Chapter 8: The Birthday Bee
Author's note: I have been waiting to get to this chapter for a while
"This is going to be the best event you could ever hope to go to. So, be grateful."
"Yes, I know. I'm actually inviting you."
"My mother will be at the party. So be on your best behaviour or else."
The eve of Chloe Bourgeois' birthday was finally on Paris, and said girl was shouting at the students as they filed out the door, Sabrina handing out invites to select students.
For anyone else, handing out birthday invitations the day before your birthday party was a terrible plan. But Chloe Bourgeois was not anyone else.
'Preliminary' birthday invitations had already been handed out weeks ago, letting everyone know that they had to clear their schedule for that day. The invited being handed out now were the 'true' birthday invitations, which would actually get people into the party. And if a students received a preliminary invite and not a true invite, then they weren't going to be getting in.
"Hey, where's my invite?" Lila did her best to sound pleasant as she stopped in front of Chloe and Sabrina.
Chloe sneered. "Sabrina, is she on the short list?" She looked at her slave friend.
Already knowing the answer, but also knowing that Chloe wanted a show, Sabrina leafed through the remaining envelopes.
"Sorry, Lila, I can't find your name." Sabrina apologised.
"You hear that." Chloe said. "That means that you're not invited."
"Oh," Lila said. "I guess I thought that the invitations from a month ago meant that I was invited. That's fine though."
She could barely restrain her anger behind her humble exterior.
Chloe laughed like Lila had said something ridiculous.
"Please. Those invites were only on basic card, you should have known that they weren't the real thing. And like I'd let someone who drools all over my Adrikins and ruins his shirts with her clawing anywhere near my party."
Chloe then laughed again.
"I see." Lila said through gritted teeth. "Well, I have a charity event I'm helping Prince Ali manage tomorrow anyway, so I likely wouldn't have had time for your birthday anyway."
Lila then walked away as calmly as she could, silently stewing in rage and humiliation.
Adrien frowned.
"Chloe, I know that you have a couple of blank invites. You could have given one to Lila." He told his friend.
"Those invites are reserved for those I decide are worth coming to my party that I didn't have the name of." Chloe waved off. "Besides, she said that she has some stupid charity thing. So, what's the point in wasting one on her?"
Adrien sighed, but he couldn't argue since Lila had said that she would be busy.
He then spotted Marinette leaving the building, meeting up with some students who weren't from the class and Nathaniel.
"Why don't you give me Marinette's invite and I'll go give it to her." He suggested.
Chloe laughed. "You think that I made an invite for her."
"Chloe." Adrien gave his friend a pointed stare. "Marinette has done nothing to you, so you should really be better than this. Besides, with her apprenticeship with my father, she is someone who's notable to attend your party." He tried playing into his friend's value of status.
Chloe raised her lip in disgust.
"You know, I believe that I'm getting behind in some of my language lessons. Maybe I need to spend tomorrow making sure that I'm good at them." Adrien then moved to threatening.
Chloe groaned.
"Fine." She spat.
Snatching a blank invite from Sabrina, Chloe hastily scrawled Marinette's name into it alongside a message, shoving it back to Sabrina for the girl to place into an envelope.
"Go deliver it. I need to make sure everything is set for tomorrow." Chloe ordered Sabrina, strutting off.
"I'm sure that there was a please that she forgot to add." Adrien told Sabrina, leaving himself when his bodyguard beeped the horn.
Taking a deep breath, Sabrina went over to Marinette.
"Marinette? Here!" She presented the invitation.
"Oh." Marinette looked at the envelope in surprise. "Thank you."
Sabrina then left to catch up with Chloe.
"I…got an invite." Marinette said in amazement.
"I think that everyone in our class did." Nathaniel said. "Be careful opening that thing by the way."
The redhead then pointedly brushed his pants, disturbing some of the glitter that still clung to them.
"Well, those pants are going to be ruined. That's the really fine stuff." Marc commented.
Marinette carefully extracted her invite, able to avoid spilling the glitter inside the envelope thanks to Nathaniel's warning.
"Take it from someone whose worked with glitter before, wash it separately from all other clothing, then run the washing machine empty afterwards. Glitter also transfers." She advised.
Marinette then read the invite.
"'Dupain-Cheng, I am giving you the honour of attending my party'." Marinette gave her best Chloe impression, causing the others to laugh. "'You better bring the perfect gift, if you dare to show your face'."
"Geeze, that girl is entitled." Casey rolled her eyes.
"At least you've got options." Nathaniel said to Marinette. "Chloe was very specific in what she wanted from me."
Nathaniel showed off his invitation.
"A fully coloured portrait of her as Ladybird." Marinette read the demand.
"I don't know what she expects me to be able to do in a single day." Nathaniel shrugged. "But I think I'll be able to get something done in time, I don't particularly care if she doesn't like the quality or not. Afterall, Chloe said coloured, not detailed."
"I do not envy you." Marinette said. "Because I am not going."
She stuffed the invite in her purse to forget about.
"I expected as much." Nathaniel said. "I'm still tempted not to go myself, but I don't want to risk Chloe coming after me for snubbing her or something."
"Thankfully, I didn't get an invite." Marc said. "I wouldn't be able to handle a party like that."
"I didn't either." Casey reported uncaringly.
"Well, I'm definitely not going now, if you two are going to be left out." Marinette said brightly.
"Huh?" Casey questioned.
She barely interacted with Marinette, so why would she affect the other teen's choice.
"The three of us can hang out tomorrow and have fun together instead." Marinette proclaimed, throwing an arm each other Marc and Casey's shoulders.
"Uh, I don't know." Casey said, shifting uncomfortably under Marinette's arm.
She barely knew Marinette.
"Come on, we can use the opportunity to get to know each other, since we barely interact in Art Club." Marinette prompted.
And that was something that Casey was perfectly content with.
"Come on, it will be good for you to socialise." A quiet voice in Casey's ear coerced. "And it'll help you with future heroes."
Casey sighed.
"Fine." She said. "I guess that I can come tomorrow."
Casey ignored the small cheer in her ear as Marinette smiled.
"Great, see you tomorrow morning." Marinette said, "I live above the bakery over there."
Marinette then headed home.
Nathaniel grinned at how uncomfortable Casey looked.
"Sorry, Kay, there is no escape." He said.
Unless you were a nasty person like Chloe, it was hard to escape the gravity of Marinette.
