Invited
The class was restless with tiny whispers of gossip and glances towards the blonde couple in the first row, but the two ignored them completely, they were above those pathetic little creatures or ridiculous utterly ridiculous peasants (depending whom you asked).
Adrien smirked to himself, he felt rather self satisfied and smug, if Chloe had a crush on Felix, and if the blush in his cousin's face was what he thought it was, then they were going to be a couple really soon and it was terrifying just how much they had in common.
He was happy for his childhood friend as much as he was happy for his cousin who might become slightly less of a heartless prankster now that he actually had feelings for someone while he knew that Chloe was able to be nice when she wanted, the proof was that teaching assistant in the back.
Marinette felt mortified for both Felix and Chloe, having their feelings exposed like that in front of the whole class was awful, especially since obviously none of them were aware of those feelings just yet. It was probably too early to tell.
But then her thoughts went back to Kagami and whatever happened yesterday after fencing and the ice cream. She knew Kagami might have seen that as more than just a friendly outing, or perhaps she did not, she had Adrien to train her on what friends did and did not do.
Lila's little scheme did not quite bring the outcome the little liar expected from it, at least not yet. She believed their mutual annoyance was genuine, nobody acted to be irritated by the very presence of a person they liked, yes they could get awkward, confused and stutter, but Felix was none of that.
She expected the boy to dismiss the heiress and look for another seat mate and the only free seat was just in front of her, next to Ivan and she would have clear access to the boy and draw his attention whenever she wanted and interfere in any of his interactions with the rest of the class.
The bell inevitably rang and they were given a task to find a love poem (it could be even words to a popular song if they liked) and analyse it the way they just did with the one Felix read to the class.
Felix frowned, that was a task given to teenagers to do over a weekend?
"I have an idea!" Rose exclaimed. "Why don't we all meet on Trocadero this Saturday afternoon and find different songs and poems to analyse, we could help each other, I already have so many ideas … "
"That would be cool." Juleka muttered. "But it will be too crowded and very noisy there, perhaps my boat?"
"The whole class?" Marinette looked at Juleka who just smiled shyly behind her bangs and nodded, it was not like her mother was the one that would complain about such plans.
"We plan to have another Kitty Section session later in the evening if anyone wishes to stay for that." Mylenne added.
"Cool." Alix snickered, although she preferred the first location for her rollers, she knew that it was not fun when it was too crowded so she accepted the change.
The class president looked at Juleka and then at Felix and Chloe, then back at Juleka. The shy girl who was hiding behind her hair slumped her shoulders first, but then straightened up and nodded, Rose followed suit as she understood what was going on.
"Chloe, Felix, you are welcome too." Marinette spoke while she looked at the two teens in the first row who were yet to resume their usual banter. She stood there with confidence and authority of a class president with her blinding smile.
Felix looked at Marinette and then at Alya right next to her. The young journalist reluctantly nodded to confirm the invitation when Marinette nudged her. Then he switched his eyes towards Juleka and Rose who held each other, smiled reassuringly towards the boy and nodded.
This was something he did not expect, he got the three of them akumatized and they invited him over to an impromptu literature session. He was ready to decline as he was in no mood to discuss love poetry with such group, but the last move made him rethink his plans on the spot.
Nobody bothered to ask Chloe, she never confirmed, she just appeared, or not, and nobody was the wiser on how she decided on that. But the blonde heiress observed what was going to be Felix's decision with an interest she seldom showed for any of her classmates.
Most of the classmates were collecting their things to their bags or chatted excitedly about the upcoming event they just planned for the weekend or already started searching for their favourite love song to see if the words were of any use for a literature homework.
"Felix couldn't possibly spare the Saturday afternoon, we have to go over my contract with the new management of the designer brand and I think Amelie had an idea to replace the current male model with a very similar one." Lila spoke as soon as her learning assistant went out to make a phone call.
Adrien and Felix never looked so much alike as in that moment when both of them glared at the girl in the back row. Marinette clenched her fists and turned around so quickly she might have hurt herself, but Adrien caught her and prevented her from lashing her anger.
