Okay! A modern-day take on "Beauty and the Beast", minus all the magic and the kwamis! Here's the gist:

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is your average high schooler who hangs out with a big group of friends, and is considered a beauty in school (though she doesn't understand why).

Things are pretty mundane in her life, but then a mysterious new boy, Adrien Agreste, transfers to her school. And by "mysterious", I mean "surly and rude". Things get more complicated when school forces them together under a variety of circumstances, and while she tries to be congenial to him, he's... Not exactly cooperating.

FYI, I'm not the best at writing mental health issues. I usually avoid this particular topic because it's so complicated and such a sensitive one. I'm doing the best I can, so bear with me, please.

Like most of my stories, there's going to be songs written in, with and without modified lyrics. There will be references to canon here.


*BRING~!*

Another day, another slew of classes that dragged on and on. In the halls of the school, students, teachers, and faculty were all walking around with destinations in mind, granted not everyone was mentally alert and ready for the day. If anything, some of them were grumbling about being there and hoping that something would cause them to be dismissed early.

At one locker, there was a girl with dark hair in pigtails, fair skin with blue eyes, wearing a flower shirt under a dark grey blazer, pink pants, red flats, and had a pink bag with a flower print on it, too. She had black studs in her earlobes. She was taking out some of the books and papers she needed for her class, and she was putting them all into her pink backpack.

She hefted it over her shoulder and turned on her heel to begin walking to class.

"Marinette! Hey girl!" A voice said, and Marinette looked up to see a tan-skinned girl a little bit taller than her with dark red hair, wearing an orange flannel shirt with blue jeans, a fox tail necklace, and hazel eyes behind glasses.

"Alya!" Marinette said as the girls came together and shared a high-five.

"So, ready for class today?" Alya asked.

"Yeah, I've got all of my books," Marinette said, showing Alya her backpack. "Now, let's hurry up and get going."

As the girls walked to their classroom, Alya began, "So, how are your designs coming along?"

"So far, so good," Marinette said as she took out her sketchbook. "That design contest is coming up and I gotta get my ass in gear."

"Come on, girl, you're a wizard with designs - you'll nail it! If the judges don't pick you, something's wrong with them." Alya assured.

"Thanks, Alya," Marinette said as Alya opened the classroom door for them. "I think the ladybug ensemble is the right call. The theme was really ambiguous. So open to interpretation, and I couldn't get away from ladybugs as a theme."

"Go with your gut, girl, and you can't go wrong. Your instincts are seldom off-target." Alya stated as they went inside.

The girls laughed as they sat at their shared desk and started looking over some of the materials for the class.

"What makes a monster and what makes a man?" The teacher, Mme. Caline Bustier, a green-eyed redhead wearing a white and mint-green outfit said as she started walking around the classroom.

"Is it the physical features on someone? Or is it something more intrinsic?" She began. "Several stories distinguish between monster and man through a variety of literary devices. Irony, for example."

"Like how it's ironic that someone as physically attractive as Chloé Bourgeois is nothing short of monstrous underneath?" Alix joked, causing everyone, barring Chloé (the blue-eyed, ponytailed blonde who looked like she had a lot of surgery done and was wearing sunglasses on her head) to laugh.

"Not exactly," The teacher said. "Can anyone else think of an example without insulting your peers?"

"Juxtaposition," Alya spoke up. "You put a handsome, charming young man next to a hideous person in a similar position, and they couldn't be more different. The hideous guy treats everyone around them wtih kindness and respect, while the egotistical Adonis is nothing but a jackass to everyone else. Put them together and you can't help but see the differences."

"Very good, Alya," Mme. Bustier praised. "Anyone else?"

Marinette went through the class without any issue, paying rapt attention to her teacher.

