Chloe woke up on the first day of school since Marilleur and immediately groaned in anticipation. Or rather, lack thereof. She sat up and began getting ready, ignoring the giddy look on her kwami's face. Tikki floated around behind the irritated blonde, a smile stretching from ear to ear. Finally, Chloe snapped. "Say whatever it is you wanna say, Tikki," she grumbled. "You're too perky and it's dampening my already horrible mood."
"Are you excited for the new Chloe to show her face at school today?" the kwami burst out.
Chloe rolled her eyes and muttered, "Knew it. Look, Tikki, I don't know if I can do this. I was just… caught up in emotions and stuff, you know? Besides, no one will believe I've changed. Not when I've done such a fantastic job of building up my reputation as a cold-hearted snobby mean girl."
Gasping angrily at her words, Tikki retorted, "Chloe Bourgeois, you need to stop putting yourself down like this! I know you can be a better person, you just need to try. I believe in you but you need to believe in yourself!"
"Whatever you say, Tikki."
"Just start small. Try not to be overly nice or too sudden with your personality change."
"Ugh, this is too much. Can I just stay home today?"
"You're stronger than you think, Chloe." Tikki stopped for a second before squealing and hugging Chloe's cheek affectionately. "Ooh, I'm just so proud of you!"
The kwami's excitement brought a tiny smile to Chloe's face, which she tried, and failed, to suppress. "Whatever, Tikki. Just let me finish getting dressed."
When Chloe arrived downstairs, she was greeted with the sight of Butler Jean standing in his usual spot. When he spotted her, he smiled, "Good morning, mademoiselle."
Steeling her raging nerves, Chloe tried to smile back and replied in an overly-cheerful voice, "Hi, Butler-Jean!" His eyebrows shot up and Chloe immediately wanted to retract those words. "I-I mean, are you taking me to school or what?"
He nodded and replied, somewhat confused, "Of course, mademoiselle. Are you feeling alright?"
"Yes, yes, can we please go now?" she abruptly replied, not meeting his eyes. "Well, that went well."
When they arrived at school, Chloe frantically escaped the limo without a word to Butler Jean and was about to rush into school when she remembered she was meant to be trying to be nice. So she stuck her head back and the door and yelled, "Thanks Jean-Philippe!" Not waiting for his response, she slammed the car door, yelled through the window, "Sorry!" and practically sprinted into the school.
"Oh my god, that was horrible! I knew this was a bad idea! I'm just embarrassing myself." She opened her bag and glared angrily at Tikki, who was beaming encouragingly at her. "This is all your fault!" Chloe hissed, startling a few girls near her. Students were staring at her, confused about her strange behaviour, but she just ignored them and went straight to the locker room. Fortunately, Sabrina was waiting dutifully at the blonde's locker. "Ugh, Sabrina, please tell me you did my English homework. I am having the worst day ever."
Sabrina winced before bursting out in apology, "Oh, Chloe, I'm so sorry! It was my dad's birthday and we went out to this super fancy restaurant. N-not as fancy as Le Grand Paris of course, but we stayed there the whole night and when I got home, I was so tired that I couldn't finish the English homework! I'm so sorry, Chloe, please don't delete me from your life!"
Chloe groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, and was about to rain fire on poor Sabrina when she felt her handbag shake against her leg. Rolling her eyes in frustration, Chloe looked into her bag and was met with the sight of Tikki whispering, "Be nice!"
Chloe felt herself wondering what the point of being nice was and honestly just wanted to scream at Sabrina for not doing her bidding. "Ugh, what's so wrong with being the resident mean girl? I've got popularity, immunity from teachers and no one ever stands up to me! Well, except Dupain-Cheng and the blogger girl." An image flashed through Chloe's mind: Chat Noir suspended by chains. The reason she was even attempting to be better. She needed to stop hiding behind the safety of the wall she had built. Tikki believed in her. Worst comes to worst, no one actually believed her 'new self' and she was left alone again, right? "Ugh, stop over-thinking and just do it! Quick like a band-aid." Chloe looked back at the cowering ginger and said hesitantly, "Uh, it's fine! I'll just do it at lunch or something."
