A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter seems sad, but Chloe's life is sad.
"Whore!" shouts a man to my right.
Very original. And mature, considering he could triple my age.
He tries to grab my hair but the bodyguard stops him.
"Because of you, Paris is in ruins!" exclaims a woman to my left.
I don't know where that came from. In any case, it would be the fault of my father, who is the mayor.
To show how in ruins it is, he throws food at me, which the bodyguard stops with an umbrella.
"You are the worst person in Paris! Human waste!"
What honor!
I'm worse than child molesters and all these people here trying to hit me.
I walk through the crowd of people yelling at me with my head held high and my back straight. I try my best to put on a poker face.
Even if I feel like crying.
The only thing that separates me from that crowd are four bodyguards.
I stand at the top of the stairs that lead to the entrance of the school. They stay at the foot of these.
Yesterday my father (that is, my mother) decided that I could not miss school anymore. The problem is that there were always people who hated me at the entrance and I couldn't get through.
So he had a 'lightbulb moment' (this time it was my father) and he talked to the police so that they put someone to protect minors who have been harassed daily by adults for months at the entrance of my school.
Now there are no unauthorized adults beyond the sidewalk. Which leaves me a nice overhead space above all those haters.
I feel like shit. But I'm not going to give them the satisfaction of knowing that.
So from up here I try to put on a straight face. The crowd falls silent for a moment.
"Are you crying because I caused an akuma? That's what Hawk Moth does." I turn to the woman. "Are you going around as a moralist? Because you are perfect and superior." I make fun of one of the men. "Everything that goes wrong in Paris is the fault of a fifteen-year-old girl." I say ironically, looking around the crowd. "I have a few words for all of you." And this time I smile, in the most cocky way possible. "Fuck you, you ridiculous!"
I walk into the school as chaos breaks out behind me.
No one else goes in or out when I do. They avoid me like the plague. The courtyard is empty at the moment, allowing me to sigh to relax a bit.
I know that I caused Kim's akuma. And I apologized to him (because Kagami asked me to). Anyway, it wasn't that bad. He's already seeing another girl, that's how much he liked me.
Although that does not mean that what I said was true. I can't date any guy who doesn't measure up.
Kim doesn't really fit into that physically. And financially we don't even talk. But the economics could be avoided if he fit in the physical.
My mother changed almost all the hotel employees. She fired about seventy who didn't fit her preferred canon.
There were too many fat older women as cleaners, too many foreigners as receptionists, and horrendous waiters and bellboys.
Now most of the employees are young and beautiful French men and women, none of them from the suburbs. The only employees who have kept their position are those who will not be seen by guests.
My father didn't like the change at all and he didn't admit any discussion about Jean. He is staying.
After seeing that, it's clear that I can't go out with Kim. Not only is he Asian, which my mom would hate, but he's also ugly. And on top of it he is poor. He doesn't meet a single requirement.
And of course it couldn't stay there. My mom can't see guys like him constantly asking me out. It would tarnish her image.
I'm lucky Kagami is rich too or I'd have to stop being with her.
As for Alix, well, we've come to an agreement to pretend we get along. For Kagami. My mother will never see me speak to her.
"What did you just do?" asks a voice.
A treacherous voice.
I thought the countyard was empty, but no, here is Sabrina. It's not like she's very conspicuous either, all the while trying not to attract attention.
"What do you care?" I reply, straightening my back again.
"You've made quite a ruckus."
I start walking towards the class, as if I didn't care in the least about the traitor's words. She follows me, she doesn't walk beside me. An old habit.
"I repeat: what do you care?"
She looks like she's not going to answer, but she does.
"That you're pushing a line, a lot. Look Chloe, I left you because you were being mean. But I still want us to get along. I still care about you. If you continue like this you will have a mass of people hating you and that is not good."
What right does she think she has to tell me how to behave? That she still cares? That's a lie. If she cared the least, she would have done something during these years. I feel the heat rise from my chest to my face.