"This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, we are having a chemistry test in a classroom on the other side of the building in two minutes and you are discussing this?" Chloe picked up her stuff and stormed out from the classroom.
The rest of the class was quick to file out and hurry across the hallways and were greeted by rather sternly looking Mme Mendeleev who tapped her finger on her desk as she waited for the students to settle down after their run through the school hallways.
Marinette had to admit she did not study for this exam more than when her and Adrien went through a few items while they pretended to study the day before while she was actually trying to locate if Therese indeed visited the same temple in Tibet she returned to life after Feast.
But the questions like 'does water boils sooner at sea level or in the mountain?' 'Where is it faster to make tea, Paris or Lhasa?' 'Where does it take longer to cook noodles?' were obviously assembled by the teacher specifically for this occasion.
Adrien just had to turn around to look at Marinette with that crooked grin that Chat Noir always sported and the teacher issued him a warning for turning around, but then she herself had to smile and hide it so that the students wouldn't notice.
The teacher collected the worksheets and then continued to teach, repeat and explain the properties of air and the atmosphere. The rest of the classes remained rather uneventful until they reached the lunch break and it was time to disperse, or accumulate in the cafeteria.
Felix was the one to disperse, but not quite alone, Chloe latched an arm around his elbow and nudged him towards the white limo that awaited in front of the school ready to take them both to Le Grand Paris. The couple returned to their usual banter on the way, who ever discussed feelings?
Lila cursed under her breath the fact that her learning assistant was not so keen on lunch breaks to actually go away and have lunch. The woman actually got permitted to have food in the school cafeteria and the poor post graduate student used the privilege.
Therefore, Lila was urged by the young woman to follow and listen to a lecture about an attitude and how to respect the feelings of her colleagues and disclose so publicly if she doubted anyone had feelings on anyone else.
Lila whined about how it was actually her who was bullied and harassed there, and before she even noticed, she managed to produce a story how Felix was actually dating her in secret, how it was all strictly hushed because of the upcoming new brand and how they were going to model together.
Nino had an idea of checking a playlist of love songs to find if he liked any for the literature assignment and of course his dear girlfriend had to join him for the effort. That activity was rather popular and taken by the rest of their class.
Therefore the group brought their food to the benches in the park and enjoyed the sun. It was as if the weekend had almost started, there were only a few classes between them and the bliss of not having a school night.
Two teenagers, however, had several busy nights and with the warm sun on their faces, they closed their eyes and soon the sleep overpowered them. This time, the whole class took photos of the sleeping couple cuddled together on the bench.
It was time to return to the afternoon classes and they all walked back to the school. There, on the steps of the school, stood Felix with Chloe and pretended to have an argument as they always did, while Aurore, Mireille and Marc watched from the side.
Sabrina joined Chloe for an update on whatever, Nathaniel went to Marc to discuss an idea on what to put or alter in their next comic and Felix was left to his own resources, but he never failed to produce his own amusement so he casually walked over to Adrien and Marinette.
"Hello" He greeted while he put one of his hands on Adrien's shoulder and another on Marinette's while he leaned forward between the two. "My mother kindly asks if you would like to join us for dinner this evening. The table is reserved since seven thirty, the dinner should be at eight."
"Sure." Marinette replied as calmly as she could have. She remembered the stories from that night when Bunnix took them to resolve some future that now they had to prevent from happening again. She half expected to see Bunnix hiding behind a tree or around a corner.
"Of course." Adrien beamed, but his grin was slightly too wide to be entirely genuine. It was like he was facing an akuma, or in this case, a sentimonster, and taunted them and demanded their attention and rage faced solely onto him, away from civilians and Ladybug.
Felix never told anyone about the threat that Lila made towards him, he considered those were the empty words of a deranged school girl who had nothing better to do than to chase boys around and play silly games with other people and their feelings.
Chloe never acknowledged the claim that Lila made, about her having a crush on Felix, her experience told her that ignoring such claims was usually the best solution as it took so much energy to prove something was a lie, she seldom bothered to do so. If any of these peasants chose to believe the words of that liar, she was going to just let them bask in their stupidity.
