Chapter 14

~Adrien's POV~

"Okay, everyone." Alya said, smiling. "We are now officially eighteen minutes into the film. Not that bad since we still have a few weeks to finish. Now, let's have a lunch break. I recommend reading over the scripts and learning lines. Meanwhile, I'm going to write more scripts."

Everyone got a script and started to read through them. After a few minutes, Marinette spoke up excitedly. "I have a sister in the film?" She asked. "Who's going to play her?"

"Wait, is that the next scene?" Alya asked, looking over her friend's shoulder. "Shoot! I didn't realize we were at that part yet! I was going to find someone to volunteer. You know, someone who kind of looks like you."

"Actually..." Marinette smiled a bit. "I have an idea of who can play her."

"Really?" Alya smiled. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Kagami." Marinette said. "She was one of the pet handlers that volunteered to help us out."

"Sweet!" Alya said happily. "Instead of writing, I'll go to the animal shelter and see if she's willing to come! Now we just need some guy to play Marilee's brother-in-law."

"Maybe Luka can come and help us out." Juleka suggested so quietly that she was barely heard.

"Who's Luka?" I asked curiously.

"He's my older brother." she said. "If it's okay with you, Alya, I'll give him a call."

"That would be amazing!" Alya said happily. "I better go now so that Kagami an learn her lines quickly as long as she accepts."

While Alya was away, Luka had come to the park where we all had gathered after filming the last scene. Alya had left extra copies of the scripts with Juleka, and Juleka gave Luka a copy when he arrived.

"Adrien!" I turned to see Chloe coming over to me, smiling. "Our scene is next. Let's run through our lines."

"Actually, Chloe," I said, looking at the scripts in my hand. "Marinette has a scene next with Kagami, if she plays Marilee's sister. Our first scene together is after."

"Who cares about Marinette's scenes." Chloe sneered. "She's a terrible actress anyway."

"Well, no." I said, defending Marinette. "She does a great job playing Marilee. It almost seems to come natural to her."

Chloe rolled her eyes and sighed. "I still can't believe Alya and Nino are forcing you to kiss her. It's totally unfair to you."

"Chloe," I said. "I'm not being forced to kiss Marinette. I don't mind kissing her. It is a romance between our characters, so I would honestly have been surprised if there wasn't a kiss."

"So you want to kiss Marinette?" Chloe asked, clearly disgusted.

I shrugged. It wasn't that I hated the idea, or loved the idea. It was just for the film. "I don't mind kissing Marinette." I repeated.

Chloe sighed heavily in annoyance. "Alright, fine." She said as if it were anything but fine. "But our characters are in a relationship first! We should have a kiss."

"What?" I asked. Now, the thought of kissing Chloe disgusted me way more than the idea of kissing Marinette ever could.

"I want Alya to write in a kiss between Zachary and Blair." Chloe crossed her arms.

"But, Alya's got enough to do with writing more scenes, and making sure Luka and maybe Kagami are ready to film in the next coming scenes."

"So, you're saying Alya is incapable of writing in one little kiss?" Chloe asked, looking at me in disbelief.

"No, I'm not saying-" I tried to protest.

"You know what?!" Chloe interrupted in an angry tone. "If those directors are trying to keep us apart by not letting us kiss in our scene, I'm going to tell Daddy to stop the film from happening!"

"No!" Panic shot through me. Even though this was a school project, it could lead to further opportunities for Nino and Alya. Would Chloe really ruin their chances over a kiss? Of course she would. But what could I do about it to keep Chloe happy?

Chloe looked at me questioningly at my interruption. "I mean..." I started. "Why don't we just put in the kiss where we want it? Let's go through our lines really good so we don't mess up, and Alya will have to use the take with our kiss for the film. That way we won't worry her about rewriting the script, and our characters get that kiss."

Chloe instantly brightened at my words. "You really think we could do this?" She asked. "Let's get to learning our lines right away. We need to find the perfect spot to share a kiss."

