Chapter 2

Marinette

Sunday

January 28, 2007

Marinette flipped open the phone Alix had just swapped her for her own phone, trying to get used to how it was set up as she followed the older teen through the park on campus to make it to the administration building. "How much of this sort of thing do you do?" Marinette asked, about to move her thumb up to the small screen only to stop herself and go back to the small circle buttons to move the cursor on screen.

"It's more fun the farther back you get," Alix said with a laugh. "Hey, we're about to get to the building. You don't have anything else on you that's futurey, do you?"

Marinette flipped the phone closed and put it in her pocket before looking at her purse only to be greeted with Tikki looking back at her.

"Just me in here," Tikki offered, smiling up at her caretaker.

"We'll have to find some way of making you some macaroons," Marinette promised before closing her purse back up.

"I left some money in your desk drawer, so you'll have something for the week," Alix offered as she stepped up to a door at the end of a long building. "Mr. Delmas, the headmaster, will give you your class list but I tried to get you in a home ec class or something that might let you cook. Everything else I tried to get you in the same class as most of the Lyoko Warriors are in."

"You really did your research on all of this, huh?" Marinette asked, impressed.

"Kinda had to, if we wanna find out which timeline's the right one," Alix said, reaching for the doorknob. She pulled the door open, ending their conversation as the two walked into a receptionist's room. "Hi, Mrs. Weber," Alix said as the receptionist looked up from her desk. "We're a few minutes early for our appointment with Mr. Delmas."

"I'll let him know you've arrived," Mrs. Weber said, motioning to seats along the wall facing her desk and a second door in the room.

Marinette took a seat, Alix sitting beside her, as they watched the blonde haired lady walk around her desk and enter the second door. She leaned towards the pink haired teen and was about to ask her something when Mrs. Weber turned from a quick response from the voice beyond the door and turned back towards them. "He can see you," she offered, standing out of the door's way for the two.

Marinette rose back to her feet and found herself following Alix into the next room, a knot of worry building up in her stomach. She wanted to know more about their cover story, how Alix was supposed to be connected to her, and what Alix had told these people as to why she had to transfer schools in the middle of the school year. She followed Alix into the office of an older man that looked to be about the same age as Mr. Damocles. He even wore clothes that made her think about Mr. Owl, getting a smile on her face as she tried to hide a laugh. She took a seat beside Alix on the other side of the old wooden desk that looked like it might have been there as long as the school had been opened and let the other two do most of the talking for the moment.

"Thank you for all you've done to help us out, Mr. Delmas," Alix offered, smiling at the man.

He returned the smile from under his dark gray mustache as he reached for paperwork that sat in front of an old CRT monitor. "Of course, Miss Dupain," Mr. Delmas said "It's not often we have an incident like this, but we'll try to make it as seamless as possible." He turned to Marinette and, with kind eyes, offered, "I'm sorry for everything you've been through. Hopefully we can make the next few months a little easier on you."

Marinette was taken back, quickly trying to figure out what Alix might have used as her cover story, when she pushed the thought aside and realized she needed to be polite first and ask questions later. She looked back down at her lap and said in a small voice, "Thank you, sir."

"Here is your class schedule, and your books will be delivered to your dorm room tonight by your class representative, if he hasn't already done it yet," Mr. Delmas said, handing Alix the piece of paper. "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask one of the teachers and if you need any counseling, we have Mr. Klotz. Did you want me to give you a tour of the grounds?"

"No, I think we'll manage with the map you gave me last time, but thank you," Alix said.

"If that's all," Mr. Delmas said, rising to his feet to signal to Marinette and Alix to do the same. He held his hand out to Alix to shake across the table as he said, "It's been nice to meet you, Miss Dupain. And Miss Dupain-Cheng, I'll be at your first class tomorrow to introduce you to the students."

Marinette gave a nod of her head, keeping her eyes down as she tried to figure out what Alix had told them about her. She led the way out of the office and passed through Mrs. Weber's office, to the hallway, before turning to Alix to ask in a hushed voice, "What did you tell them?"

"Well, I had to tell them something convincing for why you're starting school here in the middle of the school year, didn't I?" Alix said with a shrug, handing Marinette her schedule for the next week. "Come on, let's get to your room and I'll fill you in."

Marinette gave Alix a glare, mumbling, "I hope Chat Noir's gotten a better backstory," before she looked down at her schedule.

"Depends on what you call better," Alix admitted in a mumbled voice. "Easy for him to remember, sure."