During lunch, Marinette and Alya were sitting with the rest of their group of gal-pals, Alix Kubdel, a short, pink-haired tomboy with blue eyes wearing black; Juleka Couffaine, a taller girl with long, black hair, wearing black and purple in her clothes, with a purple fringe that covered one of her brown eyes; Myléne Hapréle, a shorter, somewhat chunkier girl with blonde, multicolored hair in dreadlocks held back by a bandana, golden eyes, wearing a green jacket over a baby blue shirt; Rose Lavillant, Juleka's girlfriend, was a shorter girl with big, periwinkle eyes, short, blonde hair, wearing all pink; Zoé Lee (Chloé's maternal half-sister), a blue-eyed blonde girl with a pink strand of hair, a blue beanie on her head, a black leather jacket over a white shirt with a flower on it, and yellow pants.

"How's Jalil doing, Alix?" Marinette asked.

"You know him: he's going on about crazy historical theories as usual. He seriously thinks that one of the papyrus in the museum is a ritual to bring someone back from the dead." Alix stated.

"Sounds pretty wacky." Myléne added.

"How about your dad, Myléne?" Zoé asked.

"Oh, he and his troupe are doing a lot of shows around Paris. Speaking of which, Marinette, he needs you to make some repairs to his lucky hat." Mylene responded.

"Got it," Marinette said before addressing the rest of the group. "I was thinking that we should get together and do a bit of a fashion show/photo shoot for my upcoming website for commissions. I want all of you to be my models!"

"All of us?" Juleka asked in an unintelligible mumble.

"Yes, all of you," Marinette said. "I want all of my friends in this shoot! Hey, maybe I'll ask if Kagami can make time and join us?"

"Are you sure about asking Kagami?" Alya asked. "You know how strict her mom is with her training."

"It wouldn't hurt to ask," Marinette asked. "Besides, I've already made a few pieces for her to try. I looked up pictures of traditional Japanese clothing and did a modern spin on them."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it, even if she can't necessarily model with us." Zoé commented.

"On the subject of models, have you girls heard the rumors?" Alya began, leaning in closer and getting serious. "Word around the halls is that there's going to be a new student joining the school and he's a model."

"Really?" Rose asked.

"Yeah," Alya confirmed. "Apparently it's that model from Gabriel. Adrien Agreste."

"Adrien Agreste?!" Marinette said in surprise. "I've seen some of his ads and read some of his interviews. The clothes his father makes are amaze-balls!"

"You care about the clothes more than the models, right?" Alix asked.

Marinette nodded and said, "I have several pictures from Gabriel in my room. I usually just cut the faces of the models off so I can pay more attention to the clothes and examine them."

"Anyway, he supposedly starts tomorrow," Alya said, her face turning a bit grim. "But we do need to be wary of him."

"Why?" Juleka asked.

"I've heard gossip that he was old friends with Chloé of all people." Alya spoke.

Aside from Marinette, the girls groaned in annoyance.

"Listen, girls, just because he's associated with Chloé doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be a bad person. Remember when I first arrived from New York and you found out Chloé and I were half-sisters?" Zoé pointed out.

"That's true," Alya agreed as she ate a bite of her food. "We can't just assume he's guilty by association when we haven't met him yet. For all we know, he could be in a similar situation."

"Yeah." "Good point." "You're probably right."

"How about we meet up at my place after school to start picking out outfits for the shoot?" Marinette suggested, changing the subject.

"Great idea." Myléne agreed.

Later in Marinette's bedroom, the girls (including Kagami Tsurugi, a girl with almond-shaped brown eyes and short black hair, wearing a Japanese school uniform) were modeling some of Marinette's newest pieces. Marinette chose the clothes for the girls while Alya was the photographer.

"Here you go," Marinette said as she brought out a red choker bead necklace to Kagami. "I thought this would suit you."

"Thank you." Kagami said as she took it and put it around her neck.

"It really looks great on you!" Alya said. "Red is definitely your color, Kagami."

Kagami's face melted into a smile and she giggled when she watched some of the others get involved in choosing the outfits.

