Chapter 4: Adrien - Je fais de nouveaux amis. Prendre que Papa! (I make new friends. Take that Dad!)
'Well, it seems I've made a new friend,' I think to myself with a smile as I vault across rooftops towards the hotel again. I can just barely hear the beginning of the ghost-boy's conversation:
"H-hey, Jazz…."
I have to say, I'm a bit confused by this. Who or what is Jazz? Is he talking about the music, or a person, or a codename for something or someone? Oh well. I have to get back to the hotel before Natalie notices I'm missing. Luckily, the hotel isn't too far away, I just have to remember which room is mine. It's not that hard to find, seeing as I left the window to the balcony open. I launch myself from one rooftop to another towards my hotel suite, checking mid-air to see if Natalie is in sight. Thankfully, she's not, which either means that she's still in the lobby or preparing a room for one of us. I land, checking once again if anyone can see me, transform back into Adrien Agreste, and head back through the window, Plagg flying back into my inner pocket as I do.
"Ah, Adrien!" I hear Natalie's voice say behind me. I turn around to see her, and she's holding the tablet my dad sent with us. I already know what's coming. "I was looking for you, I didn't know there was a terrace out there. Anyways, your father would like to speak with you about the show and such. I'm ready to call him when you are."
"Y-yeah. Thanks Natalie, give me a second to get some things together and then I'll join you," I start going over to my things, when a question come into my mind. "Uh, Natalie? Which room is mine?"
Natalie gestures toward a short hallway. "First door on your right." She smiles.
"Thanks," I reply, grabbing as many of my bags as I can carry and heading down the hall towards my room. I sigh when I'm out of earshot. I really didn't want to talk to father at the moment. It would just ruin my mood. But I have no real choice.
Father had finally let me go after droning on for a few hours, probably because he saw that I was falling asleep in my chair. At this point it was time for dinner, and my mood had officially been killed. Sitting down at the dinner table, Natalie seemed to have noticed my sour mood as she began to talk about going to some sort of convention tomorrow after the first day of the show, and while I know she's just trying to help, I find myself in absolutely no mood to talk and end up tuning her out. After a bit I hear her ask me a question of sorts, though I don't really hear what she actually says. As such I respond in the best way i can;
"Yeah… sure… wait, what?"
I hear Natalie sigh as I snap back to attention. "Come on now, Adrien, pay attention. I was asking you a question about the convention next to the show tomorrow. Do you want to go or not?"
"Uh, I guess? What's it for?" I reply, unsure. Natalie sighs again, but louder this time.
"Adrien, did you hear any word I said?" Rubbing her temples like she has a headache, she continues. "Never mind.. Anyways, it's a convention of supernatural and paranormal things, like unicorns and ghosts and the like. I thought you might like it since you seem to take an interest in the Akumas from back home."
I perk up. "Ghosts?" I whisper. "Heh, maybe I'll see that ghost kid…"
"Excuse me? Ghost kid?" Natalie asks. Apparently my whisper was loud enough for her to hear. "What on Earth are you talking about, Adrien?"
I get nervous. "Oh, well, you see, while you were downstairs, I met this kid…. In the elevator…. whose, uh, family is… really into ghosts! Yeah… and, um, their parents brought them here for the convention… I, think…"
"Uh huh," Natalie replies. "Well, if you come across them, I wouldn't mind if you decided to spend the afternoon at the convention with them as it would be a good thing for you to make some more friends."
"REALLY?!" I say, standing up and almost knocking the table over. I gotta watch myself, I'm gaining an absurd amount of strength as Chat. Natalie cringes a bit, but smiles kindly.
"Yes, Adrien." She replies. I run around the table and hug her.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
She pats my back. "You're welcome, now sit down and finish your dinner. We have to get up early tomorrow."
"Right!" I say with a nod as I sit back down and eat, a new burst of energy inside me as the excitement of tomorrow's afternoon fuel me.
This morning, I was somewhat tired as I had a hard time sleeping the night before, what with the excitement for this afternoon.
"Adrien! Hurry up, we need to get going!" Natalie calls to me.
"Coming!" I yell back, almost falling over putting on my pants. "Time to go, Plagg, you can eat your camembert on the way." I say quieter. Plagg just rolls his eyes at me as he goes under my overshirt and I dash out of my room to meet Natalie. She hands me my bag and a granola bar. "Here, we don't want you to be hungry when we get there." She tells me before opening the door. Together, we briskly walk to the elevators where we wait for one to show up.