"Uh, huh." Casey said, not commenting on the nickname that Nathaniel had just given her. "I'm going to head home."
"Bye." The friends said to each other as they parted.
The next day, Marinette's female friends decided on stopping by at her house to get ready together, and also to so that their resident fashion design could make sure that their outfits were good enough.
The girls were supposed to be doing Maths in class, not pulling on fancy clothing. However, Mr Damocles had suddenly announced a closure of the college for a health inspection, saying that he wanted to make sure that the building was safe after all the Akuma attacks that had happened.
Said inspection had coincidently landed on the same day as Chloe's big birthday party.
And while none of the girl squad particularly liked Chloe, they weren't going to give up the chance of attending a rich-person party, even if that person in question was the resident bully.
"You could still come, you know." Mylene said as she adjusted her hair accessories. "That outfit over there would look great for the party."
"No way, that's what I'm going to be wearing for Luka and I's date. I would never waste it on Chloe." Marinette denied.
Marinette also didn't trust that her dress would get 'accidently' ruined while at the party.
"Besides, I already promised Marc and Casey that we'd spend the day together." Marinette added.
"Fair." Mylene agreed.
"It's too bad that you can't give Lila your invite, since Chloe was so cruel to not invite her." Rose pouted.
"The invites are named, so it wouldn't work." Marinette said.
While Marinette wasn't one to rub things in people's faces, it did bring her a degree of satisfaction to know that Lila was the only student out of their class to not be invited to Chloe's party, and that she could have the privilege of turning down Chloe's invite while Lila got none at all.
Though, Marinette kept quiet about this satisfaction since everyone else still believed that sun shone from Lila's rear end.
"So, how do we look?" Alya asked, striking a pose.
"Like you're going to a party run by Chloe." Marinette said with mirth.
The girls laughed.
"We should go. We don't want to be late." Juleka said.
"Right." Alya nodded. "We'll bring you back a doggy bag." She teased Marinette as the girls filed out the door.
Marinette followed them down the stairs to see them out, the group coming across Marc and Casey waiting at the bottom.
"Oh, you guys are already here." Marinette said. "You could have come up."
"Your parents said you already had company." Casey indicated her head to the group of girls as they left.
"And we didn't want to interrupt you or anything." Marc added.
"Oh." Marinette said. "Well, come up then. We're going to have more fun than Chloe's party could ever have to offer." She promised as she led the way back upstairs.
"Ugh, what is all this doing here?" Audrey questioned angrily, pulling a display down from the wall in distaste.
Spotting her husband, Audrey stalked over to him.
"Andre, a demand that you fire the interior decorator at once." She said upon reaching her husband. "Why would you ever agree to something so tacky."
"Audrey, dear, these are for Chloe's party. Remember?" The mayor explained. "They'll be gone by the end of the day, I promise."
"Oh." Audrey said.
She had forgotten that little detail.
"I guess if they're only here for a few hours." Audrey relented. "But I want them burned afterwards. Such sites should not exist."
"Of course, dear." Andre said placatingly. "By the way dear, do you have Chloe's present ready?"
"Present?" Audrey said, briefly wondering what her husband was talking about before remembering the birthday custom. "Of course, I do." Audrey lied.
Without another word to her husband, Audrey turned around and went back to her room with her assistant following after her.
"Rihanna," Audrey said, ignoring the frustrated 'It's Rhiannon' her assistant gave under her breath. "Go out to the local jewellery shop and pick something out for my daughter."
Audrey reached for her purse to pull out her card, only for her eyes to fall on her very large jewellery collection, some of which hadn't even been opened yet.
"Wait, never mind." She said, starting to sort through her jewellery collection.
She had been planning on sorting through her jewellery to throw out the out-of-season and unwanted stuff anyway.
Of course, Audrey wasn't an unthoughtful mother, so she only set aside the jewellery that she had never worn for Chloe's gift.
"Hmm, this may still come into season soon."
"Ugh, I wouldn't even give this to a peasant, let alone my daughter. Why do I even have this?"
"I don't even recall having this one."
Audrey was very vocal in her comments for each piece of jewellery she sorted through, setting some aside in a pile of boxes to be given to Chloe.
Audrey then picked up a box with a clear lid, displaying a Bee-shaped comb resting inside.
"When did I get this." Audrey lifted her lip.
The comb was not her style and had never been her style.
Looking over the box, Audrey found Chinese characters decorating it, reminding her of where she had found it.
"Ah, yes." Audrey said as she remembered.
She had gone to China during her travels and had the misfortune to end up in a flea market. The comb was something she had reluctantly bought from a pathetic little jewellery stall that claimed to sell antique Chinese jewellery for the sake of a publicity photo. Audrey had never even bothered to open the box.
"I suppose it's something my daughter could enjoy." Audrey shrugged, deciding to add it to the gift pile instead of the 'throw out' pile.
With that, Audrey finished sorting through her jewellery.
"Wrap those up for Chloe's present and throw those in the bin." Audrey ordered her assistant.
"Yes, ma'am." Rhiannon said.
The assistant took the two stacks of jewellery and left the room.
The first thing she did was drop the 'binned' jewellery off with the Bourgeois' butler. The man had been kind enough to warn the assistant beforehand to never actually throw out any of Mrs Bourgeois things, even when ordered to, as Audrey could possibly decide that she still wanted those items after all, and would then blame the assistant for throwing them away even though she had given the order.
Then, Rhiannon went on the hunt for wrapping paper, thankfully finding some with the staff that had been in charge of wrapping Andre's presents to Chloe. And lucky her, there was even an extra birthday card.
So, the assistant wrapped up the jewellery and placed them all in a gift bag, then carefully forged her boss' handwriting, since she knew that Audrey wouldn't want to sign the card herself if it was brought to her.
"Rihanna!" The assistant's personal messenger went off.
Rhiannon sighed at her boss once again getting her name wrong.
"My name still has an 'o' in it." Rhiannon said to herself before answering.
"Yes, ma'am." She asked, leaning heavily into a posh British accent.
"Where are you? I need you here right now." Audrey demanded.
"I was doing what you told me to do, ma'am." Rhiannon said. "I just need to drop off-"
"No! Stop what you're doing and come immediately. Or you're fired." Audrey demanded.
Rhiannon rolled her eyes, thankful that her boss couldn't see her.
"Yes, ma'am." She said.