"Hey Marinette," Rose spoke up as she was trying on a pink pearl anklet. "Why don't you try on some of your outfits for the shoot?"

"Huh?" Marinette asked. "Me?"

"You're very photogenic," Juleka mumbled. "I think you'd look great in any of the outfits you made for yourself."

"Me, model?" Marinette questioned. She shook her head. "No way."

"Yes way!" Zoé said. "You're not just a great designer, but you could definitely make it as a model, too."

"Zoé's right," Alya agreed. "You're beautiful, Marinette."

Marinette blushed at the praise, saying, "Me, beautiful? No way."

"Indeed," Kagami piped up. "You have this innate, natural beauty that can't be captured or replicated by any other means."

"You don't need any makeup or anything to make you look even prettier than you already do!" Rose agreed.

"Yeah! Hey, how about you model that dress you made for a "special occasion" and we can use that in the shoot?" Alya suggested as she went to Marinette's closet.

"No! I'm either the designer or the model, not both!" Marinette protested, a little timid.

"You're too hesitant to put yourself out there," Kagami stated. "You wear your own creations all the time. Why not something else for a change?"

"Kagami's got a point." Alix said.

Marinette shook her head and said, "No way! You girls are the models, not me. Let's get back to work."

Alya took pictures of Rose. She was wearing a bright pink bowler hat with a white bow on it, and the bow looked like the ears of a pig, and there was a curled ribbon to look like a pig's tail.


The following day at school, Marinette was sitting at her desk and working out some kinks in her design for the contest. Alya was sitting next to her, too.

"I don't think inverting the ladybug's colors on the skirt is a good idea, Alya," Marinette said as she drew out the design with the suggestion. "It just doesn't look cohesive that way. And if I rework the design with that entire color scheme, it wouldn't look right and I'm not sure it will mesh well with the theme."

"You're the designer - you know how it works," Alya said to her before an eager smile came upon her face. "So, how about the possibility of Adrien Agreste winding up in our class?"

"What about it?" Marinette asked. "Even if he does, I'm not gonna go and interrogate him about fashion. I'm sure he's been subjected to all of that before and doesn't want to deal with it. Besides, he was... or maybe is, old friends with Chloé."

"Yeah, that's definitely a red flag we need to watch out for," Alya agreed. "But I guess we'll only really find out what he's like when he arrives."

"But if he doesn't end up in our class, then it won't be an issue, Alya," Marinette said. "And then we can just go about our routines."

Alya nodded before changing the subject and saying, "So, Halloween is coming up - think you can find a way to make costumes for me and Nino for a party?"

"Yeah! What if I make something that will go well with your necklace?" Marinette suggested. "Something fit for a sly, trustworthy vixen?"

"I love it." Alya said. The girls shared a fist-bump as the rest of the class came into the room.

Alya's boyfriend, Nino Lahiffe, was a taller boy with darker skin, hazel eyes behind glasses, wearing a blue shirt, a red cap, and blue jeans, along with a pair of orange headphones around his neck. He gave Alya their signature handshake before taking his seat in front of his girlfriend. Marinette smiled wistfully at the scene.

Alya looked at her BFF and said, "Girl, I know that look: you want what Nino and I have. Well, you could always hurry up and work up the spine to ask out Luka."

Marinette blushed and her heart throbbed at the mention of that name. Juleka's handsome older twin brother, Luka, and Marinette's crush. She'd always found Luka attractive, and she always felt so at ease around him. It didn't hurt that he was a charming, easygoing young man who made sure she was comfortable.

If she wasn't so shy, she would've asked him out a long time ago.

Marinette was about to answer, but the door opened and Mme. Bustier came in.

"Good morning, class!" Mme. Bustier greeted. "Now, I'm sure the rumor mills have been active lately, so I can all but assume that you've all heard that a new student is joining the school."

Everyone murmured about this. Alya and Marinette gave each other knowing looks before checking on the rest of the girls. They had similar expressions.

