Call
"Spill it girl." Alya shouted as she entered Marinette's room followed by Alix, Rose, Juleka and Mylenne. Marinette sighed, it was good they did not try to bring Lila along. Marinette explained to the girls she did not want the girl who got her expelled anywhere near her room, her house nor her free time. The girls were actually sympathetic as they could understand the reasons behind. It was a rough conversation with Alya, but the rest of the girls were fine with it. Alix was particularly understanding and even praised Marinette for being able to go back to the same class.
Marinette sat on her computer chair in front of her computer as she worked on the presentation. Alya hovered above her determined to have her questions answered. She wanted to know. She needed to know. Because Marinette always told her everything. And this time, Marinette told her little more than nothing.
Mylenne, Rose and Juleka sat on the chaise beside them and observed them with undivided attention, slightly concerned, mostly entertained and excited about the piece of news they expected to hear. The only thing that was missing was an oversize cup with popcorn and one would think they were watching a film in a cinema.
Alix whirled around like a restless energetic girl she was. Within the few silent moments when the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife she already registered all moved and missing pictures of Adrien, noticed the new screen background, eyed the photos above her bed and smirked, then she turned around and saw it.
"What is this?" Alix stared at the mannequin dressed in dark t-shirt (it was not as if Marinette had a copy of a black t-shirt with green lines that she might have made herself one day) and a bright unbuttoned shirt over it (she indeed did not have the Gabriel Agreste original white shirt nor anything resembling one) with sleeves filled with stockings and gloves stuck over them. And on top of that there was a photo of Adrien taped to a balloon the same colour as the boy's hair. The pink haired girl knew she was going to hear or see something new today.
"Um, I am supposed to act with Adrien." Marinette spoke while she flailed her hands animatedly. "And you know how I get … around him. So now I can practice on the mannequin." She motioned both her hands towards the mannequin to stress her words.
"Does it work?" Alix asked with a raised eyebrow. The pink haired girl would not have been surprised if Marinette stammered even when she talked to a mannequin that had a photo of Adrien's face taped on in the place of the head.
"Well it does in a way." Marinette shrugged, she had no clue if she would be able to repeat that with a real boy. "With a lot of practice I will be able to repeat everything mechanically." She made her plan, she would simply close her eyes or look at some random spot on the side and do it through the muscle memory.
"Good for you." Mylenne smiled.
"This is so romantic." Rose cooed.
"That is great." Was something that Juleka muttered but it was not as if anyone heard over all of the excitement.
"Can you also punch him?" Alix grinned at the mannequin.
"No, no punching, we are not doing that kind of story." Marinette waved her head.
"So what are you doing?" Alya took a piece of paper from Marinette's desk, but she was disappointed because it was homework.
Marinette fidgeted. She was definitely not going to tell them, she did not want to ruin the plan. But which excuse could he use? 'We don't know yet' would not work because she already admitted that she practised it. 'I can't tell you' would not work for long because they could easily find out it is not actually forbidden, and if she used 'I can't tell you because I promised Adrien not to ruin a surprise' Alya would never let her see the light of the day.
"Uh, you have not done this already?" Alya scolded as she noticed the empty worksheet for the Ms Bustier's class they got on Monday but it was not due until Friday. Marinette hoped doing her assignment might prolong her deadline for those.
"Nope. Doing this assignment is a lot of work. I have to finish writing the presentation and we will have to go through the presentation together." Marinette continued.
"Oh, you will train for the presentation together?" Rose cooed.
Juleka also said something.
"You plan to stand in front of the class and present something together with Adrien?" Alix snorted. "Good luck!"
Marinette glared at the girl, but she was smiling too. She knew she earned it after all the stupid things she did in his presence.
The truth was that they both typed in the presentation and she was waiting for him to make a video call during which they would go through and practice. Her phone rang. She did not expect the call to be placed so soon. And it was an audio call.
"Hi Adrien." She greeted and all the chatter stopped instantly. All the girls listened intently.
Nathalie lingered in Gabriel's office for a brief instruction before she went after Adrien into his room. He was unpacking the things from his school bag while she was assembling a schedule for the next day on her tablet. He peeked onto the screen and noticed she kept the assignment meeting in the schedule. It was very nice of her that she negotiated with his father on Monday. The only thing that was removed from the schedule completely were the photo shoots.
He was in sour mood after fencing, well after the talk with Kagami, but he felt like he won a small battle against Hawk Moth after the conversation with his father, and the boy was greedy for more, he just had to test his luck.
"Nathalie, I am supposed to practice the presentation with Marinette, would it be possible to go there tomorrow after school? Or even today?" He pleaded as he took out a pink notebook from his school bag.
"What is that?" Nathalie motioned towards the notebook.
Adrien stared at it.
"It is Marinette's literature notebook." He pointed towards the name and the subject on the front cover. Then he dug into his bag. There was no Camembert nor his literature notebook.
"My literature notebook is missing. We must have switched in the library." He concluded and took out his phone. "I will call her to check if I did not leave it in school."