The assistant looked at the gift bag and card still lying on the desk.
"I'll have to drop them off later." She said, heading back to Audrey's room.
The youngest Bourgeois' party was only starting anyway, so she had time to drop it off later.
In the Dupain-Cheng home, three teens were camped out in the living room, an assortment of snacks of pastries from the bakery beneath them decorating the table.
Marinette and Marc chatted happily with each other while Casey sat in a chair uncomfortably.
Her hands itched to go for her phone and reopen the story she had been reading on it, but that'd probably be a rude thing to do in someone's home. Unlike in the art room, she couldn't just ignore the people around her in favour of her stories.
"Are you alright?" Marinette finally took notice of Casey's demeanour. "You look a bit uncomfortable."
"I've just never been around to someone's house before." Casey confessed, fidgeting with her fingers.
"I felt awkward the first time I went to someone else's house too." Marc sympathised.
Casey just hummed, unsure as to what to say.
She then blew a stray lock of her hair out of her face from where it had been tickling her lips annoyingly.
Marinette took notice of this, having caught the other teen frequently blowing or nudging her curls out of her face since her arrival and in the art room.
"If your hair is in your face, why don't you tie it back?" She asked.
"Meh." Casey shrugged.
Looking around the room, Marinette spotted one of her handmade bandannas on the dryer.
"Here." Marinette said, getting up.
Thankfully, the bandanna was dry when she picked it up.
"You can keep your hair back with this." She offered the patterned piece of fabric to Casey.
Sighing internally, Casey took the fabric and folded it, not wanting to be rude by refusing it.
Tilting her head, Casey tied the bandanna around her head and pushed it back so that her hair was now completely out of her face.
Marinette and Marc blinked as Casey looked up, realising that it was the first time they had seen her without her hair obscuring her face.
"Wow, you actually have a face under all that hair." Marc joked.
"You're one to talk." Casey threw back. "Since your boyfriend is just as bad."
Marc blushed and spluttered at the comment.
"At least his hair only goes over one eye." He defended.
"I like your hair like this." Marinette said. "You look a lot more confident."
Casey looked away. "Thanks." She said, scratching the back of her hand.
Marinette smiled.
"You can keep the bandanna." She offered.
"Really?" Casey looked back at her in surprise.
"Yeah. It suits you a lot better than me anyway." Marinette said.
Casey touched what was now her bandanna and smiled.
"So, did you make this yourself?" She then asked.
"Yeah." Marinette answered. "I was testing out ways to pattern fabric and ended up with a lot of fabric that I didn't know what to do with, so I made them into bandannas."
"Oh yeah, fashion designer." Casey said, remembering what Marinette always worked on in the art room.
"It's very important for me to build up a large portfolio for when I go into the business properly." Marinette said. "What about you? What job are you wanting to get."
Casey shrugged. "I think something with kids." She said.
"That sounds great." Marinette said.
Casey nodded. "I don't know what area yet though." She said.
"That's alright, you've still got plenty of time." Marinette said.
Casey nodded.
After that, Casey found it easier to talk with Marinette and Marc, no longer feeling awkward around them or feeling the need to pull away.
From Casey's hood, a red Kwami smiled proudly and happily.
Nino sighed in relief as she finally crossed through the entrance into the Bourgeois hotel, the doorman was very intense in scrutinising every guest that came with an invite.
Apparently, Chloe was convinced that people would show up with fake invites, since her party was just so exclusive that people would be desperate to come.
"Nino!" Adrien called happily to his friend as he walked over.
"Hi, dude. I'm glad you're here, because I'm already questioning whether it's worth it." Nino said, indicating over to the doorman.
"I know that Chloe set up some…strict rules. But at least she invited us all." Adrien defended his childhood friend.
"Yes, at least she invited us all." The two friends looked up in surprise to see Lila approaching them.
"Lila? What are you doing here?" Adrien questioned.
"I'm here for the party, of course." Lila said, latching onto one of Adrien's shoulders. "Turns out that the charity meeting wasn't all that long, so I was able to come to the party after all."
"But Chloe didn't give you an invite." Adrien pointed out, shifting uncomfortably in Lila's grasp.
"What, really?" Nino questioned before Lila could reply. "She gave everyone in our class but you an invite? That's messed up."
"I know." Lila fished for sympathy for Nino. "I don't understand why she'd be mean to me. I even offered to help with all her birthday planning, for free."
"I'm sorry that she did that to you, dudette. But at least you're here now." Nino said.
"But how are you here now?" Adrien wasn't willing to let the subject go.
"Oh, someone didn't want to come, so they gave me their invite." Lila waved off.
Luckily for Lila, neither of the boys remembered that the invite would only let in the person it was addressed to.
"Was it Marinette? Alya told me that she didn't want to suffer through a party with Chloe." Nino asked.
"Marinette's not coming?" Adrien questioned.
That was both sad and a tad annoying. Adrien had been hoping to see all his friends at the party, and he did put effort into getting Marinette invited in the first place.
"Uh, yeah." Lila quickly capitalised on the situation. "Marinette found the idea of coming to the party laughable, really. She was even going to straight up tear up the invite before a convinced her to give it to me instead."
"Oh." Adrien slumped.
"Don't worry, you can have fun with me instead." Lila pulled Adrien closer to her.
Then Lila spotted Chloe making her way through the crowd.
"But first, I need to go find Alya, for something." Lila quickly excused herself before Chloe could spot her, slipping into the crowd.
It would be difficult for Lila to make it through the party without being spotted by Chloe, but she wasn't about to let herself be excluded from the party, invite or no invite.
Chloe may have thought that she was being smart with the invites only letting in specific people, but the hotel roof was nowhere near as guarded as the hotel's front entrance.
"Chloe, isn't it a little early to be going through presents?" Sabrina asked her friend as she sorted through the wrapped gifts, looking at the names tags and writing them down on her clip board. "The unwrapping usually comes towards the end of the party."
"That's right, Miss Bourgeois." The party planner who Chloe had hired said. "I've put aside an entire segment of the party solely dedicated to the unwrapping."
"Oh, shut up." Chloe told the party planner. "I'm not unwrapping them, anyway. I'm making sure that everyone here actually bothered to bring a present. I don't want any freeloaders at my party."
"But you had the guys at the door take the presents as everyone came in." The party planner pointed out.
"I don't care." Chloe said.
Sighing, the party planner went back into the party itself to make sure everything was going well.