"I can confirm these rumors are true," Mme. Bustier said. "Please, welcome our newest classmate, Adrien Agreste!"

Everyone (barring Chloé for whatever reason) began clapping their hands as the aforementioned model started to walk into the room. However, everyone looked at him in confusion when they saw him.

Instead of a mop of golden blonde hair paired with green eyes that Marinette was vaguely aware of, his head and face were completely hidden. He was wearing a black hoodie jacket, and the hood was chained down (basically there were light-medium chains that hung off the top of the hood and were hooked onto some rings that were down on the bottom near the collar area. The hood itself cast a shadow that went so far down that the only thing that could be seen was the bottom half of his face, the neck and some of the collar area. She could see he had peach skin, but there was a shadow cast over part of his cheeks and chin, too. The rest of his attire consisted of blue jeans and orange sneakers.

'Never seen chains on a hoodie before.' Marinette thought, thinking the design feature a little odd.

"I don't think I need any real formal introduction," He said, his voice sounding a bit bored and annoyed as he pulled his hood down further. "You've seen my face and name all over Paris. It's pointless to say anything."

Everyone looked on in confusion. Marinette was definitely put off by his rudeness, and even the teacher was surprised at his outburst.

"Well, I guess you're right about that. Now Adrien, why don't you take your hood down and give us a sm-" Mme. Bustier began as she reached for the hood.

"No," He said with a dark voice that held a threatening, warning tone to it, causing her to back off. "The hood stays up. Understand?"

Mme. Bustier pulled a somewhat scared face before saying, "Okay. Now, as for a seat for you..."

Apparently, Adrien was way ahead of her. He walked to the only desk that didn't have anyone (in the very back), and he sat right down in it, dropping his bag on the desk, then leaning his body over onto it with folded arms.

"Well, he's certainly a barrel of laughs." Alya sarcastically whispered to Marinette, who nodded in agreement.

She couldn't help but crane her neck and look behind her to try and see under the hood, but the shadow was so dark that she couldn't see much. Adrien moved his head in her direction, and Marinette swiftly turned her head back to the teacher. Cognitively, she already knew what he looked like, but at the same time, she knew seeing things in the flesh was a different experience to seeing a picture or a video.

"Alright, as we started yesterday, the leading question was "What makes a monster and what makes a man?" Does anyone have any idea?" Mme. Bustier asked.

"Monsters are like zombie deer with rabies that will eat anything that they come across with no regard for anything else!" Kim, a taller Vietnamese boy with hair in a sharp quiff said, with wacky hand motions.

His seat mate, Max Kanté, a boy with dark brown skin, matching hair, wearing green, groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. His little robot buddy, Markov, had a similar reaction, only with his eyes resembling squinting emojis.

"Um... Not quite what I had in mind, Kim," Mme. Bustier said. "Anyone else?"

Marinette noticed the teacher was all but directly looking at Adrien. Marinette sat in her seat and instead of saying anything, decided to listen.

Other people spoke up with different answers that weren't necessarily what Mme. Bustier was looking for. Chloé's idea of monster vs. man was status, money and giving the girl everything she wants without question. Some of the other answers weren't very good, either.

"Well, maybe we should have everyone pair up and talk about their opinions about it? Marinette, as class representative, you'll be working with Adrien for this." Mme. Bustier said.

Marinette held back a grimace as she stood up from her seat next to Alya.

"Good luck with him." Alya muttered.

Marinette nodded in thanks as she walked to the back of the class and sat down next to the hooded boy. She was trying to avoid the temptation of looking at him.

"Um... So..." Marinette began, not sure how to initiate conversation. "I... I like your hoodie. The cat ears are cute, and I think the chains are very intriguing."

He gave a noncommittal snort, merely propping his face up with his balled fist before saying, "If that's your way of telling me to put my hood down so you can see my oh-so-handsome face, you're not getting anywhere."

"Um, no," Marinette stated, giving him an angry expression. "I've just never seen that particular design feature before. I actually think that would come in handy."

