When Ladybug reached her home, she turned back to Marinette.
"Whew. I'm exhausted ,"said Tikki as she allowed herself to relax on Marinette's warm hand.
"Yeah, me too. Let's call it a day,"yawned Marinette. Then her eyes turned as wide as saucers.
"Oh no! My homework-I didn't even start on it! We only have a few hours before we need to go to school!" Marinette paced around her room, hands on her hand. She quickly grabbed her backpack and dumped out the contents.
"Hmmm. Let's see, this goes here, I'm doing this first. Okay...done!" Marinette sat down on her chair, and rolled herself to the table. She quickly set herself to doing her homework, writing at rapid speed.
"Oh boy...well, if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep,"said Tikki. Her eyelids were already beginning to droop, and all she could hear was the scritch scritch of Marinette's pencil against paper.
"Alright, Tikki. You can go get some rest. I'll wake you up in the morning and join you as soon as you're done….." that was all Tikki could hear before she fell asleep on Marinette's soft, comfy bed.
When Tikki woke up, she saw that all of Marinette's textbooks were jammed into her backpack. Marinette was asleep on the table, snoring.
Tikki glanced at the clock. Oh no! Marinette is going to be late! Tikki shook Marinette until she woke up. After that, Marinette scrambled to change her clothes and zip her bookbag up. She ran down the stairs, Tikki in her pouch and grabbed a toast. She stuffed the toast in her mouth and slung her backpack over her shoulders.
"Bye, Mom!"said Marinette, her voice muffled by the toast in her mouth. She ran out the door.
Marinette slid into her seat, with minutes to spare.
"Woo! Girl, you set a new record for all the late girls out there, running to school,"said Alya. She slung her hand around Marinette's shoulder. Alya poked her face.
"Oh, come on, Alya."said Marinette, rolling her eyes. She really did appreciate her friend's sarcasm, but sometimes it was a bit too over the top. Alya quickly took her hand from Marinette's shoulder and placed it respectably on her lap, seeing that Miss Bustier just walked in from the doorway. She was holding a flyer in her hand. She stepped to the front of the room.
"Ahem. Please settle down. We have a really important event happening soon, and it's called Battle of the Bands. It's not mandatory, but the maximum number for people in one band is four. I will let you choose your own groups. However, you will have to promise me that you will be productive in your groups. There will be a secret prize for whoever wins. Bands will be competing against the school, so please put your team effort into this. Remember kids, this is a privilege. Please don't make me withdraw you from the competition. Enjoy."
There was a long silence after Miss Bustier finished her speech. Then, everyone started talking and cheering for Miss Bustier. Miss Bustier looked pleased as she told the class to settle down again.
Adrien, Nino, Alya had Marinette quickly turned to each other before Chloe could come and snatch Adrien away from them. She was about to do the very thing, but seeing that the band was already filled to the maximum of four, she was left there with her mouth open. She quickly humphed at them and crossed her arms.
"Well, I don't want to be in the snobby group with Marinette-Dupain-Cheng anyways. Well...except Adrien,"she sighed, and started twirling her hair at the mention of Adrien. Not to mention staring at him.
By the end of the day, the little band had decided that Marinette would play the electric keyboard that she could strap over her shoulder. Nino would play the drums, Adrien would play the guitar, and Alya would play the maracas. Marinette would be the lead singer with Adrien coming in at some parts, and Alya would be the backup singer, adding chorus to Marinette and Adrien's music.
Marinette had her own special strap on electric guitar to bring to the practices. Adrien would get Alya and Nino their instruments. Adrien had been secretly practicing guitar since he was little, so he would bring his own guitar.
Everything was set. Now all they had to do was practice at the rehearsals and win it.
Marinette was so excited about spending more time with Adrien that she accidently forgot about Tikki, who was still in her pouch. Tikki had heard all of their plans, and now had a huge frown over her face.
Why did she care? Why did she care that Marinette was going to spend more time with her friends than her? She didn't. But no matter how much she tried to believe herself, she couldn't.
The gnawing feeling inside her grew, and she did not know what it was.