I internally cringed at what I had just promised her. I didn't want to kiss Chloe! She was honestly like a sister to me. I have never seen her as anything more than a friend.

After about half an hour passed, Chloe and I had gotten close to memorizing our lines. Alya had come back with Kagami about twenty minutes ago. The bluenette was excited to work with us. Nino had taken her to the TVi Studio to prepare a clip needed for scene twelve.

"Hey... Adrien?" I paused mid-reading from one of the lines I had with Chloe to look at Marinette.

"What's up?" I asked, smiling at her.

"I was, umm, I was wondering if you, uhh, wanted to go over some of our lines in our, err, upcoming scene?" She asked.

Just when I was about to respond, Chloe cut in. "Excuse you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but you just rudely interrupted Adrien! We were already going over our lines, so if you could just leave-"

"Actually, Chloe, I think I'll go with Marinette." I interrupted, smiling at Marinette. "I know our lines pretty well, so I'd like to practice my lines with her."

As I walked away with Marinette to find a place to practice with her, I could hear Chloe muttering angrily. I smiled a bit more. I didn't mind making her upset if it meant spending time with Marinette.

About fifteen minutes later, Marinette and I strayed from rehearsing our lines. "Wait..." Marinette laughed. "So, you're telling me that you like to pun?"

"Well, yeah." I laughed. "I mean... I think I'm purr-ty good at it, don't you?"

"But why?" She kept laughing. "And why the cat puns?"

"Alya has named this film The Nine Lives of Christmas." I said. "Plus, we have cats."

"Our characters have cats." Marinette clarified.

"Exactly!" I said. "Thus, the cat puns!"

"You're impossible." Marinette laughed some more.

"Do you mean, im-paw-sible?" I asked, making her laugh more. I laughed with her and looked away from her and caught Chloe's eye. She had been looking at us with a glare, though I think she was glaring at Marinette more than me.

"Listen, Marinette." I said, bringing on a more serious tone. "Chloe threatened to have the Mayor shut down our film."

"What?" Marinette asked, her voice losing amusement as she looked at me worryingly. "Why?"

"She wants there to be a kiss between Zachary and Blair." I said. "And I've told her that we'd do it."

"You what?" Marinette asked in shock. "Why would you want to let her kiss you?!"

"That's the thing." I said, looking down. "I don't want to kiss her. I just agreed to it so that Alya and Nino get to keep the opportunity to prove how great they are at producing films."

"You're too nice for your own good." Marinette mumbled, looking down as well. I lifted my gaze to look at her and I could tell she had something else on her mind.

"What's up?" I asked curiously.

"It's just..." She trailed off, her face turning a light shade of red. Was she mad at me for agreeing to kiss Chloe? "It's just... You say that you don't want to kiss Chloe, but you have to in order to make sure the film goes well."

"Yeah?" I agreed, questioning her point to this.

"Do you feel the same way about our kissing scene?" She asked, looking up and meeting my eyes, her face a deeper red. "Because I really don't want you to feel forced into it. I can make Alya take it out. We don't have to kiss if you don't-"

"I do want to." I interrupted her rambling, then blushed deeply at what I said. "W-what I meant was I'm fine with it. I don't mind kissing you. I'd prefer it over kissing Chloe, anyway."

She looked at me with wide eyes, and she eventually looked down with a small smile. "You don't mean that... But thanks."

"But I do mean it." I said. "Don't worry about making me uncomfortable in having to kiss you. If you don't want to, we can have Alya rewrite-"

"No, I'm not complaining about it either." She said. We were put into an awkward silence for a few seconds before she said, "I think I'm going to go and find Alya. Warn her about Chloe."

"Alright, see you later." I said. She gave me one last smile before turning and walking away. I let out a long breath I didn't know I was holding in. I remembered how I had a feeling that my relationship with Marinette would change while creating this film. After our recent conversation, I believe that change has already started.