Violets & Bluebells

A Julenette Fan Fiction

Cover Image by StarrdustCrusader

Chapter 2

AN: Thanks everyone for all the favs, follows and views! Also, thanks for your comment Mono 606 litezt! I really appreciate it everyone! On with the next chapter!

Juleka slid off her bicycle seat and maneuvered the front wheel into the bike corral outside the school. She ran the chain around the corral and through her front tire, securing the lock with a click and spinning the combination to a random number. She took a deep breath and headed around the side of the building to the front of her school.

As she rounded the corner, Juleka gripped the strap of the pink messenger bag that was draped over her shoulder. She tried to ignore the uneasy feeling in her stomach and kept trying to remind herself that her nightmare was just a bad dream and nothing more. Something that bad couldn't really happen in real life, could it?

She immediately felt a sense of elation when she saw Rose waiting for her like she usually was on the front steps of the school. She quickened her place, eager to get over to her side so she wasn't alone. Chloé usually seemed to leave her alone when she was with Rose or in a group so she always tried to make sure that she wasn't by herself wherever possible.

"Hi, Juleka! Good morning!" Rose greeted her cheerfully when she saw her approaching.

"Morning, Rose," Juleka replied with a soft smile.

"Mmmmmm!" Rose hummed as she wrapped her best friend up in a quick hug.

Juleka couldn't help but smile a bit wider as she returned the embrace. She immediately felt a little better and thought that maybe today wouldn't be so bad. Rose's happiness was very contagious and was one of many reasons that she liked being friends with her. She felt like Rose helped balance out her emotions when she wasn't feeling particularly cheerful or positive. Rose let her go a moment later and gave her a big smile as they headed up the steps together.

"So how are you doing today, Jules?" Rose asked her.

"Oh… uh, okay, I guess." Juleka mumbled softly.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked her quizzically. "You look like something is on your mind."

Rose seemed to be studying her face and Juleka swallowed, hoping her bangs were hiding enough of her reactions. Rose knew her all too well and she wasn't good at keeping things from her.

Juleka stopped when they reached the top step and turned looking into Rose's big, innocent eyes. She opened her mouth, thinking that she might just blurt out what was bothering her, but nothing came out. She looked at the sweet, yet concerned smile on her face and felt a twinge of guilt concealing the nightmares and fears from her that she was having. Rose was always so cheerful and optimistic but she felt like she was a toxic leech that was siphoning all the happiness out of her just to stay afloat. She couldn't bear to burden her with something else for fear that she would drag her down to her depths.

"I-I'm fine. Really," she lied, averting Rose's gaze for a moment. "I just didn't sleep well, that's all." It was true, after all, though not completely.

"Okay…"Rose trailed off, not sure if she believed her or not. They continued walking again and Rose gave a small frown as she glanced at Juleka out of the corner of her eye. She didn't want to pressure her if she wasn't up to talking about whatever was on her mind so she decided to drop it for now.

"So what do you want to do this weekend?" Juleka quickly asked her, eager to change the subject.

"Oh, actually…" Rose trailed off and they stopped under the arch leading into the courtyard.

"What is it?" Juleka questioned, not liking the sound of where this was going.

"Well actually, I'm not free to get together with you this weekend," Rose stated with a small frown.

"Why not?" Juleka asked quietly, trying to hide her disappointment.

"Well, my parents sprung a surprise family weekend on me this morning. They wouldn't tell me what, but they want to do a bunch of family activities together this weekend," Rose told her.

"Oh…" was all Juleka could manage to say as she felt her mood quickly shifting.

"I'm sorry, Jules. I asked them if you could join us but they said they wanted it to be just our family." Rose put her hand on Juleka's arm reassuringly.

Juleka clenched her jaw and put on a brave face so Rose wouldn't see how sad she was feeling. "It's alright, Rose. You should spend time with your family. I'll be okay." She managed to force out a small smile.

"Thanks, Jules! I really appreciate you understanding." Rose gave her arm a small squeeze and then linked elbows with her as they continued heading inside.

Juleka was glad that Rose hadn't noticed how much this was bothering her and she let her smile fade once Rose was no longer looking at her. She was so distracted by the situation that she had forgotten all about Chloé until she saw her nearby talking with Sabrina. Luckily, her back was to her and Juleka took the opportunity to put some distance between them before she was noticed. She subtly steered Rose with her down the steps, into the courtyard and towards the stairs leading up to the second floor. She wanted to get into the classroom as quickly as possible so she could avoid any potential confrontations.

"Oh, don't you want to say hi to Alya, Alix and Mylène?" Rose asked her when they reached the stairs.

