Seating arrangements

Felix knew he was going to be an outcast the second he joined the class. Because he played them and sent them awful message on behalf of Adrien. And that was fine with him, he rather enjoyed the role. Being on the side lines meant he could pull pranks without being noticed.

Then he noticed a small package of macarons on his night stand. They were obviously from Tom and Sabine bakery and he was certain they were not there when he got to his bed. That mean someone left them there while he was sleeping and he had an idea who.

The first impulse would be to call Chloe and ask her what was she thinking while she sneaked up in his room and left him this gift. But of course, that would mean she did something nice for him and she would be expecting a call and at least forced polite thank you.

But Felix knew better, he was not going to do what she expected from him, he was going to ignore the special guest welcome present or an apology present or whatever this was and just behave that it never arrived or pretend he thought all the guests were treated this way.

He opened the box and found a lovely message inside that was about new beginnings, clean starts, forgiveness, honesty, love and wished him to have a nice day. That was definitely not put together by Chloe, he suspected it just came with the macarons.

He woke up and took his time to get ready. But then he had the most brilliant idea of them all. He called for his new bodyguard and asked if he could pick up something from Adrien's room. He intended to go to school dressed up as his cousin and make the class a fool again.

There was a slight flaw in his plan, he noticed that Adrien did not wear clothes produced by the Gabriel brand neither to school nor to the dinner last night, it might be related to his refusal to ever return to the Agreste mansion, but his classmates might still be fooled.

Felix dressed up as usual and went to have the breakfast with his mother. She presented her plan to visit the Agreste mansion already that afternoon, to acquire custody of all assets of her sister as the only heir over eighteen and learn what was Emilie's legal status, and of course, get the second ring.

The breakfast had to finish and the boy had to get ready for school. He was glad to find Adrien's usual black t-shirt with green stripes, white shirt, jeans and even those despicable orange sneakers. Felix took a moment to collect his bravado and changed, including the sneakers.

His hair arranged the same way his cousin usually wore, the clothes in place and the same practised smile on his face, the boy was ready for his first day in the new school. This was going to be so much fun, he expected few of Adrien's classmates to be fooled and even more angry.

He glanced towards the small box with macarons and the message inside. It was fitting his particular situation with Adrien's classmates a bit too much. He became aware that this was no coincidence, they wanted him to start school without the old grudges.

In the car, on his way to the school, Felix ignored confused look from the bodyguard and checked that Lila girl, that Chloe mentioned, on his phone, yes she was announced as Gabriel's latest muse and did that photo shoot with Adrien who was not thrilled by the idea.

There was an article on the girl on the Ladyblog. Apparently, Lila lied and made an interview where she claimed to be Adrien's secret girlfriend and that Marinette worked with Hawk Moth. Felix found both claims equally ridiculous and unbelievable.

Apparently, Lila was considered an expert liar and there were plenty people who bought into her stories.'Another outcast just like me.' Felix pondered. 'And another master of illusions just like me.' He concluded.

Lila was going to school with her new teaching assistant by her side. Without anything better to do, the girl whined how she was bullied by the class, led by Chloe and Marinette, how the second girl was evil, how she stolen her boyfriend ….

The day before, Rosa insisted on going through all of her school material, the notes, the worksheets and her homework while the rest of the class was having their lunch break and the photo session in the library, because Lila whined she was bullied she had no excuse to try and bust that.

It was irritating, Lila was not able to tell if Rosa was buying any of that. The young woman just kept making notes whenever she had any opportunity and nodded to affirm she heard the information, but all response she got in return was about the homework and classes.

Lila acted hurt while she ascended the stairs, it was an act for her teaching assistant, but few of her classmates were there, which was surprising since she was there relatively late. Well, they were probably in the locker room.

But the locker room was empty of her classmates. There were few other students that greeted her with forced politeness and skirted away. Lila hoped at least that supported her act and proceeded to her locker to leave her things and take what she needed for the next class.

"Hello Lila." A familiar voice greeted her. She turned around. There, leaning on the locker, in his usual school clothes, in a pose worthy of a photo shoot, with that perfect model smile was Adrien Agreste, just as she remembered him from her photo shoot.