"And who are you to tell me anything?"
I hope she stays quiet, that she doesn't have the guts to talk back to me. But she does.
"Someone who..."
"No. You are nobody." I interrupt her.
"Before, when you were with me everyone saw you, because they saw me." I know I'm going to hurt her, but I don't care. She will cry for me as much as I have for her. "You took advantage of my fame and money. But now you are nobody. You have stopped being my lapdog to be that of someone who has many others. And she doesn't pay half as much attention to you as I did." I do not see her. I don't know what face she is making. Neither I care. "Now you are invisible. Because you are nobody. You have looked for it yourself."
I smile. She have to regret being a traitor!
She is silent for a very long time. She knows I'm right. Leaving me and siding with her was the worst thing she could have done.
I turn around, wanting her to see the smile. But she is not. Where has the traitor gone?
Well okay, fuck it. I go to class.
On the way, Pollen's voice comes out of her bag.
"You have been very harsh. My queen, I know you are hurt, but the solution to your pain is not to cause it to others. You will only make everything worse. Trust me, I have thousands of years of experience."
She is right. Though I'm not going to be the one to apologize first. She was the one who abandoned me, let her do it.
I sit in my usual seat. Although Kagami sits lonely, I don't take Alix's place. I'm not going to be the replacement for that insolent shorty.
She is still expelled. Kim I-suffer-a-lot-because-you-rejected-me constantly turns to her seat only to remember later that she's not there.
Kagami is writing on her schedule in Japanese. She has a wet leaf in her hair.
The first thing I think of is criticizing, but even if that's the only thing I'm good at, I'm not going to do it. She told me that she didn't want insults and I made that stupid deal with Alix for a reason.
So she quietly took it from her.
She turns and looks at the leaf.
"Are you nervous?" she asks.
"Huh?"
"You have a strange face. And today is the presentation."
Oh it's true. I told Jean this morning. I had forgotten it.
It's the traitor's fault.
My presentation about corpses will be much better than hers. Professor Mendeleiev loves the unique and different, she is a bit of a freak. Sabrina won't get flamboyant enough for her, she just knows how to be invisible.
My eyes go to Nathanael. Again and without my wanting. Before he was as invisible as Sabrina and now I can't take my eyes off of him. It is unfair.
That he is QueenBeeFan187 doesn't mean anything. That his colors are beautiful doesn't mean anything either. That he defended me from Internet perverts definitely doesn't mean anything. He hates me.
I have to stop looking at him and concentrate on my presentation.
But I don't get it and I keep getting distracted until chemistry class.
The first to present, of course, is the Marionette group. And surprise, surprise, it's her and Adrien. She has made him wear clothes designed by her. Is there a time when she is not the center of everything?
I don't know if it's good or bad that it's not Nathanael. I'd love to see him wearing something other than the usual Halloween clothes. But at the same time it's good that he doesn't see my weird behavior.
I don't even know what's wrong with me.
The second group to present is supposed to be the traitor's one, but since she is not there, the teacher gives her a little more time by changing her turn.
Lucky for me, Jean is on time. And what I told him to bring, too.
I put a honey candy in my mouth and get up to go to the front of the class. The door opens and Jean enters pushing a stretcher on which there is a corpse.
Exactly, a dead body. An ordinary man who decided to "donate" his body to a company for a lot of money.
And my father bought it for me.
What better than to have a real corpse for an presentation about them?
The reactions of my classmates are... varied.
Disgust, fear, reproach, fascination on the part of Juleka. I do not mind. I just start my speech memorized while using the body as an example. I do great, and I don't look at Nathanael once. Everything goes well and smoothly, most of the time.
But, when I am about to finish, the hand of the body rises by itself.
I stop talking and several people yell. Mylene gets up running from the front row and goes to her boyfriend. Coward.
Kagami stands up with flute in hand.
I turn to Mrs. Mendeleiev's seat to announce that I am going to continue, but she is not there.
