CHAPTER 5: Newsflash

The next day at school, their history teacher assigned them their first partner assignment: do a presentation on a controversial topic currently being talked about in the news. It was supposed to be a fairly easy assignment, being the first week of school. Alya and Marinette jumped at the opportunity to work together, being new friends and all.

"Oooooh!" Alya squealed, "What if we did it on Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

Marinette cringed on the inside, hesitating with her response. "I don't know, Alya. Are Ladybug and Chat Noir really that controversial?"

"Of course they are, girl!" Alya waved her arms around in excitement, her phone in one of her hands. "There are probably people out there right now who doubt that they're really superheroes, which they are, of course. We could do a presentation on that. Or, what is the government going to do now that we have superheroes guarding our backs? Are they going to allow Ladybug and Chat Noir to operate outside of the law? Will our heroes only be dealing with Hawkmoth and the monsters he can make, or will they fight normal crime as well? There are so many issues to think about!"

"Oh," was all Marinette could reply with. She hadn't even thought about those things herself. Would the government try to control her and Chat Noir? Did she have time to also help out beyond defeating the akumas?

She pushed away her doubt-filled thoughts, trying to get back to the topic at hand. "Okay Alya, I agree that Ladybug and Chat Noir are controversial. But everyone's going to be doing a presentation on them! Can we do something else?" Her voice became a little bit pleading at the end. Alya turned a scrutinizing eye on her before frowning, unsure as to what Marinette had against the superheroes.

"I guess we can look into a few more options," she acquiesced, deflating a bit.

"Thanks." Marinette smiled at Alya, and suggested they look at some of the recent news articles to explore their choices.

They spent the rest of class time searching for a suitable topic, each showing the other when they found an article they liked and deliberating the pros and cons of a presentation on that topic. Each one was put aside as they each gave excuses: "I don't like that topic," "There's too many different sides to go over," "It's not controversial enough."

Near the end of the period, Alya had excitedly showed her an article she read. "What if we did our presentation on soulmates?" she asked her friend, her expression animated.

Marinette frowned, remembering her talk with Tikki the day before. "Uh, I guess-"

"Here! Watch this video with me!" Alya tapped on her tablet, turning it so the video became fullscreen.

"Hello, Nadja Chamack here! Don't be bemused, it's just the news! Today, we received new information from the Department of Soulmate Affairs of France. Sadly, it's been reported that in the last year, the soulmate matching rate has decreased, and pretty dramatically, too. What are the numbers, Pierre?" Nadja looked over to her coworker sitting at the desk alongside her as she passed the conversation to him.

"The report says that in the past year, only 12.7% of the people in France have found their soulmates. This is a dramatic drop from the 13.1% we saw from last year's report. That's a difference of 270,000 people not being matched with their soulmate this past year. What changed, Nadja?"

The woman folded her hands seriously in front of her. "While there has been a decreasing trend for the last few years, DSA scientists say they've never seen a drop like this in France before. Other countries like the United States have also seen staggering drops recently, spurring researchers worldwide to look deeper into what could be influencing the numbers so much."

A graphic popped up on the screen as Nadja continued in a voice over. "There are multiple factors that can influence the soulmate matching rate. Some of these factors include changes in the world's population, technology, and social and cultural changes. Care to go over these in more depth, Pierre?"

"Of course, Nadja!" The screen flashed back to the reporters. "In terms of the world's population, the amount of people in our world has only grown larger, increasing from 1 billion to 7.5 billion in the last 200 years alone." Another graphic showing the exponential growth of the world's population flashed on screen. "A growing population means that as the amount of people increases, the probability for two soulmates to meet decreases. Scientists speculate that the soulmate matching rate could have been as high as 20% in the past due to how Earth's growing population has influenced the matching rate."

"However," Nadja cautioned, as the screen switched back to them again, "technology also has a big role in soulmate matching. With the invention of cars and planes, it has certainly made it easier to meet more people and travel to different countries. The kind of travel opportunities we have today pale in comparison to how people traveled in the past; certainly this is a factor that would raise the number of people who find their soulmates?"

"Possibly, but it could be argued though that technology has contributed more to decreasing the matching rate," Pierre debated. "Technological advancements are mainly responsible for causing the dramatic increase in our global population, after all. Recent research has even shown that with our increasing access to phones and the internet, face-to-face contact between people has dramatically decreased. Culturally, the newest generation now favors having conversations over texting or video-chatting apps, decreasing the time that they spend around other people, henceforth decreasing the possibility of touching their soulmate."

