As time goes by, Himawari realizes that she has been a part of Ms. Bustier for more than 1 month. Her student life goes quite well, except for Chloe who keeps bothering her even at the smallest thing. Marinette and Alya have helped her get away from the blonde's troublesome attitudes, with Adrien and Nino stand by to aid her every time things get a bit too far.
Today is another example of how Chloe Bourgeois is being mean to her. Because the PE teacher has to leave early so he combines both her class and Luka's class to study PE, with today's lesson is about cartwheeling and vaulting horse jump, which is a new lesson plan that he adapted from his business trip to Japan.
"Ugh, utterly ridiculous. You expect me to do all of those stupid jumps and dirtied my expensive shoes?"
"It's okay, Chloe! I'll do it for you!" Sabrina smiles.
They're gathering in the indoor PE room with students wearing a different styles of sports attire and Himawari immediately spots the familiar teal locks from afar. He's talking to his classmates and doesn't realize that she's staring at him. Juleka taps her shoulder, a smile appears on her face as she looks in the same direction as the raven head.
Although it's a PE class, Luka still carries his guitar on the back. The younger Couffaine explains that the guitar is like a part of his soul, his most precious possession, the instrument that has been with him since diapers.
"Really?"
Underneath that calm and composure is a huge passion for music, the older Couffaine usually express his thought through the tune he plays on his guitar which is one main reason why he charms many girls in the school. Himawari, when hearing this, she finds that there's a similarity between them. She knows that she's not the most talkative girl, which is why the raven head usually expresses herself through the form of art, drawings and sketches that often imply many hidden messages. Not many people can understand her ideas, which is why she rather not talk about them than have to sit in a chair for hours, just to explain her own perspective of the story.
Maybe, if she can gather enough courage, she can walk up and say hello to him. Yeah, she will do that. It may leave him another good impression of her, that would be nice…
But before she can even start walking, Marinette has come to his side, sitting down right next to him with a sad expression on her face. Immediately, she turns to Adrien, who is having quite a pleasant conversation with another Asian girl.
"This love triangle is way more troublesome than I have thought…" Alya walks to her "That Kagami, Adrien's fencing partner."
"Alya?" she looks at the brunette "Love triangle?"
"Hm, no. Not triangle, more like a love pentagon."
With that, Himawari playfully hits the glassed girl on her shoulder, not pleased with her answer. She kinda understands what Alya is saying, with Marinette and Adrien and Luka and Kagami, their weird relationship is already messy, now with her joining the crew, it's either gonna be messier or worse for all of them.
"I think that Adrien has something for Marinette…"
"Huh? Adrien?" Alya raises a brow "What do you mean? Do you know anything?"
"Well, not really. I…observe him…a bit…" she slowly forms her word "I notice how annoyed he is whenever Luka and Marinette are together."
"What? No way! He's way too oblivious about her feelings."
"I mean…maybe? But I think he has something for her." Himawari looks at him "Alya, look!"
Slightly tilt her friend's head in the blonde direction and the glassed girl almost squeals out in excitement. They see it, that facial expression when he spots the bluenette sitting next to Luka, Kagami has left the scene and Adrien doesn't seem to care about masking his irritation anymore.
"Do you think he hates Luka?"
"I don't think so. I think that he only becomes tense around Luka when Marinette is involved in the matter."
"Nice observation, Himawari. Even I miss some of those key elements."
She smiles in return, and acknowledges her friend's compliment. However, now they know that the blonde model has a soft spot for their bluenette friend, what can they do to help the main characters realize their feelings?
Alya complains that Marinette doesn't know how to express her feelings properly, and often makes a fool of herself in front of him. She also has this weird stalking habit to the point her friend is creeped out by how well she knows all of Adrien's schedule. Alya believes that her friend can capture his attention by just being herself but Marinette thinks otherwise, she afraid that she will get all wacky whenever she faces him, either in a group of friends or alone.
"Marinette is a talented girl, I don't understand why she thinks that she needs to do more to attract him…"
"Well, it's hard to tell."
They both sigh, shaking their heads in unison.
Marinette smiles to herself as she listens to Luka's guitar, feeling a wave of relief after seeing how close Adrien and Kagami getting cozy with each other. She always has this thought that her crush and Kagami are an item but she doesn't want to take the risk of asking him, too afraid to hear the truth. Sitting next to Luka, the bluenette rests her head on his shoulder as if he is her only source of comfort.