"How so?" He asked, his tone taking a suspicious, yet curious turn.

"Think about it: in extremely cold and high winds, that would help keep your hood up if you're trying to stay warm and dry." Marinette said, choosing not to look at him.

"That's..." He began to protest, but he growled and changed the subject. "So, what do you think separates monster from man, Marinette?"

She was about to ask how he knew her name, but realized the teacher said it out loud, and she said, "Well, um... what about you?"

With a scoff, Adrien began sarcastically saying, "Oh, I don't know. Wealth? Good looks? Status?"

"Ugh!" Marinette spat, beginning to raise her voice. "How about respect for your fellow person? A bit of empathy?! Kindness, probably?! Doing things for the greater good instead of self-interest?!"

"That's bullcrap," He shot back as he still refused to look at her. "I've tried all of that before and it's gotten me nowhere in life."

"Oh, so you think acting like a beast is what makes you a human and not a monster?!" Marinette said, standing up from her chair and glaring him down.

"Marinette? Do you and Adrien have an answer for the question?" Mme. Bustier asked, still smiling.

Marinette, realizing she was cornered, cleared her throat and said, "Adrien, why don't you go first? You have your answer?"

Adrien, choosing to stand as well (while still keeping his face down), said, "According to my lovely partner, what separates monster and man can be a variety of things. Respect for other people, perhaps? Looking out for others instead of self?"

Marinette could tell his tone was just dripping with sarcasm, and whether or not the teacher noticed was hard to gauge.

"Sometimes, even if you have the best of intentions, your actions and how they affect other people, as well as how you react to those consequences can define you as either monster or human, too." Marinette said, crossing her arms and not looking at Adrien.

"Well, those are excellent points. Anyone else care to contribute?" Mme. Bustier said.

Marinette took this as her cue to get back to her seat next to Alya. She propped her head up in annoyance and she had a bitter, angry look on her face.

"Girl, if you don't change that expression, your face will be stuck that way." Alya laughed.

Marinette rolled her eyes before continuing to listen to everyone else's answers. But even after all of that, only one thing in Marinette's mind stuck out:

Adrien Agreste was nothing more than a rude beast.


In the art room later on, the girls (including Zoé) were talking about their new classmate.

"I still can't believe how rude he was!" Marinette stated as she was working on a dark purple pillbox hat with lighter purple tiger stripes on it. "All I did was tell him that I liked his hoodie and then he goes and assumes that I want to look at his face! And his tone of voice! Ugh!"

"Yeah," Alya agreed. "From all the interviews he's done, he portrays himself as a gentleman, and very polite."

"Clearly, the guy was lying about it just to make his old man look good," Alix stated while working on some street art - she had a respirator mask on. "We should've expected that kind of attitude from someone who was childhood friends with Chloé of all people, even though we've been wrong before."

"Doesn't mean we're wrong about it this time, though," Alya said with a shrug, her arms crossed. "Anyone who mistreats Marinette has to be a troublemaker!"

"Forget about that creep for now! We should concentrate on our art projects! After all, it's not the problems that matter, but how we cope with them that counts!" Rose stated as she kept writing lyrics for a song for Kitty Section, the band she and Juleka were in, along with Luka and Ivan, Myléne's boyfriend.

"I'm with Rose," Myléne agreed as she worked on a bracelet. "Let's focus on the good stuff today."

The sound of footsteps approaching the room didn't deter them, and when the door opened, a familiar voice said, "What the fu..."

Everyone looked up and saw Adrien was there, and they all gave him cautious, wary looks. Marinette herself looked at him with a dirty glare as she held onto the hat.

With a scoff, he rudely said, "Sorry for interrupting your little art session."

He stepped out of the art room and slammed the door. Everyone let out relieved breaths, and Marinette growled.

"Geez, that was scary." Myléne said, shivering.

"Don't worry about him," Alya said. "Back to our fun!"

