Homework
The next day they were both late for class (only about five minutes) and they met at the entrance to the classroom. Each of them knew for themselves that the reason was an early morning akuma attack, but wondered why the other one was late.
"I overslept" They both said as they entered the classroom.
Ms Bustier let them slide. They were longer in school the day before for that meeting so she decided to let them be slightly late in the morning, but she made sure that it was understood by the rest of the class that this was an exception and why she made it.
Adrien was worried. He wanted to talk to his lady, well Chat Noir should talk to Ladybug about what he should or should not do. The first evening was too early and they were on timers, he thought he could resolve it by himself. This morning he would be late for school, she too. He tried to make a list from his memory and a few videos he watched last night, but it was inconclusive. The same line would receive reprimand or she flirted back and he had no clue why. He fidgeted in his seat and wondered if he could somehow persuade Max to use Markov for that without revealing his identity.
The day had its ups and downs.
Chloe latched onto Adrien for each break. It was hard for Marinette to see that. She just glared. Chloe returned her air of superiority. Adrien was tired of it. Just a few days. Just a few more days.
Marinette decided to go to a crowded bathroom as an alternative of being alone with Lila in another. Let's just say she was slightly late for the next class.
Alya was hovering over Marinette with 'spill the news girl' kind of demands. Marinette wanted to tell her. She wanted to tell her everything. She always told her everything about her and Adrien. But then she would have to tell about Lila, and Alya would not believe her.
"We did some scripts, we got some instructions yesterday and … it is just a lot of work to do." Marinette sighed. Her homework was piling up.
"Lucky me, Chloe never stays for lunch!" Adrien was by her side for the lunch break.
"Makes me wonder where had my nemesis gone." Marinette smirked.
"She is not only yours, you know." He pretended to pout. It did not work well with chewing a croissant.
"Then Chloe is everyone's." She teased back. But there was truth in her words that made both of them frown. "I know she is your friend, but she always did the best she could to make my life miserable, and not just mine, Nino's too, Kim, Nathaniel, Rose, Juleka ..."
"She is not a monster." Adrien sighed heavily. "She was my first friend, when I had nobody else." The boy spoke quietly as if he was out of breath. Marinette was lost in thought, she knew how Chloe treated her best friend Sabrina, she wondered what kind of friendship Adrien had with her.
"No, she is not, but she is trying hard to be one. I am not surprised after I met her mother. Audrey really loves to make her miserable so that is the only way she knows how to treat people, well that or to treat them like a piece of property." She rambled lost in her thoughts. Then she stopped, she did not intend to say all that out loud.
"That means you got it better, at least she treats you like a person, I am just her property." The boy snickered and waved his head.
"So we are doing it?" She asked.
"We are doing this." The boy smiled back but there was sadness in his eyes.
They ate the pastries and shared his salad on a bench in the courtyard before they went to the library. But that day they settled to catch up on schoolwork, and homework, and literature and then the bell rang for the afternoon classes. At one moment in all that they switched literature notebooks.
Their afternoon classes were busy and they had no time to make any arrangements for the writing up of the presentation or more practice.
"We should probably practice the presentation today." Marinette whispered.
"I'll send you a message after fencing." Adrien replied before they split.
Lila was sitting at her usual bench in the park where she waited for the already usual conversation.
"What do you have that is so important that I had to be here?" Gabriel demanded.
"I have some important news for you. Adrien got involved with that girl from our class, Marinette Dupain Cheng. They are pretending to work on a project, but they are sneaking around, in fact he spends at least an hour in her room each day after school. The two of them are alone and unsupervised." Lila recited her case.
Nathalie was in the car and typed something on the tablet before she showed him the message.
"All right, anything else?" Gabriel replied coldly.
"I want you to stop that project." She demanded.
"I thought you said there was no project." The designer teased coldly from his car.
"I want you to destroy that girl, I want you to remove her from my class, from my school." Lila screamed.
"From what I remember you tried all that and failed." Gabriel reported coldly.
"I want to do that again." Lila screamed.
"I will not prevent you." Gabriel replied with a cold smile on his face. After that he closed the window and the car drove away.
That afternoon Adrien had fencing again.
"Hi Kagami." He greeted the girl.
"Hi Adrien." She replied quietly. "How is your project going?"
"Well, we have chosen the examples of bad behaviour to show." The boy shrugged.
"Which examples have you chosen?" She asked casually as she adjusted her gear.
So he told her.
She said nothing before it was time to step into the gym.
She kept her headgear on the whole time. And she kept silent, save a few necessary words. This time he was better opponent. He lost anyway. But this time, it seemed that he did not loose because he was worse than usual, no, in fact he thought he put up one of his best fights. It was as if she was trying even harder to beat him. It was like that first duel they had, she was fierce as if it was a battle her life depended on and not a mere fencing practice they had twice per week.