Felix allowed himself to smirk, just a little, it was working. This was Lila. Apparently she was chaperoned by some young adult onto the school premises. He discarded his intention to flirt and refer to their former relationship and see what Lila was ready to do in front of her chaperon.

"Hi Adrien." Lila replied slyly and swayed her hips for those few steps she took towards him. She glanced towards Rosa who was busy scrolling through her phone while she waited for her protege to get ready for the class.

"I'm glad to find you here, before the class." Felix impersonated Adrien's gentle smile as well as he was able to. But he knew it was good enough for this girl.

"Why? So you can bully me? So you can threaten me? Did Marinette send you?" Lila shifted her act and pretended to cry, but Felix saw through that quickly. It caught the attention of the teaching assistant and he wondered what was exactly her purpose there.

"No, Lila, I could never do something like that to you." Felix spoke gently and tried to smile reassuringly. He could see this was an act and he knew his cousin too well to believe he ever did anything even remotely like that.

"You did it! You made me work with your father! You made me work with Hawk Moth! And then you made me take the blame!" Lila protested. If Felix did not see how Lila checked if her chaperon was buying the act he might have bought it too. But it was all a show for the observer.

"Lila, please, you wanted to work for him." Felix had to take a moment to swallow because his own father had died and remind himself that they were talking about Gabriel, he continued to impersonate the way Adrien spoke in public. Lila stared at him.

"You have been given a second chance, Lila. Why don't we try and get along as friends?" Felix impersonated Adrien's goofy smile, the one he had on his face when he was talking about his friend, when he was talking about his good friend Marinette, okay, maybe Felix overdid it a little.

"Oh, so you want to be friends now?" Lila crossed her arms. "What is it this time? The last time it was to get Marinette back to school." Then she remembered to check if her learning asistant was still listening.

"Of course, I always wanted to make friends. I thought you wanted that too." Felix knew what his cousin always wanted.

"Well, I do, I wanted friends and I had them until … you let Marinette turn everyone against me." She whined again. Then she fluttered her eyelashes. Because if Adrien was looking at her that way then maybe she just got him for real. She latched onto his arm. He did not push her away.

"That's not true." Felix smiled and reached for her hand to hold. He saw that she was buying the act. She began to think how she had Adrien where she wanted him, with his help she was going to turn everyone else around and make Marinette look like a bully.

Felix wondered how far he was able to go with this act. He did try to kiss Ladybug when he thought she was his cousin's girlfriend. The boy leaned into Lila's space, their faces were mere centimetres apart, he had that secretive smile on his face. Rosa was looking on her phone and her notes.

Lila jumped to the opportunity and latched her lips onto Felix and kissed him. She thought she was kissing Adrien. She pushed herself onto the boy and held onto his hair. Felix did not enjoy what was going on, it was all an act, but he decided to keep it for a few seconds.

They both heard steps and voices coming over. Lila recognized the voices of her classmates, certainly Alya and Rose were walking over and chatted. Felix tried to pull away when he heard steps and voices but Lila grabbed onto his hair and pulled him closer.

"Lila what are you doing?" Alya shouted the second she came around the corner. What she saw was Lila forcefully pulling Adrien, or someone who looked like him, into a kiss and the boy tried to pull away, rather red in the face either from anger or embarrassment, or both.

"That's not Adrien." Juleka muttered. "We just saw him outside."

"No, that must be Felix." Rose piped in and crossed her arms. "Marinette told us he is joining our school and she asked us to be nice to him regardless of what happened before, remember?"

"Lila, that's Felix, Adrien's cousin. I don't know whom were you trying to kiss." Alya spoke and snickered at the girl and glared at the boy at the same time. Lila was so shocked she finally let go of the boy.

"Hi Lila." Felix schooled himself and stood upright. "It is my first day of school here, I'm sorry, I was not prepared for such a warm greeting." He smirked. "People often confuse me for my cousin, I was not aware you liked him so much."

Lila glared at the boy. The anger boiled inside her. She wanted to scratch that self-satisfied smile of hiss face. That was Adrien's cousin, not him! But then she remembered that she had to act as if she was bullied so she covered her face and pretended to cry.

"He did the same prank with us a few weeks ago." Alya replied, her hands on her hips while she glared at Felix.

"He got three of us akumatized!" Rose piped in angrily and stared at the boy.