Marinette nodded decided to take her frustrations out by making the best damned hat yet.

During their next class, science (specifically biology), Marinette was trying her best to focus on the assignment at hand. They were using their school-provided tablets to play a game where they paired genetic bases together in a strand of DNA and try to find any anomalies in the sequence. The game was similar to that of a popular one called Super Penguino, which made it fun for the students.

"Okay, if I remember right, it's adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytosine..." Marinette said as she and Alya were about to start the game.

"Marinette, you'll be working with Adrien today." Mme. Mendeleiev said. Marinette looked up at the stern woman with purple hair and glasses.

Marinette groaned in annoyance and looked behind her. Once again, Adrien was in the back, alone, with his tablet and playing the game like a seasoned professional.

"Um, Mme., I honestly think he's doing fine on his own." Marinette said to her.

"This is a pair assignment, not a solo one," Mendeleiev insisted before pointing to Adrien's desk. "Go."

Marinette sighed before standing up and making her way to the back table with Adrien. Nino quickly took the opportunity to sit next to his girlfriend and they started playing the game.

Marinette sat next to Adrien and looked at the tablet, before gently asking, "How far along in the game are you?"

"Level ten, why?" He asked curtly.

"The teacher's insisting you and I work together for this," Marinette said, trying to be friendly. "So, maybe you should restart your progress and we can play it together?"

"Whatever, Princess." He spat.

Marinette looked at him, affronted and surprised, before saying, "Excuse me, did you just call me Princess?"

"Yeah," Adrien stated like it was an obvious fact. "I was expecting you to be just another pretty face without a brain, but you being class representative, and earlier in Literature class? You really showed that you have something in that head of yours. Like a princess."

Marinette was speechless, but she recovered and said, "Let's just get to work on the assignment."

After resetting the progress on the game, the two of them tried to actually cooperate on it. But it wasn't smooth sailing.

"Hey, that was an adenine! That's supposed to pair up with a thymine, not cytosine!" Marinette scolded as she saw Adrien missed something and thus they lost points in the game and risked losing.

"Don't nag me!" Adrien said.

"We're supposed to be working together on this," Marinette protested. "Could you please try and cooperate with me?"

"I don't need you to-" Adrien began, only for some of the game music indicating a bad thing happening to their progress. "Oh, come on! Great, now the game says we're increasing the chances of giving the cell tissue cancer!"

"That's what happens when any of the cell division regulation rules get broken!" Marinette said as she took the tablet and started to correct Adrien's mistake.

"Okay, cytosine with guanine, then thymine with adenine..." Marinette murmured.

Adrien looked at her, a little angry, before taking the other side of the tablet and continued playing.

"Let me at it, please?" Adrien asked in a condescending tone.

Alya, who'd been listening to everything, looked at Nino in worry and said, "I hope she doesn't have to put up with this guy all day..."

Nino nodded in agreement, saying, "Seriously, dude, even my lil' bro is easier for her to deal with."

The rest of the class consisted of Marinette trying to cooperate with Adrien, who wasn't making it easy for her. They managed to score in the top percentile of the class for the game and thus got a good grade, though.


At lunch, Marinette was grumbling as she picked at her food... Or rather, stabbing it to death.

"Still angry about Adrien?" Alya asked.

"Yeah, I am," Marinette said. "Who does he think he is?! Just because his father's my favorite designer and he's a model, he thinks he can act like that?!"

"The guy's got a chip on his shoulder, I'll give you that much, dude," Nino agreed as he ate. "And what's with that hoodie of his? Why does he always keep it up?"

"He is a famed model. Probably a defense mechanism." Alya stated.

"And acting prickly like that will definitely keep people at bay," Marinette grumpily added as she angrily ate some of her chicken. "I'm going to stay away from him as much as I can if I can help it!"

"But girl, you're class representative - chances are you're gonna have to deal with him all week." Alya told her.