Sabrina pried her eyes open and gaped at her best friend. "Really? You're totally okay with it? You're not gonna make me beg on my knees for forgiveness?"
Chloe reddened and she stammered, "N-no! I've never done that!"
"Ooh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Chloe!" Sabrina squealed and threw her arms around the surprised blonde. "We can work on the homework together! If that's alright with you, though." Chloe nodded and Sabrina squealed again, "Ooh, I knew deep down you could be forgiving!" She slid her arm around Chloe's and began leading her out of the locker room, gushing about her dad's birthday. Chloe could only stare ahead, stunned that her best friend genuinely believed she could be a good person. Or was it just Sabrina being her usual serving self?
When they got near their classroom, Chloe spotted a girl looking extremely baffled by the door. She looked to be in the year below them and kept looking frantically at the different classrooms and down at her planner. "I should probably go ask her what's wrong, right?" She nodded and slipped her arm out of Sabrina's before walking forcefully to the frazzled girl. "Why are you standing there so confused like that?" she asked, harsher than intended.
The girl flinched and apologies began pouring out from her mouth. "Oh my god, C-Chloe Bourgeois, I'm so sorry, I-I'll leave the school, I'll never sh-show my face again, just p-please have pity on me, don't exile me f-from society, plea-"
"Okay, stop." Chloe held up a hand to shush the younger girl and she abruptly snapped her mouth shut. "First of all, I don't 'exile people from society'. At least, not anymore," Chloe stated snappishly. "Second of all, I was just trying to ask you what was wrong. It just… came out kinda harsh." The blonde sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to soften her voice before asking sweetly, "What's your name? Do you need help getting to your class?"
She plastered a wide smile on her face and the younger girl visibly flinched. "Um, m-my name is Maddy and I just transferred here. Do you think y-you could tell me where my Physics classroom is?" She shakily showed Chloe her timetable and the blonde immediately paled.
Chloe realised that she didn't actually know where any classroom was; she had always just told Sabrina to lead the way. She turned around to face the red-head and subtly jutted her head towards a terrified Maddy. Unfortunately, Sabrina was still hyper over Chloe being slightly less evil so she just waved back enthusiastically. Chloe rolled her eyes and snarled in her head, 'Incompetent, utterly incompetent." She sighed and turned back to the younger girl, racking her mind for any memories of Physics classrooms. Suddenly, she remembered one. "Go into that classroom there," she said authoritatively, pointing towards an ajar door.
"Ok!" Maddy squeaked and was scuttling to the room in an instant.
Chloe grinned at her retreating form and decided that maybe this wouldn't be too hard. She could feel the pressure of Tikki's reassuring hand on her leg and walked back to Sabrina confidently. Unfortunately, her good mood was ruined by the voice of none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng. "Which new kid are you torturing this time, Chloe?" she asked snarkily.
Flipping her hair (Tikki could not ever expect her to stop doing that), Chloe snapped back, "No-one, Dupain Cheng. I was actually helping that small child over there get to her physics classroom." She smirked smugly at Marinette's skeptical face.
"What was her teacher's name?"
Chloe's smirk vanished and she stammered, "W-well, how am I supposed to know? It was Monsieur Something, ok!"
"And where did you send this girl?"
"That classroom." Chloe boredly pointed to the room behind her.
Marinette's eyes widened in shock and she yelled at the blonde, "That's Ms Mendeleev's classroom, Chloe! That poor girl's gonna get screamed at." Sure enough, the teenagers could hear the Physics teacher's furious voice screeching at Maddy one second later. She burst out of the classroom with big fat tears welling up in her eyes and practically leapt down the stairs, ignoring the stares from other students. Chloe felt her heart sink considerably but before she could try to apologise, Marinette rounded on her. "What is wrong with you, Chloe? Is it your personal mission to make every student's life here a living hell?" she asked furiously, anger burning in her blue eyes.
Chloe gaped for a second before retorting, "I told you I was trying to help her! That was the only Physics class I could remember."