Nathalie remained calm as a statue and produced no reaction at all. Adrien was relieved, if she did not stop him yet, then he was allowed to continue.
"Hi Marinette." He greeted with a gentle smile, but he turned his face away from Nathalie.
"Hi Adrien." Marinette greeted while all the girls in her room fell absolutely silent.
"I have your literature notebook. Do you have mine?" He asked calmly very well aware that Nathalie was behind him.
"Okay." Marinette dug into her backpack.
"Um, I have a black notebook with the Gabriel logo on it." She said as she located the unfamiliar object in her backpack. She was facing her desk so all the girls were behind her back.
Juleka sat in her place and smiled, because this brave girl had a conversation with Adrien.
Mylenne was biting her fingers, she stood up in her excitement as she witnessed history being made.
Rose grabbed the nearest soft toy, or perhaps it was just a pillow, you never know with Marinette, it was something she had made, and hugged it to her chest while she cooed silently.
Alya was standing closest to Marinette, she just about remembered to breathe and the next thing anyone could expect from her was an excited scream, but Alix was so fast that she somehow climbed up on the loft, grabbed a pillow from Marinette's bed, jumped down and pushed the pillow into Alya's face so that the taller girl produced no audible sound.
"Excellent. Could you please go to the page where I wrote about the book we did today. Yes." Adrien spoke and flipped the pages in her notebook.
"Okay, could you do the same with mine please?" Marinette replied and flipped through the pages.
"You did not finish compare and contrast, you barely started." Adrien said.
"You have three items compared." She replied.
"Well then I have one line more than you." The boy concluded.
Alya tried to remove the pillow and peek over Marinette's shoulder to see what were those two love birds talking about, but Alix was stronger and pulled her away. Both of them stumbled together on the chaise.
"I could finish it for you, I have what you need in my notes. I can take a picture of them and you could write it in my notebook." Marinette explained her plan while four girls waved their heads and mouthed 'no'.
"I think Ms Bustier would notice a different handwriting if you finished mine and I finished yours." Adrien continued.
"I am more worried about others." She remained vague as she did not want to finish that sentence in front of the audience in the room.
Alya calmed down. Alix removed the pillow to let her breathe but kept it in her hands.
"You are right about that." He replied as vaguely as he could because he was observed too.
"It is due tomorrow morning. How much time do you need if we do it tomorrow before class?" She asked next.
Four girls facepalmed. 'Girl you are always late' Alya mouthed. But Marinette could not see her with her back turned.
"Marinette, you are not known as a morning person. And that could easily take an hour." The boy countered.
Sabine was entering the room through the hatch door and carried a tray with treats but four girls silenced her.
"She is on the phone with Adrien." Rose squeaked while the other three tried to keep her quiet.
Marinette waved her hand in their direction but did not bother to turn around.
Sabine stared at the mannequin.
"She practices her acting with the mannequin." Mylenne whispered.
"So that she does not stutter and stammer when they perform." Alix added quietly.
Alya was released from Alix's hold because the latter girl was busy talking with Sabine, so she grabbed Marinettes shirt and was shaking the girl while she was on the phone. Marinette slapped her hand gently and Alix pulled her away again.
"Just a moment, please." On the other side of the phone call, Adrien turned to Nathalie.
Marinette used the moment to turn around and glare at Alya. She did not need her best friend to pounce on her while she was talking to her crush, thank you very much.
"Nathalie, can I go to Marinette's so that we can finish this?" He showed her the notebook opened on the page. "We were working on this during lunch break after a part of our project was finished and ..."
"You can go." Nathalie replied with an amused smile. Gabriel just confirmed his approval for the project (not that he had much choice once he signed the parental agreement) and his assistant took the liberty to approve this herself without additional consultations and clarifications.
"Marinette, can I come over?" Adrien asked quietly, he restrained any victory from the tone of his voice.
"Sure" Marinette replied. She stared at a blank spot on her wall, because if she looked at a poster of him, she would not be able to speak, if she looked at the girls, she would have to laugh.
Girls had to share pillows to scream into. Sabine just watched with an amused smile.
"That is amazing. See you soon Marinette." Adrien replied and cut the call.
"See you, bye Adrien." She barely whispered back.
Marinette turned around and looked straight into her mother.
"Maman, Adrien and me switched these notebooks, he is coming over." She said quietly and calmly as if it was a weather forecast.
The girls cheered and screamed.
"Girls, this is nothing much, he was here yesterday, we arranged this mannequin together." She motioned towards the item in the corner of her room.
"Nothing much?" Alya screamed as she bounced on her feet.
"Nothing happened. Nothing is going to happen." Marinette never finished her thoughts out loud. 'Because I can't mess this up for him by my stupid confession.'
"I think we should all go." Alix stated as she jumped to her feet. "It was nice being here. Thank you for the pastry maman Sabine." The pink haired girl grabbed a few pieces from the tray, the other girls followed her example.
The three girls followed Alix down the stairs. Sabine tailed after them and then returned to the bakery to help Tom before they closed for the day.