the one to save Chloe. Then, Iris put people in danger to escape the two when they chased her, and they actually stopped to help people. Then Ladybird did this thing where she undid all the damage done by both Stoneheart and Iris. They're the real deal."
Lila tightened her hand around her bag strap.
"Well, I'm going to reserve my judgement for now." She said to sound reasonable. "I don't trust Ladybird and Chat Noir just yet." She paused for a second as she thought of something. "In fact, I got a little banged up by Ladybird while she was fighting the Stoneheart clones. She wasn't exactly cautious of the civilians around her."
"Well, they're new to this." Alya defended her new heroes. "Hopefully they'll get better."
"Yeah." Lila said with a tight smile. "Maybe."
Marinette didn't comment further.
While she was sad and angry that Iris had turned out to be a villain, she was glad that Ladybird and Chat Noir had quickly revealed her true colours, even if she was still cautious of the two new heroes.
The three girls walked into class.
"No, wait." Marinette said as they passed Chloe and Marinette's empty desk.
With full confidence, she sat in Chloe's seat.
Lila grinned and sat next to her.
Alya nodded in approval for their actions, still standing.
"Uhh…you're in the wrong seat. Go on, get lost." Chloe ordered once she entered class and saw her seat taken.
"'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing'." Marinette quoted Alya's quote of Majestia in response.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Chloe sneered.
"It means that I'm not going to put up with your crud anymore, Chloe. And neither is anyone else around here. So, go on, take your attitude and get lost." Marinette challenged.
Chloe scowled as the rest of the class laughed at her, storming over to Alya and Lila's empty seats with Sabrina.
"Good job." Alya complimented.
She then wrinkled her nose when she realised that her seat had been taken, looking up at the available seats next to Ivan and Nathaniel.
"Oh, you can have the seat." Marinette stood up to let Alya in.
"What? No." Alya denied. "You just stood up to Chloe to stake your claim. You earned it."
"I was already at the back." Marinette said, pushing Alya into her seat. "It's not fair for you to be pushed to the back just because I stood up to Chloe."
"Okay, if you're sure." Alya said. "Thank you."
"I would volunteer to go to the back myself, but my eyesight wouldn't allow it." Lila inserted herself into the conversation.
"It's fine." Marinette said.
She then walked up the steps and sat next to Nathaniel.
"You know, despite the Iris thing, I think this is going to be a better year." She told the artist, who hummed in agreement.
Marinette would come to regret tempting fate in such a way.
Everything was fine, at first.
Marinette had her friends in Alya and Lila, with being on friendlier terms with the rest of her classmates as well. And while they got off to a bad start, Marinette managed to look past Adrien's friendship with Chloe and become sort of friends as well, though Chloe was still there to make sure they could never become proper friends by interrupting them constantly, hostile to any female around Adrien.
And though normal life was interrupted by Akuma attacks, some of which Marinette ended up mixed up in through some form or another such as Nathaniel becoming a villain just so he could take her on a date, she'd come to trust that Ladybird and Chat Noir would protect them.
Plus, Marinette found Alya's passion for the heroes enjoyable to watch.
But then Marinette began to notice things about Lila.
The Italian teen boasted of many things, making her life sound so interesting. And, like the rest of her classmates, Marinette didn't question Lila's numerous claims.
Afterall, who would claim so many things that sounded farfetched, like personally knowing Ladybird, unless they were true?
But it eventually got to a point where Marinette got suspicious.
Being a fan of Jagged Stone, Marinette knew that he was allergic to cats. So, why would he own one for Lila to rescue? And how would Lila get to close to a moving plane in the first place?
And she was pretty sure that writing a song about an underage teen he wasn't even related to would cause a PR nightmare for the famous singer.
And then there was the numerous injuries Lila claimed.
The tetanus that Marinette was pretty sure switched ears. The sprained wrist that came and went, conveniently causing pain in class so that Alya had to take notes for Lila. And for someone near-sighted, Lila had not once worn glasses.
The truth became clearer to Marinette the more she actually paid attention to all of Lila's claims.
Lila was a liar, and a compulsive one at that.
So, Marinette decided to confront her friend about her lies.
…
"Lila, can I talk to you, alone?" Marinette approached her friend.
Lila looked over from where she was talking to Adrien, a flash on annoyance gracing her face.
"Oh, maybe later." Lila said. "Adrien and I are a bit busy here."
She grabbed onto his arm as if to emphasise her point.
Adrien forced a smile as he gently tried to detach Lila from his arm.