Juleka paused for a moment and glanced over at the group of girls nearby chatting among themselves. She didn't see Marinette with them or anywhere else for that matter. She saw Chloé again though and she seemed like she might be about to turn around any second now.

"Class is about to start so we should probably go sit down before we are late." Juleka gently pulled Rose along with her up the stairs before she had a chance to object.

"O-okay," Rose stammered, startled a bit by her actions. She glanced around unsure of what made her do that since they normally would talk to their friends before class.

"Good morning, girls!" Miss Bustier greeted them cheerfully as they entered the classroom.

"Good morning, Miss Bustier!" Rose replied enthusiastically.

Juleka had replied as well in a low murmur but Rose was so loud that she doubted that her teacher had even heard her. She shepherded Rose up the steps to their seats in the back. She sighed in relief as soon as they sat down since she always felt safer in her seat in the back corner of the room where she was less noticed.

She played with her bangs a little, adjusting them to hide a bit more of her face. She loved her seat and long violet bangs; together, they provided a barrier that shielded her from the rest of the class. All she had to do was turn her head a little bit to the right and her face was completely invisible from everyone in the classroom. She preferred it this way and she hoped that today it would be especially effective at hiding herself from Chloé. She just wanted to get away from her and enjoy a weekend in peace without having to worry about being bullied by her.

The bell rang and moments later students started filing one-by-one into the classroom. As soon as Chloé entered the room, she quickly turned away, pretending to be busy looking outside. She managed to sneak a peek through her bangs and saw Chloé glaring in her direction before she sat down. She swallowed nervously, already feeling a sense of dread wash over her thinking about the upcoming day and all the possible ways Chloé could make her life more miserable.

The students were all seated at this point and were busy chatting with whoever they were seated next to. Juleka slowly faced forward again and glanced over but didn't see Marinette yet. She was probably running late like always. It was funny and a bit odd as well that Marinette lived closer to school than anyone and was late more than anyone else. Maybe she just had a problem oversleeping, but if not, she wondered what she could possibly be up to all the time that made her late so much.

"Okay, students. Please settle down so I can take roll call," Miss Bustier announced. She picked up her list of student's names and everyone's chatting quickly died down as she began taking roll call. As always, she called the students names alphabetically, based off of their last name.

"Adrien?"

"Here," he replied with a smile.

"Chloé?"

"I'm right here," she answered snootily as she busily checked her nails.

"Ivan?"

"Here," came a gruff reply.

"Alya?"

"Here, Miss," she replied politely.

The door to the classroom suddenly burst open and Marinette ran in. "Hereeee-yaaah!" she screeched as she immediately tripped over her own feet and fell flat on her face. "I'm here!" she squeaked from the floor, raising her hand like a white flag in surrender.

Chloé immediately started laughing mockingly at her. "You're hopeless, Dupain-Cheng! Utterly hopeless!"

Juleka felt her cheeks flush in anger and she wanted to get up and slap Chloé right across her stuck-up face for being so mean to Marinette like that. She didn't, but she really wanted to and put Chloé in her place like she deserved.

"Don't be so mean, Chloé," Adrien chastised her as he quickly got up and offered a hand to help Marinette up. "Are you okay? he asked with concern.

"Oh, you're fine! No, I mean I'm fine!" she babbled and blushed furiously as she took his hand and he helped her to her feet.

Juleka looked on, feeling a bit envious and wishing for a moment that she was sitting up front near Marinette so she could have helped her up to her feet instead of Adrien. She smiled over her silly antics but then her smile quickly faded when she saw the way she was looking and blushing at Adrien.

"Alright, please, both of you take your seats." Miss Bustier sighed, shaking her head. "And Marinette, if you're going to continue to come in late, please don't be so disruptive. I feel like we've talked about this plenty of times enough already."

"I'm sorry, I'll try to remember!" Marinette bowed her head in embarrassment and gave one of her sheepish grins.

Just seeing it had Juleka smiling again to herself. She was happy that Marinette was finally here so she could watch her secretly during class like she usually did. She felt like Marinette was pure sunshine and she wanted nothing more than to bask in her glow and feel alive again like she did on picture day back then.

"Alright, let's continue." Miss Bustier didn't notice that her hand had a slipped a little from being startled by Marinette's flamboyant entrance and her thumb was now covering the next student's name on the list that she was about to call. "Now where was I...?" She glanced down at her list and saw that Marinette was the next name on the list under her thumb. "We all know you're here, Marinette," she said with a feigned smile, "So, next up is...Mylène?"

"Here," she squeaked.