"So, what, you just expect me to think that you just managed to accidentally send a new kid into the classroom of the meanest teacher at the school?"
"When you put it like that, it sounds bad but that's what happened! Just trust me."
Marinette crossed her arms and hissed, "I don't, and never ever will, trust you, Chloe Bourgeois." She turned around and walked into their classroom.
Groaning in frustration, the blonde looked around for Sabrina, who had left the two arguing teens a while ago. A tap on her leg alerted her and she looked down to find Tikki with a sympathetic but encouraging smile. Chloe rolled her eyes and thought bitterly, "That went well." She grumpily entered the classroom and muttered, "Sorry I'm late," to Ms Bustier and the whole class gasped. Chloe looked confused for a second before remembering, "Oh yeah. Chloe Bourgeois doesn't apologise."
"No…problem," Ms Bustier said warily, registering the blonde.
Chloe trudged to her seat and could see Marinette whispering to Alya in her peripheral vision. "No doubt spreading how I sent a new girl to slaughter." Sure enough, both Alya and Marinette were glaring at her a moment later. She didn't need to be a psychic to know that they tell Adrikins, Nino and the rest of their class as soon as humanly possible. Wonderful, utterly wonderful. The already fragile confidence Tikki has provided her with seemed to crumble instantly and a scalding mix of rage and frustration rose up in her. Not that she would let any of that show on her face, which was schooled into an emotionless expression. Chloe Bourgeois was not an idiot, after all.
Ms Bustier began nattering about whatever subject they were in but Chloe couldn't focus. The words pouring out of the teacher's mouth just flew past her head like badly aimed paper aeroplanes. She brought her elbow up to the table and softly rested her head against it. Her icy blue eyes stayed open but they might as well have been closed: they were unfocused and glazed over, blinking every 10 seconds. Chloe barely registered Adrien frowning slightly at her blank face and mouthing her name in an unspoken question. She also didn't notice him raise his hand and alert Ms Bustier, who was soon calling her name. "Chloe?" the teacher asked, concern evident in her voice, but the blonde didn't notice. "Chloe, are you alright?"
"WAKE UP," Alya yelled as loud as possible, making Chloe jerk up stiff as a rod. She spun around to glare daggers at the brunette, who only smirked evilly.
Also shooting Alya an unimpressed look, Ms Bustier said, "Thank you for your input, Alya." She then turned to Chloe and asked, "Are you alright, Chloe?"
"May I go to the toilet?" Chloe chose to ask instead. The teacher nodded, despite the hint of worry in her turquoise eyes, and Chloe stood up before walking out of the classroom with her head held high.
Marinette tapped her pen on the table, bounced her knee under the table and intermittently glanced at the clock on the wall. She needed to tell Adrien about yet another Chloe Bourgeois tantrum but after Ms Bustier's obvious annoyance towards Alya, she knew it wouldn't be wise to interrupt the lesson again. Marinette couldn't for the life of her figure out why Adrien still considered the blonde girl a friend. It just didn't make sense.
"Now for the next 5 minutes, I'd like you to discuss this question with the people around you."
Marinette vaguely registered Ms Bustier's voice but it snapped her out of her reverie. She immediately leaned forward to Adrien and tapped his shoulder urgently. He turned around but before he could open his mouth, she began, "You won't believe what Chloe did this morning."
Adrien's face fell and he muttered, "Uh oh."
"It's so bad," Alya butted in. Nino was now also listening. "She sent a poor girl into Ms Mendeleev's classroom on her first day! And you know how that crazy woman is. She was sobbing, poor thing."
Marinette interrupted, "And then Chloe tried to justify it by saying she didn't mean to? That she was trying to help her?"
"Honestly, does she think we're idiots?" Alya fumed.
Nino shook his head and only replied, "Disappointed but not surprised, dude."
Adrien, however, stayed quiet for a moment before nervously saying, "W-well maybe Chloe actually was trying to help."
Marinette rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Please. What reason would she have to suddenly be Mother Teresa?"
"I don't- I don't know why. But I know Chloe and if she was deliberately hurting this girl, she wouldn't lie about it. Isn't it enough to know that she's trying to change?"