"I'm done." Sabrina reported as she marked down the last gift.
"Give me that." Chloe snatched the clipboard from Sabrina.
"Where's Dupain-Cheng's gift?" Chloe questioned as she read down the list.
"Marinette didn't come to the party. She might be running late but I think I remember the girls mentioning that she's not coming." Sabrina explained.
"Ugh. How dare she not show up to my party. Does she think she's too good for my birthday or something?" Chloe sneered, ignoring that she hadn't wanted to invite Marinette in the first place.
Chloe continued reading down the list.
"Daddy's presents better be good, there's less than last year." Chloe commented as she read how many of the gifts were addressed from her father.
Then Chloe noticed an absence on the list. Reading over it again, she still couldn't find it.
"Count the presents again." Chloe demanded.
"W-what?" Sabrina stumbled.
"You obvious skipped some." Chloe shoved the clipboard into Sabrina's chest. "Count them again and this time get it right."
Nervously, Sabrina began counting through the presents again, making sure to be extra careful to note down each one.
As it turned out, Sabrina had miscounted.
Two of the smaller presents from Chloe's father had gotten stuck together and Sabrina had accidently noted them down as being one present. But that was the only mistake.
"This can't be right." Chloe denied as she read the new list.
"I don't understand. What did I miss?" Sabrina questioned.
"Are you sure that all my father's presents are just from him?" Chloe glared at Sabrina.
"Yes. All of them were from him." Sabrina reported.
"And none of them had mum on the label?" Chloe interrogated further.
"No-ohhh." Sabrina said as she finally realised why Chloe was upset. "Maybe her present is just late." She suggested to try and calm Chloe down.
"Yeah, maybe." Chloe said. "I'll go ask. I haven't seen mother at the party yet anyway."
Chloe left, heading towards her mother's room.
However, her mother wasn't there.
"You. Have you seen mum?" Chloe demanded the first staff member she saw.
"No, Miss Bourgeois." Said the staff.
The next staff member said the same.
And the next.
And the one after that.
It seemed as if Chloe's mother was nowhere to be found.
"Daddy!" Chloe cried out upon spotting her father, feeling very upset.
"Oh, what is it, my sweet?" Andre questioned. "Did something bad happen with the party?"
"Where is mum, I can't find her?" Chloe demanded.
"Oh." Andre suddenly found himself in an awkward position. "I'm afraid that your mother had to leave."
"What? She's not here?" Chloe's eyes widened. "But it's my birthday."
"I tried to tell her that, sweetie. But she already had the meeting organised and couldn't cancel with such short notice." Andre explained.
"'Short notice'?" Chloe repeated. "But I told her about my birthday party weeks ago. She should have known not to have anything scheduled. What about my birthday dinner?"
"I'm sorry, dear." Andre said. "But she'll probably be home later tonight. It'll be late, but we can probably still have dinner together."
Chloe wasn't listening.
"She forgot." Chloe said aloud in realisation.
There was no gift because her mother didn't remember to get her one, just as she hadn't remembered to have her schedule free for the party.
"I-I'm sorry, dear." Andre said.
He knew that his wife had forgotten their daughter's birthday. But he had hoped that his wife would have at least wished Chloe a 'happy birthday' and given her something before leaving.
Without another word, Chloe turned and stormed back to the party.
…
"Everyone, get out!"
Despite the loud music, the screeching order was heard clearly by everyone in the room.
Everyone turned to see Chloe, who looked very angry.
"Didn't any of you losers hear me? I said get out!" Chloe demanded.
"Woah. Miss Bourgeois. The party isn't due to end for a while yet." The Party Planner navigated her way through the partygoers to reach Chloe.
"The party is over when I say it's over. And I say that the party is over." Chloe stated.
"Miss Bourgeois, if something's gone wrong, I'm sure that I can fix it." The planner tried to placate. "There's no need to-"
"You want to know what's wrong? You're what's wrong." Chloe snapped. "You're throwing a party so pathetic that it can't keep the attention of my most important guests. And this is my birthday party, yet I'm not having any fun. So, you're obviously a failure at your job. You're going to be lucky if I don't get you fired from every planning job you ever get for this. Now, shut it down!"
Flinching back, the Party Planner reluctantly did as told.
"You heard her, everyone." She said quietly, moving to turn off the music. "Please put an end to your activities and make your way out."
The majority of the guests scowled at Chloe but also did as told, leaving.
"Ugh. Why did we even bother coming?" Alya complained to her friends as they left.
"What a waste." Alix agreed, thinking of the gift she'd had to buy Chloe.
"And don't think that you're getting paid for this." Chloe decided to add to her aggression against her Party Planner. "You hardly did anything, so why should I pay you anything?"
"Hey, now hold on." The Party Planner got defensive, following after Chloe as she left. "You can't just not pay. A lot of work already went into the party, and you have to pay me in full if you can't give me a proper reason for ending the party early."
"I think you'll find that I can." Chloe sneered. "If you have a problem, just try to bring it up with my daddy."
Chloe then stormed off to her room.
Lila snuck around the Bourgeois hotel, being careful not to be seen. Her unwanted presence was much more noticeable now that the party had ended.
Though, could it even be called a party, with how soon it had ended?
If it were any other party, Lila would have filed out with the rest of the guests, but the fact that it had been Chloe's failure of a party made it different.
Chloe's slight against Lila for not inviting her could not go unpunished, and Lila decided that she was still owed a goodie bag, invited or not.
Making sure that no one was watching her, Lila slipped into the room that held all of Chloe's gifts and eyed them hungrily.
"Lila, please, this is wrong." A purple creature flew out of her jacket to plead with her.
"I don't care." Lila dismissed quietly.
"You're being really dumb. She's going to notice the theft, then find out that you were at the party, then put two and two together." An orange creature joined the purple.
"If Bourgeois somehow musters up the brains to work out it was me, she won't be able to do anything about it." Lila said smugly. "I had Nooroo take out the cameras, so Bourgeois will have no proof. And she may throw around her daddy's power, but he doesn't actually have the ability to order my home searched without proof."
Personally, Lila found it comical that Mr Damocles was so afraid of Chloe calling the mayor on him, considering how little power the mayor had over the college without tons of paperwork and getting the Education Board involved.
Then again, Mr Damocles wasn't exactly bright, considering how much Lila was able to get away with.