Marinette looked up at Alix, knowing not to ask more but her curiosity was peaked. Even though she was the one who enforced the fact that she and Chat Noir couldn't know each other's secrets didn't mean she still wasn't curious. She gave her schedule another glance before folding it up and putting it in her pocket so she could look at the school around her as they stepped out of the administrative building. Eyes fell on her from other students who were outside in the arcade as they passed, knowing she drew attention to herself for being new in January. "At least it's not warmer outside," she mumbled, turning her eyes away from a couple of younger students that had been scribbling something down on a notepad when they had looked up and saw her.

"Hey, I know this is a lot to ask you," Alix offered, looking down at Marinette.

"I'll be fine," Marinette said, cutting off whatever Alix was about to say. They passed by two short rectangle buildings that pointed towards the track field, getting her to look that way and see the school's soccer team practicing. "It's just a lot to get used to."

"Come on, the dorms are in this building," Alix said, leading the way to a doorway. Marinette followed her inside, instantly noticing a smell that reminded her of older buildings. She looked towards her right, passing over the stair well in front of them, and saw a doorway that led to an auditorium. Turning away from it, she followed Alix up the stairs as the older teen offered, "Some teachers live on the ground floor, first floor is the boys, and the second is the girls."

As they made their climb up a boy about Marinette's age with headphones strapped around his neck ran out of the top floor's doors, laughing manically as he rushed down the steps.

"Get back here, Christophe!" a girl called out moments before a girl with short black hair broke through the doorway, freezing Alix and Marinette as they got closer to the third floor landing. "Sorry," she offered in a rush, before pushing passed them and down the stairs. "I'm going to kill you for that, Christophe."

"Blame Thomas!" Christophe's voice called up from farther down. "It was his idea!"

Marinette let out a laugh as she looked up at Alix. "Well, I guess it won't be quiet around here."

Alix responded with a laugh, resuming their path through the second floor landing's doors to see a long hallway of doors. She pulled a keyring with a plush bunny from her pocket and led the way to room number 214. She pushed open the door and stepped aside so Marinette could look. "I know you won't be here long, but I tried to make it look somewhat homey. How d'you like?"

Marinette found her eyes instantly drawn to an almost identical recreation of her corkboard on the wall above her bed on the left wall. She stepped closer, passing Alix to step inside the room, and leaned over the pink and gray bed to look at the pictures closer only to realize that a few of them had been altered from how she remembered them being from her room. She opened her mouth, about to ask Alix about it, as the door to the room was pushed shut, getting her to turn back around.

"Sorry I had to mess with our friends pictures a bit," Alix informed, putting her hands in her pockets as she looked over at the window above an old desktop along the far side of the bedroom. She turned towards Marinette and added, "Time travel, you know how it is."

Marinette smiled back, registering it was phones and watches that had been taken out of the pictures. She looked back at the room and took in the old monitor, glad to see some pink and gray touches to things and a sewing kit sitting on the desk beside the keyboard. She gave a glance into her wardrobe, not surprised to see a week's worth of clothes already folded or hanging there and quickly added the shopping bag she had been keeping her pajamas in since she arrived in this time. Shutting the door, she turned back to Alix and asked, "So what's the story? Why does Mr. Delmas sound like I'm the last survivor or something?"

"Maybe because you kinda are," Alix said, a wider smile pulling on her lips as she pulled out the desk chair. She sat Marinette's dorm key and the rabbit keychain on the desk and sat in the chair with her arm over the back to face Marinette. "I appeared a week ago here, pleading to let my younger cousin to go back to school. I was dropping out because I needed to support us, but a terrible accident had affected both of our families, killing both of our parents. I told them they had been in a boating accident right before Christmas and this was the soonest you felt comfortable going back to school, but you couldn't go back to your old school. From what I found out through-out all of that, it sounds like Kadic takes in orphans a little regularly. At least, they have a program that allows orphans who are in between fosters to stay here on the government's dime."

"So what, you're all the family I have?" Marinette asked, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.

"On your Dad's side, yeah," Alix said with a nod. "And you don't know any Mandarin so you can't easily go to your uncle and live with him. I told Delmas we'd figure out what to do with you next school year, but that was just to make him think we were thinking about your future," she threw off with a wave of her hand.

"You've really gone through all of this," Marinette said, proud of her friend.

"Thank you," Alix said, standing up to take a bow. She stood straight and gave a glance at the photo board as she added, "But I thought you'd like to see your friends while you're stuck here."

