"Hi Maman!" Marinette called out as she walked into the bakery. Her mom waved at her with a smile before turning back to the customer she was currently helping. Marinette waved back at her then headed upstairs to her room.

The school day was finally over. It felt like it had taken forever, especially with Chloe going around acting like she owned the place. Granted, that's the only thing Chloe ever does. Marinette was hoping Chloe would lay off on the bullying this year, but she was so wrong. If anything, it seemed like Chloe had gotten meaner, if that was even possible.

The dark haired girl flopped onto the chaise in her room, exhausted by the long first day of school. She could already tell this was going to be a long year.

Adrien calmly walked back to his room, but once he shut the door, he let out a frustrated noise. With his father always breathing down his neck, he'd never get to do anything! He'd never get to make friends (other than Chloe, of course), he'd never be able to go to school, he'd never be able to get a job other than modelling... He'd never get to live his life.

At least Nathalie was on his side. When Mr. Agreste immediately shut down his request to go to school, Nathalie had told him to reconsider. Adrien's father had huffed at that, but maybe with a bit more pushing he'd eventually get what he wanted.

When that time would come, no one really knows.

He flopped down on the couch and turned on the TV to get his mind off the frustrating conversation with his Father. Nadja Chamack appeared on the screen when Adrien caught a glimpse of something in the corner of his eye.

That box hadn't been there before, had it?

He picked up the strange box, and after a bit of staring bewildered at it, finally opened it.

Marinette had been sketching out random designs in her sketchbook when inspiration took hold of her. With a huge smile on her face, she rushed over to her sewing machine. She was grabbing the materials she needed when she spotted something in the corner of her eye.

That box hadn't been there before, had it?

She picked up the strange box, and after a bit of staring bewildered at it, finally opened it.

Adrien wasn't quite sure what he expected when he opened the box, but he definitely wasn't expecting a plain, old ring.

Usually in the animes he watched, something cool would pop out and make the main character's life amazing!

But no, just a boring grey ring.

He slipped it on nonetheless. Maybe it was a gift from his father to apologize to him not being allowed to go to school.

As the ring slipped on his finger, a bright green flash appeared. Adrien shielded his eyes, and when he removed his arm from blocking his vision, he saw a small black creature.

"Woah, neat! Are you like one of the genies from those movies?" Adrien asked it.

"I'm no genie; I'm much better than those scammers," it remarked. "I'm a kwami. The name's Plagg, you got any cheese?"

The creature- Plagg- started flying all over the room and testing if the furniture was edible. Adrien, after pausing a moment in amazement, yelled at the kwami, "That's not food! Come back here!"

The boy chased Plagg all over his room for a few minutes until he finally caught the kwami in his hands.

"Who- What are you?" Adrien questioned.

"I'm a kwami," it repeated. "Didn't I say that already?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't know what a kwami is exactly."

Plagg sighed. "I'm a magical being that can grant powers. Yours is the power of destruction. Now, do you have any cheese?"

Adrien's eyes widened. "Powers? Like, I can be a superhero?"

"Yes, kid, I thought I said this already. For the last time, do you have cheese or no?" Adrien, still a little puzzled by the being, walked out of the room to go to the kitchen for some cheese.

It was just a simple pair of earrings.

Marinette wasn't sure what she was expecting exactly, but she knows she wasn't expecting plain earrings. She wondered briefly if he maman had left one of her own earrings on the desk by accident, but soon remembered that her mother didn't have her ears pierced.

Well, whose could they be?

She thought back to the other day when her and a few friends had a sleepover at her house to have one last party before school started up again. The earrings probably belonged to one of her friends then.

The question was, who?

Marinette doubted it was Rose. The earrings were more of a reddish color than pink, and the blonde didn't normally wear earrings anyways. Alix was out of the question; Marinette was sure she had never seen the girl in jewelry before. That left Mylene and Juleka. Mylene probably wasn't the owner of the pair of earrings; any jewelry she wore was much more exciting than the plain studs.

That left Juleka, then.

She put the box in her bookbag so she wouldn't forget to give it to her the next day.

Plagg stared at the fine cheese sitting before him. "Nope."

Adrien thought this whole situation was really, really cool at first. Now, though, he was starting to get frustrated with the picky kwami.

"What do you mean?" He huffed. "This is really expensive cheese, what more could you want?"

"Excuse you, there is no cheese that is finer than Camembert, my one and only true love!" Plagg exclaimed.

Adrien rummaged around in the bag of cheeses he had brought from the kitchen and pulled out a wheel of Camembert. He immediately started gagging once he smelled it. "You like this smelly, old cheese?"

Plagg squealed in delight at the sight of the cheese. "YES!"

The kwami started moving to grab the wheel, when Adrien jerked it away. "Not until you explain some more. I want to know why you're here and what's all going on."

Plagg glanced between the boy and the cheese, then sighed. "Fine. Like I said before, I'm a kwami that grants you the power of destruction..."

The next morning, Marinette had slept past her alarm.

So basically, it was the start of a normal day.

After accepting a croissant and a hug goodbye from her maman and papa, she sprinted out the door so she wouldn't be late for class.

She found her new friend, Alya, in the hallway and called out a greeting to her.

"Hey girl!" The redhead called back. "You're a little late, don't you think?"