Suddenly, I feel a pressure on my neck that doesn't let me breathe. An unknown force knocks me to the ground.
I put my hands to my neck and find that what is there are hands. I kick and hit nothing. I try to remove those hands and I can't. I try to catch my breath, but no.
I'm suffocating. I'm getting dizzy and my vision is blurry.
A flute crosses my vision. The direction is the air in front of my face. The object slows down and I can breathe a little better. Kagami kicks right under the flute and the pressure is gone completely.
"It's the ghost of that man!" Mylene yells.
"It is an akuma!" corrects the stupid Marionette.
My eyes and throat itch.
Kagami is in front of me fighting something invisible. People watch, except Shrill Snooper, who records, and Adrien, who gets up to help Kagami kick into the air.
I try to get up but I can't. I feel weak.
The door opens suddenly and the one who enters is not the teacher, but Bunnyx.
"A dead one." she says cocking his head like a puppy. Then, she looks at Kagami and Adrien. "Everyone except those two over there, get out."
No need to say it twice. As soon as she finishes the sentence, people get up and run.
Marionette and DJ Shit pull Shrill Snooper while she records us. Nathanael appears at my side and pulls on my arm to pull me up and drag me out into the hallway.
Out here I let go and lean on the wall.
"Who told you that you can touch me?" I try to shout, although what comes out is a weak and hoarse voice.
"You have been looking at me for several days." He whispers.
Shit. He caught me.
"That's a lie. There is nothing to look at in you. And even if it were true, that wouldn't give you permission to touch me either."
He lowers his head.
"I was trying to get you out of danger."
I don't like that that's his reaction to me. I know he hates me like everyone else, but he has never really done anything to me. He was too focused on himself.
"Thanks."
For a moment I think he hasn't heard but he jerks his head up, eyes wide.
Before he can say anything else, Kagami and Adrien leave the class.
"Bunnyx says to go to the library or something."
"And tell the director."
That's perfect. She gives me an opportunity to escape and transform.
I sneak out before Nathanael notices and hide in a cleaning room.
This is disgusting. It is not a place for me.
"Chloe?" I hear Nathanael ask.
He has found out after I left.
I open my bag, which I took from the teacher's desk (I always keep it nearby) before leaving.
"How do you feel?" Pollen asks.
I'm still a little dizzy, but I'm not going to tell her. I'm not even going to think about it while I'm transformed.
"It does not matter. We have to fight the akuma. And if you can hide this hoarseness, even better."
She nods, as if she can control that. The transformation does not burn today.
I leave the room worried. Last time, my poison didn't last very long and I don't know why.
I run to the classroom. In front of the door there is only one classmate. Nathaniel.
"What are you doing here?"
He seems surprised that I'm talking to him. I don't know why, I've been in his room. He has been the only lucky one.
"It's my school." he answers.
"And why haven't you left? There's an akuma in there." I point to the door.
He looks me in the eye. Since when does this guy look people in the eye? Where does that trust come from?
"My classmate. I think she is unwell and has disappeared."
"I'll take care of it. You go home. Don't stay here."
"But..."
"If you leave right now, I will visit you again tomorrow night. I've got patrol, so I'll stop by anyway.
His face lights up. His eyes sparkle. He's beautiful. His colors are beautiful.
"You will come back?"
I nod in response.
He doesn't hesitate for a second and he leaves. We've finally got rid of all the civilians.
I get dizzy again and lean against the wall again. I don't think I can fool Pollen.
"I can not believe it. You are being close with a civilian." Ryuko affirms behind me. Shit. "Too close. Do I have to tell you everything that is wrong with that? Making home visits."
Ryuko reaches my side and I see her shake her head disapprovingly.
"Don't worry, I'm not making out with him. It is also a private place, not like the hospital."
She is not stupid. She knows what I mean. They even talked about it on TV.
"I was the cause of his damage." She is justifys. "The minimum courtesy would be to worry."