"True, but at least he's got enough sense not to show his face around the cafeteria." Marinette mumbled while continuing to eat.

Alya and Nino looked around and noticed that there wasn't a black cat hood in sight. Nino said, "He's probably eating somewhere else."

"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Marinette said as she kept eating. "I just want to get through the day and get home to play Ultimate Mecha Strike with my dad."

"Same here with some of my work, too." Alya agreed.

"I've got a gig tonight and these bad vibes aren't doing me any favors." Nino pointed out.

"Sorry, Nino," Marinette said, breathing. "Maybe once I get home and clear my head with crushing mechs on a video game, tomorrow won't be as dreadful."

The rest of the day went by without incident. Marinette kept her distance from Adrien, and he did the same towards her. When she got home from school that day, she finished her homework in a flash.

In the living room, Marinette was taking her anger towards Adrien out on her dad's mechs.

"WINNER! WINNER! WINNER!" The game said.

Marinette, a scowl still on her face, whooped in victory and started trash talking the video game mecha.

"Yeah! Take that, you filthy little rat!" Marinette ranted as she stood up and kept going on and on in anger.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Tom Dupain, her father asked. He was a very tall, burly man with green eyes, brown hair with a mustache and sideburns, and wearing a blue shirt and sweat pants.

Marinette looked over at her dad before saying, "No, dad... I'm not okay. I'm just SO infuriated right now!"

She slammed herself on the couch and sighed, releasing some tension.

"What happened?" Sabine, a petite, Chinese woman with short black hair, silver eyes, and wearing a cream-colored cheongsam asked as she came into the living room.

"It's just... There's this boy..." Marinette began, her tone more annoyed than anything.

"A boy?!" Tom said, delighted and smiling with joy. "What's he like?! What's his name?!"

Marinette sighed and put a hand up to stop her father's overly-romantic ramblings.

"It's Adrien Agreste, that model from Gabriel, and..." Marinette continued, but...

"Oh, a model?! And the son of your fashion idol?! What a perfect coincidence! So-" Tom began, but Marinette cut in and shouted, "DAD!"

"Tom, please, let Marinette finish." Sabine placated.

"Okay." Tom said, calming down.

"Now, before you get excited... He's a complete asshole," Marinette said. "A real jerk."

Tom and Sabine looked at her in surprise as Marinette crossed her arms and had a petulant scowl on her face.

"What did he do?" Sabine asked.

"He's... UGH, he's just so annoying," Marinette stated. "I try to make conversation with him, I complimented his black cat hoodie shirt and he just gets all rude on me, assuming I just want to look at his face! I don't need to see his face, I've seen enough of it on the advertisements around the city!"

"What else?" Tom asked.

"We were stuck working together in science class and he had the audacity to call me "Princess" in such a condescending manner," Marinette spat. "We were lucky that we scored what we did, otherwise we would've been sunk!"

"He doesn't sound very nice." Sabine said as she heard her daughter out.

"Ya think?" Marinette agreed with a scoff.

"So what are you going to do?" Tom asked as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm just gonna stay away from him unless I have no choice," Marinette said. "He's as unapproachable as a porcupine."

"But he's in your class, isn't he?" Tom questioned.

"True," Marinette sighed. "Like I said, I'm just gonna avoid him if I can. I'll stay in my lane, he stays in his."

"You know, there's always another way," Sabine said to her as she sat down next to Marinette. "Why not give him some macarons?"

"Are you sure?" Marinette asked in a skeptical tone.

"Yes," Sabine said. "Why not use macarons as a way to extend the olive branch to him and see if that smoothes things over?"

Marinette thought it over, sighed, and admitted, "...Okay, I'll give that a try tomorrow."

The next day at school, Marinette arrived in the classroom, and she looked around. Everyone was in their usual seats, and she looked at the back of the room. There was Adrien, once again in his hoodie and hunched over his desk. She drew parallels between Adrien and Ivan, but she knew that Ivan was a sweetheart at the core, unlike Adrien.