"Says the girl who isn't in class yet either," Marinette joked.

"Oh, ha ha, I'll have you know I was waiting on you," Alya rolled her eyes but laughed.

Marinette smiled at the gesture. "I'm not a morning person, if you can't tell. People who get here earlier than needed are crazy."

The two friends laughed and talked the rest of the way to the classroom. Alya held the door open for Marinette, and when the bluenette walked in, she gasped.

There was a boy putting gum on her seat!

"Hey!" She exclaimed. "What do you think you're doing?"

The blond stared at her in surprise. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but kept closing and opening it.

Marinette heard snickering to the side of her. She turned her head and saw none other than Chloe and Sabrina laughing at her. Marinette frowned as she understood.

"Oh, you're friends with Chloe, huh? I get it, very funny you three." She huffed. She tried and failed to take the gum off, settling for just putting a tissue over it.

Alya took a seat beside her, saying, "Wow! Don't you recognize him?" When Marinette shot her a puzzled look, the redhead continued, "That's Adrien Agreste, son of the famous fashion designer Gabriel Agreste!"

"That's my favorite designer!" Marinette exclaimed, her eyes going wide.

"Rich, model, daddy's boy, and friends with Chloe? Yikes."

Marinette turned to glance at the boy they were talking about. He was staring at her with a bit of a worried look on his face. The bluenette frowned and turned her head the other direction. She ignored the way he slumped in the corner of her eye.

Now she had to deal with not only one spoiled, rich kid, but two?

Adrien wasn't having a good first day of school. He was glad his father was finally letting him go, don't get him wrong, but he didn't expect his first day of school to go like this.

First, everyone started whispering when he came in the doors. There was some people who weren't as subtle as other and shouted, "It's Adrien Agreste!" Then asked for an autograph.

He was never going to escape the "perks" of being famous, was he?

Then Chloe had to run up to him and loudly exclaim how her best friend was finally able to go to school and how no one was allowed to talk to him without her permission.

That kinda stopped the process of making friends for the most part. He was still determined, though, and went to his next class.

This was when it got even worse.

Chloe decided to put gum on someone's seat, claiming, "Dupain-Cheng deserves it." He didn't know who this "Dupain-Cheng" was, though, and since he didn't want to start off on the wrong foot with anybody, he started to pick the gum off the seat.

Next thing he knew, a girl, whose name he learned was Marinette, walked up to him.

He somehow forgot how to speak as he tried to explain, but she simply huffed and moved past him.

So much for making a good first impression with his classmates.

Adrien went to the seat across the aisle and sat down, hanging his head.

"Dude," the boy beside him started, "you're friends with Chloe?"

"She's my only friend," he whispered back. "I don't really have anyone else."

The boy frowned then stuck out his hand. "I'm Nino, dude, and I think it's time you make some new friends."

A huge smile spread across Adrien's face. "Adrien," he introduced himself."

"But seriously, dude, if you do want to make new friends here, you probably want to get on Mari's good side," he pointed at the bluenette.

Adrien looked over at her, wondering how he could fix the mistake, when she glanced toward him. She quickly frowned and looked away. He slumped in his seat.

How was he going to fix this?

Marinette found Juleka after school. She surprised herself by actually remembering to give the other girl her earrings back.

"Hey, Juleka!" Marinette called out to the girl. Juleka looked at her, waved goodbye to Rose, who she was talking to, and walked over.

"Hey, Mari, what's up?" Juleka mumbled.

"You left these at my house the other night," Marinette pulled the earrings out of her bag. "I found them on my desk."

The shy girl frowned at the earrings. "Um, I- I've never-"

She was cut off when Marinette placed the box in her hands. "See you tomorrow!" With that final note, the bluenette walked away.

Juleka stared at the box in her hands with a slight frown.

Adrien was walking towards the door to leave when he saw Marinette standing outside with a frown on her face.

He pulled out his umbrella then walked out the door. "Hey," he said, but she only looked away.

He sighed. Just tell her you were trying to take the gum off the chair.

"Look," he started. "I just wanted to let you know that I was only trying to take the gum off the chair. I'm kinda... new to all this. Going to school, making new friends." She looked towards him with a half-pitying, half-curious look. He took that as a sign to keep going. "I've been homeschooled my whole life. I've never really had friends before, except for Chloe, but you know how she can get."

He held out his umbrella to her. "Could we maybe... start over? I didn't mean to start off on the wrong foot, truly. I'd like to be your friend, if you want." She looked from him to his extended arm holding the umbrella as a small smile graced her face.

He decided he really liked seeing her smile.

"I'm Adrien," he introduced himself.

She took the umbrella from him as thunder struck, making the both of them jump.. "Marinette," she chuckled.

His driver honked at him. "It was nice meeting you," he told her, then ran out in the rain to get in the car. As they were driving away, he waved goodbye to her, and smiled when she waved back.

Maybe it was a good start to the school year after all.

"Wh- Who are you?"

"I'm Tikki, a kwami. Though, I have to admit, I'm a little confused. I thought I'd have a different holder..." The being trailed off. "I guess we'll have to work with what's been given to us, right?"

Juleka was still very confused, but nodded.

"Now, before I start explaining, would you happen to have any cookies here?"