"One of these days, your confidence will bite you in the ass." The orange creature said.
"Ah, shut up and go keep watch or something." Lila waved the creature away.
Frowning, the creature did as told.
"Now, what to choose." Lila hummed to herself, approaching the table.
Lila knew what some of the presents contained, the other students not seeing any reason to withhold the truth when Lila had asked them, but Chloe had ended the party before Lila could ask everyone. The question was, would she take what she wanted from the gifts she knew about, or let herself be surprised with the others?
Last second, Lila heard the door begin to open and quickly ducked underneath the table to avoid being seen.
In walked the party planner, who had clearly been crying.
She gathered up some of her supplies that had been left in the room before leaving again.
"Trixx, why didn't you warn me?" Lila demanded of the orange creature once she was alone again.
"You said to keep watch, not to warn you." Trixx shot back with a grin.
Lila scowled at the Kwami.
While Nooroo behaved and did as told, despite vocal complaints, Trixx took pleasure in getting away with as many technicalities and loopholes as he could to annoy Lila and make his presence as unpleasant as possible.
Lila then turned her attention to the door that the party planner had just left through, able to hear them moving about on the other side.
"Lila, please, no." Nooroo pleaded with her. "Chloe was already terrible to her-"
"Exactly." Lila said, walking over to where she'd left her bag and pulling out a jar with fabric covering the top. "I believe that she's justified in wanting some compensation. And Chloe doesn't deserve to have her birthday villain free."
Pulling back her jacket, Lila revealed a small broach on her chest and pulled out a pendant necklace from beneath her top.
"Nooroo, Dark Wings, Rise!" Lila grinned.
Sighing heavily, Nooroo was sucked into the broach.
Dark purple energy washed over Lila, leaving her in a purple dress and holding a cane.
Placing her cane to the side, she pulled the fabric off of the jar, letting a white butterfly briefly flutter out before she grabbed it.
"Time to liven up the party." Iris said, opening her hand to let the corrupted Akuma fly out. "Nooroo! Trixx! Combine!"
…
Jenifer sniffed as she finished packing away all of her supplies.
She had called Chloe Bourgeois' bluff and tried going to her father about the payment. But, apparently, the man favoured his daughter over morality and laid on his own threats if the party planner pushed further.
Thankfully, Jenifer had been in the business long enough to request a deposit before the party, so she wasn't out completely. Though, that could easily change if the mayor tried to get the deposit refunded, which Jenifer would likely have to do in order to avoid the mayor smearing her reputation or taking her to court.
Something black flashed in the corner of Jenifer's eye and she turned to see a black butterfly making its way over to her.
"A-Akuma!" Jenifer backed away, waving her case full of supplies at the thing in hopes of scaring it away.
This only served to do the opposite, as the Akuma flew into and was absorbed by the supply case, causing Jenifer to immediately still.
"Chloe and her father were so cruel to you, cutting the party short and then not giving you your dues."
Jenifer looked in the direction of the voice, seeing Iris walking leisurely towards her.
"They were." Jenifer nodded in agreement, not pausing to think why she was so calm in the presence of the villain.
"But they can't withhold your payment if you finish the party." Iris used the access to Jenifer's emotions and surface thoughts to choose the right words.
"That's right, they can't just declare the party over without reason, I had an entire plan." Jenifer agreed, anger lighting in her chest.
"So, let's finish the party." Iris suggested. "With the defeat of Ladybird and Chat Noir as the new main event."
"Sounds like a real party." Jenifer said in agreement.
Iris grinned wickedly as a black mass overtook the party planner.
Chloe sat pouting in her bedroom, scowling at her poster of Ladybird.
"I bet that she never has to worry about her mother forgetting her." Chloe muttered to herself.
Her mope-fest was interrupted by a knock at her door.
"Go away." Chloe said.
"Forgive me for intruding Miss Chloe." The family butler opened the bedroom door anyway.
"I said go away." Chloe demanded.
"Yes." Jean said "I will. But I was instructed to drop off this gift from your mother for you. Due to some events, it was not added to the rest of your presents."
The butler placed a gift back at the door before leaving, having never stepped into the teen's room.
Chloe gasped and raced over to the bag, snatching it up.
"She didn't forget." Chloe said to herself gleefully.
Running back over to her bed, Chloe dumped the contents of the gift bag out onto her sheets and began to rip at the paper.
"Huh, more jewellery." Chloe said as she opened another small package.
Her mother hadn't exactly gotten Chloe anything special. She already had tons of jewellery.
Opening up another wrapped gift, taking care not to ruin her manicure, Chloe revealed a bee-shaped comb inside of a box.
"Well, I guess that this is more my style." Chloe said to herself.
She then opened the box to get a better look at the comb.
"Ah!" Chloe covered her eyes as a yellow light emerged from the comb box.
Blinking the white spots out of her eyes, Chloe turned back to the box, only to freeze at the site of a small yellow creature floating in front of her.
"How may I serve you, my queen?" The creature spoke.
The creature watched as Chloe's eyes widened and her face shifted to one of horror, before she then threw herself back on the bed.
"Ahh! Bug-creature-thing!" Chloe screamed.
"Oh no." The creature said, realising that she must have been come across accidentally. "My queen, please calm down.
"No, I'm not listening to you. You're going to try and control me or something, worm into my brain or infect me. Are you from an Akuma?!" Chloe continued to yell and scramble away on her bed until her back was to the wall.
"No! No." The creature pleaded. "My name is Pollen and I'm a Kwami."
"A Kwami?" Chloe calmed slightly but still eyed Pollen distrustfully, looking towards her bedroom door to judge whether she'd be able to get around the Kwami and reach it.
"That's right." Pollen said happily, glad that Chloe seemed to be calming down. "I'm a magical god that belongs to that Miraculous that you're holding. I can grant powers that can be used as a force for good and-"
"Wait, wait." Chloe interrupted, suddenly shifting to be closer to Pollen. "You can grant me powers?"
"Yep!" Pollen said. "Well, not myself specifically. But it is my Miraculous that you can use."
"Miraculous…" Chloe mulled over the word. "Isn't that what Ladybird and Chat Noir wear?"
"I don't know who you're talking about, but those names sound like wielders for the Ladybug Miraculous and the Black Cat Miraculous."
"That means that if I wear this, I can be a superhero like Ladybird?" Chloe asked to clarify.