"Actually, as I'm trying to tell you, Lila." He denied. "My father wants me home for lunch, since I have piano practice."
Once free, Adrien sped-walked away, making Lila frown.
"So," Lila sighed. "What did you want to talk about?"
Marinette led her friend to a secluded place in the college, where they could talk privately.
"Lila, please tell me the truth." Marinette started as gently as she could. "Have you been lying to us?"
Lila stood straighter in shock before quickly adopting a hurt expression.
"Lying? Lying about what?" She questioned.
"Everything, really." Marinette said, deciding to be straight forward. "I've noticed you've been faking injuries, and your stories about the celebrities you say you know just don't line up."
"Listen, I know that what I say sounds crazy, but it really happened." Lila tried to defend herself. "And I'm really active and get injured a lot, that's"-
"Lila!"
Lila jumped at Marinette's harsh interruption.
Marinette's face fell at how she'd interrupted her friend, but she needed Lila to listen.
"Please, don't lie." Marinette said quietly. "I've already done all the fact checking."
"I only tell people what they want to hear." Lila switched demeanours so fast it was near whiplash inducing.
"It's lying." Marinette frowned. "And it's lying that hurts people. How many people have you promised that you'll 'put a word in for' to famous people? How many of those promises are you going to break?"
"You're over-exaggerating." Lila dismissed. "Even if I wasn't lying, they should know better than to expect anything to come of it."
Marinette frowned even heavier, understanding that she was seeing the true Lila, not the one fabricated by her lies.
"Well, I'm not going to let you get away with lying like that, it's wrong." Marinette challenged. "So, please stop with the lies, so that I don't have to tell everyone the truth. I don't want you to lose friends."
Lila laughed, sounding very much like Chloe.
"Please, the only one who would lose friends is you." She sneered.
She walked towards Marinette menacingly, causing the other girl to back up until she hit the wall.
"I'll make sure that nobody will believe you. Afterall, as far as everyone else is concerned, you're just a wannabe fashion designer while I know all the celebrities, and much more people like me because I tell them everything they want to hear, you'd just be trying to tear me down for your own grab at fame. If you try anything, I will bury you, leaving you even more friendless than before." Lila threatened.
She then grinned walking to the door.
"You're either with me or against me." Lila said. "You're a smart girl, figure out the right choice."
With those parting words, Lila left Marinette alone.
Marinette shook, tears coming to her eyes.
Lila had to be wrong.
Her friends wouldn't believe the liar over her.
But Lila was their friend too.
And everyone viewed Lila as this important person who knew famous people and did charity work, while Marinette was just a normal teen wanting to be a fashion designer.
Marinette put a hand to her chest at how much she hurt.
Even if she did get Alya and the others to believe, that didn't change that someone she thought of to be a close friend just threatened her without a second thought all because she was called out on her lies.
Marinette sobbed, running out of the room, wanting to be anywhere but the place she had been threatened by her former friend, quickly running out of the school as well.
So lost in her pain and sadness, Marinette didn't look where she was going and knocked straight into someone.
"Oh, sorry." Marinette sniffed as she lifted herself off the ground.
"It's fine." A soothing voice answered. "Are you alright."
A hand helped steady Marinette as she got to her feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Marinette lied to the stranger.
The stranger hummed. "Do you want to maybe try that again?"
Marinette looked at the stranger, being met by blue eyes.
"Oh." Marinette said as she took in how attractive the boy was too her.
"Here." The boy offered Marinette a tissue.
"Thank you." Marinette said weakly, drying her eyes.
"It's the least I could do." The boy said. "I'm Luka Couffaine, by the way."
"Wait, does that mean that you're Juleka's brother?" Marinette asked, recognising the last name.
"I am. Are you one of Juleka's classmates then?" The boy said.
"Yeah. Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Marinette introduced herself.
"That's a nice name, it suits you." Luka smiled.
"I-um-uh, tank you, I mean, thank you." Marinette said, getting tongue tied.
"So, now that we know each other, do you want to tell me why you were upset?" Luka asked as he led them to a nearby bench.
"It's nothing." Marinette tried to wave off.
"It can't be nothing if you were crying like that." Luka pointed out gently.
"Just someone who I thought was a friend." Marinette admitted.
"And they hurt you?" Luka asked to clarify.
Marinette nodded.
"I tried to get them to stop lying and they threatened me instead." She explained.
"That's horrible." Luka sympathised. "You need to tell someone."