"Adrien you have too much faith in people. Chloe Bourgeois is nothing more than a cold-hearted, selfish brat. It's all she'll ever be."
At this Adrien looked up from his twiddling thumbs. The blush on his face died down and the usual sweetness in his emerald eyes was gone. Marinette could've even said he was glaring - but Adrien was too sweet for that. Right? "Chloe was my first ever friend. She was there for me when my mother disappeared. I saw her at her lowest when her mother left for New York. So forgive me if I want to believe she might be changing for the better," he stated, voice hard and eyes unblinking. "I always thought you were an advocate for people becoming the best they could be. Guess I was wrong." With that, Adrien turned back around to focus on Ms Bustier.
Nino and Alya only gaped in response: Adrien never talked to Marinette like that. They glanced at each other in shock before facing forwards as well. Marinette herself was frozen. Her eyes burned and her head felt abnormally heavy. And incredibly hot. There was a loud buzzing in her ears. It felt as if her heart was shrivelling into a tiny fragile entity in her chest. She took a shaky breath and resisted the urge to bury her head in her knees. Sure she had faced harsh words from Chloe and Scarlet Bug… But something about the words Adrien had said to her with such conviction and silent anger made Marinette feel empty. It wasn't her fault! Chloe was terrible. If a cat scratched you time and time again, why would you expect it to do otherwise the next time? It wasn't irrational of her to assume the worst of Chloe right? Did Adrien really have that low an opinion of her? Why did it hurt so much that he didn't see her as a good person?
"Ms Bustier, please may I go to the bathroom?" the subject of Marinette's thoughts spoke up, voice still tight. Ms Bustier nodded and Adrien stood up to leave the classroom. The teacher continued the lesson but all Marinette could do is replay the conversation in her head. I always thought you were an advocate for people becoming the best they could be. Guess I was wrong. I always thought you were an advocate for people becoming the best they could be. Guess I was wrong.
I always thought you were an advocate for people becoming the best they could be.
Guess I was wrong.
Adrien walked heavily into the boys' toilets, checked to make sure all the cubicles were empty and quickly entered the one furthest from the door. Silently locking the door, he flopped onto the lid of the seat and groaned. Plagg zoomed out of his shirt and waited patiently for him to stop. Dropping his head into his hands, Adrien shook his head and let out a muffled sentence. He sighed heavily and looked up, pouting petulantly at Plagg. "Am I naïve, Plagg?" The little black kwami tried and failed miserably to hold back a snicker, which only made Adrien groan again, louder.
"Adrien. Adrien, Adrien, Adrien," Plagg sighed humorously. "Let me put it like this: before about a year ago, the only social interactions you had were with your father and his employees."
"Was Marinette right about me having too much faith in people?"
"Adrien, you are lucky enough to be able to see the world in a positive light. It's honestly quite nauseating sometimes. But… some other people don't have that privilege." He flew over to sit on Adrien's shoulder. "You need to remember that Chloe bullied Marinette for years. You can't completely blame her for not trusting everything Chloe says."
Adrien opened his mouth to reply but quickly heard the squeak of the toilet door opening. His emerald eyes widened and he silently held up a finger to shush Plagg. When the boy had left, the blonde sighed in relief and continued, "I know that. But saying that Chloe's gonna stay the same person just isn't fair. I've seen sides of her that she doesn't show to anyone else. Arghh, I was so rude! She probably hates me now." Adrien dejectedly dropped his head into his hands and groaned regretfully.
"Don't say that," Plagg reassured. "Takes guts to stand up to your crush like you did. I'm proud of you, kid."
He lifted up his head slightly and glumly looked at Plagg through his fingers. "Really?" Plagg nodded surely. "Okay. Do you think I should apologise? Or should she? 'Cos technically, I insulted her. Oh, what am I saying? I doubt she even cares that much. If anything, she should apologise to Chloe. Though I doubt that will ever happen," he mused sadly. "I guess Marinette isn't as perfect as I thought…"
Plagg snorted and rolled his eyes. "You don't say," he muttered. "Now can we go back upstairs so I can continue eating my beloved camembert while you're forced to listen to boring lectures?"