"Yes!" Pollen cheered, happy that she was found by someone willing to be a hero. "Though, there are some ru-"
"What powers will I have?" Chloe interrupted.
"Oh. I am the Kwami of subjugation." Pollen explained. "You can paralyse your victims through a sting of your weapon."
Chloe's eyes lit up.
"You'll need to be car-" Pollen tried to explain further, only to be interrupted again.
"How strong will I be compared to Ladybird?" Chloe demanded.
"Most wielders get a standard increase in strength and durability, some Miraculous notwithstanding. So, you'll have similar baseline strength to Ladybird, as long as she doesn't have superstrength of her own or something."
"What about my costume?" Chloe questioned, looking over the comb in her hand. "Will it be better than Ladybird's? I don't want to be seen in anything dull or hideous."
"A Miraculous transformation pulls from your subconscious. So, what you look like will be up to you." Pollen explained.
Chloe grinned widely.
"This is just perfect." She said, sliding the comb into her hair. "I'll be able to fight alongside Ladybird, and everyone will give me the respect I deserve as her partner."
"Uh, my queen, you are aware that-"
Pollen was once again interrupted, but not by Chloe this time.
Chloe's bedroom door slammed open and a woman dressed in an explosion of colours danced into the room.
Pollen quickly dropped to the bed, acting as if she was a plush toy.
"Ah, there's the birthday girl." The Akumatised party planner said joyously. "You need to get back to your party."
"Seriously, you got akumatised because I ended your job early? How pathetic, utterly pathetic." Chloe sneered, not bothering to change her attitude in the presence of the villain.
The villain acted as if she hadn't heard Chloe's comment, though a twitch on her face showed that she had.
"The star of the party can't just mope in her room all day. You need to be there for your guests." She strode forward and grabbed Chloe.
"Hey, let go of me!" Chloe demanded. "I said the party is over. Everyone was sent home anyway."
"That's fine. It's just a matter of inviting them all back." The party planner held up one of Chloe's birthday invites, making it glow.
Marinette, Marc and Casey sat on the Dupain-Cheng sofa, watching one of Marinette's movies.
"If I were her, I'd slap him." Casey commented.
She really wasn't into the romance of the film.
Marc nodded. "Who would go out with a guy like that?" They agreed.
"Guys, stop making me see the faults in my movies." Marinette complained.
"Stop having a bad taste in movies and we won't have to." Casey said unsympathetically.
Marinette went to say something, only to see something glowing in her purse.
Unthinkingly, Marinette opened her purse and reached inside, pulling out a glowing envelope.
"I didn't realise that Chloe's invites did that." Marc commented.
Marinette said nothing, continuing to look at the invite.
"I don't think they're meant to." Casey stood, realising that something was going on.
Without a single word, Marinette turned and walked towards the door, invite still in hand.
"Marinette, where are you going? Marinette!" Marc tried to get their friend's attention.
"Grab her!" Casey lunged forward and grabbed Marinette.
Marinette began to struggle as Casey pinned her arms to her sides.
"What's going on? Is this the result of an Akuma?" Marc questioned.
"Probably." Casey grunted.
Marinette proved to be much more skilled than Casey anticipated, as she was able to break herself out of her hold and rush out the door.
Casey and Marc didn't hesitate to run after her.
"Oh, Marinette. Do you need more snacks?" Tom appeared from the bakery as Marinette came down the stairs.
"Grab her, she's being controlled." Casey yelled from the top of the stairs.
Thankfully, Tom didn't need to be told twice, grabbing his daughter and pulling her against him.
"What's going on?" Sabine asked as she also appeared from the bakery.
"An Akuma attack, I think." Marc said. "But I didn't see any Akuma, Marinette's invite just started glowing for no reason and then she tried to leave."
Casey hummed, putting the pieces together.
"I…need to go." She said, running down the stairs herself.
"Why?" Marc questioned.
"To…check on my dad." Casey gave her excuse, disappearing out the door.
"Okay…" Marc said.
They then looked at Marinette, who was struggling in Tom's grip.
"We should probably tie her down." Marc suggested.
Ladybird swung over Paris towards the Bourgeois hotel, an unfortunately familiar location to her.
Below the heroine, she spied many of her schoolmates mindlessly filing in through the front door.
"If she's not behind this, I'll eat my cape." Ladybird muttered to herself.
Keeping an eye out for Iris, Ladybird snuck into the hotel to see what exactly was going on.
The heroine was able to quickly spy the Akumatised victim, standing in front of the crowed of teenagers with Chloe Bourgeois tied up with party decorations beside her.
The teenagers were 'partying', though their expressions showed that they weren't exactly willing participants in the party's events.
Not seeing Iris, Ladybird decided to stay perched where she was until Chat Noir joined her, or until Chloe was put in actual danger.
Looking around the controlled crowed, Ladybird pursed her lips when she spotted Nathaniel 'partying' next to that model he shared a class with.
Unfortunately for Ladybird, her plan to sit and wait was ruined by Chloe.
"Ladybird! Come save me!"
Ladybird sighed and then groaned as the Akumatise victim looked up to see her.
Not giving the villain time to react, Ladybird cast out her yoyo, her weapon wrapping tightly around Chloe and then pulling, taking the blonde away from the Akuma and into Ladybird's arms.
"What did you do this time?" Ladybird questioned as she turned and ran to the exit of the hotel.
"I didn't do anything." Chloe said defensively. "She's the one who didn't listen to the customer."
Ladybird rolled her eyes and then jumped to the side to avoid Iris' sneak attack.
Though, could it really be called a 'sneak attack' if Iris did it so often that it was now predictable?
Putting some distance between herself and the villains, Ladybird placed Chloe down.
"Go and hide until I fix your mess." Ladybird ordered, quickly turning and swinging away to lure the villains away from Chloe.
"What?" Chloe questioned, not liking the heroine's implication.
Then Chloe realised something.
"Hey, I'm still tied up!" She shouted at Ladybird's retreating figure.
…
Ladybird grunted as she slammed into the ground, then immediately rolled to the side to avoid a follow up attack from the Akumatised victim, which she had learned was named 'Birthday Bash'.
Ladybird quickly pulled herself to her feet and swung her yoyo around defensively.
The spotted heroine had been fighting solo against Iris and Birthday Bash for a while now and it was beginning to wear her out.
"Where are you, Chat Noir." Ladybird muttered under her breath.