Miss Bustier continued calling out students names and Juleka quickly realized that she had skipped right over her. Wasn't her name on the list? She felt her stomach quickly become uneasy at the thought of having to raise her hand to tell Miss Bustier that she had missed her. Or worse yet, what if she reached the end of the list and realized that she had missed Juleka and drew attention to her when she discovered her mistake? Maybe she just miss-typed it and it's out of order? Juleka spent so much time over-thinking the situation that Miss Bustier had already finished roll call and she had missed her chance.

"Is that everyone?" she asked as she glanced up and looked at all of her students. She noticed Juleka and looked back down at her roll call sheet and realized she had inadvertently covered her name with her thumb accidentally. "Oh, I'm sorry, Juleka! I didn't mean to skip over you." She apologized with a small bow of her head.

Juleka grimaced as most of the class glanced back at her. She really wished that she was invisible, even more than she already was. She also knew what was about to happen as a situation like this was a prime opportunity for a certain class bully.

Sure enough, Chloé didn't waste a second and started laughing cruelly at her. "You really are invisible, Juleka! Why don't you get back to holding up the wallpaper since you blend right in with it!"

"Nice one, Chloé!" Sabrina giggled next to her in response.

The words struck her deeply as they seemed far too similar to the nightmare she had woken up from this morning. She felt her heartbeat and breathing spike as her emotions started to swell within her. She felt like she was going to be a homing beacon for an akuma if she didn't her emotions quickly under control.

Rose was about to say something but Marinette beat her to it as she quickly jumped up and stepped up next to where Chloé was seated. "Take that back, Chloé!" she yelled at her angrily. "I'm sick of you treating my friends badly!"

Juleka felt a jolt go through her like she was being shocked back to life with a defibrillator when she heard Marinette stand up for her. She immediately felt her negative emotions dissipate as she looked on in admiration at the beautiful girl selflessly standing up for once again.

Chloé didn't waste a second, quickly rising to her feet and getting into Marinette's face. "Pipe down, 'Dumpan-Chang'!" She snapped back at her, purposely miss-pronouncing her last name in her usual insulting manner. "No one asked for your input! I'll say what I want, when I want, to whoever I want, got it?" She glared back at her, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance. There was practically electricity sizzling between their heated glares and the tension was nearly thick enough to cut with a knife.

"Girls! Both of you settle down this instant!" Miss Bustier scolded them as she intervened and stretched her arms between them, pulling them apart before a fight broke out. "Both of you, take your seats now! This is not how young ladies are supposed to act! There had better not be any more outbursts from either of you for the rest of the day!" She told them firmly.

After the girls both begrudgingly sat down, Miss Bustier returned to where she was standing and smoothed out the wrinkles on her jacket. "Now settle down everyone and let's start today's lessons."

Marinette glanced over her shoulder up at Juleka and gave her a warm smile. Juleka felt her heart flutter when she saw it and everything around her seemed to melt away slowly as she got lost for a moment in Marinette's bluebell eyes. She returned the smile and managed to mouth her a small "thank you" before she felt her cheeks flush from having what felt like an intimate moment sharing her gaze. Marinette gave her a cute smile before turning back around.

"Are you okay, Jules?" Rose whispered, putting her hand comfortingly on her arm. Juleka almost jumped as she was snapped out of the haze that she was in.

"Yes, thank you," She nodded with an almost inaudible reply. Rose gave her an affectionate squeeze and pulled out her one of her books as Miss Bustier started the day's first lesson.

Juleka let her gaze drift back to Marinette and she stared at her affectionately, so grateful for how much she cared about her and always made her feel like she truly wasn't invisible. She wanted to go up to her and give her a warm hug and tell her how thankful she was for all the times she had stood up for her and given her a voice.

She was so busy daydreaming about Marinette that she shook visibly and her eyes widened in fear when she discovered that Chloé was looking back at her. She narrowed her eyes in a fierce glare at Juleka and slowly slid her finger across her throat, sending her a clear signal of her thoughts. She turned back around with a flip of her ponytail and Juleka gulped nervously. She was now on Chloé's radar in the worst way possible and dreaded what the day might hold in store for her.

The events of her nightmare came crashing back into her mind as the day seemed to be heading quickly in a similar direction. She trembled and felt her lips quiver at the thought of being re-akumatized again. She had forgotten completely about what she had heard on the news the other day about Hawk Moth. Apparently, he was now going by the name Shadow Moth and was more powerful than ever before. He was able to further enhance and control the individuals that he akumatized and now had the ability to further corrupt them through something called amokization. With this new ability of his, he could also grant the individual a dangerous entity that they could control called a sentimonster.