The school day was finished, but the students of the D'Argencourt fencing academy had yet another training session. The tournament was the next morning and they had two new members to prepare, the fencing master insisted that the new talented members should also participate.
"Me? Participate? Tomorrow? Tournament? Fencing?" Marinette squeaked out in quick breaths. Adrien laughed heartily and smiled gently at his girlfriend. She flailed her arms and tried to invent an excuse not to go, but the fencing master did not want to hear anything about that.
"You don't understand, I help out in the bakery on Saturdays, especially Saturday morning, papa has to deal with all the big orders for cakes and stuff and the morning rush ..." She rambled on and on about how much work it was for her parents.
"That is okay, you will have plenty of time to help out your parents in the morning, the tournament starts about noon and after that we can all go to Liberty to celebrate and hang out." He grinned and patted her shoulder. "Hey, I might come over and help out too?" He offered.
"You promised Nino … besides … " I'm so clumsy when you are around and if my maman and papa start to tease me about you or my papa starts to teach you puns … was left unspoken.
"Yeah, right, I owe Nino some bro time." He winked, his eyes glowed, he abused the time difference and early to bed excuses all week (to the delight of Nino's mother who feared the boys would just talk and play games all night).
"I thought we were expected to work on our homework, not 'hang out'?" Felix cut in, his tone mocked both teens as he observed his cousin and his girlfriend with glare of superiority and slightly subdued expression of despise.
"And listen to Kitty Section, of course." Adrien was not affected by the comment of his cousin at all. But then he smirked, he loved teasing his cousin. "We said poetry, Felix, and they play songs, some of them about love … for unicorns?"
Kagami, Marinette and Adrien all laughed at the comment. Felix watched the couple and frowned, but then he noticed that Kagami was laughing too. She sneaked up to them in full gear and listened only to the last end of the conversation. He stared at her laugh, he wanted her to do that again.
"Seriously, Felix, there is no way that the hang out on Liberty passes without some poetry." Kagami added and then smiled at Marinette, two girls exchanged a knowing look. "Especially with Kitty Section and ..." She trailed off with a knowing smirk and walked towards the gym."
"Hey Kagami." Felix walked straight after her. "You've been at that boathouse before and listened to that band? I wanted some objective opinion and you seem just like the person who would be able to … " He trailed off when he saw the look Kagami gave him.
"I believe I told you how I used to visit the boat with Adrien before?" She cut him off.
"Yes, indeed, yes you have, I … ." In fact he wanted to invite her to the outing, he actually wanted to go and invite her over, if she used to go before with Adrien, her friend, then it would not be weird if she went there with Felix, her friend, or perhaps she was going on her own?
"Come on, come on, we don't have all day, we have to practise, tomorrow is a big day, another fencing academy is coming over for a visit and we have to show them all our skill and chivalry." The fencing master was rather excited about it.
Kagami was ready to face any opponent. However, there was one person in particular who was rather enthusiastic to face her, and even more eager to chase away any possible competition on that side. But he also needed a piece of advice, and decided to swallow his pride for a moment.
"Hey Adrien" Felix called to his cousin quietly. "Kagami told me how the two of you used to visit that boat that Juleka lives on, the Liberty? Do you think it would be all right if I brought someone on the Saturday afternoon, I mean her, Kagami?"
"Sure." Adrien smiled. "We can always bring our friends to the Liberty. It's a fun place, you'll see."
Marinette turned away to roll her eyes at the word friends although she had the fencing mask over her face. This was still overly familiar, although slightly less painful.
"Hey Kagami." Felix called quietly while they faced each other and tried to decide which attack to try out next. "Would you like to join me on that boat, the Liberty, on the Saturday afternoon?" No, he was not asking her on a date, just a friendly 'hang out', apparently he was doing that.
"After the fencing tournament? Gladly." She replied calmly and lunged for her next attack. Needless to say, She scored a point.