Staying by his side, Marinette really appreciates his kind and sweet personality and how he's always there to comfort her every time she gets into trouble. Her friends have teased her that Luka might be the perfect guy rather than Adrien but to her, he's just a friend…a friend…
Alya said that she's too oblivious to understand the situation and that hurts her feeling, if anyone is being oblivious, it would be Adrien. How can he not realize her feelings? Or maybe he just ignores it?
"Are you feeling better, Marinette?"
"Yeah, thank you so much, Luka."
She smiles and gives him a kiss on the cheek, blushing as he rubs her head in return before they both go back to their class. Himawari witnesses the scene and sighs to herself, she has been sighing nonstop and it really annoys her. Just seeing how close her friend and the guitarist are makes her stomach turns. Not only that, she can see a glimpse of happiness in the aqua orbs after spending some time with Marinette, something that she is convinced she can never do.
"Okay, class! Gather up!"
Their PE teacher, Mr. Ross, calls out as the students begin to gather around him.
"Today, we'll practice cartwheeling and vaulting horse jump. These activities will help with your flexibility and reflex so better pay attention to today's lecture. Before we're doing any actual jumping and flipping, we'll start with a warm-up routine and stretching. Pair up!"
Pair up?
The students look at each other, puzzled. Why do they have to pair up? The sound of Mr. Ross's whistle catches everyone's attention as they begin to find their partner, either from the same class or a different class. Marinette gets a hold of Alya while everyone in Himawari's class has finally found a partner except her. She looks around at Luka's class, disappointed to see that they've all paired up already.
"And you? Where's your partner?"
"I, uhm…"
"I'm sorry sir, but we have one student absent today so…" the bluenette replies "Is it possible for 1 group to have 3 people?"
"It can't be helped…"
Himawari smiles and walks to her friends before someone gets a hold of her hand, she turns around to see Luka, who has not paired up with anyone yet. He turns to the teacher and looks for permission as Mr. Ross nods his head in approval for them to pair up. Alya whistles teasingly and Marinette claps her hands in excitement, others give them a knowing look while some female students send her cold glares that make Himawari sweatdrops.
"Okay, follow the instruction on the board and help your partner with the stretching. When you finish, jog around the room for 3 rounds, that will be your warm-up session."
Some students complain about jogging but Mr. Ross is known to be a strict and serious teacher so their whinings don't seem to bother him that much. Himawari looks at the board, surprised to see how similar the stretching session is to the Japanese one she had at her previous school, at least she's familiar with all the steps.
"Shall we start?"
"Ah, sure. Do you want to do it first?"
Luka nods his head and follows the steps for the stretching session. They do a few stand-alone moves first before pairing up to help their partners with moves like crunches, sit-ups, sitting stretches, etc. The raven head gently pushes down the boy's back as he performs the stretching, afraid that he will be hurt if she uses too much strength. Luka tells her to put more strength into her hand because he doesn't feel anything while stretching his whole upper body on the floor.
Then they switch, this time with Luka holding tightly on her feet as she does the crunches. Himawari slowly and carefully crunches her abs, feeling the pressure and the pain in her stomach, it's been quite a while since she has this kind of warm-up. With the stretching, it's a different story. The guitarist is amazed to see how flexible Himawari is as she's able to lay her upper body flat on the floor without any complaints whatsoever. He did ask her if it's too much but she just shakes her head in return. Her everyday yoga routine has not failed her this time.
"You're very flexible, Himawari."
"Thank you, I was able to do all the stretching because of my daily yoga routine."
"Nice, you're doing yoga?"
She smiles and nods her head, realizing that they're having such a casual conversation without her stammering or blushing, it's an improvement if you ask her. About 15 minutes later, all the students have finally finished their 3-round jogging, except for Chloe as she's threatened to call her father if Mr. Ross forces her. The PE teacher doesn't seem to care, he even states that anyone who ignores today's lecture will have to run 10 laps around the school as a punishment. The blonde girl begins to throw a fit, saying that he will regret this but her PE teacher ignores all of her screeching and yelling.
"Students, we'll start our main event. This is the vaulting horse, your job is to jump over it and land on your feet, no falling or laying on this mattress. I'll demonstrate 3 times then each class will form 2 teams to practice. I'll check your progression as each student will perform cartwheeling and vaulting horse jump at the end of this class."