In her hand was a small variety box of macarons from the bakery. She took a deep breath before thinking, 'Just drop the macarons off without a word and get back to Alya.'

Marinette, steeling her nerves, quietly marched up to Adrien's desk, and without addressing him, slid the macaron box in front of him. Instead of looking at his reaction, she turned on her heel and went back to her desk.

"Girl, what was that about?" Alya whispered to her.

"Just one of my parents' ideas," Marinette responded. "I vented to them and they suggested I try and make peace using macarons. Don't worry about it. I just want to get through today without incident."

She was so focused on trying to avoid any confrontations with Adrien that she didn't notice him open the macaron box to see the different-colored cookies.

Later on in the hallways, Marinette was walking to her locker, the earlier pillbox hat in a box and with her sketchbook balanced on top of it.

"Okay, so maybe maybe a hip-hugger bell skirt instead of a banded, gathered skirt instead... And maybe a little higher up above the knee instead..." Marinette murmured as she kept making modifications to her design.

*SLAM!*

She fell over on her butt, dropping all of her work. The hat fell out of its box and the sketchbook was open out on the floor.

"Ugh, I'm so sorry." Marinette said as she rubbed her butt.

"Yeah, you gotta be more careful." A familiar, curt voice said, causing her to groan. She looked up to see Adrien's hooded profile. But she noticed his line of sight was at her hat and sketchbook.

He picked them up and looked them over silently. Marinette, a bit anxious, was watching him and trying to resist the urge to snatch her things back before he could rudely insult her work again.

But as she reached out to take her book and hat, Adrien took out a pen and started writing a few things in her book, flipping pages and looking over her designs.

"Hey, what are you-?!" Marinette began, spooked, but Adrien put a hand up to stop her.

After what seemed like about three minutes or so, he put the pen away, closed the book and slid it back to Marinette's knees. He also picked up the hat and handed it back to Marinette.

"Um... Thank you." Marinette said as she took her hat and put it back in its box.

"Whatever." He said as he stood up and walked away without a word. Marinette took her items and also stood up before glaring at him over her shoulder.

"What is his problem?!" Marinette spat. Annoyed with his attitude and with a scowl upon her face, she decided to look at the book and see what damage was done.

When she opened her book to where he had it last, she looked at it in surprise. Instead of nasty words or insults like she'd expect from Chloé, Marinette saw Adrien had made annotations and notes on some of her works.

Several of the words were suggestions for the designs, others were praises on them. Some were criticisms (albeit they weren't as harsh as she was expecting), and more. She also saw that he left her ladybug-themed design page untouched.

She looked at the page where she started working on the design for Alya's Halloween costume, and she saw some of the notes he made.

'I see where you're going with this, but be careful because orange is hard to pull off in general.'

Marinette looked at it, reread it about ten times, and then read it once more.

She shook her head, looked back at her book, and turned the page backwards to her most recent project: the final picture of the pillbox hat Marinette made for Juleka. Marinette immediately noticed that the page had a few notes (mostly praises or suggestions for color choices, etc.), but what stood out to her was what she saw at the bottom of the page.

'This picture pales in comparison to the real thing. Well done.'

Marinette looked over the notes again, and she felt something in her gut, but the question was what.

Finally, she noticed there was one last note, and this time it was on a blank page.

'Thank you for the macarons. The passion fruit was my favorite.'

Marinette blinked in confusion before looking over the note again. After all of that rudeness, he took the time to give her some advice on her designs and then thank her for the macarons?

Was it naïve of her to think that maybe there was more to that rude tomcat than she originally thought?


Okay! That's it for this chapter. I know I've written Adrien completely out of character in this story, but PLEASE BE PATIENT AND WORK WITH ME ON THIS! There's more going on here and as we get further in, we'll see more of the Sunshine Child Adrien truly is.

Coming up, Marinette is forced to be Adrien's partner during a field trip. How will this turn out?