"He got us fooled too." Juleka muttered.

"You know what, let's not hold this against him." Alya proposed. All three girls looked at each other and silently concluded that Felix was sufficiently punished when Lila forced herself on him.

"Did Marinette put you up to this?" Lila whined and pretended to cry.

"Why would Marinette put me up to this?" Felix was confused. The girl he met was not a scheming one, as opposed to the one who stood just before him, he was not going into the game with a liar leading the way.

"To make a fool out of me, again!" Lila cried out.

Felix could not help himself but have a small internal celebration. He made a fool of one of Adrien's classmates, the rest was probably not going to be fooled because these three were not, and this girl was stupid enough to fall for his prank so much as to kiss him.

"Yeah, that was really and awful prank." Alya noted.

"Did he pretend to hate you?" Juleka muttered, but she smirked, it was a joke, she saw what they were doing.

"No, I was just nice to her." Felix protested. The teaching assistant confirmed.

"He did not insult you and told you he hated you?" Rose piped in.

"I'm really sorry." He smiled apologetically, but he was not sorry at all, it made his whole act worth it. On the other hand Lila's eagerness to kiss him pushed him away from her.

"He apologized for the misunderstanding and we have the class to go to Lila." Rosa uttered her protege out of the locker room.

"Why did you dress up like Adrien again?" Alya faced Felix.

"Is he wearing exactly the same clothes as me?" Felix asked and played dumb.

"Actually no, he is wearing something else, he doesn't want to wear anything from his father." Rose piped in.

"Yeah, so you see, I wanted to fit in so I borrowed some of his clothes. All I have is my school uniform and that might be unfitting here." He was certain his school uniform would be unfitting but he would enjoy wearing it even more.

The three girls decided to take that excuse and prepare for their first class. They were asked by Marinette that morning, just before they entered the locker room, to give Felix a chance, to be nice to him, they did not expect him pulling up a prank like that, but that was Lila who got pranked.

Felix walked around the hallways and decided he needed some time to think. That was the girl that Chloe suggested he should sit with. He checked that list of lies she made. Those lies were stupid, she was not some master of lies, he would never have bought that.

And the girl latched onto him and kissed him and pulled him closer forcibly even when he wanted to pull away. He did not invite her into his personal space. Although he put up with it for his act, he was not in the mood to live with that through the rest his time in that school.

No, he needed to sit somewhere else. It had to irritate Chloe, he had to return the favour, it had to be some place that would drive her nuts. He walked into the classroom at the last moment, just seconds before the bell rang, and as soon as he was there, he knew exactly which seat he wanted.

"Good morning class!" Ms Bustier greeted cheerfully. "We have a new student joining us, his name is Felix Graham de Vanily. Now let's find him a nice place to sit."

Felix took in the classroom. Lila was sitting beside her teaching assistant. That left even less space for him to avoid being touched by the girl, although she might not want to do it any more, he was not ready to take that risk, besides he fooled her already. No, he had a better idea.

"Actually." Felix spoke tentatively to the teacher. "I was wondering if I could ask for a specific seat. I used to sit in a certain spot in my old classroom and I'd like to keep that spot here, at least until I get used to all the other changes."

"Okay, where would you like to sit?" Ms Bustier asked kindly.

"It might be too much to ask." He tentatively walked over to Sabrina. He knew that anyone who sat beside Chloe could be easily persuaded to give up on their seat. "What is your name?" He asked politely.

"Sabrina." The red haired girl asked. Chloe huffed, she knew what was going to happen.

"I protest." Chloe crossed her arms and looked at the teacher. "This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!"

"Now, Chloe, please be nice, this is between Felix and Sabrina." Ms Bustier warned.

"Sabrina, please, would you be so kind as to let me sit in your spot?" Felix was the picture perfect image of politeness.

"Sure." Sabrina smiled awkwardly, picked up her stuff and walked up to sit beside Nathaniel. The two of them smiled to each other and exchanged shy greetings before they settled down and faced forward to the teacher.

Felix expressed his utmost gratitude for the sacrifice that his kind colleague had made to accommodate his needs and expressed hope that his new classmates were so kind to forgive him his former mischief and would accept him in their class.

Ms Bustier started to take attendance and the morning show was finished.