"Very true, Pierre. With so many aspects of technology and human culture impacting the way we socialize, it's certainly a wonder that scientists can even guess at what exactly is influencing the soulmate matching rate." Nadja stared into the camera to address the audience. "Viewers at home, what do you think? What do you feel is the biggest factor influencing the soulmate matching rate? Please feel free to comment your thoughts on our online forum."

"The DSA's report has more than just the newest numbers, Nadja. It seems that the government has also decided to finally start holding its own Soulmate Conference each month. These conferences have been going on for decades, sponsored by different soulmate-related non-profits. The main point at these conferences is to meet as many people as possible to up one's chances at finding their soulmate."

"But the question is, do these conferences actually help people find their soulmates? The Department of Soulmate Affairs certainly hopes so, as they believe these conferences will help to raise that disheartening 12.7% to a more agreeable number."

"We're hopeful too, aren't we Nadja? But in the meantime, we will all continue to ask the question: is looking for your soulmate really worth it? This is Pierre Legrand and Nadja Chamack signing off. Back to you, Robert."

The video ended, and Alya let the tablet rest on the desk. "Well, I think that's certainly controversial enough," she turned to Marinette, assessing her expression.

"Is looking for your soulmate really worth it?" Marinette's mind repeated, her heart constricting in sorrow as she was reminded that her chances were even less than 12.7%.

"Marinette?" A hand reached out to touch her shoulder, shocking Marinette out of her thoughts. "What do you think?"

Before Marinette could answer, the bell rang. She cringed; part of her didn't want to do their presentation on soulmates because it reminded her of what Tikki had told her, but she also didn't want to spend even more time trying to find a topic. They had spent the last 20 minutes doing that already and now it was lunchtime. At least she had dissuaded Alya from doing their presentation on Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"Uh, yeah!" Marinette yelped, an exaggerated grin on her face as she finally responded to Alya. "We can totally do our presentation on soulmates. D-definitely."

Alya raised an eyebrow at her but turned away to start packing her things away. "It's alright if you don't want to, girl. We can keep exploring our options."

"No, no! It's fine!" Marinette waved her hands in a placating gesture. "I think there is definitely a lot of controversy surrounding soulmates, and I don't really want to spend more time looking for a topic. It's a good topic."

"Great!" Alya smiled and stood up, shouldering her backpack. "When do you want to work on the project?"

Marinette thought about her schedule. She was free today and wanted to get it done earlier rather than later due to the possibility of Hawkmoth interrupting their work. "I'm good with after school if you are," she replied.

"Sounds good to me!" The girls companionably walked out of the classroom together towards the front doors of the school and headed for Marinette's place, the girl having invited Alya over the day before.

"Hey, Marinette, have you found your soulmate yet?" Alya inquired, glancing over at her friend.

Marinette felt a pang in her heart as her mind responded with "maybe." But instead of expressing that to her new friend, she merely raised an eyebrow and smirked to answer Alya's question.

"Oh, right," Alya muttered. Of course Marinette didn't know yet; if she did then she would already have a boy in her life and she wouldn't be fawning over Adrien.

Marinette giggled at her response as they walked out the front doors of the school. "And I'm assuming you don't have someone special in your life right now either?" Marinette asked, one eyebrow quirked.

"Nope. No soulmate for me," Alya sighed, but then grinned brightly at Marinette. "Not yet, anyway. I'm not going to let that 12.7% stop me!"

Alya continued to ramble on as they crossed the street to the bakery, and Marinette felt a bit more hopeful. I guess I shouldn't let that 12.7%- or whatever number it is for miraculous holders- stop me either. I'm lady luck; I've got luck on my side no matter what!

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews!~

I'd like to hear more about what you guys think of this AU so far. People have told me they like it, which I'm glad about, but I guess I was hoping for more feedback. Are there any questions you guys have regarding the story?

On another note, as I expected, I'm not sure I can keep up in posting a chapter once a week. Updates will likely be slower so I can keep up my buffer of chapters. It also doesn't help that work has been making me too exhausted to write, ugh. Overall, I want this story to be about quality over quantity/fast updates, so I'm not going to post stuff until I'm absolutely satisfied with it. Thanks in advance for bearing with me and understanding! Love you all~

Starlin's Ghost

*Edited 11/25/19*