Hi all. There is something wrong, I found a way to post new chapters but I can't read any comments nor other stuff at the moment.
Presentation
"Good morning class." Ms Bustier greeted when she entered the classroom. She took attendance quickly before she cleared her throat.
Principal Damocles entered the classroom.
"The school principal is joining us because we are going to have that presentation about bullying and harassment right now before we proceed with the normal curriculum for the day." The teacher announced and got several displeased noises from the audience, as few students planned to ditch that.
Adrien and Marinette did the presentation together, just like they practised, they switched the speaker between sentences and kept it short and to the point. They listed all the different forms of harassment and bullying. Adrien did not forget to make an eye contact with the culprits while Marinette concentrated on her speech. The girl was blushing, but she did not stammer nor stutter nor mix up her words.
"We are not here to call upon anybody in person, we would just like to give examples of behaviour that should be corrected." Adrien announced.
"We are going to do the bullying now." Marinette announced and took a step back.
"I'm so sorry. I messed up that scene again. I'm gonna do better on the next take, I promise." Marinette started to act what Mylenne did before she became Horrificator.
Adrien scoffed and examined his nails.
"that monster mask he's wearing is so... realistic and scary!" Marinette continued her text.
"You ask me, he doesn't even need a mask!" Adrien mocked and laughed at his own words.
"I need to sing my happy song, it always makes me feel better... Smelly wolf, smelly wolf, stinky breath and slimy ..." Marinette was singing the same song as Mylenne.
"And the Oscar for best pathetic scaredy-cat afraid of its own shadow goes to… you!" Adrien exclaimed.
Adrien impersonated Chloe so well that everyone started laughing after the first few words. He examined his nails and pretended to swing a ponytail he did not have while he turned on his heel.
"Most of this behaviour is just plain rude, but repeatedly telling someone ..." Marinette explained what was wrong in that scene briefly.
Principal Damocles was glowing with pride. His school did an excellent work. He even had something to show off to the other school principals. He had plans.
"I do not have to be here and take this." Chloe scoffed as she got onto her feet with an intention to leave. The similarity of her behaviour to Adrien's performance was not lost to anyone.
"Actually you do, Chloe." Ms Bustier replied gently.
"I can call my daddy and let him know what you are doing here." She waved her phone.
"Oh please do call him, invite him over and tell him we are having the programme his office prescribed, he will be thrilled to see this." Principal Damocles replied with a proud smile. Perhaps he would not need to wait for that meeting in the city hall about the project, perhaps he could brag about his accomplishments even now.
"I am sure he did not mean any of this." Chloe groaned and sat back into her seat. She was typing on her phone furiously.
"We can proceed with the second sketch about bullying." Adrien announced and took a position by the classroom door. Marinette stood in the middle of the classroom and stared at him.
(What follows is a shorter version of the actual conversation).
"Marinette? Oh, are you crying?" Sly smile, Lila's manners, Adrien was excellent. He knew each move and he felt how the culprit recognized herself from the first line.
"No, I'm not!" Marinette replied as she looked away for a moment.
"I can sense that you don't like me, but I don't understand why. We barely know each other. Don't tell me it's because of this new seating arrangement in class!" Adrien continued taking a step forward after each sentence. Marinette turned away from him. "It is! Of course, you're just jealous. You and I could be friends, and who knows, I might even be able to help you with that boy you like." The last three words did not roll of his tongue as well as he intended.
The reaction of the girls in the class was becoming rather diverse. Chloe had a self satisfied smug smile on her face, because this was not about her. Sabrina was relieved for the same reason. Lila glared at the show and missed the first glances towards her from the rest of the class. The rest of the class was mostly confused. They knew Adrien was playing Lila at this point. They knew Marinette played herself and they mostly remembered when that must have happened. Ms Bustier hitched a breath as she recognized whom was Adrien playing.
"You and I will only be friends the day you stop lying! I can't prove it, but I know for a fact that you lied just about everything you talked about today!" Marinette replied with the same desperate and angry voice.
"I only tell people what they want to hear." Adrien moved as smooth as ever, his voice was sweet but menacing, he was close to her and Marinette hit the teacher's desk with her back, there was no space for her to move.
"It's called lying!" Marinette screamed back but the fear and the pain in her eyes were a memory, not faked. The pain of recognition just stung through the rest of the class.
"There's nothing you can do about it, anyway. People can't resist when they hear what they like to hear. If you don't want to be my friend, fine! But soon you won't have any friends left at all. And trust me, I'll make sure you never get close to the boy you like." The boy was clearly threatening the girl.
There was a muffled scream in the back of the classroom. Everyone turned towards Lila. She started to utter excuses and even tried to stop the performance, but the teacher told her they had to do it now. Adrien took a step back and started over his last reply. He might have been even better this time as he saw the way Lila looked at him.
"You are either with me or against me." Adrien was excellent, a sly smile, a glare, a threatening look.