"And it's a coincidence that was Adrien the supermodel."
Her expression changes, as if I have offended her deeply. She wrinkles her nose and narrows her eyes. She is just as scary as Kagami.
"I am not a superficial like you, and Bunnyx needs us."
I let her be the first to enter, so she doesn't see my status.
"It took you a while, didn't you?" Bunnyx complains when she sees us. "She has escaped. She's invisible and while I was looking for her, she opened the window and jumped out of it."
Am I the only one who finds Bunnyx the most useless of the three? She is clumsy and clownish and she almost never uses her powers against akumas.
What use is she? In addition to being the reason why the guardian sought us out and why Hawk Moth started attacking.
She can't even fight well. She's just a bossy shorty.
"Do we have to look for an invisible girl all over Paris?"
"Yes. And she's about this height." Explains Bunnyx putting her hand quite a distance above her head.
"And she has to have a goal. All akumas have it." Ryuko contributes.
Bunnyx raises her hand like she's in a class.
"I know. I know. I'm sure this is Chloe. It's always her."
Me? Why does it always have to be me? Is it that no one else is edgy? I not even...
Shit.
An invisible girl who wanted to hurt me. It's Sabrina.
I am an idiot. Now I know what Bunnyx brings to the group: neurons.
"That boy you were talking to a moment ago could help us."
Ryuko looks at me. No.
"He has gone to his house." I answer.
"You know where he lives." she replies.
Dammit. Why did she say that out loud?
"Oh yeah?" Bunnyx intervenes.
"She visits him at night." Ryuko says shaking her head.
The other puts on a mocking smile.
"You visit him at night! Hey, random teen boy, drop your pants." Bunnyx laughs, imitating me when I give orders.
Damn Ryuko sneak. She now won't stop teasing me.
"Are we going to gossip about me or look for the akuma?"
I lean on a table without being noticed. Being Queen Bee hasn't made me feel any better.
"I prefer to keep laughing at you. Don't worry, this akuma won't hurt people." Bunnyx looks at each other. "She has something good: her power is invisibility."
That hasn't stopped her from strangling me, though of course, I'm Chloe.
Ryuko crosses her arms.
"What is so good about that?"
"That she is just an invisible girl. She doesn't have an umbrella that controls the storm, nor a bow that makes people homicidal. She doesn't control us or take away our magic. She doesn't get huge. She just she's a girl faster and stronger than normal, like us. The bad thing is that she is invisible."
I have a good grip on the table I'm leaning on. I may lean on it too much. We have to think of a plan. We have to be united. The more we are, the better we will do.
"Anybody come up with something?" Ryuko asks.
"How about we take the paintings from art class and throw them around? Let's see if we hit her and she stops being invisible."
That plan sucks.
I feel something move in my peripheral vision, though when I turn my head I see nothing, just the room spinning.
I close my eyes for a moment.
I open them again and find in front of me something that was not there before.
It is a figure in those new colors that I only see when I am transformed. It is Sabrina. I see her as clearly as ever, only in different colors.
Some of these colors resemble violet and slowly change to something completely different. It is wonderful and strange.
I try not to react and approach her without her noticing that I see her.
I do, but she keeps walking away. Of course, the fact that she doesn't know that I see her doesn't mean that she's going to uncover herself.
"Hey Bee." call Bunnyx. "Let's go to Le Grand Paris."
I think I'm still getting oxygen back. I have to tell them, I can't fight.
I walk up to them and speak at a low volume.
"I'm going to tell you something. Don't react." Bunnyx hides well, while Ryuko becomes alert. "She is here. I see her."
"If you see her, why have not you attacked her?" Ryuko asks.
The three of us left the class, to continue disguising. I look at everything around us, so the akuma doesn't realize I'm watching her.
"I've tried without her noticing, but she's cautious." She answered.
"And what if she finds out?" Bunnyx intervenes.
We go down the stairs to the countyard. Here I lost sight of her originally. Where did she get akumatized?