What made the situation even worse that Ladybird couldn't even leave to get more back up herself, as it was very hard to lose both Iris and Birthday Bash. So, unless Fu saw her struggling and chose another hero himself, Ladybird had no option but to fight two villains all on her own.
From around a corner, Chloe watched the fight.
"Where is that mangey cat?" She questioned, still struggling against her bonds. "He should have arrived by now."
"My queen!"
Pollen appeared by Chloe.
"I found you." The Kwami cheered.
"Oh, yeah." Chloe said, suddenly remembering that Pollen existed.
"Hang on. I'll free you in two shakes of an abdomen." Pollen said, diving at Chloe's bindings.
Chloe sighed in relief as she was finally freed.
"That party planner better hope that I don't get bruises." She said, rubbing her wrists. "Where is that useless cat? Ladybird needs a better partner."
"Lucky Charm!"
Chloe's attention was brought back to the fight as a foil package fell into Ladybird's hand.
"Oh, do you have a birthday present to contribute to the party?" Birthday Bash asked. "You're not on the list, but I'm sure I can get you in."
"I'm not one for parties." Ladybird said, opening the package to reveal a bee-shaped squishie, which she looked at with dull eyes.
Chloe's looked at the squishie before turning to look at Pollen, suddenly remembering what she was there for.
"Wait a minute. I can be the better partner." Chloe said, grinning. "How do I transform."
"All you need to say is, 'Pollen, Bug On'." Pollen explained. "And then you can-"
"Pollen, Bug On!"
Pollen sighed at being interrupted yet again as she was sucked into the Bee comb.
…
Ladybird cried out as she was sent to the ground yet again.
Not having Chat Noir there to watch her back was really starting to affect her.
While both side of the duo knew how to hold their own, it didn't change how they were used to fighting as a pair, and as such their solo fighting suffered.
And she still had no clue as to what she was meant to use her Lucky Charm, not to mention that the soft nature of the toy meant that she couldn't default to using her item as a blunt force object.
"Poor Ladybird, all alone." Iris mocked as the heroine pushed herself up from the ground.
"She's not alone!"
All heads turned towards the sound of the voice to see a figure in yellow and black stripes striking a pose not far away.
"What?" Iris questioned, looking between Ladybird and the newcomer. "But you didn't…"
"Yeah, I didn't." Ladybird agreed, equally surprised as Iris.
Looks like Master Fu came through for Ladybird after all.
Though, something was off about the situation that Ladybird couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Who are you?" Birthday Bash questioned.
"I am Queen Bee!" The new heroine introduced herself very loudly. "And I'm going to take you out. Ha!"
Grabbing the weapon from around her waist, which took the form of a trompo, Queen Bee sent it at the villains.
Iris managed to dodge out of the way while Birthday Bash got knocked off her feet.
"Welcome to the team." Ladybird said to Queen Bee as she ran over to her new teammate.
"Glad to be here." Queen Bee grinned, calling her trompo back to her. "Afterall, you need a partner that can actually help."
Ladybird frowned, not liking what Queen Bee implied with that comment.
"There's a chance that Chat Noir is one of the controlled students at Chloe Bourgeois' party. These things can happen." She said. "Now, let's focus on taking these two out quickly, I only have four minutes left."
"Right." Queen Bee agreed.
With the fight being two on two, the heroines were able to fair much better, though Queen Bee being a new hero was proving to be an issue.
"You need to stop charging ahead without a plan, it's leaving you open." Ladybird advised her new partner.
"Relax, I'm doing fine." Queen Bee blew off her advice, causing the heroine to grit her teeth.
A beeping in Ladybird's ears reminded her of her limited time.
"Right, what's your power?" Ladybird asked.
"My power? Oh, right? Uh…" Queen Bee had to pause to remember what Pollen had told her. "Paralysing?" She said uncertainly, remembering Pollen saying that word.
"Right." Ladybird said.
Ladybird looked down at the bee squishie still in her hand and then at the villains, failing to find any use for it beyond it foretelling Queen Bee's arrival.
"When you get a chance, use your power to paralyse Birthday Bash and smash her case, that's where the Akuma is." Ladybird instructed her new partner. "I'll keep Iris away from you as best as I can."
"Okay. Don't worry, I'll have this pitiful Akuma dealt with before you can-woah!" Queen Bee's boast was cut off by Ladybird yanking her out of the way of an attack.
"Focus!" Ladybird ordered.
The two split, each focusing on a villain.
"I can't believe that you're a popular party planner." Queen Bee said as she engaged with Birthday Bash. "How can you expect to get anywhere if you can't handle being told off by your clients?"
"Ugh, you sound just like the birthday brat." Birthday Bash complained.
"Hey!" Queen Bee shouted defensively.
Pouncing at Birthday Bash, Queen Bee pulled her trompo to her hand.
"Time to take you out." She announced.
Going to announce her attack, Queen Bee paused.
"Uh…"
It suddenly occurred to the new heroine that she didn't know how to summon her attack.
Birthday Bash looked at her expectantly, waiting for the attack.
"Uh…Take this!" Queen Bee desperately cast out her trompo as hard as she could, sending it flying off the string and at the Akumatised villain.
"Ah!"
Not expecting the viciousness of the attack, Birthday Bash was hit and knocked to the side.
However, the trompo kept going and knocked over several lampposts and anything else in its way.
"Uh, oh." Queen Bee said, watching the chaos unfold.
Birthday Bash scrambled out of the way of a falling lamppost, unknowingly leaving behind her carry case to be crushed by it.
Meanwhile, Iris and Ladybird were forced to disengage from where they were wrestling over the villain's flute while Ladybird did her best to stuff her squishie into the end hole, to avoid getting hit by a lamppost themselves.
Spotting the Akuma now fluttering out of the destroyed case, Ladybird quickly switched focus to catching it while Queen Bee chased after her out of control trompo.
Thankfully, Queen Bee had managed to retrieve her trompo by the time Ladybird had caught and cleansed the Akuma.
And, like usual, Iris had decided to cut her losses and run with the defeat of her Akuma. The only thing left of the villain was a discarded squishie on the ground, having been pulled from her flute as she fled.
"And the day is saved, thanks to me." Queen Bee was quick to brag as Ladybird picked up her Lucky Charm item. "I dealt with both the Akumatised villain and Iris."
"Miraculous Ladybird!" Ladybird cast her Miraculous Cure before turning her attention to Queen Bee.
