Marinette really wanted to be paired up with Adrien for the project, and then she could sit next to him for a whole week! But hey, at least she got paired with the smartest kid in school. Maybe they could finish the project early and have free time instead.

"Hey Max," Marinette walked over to him when class was over, "Do you want to work on the project after school today?"

"Certainly! We'll meet in the school library. See you later, Marinette." Max exited the classroom and Marinette waited for Alya to finish talking to Nino.

"Hey, sorry that took so long. We were just deciding on a time to meet up and get started on the project." Alya said when she finally joined her bff.

"This project was the perfect opportunity to have an excuse to hang out with Adrien. I wish we would've been paired together like you and Nino." Marinette sighed as they walked to their lockers together.

"Project or no project, if you want to hang out with him, just ask him to hang out!" Alya said as if it weren't already obvious.

They reached their lockers and began switching their books out. "Yeah I know, but you know his father rarely lets him out of the house. This way he wouldn't have been able to say no."

Marinette closed her locker and saw Meg opening hers. Lucky girl. She gets to sit next to Adrien for a whole week.

"Hey Meg."

"Oh hey, Marinette. Alya. What's up?"

"Not much. We were just talking about the science project." Marinette said.

"I'm kind of looking forward to it. Science is actually pretty fun, and if there's anything I'm good at, it's chemistry." Meg replied with a wink.

What is that supposed to mean? Chemistry? With Adrien! Thought Marinette, frantically.

"Well I have to go if I'm going to have time to change for P.E. see you girls later!" Meg went in the direction of the gym class locker rooms.

Immediately Marinette turned to Alya.

"Did you hear that Alya?! She's good at chemistry." Marinette put air quotes around the last word.

"Yeah? That's what class the project is for." Alya was a bit confused.

"But she WINKED, Alya." Said Marinette, and when Alya still seemed confused she went on, "There's chemistry, and there's chemistry. Adrien is her partner and she WINKED when she said she was good at chemistry!" Marinette was frazzled.

"You're being ridiculous, girl." Alya was starting to catch on.

"Don't you see Alya! She's going to try to use this project as a way to get close to the love of my life!"

"You mean like you wanted to?" Alya quipped.

"That's different," said Marinette, "he's MY crush!"

Marinette could see it all now: her worst fears coming to life. Meg and Adrien would hit it off during the project, date for the rest of school. And the next year. And the next until graduation. They would go away to college together. They'd come back and get married and have kids and have a hamster!

"Well then you'd better hurry up and tell him how you feel before another girl does." Alya said as she left to go to her next class.

I've tried! Marinette whispered internally. She dragged her feet to her next class as she thought about all of the times she tried so much as speaking to Adrien, and her sentences came out as mush. Sure, she was getting a little bit better at talking to him, but to tell him that she was in love with him was a whole other thing altogether.

The bell rang and Marinette grabbed books out of her locker before heading to the library to meet Max and start working on the project. Of course Max was already there with his books spread out and notes piled high. I wish I were good at at least one kind of chemistry, thought Marinette as she put on a smile and dove into work with Max.

A little while later, Max declared them finished with work for the day. Marinette was relieved. All of this worrying about Adrien and Meg had her stomach in knots. She just wanted to get home and clear her mind for a bit before her patrol later that night.

Marinette was so focused on her internal drama that she didn't notice the person right in front of her before it was too late.

OOF!

She ran headfirst into whoever it was, spilling both of their belongings all over the floor.

"Sorry! I'm so clumsy." She said, bending down to grab the books and papers off of the floor.

"It's okay Marinette; it's part of your charm."

A familiar face knelt beside her helping to pick up the mess she made. A familiar, handsome face. A familiarly handsome face with the greenest eyes a girl had ever seen. And he smelled so…so…radiant. Carefree. Dreamy.

"Adrien, the fragrance."

She saw the handsome face look confused as she realized she'd said those words aloud.

"W-what I meant was: is that your cologne I smell, Adrien? The fragrance in the air?"

He chuckled. "Oh yeah, I forgot I was wearing it."

"It smells new, different from what you usually wear. Trying to impress a cute girl?" she giggled a little, vaguely aware that she'd just said she knows what his usual cologne smells like.

"Just the lady who does my laundry," he laughed "It's either this or stinky cheese."

"Cheese?" Now it was Marinette's turn to be confused.

"Uh, it's just a little joke." Adrien quickly said. "So were you working on your project with Max?"

"Yes, I was. I'm lucky to have him as a partner, because he understands the assignment a lot more than I do." Although I probably would've understood it better had I been able to actually focus on it instead of think about you the whole time.

"You sound like me with Meg. She's pretty good at chemistry from what I've seen so far. I'll admit though, I was a bit too distracted to be much help anyway."

"Oh, really? Distracted how?" Oh she's good at chemistry all right. She's funny, smart, and now distracting, too.

"Well she showed me these amazing photos that she took, and I couldn't get my mind off of them."

"What kind of photos?" WHAT KIND OF PHOTOS?!

"She's a photographer, so all kinds, really. But there were some of Ladybug and Cat Noir that were pretty awesome. She's really talented." Marinette noticed that he had a really dreamy look in his eye. Oh no, it's worse than I thought!

"You know," Adrien continued, "You should talk to Alya about looking at her photos and seeing if she'd like to use them for the Ladyblog."

"That's a good idea." Marinette tried her hardest to crack a smile.

There was a buzzing sound, and Adrien pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"That's my bodyguard. It was nice talking to you, Marinette. See you later."

Marinette waved until he was no longer in sight, then her shoulders slumped.

She climbed the stairs to her room, and collapsed onto her bed. What a mentally draining day. Tikki floated up beside her.

"Are you okay, Marinette?"

"This is a disaster, Tikki! She hasn't even been here for a whole week and she's managed to sweep Adrien off of his feet."

"Don't you think you're over reacting a bit?" Tikki asked, always the voice of reason.

"You didn't see the way he looked when he talked about her. I don't think I've ever seen that look on his face. And," Marinette indicated all of the photos around her, "I've seen a lot of looks on his face."

"It sounded to me like he just admired her work. But if you're so worried about it, why don't you send him a text?"

"And say what? 'Hey, Adrien just wondering if you fell in love with the new girl?'" she groaned.

"Or you could say 'Hey'."

Marinette looked at her phone as it sat next to her. She reached to pick it up, and it buzzed with a new message. She and Tikki exchanged glances at the coincidence. It was a text from a number she didn't recognize.

[1 382 472 2990] Hey, Marinette! It's Meg. I forgot to get your number after we hung out yesterday, so I asked Adrien for it. I hope that's cool!

"It's Meg," she told Tikki.

[MARINETTE] It's cool. What's up?

[MEG] Not much. Do you have plans tonight?

She had patrols with Cat Noir later, but she couldn't exactly say that.

[MARINETTE] Sort of, I have plans for a quiet night in. It was a long day.

[MEG] Okay, no sweat! Well, you have my number now. Text me sometime!

[MARINETTE] Will do!

"She seems like a really nice girl. Maybe you should tell her about your crush on Adrien, and she'll understand." said Tikki.

"Maybe."

Marinette didn't want to think about it any more. She was looking forward to patrolling with Cat Noir later that night to help get her mind off of the whole situation.