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Chapter 3

Instinctively reacting to the scream, Marinette stood up from her seat. Oddly enough, Adrien did the same thing. But before they could say anything, their teacher came running towards them. Her outfit was different than her normal school attire from earlier. Now she wore khaki capris and a light grey cotton hoodie, with some white tennis shoes. Other students began to gather after her. Their faces were more confused than scared, though Rose clutched to Juleka tightly.

Ms. Bustier cleared her throat, her face tense but brave, "You all stay here. I will be right back; I am just going to check on the noise. I am sure it is nothing to worry about, but I want you to stay here where it's safe."

"Shouldn't someone come with you?" Adrien asked her as the other students nodded in agreement.

She smiled at them, and with a comforting tone said "I'm sure it's nothing, please all of you stay. I will be right back."

And with that she jogged into the forest following the dark trail. Everyone watched her and didn't move until she was out of sight. The silence was dreary and finally Chloe spoke,

"Well now what?"

Alix groaned, "there's nothing to do here, and we can't go down the trail.."

"Maybe we should just stay in our cabins, until she gets back?" Max suggested.

Everyone agreed. It wouldn't be fun but things were tense and there wasn't much else they could in the meantime. Marinette and Alya walked together to the cabin next to them. Inside the cabin was tight, just two small wooden framed beds with hard mattresses on each side of the room with a little table in between them. By the foot of Alya's bed was a little bench, big enough for the two of them to sit together but it would be crammed. They each laid on their own beds, looking at the ceiling. There was a tiny window above them, and Marinette thought about how nice it will be to see the stars at night.

Alya thought otherwise and said aloud, "that'll be creepy at night."

Marinette laughed, but it came out more nervous than she had intended. The air suddenly felt awkward.

"You think she's okay?" Alya asked softly.

"I don't know," Marinette whispered, "I wonder who it was that screamed."

Alya shook her head, "We just got here and already something weird's happened."

Marinette agreed. The girls chatted for some time, and then decided to be productive. They got out paper, pencils, crayons, tape, and scissors. Half an hour later, the walls were decorated with colorful stars and flowers. Alya drew Ladybug and Marinette drew Chat Noir, giggling at the silliness of the drawings. They taped those to the wall as well.

"Now we'll still have Paris' heroes watching over us and keeping us safe!" Alya proclaimed proudly with hands on her hips.

Marinette smiled sweetly at her friend, hoping that Ladybug wouldn't be needed anytime soon.

….

Everyone had gathered back at the picnic tables next to Marinette and Alya's cabin. A little over two hours had passed since Ms. Bustier left and the students were beginning to panic. Mylene was crying into Ivan's chest as he held her close, as Alix was anxiously pacing from cabin to cabin. Chloe was cursing her phone for its lack of signal while she muttered something about her daddy, and everyone else was silent and clearly stressed out. It was hot out too, which just added more frustrastion.

"What the hell are we going to do if she doesn't come back?" Nino suddenly shouted and slumped his body across the table.

Alya rubbed his back, and no one responded to his question.

Marinette couldn't take it anymore, "I'm going to check on her. What if something happened and she needs our help?"

All eyes were on her now, and Alya's mouth dropped, "You're insane," she gasped, "What if you, like, get eaten by something?"

Adrien stood up, "I'll go with you, Marinette."

Marinette blushed and then Nino stood too, "Don't mind if I third wheel, right?"

Chloe scoffed, "As if Adrien would ever be with her! Marinette is so gross she'd probably try to get with Nino behind Alya's back!"

"Shut up, Chloe" Alya said, glaring at the blonde through her thick glasses. She grabbed Marinette's arm and pulled her towards the trail.

"Well," she smiled at her surprised friend whose bright blue eyes were opened even wider, "Let's get going!"

They looked into the dark forest and the dirt trail, and then the four of them headed inside. Before they'd even taken five steps, they saw light red-orange hair bobbing in the distance.

"Ms. Bustier!" the teens shouted, running to her.

She looked at the students in confusion when they stopped in front of her, panting, "Yes?"

Marinette froze, something felt off, "Are you alright?"

"Yes?" their teacher responded with an irritated tone, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Nino's voice rose, "You were gone for like, two freaken' hours! After that scream scared that the shit out of all of us!"

"Nino!" she spoke sharply, "Do not curse! And well yeah, that was nothing, just scared rabbits…"

She looked away from the students and marched down the path back towards the campsite. The four gave each other worried looks, and then hurried after her.

"What's with her?" Alya whispered.

"I don't know," Marinette replied.

Adrien's brow was furrowed in concentration. Ms. Bustier glanced back at all of them, so they stopped talking. Tikki peaked out of Marinette's bag, waving her hand to catch Marinette's attention.

She glanced down quickly at the Kwami, who then whispered in a barely audible tone, "I have a very bad feeling, Marinette."

Marinette's stomach dropped, but she tucked the Kwami back into the bag. She watched her teacher walk away. She was stiff, and her walk was formal and almost unnatural. Looking closer, Marinette noticed a purple bruise like shape on the back of her neck.

So did Adrien, "Ms. Bustier?"

She turned to look at him and snapped, "What is it, Adrien?"

"Uh," he stammered in shock; she was definitely acting weird, "What is that on your neck? Did you hurt yourself?"

Ms. Bustier halted, but didn't turn around. Instead, she pulled her hair out of its tight bun and let it fall loosely around her shoulders, covering her neck. Then, she continued on without answering Adrien's question. Marinette shivered, Tikki's warning repeating in her head.

"What the hell!" Nino winced looking anxiously at his friends.

They entered the campsite, and the waiting students shouted in joy to see their teacher return. The class gathered around her and immediately started asking her questions. Ms. Bustier stiffened, looking at them but not giving a single glance towards Marinette or her three companions.

"What took you so long?" sneered Chloe.

Kim asked eagerly, "So, what was that scream?"

Juleka stood silent while Rose had one hand on her arm and jumped up and down, "Did anything happen?"

More began asking questions, but Ms. Bustier's face remained straight. She took a step back, and raised her arm to silence them.

"Enough," she began, her harsh tone appalling everyone, "the screams were merely rabbits, probably being hunted by a larger animal. But that's no concern. I was just enjoying the trail and time must have slipped past me. I'm tired and going to rest, how about you all go down the trail to a lake and swim. It's about a twenty-minute hike there and the weather is… nice."

With that, she left them and went to her cabin, slamming the door shut behind her.