Marinette glanced over her shoulder at the pictures, glad to see Adrien looking back at her next to a picture of her and Alya. "Yeah, thank you." A thought hit her, recognizing landmarks of Paris that were obvious in the pictures and she knew there was going to be at least one local in her room today with her school books. She looked back at Alix and asked, "Where are we, anyway?"

"In Sceaux, so only a half hour drive south of home," Alix informed as she reached into her pocket to pull out her pocket watch.

Fluff flew out along with it, looking around only to catch Marinette's eye and smile at her. "Hi Marinette, what time was it tomorrow when you'll have this question?"

"What question, Fluff?" Marinette asked, tilting her head at the strange rabbit kwami.

"You'll figure that out tomorrow," Alix said with a laugh as she poked a finger at the little rabbit floating in the air. "You had enough to eat?"

Fluff nodded her head, moving her head so that Alix was petting her between the ears.

"Come on Fluff, time we were heading back to the Burrow," Alix said. "Fluff, clockwise."

In a blue flash, Alix turned back into Bunnyx. "We'll keep an eye on you. Hopefully with the five of us, it won't take the whole week. Good luck, Marinette."

Marinette raised a hand to wave at her, realizing this was the first time she remembered the older teen calling her by her normal name, as she watched Bunnyx call forth the portal and walk through it. As her foot disappeared through the white hole in space time, the circle collapsed in on itself before disappearing. Marinette looked around at her new room, realizing she was now alone. A cold loneliness settled inside her as she gave another glance over her shoulder at the pictures on the wall of her friends from back home. Right now the older of her friends might be six, and the younger wouldn't be born yet. She just wanted to message Alya right now, talk to someone familiar, but she couldn't.

A knock at the door pulled her out of her darkening thoughts, getting her to jump to her feet and wrench the door open only to be surprised to see the blonde and purple haired boy that had been pointed out to her only an hour ago at most carrying about seven text books in his arms.

"Marinette, right?" Odd asked over the stack of books.

Marinette nodded her head, steeping back as he made a move to step into her room.

Odd dropped the books on her bed and stretched his back with a groan. "I think Jim's trying to kill me," he mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?" Marinette asked, unsure who Jim might be.

Odd settled back into a normal posture and gave her a smile. "Sorry, last time I had to deliver books they let me do it in more than one trip. Name's Odd Della Robbia." He gave a glance at the books and added, "Kinda looks like you might be in a few of my classes."

"Maybe you can help me?" Marinette asked, pulling her schedule from her pocket and unfolding it. "I just wanna know what building my classes are all in. This place is so much bigger than my last school."

Odd took the class list from her and looked it over as his polite smile turned into a laugh. "I'll do you one better," Odd said, handing the paper back. "The only class you have that I don't is home ec, I'm in phys ed then. I'll find you at breakfast and I can take you to class. I am class rep, anyway," he added, pointing his thumb at his chest.

"Oh really," Marinette said, surprised it was becoming this easy to get close to one of the Lyoko Warriors as she folded back the paper. "Thanks."

"I wanna know how you got outta Jim's class, anyway," Odd added, dropping his hand as his eyes drifted over to the photos pinned to the corkboard. He took a step closer and asked, "Oh, are these your friends?" Before Marinette could answer he asked, "This blonde guy's your boyfriend, isn't he?"

"Oh, Adrien, uh, no," Marinette said, her face feeling hot as Odd turned his attention back to her. She raised her hands up and shook her head. "No, of course I'd love that, but we're just friends, really good friends. That's all."

Odd gave a smirk, putting his hands in his pockets. "You sound like a couple of friends of mine. Are you gonna go down for dinner? I think they're having meatballs and Rosa's meatballs are the best."

A yawn forced its way through her lips, reminding her that the last time she had looked at a clock it had said it was just passed midnight. What she really wanted was just to go to bed, but here was an easy way into the Lyoko Warriors already ready for her. She covered up the yawn with her hand, ready to fight sleep to do her duty, when Odd beat her to it.

"You know what, you've probably had a mess of a day," Odd said as she finished the yawn. "Jim doesn't normally like food in the dorms but I'll sneak you up a plate so you can get some sleep."

"Oh, I don't wanna get you in trouble," Marinette said, dropping her hand to her side only to really feel how tired she felt.

"Don't worry about it," Odd said, already stepping back to take hold of the doorknob. "Just stay awake for another half an hour."