"Maybe I would've realised that sooner if I could actually talk to her," Adrien continued to Plagg's visible annoyance. "Like I can with Marigold. Ohhh, Marigold. I hope she's doing okay after yesterday." His eyes widened again. "Oh damn, Marinette was super upset too! I hadn't even realised she cared about Chat Noir that much. I shouldn't have been so harsh. Plagg, I've got to apologise."
"But are you okay, Adrien?" Plagg asked seriously. "I tried to ask before but you were pretty worn out."
Adrien blew air through his lips and reassured, "Plagg, I'm fine. Stop worrying. The miraculous ladybugs fixed everything so I am purrrfectly fine."
"Yeah, but they didn't erase your memory," the small kwami retorted. "It wasn't a fun mental situation. Believe me, I was there."
"Plagg, it's fine," Adrien rubbed his arm uncomfortably. "People have been through worse." Plagg opened his mouth to say something but Adrien cut in, "Come on, we've gotta get back to class. Ms Bustier is probably wondering where I am." He reluctantly darted into Adrien's bag and they both left the boy's toilets. Coincidentally, Chloe also stepped out of the girl's toilets at the same time. "Chloe, are you okay?" he immediately asked. "Were you… crying?"
Her head snapped to face him and she exclaimed incredulously, "What?" Adrien was extremely relieved to see that her eyes were not red and puffy: not only did he care about her a lot but he was also terrible with crying girls. Or just crying people. "Oh, please, Adrien. I'm not stupid enough to cry at school where anyone could hear," she scoffed. "I leave that to the privacy of my bathroom." After that remark, Chloe's mouth snapped shut and she turned slightly red. "Whatever. Let's go back to class."
"Wait, Chloe," Adrien grabbed her hand, stopping her from leaving. "About this morning-"
Holding her hand up to stop him, Chloe snarled, "Spare me the lecture, Adrien. I'm sure Dupain-Cheng has already told you her version of the story and I don't need you to tell me off."
"No, I wanted to tell you that I believe you. That you were trying to help the girl. And… Marinette was a bit harsh on you."
Chloe's face immediately brightened and she grinned evilly, "Ha! Of course you do! Dupain-Cheng is just a no-good liar and I'm honestly surprised it took you this long to realise."
At her words, Adrien's face hardened and he dropped Chloe's hand like it was poker hot. "I'm starting to see that maybe that was a mistake," he muttered, taking a step back.
"No, wait!," Chloe exclaimed frantically, grabbing Adrien's arm to prevent him from going any further. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… be mean. It was just reflex." Adrien turned back to her and waited expectantly. Frowning slightly, she whispered, "Can we go somewhere a bit less open though? You never know who's listening." Her eyes darted around comically and Adrien had to bite his inner cheek not to laugh.
"We could go to that weird boiler room?" he suggested. Chloe visibly recoiled, but then nodded in agreement. The two teens darted into the hidden room and carefully closed the door behind them. "Okay, now that no one can see us, hear us, or know of our existence down here, do you wanna explain what's going on," Adrien joked half-heartedly.
Chloe sank down into a chair and sighed heavily. "So… something really bad happened to a… friend of mine. And I felt like it was my fault even though maybe it wasn't and I'm just overreacting?" Adrien grabbed her hand and nodded in encouragement so she continued, "So that kinda shook me up a bit and suddenly I had this idea of being a good person, which is utter nonsense because if I was meant to be good, I would've popped out being like you or Dupain-Cheng or Chat Noir or bloody Marigold. Not only that, but when will anyone in this world believe that Chloe Bourgeois could be good? Like, come on, I have a pretty rock hard reputation right now - no one could ever break it down from the outside so why should I be able to?"
She had been talking very fast at this point so she took a few seconds to catch her breath. Adrien to the opportunity to butt in, "You can Chloe. Because you're on the inside: you know all the weak spots, you know where one hit could crumble the entire thing. Don't give up so quickly because it isn't easy. People will start to believe you when you try hard enough. And besides," Adrien grinned happily. "You already have someone that believes in you."