During the fight, she finally remembered what was off about Queen Bee's sudden appearance.
Master Fu had said that the Bee Miraculous was missing.
"Listen, Queen Bee." Ladybird started, painfully aware of how little time she had to speak before she timed out.
"Hmm." Queen Bee briefly looked at Ladybird, her attention more on the civilians now filtering out onto the street, some already pulling out their phones.
Just wait until she told everyone that she, Chloe Bourgeois, was now a hero who got to fight alongside Ladybird.
"That Miraculous doesn't belong to you." Ladybird stated bluntly, wincing slightly at how she made it sound.
"What?" Queen Bee exclaimed, taking a step away from Ladybird.
"I'm not going to take it off you." Ladybird assured, though sounded more stern than reassuring to the new heroine. "You helped me out and I appreciate it, and I know that I can't just demand it off you like Kleos and Púca. But the Miraculous, yours, mine and also Chat Noir's belong to the 'Guardian'."
"So, what, you're going to take my Miraculous from me and give it back to this 'Guardian'?" Queen Bee placed a hand over her Miraculous protectively. "It's mine. I got given it."
"I said that I'm not going to take it." Ladybird repeated, frustrated that Queen Bee wasn't listening. "I just thought that it'd be best for you to know."
Ladybird then sighed, her earrings beeping annoyingly in her ear.
"Listen, I don't have the time to discuss this. We can talk this over at this time tomorrow on the Eiffel Tower, okay?" Ladybird reasoned.
"Fine." Queen Bee huffed. "But this better not be a trick. Just because you didn't choose me, it doesn't mean that I'm not worthy of a Miraculous."
Sighing in frustration at Queen Bee's sudden victim complex, Ladybird swung away to find somewhere to detransform.
"Who are you?"
Alya was the first to run up to Queen Bee, phone already recording.
"Me?" Smiling, Queen Bee put a hand to her chest. "I'm…" The heroine paused as she thought about which name to answer with. "Queen Bee. Paris' newest, and best, superhero."
"So, cool." Alya said.
Queen Bee leapt through her bedroom window and, after some further confusion about how her Miraculous worked, ended up pulling it out in order to turn back into Chloe.
"Finally." Chloe sighed, collapsing down onto her bed. "Does Ladybird have to pull off her earrings every time she wants to detransform?"
"You have a detransformation phrase. It's 'Bug Off'." Pollen explained.
"You couldn't have told me that earlier?" Chloe asked in annoyance.
Not being a confrontational Kwami, Pollen decided to not bring up that Chloe had been constantly interrupting her before she could explain much.
Turning on her TV, Chloe grinned as she saw than the news was already reporting on Queen Bee.
She then turned to her phone but frowned when she saw no messages for her other than from Sabrina.
"Oh, yeah." Chloe said. "People don't know that I'm Queen Bee."
"It's for the best. Keeping your identity secret protects you and the people you love." Pollen informed.
"Yeah, but what's the point of being a hero if people don't give you praise for it." Chloe pouted.
People knowing that it was Chloe Bourgeois behind the mask would do so much for her.
But with Ladybird's words about her not owning the Miraculous she had got off her mother, Chloe had decided to avoid letting this 'Guardian' person know her identity just yet, which meant keeping her identity secret from everyone else as a result.
"The point is working for the good of the people." Pollen said, unaware of Chloe's personal thoughts.
Chloe sighed, reaching for the box that Pollen's comb had come in.
"Did mum know about you?" She asked.
"Uh, I don't think so." Pollen said unsurely. "At least, I don't remember ever seeing her. Actually, the last thing I remember is being at the Guardian temple. I have no idea how I ended up with you."
Chloe grimaced.
So, Ladybird was telling the truth about there being a 'Guardian' that the Bee Miraculous rightfully belonged to.
"Well, whatever happened, you're here now, and the Bee Miraculous rightfully belongs to me." Chloe said defensively.
"I…don't think that's how it works." Pollen said. "The Guardians would just give me a-"
"I think that's enough talking for today. I'm tired and I don't want a strange magical creature wandering my room while I sleep." Chloe interrupted Pollen yet again.
Without letting Pollen have another word, Chloe placed the Bee Miraculous back into the box it came in and shut the lid, leaving her alone in the room once more.
"According to sources, this new hero's name is Queen Bee. And the new heroine has claimed that she will be staying as a hero, instead of only appearing occasionally like the heroes Kelos and Púca, though this is yet to be seen."
Fu hummed as he watched the news report, Wayzz at his shoulder.
"It would seem as if the Bee Miraculous has finally been found after all this time." Fu said.
"But how, Master?" Wayzz questioned. "Since the Butterfly Miraculous was lost alongside the Bee, I'd have expected Iris to also have it."
"I suppose the two Miraculous could have been separated further and found my different people." Fu theorised. "Thankfully, it seems as if the person who found the Bee is a good person, unlike Iris."
"I didn't sense Pollen being used for evil." Wayzz agreed. "But Queen Bee is still an unknown element. Just because she isn't evil, it doesn't mean that she'll be a good hero."
"I suppose that we shall have to wait and see." Fu said. "We don't want to make unnecessary enemies by taking the Miraculous from her with no reason."
Truthfully, Fu would prefer to have the Bee Miraculous safe and sound in the Miracle Box, but he also knew how to pick and choose his battles. So, it was better to let the unknown behind Queen Bee continue to be a hero as long as she continued to be an ally.
So, Fu could only hope that Queen Bee would continue to be an ally.
Author's note: Please comment
Wow, this chapter ended up being so much longer than intended.
The length of the chapter by the time I got to Queen Bee's debut is why the fight is so short.
Some people are curious about when Marinette will actually make her hero debut. That won't be for a few more chapters. This wasn't intentional, it's just how the chapter plan ended up turning out once I factored in the Bee Miraculous and Chloe's character.
Having an OC in your story, especially one in such a major role, is such a fickle thing.
Naturally, I want to have plenty of scenes with Casey so that I can better flesh out her character.
But I am also aware that there are plenty of readers out there who do not like OCs taking up significant portions of a story and that an OC getting too much attention can turn off their interest in the story. I'm actually one of these people.
So, I'm trying hard to balance Casey/Ladybird with the canon characters, giving her enough to justify her being in the story and hopefully making her interesting to the readers who don't mind OCs, but not letting her take over the story or 'steal' attention away from the other characters.