"Well, she could run away. You yourself lost it a while ago."
"That's because I'm clumsy. Ryuko no."
Bunnyx looks at her and she pulls the sword out of her.
"Tell me where she is and I will finish her off."
That is scary. I wouldn't want to be on the opposite side.
I look back again. She is some distance away, but still behind us.
"She follows us all the time. She is now behind the column by the right ladder."
Ryuko nods and transforms into lightning only to appear behind her and try to knock her out with the handle of the sword. However, Sabrina notices and deflects it.
"Shit. Go."
Bunnyx runs in her direction. I take a step and I get dizzy again.
Ryuko tries to fight her without using her sword, since he doesn't want to hurt her. It isn't much use, as the akuma gets a chance to try to take the miracle out of her.
"Watch for the miracles!" I warn her.
Ryuko puts her hand to her neck. Very subtle.
"Being invisible is useful now, huh? Tell Chloe I'm someone: Vanisher. Well, if you can beat me." says the akuma.
Vanisher doesn't stop moving at any time, easily dodging the attacks of my partners, who hit blind spots.
"Bee, come! Don't just stand there like a useless one!" call Bunnyx.
I am not useless. I run toward them, ignoring my dizziness as much as possible.
That makes all the doors of the nearby classes open and people come out to look at us, take photos and record us.
I spin my top and throw it around her, but Sabrina is the smartest akuma yet. She grabs the rope and pulls me in her direction. Hawk Moth has ordered her what to did like to the rest and is trying to get my miracle.
I'm not going to let that happen. I raise my left leg and kick her in the stomach. The movement makes me no longer able to ignore my dizziness and I fall. She staggers several meters backwards.
Vanisher looks very surprised.
"You can see me." She declares in a much less confident tone than before.
It is ironic. I told her that she was invisible and that's why she's an akuma, but it turns out that now only I can see her.
My intervention has served to indicate to my pertners where she is. And distract her. Ryuko quickly knocks her out.
"Queen Bee. You have to remove the item from her akuma yourself, I don't see her." warns the dragon.
I walk over to the Vanisher and bend down to grab the item before the fans even get off.
That also makes me dizzy, but I grab the akuma quickly. An item that doesn't fit: the brooch I gave Sabrina when we were twelve.
I break it and everything goes black.
It's cold.
I'm lying on something hard and cold.
"Open your eyes! I know you're awake!"
Bunnyx being as delicate as ever.
I open my eyes and see Ryuko kneeling next to me sighing and the clown standing a little further away.
"For a moment you stopped breathing." the first one informs me.
The other nods.
"Go to the hospital." she commands, not suggests.
She is nobody to order me anything.
"What happened?"
Ryuko stands up and holds out a hand to help me do it.
"You broke the object, you passed out, Bunnyx caught the butterfly, we left the girl there and brought you to the Eiffel Tower."
"Storyteller Ryuko."
How did I say: clown. We both ignore it.
As we have already done what we should, we say goodbye and each one goes in a different direction.
I go back to school. Jean and the driver stood there, waiting to take the body away after the presentation. But instead of the dead man they are going to take me to the hospital.
Once I tell Jean what's wrong with me, it doesn't take long to get there.
When my father was first elected mayor, he did a series of roles that allowed Jean to have certain powers over me, like picking me up from class early or taking me to the doctor. From then on, that was what happened. My father was always too busy.
The doctors find out what's wrong with me after some tests: it seems that the akuma has slightly deviated my trachea, which causes less oxygen to enter. At first it is not noticeable, but if it stays that way, it could develop problems in the brain.
They have to operate urgently.
As I am a minor, parental consent is needed as it is not life or death, even if I suffer from fainting and dizziness.
We stand in a waiting room while Jean talks on the phone.
"I called your father." Jean walks over and sits next to me. "Now he is in a meeting and he can't come, but he will later."
"And the operation?"
"I will authorize it."
In the time that I wait, I look at the entrance of the hospital many times. My parents don't come.