It feels like an eternity until the elevator gets here, however that's mostly because we're on the top floor. The elevator arrives with a *DING!* and a female voice saying "Top floor; going down.". We walk into the elevator and I hit the button for the lobby.
As the doors are closing, we hear a loud, deep voice from down the hall say, "HOLD THAT ELEVATOR DOOR!" But before we could do anything, a big hand in a slick, black glove stops the doors just before they close. The doors fully open again, and greeting us was a tall, bulky man in an orange jumpsuit, completely out of breath. "Thank… you…" he says between breaths.
"Jack, sweetie, I told you not to run, another elevator would've come for us." a woman says, catching up with her husband. She is wearing a similar jumpsuit to Jack, but hers is a blue-green color, and not to mention she is significantly smaller than him. She put her hand on his shoulder, bracing him as he regained his breath.
Two kids jogged up to meet them, presumably their children. The girl looks older, and has long orange hair, resembling the color of woman's shorter hair, held back with a teal headband. She is wearing a black long sleeve shirt and teal pants, and moves to stand in the doorway of the elevator, probably to make sure it didn't close again. The boy has black hair and is wearing jeans and a white shirt with a red oval in the center and seems more concerned with getting in the elevator than his father.
Jack, finally able to move, gets into the elevator, followed quickly by his wife. The girl jumps in too, glancing towards the elevator buttons before pulling out a book. Apparently they're going down to the lobby as well, because nobody hits any buttons. The doors finally close, and the elevator starts moving downwards.
"Oh, boy! I've been waiting for this for FOREVER, Maddie." Jack told his wife. "This convention is going to be amazing! Just think of all the awesome anti-ghost equipment we'll find to upgrade our weapons… and the Fenton Anti-Ghost Assault Vehicle! I mean, uh... the RV!" He looks like a little child on his way to the fudge shop.
I can see Natalie get curious. 'Uh oh...' I think.
"Ghosts? Adrien, are these the people you mentioned yesterday?" Her eyes drift down to the boy. "Is this the boy that you met on your way up?"
I open my mouth to attempt to make a reply for her, but Jack's voice fills the elevator before I can make a sound. "Ah, Danny-boy! It's about time you made more friends. Finally, another person to talk about ghosts with!"
"More likely to scare away…." The girl says, keeping her face in her book.
The boy and I exchange looks. I think we're thinking the same thing. "Uhm… yeah, sure…" We say in unison. I smile at Danny, and he smiles back.
'I think I just made an accidental friend,' I think, still keeping eye contact with Danny. He nods up towards his dad, and I look over to see him looking at me, waiting for something.
"R-right, uhm, good to meet you, Mister… uh.." I extend my arm out to him.
He snatches my hand and gives it a firm shake. "Fenton," He says with a smile. "Jack Fenton. And this is my lovely wife, Maddie," Maddie gives me a smile and a small wave and Jack continues talking. "My daughter, Jasmine."
"Just call me Jazz," she says, not taking her eyes off of her book for a second.
"Right," Jack rubs the back of his graying head. "And of course, you already know my boy, Danny!"
"It's a pleasure, sir," I say, kind of intimidated by this ghost-centered family. "My name is Adrien, and this is my father's assistant, Natalie. She's acting as my guardian while I'm in New York for the week, since my father is too busy at home."
Natalie gives a quick wave from behind me. "It's nice to meet you all, I take it you are going to the convention down the block?"
"That's right!" Answers Maddie. "My husband and I are really excited, although the kids seem a little... less enthused."
"You got that right," Jazz chuckles, still not straying from her book, but turning the page.
"Uh, I'm more on the side of 'I'd rather not be with my parents during this' because they're just too crazy." Danny pitches to me under his breath, before crossing his arms and looking at one of the mirror walls of the elevator.
Just as he does, however, the elevator stops, but not at the lobby, at the 10th floor. The door opens to what looks like a class of students. One of the taller boys in the front catches my attention with his purple hair. He seems to have noticed me staring, as he smiles and waves at me. I wave back, thinking hopefully I'll see this purple-haired kid again, and maybe ask him why his hair is purple in the first place.
One of the adults around the kids speaks up. "Ooh, even though these are big elevators, I don't think we could fit many of our students in here. We'll wait for the next one, okay?" A long groan is heard from the students. The man turns around to lecture them, but we only hear a few muffled words as the door slides closed and we continue our descent.
CHAPTER END