There are many protests among the students, saying that this is an act of abuse but his cold glare shuts down all the complaints immediately. If anyone knows anything, they should not mess with the PE teacher. His reputation for being the spartan teacher is popular among the students and even their homeroom teacher can't say anything against him.
"They have strict teachers here?"
"Well, the principal invites him to be the teacher to tame some of the delinquent students at school. Although Chloe's dad is the mayor, he can't help her get out of this." Alya giggles "I guess that's the perk of being a strict teacher."
Her class forms into a boy-girl group, with all the boys on the left and all the girls on the right. Himawari looks around and notices that Lila, the girl who constantly glares at her during class, is indeed absent. Marinette has commented on how lucky she was for Lila to be absent, no one in the class wants to associate with her and she's too snobby to even consider them as her classmates.
"I can't believe I say this but Lila's personality is 10 times worse than Chloe's."
"Yeah, do you remember the time she got the whole class against me? My god, that's the worst thing I've ever encountered." Marinette pouts "At least you and Adrien believe in me."
"She's that…bad…?" Himawari stares at them "She's been glaring at me since my first day at school."
"Yikes! Better avoid her at all costs, girl."
They practice the vaulting horse jump, but some of the girls like Mylene and Rose aren't able to perform the jump because the jumping box is too high. Alix with her sporty enthusiastic attitude performs the jump quite easily, the girl even tries to challenge Kim, another athletic student in the class to see how can perform the perfect cartwheeling technique and vaulting horse jump. Himawari laughs at the two sportsmen before returning her attention to the jumping box in front of her. Next to Marinette is her turn so she has to mentally prepare herself for the performance.
"You're ready?" Alya looks at her "Set…! GO!"
The raven head sprints toward the box, with good reflexes and years of experience, Himawari performs her vaulting jump successfully.
Welp…At least I remember how to do it…
"Look at her, how can she do the jump in such an ungraceful manner?" Chloe speaks up "Didn't your parents teach you about mannerisms before they send you here?"
"Chloe, stop it!" Adrien, upon hearing this, walks to his 'childhood friend' and defends the petite girl.
"It's okay, let her say whatever she wants to say."
"But Himawari, she shouldn't say that to you, nor anyone else in the entire school."
Marinette pouts and looks at Chloe in displeased, the blonde girl ignores everyone in her class and focuses on her nails instead. Himawari just shakes her head, telling them to ignore the spoiled blonde. She's used to the bratty attitude and is way too mature to even let Chloe's words affect her.
"How can you be so calm like that?"
"Cause I don't take her seriously." she smiles at her friends "Besides, she's going to face Mr. Ross's punishment if she can't perform the vaulting horse jump."
"But…"
"Marinette, Himawari is right. We shouldn't stand on her level." Adrien puts a hand on the bluenette's shoulder "By the way, your jump was amazing."
"Not as amazing as Marinette, right?"
The blonde boy chuckles and nods his head, his actions shocked the young designer as she blushes and gasps out incomprehensive words. Patting her shoulder one last time, Adrien winks and returns to the boy's line, leaving Marinette to smile like an idiot in love, completely forgetting everything that had happened between him and Kagami.
"Adrien just touched my shirt, I'll never wash it ever again!"
"Uhm, you know you're wearing it in PE class, right?"
Marinette pouts and playfully hits her shoulder, feeling grateful because Himawari has mentioned how amazing her jump was in front of Adrien. Her blue eyes keep following him, longing and yearning for the affection that he has given to Kagami.
"You know, you should be yourself. There's no reason for you to try to impress him just for his attention."
"I'm…I don't know, Himawari. I just…He will never look at me the same way." Marinette sighs "And Kagami, she's just too perfect…"
"Even the most perfect person has flaws, Marinette. We're humans, we make mistakes, we have flaws and we have issues." Himawari smiles and gently pats her friend's shoulder "Embrace your true self, only then you will see how beautiful you are in everyone's eyes."
Her? Beautiful? Himawari is messing with her. How can a baker girl like her be beautiful like Kagami? Nothing about her is perfect, nothing…
"If Kagami is that perfect, why would Adrien even bother to be friends with you?"
"Because he's just a nice person."
"Well, he's nice but at the same time, he sees you as…you... Not the class representative, not the baker girl at the famous bakery, he sees you as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the most talented person who has many flaws yet stays true to her own self."