"I know, but they threatened to turn everyone against me. And, I don't want to get them in trouble, they were still my friend." Marinette said.
"They don't sound worthy of being your friend if they would threaten you." Luka told Marinette. "So, you need to be brave and tell an adult."
"I suppose." Marinette said.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" Luka asked, taking out his phone and doing something with it for a moment.
"I only live over there." Marinette gave a small laugh as she pointed at the bakery.
"Then I can walk you over there." Luka smiled.
Marinette smiled back slightly.
The older boy walked Marinette to the door to her home.
"Here." Luka said as he took out a piece of paper and wrote a number on it. "You can call me if you ever need someone to talk to again."
"I…thank you." Marinette said, taking the number.
"Hopefully, our next meeting can be happier." Luka said, waving as he left.
Marinette watched him go, sighing.
Then she thought of what happened before and her smile dropped, walking inside.
Marinette walked past her parents working in the bakery as she went upstairs.
Perhaps she would talk to her parents about what happened later. But for now, she didn't want to bother them with what happened.
Marinette found herself messaging Luka the next day, the two agreeing to meet up and just hang out with each other.
Marinette found the older boy's presence very calming, even if she was developing a bad habit of becoming tongue-tied around him.
It was in their second meeting that Luka admitted he'd seen an Akuma coming after her and had helped calm her down so that it would leave her alone, before notifying the Ladyblog about spotting the Akuma. Though, the older boy maintained that he would have helped Marinette, even without the Akuma threatening her.
It scared Marinette to think of how close she had been to being Akumatised, leaving her grateful to Luka for being there for her.
To thank him, Marinette made a small charm for her new friend, which Luka proudly attached to his guitar case.
"Now I can have your support everywhere I play." Luka had said, causing Marinette to flush red.
Marinette was glad for her friendship with Luka, even though it was relatively new. He was someone there for here, someone supportive that she could talk to about issues that she couldn't talk to others about. Issues like Lila.
…
Marinette wisely decided to not openly challenge Lila on her lies, knowing that it'd only make her look bad, but that didn't stop her from trying to get her classmates to think.
When Lila made claims, Marinette would ask questions in hopes that the others would pick up on that Lila's statements made no sense. And deliberately do things that would make Lila contradict herself, in hopes that the others would notice the contradiction.
And for that, Lila declared a secret war against Marinette.
Many times, Lila would say that Marinette was too busy when Marinette wasn't there to speak for herself, offer back-handed compliments meant to make Marinette feel horrible while coming off as kind to others, or play pranks that Marinette's friends were more willing to believe were the cause of Chloe than Lila. And any attempts to bring up Lila behaviour with her friends was waved off as Marinette misunderstanding Lila's intentions.
And, of course, Marinette still had to deal with Chloe on top of Lila.
But while Marinette had Alya and the rest of her classmate's support when it came to dealing with Chloe, because no one liked Chloe or believed a thing she said, Marinette had no one to help with Lila's bullying because everyone loved Lila and wouldn't believe she could do anything wrong.
Well, no one but Luka. Who didn't know who Lila was, so fully believed her when she vented about what Lila had done and didn't try to call her jealous or say she was misunderstanding the situation.
Sometimes, Marinette found it better to just hang out with Luka, than hang out with Alya and try to not exhaust herself putting up with Lila when she tagged along.
…
"Why are you even friends with me?" Marinette decided to ask Luka one day, when her insecurities got the best of her. "Not that I think we shouldn't be friends. You're perfect, I mean amazing. Who wouldn't want to be friend with you? No one." She then got tongue-tied trying to clarify herself to the boy.
Luka laughed at Marinette's fumbling.
"I like you because you're you." He answered.
"What does that mean?" Marinette questioned.
Luka picked up his guitar and played a riff.
"You're quite like this." He explained. "Very strong, passionate."
He played again.
"When I'm with you, I have so many ideas, and want to harmonize with how you are." Luka said.
Marinette blushed at his sweet words.
"And I'm sure that your melody will evolve into a powerful song." Luka finished.
Marinette chose to bury her face in a pillow, causing Luka to laugh.
Though inadvertently, it turned out to be Chloe that gave Marinette the tools she needed to work passed the treatment she was given at the hands of both Chloe and Lila.
By making Marinette a gofer during the work experience at her father's hotel, she was able to show off her creative work to the Rockstar Jagged Stone when he asked for some sunglasses that couldn't be found in shops, so she made herself instead. Sunglasses that the celebrity loved and then went on to wear at a concert.