Every time she was akumatized, she felt as if a piece of her soul was lost and that she might disappear completely as the darkness swallowed her up until there was nothing left at all. If she were to be amokitized as well, it felt like there would be no abyss deep enough to contain the despair that would consume her. It was almost too much to bear at the thought of having to endure even more than before and she didn't even feel the tears that were streaming down her face.

It was then that she realized that Marinette had been looking back and watching her with concern the whole time after noticing that Chloé was looking back at her. She had seen Juleka's face awash with so many different emotions but the pain and anguish were as plain as day and she felt a surge of compassion and sympathy for her friend and desperately wanted to help her any way she could.

Juleka's eyes widened with shock when she saw those pretty bluebell eyes looking back at her with concern. She quickly looked outside, trying to hide her face with her bangs and wiped her tears away as nonchalantly as she could. It was too late though. Her defenses had been lowered for a moment and Marinette had seen past all the walls she kept up to hide her emotions and shield herself from the world. It was only for a split-second when she locked eyes with her, but during that moment, Juleka had never felt more exposed and vulnerable in her entire life. She didn't know what it meant or even how she felt about it. All she knew is that Marinette had seen past the veil. Marinette had seen the pain and sadness within her.

Meanwhile, inside a dome-shaped chamber in the Agreste mansion...

Shadow Moth slowly stepped into the middle of a swarm of pure white butterflies that rested all around him on the floor. A metal shield slowly opened up on the wall in front of him revealing a circular glass window with grids in the shape of a butterfly. The swarm of butterflies erupted in a flurry as they fluttered aimlessly about the chamber. He planted his cane firmly on the ground in front of him and closed his eyes as he focused his empathic abilities on the strong mix of emotions that he had been feeling off and on all morning. He smiled evilly as he pinpointed the exact location, which was once again the Françoise Dupont High School where he had found so many of his victims before.

"Yeees!" He said aloud in a malicious tone. "Such a wonderful mixture of negative emotions...and their all coming from the same classroom. This school has such an endless supply of victims for my akumas. Hmmm...let's see who we have here first."

He focused his powers in and located the first individual that he detected strong emotions from. "Well, it looks like Marinette Dupain-Cheng is feeling particularly angry today at someone in her class...and I also sense some other strong emotions from her as well...she's concerned about someone else in her class...and worried that her friend might get akumatized!"

"She has a great right to be worried!" Shadow Moth rolled his head back as his wicked laugh echoed through the chamber. "But...I know this girl. I tried to akumatize her before without any success. I came close once...but her emotions were incredibly fleeting during other attempts. She's an unreliable choice, at best. Let's see who else we have here."

Shadow Moth resumed his empathic search and it didn't take him long. "Well now! What have we here? Yeees!" A twisted grin spread across his face in delight as he discovered the one that he had been looking for. "Juleka Couffaine...she is the one I've been sensing all morning... she's the one that Marinette is concerned about being akumatized. She has greater reason to be worried than she realizes! What deliciously strong negative emotions she has! I sense a bottomless pit of despair coming from within her! Yeees! She's the one!"

Shadow Moth tucked his cane under his arm as he stretched out his hands, preparing to use his dark energy to create an akuma and amok. He stopped suddenly when he sensed something else.

"Wait, there's more...someone else in her class with strong emotions as well." He paused for a moment and focused in until he found who he was looking for. "Ah, yes. I should have known. Chloé Bourgeois. This girl always seems to delight in causing pain and suffering in all those around her. She's been a catalyst many times in creating such a wide variety victims for my akumas. Hmmm, what are you so angry about today, Chloé?"

He focused in on her emotions and was pleasantly surprised with what he found. "Well now, this is interesting! She is holding some deep seated resentment towards another girl in her class. It's...," he paused, focusing in even harder, "Oh, it's just Marinette. This is nothing new. I've been sensing animosity between these two for years now. I know I sensed something more than that though...what is it?" He pushed further until he found what had been searching for. "Yeees! This is it! I don't know how I missed this before! She's filled with malicious intent towards another student in her class...who is it?"

Shadow Moth audibly gasped when he discovered who it was. "It's Juleka...and it feels like she's planning something against her...something with a dark purpose! Yeees!" he clenched his fist, assured that this time would lead to his victory against Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"If she pushes her emotions even further than they already are, there's no telling what I'll be able to create out of her misery and suffering! Be patient, my akumas! Chloé Bourgeois will be the instrument of Juleka's destruction and I will akumatize and amokitize her into something the likes of Paris has never seen before!"