Chloe looked up at his joyful face and allowed a small smile to appear on her round face. "I'll deny it if anyone asks… but you'll always be one of my biggest weak spots, Adrien. I could never deny you anything," she murmured. Two perfectly manicured hands reached out to push his cheeks together and Chloe snickered, "You little sunshine boy." Adrien laughed loudly and pushed her hands away. "Thank you, Adrien," she said sincerely, staring deep into his green eyes.
He stared back at her and once he noticed that her icy blue eyes were Misty, Adrien immediately pulled her in for a tight hug, crushing her smaller frame to his chest. "Anyday."
"Don't tell Sabrina…but you're probably my best friend in the whole world."
"Probably? Damn, I gotta do better." Both their chuckles echoed in the dark room.
The bell rang, signifying the end of class and Marinette forced herself to pack up her stuff. The rest of the lesson had just been white noise: her head still felt detached from the world. And where were Adrien and Chloe? Images of Adrien comforting a crying Chloe flitted through her mind.
Adrien wiped a few tears from her eyes and held her round face in his hands before pressing his forehead to hers and leaning in closer… and closer…
Pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes and shaking her head, Marinette banished those images from her mind and left the classroom quickly. Alya and Nino tailed after her. "Adrien never talks like that, dude," Nino exclaimed. "There must be something going on with his old man again."
"I'll yell at him for you, if you want," Alya piped up.
Marinette just shook her head and said quietly, "It's fine guys. Just leave it." The 2 brunettes looked at each other and shrugged, following Marinette down the stairs. The trio made their way to the rest of their friends and while Alya and Nino joined the conversation, the bluenette stayed on the outskirts of the group, breathing heavily. "Just stay calm. Don't cry. You have nothing to cry about. Stop."
Suddenly, there was a commotion further into the courtyard and Marinette forced herself to look at what was happening. There was a girl in extremely fashionable clothes standing on a railing and smirking evilly down at the rest of the students. An extremely high up railing. There were shouts coming from the crowd of students below. "Is she gonna jump?" one person yelled. At that, Marinette immediately jumped into action and darted around students to get to the stairs.
"Students of Francois-DuPont College!" The sonorous voice boomed across the courtyard and Marinette was shocked to see that it was from the same small girl. "Has anyone here ever been insulted or humiliated by Chloe Bourgeois?"
"Oh, not her again," Marinette inwardly grumbled. Her bluebell eyes quickly surveyed the crowd and most of the students were looking in both confusion and recognition.
"This ice queen has ruled this school for far too long under her iron grip," the girl continued. "I think it's time for a new Queen Bee and luckily for all of you, I am here to fill the position." She finished with a smug grin on her face and suddenly a purple outline of a butterfly appeared across her face.
"Crap, she's akumatized."
"So rise, beloved subjects, and help me make Chloe Bourgeois pay for all the pain she has caused this school!"
With that, she threw her arms out and hundreds of tiny bees flew out from her hands. They swarmed around for a second before diving down into the crowd, stinging every person in sight. Marinette once again glanced over the crowd and the second anyone was stung, their eyes immediately hazed over and they began making their way towards Queen Bee. However, her sight was caught by the image of Adrien and Chloe emerging from the boiler room together, hand in hand. Marinette felt her chest constrict again and she huffed angrily.
"Well this is gonna be a fun akuma."
Now that you've finally gotten to read thus chapter, I really want to apologise for not updating for a year and making you all wait so long. Honestly, something kinda big happened in my personal life that made writing really stressful. I would end up getting frantic about not finishing the chapter in time, which then made me not write because of how stressed I got. It was just all round terrible for my mental health.
I'm mostly back now, because writing has become easier but I think I will definitely update less frequently than I did before, just for my own sanity. Once again, I'm really sorry for my disappearance. Next time I feel that way again, I'll make sure to keep you all posted and shit 3
Okay, now DID YOU LIKE THE CHAPTER??? This is only part 1 of the Queen Bee 'episode' because there was a loooott of setup needed. I hope you enjoyed it and the part 2 will be here...eventually!!!