Even after surgery, when I am in a room that they have given me, they take a long time to arrive.
So much so that even Sabrina does it before.
A while after classes end.
I don't know who told her I'm in this hospital.
"I'm very sorry." It's the first thing she says.
"It's not your fault, but Hawk Moth's."
As mad as I am at Sabrina, I'm not going to hold her responsible for something that isn't her fault.
"I know. I did not mean that." she grabs her hands. That means she's nervous. "I'm sorry two years ago. I know it wasn't right to leave you alone. I have become akumatized because everything you said is true."
"Now I am part of her group. And she really doesn't care in the slightest." As I said. I know very well how it really is. "She always talks about herself, her hobbies, who she likes. Our meetings and hangouts are always to talk about her. I made a huge mistake. I screwed it up. And I regret a lot."
It's a nice apology speech. She has repeated what I already knew and I warned her before she left me.
Sabrina visibly swallows.
"I want us to recover the friendship."
Just like that? This morning I already replied. That she actually apologized doesn't make that much of a difference.
"It's not that easy." Once someone is on my bad side, I have a hard time forgiving them. "If you really want us to be friends, you have to stop hanging out with her."
"But it's Mylene who does it." she argues.
That has an easy solution.
"So, leaves Mylene."
Sabrina shakes her head.
"Can't. She is the person I need. Someone good and kind who makes me feel good about myself. She is a good person."
I don't give a shit about Mylene, I don't even like her.
"Then we are at an impasse."
Sabrina is silent for a few seconds, thinking. She will not choose me.
"I understand. Can we at least stop acting like the other doesn't exist?"
I nod. I'll grant her that, but nothing more. She leaves promising that she will visit me again. I tell her not to.
I am left alone with Pollen, who seems satisfied enough with what has just happened. Jean is outside the room, at the door. Do not know what for.
I spend at least two hours looking at the clock on the wall.
I also watch Twitter. My two names come back in to be a trend. I find that they have told about today's akuma. And that I have been hurt.
There are people rejoicing about it.
Sometimes I think I should uninstall this app, but if I did I wouldn't be able to see Nathanael's drawings anymore.
"Pumpkin!" my father shouts suddenly. That gives me a headache.
I look up and they're both at my bedroom door. Jean stays out.
Both my father and mother enter.
He sits in the visitor's chair and grabs my left hand. She doesn't come closer, though she looks right at my neck.
"What's that?" She says with a smirk.
"An akuma has strangled me."
My father is startled by the news. My mother crosses her arms and tightens her mouth.
"Useless!" She answers. "How could you let yourself be strangled? You make a fool of us."
I do not know what to say. My nonsense will ruin the family's reputation.
"Sorry."
"You better."
My mother leaves. Is the visit over yet? Won't she say anymore?
My father squeezes my hand.
"I have to get back to work, Pumpkin. Jean will stay with you."
Nothing new. So this is how long they will stay with me.
I'm alone again with Pollen, someone who can't leave me, like Jean, she has to.
The hours pass and pass. The doctors give me several check-ups. They feed me little and crushed. At least I won't get fat.
Pollen constantly talks about how horrible my mother is and that I should stop listening to her. That she is a bad person.
I get overwhelmed I get tired. She gives me a headache.
Jean walks into the room and sits in the visitors' chair to sleep.
It's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.
My father or mother should be there, not a butler. Does he not have a life of his own? All the time in the hotel, pending my family.
Doesn't he have daughters to do this with instead of me? He is forty years old, he should have a family.
"Rest. I will stay here. If something happens I'll wake up. I am a light sleeper."
I want to cry. I don't want him to be here, and Jean probably doesn't either.
Fortunately, it is dark and he does not see it.
Pollen snuggles into my pillow and caresses my cheek. She has noticed.
A/N: Hello again. To avoid spoilers, I say it here: I have no idea about medicine and I don't know if what I've posted that happens to Chloe could really happen.