AN: Sorry this chapter's a little short. I'm working on chapter 8 tonight. I'll put more of the requests from the reviews in there! Thanks for all the feedback! I'm still figuring out how I want to do the reveal, so let me know what you think!
Chapter 7
-Adrien-
Adrien walked into school, waving to the Gorilla. He stepped into the courtyard and saw Alya and Nino standing with Marinette. It was still kind of awkward because of how icy they'd been to Marinette, but it was getting better. Marinette and Alya were almost back to their best friend status they'd had before Lila. As Adrien stepped closer, he heard Alya trying to get something out of Marinette. "Cmon girl, you have to tell me. Do you like him or not?" "I am telling you Alya. I don't know for sure!" "Why not?" Alya asked, totally using her interrogation tactics. "Because I think I might like someone else!" Marinette burst. Adrien smiled to himself as he stepped into the group next to Marinette. "So who is it Marinette?"
He had never seen anyone without superpowers jump so high. "Ack!" Marinette yelped and leapt back a foot while Alya let out a snort. "Who is what?" Marinette chuckled nervously. Adrien decided to be straightforward. "Who do you have a crush on?" Marinette's face went blank with shock. "That is what Alya was trying to get out of you, right?" Adrien clarified as Alya had to lean on Nino to not fall over laughing. Marinette still didn't seem to know what to say. "If you don't want to tell her, can you tell me?" He said. "That's what I'm trying to decide." Marinette said nervously, biting her lip. "I'll tell you all when I've made my choice," she finished and she looked relieved when the bell rang, calling them to class.
As they all went up the stairs to Miss Bustier's room, Adrien walked past Lila in the front row and went up the aisle with Marinette to their seats in the back. As they waited for class to begin, Adrien watched as Marinette slid a small piece of paper out of her backpack onto her desk next to her notes and homework from yesterday. The paper already had some notes on it on the top next to a letter C. Underneath the paragraph or so of some sort of description, there was a letter L with a dash. Marinette picked up her pencil and started scribbling a few sentences next to the L before moving down a few lines to a letter A. A little smile crossed her face as she wrote and Adrien only grew more curious as to what she was writing about. She stopped writing as Miss Bustier started class, but the little piece of paper didn't leave her desk. Whenever there was a spare moment in class, Marinette would move her hand to the piece of paper and add more to it.
-Marinette
The decision was only getting harder. Chat Noir had been courteous, sweet, and protective all last night. Luka was supportive and calming. And Adrien was still Adrien, as perfect and kind as ever. Sitting next to Adrien definitely did not help her decision-making skills. At the end of the class period, Miss Bustier announced that she wanted to change the book report into a group project, so that with more people, they could delve more into the themes of the book. She said they would be working with whoever they were sitting with. Marinette and Adrien both turned and smiled at each other. Marinette couldn't help but wonder if working with Adrien would only make her choice harder.
Miss Bustier gave them the last five minutes of class to choose their books and organize how they'd be working on the project. As Marinette and Adrien started going over where to work on the project, Lila was asking Miss Bustier what to do because she didn't have a partner, Miss Bustier told her she could do it by herself or join a group. Marinette felt her skin grow cold as Lila turned away from Miss Bustier and seemed to look straight at her and Adrien. She tried to distract Adrien, "So do you want to work on it at lunch at your place today? We can just start analyzing what we think about the book." Adrien nodded eagerly. They'd decided to still do lunch that day because Adrien had already planned it, then to go back to eating with Alya and Nino.
"So what book are you two doing?" Marinette's heard Lila's voice drawl in front of them. Marinette looked at Adrien, but his face surprised her. He looked genuinely angry, showing that he definitely remembered what had happened yesterday. "We're doing Pride and Prejudice." He said somewhat coldly, "and it's going to be a great project." Lila and Marinette were both taken aback. Lila still tried again, "Well can I join the great project?" She laughed. Marinette opened her mouth to respond, but Adrien beat her to the punch. "We'd prefer to do it ourselves, Lila. Perhaps you could do War and Peace by yourself. You'd definitely learn something." Lila had no retort; she stood up and tossed her hair and stalked back to her seat. Marinette turned to look at Adrien. "Wow." He gave Marinette a smile, "I really didn't want to work with her on the project. I mean, can you imagine taking her to my house to work on the project? She'd tell my father so many lies that she wouldn't remember them all and he'd just grill her. I think the last thing we need is Lila akumatized for the third time." Marinette nodded in understanding, and reached for her little paper. She had one more thing to write for A: true courage.
-Adrien-
When the lunch bell rang, everyone stood up to leave. Marinette snatched up her little piece of paper and stuffed it in her pocket as she and Adrien separately made their way to Adrien's car. As Marinette walked through the courtyard, she stopped to say hi to Luka. Adrien didn't hear what she said or how he replied, but both of them smiled shyly. As she walked toward the front of the school, she seemed to mutter to herself. Adrien tried to ignore the hot burning in his chest or the confusion of Marinette seemingly talking to herself. Was she nervous to be around him? What if something was wrong? He'd definitely have to find out. As he went down the stairs, and Marinette waited for him he saw her looking back into the courtyard, as though pondering as if she'd lost something. Something was definitely up.