"You are really good today." He praised her.
Kagami was silent and acknowledged the praise by a simple nod.
"That was an excellent move." He complimented her
The girl remained silent and Adrien imagined she did one small nod towards him again.
"You have a new strategy?" He asked surprised by her last combination.
This time she made sure to produce absolutely no reaction.
He could not see her face.
Her next attack was pure brutal. Mr D'Argencourt actually shouted for her to stop because Adrien was defeated. And then he sent her to the locker room.
Adrien ran after her because he was concerned that she might become an akuma again.
"Kagami." He called after her.
She took off the protective mask and turned around to face him. She might have put her foil away, but her eyes were shooting daggers at him that he could only try to evade in vain. There were no pink bubbles that blurred his vision like the first time he saw her without the protective mask.
"What is wrong?" The boy asked timidly.
"What is wrong with you?" Kagami replied calmly. It was the same calm way she admitted her defeat the first time they fought, but that time she was disappointed in herself, this time she was obviously disappointed in him.
"Me?" Adrien screamed. Then he schooled down. "I was good back there. I was really good today."
"You are a really good fencer, Adrien. You are a good person too." Her words were quiet but intimidating. The boy almost shivered as he anticipated this was heading to something that was not good. "But in a battle you do not hesitate, you evade blow and attack, you do not let them hit you until they grow tired of it, you do not offer yourself as a bribe." With those words, Kagami turned away and stored her equipment in her duffel bag. "I just need more time to accept what you told me." Kagami added with her back turned to the baffled boy before she left.
Adrien went to his locker and found a message from Nathalie on his phone. He was expected to go straight home. He called Marinette on the way.
"Hi Marinette, father wants me home instantly, I was thinking, we could finish the presentation as we agreed and then we can practice over the phone?" The boy explained his idea. Marinette agreed. She was sorry he could not come, but at least she would practice her speech with the mannequin.
Gabriel Agreste stood tall in his usual outfit with his hands behind his back as he waited for Adrien to enter his office.
"It was brought to my attention that you are with a girl from your class and spend an hour per day with her in her room without proper supervision." Gabriel told him sternly the moment the boy entered his office.
"We got paired up for a school assignment." Adrien replied timidly. "You got the paperwork on Monday, you signed approval for that. I thought you knew." Yeah, they spent an hour each day but not on an assignment, sometimes they play video games, and sometimes they went there even for lunch.
"The school form did not state the particularities of this arrangement that I have just mentioned." His father retorted.
"We are preparing the presentation and we have to play roles in four sketches, it is a lot of work, and we can't do it all in school. Her parents work in the bakery in the same house, they can come in and check up on us at any time." Adrien started to explain. He cringed inside as he remembered when Lila was in his room without any supervision.
"You have asked Nathalie to free you from most of your activities to be able to do a school project." The designer used a particular tone for the words a school project to stress how unimportant he thought it was.
"Actually, I just got from fencing, and I practice Chinese and piano after dinner." Those last two statements were only conditionally true, he played the recordings of his piano practice and he practised Chinese for about fifteen minutes.
"And I heard you volunteered for that." Gabriel snarled.
"I had to father, they wanted someone with good acting skills and I am the only one with the experience, I am good at it and they all know it, everyone called for me, besides, I never volunteer for anything in school, it started to look bad, I have to do something for the class and I am good at this so it is less work for me." The boy was speaking and was slightly surprised he was allowed to talk for so long.
"And the girl you are working with?" Gabriel demanded.
"She is … she needs my help with acting but she is getting better, she is good at making presentations." The boy was trying to explain as he was not sure what his father wanted to hear.
"Her name?" Gabriel demanded although he knew it well. Adrien was surprised with the question because he expected his father knew, he thought that Nathalie told him.
"Marinette Dupain Cheng. I explained everything to Nathalie when I sent her the parental agreement for you to sign and you signed it." Adrien was slightly exasperated. He thought everything was resolved on Monday.
"Did she volunteer?" Gabriel snarled.
"No, she did not, it was Lila Rossi who proposed Marinette for this assignment." The boy answered timidly. It sounded odd, but it was the truth. It was good he had training as a model and his face was schooled in that version of the smile that his father preferred in their conversations.
"Oh." Gabriel was visibly surprised by the answer. "Thank you Adrien. You are dismissed."
Adrien hated how he felt, but at least he was allowed to continue, or he was not forbidden, yet. He quietly left his father's office and quickly strolled through the corridors to his room. He needed to finish the presentation, he knew Marinette probably finished her part already.