It had been such a fulfilling feeling, to have her work validated by one of her favourite musicians.
Then, things got even better when Jagged Stone himself asked for Marinette to design him an album cover for his latest set of songs. And despite the man's manager try to twist things his way, Jagged Stone loved Marinette's second design so much that he hinted at working with her again in the future.
When Lila next attempted her usual behaviour, Marinette found herself just laughing it off.
Because while Lila could lie about knowing Jagged Stone, Marinette was actually the one to do creative work for him and get compliments for it.
…
Through her work for Jagged Stone, Marinette sort of refound her passion for creativity.
It had never actually gone away, as Marinette was always working on her clothing, jewellery or some other form of art. But she jumped into it with a new appreciation and determination.
Chloe's actions and Lila's comments stung far less when Marinette was able to look at the size of her portfolio and online shop with pride, knowing that she was able to accomplish far more than the both of them combined.
When Lila sabotaged Marinette's plans with Alya or their other friends in some way, or Marinette just didn't feel like being around Lila to hang with the rest of her friends, Marinette just took herself to the art club instead.
With the other art club members in the background and sometimes able to provide feedback, Marinette worked on filling up the stock of her online shop, creating commissions and entering her work into the occasional contest.
The art club provided its own sense of a community, with everyone displaying their own forms of creativity and giving each other feedback.
Alix would do graffiti, Rose and Juleka worked on music, Nathaniel and Marc would work on their comics, and Marinette herself would do her fashion work. The only real outlier was Casey, who preferred to sequester herself in the corner, headphones almost always in to block out everyone else, attempts at communication usually unsuccessful.
Though, Marinette had noticed that Nathaniel was managing to communicate with Casey lately, the shy redhead managing to come out of his own shell gradually, seemingly thanks to his work with Marc. So, she was happy for them.
When Marinette submitted her portfolio to Gabriel Agreste, it had been an impulsive decision and she hadn't really expected to hear anything back.
So, it was a big shock when Marinette received an apprenticeship offer from the notoriously reclusive fashion designer.
Marinette almost hadn't replied, thinking that it had to be a ploy by Lila to make her look stupid after Alya blabbed about Marinette submitting her portfolio.
But it was real and Marinette ended up apprenticing under the fashion designer, shadowing the man as he worked, completing work given to her by him, and doing other errands. A lot of it was menial work, but Marinette understood that it was needed experience, and it would help her gain a better position when she made fashion her career.
Marinette was happy to show off what skills she had to Mr Agreste. Though, one skill she hadn't thought she'd need to show off was the basic fighting skills taught to her by her mother, which happened when she was apprenticing on a day that an Akumatised villain broke into the Agreste mansion with his army of mind controlled minions to target the fashion designer. The villain and his minions still managed to take Mr Agreste in the end though, since Marinette was still an unpowered teenager.
Marinette's apprenticeship still continued on for a while after that incident, Marinette even getting to help out with Mr Agreste's fashion show, which a bowler hat she made also got to feature in, much to Marinette's delight, worn by her sort-of friend Adrien.
Then Style Queen happened and Adrien got turned into a glitter statue before her eyes.
Marinette herself had barely managed to escape being turned.
And after the attack, Audrey Bourgeois had offered her own apprenticeship to Marinette, which would have taken the teen out of the country and away from her friends and family.
Honestly, the main reason that Marinette had turned down the offer in the end was because Audrey was too much like her daughter, Chloe. And Marinette didn't have faith that she wouldn't be "fired" halfway through the apprenticeship on a whim from the woman.
So, Marinette would continue with her apprenticeship with Gabriel Agreste, with not even a break after his son had been turned into a glitter statue, as he had summoned her to his office the very next day.
…
"Mr Agreste?" Marinette knocked on the office door after being let into the Agreste mansion. "You wanted to see me?"
Author's note: Please comment
No points for guessing who the villain is.
So, check Iris, both the Butterfly and the Fox Fusion, on my DeviantART at DreamVixen2511 or my Tumblr at Asexual Individual
The umbrella scene never happened in this story due to the changes, so Marinette doesn't gain her instant crush and possessiveness over Adrien. With no jealousy to form a bias with, and because Lila is now a part of the class from the beginning, Marinette falls for Lila's lies just like everyone else, though does have the brains to eventually figure out the truth.
I know that some people don't like Luka and feel that he's a nothing character (which I have to agree on at points), but I'll try to give him a clear character and reason to be in the story, which I've already done by him being the support for Marinette over Lila.