Marinette stares at her friend, face burning red at the compliment. Looking at Himawari, she's very kind and sweet and gentle yet very mature despite her young age. Her words of wisdom have lightened the bluenette's heart as she smiles and hugs the raven head tightly.
"Thank you so much, Himawari."
Their practice time is over as Mr. Ross blows the whistle to gather up his students. As he had said previously, each and every student have to perform cartwheeling and vaulting horse jump. As their name is called to perform, Himawari turns to her side to see Chloe and Sabrina, whose faces are as pale as a ghost. They didn't practice and instead, focused on other stuff that wasn't related to PE. When Mr. Ross calls Sabrina's name, the poor orange head's performance is poorly received as she landed on her butt with a loud 'thud', which causes many other students to snicker and make fun of her.
"Ugh, just how pathetic can you be, Sabrina?"
"I'm so sorry Chloe!" she cries when the blonde doesn't even care about giving her any words of encouragement.
Himawari feels bad for her, Marinette was right when she said that Chloe shouldn't treat anyone that poorly. Ignoring the irritating feeling, she watches Juleka's performance and smiles as the girl is able to land on her feet, still a little bit wobbly. The next performance is Luka's as many girls cheer when his name is called. Alya glances at her, smiling mischievously, implying that 'this is how popular your guy' and she just shrugs her shoulder in response.
Amethyst eyes examine his act, which scores a perfect 10 on Mr. Ross's list as he lands perfectly on his feet, both in cartwheeling and vaulting horse jump. His classmates clap their hands and she can hear the girls cheer on the phrase 'so cool' and 'so amazing' when the teacher pats his shoulder as a compliment. Spotting the familiar raven head, he sends her a charming smile before returning to his seats which causes many girls to squeal in excitement.
"Nice, he's looking at you, Himawari!"
"Oh, that's just so romantic." Rose's eyes turn into heart shapes as she exclaims.
"Awesome!" Juleka nods her head.
Himawari sweatdrops at her friends' responses but also smiles to herself. At least he doesn't ignore her or anything similar to that, it'd be very weird when she tries to be closer while Luka just wants to avoid her.
"Next, Himawari Ono!"
"You're next, girl!"
"Good luck!"
She nods her head and runs up to the starting point. Looking at the teacher for a signal, she begins her performance when after hearing the whistle sounds. Luka sits on the side, aqua eyes widening as he witnesses her performance in both activities. She's able to flip her whole body all the way to the end of the mattress due to her flexibility and good reflex. Different from the others, she doesn't stop after 1 cartwheel and instead, does it multiple times and then lands on her feet at the end of the mattress. Then comes the vaulting horse jump which she has mastered the techniques and successfully jumps over the boxes.
The students applaud her performance because not many of them are able to do it. None of them thinks about the fact that she'd lived in Japan for more than 10 years and had adopted all the required techniques to pass the vaulting horse jump.
She blushes at all the compliments and then notices Luka's smile while watching her actions, the petite girl shyly covers her face with soft black locks to hide the bright blush that appears on her cheek. Himawari walks back to her seat and timidly smiles as her friends tease her nonstop.
"Next, Chloe Bourgeois!"
"I'm not doing it!" she replies "And if you force me, I'll simply call my dad!"
"Well, since you don't want to do it, 10 laps around the school for you then."
Chloe glares at him, stomping her feet on the floor with a spoiled attitude. This teacher dares to talk back to her like that? Utterly ridiculous!
"I'll call my dad and you'll be fired within seconds!"
"Go ahead, tell him that I said hello."
Everyone snickers and giggles at his response, looking over to Chloe who grits her teeth in disbelief. She snaps back at those who laugh at her and walks towards Himawari to start a scene. She screams at the raven head, telling her that she's stupid and nothing about her performance is good enough to watch. The poor girl just stares at Chloe, unable to say anything because the spoiled blonde has stolen away every chance for her to fight back.
"Are you done?"
"What?"
"Are you done?" she asks again "If you're done, your punishment is waiting."
"You! I dare you to say that again!"
"I said: YOUR PUNISHMENT IS WAITING!"
Chloe flabbergasts at Himawari's loud and clear voice, gritting her teeth and stomping her foot on the floor as the raven head sighs heavily and turns her attention to somewhere else.
"That's it for today, class. You guys may take your leave, except for Ms. Chloe Bourgeois."
"This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! I'm telling my dad about this, you'll be sorry for messing with me!"