Lila was steaming. She had to turn it around into her favour and she had to do it quickly. She wanted the boy back on her side. But what was she supposed to say? Well, she could always say that was how Marinette threatened her in the bathroom, not the other way around. She raised her hand.
Ms Bustier knew well what this was about, the shock slowed down her response.
"The questions will be taken in the end." Principal Damocles stated simply, he was impatient to see the rest. Lila put down her hand, but she feigned being hurt and cried 'I can't believe she threatened me and used me like this'. She was going to take Adrien and all the class in one go. Just wait.
"Now we should give you a few examples of sexual harassment that happened in this school." Adrien announced and took a step back.
Marinette took a step away from him and took a deep breath. She clenched her fists and told herself that she could do it. The boy explained about nicknames, personal space and unwanted advancements.
"Oh Adriekins." She exclaimed and threw herself onto the boy as she pretended that she wanted to kiss him. She knew she was good because she caught with the corner of her eye how Chloe winced in her seat in the first row. She was surprised that she actually kissed Adrien on his cheek before he reluctantly and weakly pushed her away. She did not push herself forward any further, it took a minimal effort from him to do that and yet she even purposefully took a step back.
Adrien was mostly surprised by himself. He instinctively grabbed Marinette to push her away at the sound of her words. But the moment he laid his eyes on her, when he saw that was Marinette, his arms did not push her away with full force like he usually did with Chloe. She even kissed him and it was not even slightly unpleasant, as he was supposed to act it was. It took an effort from him to actually react, act hurt and push her away. They did not exercise this together, Marinette trained on a dummy and he was not aware that it meant he never trained for that. He did not exercise on his own. He expected to be ready after all attacks by Chloe. He expected it would be a reflex.
The rest of the class did not notice his hesitation, they instantly recognized the act.
Marinette explained that what she did was wrong because it was unwanted.
"Please do not do that. I pushed you away for a reason." Adrien explained the response. "You should make it clear that you do not want this kind of treatment, although you might not feel good about talking about it. And telling it once should be sufficient." He aimed the last sentence at Chloe.
There was complete silence in the classroom. Well, save Alix's snickering, because her brain was already providing pictures of the two when they practised the act. And that mannequin was making much more sense.
"Okay, now the next one." Adrien announced and nodded to Marinette.
She took a deep breath again. 'It is only a mannequin, it is only a mannequin, just repeat the moves, just repeat the moves.' The girl told herself before she latched onto Adrien's arm. She put on a sly smile and fluttered her eyelashes while she muttered some nonsense about them being good for each other (some words that Marinette herself would never chose), that should remind everyone in the room of Lila and started to move one of her hands in the air over Adrien's torso as she still kept a distance of a few centimetres between her hand and his body.
Adrien grabbed her hands and pushed her away and she lowered her hands, she knew she exercised movements that lasted for a whole minute, but she was not the one to push this. Maybe this was long enough.
"You are supposed to be more pushy if you want this to look genuine." The boy reminded her quietly, but the whole class heard him. "We should start over." He announced louder.
Marinette reluctantly started over, she latched onto him, she leaned into the boy and she repeated the act from her memory, she stared at a point on the wall and pushed her hands towards him but stopped just before she could actually touch him, took one more breath and did it. Kim whistled and Adrien pushed her hands away from him again. But he did not let go of her hands instantly, it took him a few seconds to actually do it
"It is wrong to touch someone against their will." Adrien cleared up the situation and Marinette retracted her hands quickly. She even put her hands behind her back and took half a step away from the boy.
Lila was steaming in her seat and glared at the two classmates who were doing the performance. Most of the class turned towards her after the act as they clearly recognized the scene.
Adrien explained how he sometimes has to endure unwanted touches for his work and that it was all an act for the photographs and the media but that does not mean he wants to go through this in school or normal daily life. To Marinette's surprise he reached over and took her hand. "It does not mean that each touch is unwanted." The boy finished as he looked at the girl. She hitched a breath and blushed because Adrien Agreste was holding her hand in front of the whole class. He smiled. She quickly smiled back. He did one firm nod and took a deep breath. She followed almost instantly and closed her eyes.
"Ahem, we have shown you only a few examples." Marinette started the speech she knew now by heart.
"Do not do that to your classmates and friends, please." Adrien continued as he looked at Chloe, pleadingly. The girl obviously took the message as her eyes began to fill with angry tears, but she scoffed and waved her ponytail, only to hide it.
"You should also not tolerate such behaviour in others." Marinette added while she glanced towards her teacher who stared at her with her eyes wide open.
"Because, if you do, that makes you enablers. It means you approve." Adrien flicked his eyes towards the adults too.
The teacher stared at her two students with her mouth opened. The dawn of recognition slowly taken over her features. She needed time to contemplate, she needed time to accept, she needed time to decide what to do next. But, she also had to produce a reaction, like, right now. Well, she had just been lectured, like the rest of her class, and she always wanted to be a good example, so she was going to be one. She raised her hands and clapped them to praise her students.